Nicholas Sims-Williams

Christian Sogdian texts from the Nachlass of Olaf Hansen I: Fragments of the life of Serapion

The Nachlass of Olaf Hansen, which I was able to examine in Kiel in 1985 through the kindness of his son Lars Hansen, includes transcriptions of several Christian Sogdian texts of which neither the original manuscript nor even a photograph seems to be extant. In such cases Hansens transcriptions attain the status of primary sources. Amongst them are four fragments belonging to two different manuscripts of the Life of Serapion, the Syriac text of which was published by Bedjan, AMS v, 263–341.

Early New Persian in Syriac script: Two texts from Turfan

The German Turfan collection includes fragments of two Early New Persian manuscripts in Syriac script, a bilingual (Syriac and New Persian) Psalter and a pharmacological handbook containing prescriptions similar to those in the Syriac Book of Medicines published by E. A. W. Budge. Both texts make use of certain non-Syriac characters, some of which were also used for writing Sogdian while others may have been created especially for writing Persian in Syriac script. The Syriac text of the Psalter fragments is that of the Peshitta; the translation is particularly valuable for the vocalization of the Persian words. In addition to many unusual and interesting words, the pharmacological fragments attest the rare Syriac numeral symbols derived from those of ancient Aramaic. The present article contains a transliteration and translation of all these texts together with a glossary and full philological discussion.

Two Iranian loanwords in Syriac

This article discusses two Syriac words which have been understood in many different ways by both ancient and modern scholars. The translations and etymologies previously proposed are evaluated and new explanations are offered, according to which both words, sāsgaunā “red” and syānqā “hemi-drachm”, are loanwords from Middle Persian, though unattested in that language.