The Persian Martyr Acts are a series of Syriac martyrological texts composed from the fourth century into the Islamic period. One of the only of these martyr acts never before published is the History of Holy Mar Ma‘in of Sinjar, which tells the story of a Sasanian general during the time of Shapur II (309–79) who suffered persecution after his conversion to Christianity. Composed probably in the sixth century, the life of this confessor and holy man is of a higher literary quality than most of the other texts describing martyrdoms under Shapur II. Like several other similar documents, such as the History of Mar Qardag, it appears to be a legendary projection back onto the great age of Christian martyrs of the fourth century. In this volume, the first in this new series from Gorgias Press, Sebastian P. Brock provides the first edition of the Syriac text of the History of Ma‘in and the first full translation of it, as well as a textual and historical commentary. In addition to these materials, this volume also includes a basic guide to the bibliography, both primary and secondary, of the whole corpus of Persian Martyr Acts as well as useful indices to these numerous and diverse texts. This will serve as a basic handbook to any future literary or historical work on the Martyr Acts.

Sebastian Brock was born in 1938 and studied Classics (Greek and Latin) and Oriental Studies (Hebrew and Aramaic) at Cambridge University before doing a DPhil. at Oxford University on the text of the Septuagint. He has taught at the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, and (from 1974 until his retirement in 2003) Oxford, where he was Reader in Syriac Studies. He has published extensively in the field of Syriac, and has edited a number of new texts. Among his publications are: The Luminous Eye: the Spiritual World Vision of St Ephrem; Hymns on Paradise, Isaac of Nineveh (Isaac the Syrian): the 'Second Part,' ch. IV-XLI, An Outline of Syriac Literature, and three volumes in the Variorum Reprint series. He was also the editor and main contributor to the three-volume The Hidden Pearl: The Syrian Orthodox Church and its Ancient Aramaic Heritage.