Historiography in the Syriac-Speaking World, 300–1000 1

This chapter considers the representation of Syriac culture in Greek and the continuation and development of the Eusebian tradition of ecclesiastical history in Syriac. I argue that the great divergence between Syriac historical writing and its Greek predecessors occurs in the ninth century and beyond. At this point, West Syrian historical writing becomes increasingly sectarian in tone and critical of the Roman past. This period also witnesses the ‘upgrading’ of apocryphal Pseudo-histories of the fifth and sixth centuries into the realm of history proper.