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Jeff Haines, Marketing Assistant
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Job Opening: Marketing and Editorial Assistant

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Job Summary

The Marketing and Editorial Assistant will be responsible for executing marketing campaigns on behalf of the press. Responsibilities include designing catalogs, flyers, and conference materials, creating sale emails and newsletters, updating the company social media pages, and attending conferences.

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Candidate Competencies

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To apply for this position, send your CV, cover letter, and contact details for two referees to Jeff Haines (jeff@gorgiaspress.com). The position will remain open until filled.

To commemorate the release of the second volume of the Qatar trilogy, our Distinguished Author this month is Mario Kozah, Assistant Professor at American University of Beirut. Dr. Kozah has recently edited two books on the Syriac writers of Qatar, along with Abdulrahim Abu-Husayn, Saif Shaheen Al-Murikhi, and Haya Al Thani.

We asked Dr. Kozah how he became interested in Qatari studies, and he gave us a few words:

"As a scholar whose specialization straddles Syriac and Islamic Studies, I was naturally intrigued when I began to read about at least seven Syriac writers from around the seventh century who were born and educated in Beth Qatraye (the region or territory of the Qataris). In my research, I consulted the works of Joseph Assemani, Jean-Baptiste Chabot, Gustav Bickell, Paul Bedjan, Addaï Scher, Arent J. Wensinck, Anton Baumstark, Alphonse Mingana, Sarhad Jammo, and Richard Connolly, as well the recent revival of interest inspired by Sebastian Brock and John Healey.

"It became clear to me that the field of Syriac Studies has long known of the existence of a number of Syriac writers who hail from this region, including Isaac of Nineveh of Qatar, who is considered to be the most influential of all Syriac monastic writers and who continues to exert a strong influence today. Many of the others like Dadisho‘ of Qatar, Gabriel bar Lipeh of Qatar, Abraham bar Lipeh of Qatar, Gabriel Arya of Qatar, and Ahob of Qatar were important Syriac writers on spirituality and commentators or exegetes within the Church of the East tradition.

"These writers, who all originated from the Qatar region and were educated there, reveal the presence of an important centre of education that rivalled in its sophistication the other, better known centres such as the School of Nisibis or the School of Edessa. The Syriac writers of Qatar themselves produced some of the best and most sophisticated writing to be found in all Syriac literature of the seventh century.

"My interest developed into a project proposal which I submitted to the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation) in collaboration with a number of researchers at Qatar University and the American University of Beirut. The great surprise of winning a six figure grant was quickly sobered by the enormous task that I now faced, along with my research team and contributors, of holding a conference in Doha, Qatar, on the “Syriac Writers of Qatar.”

"After the conference, we published two books: the first an edited volume of this conference’s proceedings entitled The Syriac Writers of Qatar in the Seventh Century (Gorgias Press, 2014); the second entitled An Anthology of Syriac Writers from Qatar in the Seventh Century (Gorgias Press, 2015) which is an anthology with both Arabic and English translations covering major works from all the above-listed Syriac authors with introductions, translations of many of their writings into either Arabic or English, annotations, and edited Syriac texts. Aa third book, entitled Dadisho‘ Qatraya’s Compendious Commentary on the Paradise of the Egyptian Fathers in Garshuni, is forthcoming in 2016.

"A big thank you is due to Gorgias Press for the great professionalism with which they have handled the publication of these books, rivalling some of the biggest publishing houses I have worked with. The successful completion of this project has inevitably raised many more research questions that call for investigation, and, needless to say, my interest in Beth Qatraye is far from satiated!"

Early Readers, Scholars and Editors of the New Testament "A Welcome and Valued Addition to. . . Current Scholarly Research"

In a recent issue of Novum Testamentum, J.K. Elliott describes the book as a "valued addition," saying:

"The broad themes of these papers, covering Greek manuscripts, Versional and Patristic studies and the reception of the New Testament writings reflect the broad interests of contemporary textual criticism and as such is a welcome and valued addition to our information on current scholarly research."

Thanks to a generous grant from the COMPAUL Project, this book is now available for free through our open access program. Hardcover versions are also available here.