Shemʿon Shanqlawi (late 12th – early 13th cent.) [Ch. of E.]

Author of a chronicle and poems; teacher of Yoḥannan bar Zoʿbi.

Author, teacher of Yoḥannan bar Zoʿbi (for Shemʿon’s name, which refers to the village of Shaqlāwa [or Shanqlabad], near Arbela , see G. Hoffmann, Auszüge aus syrischen Akten persischer Märtyrer [1880], 231–3). No information about Shemʿon’s life is available, but some of his works are preserved. The first is called ‘Chronicon’ and is a treatise on chronology and on the calendar, in the form of questions and answers, for the use of his disciple Bar Zoʿbi. He requested the work from Shemʿon, because he and his companions did not have access to the Chronicle of Eusebius and so were often at a loss when they found references to Eusebius in the works of earlier authors. In addition to being a general introduction to chronology, the work also deals with the Christian holidays. It is preserved in some mss. in Western libraries, e.g., Brit. Libr. Add. 25,875, dated 1709 (Wright, Catalogue, vol. 3, 1067b–68b) and Berlin 102 (Sachau, 108), perhaps 16th cent. (cf. E. Sachau, Verzeichniss der syrischen Handschriften, 357–59), but apart from extracts (in Müller), it has remained unedited.

Another work by Shemʿon is a mystical poem of moralizing content (ed. Cardahi). It is transmitted in ms. Vat. Syr. 187, along with a commentary by ʿAbdishoʿ bar Brikha (see S. E. and J. S. Assemani, Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae … Catalogus, I.3 [1759], 404–5). Probably from a different work is a small collection of ‘sayings’ attributed to Shemʿon, preserved in ms. Alqosh 291 (cf. J. Vosté, Catalogue de la Bibliothèque syro-chaldéenne du Couvent de Notre-Dame des Semences [1929], 107, no. 10). Finally, Shemʿon may also be the author of a treatise on the Eucharist and Baptism, preserved in the same Brit. Libr. ms. that has the ‘Chronicon’ (Add. 25,875).