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: 200
ISBN: 9781463205881
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2025
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. Forness has translated the text, while Kiraz has prepared the Syriac text in the west Syriac script, fully vocalized and pointed. The translation and the Syriac text are presented on facing pages so that both can be studied together.
All readers are catered for: those wanting to read the text in English, those wanting to improve their grasp of Syriac by reading the original language along with a translation, and those wanting to focus on a fully vocalized Syriac text.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 300
ISBN: 9781463243746
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2025
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. Healey has translated the text, while Kiraz has prepared the Syriac text in the west Syriac script, fully vocalized and pointed. The translation and the Syriac text are presented on facing pages so that both can be studied together.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 283
ISBN: 9781463247041
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2025
Series: Bulletin for Biblical Research Dissertation Series
Description:
This study addresses two underdeveloped areas in Old Testament scholarship: the use of Judges in Psalms and the use of rhetorical criticism in the analysis of inner-biblical allusion.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 227
ISBN: 9781463246037
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2025
Series: Gorgias Handbooks
Illustrations: 46
Description:
Lexical Aids to the Syriac New Testament provides an essential tool to students of Syriac. A frequency-based glossary guides the student through the text of the Syriac New Testament’s most significant terms. In addition, verbal paradigms demystify the language’s structure, fostering a deeper understanding.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 345
ISBN: 9781463243425
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2025
Series: Gorgias Studies in the Ancient Near East
Description:
Ancient Nubia played key political, social, and economic roles in the ancient world, yet knowledge of Nubian societies remains regrettably narrow, with Nubia often disregarded as derivative of Egypt. This volume provides a timely corrective to this outlook, centering Nubian history and archaeology and presenting research from postcolonial and anti-racist perspectives. In addition to demonstrating Nubiology’s potential impact on Egyptological, classical, and biblical scholarship, this volume offers a new window into African achievements and dominance in the ancient world.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 445
ISBN: 9781463245689
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2025
Series: Gorgias Handbooks
Format: Hardback
Pages: 352
ISBN: 9781463245771
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2025
Series: The Armenian Church Synaxarion
Description:
The Armenian Church Synaxarion is a collection of saints’ lives according to the day of the year on which each saint is celebrated. Part of the great and varied Armenian liturgical tradition from the turn of the first millennium, the first Armenian Church Synaxarion represented the logical culmination of a long and steady development of what is today called the cult of the saints. This volume, the first Armenian-English edition, is the ninth of a twelve-volume series—one for each month of the year—and is ideal for personal devotional use or as a valuable resource for anyone interested in saints.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 354
ISBN: 9781463243760
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2025
Description:
The Passover Haggadah, the quintessential Jewish book, began taking shape in the period of the Mishnah and the Talmud (ca. 100-600 CE). Even by 600, it did not look like it does today.
Major portions were wanting, e.g., the story of eminent sages at a seder in Bene Beraq; the typology of the four sons; the midrashic expansion of the story of the exodus; the song Dayyenu. Those compositions (mostly) or borrowings were incorporated into the Haggadah between ca. 600-900 (the Geonic period). Such selections completed the Haggadah, producing the book used at Passover Seders to the present day. This study shows how the section of the Passover Haggdah known as maggid (“recounting”) achieved its comprehensive structure and contents between ca. 600 and 900 CE (the geonic period).
Format: Hardback
Pages: 429
ISBN: 9781463245016
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2025
Series: Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures and its Contexts
Description:
An inter-disciplinary study of the story and history of Israel's transition from tribal federation to monarchy, covering the events described in 1 Samuel 1-16; 2 Samuel 21-24; and 1 Kings 1-4. It follows the 2018 publication of The Book of Samuel: Part One, Studies in History, Hisoriography, Theology, and Poetics Combined (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass).
The Illustrated Cairo Genizah
Format: Hardback
Pages: 340
ISBN: 9781463247720
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2025
Description:
A thematic, illustrated guide to the Cairo Genizah collections at Cambridge University Library.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 200
ISBN: 9781463246211
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2025
Description:
A biography of Abū al-Faḍl al-ʿAbbās, the half brother, diplomat, and negotiator of al-Ḥusayn. The author was named Distinguished Scholar of Shia Studies in the Islamic Republic of Iran's 28th World Book Awards in 2020. He is at present a resident faculty member of PISAI, lecturing in Shīʿī Islamic studies, Qurʾān and Islamic Ethics, and a visiting lecturer at the Pontifical Beda College in Rome.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 43
ISBN: 9781463244859
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2025
Series: Gorgias Handbooks
Jacob of Sarug's Homily on Christ's Entrance to Sheol
Format: Paperback
Pages: 81
ISBN: 9781463248154
Pub Date: 21 Nov 2024
Description:
Recognized as a saint by both Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Christians alike, Jacob of Sarug (d. 521) produced many narrative poems that have rarely been translated into English. Of his reported 760 metrical homilies, only about half survive.
In this homily, On the Entrance of Our Lord into Sheol, Jacob tells with great power the invincibility of Sheol and how Christ gave His life to enter into Sheol like any other dead human so that He might conquer it.
Syriac Lexis and Lexica
Compiling ancient and modern vocabularies
Format: Hardback
Pages: 220
ISBN: 9781463247898
Pub Date: 21 Nov 2024
Description:
No time like the present, not even the glorious pioneering decades between 1870 and 1930, has seen such a high number of able and enthusiastic contributors to Syriac studies. 'Syriac Lexis and Lexica: Compiling ancient and modern vocabularies' brings together contributions from many different corners of lexicology and lexicography, and testifies to the richness of such subjects, which still offer scholars many possible approaches and research trajectories. This volume is the result of a round table 'Lexicologie et lexicographie syriaque', which took place at the 13th Syriac Symposium, held in Paris in July 2022.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 306
ISBN: 9781463246112
Pub Date: 31 Aug 2024
Series: Gorgias Handbooks
Format: Hardback
Pages: 300
ISBN: 9781463246259
Pub Date: 31 Aug 2024
Description:
The book offers a comprehensive anthropological study of lived Christianity in Jerusalem’s Old City, with a special focus on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Church of the Anastasis. Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork, the study explores the experiences of the Rum Orthodox community, examining their internal dynamics and relationships with other Christian groups. Within the Church of the Anastasis, complex interplays emerge, as fragile legal agreements intermingle with ethnic and theological considerations, resulting in a complex reality of shared spaces and coexistence.
A materialist lens is employed to study these dynamics, suggesting that the material aspects of religious practices play a crucial role in shaping borders and influencing perceptions of similarities and differences across them. Outside the Church's confines, in the Old City of Jerusalem, lay Christians, especially the local Palestinian Orthodox, engage in 'border-crossing practices', which often deviate from the Orthodox Church's approved practice. These practices reflect the flexible strategies local Christians adopt in their everyday lives in Israel, challenging established norms and boundaries. By capturing these dynamics, the book provides valuable insights into shared sacred spaces and offers a significant contribution to debates in the anthropology of Christianity and its material culture.