La présente thèse étudie à la fois les réalités de la présence chrétienne en Mésopotamie ainsi que l’image que les chrétiens se sont données d’eux-mêmes. Installé sur les rives du Tigre et de l’Euphrate, le christianisme de l’empire perse s’est diffusé à l’ombre d’un pouvoir non chrétien, comme dans l’empire romain. Toutefois les destinées des deux christianismes, celui d’Occident et celui d’Orient, se sont séparées lorsque l’empire romain est devenu chrétien. Les chrétiens de la Mésopotamie sassanide ont dû alors osciller entre l’hostilité franche du pouvoir et les périodes de tolérance jusqu’à la chute de la dynastie au milieu du VIIe siècle. Le christianisme mésopotamien fut caractérisé par une forme de diversité à la fois linguistique et religieuse, marqué par la porosité avec les autres groupes, contre laquelle les autorités religieuses n’ont cessé de délimiter des frontières claires. Il s’est progressivement étendu à l’ensemble des couches de la société sassanide, jusqu’aux élites dirigeantes, et jusqu’aux campagnes. Alors, une production littéraire et historiographique d’ampleur a contribué à la formation d’un portrait cohérent et linéaire dans la documentation syro-orientale dominante, issue de l’Église de l’Est. Ailleurs, des mémoires divergentes des chrétiens de Perse nous sont parvenues. / This dissertation looks at both the realities of the Christian presence in Mesopotamia and how the Christians constructed their own image. Established on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Christianity during the Persian Empire it developed under a shadowy non-Christian power, as with the case with the Roman Empire. However, the fate of Western and Eastern Christianities diverged when the Roman Empire became Christian. In Sasanian Mesopotamia, the treatment of Christians wavered between direct hostility from Zoroastrian power and periods of tolerance, until the fall of the dynasty in the middle of the 7th century. A form of linguistic and religious diversity characterized Mesopotamian Christianity. The lines between Christians and the other communities were narrow, which caused religious authorities to draw clear boundaries between Christians and non-Christians. Christianity expanded into the whole Sasanian society, including the peasantry and ruling elites. Therefore, after the 5th century, there was a large proliferation of East-Syrian literature and historiography, which had a key role in the development of the dominant Christian image within the Church of Persia. However, other literary traditions passed down different views of the Christians of Sasanian Mesopotamia.

Typically, when we think of Sweden it is often thought in terms of a harmonious society where diversity, equality and freedom has intertwined itself into the daily fabric of society. This essay explores the experiences and expectations of immigrants who arrived in Sweden in the 1980’s. It is a qualitative study and uses semi-structured interviews and focuses in particular on immigrants of Syriac and Assyrian decent who arrived in this time period. In general, this paper aims to look at how and what information they had been communicated before entering the country and whether or not their own personal expectations were met in regard to access to food, shelter and education. The overarching research question is: the experiences of immigrants and aid workers alike – are they in line with the communicated expectations they had upon entering Sweden. The aim is to explore what motivated the immigrants to choose Sweden in particular and if there were any hindrances or predispositions that they encountered. The results that emerged from the qualitative data suggest in general the move to Sweden was based on the communicated experiences of relatives and the church, thus what they had expected and experienced was similar. This essay is guided by a constructivist epistemology with a hermeneutic perspective that aims to describe, analyse and draw conclusions based on the purpose of the case study.

We show that a carefully crafted probabilistic morphological analyzer significantly outperforms a reasonable, naive baseline for Syriac. Syriac is an under-resourced Semitic language for which there are no available language tools such as morphological analyzers. Such tools are widely used to contribute to the process of annotating morphologically complex languages. We introduce and connect novel data-driven models for segmentation, dictionary linkage, and morphological tagging in a joint pipeline to create a probabilistic morphological analyzer requiring only labeled data. We explore the performance of this model with varying amounts of training data and find that with about 34,500 tokens, it can outperform the baseline trained on over 99,000 tokens and achieve an accuracy of just over 80%. When trained on all available training data, this joint model achieves 86.47% accuracy — a 29.7% reduction in error rate over the baseline.

Annotated textual corpora are an essential language resource, facilitating manual search and discovery as well as supporting supervised Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques designed to accomplishing a variety of useful tasks. However, manual annotation of large textual corpora can be cost-prohibitive, especially for rare and under-resourced languages. For this reason, developers of annotated corpora often attempt to reduce annotation cost by offering annotators various forms of machine assistance intended to increase annotator speed and accuracy. This thesis contributes to the field of annotated corpus development by providing tools and methodologies for empirically evaluating the effectiveness of machine assistance techniques. This allows developers of annotated corpora to improve annotator efficiency by choosing to employ only machine assistance techniques that make a measurable, positive difference. We validate our tools and methodologies using a concrete example. First we present CCASH, a platform for machine-assisted online linguistic annotation capable of recording detailed annotator performance statistics. We employ CCASH to collect data detailing the performance of annotators engaged in syriac morphological analysis in the presence of two machine assistance techniques: pre-annotation and correction propagation. We conduct a preliminary analysis of the data using the traditional approach of comparing mean data values. We then demonstrate a Bayesian analysis of the data that yields deeper insights into our data. Pre-annotation is shown to increase annotator accuracy when pre-annotations are at least 60% accurate, and annotator speed when pre-annotations are at least 80% accurate. Correction propagation's effect on accuracy is minor. The Bayesian analysis indicates that correction propagation has a positive effect on annotator speed after accounting for the effects of the particular visual mechanism we employed to implement it.

