Культура сирийцев в средние века - [92]

Chapter I, "Medieval Education of Syrians. The Syrians and Learning", consists of two large sections. The first deals with the content of Syrian culture at the educational level, presenting an ample exposition, based on Syrian sources (some of them unique), of the history of medieval Syrian schools, the organisation of education, the scope of the curriculum, the teaching methods and the activities of prominent teachers and educators. N. V. Pigulevskaya starts with a description of the initial stage in the teaching process, viz., the teaching of reading and writing. Elementary schools of the Syrians resembled {245} the parish and monastery schools of the Latin West, the Greek East and all the Slav countries. Both the curriculum and the teaching methods used in elementary education were not only preserved over many centuries but had international features: in Osrhoene as throughout the Christian world, education began with the study of the Psalms. Further studies concentrated on the Scriptures as a whole, but especially on the New Testament and its interpretation. School education, therefore, was basically clerical. Yet the Syrians were interested in secular sciences as well. This interest was promoted by their wide-ranging commercial ties, which made literacy indispensable, and the needs of production, which encouraged the development of complex technical knowledge, such as alchemistry, geography and agronomy. A certain amount of professional learning was also required of physicians and master craftsmen.

Elementary school was the first step towards special education, ecclesiastical as well as secular. In a special section devoted to the characterisation of the sources on the history of higher education of the Syrians, N. V. Pigulevskaya examines first of all the Nisibis Academy Statutes. This unique record of Syrian culture contains information on such aspects of the early medieval higher school as its structure and the living conditions, customs and habits of students and teachers. Reflected in it was a striving for a reform of the higher education and a discontent of the students. The author then proceeds to describe Barhadbeshabba ?Arabaya's treatise The Reason of the Foundation of Schools and An Ecclesiastical History, which supplement the Statutes, and cites new facts as well. The Reason of the Foundation of Schools contains two parts, the theoretical one presenting a philosophical analysis of the cognition of the world, and the other dealing directly with school life.

N. V. Pigulevskaya pays special attention to the Academy of Nisibis, the medieval Syrian university. She offers a detailed account of the history of that school and its activities, basing her research on the two sources mentioned above. Her book also contains the first translation into Russian of the Statutes of the Academy of Nisibis.

In the second section of Chapter 1, the author gives a circumstantial analysis of the Syrians' achievements in philology, philosophy, medicine, geography, cosmogony, alchemistry and agronomy. This is supplemented by portraits of a number of prominent Syrian men of learning: Bar Daisan, a scholar, philosopher and poet; Afrahat the Persian Sage, an exegetist and philologist; Ephraim the Syrian, a poet of great talent who {246} exerted a profound influence on the subsequent development of Christian literature; Sergius of Resh'aina, a physician reknowned for his extensive theoretical knowledge and practical activities. The author focuses especially on the Syrians' accomplishments in the field of translation, as a result of which links were established between the learning of ancient classical Greece and medieval Arabic, Indian and Iranian learning, and then, through the medium of the Arabs, with learning in Western Europe.

Chapter 2, "The Empire. Iran and the Syrians", analyses in detail the spread of Syrian culture in the Middle East and its. interaction with the Greek and Iranian cultures, an interaction resulting from the economic and political position of northern Mesopotamia and the active role the Syrians played in political life and international trade. N. V. Pigulevskaya's prime concern is ideology, namely, the political causes underlying the spread of two different trends of Christianity - the Nestorian and the Monophysite. Christianity became the official religion of northern Mesopotamia at a rather early period, hence the area's important role in the dissemination of the new faith. The author dwells upon the origins of Syrian Christianity, which is usually linked with the activities of the Apostles Addai and Thomas. The tradition tracing it to Addai was older and more deeply rooted, and as such it was mentioned in such Syrian literary compositions as The Doctrine of 'Addai and The Acts of St Mari, Apostle of the Orient. The latter apocryphal text mentions the evangelisation of a number of Iranian provinces as part of the Apostles' activities. N. V. Pigulevskaya also analyses the early Syrian martyria: The Acts of Sharbil and Barsamya, which describe the actual situation in the area in the 3rd-4th centuries and are of interest to the historian of Syrian literature and culture, of the time. Discussed in this context is also a late 4th-century Acts of the three martyrs from Edessa - Gurya, Shemona and Habib.