This two-volume work gives the Syriac texts of the lives of Rabban Hormizd and Rabban Bar-'Idta, together with an English translation. The biographies are important because their subjects founded two great monasteries which became centers for teaching and monasticism at a critical period of the history of the Church of the East, during the seventh and following centuries. The texts are taken from two manuscripts, which Budge commissioned to be copied during 1891 and 1892. The original manuscripts from which they were copied dated from the twelfth and thirteen centuries, but are now lost.

In the introduction of the second volume, Budge relates facts of the lives of Rabban Hormizd and Rabban Bar-'Idta as they can be ascertained from the texts. He also gives a valuable description of the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd as he witnessed it, including an account of the habits of the monks and their daily lives.

E. A. Wallis Budge (1857-1934) was Curator of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum from 1894 to 1924. He is known for publishing texts, with English translations from Coptic, Greek, Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopian, and Egyptian manuscripts. Budge was knighted in 1920. He died November 23, 1934 in London.

• The Author's Preface [Vol I]
• Concerning the birthplace of Rabban Hormizd [Vol I]
• Concerning his arrival in Mawsel (Mawsil, the modern Mosul, or Nineveh) [Vol I]
• Concerning his arrival at the Monastery of Rabban Bar-'Idta in Marga [Vol I]
• Concerning the cures wrought by Rabban Hormizd [Vol I]
• How Rabban Hormizd turned water into olive oil [Vol I]
• How Rabban Hormizd went to the Monastery of Risha [Vol I]
• Rabban Hormizd and the people of Al-Kosh [Vol I]
• How ten monks from the Monastery of Bezkin fell upon Rabban and beat him nearly to death [Vol I]
• The story of the murder of the harlot of Bezkin [Vol I]
• How Shaibin the son of the governor of Mawsel was healed of his disease [Vol I]
• The story of the miracle which he wrought in the matter of the baptism of the governor and his son [Vol I]
• How Rabban shewed kindness to men who had come to murder him from Bezkin, and how it had no effect on them [Vol I]
• How the monks of Bezkin went to the idol in the Monastery of Mattai [Vol I]
• The story of the destruction of the Monastery of Bezkin [Vol I]
• How the building of the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd was begun near al-Kosh [Vol I]
• How the worship of idols grew [Vol I]
• How Tumarsa II. the Patriarch and Catholic came and consecrated the Monastery of Rabban [Vol I]
• How Khodahwi gave a gift of money unto the catholicus tumarsa II [Vol I]
• How twenty Jacobites were drowned in the Tigris [Vol I]
• How Rabban went to the Monastery of Mar Mattai [Vol I]
• How Rabban triumphed over Ignatius the Sorcerer [Vol I]
• How Ignatius came to the Governor [Vol I]
• The last words of Rabban Hormizd [Vol I]
• The Author's declaration of his belief and the doctrine of the trinity [Vol II]
• The Author's Preface [Vol II]
• The Life of Rabban Bar-'Idta [Vol II]
• Rabban Bar-'Idta leaves Nisibis for Marga [Vol II]
• Bar-'Idta arrives at Beth Rastak [Vol II]
• The story of Mebharakh and the camel [Vol II]
• The Death of Mar Joseph [Vol II]
• The story of Isho'-Sabhran from the Monastery of Mar Mattai [Vol II]
• Rabban restores the sight of the son of Isho' Apri [Vol II]
• Rabban expels a devil from the son of Zadhan-Par-rukh [Vol II]
• Rabban's views on asceticism [Vol II]
• Rabban and Mar Babhai set down the Nestorian faith in writing for Khusrau, King of Persia [Vol II]
• The story of Bishop Yazdpanah, who sinned [Vol II]
• The story of the driving of the devils out from Malbed's house [Vol II]
• The increase in the number of monks in Rabban's Monastery [Vol II]
• The death of Berikh-Isho' [Vol II]
• The story of Matthew of Beth Garmai and the enchanted well [Vol II]
• The story of Yazdadh and the blind woman [Vol II]
• The story of Teris-Isho' and the soldier [Vol II]
• The story of Dadh-Isho' who played with lions [Vol II]
• The story of Zakhai and the sick woman [Vol II]
• The story of Nisanaya and the locusts [Vol II]
• Rabban Bar-'Idta and Mar Abha [Vol II]
• Of the return of Mar Abha from his journey with Khusrau [Vol II]
• The story of the great famine [Vol II]
• The story of the dispersal of the monks [Vol II]
• Bar-'Idta admonishes Sahdona [Vol II]
• Bar-'Idta warns Isho-Sabhran [Vol II]
• Zakhai (Nana) and his twelve devils [Vol II]
• The disgrace of Nana [Vol II]
• Devils appear to Rabban [Vol II]
• The story of Bar-Sahde and his books [Vol II]
• Of the prophetic visions of Rabban Bar-'Idta [Vol II]
• Rabban Hormizd and Rabban Mar Yozadhak [Vol II]
• The comming of Sergius into the Monastery [Vol II]
• The story of the snake and the woodcutter [Vol II]
• Malbeds mother is cured of her sickness [Vol II]
• Rabban heals a dropsical woman [Vol II]
• The story of the Jewish tailor who became converted to Nestorianism [Vol II]
• Rabban causes a woman to have three sons [Vol II]
• The story of Job of the village of Beth Kartewaye [Vol II]
• The story of Emmanuel the deacon and the lustful woman [Vol II]
• How the step-mother of Gaws-Isho' tried to poison him [Vol II]
• The story of the woman who was possessed of a devil [Vol II]
• Rabban straightens the twisted feet of a young man [Vol II]
• Rabban drives a devil out from a bride [Vol II]
• Rabban drives a devil out from a woman of Bar-Shira [Vol II]
• Rabban stays a plague among the sheep [Vol II]
• Rabban gives Yazdin a son and heir [Vol II]
• The story of the sinful virgin [Vol II]
• Rabban heals one of the brethren who was sick [Vol II]
• The story of the stolen bull [Vol II]
• How Rabban cast out a devil [Vol II]
• How a magician who persecuted a nestorian maiden fell with his horse into the river Zabh and was drowned [Vol II]
• How Rabban turned a skin of water into wine [Vol II]
• How Rabban prophesied that hail, drought, and mildew should come upon the crops of the village [Vol II]
• How Rabban's cross kept error out of a village [Vol II]
• The story of the monk and the lion [Vol II]
• The story of the sick mule [Vol II]
• How a monk was cured of the lust of the flesh [Vol II]
• The story of the brother who was cured of the gout [Vol II]
• How the water from Rabban's well kept away death [Vol II]
• How Rabban kept away the wolves in Marga [Vol II]
• The story of the newly-married couple [Vol II]
• The periods of Rabban Bar-'Idta's life [Vol II]
• Rabban Bar-'Idta's exhortations to his monks [Vol II]
• The death of Rabban Bar-'Idta [Vol II]
• Colophons [Vol II]