All documents here are written either as XML or (Xe)LaTeX files. These are available for download either in raw format or converted to PDF. These documents may be reproduced and reformatted as long as my name is included and I am not misquoted. Please use the contact form to e-mail me.
Documents
Categories: Syriac — Liturgy — Writing — Miscellany
Syriac
- Select Syriac eResources
- An e-mail by Kristian Heal to the Hugoye e-mail list suggested a select list of Syriac eResources. Struck by its usefulness, I started to develop a custom search engine based on these resources. Although, still very much a work in progress, I hope it might be useful to passing syriacists. Please e-mail any comments.
- XeSyriac: A typesetting system for Syriac using XeLaTeX
- The XeSyriac (/ziːˈsɪɹiːæk/) package provides a means for typesetting documents in Syriac, or with some Syriac content, using XeLaTeX. It relies heavily on François Charette’s polyglossia package to provide multilingual typesetting, Vafa Khalighi’s (وفا خليقى) bidi package for bidirectionality, Will Robertson’s fontspec package for font handling, and, ultimately, on Jonathan Kew’s XeTeX engine.
- Manual: A guide to numerals in Syriac
- This manual covers the various forms of numerals used in Syriac: the alphabetic numerals and the various systems of marking higher alphabetic numerals, Eastern Arabic numerals and Aramaic sign–value numerals.
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- Introductory sketch: The Monks of Kublai Khan: From Beijing to Baghdad and Beyond
- In the second half of the thirteenth century, two Christian monks of the Öngüt tribe of Inner Mongolia set out from Beijing to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They travelled across northern China and Central Asia to Persia. There, one is consecrated head of the Church of the East and the other made ambassador to Europe from the Mongol court. This pilgrims' progress is a tale to fascinate on numerous levels. Not only does it take us through the lands of the great Mongol Empire, along the Silk Road, but it also helps to re-examine modern views of Asia and Europe.
- Essay: Why did the Church of the East in China disappear?
- From a Western point of view, the establishment of a church in China in the seventh century by the isolated Persian church has often been seen as a great heroic missionary endeavour, and its vanishing so completely serving only to add to its mystery.
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- Essay: The trial of Abraham in Syriac, Jewish and Islamic tradition
- The narrative of the ‘binding’ (Aqedah) of Isaac, the ‘trial’ (Nesyona) of Abraham or the ‘sacrifice’ (Dhabih) of Isaac/Ishmael is a story (found in Genesis 22 and Qur’an 37.100–113) shared by Jews, Christians and Muslims, that has been owned and embroidered to suit the needs of successive generations.
- Manual: Typing guide to the Syriac phonetic keyboard
- A manual guide to the Syriac characters and how they can be accessed when using the Syriac phonetic keyboard.
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Liturgy ↑up
- Liturgy: Passover haggadah for All Hallows Twickenham
- This is a Passover haggadah celebrated by All Hallows Church in Twickenham. It is a Christian haggadah, whilst trying to remain faithful to Jewish tradition, in which the afikoman and third cup are reinterpreted eucharistically.
- Poem: Christingle makes you tingle
- This is a poem written for a talk with a Christingle service. It works well if you put together the bits and bobs as you tell it.
Writing ↑up
- Article: Maranatha
- Advent is well come nigh! A truth calendrical and etymological. So, I thought I might delve into one obscure word in this season’s vocabulary. The word ‘Maranatha’ appears in I Corinthians 16.22 and Didache 10.6. It is an Aramaic phrase. It was once thought to be a curse word, associated to its preceding anathema in the I Corinthians verse, but is clear that the ancient authors who promoted this interpretation had a rather hazy understanding of the phrase. However, that verse is part of Paul’s concluding prayer for the Corinthians, and forms a rather disjointed collection of prayed aphorisms.
- Book review: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin
- This is a review of a cornerstone of the feminist sci-fi genre.
Miscellany ↑up
- Manual: Free Unicode fonts: Latin script
- There are a number of good, free fonts available for those who want to move beyond Times, Helvetica and their imitations. I list here those that I have found useful, and only those that comply with the Unicode standard. Where a font has useful alternative glyphs made available through its gsub OpenType subtables, these are mentioned.
- Poems: Love bade me welcome and Aaron by George Herbert
- I have long loved George Herbert’s poem Love bade me welcome. This PDF was typeset using Donald Arseneau’s shapepar macro and Igino Marini’s digitised IM Fell Great Primer Italic typeface (see iginomarini.com/fell). The poem Aaron is set with Marini’s IM Fell Great Primer Roman. I’ve used this as a vestry prayer before worship.
- Multifaith calendar
- I designed this multifaith calendar a few years ago. I converted it into a set of csv files and have uploaded it to Google Calendar to make it publicly available and easy to update. Please browse through the embedded version below. If you want to use this in a calendar application, the links below provide XML, iCal and HTML access.