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.
Al-Farabi and the History of the Syriac Organon Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 33
ISBN: 9781607240419
Pub Date: 17 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Analecta Gorgiana
Description:
Scholarly study of the transmission of Aristotelian philosophy from Greek late antiquity to medieval Islam is to some extent still influenced by the account in Ibn Abī Uṣaibi‛a attributed to al-Fārābī, which served as the basis for Max Meyerhof’s famous essay Von Alexandrien nach Bagdad. The present work, utilising evidence unknown to Meyerhof and still often neglected in more recent scholarship, argues that such a restriction never represented the whole Syriac tradition, but reflects an alternative logical curriculum with deep roots in the ancient world, while Syriac writers who were proficient in Greek adhered throughout to the other strand of this two-strand tradition, that of the full Organon.
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies (Volume 6) Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 404
ISBN: 9781593338152
Pub Date: 17 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Description:
Widely regarded as a premier journal dedicated to the study of Syriac, Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies was established in 1998 as a venue devoted exclusively to the discipline. An organ of Beth Mardutho, the Syriac Institute, the journal appears semi-annually and will be printed in annual editions. A peer-reviewed journal, Hugoye is a respected academic source for up-to-date information about the state of Syriac studies and for discovering what is going on in the field.
The Commentary of David Kimhi on Isaiah Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 343
ISBN: 9781593336752
Pub Date: 17 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Kiraz Commentaries Archive
Description:
The commentary of Rabbi David Kimhi (1160-1235) on the prophet Isaiah, chapters 1-39, in a Hebrew critical edition, makes up the main portion of this study. Presented with an English introduction by Louis Finkelstein, the commentary also includes a useful biography of Kimhi in English, an introduction to his commentary, and a presentation of a previously unknown treatise on Genesis in Hebrew.
Transcribed Proper Names in Chinese Syriac Christian Documents Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 37
ISBN: 9781607240396
Pub Date: 17 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Analecta Gorgiana
Description:
Christianity reached China in its Syriac guise in the seventh century. Christian documents written in Chinese which have come down to us from the period of the Tang Dynasty contain a large number of proper names which are, or appear to be, transcriptions of Syriac names. In this paper, originally published in Malphono w-Rabo d-Malphone: Studies in Honor of Sebastian P.
Virtuous Reading: Aphrahat’s Approach to Scripture Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 32
ISBN: 9781607240358
Pub Date: 17 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Analecta Gorgiana
Description:
The epistemology of the mid-fourth-century Christian scholar in Persia, Aphrahat, presumes that the human mind and the task of biblical interpretation are caught up in a dynamic experience of Christian spiritual transformation. In short, for the Persian Sage, good Bible interpretation requires nothing less than the total person—inner and outer, in community and before God. In Aphrahat’s Demonstrations, we encounter a scholar who not only presents this remarkably integrated set of ideals but is also an impressive practitioner of them.
Zur Datierung nach christlicher Ära in den syrischen Kirchen Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 59
ISBN: 9781607240389
Pub Date: 17 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Analecta Gorgiana
Description:
The Christian era in Syriac and Arabic sources does not always correspond with the western calculations. Until quite recently the members of the Syriac churches used the era of the Seleucids (of Alexander the Great; East and West Syrians) as the era of the creation of Adam (Melkites). The use of the Christian era became more common from the 16th century, due to the closer contacts between the Oriental and the Latin churches.
New Dictionary of the Armenian Language (vol 1) Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 1162
ISBN: 9781593339067
Pub Date: 16 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Kiraz Historical Dictionaries Archive
Description:
Considered to be the most complete dictionary of Old Armenian (also known as Classical Armenian or Grabar, this historic dictionary is essential to the study of this language. Written by three members of the Mekhitarist Order, this project represents the first major attempt to document Old Armenian in any comprehensive way. This two-volume reference work is presented in the Classical Armenian alphabet with definitions given in Latin.
