Autumn is officially here: the leaves are changing colors, the weather is getting a bit chillier, and the holiday season is just around the corner. We have lots of exciting news for you, so read on for all things new in the world of Gorgias.

With fall comes conferences, and before we know it, it will be time for our two main events of the season, the annual meetings for the Society of Biblical Literature and the Middle Eastern Studies Association. Be sure to check us out at SBL in Chicago, IL and MESA in Denver, CO this November.

This issue's Enthusiast of the Month is Dr. Tala Jarjour, a friend of Gorgias Press who just began teaching in the Departments of Music and Anthropology at Notre Dame University this fall. Read on for more about Tala.

I am pleased to announce that the next two books in the Antioch Bible Series, The Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets and The Gospel of Mark, will be shipping in November. The Antioch Bible is a fresh new idiomatic English translation based on the Aramaic text of the Syriac Peshitta. If you haven't already, sign up for our amazing, limited-time only 50%-off Antioch Bible deal. Only the first 100 individual subscribers will be able to lock the price of all future volumes at half off the list price (orig. $150/volume, now $75/volume with subscription discount). Hurry and subscribe now!

Finally, George Kiraz's long-awaited Syriac Orthography (A Grammar of the Syriac Language, Volume 1) has just been sent to the printer. If that wasn't exciting enough news, an even better deal awaits you: for a limited time, we will be offering the Syriac Orthography at a bargain 65% off pre-publication discount

Happy reading,

Christine Kiraz

• Recently Released
• Coming Soon
• GP News
• Enthusiast of the Month
• Conferences

Below is a select list of recent releases. For the complete list, please visit our Just Published page.

	Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Qur'ān By Andrew Rippin ISBN 978-1-60724-046-4 Hardback, $197.86 (BiblioPerks™ $178.07)
The essays gathered here expose and explore various aspects of the field of tafsīr, and their potential for scholarly research. The essays are divided into four main sections: formation and development; genres; sectarian dimensions; and modern trends.
	Job of Uz By Mishael Caspi ISBN 978-1-61143-420-0 Hardback, $174.46 (BiblioPerks™ $157.01)
Job finds himself in a situation similar to that experienced by everyone at some point in his or her life. He wants answers to questions concerning what has happened to him, especially since he has lived his life according to the traditional wisdom and rules of conduct. What has gone wrong and why? are the two main questions to which he rails against misfortune to provide answers.
	Portraits of a King Favored by God By Mishael Caspi ISBN 978-1-61143-405-7 Hardback, $182.455 (BiblioPerks™ $164.21)
David the king when studied against the backdrop of existing material cultural remains from the ancient Middle East scarcely seems to have been there. Excavations in Jerusalem have turned up nothing concrete about his existence. The literature concerning him is fraught with problems and generally takes on a legendary-mythological character. Even his name is unclear as to meaning. If he is mentioned at all by his contemporary monarchs against whom he would have fought or over whom he would have ruled, it is only obliquely or only intimated by omissions or partial spellings in context. This volume attempts to advance scholarship addressing these concerns.
	The Gospel of Matthew According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation By Jeff Childers ISBN 978-1-4632-0174-6 Cloth, $150 (BiblioPerks™ $135.00)
This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshiṭta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars. Childers has translated the Peshiṭta of Matthew, while Kiraz has prepared the Syriac text in the west Syriac script, fully vocalized and pointed. The translation and the Syriac text are presented on facing pages so that both can be studied together. All readers are catered for: those wanting to read the text in English, those wanting to improve their grasp of Syriac by reading the original language along with a translation, and those wanting to focus on a fully vocalized Syriac text.
	The Book of Isaiah According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation By Gillian Greenberg ISBN 978-1-4632-0155-5 Cloth, $150 (BiblioPerks™ $135.00)
This volume is the first in a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshitta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars. Greenberg and Walter have produced an annotated translation of the Peshitta version of the Book of Isaiah, while Kiraz and Bali have edited the Peshitta text. The English translation and the Syriac text are shown on facing pages so that both can be studied together.
	Syriac Writers on Muslims and the Religious Challenge of Islam By Sidney H. Griffith ISBN 978-1-61143-562-7 Hardback, $140.92 (BiblioPerks™ $126.83)
Sydney H. Griffith provides a basic overview of Syriac authors that addressed the issue of Islam in their writings. Griffith discusses the major themes and common content of this literature and focuses on the dialogue genre.
	The Harp (Volume 7) By V. C. Samuel ISBN 978-1-61143-643-3 Hardback, $158.86 (BiblioPerks™ $142.97)
The Harp is the scholarly journal of Syriac, Oriental, and Ecumenical studies published by the St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute (SEERI) in Kottayam, India.

Here is a select list of forthcoming publications. Click here for a complete list.

