Bar ʿEbroyo (1225/6–1286)

The Syrian Orthodox polymath Bar ʿEbroyo (d. 1286) composed a Chronicle, in Syriac, running from the Creation until the end of the author’s lifetime. Though dependent on Michael the Great, Bar ʿEbroyo takes an independent line in regard to the spatial coverage of his chronicle; markedly focused on the near eastern political and ecclesiastical history, it reflects the new political order of his epoch. While Michael experienced the simultaneous existence of different kingdoms, by Bar ʿEbroyo’s accession to the maphrianate, most of the Near East had been unified under the Mongolian rule. While the primordial history of humanity is presented in a truly universal perspective, the angle narrows down progressively to the near eastern regions. The narrower focus of Bar ʿEbroyo’s Chronicle does not contravene the requirements of the universal history model: from the near eastern history, he quarries paradigmatic patterns, including change and continuity of human history, behavioural models, the normative definition of world institutions such as priesthood and kingship.