Michael the Syrian

Michael the Syrian, Michael Syrus or Michael the Great ( * 1126 in Melitene, today Battalgazi; † November 7, 1199 ) was a patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church.

In the difficult times of the Crusades, he succeeded in organizational continue to keep his church. As a subject of Muslim rulers he struck repeatedly invite the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos; probably he was not interested in dogmatic reasons to an approach to the Byzantine Empire Church. But Michael was in dialogue with Muslim scholars and maintained good relations with the Armenian Church.

Michael wrote books on liturgy and dogmatics, but the most important work is his world history. The world chronicle dates back to the year 1194/95 and was divided into three categories: church history and profane history of releases and other news. Here, Michael also relied on today completely or largely lost sources, including the chronicle of Theophilus of Edessa. The Chronicle contains a version of the Testimonium Flavianum that may come closer to the original than the standard version or the version of Agapios of Hierapolis. The ordered according to chronological considerations description should also indicate the meaningful work of God: God help the faithful, but where sins are committed, it will come to misfortune and disasters. The work is one of the most extensive chronicles of the time. It was only in the 18th century, known in Europe, and the mid-19th century were French translations of Armenian manuscripts before ( Dulaurier, Langlois ). The first translation from Syriac into French place in the years 1899 to 1910 by Jean -Baptiste Chabot.

Michael's World Chronicle is in addition to historical and socio -economic reports rich in astronomical, meteorological and other natural history descriptions. For example, mysterious alleged that there had been a "sign in the sun " that they hardly seemed matured for 18 months and no more fruit and the wine tasted sour for the years 537 and 538. Investigations of dendrochronology actually prove a weather anomaly.