This 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. 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.
The role of medieval Syriac scholars in the translation, and thus preservation, of classical literature cannot be underestimated. Gottheil provides all of the extant Syriac texts of the translation of Aristotle’s Categories, and a brief introduction.
One of the main sources from which the famous Bar Hebraeus might have drawn his knowledge of Syriac grammar to write his semhe. This book is not only important for the history of Syriac grammars, but can be used to learn grammar itself.