The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq.

• Author: Cassis, Marica
• Position: Book review

The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq. By JOEL THOMAS WALKER. The Transformation of the Classical Heritage, vol. 43. Berkeley and Los Angeles: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, 2006. Pp. xviii + 345, illus. $49.95.

One of the enduring problems facing Syriac studies is the tendency to consider it peripheral to other branches of Late Antique history. The major strength of Joel Walker's work. The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq, lies in the connections he draws between the hagiographical account of Mai Qardagh, a Syriac Christian saint of Assyrian and Persian heritage, and the Late Antique Greek and Sasanian motifs and traditions evident in the work.

The Legend of Mar Qardagh is divided into two major parts: a translation of the Syriac life of Mar Qardagh and an extensive discussion of the Late Antique Christian and Sasanian historical content from the period of the composition of the text. The first chapter following the translation provides an introduction to this historical background. Walker dates the composition of the work to the late Sasanian world of Khusrau II (600-630 C.E.) on the basis of several stylistic and contextual clues, including the anonymous author's knowledge of highly specialized Sasanian administrative terms. References to the setting at Melqi indicate that it was almost certainly composed in Adiabene (p. 90). Although the story is set during the persecutions of Shapur II (309-379 C.E.), Walker persuasively argues that the technical language and the socio-cultural information within it provide important information for the late Sasanian period.

The majority of the book situates the text within the dual contexts of the Sasanian and Late Antique worlds. In chapter two, Walker draws our attention to the fact that many of the literary motifs in the work are drawn from the tradition of the Sasanian epic. Although the Persian tradition surrounding the epic hero is subverted to allow him to be conquered by Christianity, the use of such imagery illustrates the author's familiarity with Persian literature. Walker proposes "that Persian Christians developed modes of self-expression that merged the cultural vocabularies of Christianity and Sasanian culture" (p. 156). Greek traditions also influenced the work, as can be seen in the inclusion of a philosophical disputation between Mar Qardagh and the Christian monk Abdiso. In the third chapter...