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.
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies (volume 19) Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 423
ISBN: 9781463239015
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.
Jacob of Sarug's Additional Homilies on Good Friday Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 127
ISBN: 9781463207526
Pub Date: 07 Jun 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
Two homilies by Jacob of Sarug on Good Friday, one of which has only survived in Armenian translation.
A New Reconstruction of the Text of 2 Corinthians in Pelagius' Commentary on the Pauline Epistles Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 157
ISBN: 9781463207069
Pub Date: 10 May 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Texts and Studies
Description:
A new reconstruction of Pelagius's biblical text of 2 Corinthians. It shows how Pelagius's commentary assists us in choosing between variant readings and assessing manuscript reliability. From this new reconstruction, it is now apparent that Pelagius had access to the Vulgate already in the early 5th century.
The Unremembered Dead Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 352
ISBN: 9781463206963
Pub Date: 10 May 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures and its Contexts
Description:
The Unremembered Dead examines the motif of non-burial in the Hebrew Bible in its ancient Near Eastern contexts. Mansen proposes a new typology for analyzing these references, and demonstrates the range of functions that the non-burial motif served as a literary weapon in both biblical and extra-biblical texts.
Sayfo 1915 Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 428
ISBN: 9781463207304
Pub Date: 30 Apr 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies
Description:
Drawing on the expertise of scholars from a variety of backgrounds, this anthology specifically seeks to shed light on this genocide from a multidisciplinary perspective and serve as a step for developing the future scholarship about the Sayfo.
Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton: 1935–2018 Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 680
ISBN: 9781463207502
Pub Date: 27 Apr 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Handbooks
Description:
The history of Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study dates back to 1935, and it is the one area of scholarship that has been continuously represented at the Institute ever since. The volume opens with a historical sketch of the study of the Near and Middle East at the Institute. The second part of the volume consists of essays and short studies by IAS scholars, past and present, covering fields such as the ancient Near East and early Islamic history, the Bible and the Qurʾān, Islamic intellectual history within and beyond denominational history, Arabic and other Semitic languages and literatures, Islamic religious and legal practices, law and society, the Islamic West, the Ottoman world, Iranian studies, the modern Middle East, and Islam in the West.
Knowledge and Experience in the Writings of St. Isaac of Nineveh Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 347
ISBN: 9781463239053
Pub Date: 19 Apr 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies
Description:
One of the most popular monastic authors with a nearly universal spread over time is Isaac of Nineveh, a mystic of the late 7th century, who belonged to the East Syriac Church. This book is dedicated to the doctrine of knowledge, as described in Isaac of Nineveh’s discourses, in its double dimension, worldly/philosophical and theological (the former considered to be more discursive/intellectual and the latter intuitive/ experiential) and the rapport established between these two, prolonged in the concept of vision, as the highest form of spiritual experience.
Complexity and Creativity Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 359
ISBN: 9781463207113
Pub Date: 02 Apr 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This monograph assesses John’s creative interaction with imagery from his cultural context (Roman emperor worship), from the key writings of his apparent religious heritage (the Old Testament), and from convictions shared within the wider early Christian community in his depiction of Jesus in Revelation.
Jewish and Roman Law (vol 2) Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 512
ISBN: 9781463207588
Pub Date: 20 Mar 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This work is volume 2 of Boaz Cohen’s collected articles, with a new introduction by rabbinics scholar Natalie B. Dohrmann.
Jewish and Roman Law (vol 1) Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 440
ISBN: 9781463206604
Pub Date: 19 Mar 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This work is volume 1 of Boaz Cohen’s collected articles, with a new introduction by rabbinics scholar Natalie B. Dohrmann.
A Contextual Reading of Ethiopian Crosses through Form and Ritual Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 382
ISBN: 9781463205782
Pub Date: 26 Feb 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies
Description:
An exploration of the ways in which crosses reflect and shape ideas and practices in Ethiopian culture: from religious values and rituals to magic and apocalyptic beliefs, and from individual identities to socio-political structures and power relations.
Journal of Language Relationship 15/3-4 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 175
ISBN: 9781463207540
Pub Date: 14 Feb 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.
Conceptualizing Distress in the Psalms Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 314
ISBN: 9781463206109
Pub Date: 06 Feb 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
Psalms containing lexemes derived from the Hebrew root צרר (to bind, be in distress) reveal a previously-unnoticed generic subgroup in the Psalter. Through structural and cognitive linguistic principles, Rasmussen explores issues related to genre, Hebrew grammar, and syntax in order to arrive at a set of three cognitive domains of “powerlessness,” “palpable threat,” and “entreaty” which are relatively unique to psalms that include צרר lexemes. Rasmussen also makes suggestions about the editorial process of the Hebrew Psalter, concluding that after the Babylonian exile, distress was more strongly associated with divine discipline and displeasure, whereas before the exile it was more associated with declarations of innocence.
Kings 1 & 2 According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 440
ISBN: 9781463205867
Pub Date: 05 Feb 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Surath Kthob
Description:
This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshitta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars.
Jelena Dimitrijević Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 196
ISBN: 9781463206413
Pub Date: 02 Feb 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
An English translation of the Letters from Salonika by Jelena Dimitrijević, accompanied by a substantial critical introduction and a commentary. The book comprises author’s impressions from Salonika in the summer of 1908, in the midst of the Young Turk Revolution. The narrative focuses on the question of the “unveiling” of Muslim women, but also vividly portrays the vanished cityscape of Ottoman Salonika and gives accounts of the city’s Turkish, Jewish, Mu’min, and Greek communities.
Jesus, the Isaianic Servant Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 311
ISBN: 9781463207472
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2018
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
Scholars have long noted the importance of Isaiah in the Gospel of John, though few have focused exclusively on John’s use of Isaiah. The Servant of the Lord from Isaiah has also received much attention over the years, but commentators often only make passing reference to the Servant of the Lord in John. Day provides a systematic analysis of the Isaianic Servant in the Gospel of John.