The laughable stories collected by Mâr Gregory John Bar Hebræ

INTRODUCTION.
XIX
From the facts stated above it is evident that all
the Christians in Mesopotamia and in the countries
about deplored the loss of Bar-Hebraeus with sincere
grief, and there is little doubt that he was the greatest
writer whom the Syrian Church ever produced \ His
knowledge of Greek and Arabic opened store-houses
p''=»* '«""-
of learning which were closed to most of his fellow- Hebraeus.
countrymen, and his energy and general literary ability
were remarkable.
His works shew that he had studied
deeply many subjects of which the other scholars of
his Church were profoundly ignorant, and the ready
wit of his many-sided mind and his lucid style enabled
him to adapt the knowledge of extraneous and difficult
subjects to his own needs, and to express them simply
but clearly for the advantage of his readers. This
is no place to give a catalogue of his works ^ and itHisunanng
must be sufficient to state that during the forty years
which he passed in the service of his Church—eighteen
years as bishop of various dioceses, and twenty-two
years as Maphrian— he seems to have been able to
master the philosophy of the Greeks and the Arabs,
and to have made it available by his translations of
their works for his fellow-countrymen. Philosophy,
theology, natural science, history, medicine, the science
of grammar, &c., were only a few of the subjects in
the knowledge of which he excelled, and it is evident
from a perusal of his works that he was no superficial
student of the false sciences of the day, I mean astro-
"
See B. O., ii. p. 269 ff.; Wrightj Syriac Literature, p. 265 ff.,
269 ff.
^
Jedenfalls ist Barhebraeus einer der hervorragendsten Manner
seiner Kirche und seiner ganzen Nation. Noeldeke, Orietitalische
Skizzen, p. 273.