Riflessioni ed esperimenti di metodo storiografico nelle opere di Tommaso di Marga. Annotazioni sull’utilizzo e sulla traduzione del termine šarba

The Book of Superiors by Thomas of Marga is a well-known and relatively widespread text among scholars of Syriac literature and spirituality. Written in the middle of the ninth century in the context of Abbasid Iraq, it is a central text for understanding the events of Eastern monasticism between the sixth and ninth century, and its role within the ecclesiastic and political context. In spite of this obvious importance, the massive size (more or less 300 pages of Syriac text) and the quality of the information conveyed, it is a largely unstudied text, even if widely used. If, however, it is in itself misleading to use literary texts as “sources of information” without first studying them in order to articulate a systematic critique, in the case of the Book of Superiors the risk is even greater. The author is in fact a biased intellectual monk, as he defines himself, who makes precise content and stylistic choices, without any claim to annalistic-chronological precision. This study aims to address the author as author and the text as text, observing its characteristics, method and the information provided. In order to better access the specificity of Thomas and his work, we have chosen to focus on a lexicographic analysis of the terms that he uses within his historiographical reflection. In this way, it will be possible to understand the complexity and richness of this writer and his works, in order to shed new light on the East-Syrian literature of the ninth century. The introduction aims to collect, discuss and update biographical and bibliographical information on Thomas of Marga and his works.