Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: ON THE CATHEDRAL OF EDESSA 1The 13 th -centuryCodex Vaticanus 95, fol.49-50 has preserved a magnificent Syriac hymn ( l~~ sugitho) on the Cathedral Church of Edessa (Urhay, Urfa) composed by a gifted anonymous Syriac poet who flourished in all likelihood during the reign of Justinian.There is very little information about him and his poetic lore.We can only deduce that the Syriac melodos probably wrote his poem for the consecration of the newly constructed Cathedral church in Edessa. 2 Its architecture was inspired by and modelled on the Church of Divine Wisdom in Constantinople, which still deserves its fame as the greatest jewel of Christian architecture in the world.Still in the time of its construction John of Ephesus, quoted by the anonymous Chronicler of Zuqnin, rightly labelled it 'the most magnificent church in the world'.3 The Edessan clergy had huge ambitions to establish 'a second Jerusalem' and set up an alternative centre of Christianity to Antioch, Constantinople or Alexandria, which they managed to accomplish at least to a certain degree.Justinian's church in Edessa was admired for successive centuries as one of the world's wonders (Duval 1892; Goussen 1925: 117).I feel
Source: Folia Orientalia
Author: Tomasz Polański
Language: English
Subfield: Classics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7214416754
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