My project will focus on the neighborhood of Hovsjö in the city of Södertälje, located in the south of Stockholm county. Through this project I will examine aspects of this neighborhood’s isolation from the rest of the city. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative approaches, I explore the nature of this isolation and question how much of this segregation is a result of its spatial orientation, as well as various cultural and social factors. As Hovsjö is an area with a high concentration of members of the Assyrian/Syriac immigrant community, it has natural affinities to surrounding immigrant neighborhoods, but its spatial arrangement inhibits this affinity. Furthermore, Hovsjö is also isolated from its surrounding environs; I will explain how it is cut off from its immediate neighbor to its south and west, Lake Måsnaren, a nature area with many recreational amenities. I show in my research that the lake is not well used by the residents of Hovsjö, despite their proximity to it. Investigating the physical structure and the layout of the area between Hovsjö and Måsnaren, I will show that this separation is due to physical factors as well as an inappropriate programming of the green spaces. Using this research, I will to suggest a series of interventions with will break down both types of isolation and thereby fully integrate Lake Måsnaren into Hovsjö, and Hovsjö into the rest of Södertälje. This integration will lead to the creation new cultural landmarks for both the city of Södertälje as a whole as well as its Assyrian/Syriac immigrant community in particular, and the results will link Hovsjö more deeply into Södertälje’s urban fabric and end its isolation.

In this thesis one can see footwashing from different perspectives even though the focus is from a liturgical and patristic perspective. Using the liturgical dialectical method, I put the liturgical text in a dialectical relationship with the wider patristic context. Footwashing in this thesis is approached from four angles. Chapter Two: An historical overview and a background regarding. Chapter Three: The Syriac Orthodox Footwashing rite. Chapter Four:The Commentary of Bar Salibi on Foot Washing. Chapter Five: A comparison between the Syriac Orthodox ordo and the commentary. In the second chapter one explores the development of footwashing, both in the west and the east in patristic and canonical sources.The ongoing discussion in the west seems to be whether the footwashing is considered as a sacrament or not, while the fathers in the east interprets footwashing as explicitly revealing the cross for his disciple. In this chapter one gets to know the views of the fathers such as Augustine, Ambrose, John Chrysostom etc. The Syrian fathers make the same connection as the eastern fathers but connects it however to baptismal theology which is found in Rom 6:4.The fathers of the Syrian Orthodox tradition presents also an allegorical and symbolic interpretations of the footwashing, especially during the early Middle Ages and later Middle Ages. The canonical sources presents two views 1. Canonical. 2. Monastic. The canonical sources are Elvira 305-6. And Toledo 694, Elvira does not encourage the practice of the footwashing due to it being practiced after the baptism. In Toledo footwashing is encouraged and it seems that this praxis was discouraged according to the canon itself, the monastic was seen all through the subchapter. It was the custom for the brothers to greet a guest by washing their feet. The third chapter is about the footwashing rite and its theological contrasts and the contemplation which makes it a rite itself. Chapter Four is divided in three commentaries. The three different gospel narratives exist in 1. Jn 12:1-11. 2. Lk 7:36-50. 3. Jn13:1-20. The different use of this commentary reveals for the reader how Bar Salibi conducted biblical theology and how these different biblical stories reveal his view on the footwashing in contrast with John 13. The Fifth chapter concern the differences and similarities between the footwashing rite and the patristic by comparing the structures and the main focus of the texts, differences and similarities between the theologies of the two texts become clearer. The two main questions in this thesis is 1. Is the first-hand source (footwashing rite) compatible theologically with the second-hand source (Dionysius Bar Salibi`s biblical commentaries The second question is how much Greek influence has influenced the footwashing rite in contrast to the biblical commentaries?