Syriac Orthography (A Grammar of the Syriac Language, Volume 1)
This volume, the first in a comprehensive grammar of the Syriac language, is a thematic presentation of orthography in the Syriac grammatical tradition, bringing the study of Syriac writing closer to modern linguistic accounts of writing systems.
ISBN 978-1-4632-0183-8, Cloth, $247 (BiblioPerks™ $222.30)

The Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation
This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshiṭta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars. Greenberg and Walter have produced an annotated translation of the Peshiṭta version of The Twelve Minor Prophets, while Kiraz and Bali have edited the Peshiṭta text. The English translation and the Syriac text are shown on facing pages so that both can be studied together.
ISBN 978-1-4632-0177-7, Cloth, $150 (BiblioPerks™ $135.00)

The Gospel of Mark According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation
This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshiṭta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars. Childers has translated the Peshiṭta of Mark, while Kiraz has prepared the Syriac text in the west Syriac script, fully vocalized and pointed. The translation and the Syriac text are presented on facing pages so that both can be studied together. All readers are catered for: those wanting to read the text in English, those wanting to improve their grasp of Syriac by reading the original language along with a translation, and those wanting to focus on a fully vocalized Syriac text.
ISBN 978-1-61719-561-7, Hardback, $150 (BiblioPerks™ $135.00)

Studies in the Historical Syntax of Aramaic
This book reviews syntactic change in Aramaic, from its first attestation to its modern dialects. It concentrates on adverbial subordination, nominal modifiers and direct speech marking, and establishes that historical syntax is a viable tool for Semitic subgrouping and dialectology.
ISBN 978-1-59333-645-5, Hardback, $180.31 (BiblioPerks™ $162.28)

A Facsimile Edition of the Peshiṭto Old Testament Based on Codex Ambrosianus (7a1)
This volume provides a facsimile of one of the oldest manuscripts of the standard Syriac translation of the Bible, Codex Ambrosianus (7a1).
ISBN 978-1-61143-114-8, Hardback, $265.72 (BiblioPerks™ $239.15)

Notables, Merchants, and Shaykhs of Southern Iran and Its Ports
Unlike the traditional 18th and early 19th century historical narratives, the present work focuses on the trade and politics of local merchants and port rulers as a way of understanding the continued stability of Persian, Arab, Armenian, Jewish and Indian communities during a period frequently described as one of "anarchy" and "piracy."
ISBN 978-1-59333-957-9, Hardback, $196.69 (BiblioPerks™ $177.02)

Normative Judaism? Jews, Judaism and Jewish Identity: The Proceedings of the British Association for Jewish Studies 2008
This collection of short case studies considers the issue of normatively in Judaism and Jewish identity. The questions of how and why certain aspects of Jewish life and thought come to be regarded as authoritative or normative, rather than inauthentic or marginal, have been and continue to be contentious ones. Topics include the philosopher Moses Maimonides, the composer Felix Mendelssohn, the self-perception of communal leadership in Manchester during the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries, sermons of Jewish Reform rabbis during the Second World War, Orthodox rabbinic debate about war in general, representations of Jews in photographic exhibitions, the idea of Jewish music, and the academic study of Judaism itself.
ISBN 978-1-60724-161-4, Paperback, $56.03 (BiblioPerks™ $50.43)

Cantus scriptus: Technologies of Medieval Song
This volume gathers six essays from papers presented at the 3rd Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium held at the University of Pennsylvania and the Free Library of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 19-20, 2010. The essays explore both the technology of inscribed musical expression in the Middle Ages—especially in regard to notation—and the role that modern digital technologies play in facilitating the study of music manuscripts today.
ISBN 978-1-61719-056-8, Hardback, $125 (BiblioPerks™ $112.50)

George Kiraz's Syriac Orthography (A Grammar of the Syriac Language, Volume 1) is now in press. For a limited time, we will be offering the Syriac Orthography at a bargain 65% off pre-publication discount on top of any BiblioPerks™ discount (originally $247, now $60.61). To get the discount, add the product to your cart, then enter the coupon code 01-turrasmamlla. Please click here for more information - but don't miss out, so hurry!

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Enthusiast of the Month: Dr. Tala Jarjour

Tala Jarjour is a classical violinist by training who works on various aspects of musical practice and knowledge in the Middle East. Her research takes an interdisciplinary approach and falls under the illusive umbrella of ethnomusicology (a mouthful she rarely enjoys rehearsing). Interested in the Arab world, she studies popular and religious musics in rural and urban settings, and focuses on Syriac chant. Her current work examines musical systems and deals with how music relates to culture on questions such as minority and ethno-religiosity, survival, nation, power, performance and emotion.

As studying performance and historical musicology took her to four continents, a deep admiration for Levantine cultures surfaced and revealed itself through persistent fascination with Syriac chant. She subsequently wrote two theses on the chant of Ṣadad at Ohio University and the University of Cambridge respectively, then a PhD on the chant of Edessa, also at Cambridge, where she was a Gates Scholar. As Assistant Professor of Music, she taught for two years at New York University and has recently joined the Department of Music at Notre Dame University in a concurrent appointment with the Department of Anthropology. She will be teaching in the Master of Sacred Music at Notre Dame and will be contributing to the university’s ongoing plans to develop this area of studies.

She has contributed to academic publications in the United States, Germany and Lebanon on Levantine Christian traditions, and has occasionally written on – less sacred – musical topics in Arabic cultural weeklies. Forthcoming is an invited contribution to The Oxford Handbook of Music and World Christianities titled “Chant as the articulation of Christian Aramaean spirithood.”

"It is an honor to be invited to this corner of the Gorgias enterprise," says Tala. "Of the many things I find admirable about Gorgias Press I would highlight two. Gorgias make available rare books, out of prints and material that is simply difficult to find. By doing so it facilitates research while also creating new possibilities. Moreover, its small team manage a huge job with notable ingenuity, efficiency and grace."

Gorgias Press will be exhibiting at the conferences and meetings listed below, offering a special discount to conference attendees for not just the books on display but all items in our current catalog. In addition, our editors will also be present at these meetings should you have a manuscript proposal which you would like to discuss with us.

• The Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. November 17-20, 2012.
• The Middle Eastern Studies Association Annual Meeting in Denver, CO. November 17-20, 2012.

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