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: 196
ISBN: 9781593333171
Pub Date: 19 Apr 2006
Series: Gorgias Studies in Religion
Description:
This project was inspired by years of nurture and ministry in the church upon which the study focuses. With roots going back to the historic African American Church, it offers a window into early growth, the development of crucial theological positions, institutional development within the American Church of the twentieth century, and emerging patterns for worldwide Christianity in the twenty-first century. The struggle within this project is against a background of misunderstanding.
Given the pejorative biases in earlier studies against African American Christianity in general, and Holiness-Pentecostalism in particular, a contest is under way for placement within the appropriate taxonomy.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 64
ISBN: 9781593333355
Pub Date: 31 Mar 2006
Description:
From one of the most thought-provoking writers in the monastic tradition, this volume contains 153 short, contemplative sayings of St. Isaac of Nineveh (fl. 661-681 CE) in their original Syriac with facing English translation.
St. Isaac was ordained bishop of Nineveh but resigned his post only five months later and became a monastic hermit in the mountains of southeastern Iraq. This work speaks to believing Christians today as well as scholars wishing to learn more about the Eastern monastic tradition.
The Unveiled Ladies of Istanbul (Stamboul)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 356
ISBN: 9781593332174
Pub Date: 29 Mar 2006
Series: Cultures in Dialogue: First Series
Description:
The Unveiled Ladies of Istanbul (Stamboul) is a picturesque description of women's life in post-World War I Turkey during a period of social and political turmoil. Here Demetra Vaka (1877-1946), an expatriate of Ottoman Turkey, established American journalist and acquaintance of Prince Sabaheddin, returns to her native Istanbul after a 20-year absence. Describing women's lives in post-World War I Turkey, she reports on the successful project of female emancipation pursued by Mustafa Kemal as part of the nationalist agenda.
Noting how much this project had benefited upper- and middle-class Turkish women, Vaka nonetheless regrets that the gradual emergence of the monocultural, modern Republic was bringing an end to the multiethnic character of the Ottoman State.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 77
ISBN: 9781593332266
Pub Date: 26 Mar 2006
Description:
Impressions of Ancient Mesopotamia introduces children to ancient Mesopotamian culture through cylinder seals: their production, use, and art. Written for sixth grade readers, this book provides a historical introduction to Mesopotamia, discusses several ancient technologies, introduces Mesopotamian myths, and gives insight into distinctively Mesopotamian cultural characteristics, ideas, and institutions. Over fifty illustrations, a craft, several sidebars, and a section on further investigation complement the text.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 596
ISBN: 9781593333652
Pub Date: 23 Mar 2006
Description:
Isaac Armalet’s catalogue gives the first detailed description of the Syriac, Garshuni and Arabic manuscripts at the Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Library at the Monastery of Charfet in Lebanon. The manuscript collection was established there in the eighteenth century and contains biblical, liturgical, and theological texts of importance to understanding the Christian heritage of the East.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 135
ISBN: 9781593336035
Pub Date: 20 Mar 2006
Series: Publications of the Archdiocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church
Description:
The History of Syriac Dioceses, by the late Patriarch Aphram I of Antioch and all the East, is a synopsis of a much larger study still in manuscript form. This selected portion of this history, published for the first time in English translation (volume 1) along with the original Arabic text (volume 2), offers the reader an in-depth treatment of the conditions of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 535
ISBN: 9781593333218
Pub Date: 14 Mar 2006
Description:
This work chronicles the development of the Russian community as it struggles to become a viable partner in Australia’s multicultural society. Russian presence in Australia dates back to 1807 when the first Russian Antarctic explorers arrived in Australian waters. The community grew quickly in the 20th century after the Russian Revolution and it was then that the Russian Orthodox Church was established in Australia.
The author also comments on the situation of the present day community.
Pages: 272
ISBN: 9781593336042
Pub Date: 12 Mar 2006
Pages: 272
ISBN: 9781593337476
Pub Date: 26 Mar 2007
Description:
Murray’s study of the covenant theme begins with a chronological survey of the concept, beginning at the creation itself. He traces this theme through the Bible, noting its key components of justice and peace. The concept is a shared one between Judaism and Christianity, and Murray suggests that it continues to have ecological as well as spiritual relevance to the world today.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 496
ISBN: 9781593335137
Pub Date: 05 Mar 2006
Series: Kiraz Historical Grammars Archive
Description:
Arayathinal’s grammar is among the most comprehensive Syriac grammars ever produced. Designed as a teaching text, this volume is also a solid reference grammar for use by advanced scholars and beginners alike.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 460
ISBN: 9781593335144
Pub Date: 05 Mar 2006
Series: Kiraz Historical Grammars Archive
Description:
Arayathinal’s grammar is among the most comprehensive Syriac grammars ever produced. Designed as a teaching text, this volume is also a solid reference grammar for use by advanced scholars and beginners alike.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 164
ISBN: 9781593336059
Pub Date: 05 Mar 2006
Series: Kiraz Historical Grammars Archive
Description:
Arayathinal’s grammar is among the most comprehensive Syriac grammars ever produced. Designed as a teaching text, this volume is also a solid reference grammar for use by advanced scholars and beginners alike.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 108
ISBN: 9781593333201
Pub Date: 06 Feb 2006
Series: Texts and Studies
Description:
This book attempts to determine the Gospel text used by Ephraim, and the bearing his quotations have upon the date of the Peshitta. Ephraim is one of the figures from the Syriac-speaking Church whose name is well known in both East and West. His surviving works are by themselves as voluminous as all other remains of Syriac literature earlier than 400 AD.
Ephraim’s death in roughly 373 AD means that his Gospel text predates the 5th century and attests a text older than many of the extant manuscripts.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 252
ISBN: 9781593331955
Pub Date: 01 Feb 2006
Series: Gorgias Studies in Religion
Description:
Orthodox ecclesiology doctrinally and historically requires that all authority in the church be expressed by the bishop. The unity of authority, based upon the laying on of hands, is the lived expression of the oneness and catholicity of the church. American Orthodoxy, however, does not have such an authority structure, especially on the parish level.
This study explores the divergence of practice from doctrine in the American church. The study concludes with a theological discussion of the problematic nature of parish congregationalism in Orthodoxy. It points toward the already-realized conciliarity of supra-parish structures as the paradigm for a reformation of parish authority structures.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 251
ISBN: 9781593331382
Pub Date: 01 Feb 2006
Series: Perspectives on Syriac Linguistics
Description:
This volume is the first in a series of collected essays that addresses issues of Syriac linguistics as they relate to a contemporary approach to lexicography. The international team of authors invited to participate represents a wide range of disciplines and opens new horizons in lexical thinking. Special emphasis is placed on the role that technology has, does, and will play in the evolving field of lexicography.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 248
ISBN: 9781593333980
Pub Date: 01 Jan 2006
Description:
An account of the family life of the Prophet Mohammad, concerning the noble ladies who lived in his house. The text gives an insight into the life of women in the beginning of the Islamic Era.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 260
ISBN: 9781593333348
Pub Date: 01 Jan 2006
Description:
Translated for the first time, with annotations and useful additions, this long under-appreciated work of S. D. Luzzatto is now available to modern scholars.
A history of both Hebrew and Hebrew scholarship, it is replete with valuable information and insight.