This study explores the linguistic characteristics of the Arabic dialect spoken in Ḥayy ə-s-səryān, also known as the ‘Syriac Quarter’ in Aleppo city, within the context of the city's diverse demographic makeup. The Aleppo dialect, a Levantine dialect spoken by various religious and social groups, is used by Christians and Muslims as their everyday language. The Jewish population, historically present in Syria, gradually left the city in the twentieth century. The Aleppo dialect among Christians and Muslims is classified into different types, considering factors like origin and migration. Previous studies by Sabouni and Behnstedt have examined the Muslim and Christian varieties, respectively, but Sabouni did not consider the Christian variety of the dialect and Behnstedt had limited focus on the Syriac Quarter dialect. This research aims to address this gap by analyzing and comparing various dialectal varieties in Aleppo, with a particular emphasis on the Syriac Quarter variety. In addition, the thesis examines the substratum of Aramaic in the dialect of Aleppo. The methodology involves the researcher's recordings of individuals from Aleppo's original Christian and Syriac Quarters. Transcriptions from scholars like Sabouni and Behnstedt were also utilized, with modifications for consistency. The researcher, a native speaker of the Aleppo dialect born in the Syriac Quarter, conducted interviews with individuals from both communities. Christians and Muslims in old town Aleppo initially shared linguistic similarities, residing in common quarters like al-Jallum. Over time, Christians moved to new areas, leading to separate residential zones. An Aramean group migrated from present-day Urfa (historical Edessa/Urhoy) in the early 20th century. The Edessan Syriacs arrived in Aleppo in 1924 and settled in the district that later became known as the Syriac Quarter, experiencing a multilingual environment. They adopted colloquial Arabic influenced by Syriac, Armenian and Turkish.  This research discusses the evolving linguistic landscape in Aleppo due to migrations and cultural interactions. The study explores linguistic variations in the Aleppo dialect, shedding light on the influences shaping its diverse forms.

This study brings excerpts from the Acts of Thomas (Act 1.11-16 and Act 3.30-33) together with two Buddhist jātakas (Udaya Jātaka - #458 and Visavanta Jātaka -#69) to consider how stories might have been transmitted in the early centuries of the common era in a milieu of mercantile exchange on the Indian Ocean. The Acts of Thomas is a 3rd century CE Syriac Christian text concerned with the apostle Thomas proselytizing in India. The jātakas are popular didactic narratives with a pronounced oral dimension that purport to be accounts of the Buddha’s previous lives. Syriac Christians possessed knowledge about Indian religious practices linked to renunciation, and it is plausible that they adapted Buddhist jātakas to convey Christian ideas in the account of Thomas journeying to India and converting people there. Epigraphic evidence from the western Deccan in India attests to yavana, or Greek, patronage of Buddhist institutions in cosmopolitan settings where ideas and commodities circulated. Against the grain in scholarship on early Christianity that tends to privilege Latin and Greek sources, this project moves the lens of analysis eastward to consider Indian influence on early Christianity as expressed in the Acts of Thomas. A literary comparison of the texts under consideration with reference to the historical and cultural context of exchange reveals similar models of renunciant practices in Buddhism and Christianity that establishes new grounds for consideration of interconnectivity across ‘East’ and ‘West.’ / Religion

The ܫܚܝܡܐ Shhimo is the prayer book for normal weekdays of the Syrian Orthodox Church and it was officially printed for the first time in Dayro d-Kurkmo (Dayr Al-Zafaran) in 1890 with a printing press that Patriarch Ignatius Peter IV (+ 1894) had received in 1874 thanks to his visit to London and the Anglican Church. Prior to 1890 Shhimo was a diverse tradition expressed with different manuscripts in different monasteries showing a diverse use of different prayers and costumes. The second printing of Shhimo in 1913 and re-printing 1934, by the late Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Ephrem I Barsoum (+ 1957), was a reworked version of 1890 that included several important changes. This thesis will investigate what these changes were and what implications they carry for the understanding of Shhimo and for the Syrian Orthodox Church. In this paper we will also start to investigate the transmission process of the Shhimo and study some of the manuscripts prior to 1890.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T13:49:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Claude Valentin Rene Detienne.pdf: 6137168 bytes, checksum: a08610a90e81c490c0dba1ec489d10e5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-08-30 / The objective of the present dissertation was to compare a Jewish commentary (Midrash Rabbah) and two Syriac commentaries (Ephrem s commentary and an anonymous one) on the book of Exodus, especially on Ex 2,23-3,15. The study revealed some similarities that could be explained by a Jewish origin of some Syriac exegetical elements. But on the whole the Syriac commentaries are very different from the Jewish one. The Syriac exegetes, in the line of the Antiochene litteralist and historicist exegetical tradition, seldom show the same richness as the Jewish commentarist. The latter displays both a deep respect for the text in its tiniest details and much freedom to create new meanings from the text. That difference finds an echo in the modern hermeneutic reflection, which tries to find a balance between the intentio auctoris and the intentio lectoris. / Esta dissertação teve por objetivo de comparar um comentário judaico (Midrash Rabbah) e dois comentários siríacos (comentário de Efrém e comentário anônimo) do livro do Êxodo, e particularmente do trecho Ex 2,23-3,15. Embora tenham aparecido alguma semelhanças que poderiam se explicar por uma origem judaica de alguns elementos exegéticos siríacos, os comentários siríacos são muito diferentes do comentário judaico. Os exegetas siríacos, herdeiros da tradição exegética literalista e historicista antioquena, raramente mostram a mesma riqueza criativa do que o comentarista judeu. Este demonstra ao mesmo tempo um profundo respeito pelo texto, nos seus mínimos detalhes, e uma grande liberdade para criar sentidos novos a partir do texto. Dessa diferença parece fazer eco a reflexão hermenêutica moderna, quando tenta achar um ponto de equilíbrio entre intentio auctoris e intentio lectoris.