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Title: New Light on the Textual Tradition of Bar Bahlûl's Book of Signs
Author(s): LAMOUREAUX, J.C.
Journal: Le Muséon
Volume: 112    Issue: 1-2   Date: 1999   
Pages: 187-190
DOI: 10.2143/MUS.112.1.519494

Abstract :
Bar Bahlūl was a tenth-century Nestorian who spent most of his life in Baghdad. He is primarily remembered today for his remarkable lexicon of the Syriac language. In the early 1970s Fuat Sezgin discovered in Istanbul another work by Bar Bahlul, his Kitāb al-Dalā'il or Book of Signs. This new text is not unlike a modern almanac. It presents first chronological synopses of the various feasts and festivals of the eastern churches, as well as of the Jews, Muslims, Ḥarrānian pagans, and others. It then turns its attention to other matters — how to determine the health of slaves, poisons, physiognomy, dream divination, and so on. Joseph Habbi has now published an edition of this text.

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