By arrangement with the Oxford University Press, Gorgias Press is pleased to announce the publication of a deluxe limited edition of J. B. Segal's monumental work, Edessa 'The Blessed City'. The book is printed on long-lasting, acid-neutral paper, specially milled for our press. Forty- four plates, some of which are mosaics in color, are reproduced using state-of-the-art digital imaging technology. The volume is bound in a prestigious verona cloth that combines luxurious feel and deep, rich colors with unparalleled quality and consistency. The end sheets are 80# colored sheets, embossed with handsome designs. All the material used is environmentally sound and conforms to international standards. The hard cover is embossed in gold with a design derived from mosaics found at Edessa, and produced in color in this deluxe limited edition.
Edessa (the modern Urfa in south-east Turkey) was celebrated throughout Christendom for the legend of the exchange of letters between its pagan king and Jesus at Jerusalem. It was venerated as the first kingdom to accept Christianity; it was the center of the Syrian Church, the intended destination of innumerable pilgrims from East and West, and the birthplace of classical Syriac literature. The story of its Christian community, administered in turn by Rome, Byzantium, Arabs, and Turks, reflects the vicissitudes of Mesopotamian history and culminates in the occupation of the city by Crusader counts and its devastation in 1146.
This study describes events at Edessa largely through contemporary accounts, and incorporates much new material, notably six mosaics found by the writer between 1952 and 1959.
J. B. Segal was a member of the Government of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1939-41 and served in the British Army until 1946. He held the chair of Semitic Languages at London University until his retirement in 1979. In addition to his two books in the present series, he has written The Hebrew Passover (1963), A History of the Jews of Cochin (1993), and Aramaic and Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum (2000).
"This book will undoubtedly remain the standard work on a city that was for many centuries of great political importance and which played a vital part in the development of Eastern Christianity." --Steven Runciman, English Historical Review (1972)
"This volume should be of a great interest to ecclesiastical and social historians of the Middle Ages and to archaeologists and specialists in Early Christianity and in Islamic history." -- British Book News (1970)
