The third day of the Symposium Syriacum confirmed the breadth and diversity of contemporary research dedicated to Syriac heritage, highlighting once again the profoundly interdisciplinary nature of Syriac studies and their relevance to understanding the late Antique and medieval worlds.
The morning plenary session was led by Professor George Kiraz (Princeton Institute for Advanced Study), whose lecture on "Mustašriq and Šarqī: The Ethical Terrain of Syriac Philology" offered a reflection on the ethical dimension of Syriac philology and on researchers' responsibility toward cultural heritage and the communities that have transmitted it.
Over the course of the day, the conference proceedings explored an impressive range of topics: economics and philosophy in the context of Arab Christian culture; the circulation of knowledge among religious and linguistic communities; the definition of orthodoxy; the history of synods and ecclesiastical boundaries; as well as the relationships between the Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, and Arabic traditions.
Significant focus was placed on studies dedicated to the manuscripts from St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, the transmission of monastic texts, canon law in the Arabic tradition, and to the processes of copying and translation that have shaped Eastern Christian literature over the centuries.
At the same time, two of the great figures of the Syriac tradition remained the focus of participants' attention. Two consecutive sessions were devoted to the work of Ephrem the Syrian, analyzed from exegetical, poetic, and theological perspectives, while another was dedicated to Jacob of Sarug, with an emphasis on his Homilies, his interpretation of the prophets, and the theological dimension of poetic language.
The day concluded with a plenary lecture by Professor Salam Rassi (University of Edinburgh), who offered an account of the relationship between the Syriac tradition and Arab culture in what pertains to the occult sciences.