History of the Syrian Church of India Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 334
ISBN: 9781593339821
Pub Date: 16 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Publications of the Archdiocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church
Description:
This book covers the history of the Syrian church of India from its founding by the apostle Thomas in 52 A.D., until the first half of the 20th century.
In the Wake of Tikva Frymer-Kensky Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 261
ISBN: 9781593339777
Pub Date: 16 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Précis Portfolios
Description:
This volume consists of 14 papers delivered by Assyriologists and biblical specialists at the 2007 Society of Biblical Literature congress in sessions devoted to the scholarly legacy of the late Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Professor of the Hebrew Bible at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.
Divine Manifestations in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 315
ISBN: 9781607244073
Pub Date: 16 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Orientalia Judaica Christiana
Description:
This volume explores the formative theophanic patterns found in pseudepigraphical writings as 2 Enoch, Apocalypse of Abraham, and the Ladder of Jacob where the visual tradition of the divine Form and the aural tradition of the divine Name undergo their creative conflation and thus provide the rich conceptual soil for the subsequent elaborations prominent in later patristic and rabbinic traditions. The visionary and aural traditions found in the Slavonic pseudepigrapha are especially important for understanding the evolution of the theophanic trends inside the eastern Christian environment where these Jewish apocalyptic materials were copied and transmitted by generations of monks.
Analecta Syriaca Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 262
ISBN: 9781593339593
Pub Date: 13 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Kiraz Historical Grammars Archive
Description:
A rare edition of Lagarde’s Syriac ephemera, this volume is a linguist’s delight. Introduced in Latin and Arabic, the descriptions and annotations to Syriac manuscripts that constitute this book will seldom be found elsewhere. The various Syriac codices included in the collection are presented in Syriac without translation.
Grammatik der neusyrische Sprache Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 458
ISBN: 9781593338350
Pub Date: 13 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Kiraz Historical Grammars Archive
Description:
This work of Theodor Nöldeke is an extremely rare find. Its scarcity should not be taken as a reflection on its authority or usefulness, however. In this original 1868 edition, Nöldeke lays out the basics of Neo-Syrian as it was used in Kurdistan and the area of Uremia.
Commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the Nicene Creed Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 248
ISBN: 9781593338282
Pub Date: 02 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
The Commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the Nicene Creed is an important document of an instrumental age in the development of Christianity. Theodore (c. 350-428) was clearly the most important biblical scholar of his age.
Root-Determinatives in Semitic Speech Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 135
ISBN: 9781593336271
Pub Date: 02 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Analecta Gorgiana
Description:
Suggesting that the Semitic root may be, at least subconsciously, biliteral, Hurwitz launches into a study of this phenomenon. Discussing linguistic phenomena such as pluriliteral forms, root-differentiation, and folk-etymologies, this little study covers significant ground for understanding the underlying structure of biblical Hebrew.
Sumerian Records from Drehem Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 106
ISBN: 9781593335793
Pub Date: 02 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Analecta Gorgiana
Description:
Now a fixture in Sumerian studies, Nesbit’s initial publication of thirty tablets from Drehem is deceptively pedestrian at first glance. As the author demonstrates, a close look at these texts reveals invaluable information on the religious and social life of everyday Sumerians.
The Apology of Timothy the Patriarch before the Caliph Mahdi Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 340
ISBN: 9781593338275
Pub Date: 02 Jul 2009
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
Part of Alphonse Mingana’s “Woodbrooke Studies” (of which the present book is volume 2), The Apology of Timothy the Patriarch before the Caliph Mahdi is accompanied in this volume by The Lament of the Virgin and The Martyrdom of Pilate. The namesake of the volume, Timothy’s apology for Christianity, is an eighth-century manuscript and one of the earliest documents concerning Christianity’s relationship with Islam. The Lament of the Virgin is Mary’s sadness at the empty tomb; in this piece she is conflated with Mary Magdalene.