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.

Ras Shamra 18.113A+B, Lettre d’un serviteur du roi d’ougarit se trouvant à chypre Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 44
ISBN: 9781617198311
Pub Date: 09 Jan 2014
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Analecta Gorgiana
Description:
This article examines a letter composed by an Ugaritian administrator stationed in Cyprus.
Victorian Images of Islam Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 216
ISBN: 9781607246732
Pub Date: 08 Jan 2014
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
Victorian perceptions of Islam were not monochrome; some saw beyond stereotypical images, others reproduced them. In this study, the accounts of six Victorians outline the contrast of the two perceptions. It suggests that presuppositions, not encounters per se, determine how we see cultural and religious others.
Contributions to the History of Syriac Folk-Medicine Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 24
ISBN: 9781611433364
Pub Date: 27 Dec 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Analecta Gorgiana
Description:
A collection of Syriac medical remedies, from a manuscript dated 1888; the origin is uncertain; the inscription mentions Galen.
Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies (2012) Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 122
ISBN: 9781463202408
Pub Date: 17 Dec 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies (1759-1953)
Description:
Melilah is an interdisciplinary electronic journal concerned with Jewish law, history, literature, religion, culture and thought in the ancient, medieval and modern eras.
Scribal Wit Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 198
ISBN: 9781611439045
Pub Date: 07 Dec 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Texts and Studies
Description:
This book presents a detailed analysis of the Aramaic mnemonics, those short witty sentences written in Aramaic as memory aids in the margins of one of the oldest extant biblical Hebrew manuscripts, the Leningrad Codex (1008 CE). The material is presented in clear, user-friendly charts. Each mnemonic is set alongside the Hebrew verses it represents.
Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies (2011) Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 120
ISBN: 9781463202217
Pub Date: 30 Nov 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies (1759-1953)
Description:
Melilah is an interdisciplinary electronic journal concerned with Jewish law, history, literature, religion, culture and thought in the ancient, medieval and modern eras.
A Brief Study on the Origins of Arabic and Syriac Phrases in Italian, Spanish, French, English, Greek, and Latin Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 104
ISBN: 9781617194528
Pub Date: 29 Nov 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Abrohom Nuro Library
Description:
This book outlines the connections between the Arabic and European languages, giving a brief listing of European words and phrases with their Arabic equivalent.
Can No Physician Be Found? Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 170
ISBN: 9781463202484
Pub Date: 20 Nov 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Studies in the Ancient Near East
Description:
Can No Physician be Found analyzes how religion, as an expression of a universal order, is applied to the medical practices in the cultures of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Israel. The comparative approach sheds light on how religious concepts shaped not only the particular medical identity of each society, but also how they can simultaneously participate in a broader medical culture spanning the ancient Near East.
Syriac Christianity in the Middle East and India Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 182
ISBN: 9781463202477
Pub Date: 20 Nov 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Pro Oriente Studies in the Syriac Tradition
Description:
This volume acknowledges the contributions of Syriac Christians in the fields of culture, education and civil society throughout the history in the Middle East and India, and examines the challenges of living and professing the Christian faith as a minority in a multi-religious and pluralistic society, giving special attention to religious freedom and personal status.
History of Martyrs in Palestine, by Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 156
ISBN: 9781607248989
Pub Date: 14 Nov 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Syriac Studies Library
Description:
This volume contains the Syriac version, with English translation and copious literary and historical notes, of Eusebius’s small book on the martyrs of Palestine, edited from a Syriac manuscript dated to 411.
The Homilies of Aphraates, The Persian Sage Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 584
ISBN: 9781607248972
Pub Date: 14 Nov 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Syriac Studies Library
Description:
Wright’s edition of the homilies of the early Syriac father, Aphrahat, includes the text, critical apparatus, and notes on biblical citations, which are also indexed. The preface surveys Aphrahat’s life and deals with the manuscripts used.
L'Expansion nestorienne en Asie Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 197
ISBN: 9781611438321
Pub Date: 13 Nov 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Kiraz Classic Archaeological Reprints
Description:
This early history of the Church of the East was part of a volume issued to commemorate the exhibition of thirty Syriac inscriptions from Central Asia at the Musee Guimet.
Non-Native Borrowings into the Lebanese Syrian Dialect Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 213
ISBN: 9781617194634
Pub Date: 13 Nov 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Abrohom Nuro Library
Description:
In comparing the formal Arabic language with colloquial Lebanese Syrian Arabic, Raphael Nakhla Al-Yasou`y finds a large list of foreign words that have unknowingly worked their way into the local dialect.
Collected Papers in Greek and Georgian Textual Criticism Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 308
ISBN: 9781593330989
Pub Date: 28 Oct 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Texts and Studies
Description:
This volume collects together for the first time the most influential papers of the late scholar of Georgian and New Testament textual critic, J. Neville Birdsall. Professor Birdsall wrote on Greek witnesses to the New Testament text, the Georgian version of the New Testament, palaeography, patristics, and the theory of textual criticism.
Early Syriac Translation Technique and the Textual Criticism of the Greek Gospels Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 354
ISBN: 9781593330965
Pub Date: 28 Oct 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Texts and Studies
Description:
Although scholars have often made inferences about the Greek texts that lay behind the Old Syriac and Peshitta versions of the Gospels, very few have ever attempted to formulate systematic rules for such inferences. This volume investigates a wide range of textual phenomena and formulates clear and simple rules for the use of Syriac texts as witnesses to the underlying Greek. It becomes possible to uncover errors that have accumulated during the evolution of the Greek New Testament textual apparatus.
Eastern Crossroads Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 430
ISBN: 9781593336103
Pub Date: 28 Oct 2013
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies
Description:
This volume contains papers from the First International Congress on Eastern Christianity held in Córdoba, Spain, November 2005. The encounter of medieval Christian writers with several linguistic traditions through the Middle Ages produced one of the most important branches of Middle Eastern literature. This encounter not only changed the nature of the respective writings throughout time, but also influenced considerably the development of the legacies transmitted by the writers and the scholars of various Eastern Christian churches.