The Syriac-Arabic Glosses

One of the rarer publications of Gottheil, his edition of the Syriac-Arabic glosses of Isho Bar Ali is a publication difficult to locate. These glosses are located in the second part of Bar Ali’s lexicon, as the first part had been previously published. Working with 21 manuscripts, Gottheil ably constructed a record of the glosses for the specialized readership of this ninth century scholar. The work of Bar Ali is represented by a short recension that has undergone three enlargements. Bar Ali, a physician as well as a lexicographer, produced this noted Syriac-Arabic dictionary showing the meanings of Syriac words in Arabic. This historic step in the development of Syriac lexicography is analyzed here according to the glosses of the numerous manuscripts cited in the forward. Completing a work that had been begun 20 years earlier, Gottheil’s contribution to the field of Syriac studies will be appreciated by students of the history of the language.

Richard James Horatio Gottheil (1862-1936) was educated at Columbia and Leipzig. Concerned with the reception of Jews in American society, he was an advocate of Zionism and a supporter of Jewish students at his home institution of Columbia University. His name is widely recognized from the many Columbia dissertations he supervised, many of which were subsequently published. He also held the office of President of the Society of Biblical Literature.