Yawsep of Telkepe (active in the 2nd half of the 17th cent.) [Ch. of E.]

E.-Syr. poet, writing in Sureth, priest.

E.-Syr. poet, writing in Sureth, priest. Born in Telkepe , son of priest Jamāl al-Dīn and therefore also known as Yawsep Jemdāni. He was married and had children, at least one of whom, named Ishoʿ, became a priest and died young. Yawsep is the author of at least 4 dorekyāthā : On Divine Economy (1661/2), On Revealed Truth (a poetic rendering of a Classical Syriac hymn, 1662/3), On the Life-Giving Words (1666/7), On Parables (1665/6). His poems have been preserved as a more or less unified corpus in 9 mss. and seem to correspond to a conscious plan of re-telling the Scriptures in the modern language. However, the content is not purely narrative, but paraenetic and exegetical too. The author makes ample use of canonical and apocryphal sources, such as the Cave of Treasures (possibly via the ‘Book of the Bee’ by Shlemon of Baṣra ) and Pseudo-Methodius.