Gorgias Press

Founded in 2001 Gorgias Press is an independent academic publisher of books and journals related to history, languages, and religious studies, with specific areas of expertise in the Ancient Near East, Arabic and Islamic Studies, Archaeology, Biblical Studies, Classics, Early Christianity, Jewish Studies, Linguistics, and Syriac.

Gorgias [GOR-gee-us] Press was originally created by George and Christine Kiraz as a specialty press that could keep up with their research interests. With a background in computational linguistics, George Kiraz envisioned combining cutting-edge technology with humanities research. The new company would be completely online, with no physical storefront, and it would use automation and digital printing technology rather than traditional print runs. With these tools, the press could afford to publish rare and understudied topics that were previously considered unprofitable, and Gorgias soon became known for its pioneering work in language and linguistics, religion, and especially Syriac and Eastern Christianity.
Gorgias’ philosophy of “Publishing for the Sake of Knowledge” rather than profit, attracted a number of new authors, and the press’ areas of interest rapidly began to expand. Today, Gorgias Press publishes 50-60 new titles a year, including monographs, edited volumes, translations, and more, and Gorgias books can be found in academic collections all over the world.

Personal Names in Old Syriac (Edessan Aramaic) Inscriptions and Parchments Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 193
ISBN: 9781463242497
Pub Date: 15 Aug 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies
Description:
This book collects systematically all the personal names found in Old Syriac sources in such a way as to enable them to be dealt with from a structural and lexical point of view, and compared with other corpora of Aramaic personal names as well as Hebrew and Arabic names. As far as possible, the personal names of the new finds of unpublished inscriptions discovered recently are included. This study covers all the personal names which are found in the Syriac corpus so far.
Perils of Wisdom Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 404
ISBN: 9781463243784
Pub Date: 10 Aug 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
Perils of Wisdom engages the biblical Solomon narrative that appears in the Book of Kings and its reception by Jewish texts from scriptural sources through the traditional commentaries of the Middle Ages. By systematically following the thread of exegesis through biblical, rabbinic, targumic, and medieval Jewish texts, and by examining their interplay with other ancient, Christian, and Islamic treatments of Solomon, Keiter traces the emergence and ascendance of an apologetic image of Solomon that has colored Jewish perceptions of the biblical king ever since.
The Lord God of Gods Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 357
ISBN: 9781463243333
Pub Date: 31 Jul 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures and its Contexts
Description:
The investigation of this book into early Jewish experiences of God begins with calls to discard any categorical and definitional approaches to the literature of early Judaism, and several enduring preconceptions about its mysticism and theology (particularly the relegation of its mysticism to particular texts and themes, and the molding of its theology in the image of medieval and post-medieval Jewish and Christian monotheisms). With this abandonment, the symbolic language of early Jewish texts gives sharper contours to a pre-formal theology, a theology in which God and divinity are more subjects of experience and recognition than of propositions. This clarity leads the investigation to the conclusion that early Judaism is thoroughly mystical and experiences a theology which is neither polytheistic, nor monotheistic, but deificational: there is only one divine selfhood, the divinity of “God,” but he shares his selfhood with “gods,” to varying degrees and always at his discretion.
Through the Prism of Wisdom Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 572
ISBN: 9781463207427
Pub Date: 28 Jul 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This monograph explores the nature of the Elijah traditions in rabbinic literature and their connection to the wisdom tradition. By examining the diverse Elijah traditions in connection to the wisdom and apocalyptic traditions, Alouf-Aboody sheds new light on the manner in which Elijah’s role developed in rabbinic literature.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit in Koine Greek Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 56
ISBN: 9781463242237
Pub Date: 28 Jul 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Handbooks
Description:
A translation of Beatrix Potter's Tale of Peter Rabbit in Koine Greek, using only vocabulary found in the Greek New Testament and Septuagint (including the Apocrypha), and illustrated with Potter's original drawings.
From Their Lips Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 236
ISBN: 9781463242558
Pub Date: 28 Jul 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Handbooks
Description:
The Eastern Church venerates among its saints several Early Christian women whose teaching and wisdom contribute to the depth of our theological heritage. Their inspired voices can be heard at work witnessing: in the New Testament, in the early centuries of the Church Fathers and throughout the Byzantine era. Readers will find this volume bringing female leaders from the Early Church to life from the traditional ancient sources and sharing their experience of the presence of God.
