Khoury, Asmar (1916–200?) [Syr. Orth.]

Teacher, author, and scribe.

He was born in ʿAynward and studied Syriac under Dolabani in Dayr al-Zaʿfarān from 1928 to 1931. He taught in ʿAynward, Karburan, Gundekshukro, and in 1945 in Beirut until 1975 when he immigrated to Sweden. He was a master scribe and produced more than 130 mss., one of which is a beautiful illuminated lectionary of which an edition was made.

His Syriac writings include: 1. a reader titled A Student’s Companion to Syria [sic] in Syriac & Arabic and English (Beirut, 1972); 2. a translation from the Arabic of Gibran Khalil Gibran’s al-Mawākīb entitled Ṭulqe (circulated in the author’s hand and dated 1978); 3. (with his brother Cyril Jacob) a Syriac-Ṭuroyo lexicon (see under Jacob, Cyril ); 4. a history of Ṭur ʿAbdin (Göteborg, 1998); 5. an account of the massacres (Göteborg, 1998); 6. poems, many of which he published in magazines, especially Bahro Suryoyo; 7. an Arabic-Syriac lexicon (ms); 8. a translation into Syriac of Shemʿun II of Beth Manʿem’s Kurdish poem Lawij; 8. a collection of stories (Södertälje, 1980); 10. a history of the Arameans.