Vita e studi di Timoteo I (†823). Patriarca cristiano di Baghdad. Ricerche sull'epistolario e sulle fonti contique. By Vittorio Berti. (Chrétiens en terre d'Iran iii. Cahiers de Studia Iranica, 41.) Pp. 400. Paris: Association pur l'Avancement des Études Iraniennes, 2009. €60 (paper). 978 2 910640 27 9; 0993 8699

Abstract

Heimgartner's careful new edition and translation of the Syriac all the more welcome and significant. The rest of the introduction deals with the date of the Disputation, the form and structure of the work, and the question of whether it is a literary fiction (as has been suggested by some) or a written-up record of a genuine dialogue (as seems more probable). The annotated translation is very carefully done, and is a considerable improvement on that of Mingana, who took a number of liberties. Heimgartner's edition and translation should henceforth be taken as the authoritative source of reference for all citation of this important (and still relevant) example of Christian-Muslim dialogue.