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.

Atharvaveda Paippalāda: Kāṇḍa Fifteen Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 318
ISBN: 9781463242046
Pub Date: 12 Dec 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Harvard Oriental Series - Opera Minora
Description:
Since its discovery and the initial efforts toward its critical edition, the Paippalādasaṃhitā of the Atharvaveda (PS) has attracted the attention of Vedic scholars and Indologists for several reasons. It constitutes a precious source for the study of the development of the earliest language. The text contains important information about various rites and magical practices, and hints about the oldest Indo-Iranian and Indo-European myths.
Petition and Performance in the Apologies of Justin Martyr Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 292
ISBN: 9781463239183
Pub Date: 10 Dec 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
Cline advances a suggestive reading of Justin Martyr's Apologies as a subjective appropriation of the forms and practices of the Roman system of petition and response. He offers an historical contextualization of the Apologies within both contemporary administrative culture and the wider literary environment, comparing the Apologies with extant Roman-era petitions, and using this comparison to shed light on Justin's transformations of the genre and their communicative significance.
Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 20 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 119
ISBN: 9781463242626
Pub Date: 09 Dec 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies
Description:
A refereed journal published annually by the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies.
John of Dara On The Resurrection of Human Bodies Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 607
ISBN: 9781463242251
Pub Date: 27 Nov 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Bibliotheca Nisibinensis
Description:
An edition and translation of the four treatises of John of Dara (d. 860) On the Resurrection of Human Bodies.
"Who Knows What We'd Make of It, If We Ever Got Our Hands on It?" Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 437
ISBN: 9781463242589
Pub Date: 19 Nov 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
In the nightstands of hotel rooms, kept under lock and key, in the poetry of a pre-apocalyptic environmental cult, and quoted by children, atheists, and murderers alike - the Bible is omnipresent in the work of Margaret Atwood. The Bible is found not only in her novels but also in her poetry, short stories, and non-fiction work. "Who Knows What We'd Make of It, If We Ever Got Our Hands on It?
The Masorah of the Former Prophets in the Leningrad Codex Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 421
ISBN: 9781463206024
Pub Date: 09 Nov 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Texts and Studies
Description:
This work represents the first time that a major part of the masorah of the great Leningrad Codex, that of the Former Prophets, is being published with an English translation and commentary. The translation and commentary is preceded by an Introduction which deals with topics such as description of the importance of the Leningrad Codex, the Masorah and its development, the Masorah of the Leningrad Codex, and the relation of the Leningrad’s Masorah to the accepted text of the Hebrew Bible. Every masoretic note in the Leningrad Codex that accompanies the text of the six books of the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel,1 Kings, and 2 Kings) is transcribed, translated and annotated Every occurrence of each lemma is provided with its biblical references, and an indication is given as to where else in the ms.
Journal of Language Relationship 18/1-2 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 179
ISBN: 9781463242510
Pub Date: 05 Nov 2020
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.
Gaming Greekness Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 374
ISBN: 9781463241230
Pub Date: 31 Oct 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
How the Jewish and Christian communities that emerged in the early Roman Empire navigated a "Hellenistic" world is a longstanding and unsettled question. Recent scholarship on the intellectual cultures that developed among Greek subjects of Rome in the so-called Second Sophistic as well as models for culture and competition informed by mathematical and economic game theories have provided new ideas to address this question. This study offers a model for a kind of culture-making that accounts for how the cultural ecosystems of the Roman Empire enabled these religious communities could win legitimacy and build discourses of self-expression by competing on the same cultural fields as other Roman subjects.
Mother Tongue Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 261
ISBN: 9781463242008
Pub Date: 30 Sep 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Mother Tongue
Description:
Journal of the Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory.
An Inventory of Syriac Texts Published from Manuscripts in the British Library Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 334
ISBN: 9781463242145
Pub Date: 17 Sep 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Handbooks
Description:
The British Library possesses one of the most important collections of Syriac manuscripts in the world, with large numbers dating back to the second half of the first millennium CE. The publication of important Syriac texts from these manuscripts has been going on for some 180 years and still continues. The aim of the present volume is to provide a guide to these scattered publications: following the sequence of the shelf-marks (call numbers), for each manuscript indication is given of what texts have been published from it.
Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on the Six Days of Creation: The Sixth Day Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 118
ISBN: 9781463242114
Pub Date: 16 Sep 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
In this sixth installment of the long Homily 71, On the Six Days of Creation, Jacob treats the events of the sixth day.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.
Gorgias Illustrated Learner's Syriac-English, English-Syriac Dictionary Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 621
ISBN: 9781463241803
Pub Date: 31 Aug 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Handbooks
Description:
The Gorgias Illustrated Learner's Syriac English, English-Syriac Dictionary is both a convenient academic resource and a door into the world of Modern Literary Syriac. With 13,000 entries drawn from the major existing works, alongside dozens of explanatory boxes on biblical, historical, theological, liturgical, cultural, as well as grammatical topics, and over 80 colored illustrations, it is a practical tool for those that wish to access all but the most specialized Classical Syriac texts.
Historiography and Hierotopy Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 250
ISBN: 9781463239817
Pub Date: 31 Aug 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
Judean hagiographies are unusual. Some are unexpectedly structured: a saint’s life in the form of a history text. Others offer surprising content.
The Palimpsest Catena of Codex Zacynthius: Text and Translation Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 436
ISBN: 9781463241056
Pub Date: 31 Aug 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Texts and Studies
Description:
This book is the first-ever edition of the complete palimpsest undertext of Codex Zacynthius (Cambridge, University Library MS Add. 10062), the earliest surviving New Testament commentary manuscript in catena format. It relies on new multispectral images produced by a research project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council in 2018.
Syriac-English New Testament Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 1093
ISBN: 9781463241605
Pub Date: 30 Aug 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
After the success of the Antioch Bible, this publication is a new, historic edition of the Syriac-English New Testament in a single volume. The English translations of the New Testament Syriac Peshitta along with the Syriac text were carried out by an international team of scholars.
Moshe Bar Kepha's Commentary on the Gospel of Luke Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 498
ISBN: 9781463242213
Pub Date: 27 Aug 2020
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies
Description:
Moshe Bar Kepha was a prolific writer of the ninth century. His writings reflect various aspects of West Syriac theology and ecclesiology, and his literary legacy links the earlier Syriac exegetical tradition (beginning with Ephrem) with the Syriac 'Renaissance' of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. His use of sources crosses Christian confessional boundaries in such a way that his works are tinged with aspects of Syriac exegesis from both East and West Syriac traditions.