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.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 301
ISBN: 9781463243517
Pub Date: 15 Mar 2022
Description:
An analysis of the connection between Islamic law (sharīʿa) and custom (ʿurf), identifying the ways in which personal and social issues are treated within contemporary Saudi and Iranian legal approaches. Approaches adopted by Saudi-Ḥanbalī and Iranian-Jaʿfarī scholars towards the sharʿī status of ʿurf in three particular categories are examined; the methodological perspective (classic and contemporary), the sharʿī opinions of scholars (fatwā) and the court verdicts of judges (aḥkām). The interaction between custom and textual authority is emphasised, developing an analytical framework of shar‘ī rules that pertain to social relations in general and marital issues in particular.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 72
ISBN: 9781463244323
Pub Date: 02 Mar 2022
Description:
Jacob of Sarug's homily chronicles the unravelling of God's love in sacred history and the inability of humankind to return God's love and grace.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 328
ISBN: 9781463244309
Pub Date: 02 Mar 2022
Description:
Although the verse homilies of Jacob of Serugh are well known to lovers of Syriac literature, his stanzaic poetry, in the form of madroshe and sughyotho, have been largely forgotten. This volume contains twenty-five poems preserved in their complete form and attributed to Jacob in old manuscripts of the sixth/seventh to ninth/tenth century preserved today in the British Library, but largely originating from Deir al-Surian in Egypt.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 100
ISBN: 9781463244040
Pub Date: 28 Feb 2022
Description:
An edition and English translation of 'A Description of the Prayers', one of the few extant works by Ignatius V. Bar Wahib (Patriarch of Antioch from 1293–1333). The text has been taken from a manuscript of the Orthodox Theological Seminary, Kottayam, copied in 1915 from a manuscript of the Konat Library.
The treatise offers a description of the external aspects of the canonical prayers, including washing and prostration.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 358
ISBN: 9781463243944
Pub Date: 28 Feb 2022
Description:
In the 13th century, a debate transpired over the course of several days between a monk named Jurjī and several Muslims jurists in the city of Aleppo. This debate represents a careful and sophisticated example of a literary genre that had been developing among the Christians living under Islamic rule since the seventh century. The immense popularity of this work is demonstrated by the sheer volume of surviving manuscripts, which number around hundred.
This volume provides a critical edition and translation of the text.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 330
ISBN: 9781463207298
Pub Date: 28 Feb 2022
Description:
This monograph examines the principle of dispensation in the Qur'an, which seems to be, if not unique, articulated in a new manner compared to previous religions (cf. Deut 12,32). The Qur'anic dispensations have never been systematically studied and this monograph aims to fill this vacuum in the fields of Qur'anic studies and the Study of Religion.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 440
ISBN: 9781463244200
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2022
Description:
The Quran: Key Word Distribution, Correlations and Collocation Frequencies presents key data related to the lexicon of the Quran, in terms of Key Word distribution and lexical associations. The digital text used for this purpose is the Uthmani text of the Tanzil Quran Text. This text is widely used.
All vocalized Arabic text is quoted unaltered in any shape or form from the Tanzil text. Unvocalized Arabic text and transcriptions are my own. In this series, each Key Word – here adjectives, nouns, proper nouns and verbs – is presented together with the following key data: degree of concentration, weighted distribution, correlations and collocation frequencies. The Key Words are always referenced by their lemma and are sorted alphabetically according to Arabic and UNICODE order. In lemmatizing the words, no attention has been given to the semantics of each word. Only on rare occasion have similar forms of words or proper nouns been separated in order to avoid confusion. In assigning each word a lemma, Classical dictionaries and Quran commentaries, as well as modern Quran dictionaries have been consulted. Deciding on these is not always obvious, since classical dictionaries and commentaries sometimes either disagree or present divergent variant readings or root and lemma attributions. This series contributes to Computational Linguistics and Digital Humanities in general, and Computational Linguistics research on the Quran in particular.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 482
ISBN: 9781463244224
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2022
Description:
Presented over 5 volumes (available separately), The Quran: Key Word Distribution, Correlations and Collocation Frequencies provides key data related to the lexicon of the Quran, in terms of Key Word distribution and lexical associations. The digital text used for this purpose is the widely-used Uthmani text of the Tanzil Quran Text. All vocalised Arabic text is quoted unaltered in any shape or form from the Tanzil text.
Unvocalised Arabic text and transcriptions are the author's own. In this series, each Key Word – here adjectives, nouns, proper nouns and verbs – is presented together with the following key data: degree of concentration, weighted distribution, and correlations and collocation frequencies. The Key Words are always referenced by their lemma and are sorted alphabetically according to Arabic and UNICODE order. In lemmatising the words, no attention has been given to the semantics of each word. Only on rare occasion have similar forms of words or proper nouns been separated in order to avoid confusion. In assigning each word a lemma, the author has consulted classical dictionaries and Quran commentaries, as well as modern Quran dictionaries.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 406
ISBN: 9781463244187
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2022
Description:
The Quran: Key Word Distribution, Correlations and Collocation Frequencies presents key data related to the lexicon of the Quran, in terms of Key Word distribution and lexical associations. The digital text used for this purpose is the Uthmani text of the Tanzil Quran Text. This text is widely used.
