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.
Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on the Six Days of Creation: The Fourth Day Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 66
ISBN: 9781463239121
Pub Date: 25 Oct 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
In this fourth installment of the long Homily 71, On the Six Days of Creation, Jacob treats of the events of the fourth day, the creation of the spheres of light over the earth: the sun to rule over the day, and the moon and the stars to rule over the night.
Neologisms in Modern Literary Syriac Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 450
ISBN: 9781463239367
Pub Date: 25 Oct 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This book is the culmination of the Turabdin Project, the goal of which is to monitor the development of Modern Literary Syriac from the 1980s to the present. The approach is descriptive and contrastive relative to the Classical language, significant differences between Modern Literary Syriac and Classical Syriac are noted. The main focus is on neologisms and new developments in the lexicon.
Materials for the Intellectual History of Imāmī Shīʿism in the Safavid Period Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 564
ISBN: 9781463239237
Pub Date: 27 Sep 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
In 1934 the New York Public Library (NYPL) purchased a sizable collection of 250 volumes of Arabic manuscripts through the fund for Semitic literature that had been provided by Jacob Heinrich Schiff. Ms New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, Arabic Manuscripts Collection, Volume 51985A, a facsimile of which is included in the present publication, belongs to the Shīʿī material among the collection. It is a multitext volume of 269 leaves which in its present form comprises seven individual works.
The Commentary of Gabriel of Qatar on the East Syriac Morning Service on Ordinary Days Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 432
ISBN: 9781463239244
Pub Date: 21 Sep 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This volume provides a study and an original edition and translation from Syriac into English of Discourse Two of Gabriel of Qatar's liturgical commentary, written in the first half of the seventh century.
Alphabet Scribes in the Land of Cuneiform Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 515
ISBN: 9781463206352
Pub Date: 17 Sep 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Studies in the Ancient Near East
Description:
This book treats the alphabet scribes in Mesopotamia in the Late Babylonian period (6th-5th centuries BCE). Bloch defends the understanding of the term sēpiru as a designation of alphabet scribes, discusses the functions of sēpiru professionals in Babylonia, and discusses their ethnic origins, with special attention to the participation of Judeans in Babylonia in this profession. The monograph includes translations of over 100 Late Babylonian economic, legal, and administrative documents.
The History of Mar Behnam and Sarah Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 166
ISBN: 9781463239145
Pub Date: 09 Sep 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Persian Martyr Acts in Syriac: Text and Translation
Description:
The History of Mar Behnam and Sarah tells the story of two siblings who convert to Christianity under the tutelage of Mar Mattai, a monastic leader and wonderworker from the Roman Empire. In this volume, Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent and Kyle Smith provide the first critical edition and English translation of this fascinating martyrdom narrative.
Journal of Language Relationship 16/1-2 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 177
ISBN: 9781463239329
Pub Date: 05 Sep 2018
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.
Missionary Life in Persia Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 176
ISBN: 9781463239213
Pub Date: 08 Aug 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Kiraz Historic Travels Archive
Description:
An account by the American missionary, Justin Perkins, of his years living among the Christians of Persia, with a new Introduction by John Ameer, setting the activities and experiences of the American missionaries in Persia in their historical context.
The God of Thunder and War in Micah, Habakkuk, and Zechariah Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 212
ISBN: 9781463206116
Pub Date: 08 Aug 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This volume explores storm-/warrior-god motif as found in non-biblical ANE texts, followed by an analysis of the language and imagery in several noteworthy theophanic passages in the Hebrew Bible. These characteristics and vocabulary are used in later chapters to identify and analyze similar motifs in the Twelve Prophets, especially focusing on Mic 7:7-20; Habakkuk 3; and Zech 9:9-16 as test cases. By tracing the use of the storm-/warrior-god motif and language associated with it, a detectable shift is apparent in the use of the motif in the HB that corresponds with the development of monotheism within Ancient Israelite religion.
The Apostolos Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 335
ISBN: 9781463206093
Pub Date: 17 Jul 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Texts and Studies
Description:
Lectionary studies were almost abandoned after the mid-twentieth century, and the recent revival of interest in the Greek Lectionary has concentrated exclusively on the Gospel Lectionary. Gibson reintroduces the value of the Apostolos yet incorporates modern methodology in order to build upon the work of recent Lectionary scholarship, analysing New Testament and liturgical textual traditions together, both compilation and continuous text. Through this process, it is shown that the Apostolos witness is not usually copied to another and that consequently there is no ‘Lectionary text’ of Acts and Paul.
After Saturday Comes Sunday Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781463239046
Pub Date: 10 Jul 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
Starting with the biographical story of a 92 year old Chaldean woman from northern Iraq and a biography of a Kurdish Jewish woman now living in Israel, Adelman writes about the history of Christians and Jews in the Middle East. Their languages, dialects of the 3000 year old Aramaic language, are under threat, and their homelands continuously threatened by war.
The Arts and Crafts of Syria and Egypt from the Ayyubids to World War I Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 379
ISBN: 9781463239008
Pub Date: 03 Jul 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This book focuses on the production, sale, and consumption of portable arts in regions covered today by the modern polities of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Palestine Authority. The reprinted chapters in this volume have been revised and updated. They offer interdisciplinary approaches to the material culture of the region from the twelfth to the early twentieth centuries, combining evidence from primary written sources, archaeology, and objects in museums and private collections.
Liturgy and the Living Text of the New Testament Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 319
ISBN: 9781463207489
Pub Date: 29 Jun 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Texts and Studies
Description:
The textual history of the New Testament is a dynamic tradition, reflecting differing readings, interpretations and uses of its canonical writings. These contributions represent original research by an international range of scholars, first presented at the Tenth Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament.
Multilingual and Multigraphic Documents and Manuscripts of East and West Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 541
ISBN: 9781463202835
Pub Date: 29 Jun 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This volume deals with the evidence from manuscripts and handwritten documents with multilingual and multigraphic structures in Arabic, Hebrew, Latin and Greek, conceived and designed to display texts in different languages or scripts, as well as addressing the historical context of these testimonia (their production, use and circulation) and focusing on problems inherent to multicultural societies.
The Masorah of the Former Prophets in the Leningrad Codex Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 512
ISBN: 9781463205973
Pub Date: 13 Jun 2018
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. Almost nine-thousand notes are transcribed and annotated with biblical references.
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies (volume 20) Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 507
ISBN: 9781463239060
Pub Date: 12 Jun 2018
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.