Jacob of Sarug's Homily on Edessa and Jerusalem Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 114
ISBN: 9781463243357
Pub Date: 23 Jul 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
Recognized as a saint by both Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Christians alike, Jacob of Sarug (d. 521) produced many narrative poems that have rarely been translated into English. Of his reported 760 metrical homilies, only about half survive.
De Syrorum Orientalium Erroribus Auctore P. Francisco Ros S.I.: A Latin-Syriac Treatise from Early Modern Malabar (1586) Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 149
ISBN: 9781463243531
Pub Date: 15 Jul 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies
Description:
Antony Mecherry S.J. brings to the fore a recently identified 16th-century treatise on 'Nestorianism', written by Francisco Ros S.
Journal of Language Relationship 18/3-4 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 190
ISBN: 9781463243630
Pub Date: 09 Jul 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Journal of Language Relationship
Description:
The Journal of Language Relationship is an international periodical publication devoted to the issues of comparative linguistics and the history of the human language. The Journal contains articles written in English and Russian, as well as scientific reviews, discussions and reports from international linguistic conferences and seminars.
Middle Eastern Encounters Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 571
ISBN: 9781463241933
Pub Date: 28 Jun 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This book focuses on interactions between the Islamic world and other regions from the late eighth to the twenty-first centuries. Some chapters consider the complex relationship between Islam and the cultures of Late Antiquity in the Middle East and Mediterranean basin. The reprinted chapters in this volume have been revised and updated.
The Arabic Bible from Late Antiquity Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 384
ISBN: 9781463240585
Pub Date: 28 Jun 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Biblical and Apocryphal Christian Arabic Texts 
Description:
The biblical material translated into Arabic during the Middle Ages included texts from the Hexateuch contained in Codex Sinai Arabic 3, the first in the Christian Arabic Texts series now being published. This set of six texts (Pentateuch + Joshua) is of enormous interest, for what it tells us not only about translating into Arabic, and about the techniques and strategies adopted by the translators, but also about the revi-sions and reworkings to which the original translations were subjected, and in general about the transmission process undergone by biblical texts in the hands of successive copyists.
Chinese Heirs to Muhammad Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 194
ISBN: 9781463239251
Pub Date: 15 Jun 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This book tells the story of history as imagined by Hui Muslims in late nineteenth and early twentieth century China. Chen argues that this was an especially productive period for historical thought, bookended by the establishment of a robust Sino-Islamic knowledge base by Liu Zhi on one end and Republican China on the other end. Histories from this period unify a vast temporal and spatial expanse: from genesis to antiquity to the modern era, from Arabia to Central Asia to China.
Singer of the Word of God Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 388
ISBN: 9781463239220
Pub Date: 15 Jun 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
As the first volume of the Sebastianyotho series, this book collects Sebastian P. Brock’s articles related to Ephrem the Syrian. The articles cover a wide array of topics, including a biographical overview of the saint, an exposition of St.
Pluralism and Plurality in Islamic Legal Scholarship Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 259
ISBN: 9781463242312
Pub Date: 10 Jun 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This book presents the positions held by ḥanafite Muslim jurists in South Asia in the 17th century with regard to the coexistence of Muslims and non-Muslims, and, secondly, compares the opinions put forth by these South Asian jurists with those maintained by their counterparts in Central Asia and the Middle East.
The Life of Simeon of the Olives Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 220
ISBN: 9781463243463
Pub Date: 03 Jun 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
The first ever critical edition and complete translation of the Syriac Life of Saint Simeon of the Olives, who was an abbot of Qartmin Monastery in Tur Abdin and a bishop of the city of Harran in the late seventh and early eighth century AD.
The Many Faces of Iranian Modernity Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 213
ISBN: 9781463242374
Pub Date: 01 Jun 2021
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This study into both reformism and mysticism demonstrates both that mystical rhetoric appeared regularly in supposedly anti-mystical modernist writing and that nineteenth- and twentieth-century Sufis actually addressed questions of intellectual and political reform in their writing, despite the common assertion that they were irrationally traditional and politically quietist.