All vocalized Arabic text is quoted unaltered in any shape or form from the Tanzil text. Unvocalized Arabic text and transcriptions are my own. In this series, each Key Word – here adjectives, nouns, proper nouns and verbs – is presented together with the following key data: degree of concentration, weighted distribution, correlations and collocation frequencies. The Key Words are always referenced by their lemma and are sorted alphabetically according to Arabic and UNICODE order. In lemmatizing the words, no attention has been given to the semantics of each word. Only on rare occasion have similar forms of words or proper nouns been separated in order to avoid confusion. In assigning each word a lemma, Classical dictionaries and Quran commentaries, as well as modern Quran dictionaries have been consulted. Deciding on these is not always obvious, since classical dictionaries and commentaries sometimes either disagree or present divergent variant readings or root and lemma attributions. This series contributes to Computational Linguistics and Digital Humanities in general, and Computational Linguistics research on the Quran in particular.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 404
ISBN: 9781463244163
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2022
Description:
The Quran: Key Word Distribution, Correlations and Collocation Frequencies presents key data related to the lexicon of the Quran, in terms of Key Word distribution and lexical associations. The digital text used for this purpose is the Uthmani text of the Tanzil Quran Text. This text is widely used.
All vocalized Arabic text is quoted unaltered in any shape or form from the Tanzil text. Unvocalized Arabic text and transcriptions are my own. In this series, each Key Word – here adjectives, nouns, proper nouns and verbs – is presented together with the following key data: degree of concentration, weighted distribution, correlations and collocation frequencies. The Key Words are always referenced by their lemma and are sorted alphabetically according to Arabic and UNICODE order. In lemmatizing the words, no attention has been given to the semantics of each word. Only on rare occasion have similar forms of words or proper nouns been separated in order to avoid confusion. In assigning each word a lemma, Classical dictionaries and Quran commentaries, as well as modern Quran dictionaries have been consulted. Deciding on these is not always obvious, since classical dictionaries and commentaries sometimes either disagree or present divergent variant readings or root and lemma attributions. This series contributes to Computational Linguistics and Digital Humanities in general, and Computational Linguistics research on the Quran in particular.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 516
ISBN: 9781463244149
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2022
Description:
The Quran: Key Word Distribution, Correlations and Collocation Frequencies presents key data related to the lexicon of the Quran, in terms of Key Word distribution and lexical associations. The digital text used for this purpose is the Uthmani text of the Tanzil Quran Text. This text is widely used.
All vocalized Arabic text is quoted unaltered in any shape or form from the Tanzil text. Unvocalized Arabic text and transcriptions are my own. In this series, each Key Word – here adjectives, nouns, proper nouns and verbs – is presented together with the following key data: degree of concentration, weighted distribution, correlations and collocation frequencies. The Key Words are always referenced by their lemma and are sorted alphabetically according to Arabic and UNICODE order. In lemmatizing the words, no attention has been given to the semantics of each word. Only on rare occasion have similar forms of words or proper nouns been separated in order to avoid confusion. In assigning each word a lemma, classical dictionaries and Quran commentaries, as well as modern Quran dictionaries have been consulted. Deciding on these is not always obvious, since classical dictionaries and commentaries sometimes either disagree or present divergent variant readings or root and lemma attributions. This series contributes to Computational Linguistics and Digital Humanities in general, and Computational Linguistics research on the Quran in particular.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 427
ISBN: 9781463239138
Pub Date: 25 Jan 2022
Description:
Moses is an inspirational prophetic figure in Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious traditions. This book journeys through the Abrahamic faiths and illustrates their respective depictions of the Moses’ stories. Each chapter of the book examines the stories of the Prophet Moses in the biblical narrative of the Old Testament, in the exegesis of the Jewish Midrash, the Christian writer Ephrem the Syrian, and in the passages of the Qur’an.
The book shows the relationship between the four primary sources and consequently between the religious traditions, which they represent. In exploring the differences and similarities between the Hebrew Bible, Jewish rabbinical commentaries, Syriac Christian exegesis and the Qur’an, this book seeks for a deeper understanding of the Prophet Moses in the religious history of humanity.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 114
ISBN: 9781463244279
Pub Date: 21 Jan 2022
Description:
Jacob of Sarug's homily on Aaron the Priest, focusing on the period leading up to and including the death of Aaron described in Numbers 20:22–29.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 338
ISBN: 9781463244064
Pub Date: 06 Jan 2022
Description:
Why are Jews so attracted to India, to Hinduism, and to Buddhism in the United States as well as Israel? They travel there by the thousands, attracted by the exoticism of course, but, Adelman believes, also drawn by an atavistic connection, dating back to the great Persian empires that extended from the land of Israel to the Indian subcontinent, linking the religions, myths, legends, literature, customs, even languages over the centuries. Influenced by her own profoundly mystical experiences, Adelman provides the history, explains the religions, shows the common origins, and gives astonishing examples of parallel symbolism.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 285
ISBN: 9781463243487
Pub Date: 06 Jan 2022
Description:
This book explores the myth of the Cyclops across western history, and how its changing form from ancient Greece until the modern day reveals fundamental changes in each era’s elite understandings and depictions of cultural values. From Homer’s Odyssey to Hellenistic poetry, from Roman epic to early medieval manuscript glosses, and from early modern opera to current pop culture, the myth of the Cyclops persists in changing forms. This myth’s distinct forms in each historical era reflect and distil wider changes occurring in the spheres of politics, philosophy, aesthetics, and social values, and as a story that persists continually across three millennia it provides a unique lens for cross-historical comparison across western thought.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 426
ISBN: 9781463243821
Pub Date: 29 Dec 2021
Description:
The Futūḥ al-Shām (The Conquests of Greater Syria), usually attributed to Abū Ismāʿīl Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Azdī al-Baṣrī, is one of the primary sources used for historians studying the early Muslim expansion into Greater Syria. This study revaluates the Futūḥ al-Shām narrative and the question of its compiler-author, investigating the history of the narrative as text through an analysis of a new manuscript and important parallel texts, and revisiting the evidence and hypotheses previous scholars have put forward on both al-Azdī’s life and the Futūḥ al-Shām narrative’s text.
It thus offers an overview of the history of Oriental and Islamic Studies on the basis of one work.
