Eastern Christian Stories
HMML Stories — Eastern Christian
Looking for a story? Search Our Stories
Witnesses of Light: Armenian Manuscripts as Testimony and Digital Memory After Genocide
“The extraordinary manuscripts held at the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul are a poignant testament to the survival...”
- Dr. Ani Shahinian
Veiled in Ink: Armenian Women in Manuscripts
“When we think of medieval manuscripts in general, we may imagine male monastic scribes...”
- Dr. Ani Shahinian
Postscript — On Our Behalf
“The manuscripts of Ethiopia and Eritrea come in all shapes and sizes...”
- Dr. Jeremy R. Brown
The Lord’s Song in a Foreign Land
“In the middle of the 19th century, Arabic-speaking immigrants began to appear among the waves of newcomers arriving in the United States...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
Postscript — Layers of Translation and Illumination in an Armenian Manuscript
“In the New Testament, Acts of the Apostles (17:34), Luke describes the ‘marketplace of ideas’ in Athens...”
- Dr. Ani Shahinian
Decorative Birds in Syriac Manuscripts
“Bird watching is typically an activity that...”
- Dr. James Walters
The Mysteries & Rhythms of Nature, Seasons, and Time in the Armenian Liturgical Calendar
“Interwoven tapestry of the natural and spiritual worlds as observed through the Armenian liturgical calendar...”
- Dr. Ani Shahinian
Let it Fall as Rain
“Few things can impact daily life in quite the way that weather does...”
- Dr. Jeremy R. Brown
The Frozen Tigris and Other Remarkable Weather Events Described in Syriac Colophons
“In the days before social media, how did people share a noteworthy weather phenomena...”
- Dr. James Walters
Music Awakens One’s Soul...
“An answer to the question of what it means to be human...”
- Dr. Ani Shahinian
Arthur Vööbus: Preserving a Legacy
“Dr. Arthur Voobus was many things—a scholar, pastor, teacher, and refugee in exile...”
- Dr. James Walters
The Legacy of Mūrisṭus’ Hydraulic and Pneumatic Pipe Organs in the Early 20th-Century Arabic Literary Culture
“The organ is not the first musical instrument that comes to mind when...”
- Dr. Celeste Gianni
Deadly snakes and remedies against their venomous bites in the handy charts of a copy of the “Kitāb al-diryāq” (Book on antidotes)
“The Arabic manuscript tradition is rich in medical works discussing remedies and...”
- Dr. Celeste Gianni
Instructions for Burial: The Last Will and Testament of Ephrem the Syrian
“Ephrem is perhaps the most widely known of all Syriac authors...”
- Dr. James Walters
Postscript — A Swedish Saint in Syriac
“Stories about saints, much like their relics, rarely remain tied to...”
- Dr. James Walters
Khalīl Janāwī: Scribe, Collector, and Artist from al-Mīdān of Damascus
“Khalīl ibn Jirjis Janāwī was a scribe, a collector of manuscripts, and an artist who was...”
- Dr. Vevian Zaki
Build a Church, Build a Library
“If you want to establish a new church, you’re likely going to need some books...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
Tracing Scribal Genealogies in Syriac Manuscripts: The Naṣro Family
“The act of hand-copying a manuscript requires specialized skills that...”
- Dr. James Walters
Reversal of Fates: Access Through Photographs can be a Counterbalance
“Cultural losses continue to beset communities around the world, especially in areas subject to armed conflict...”
- Ted Erho
Identifying Syriac Fragments in the Digital Age
“What would you do if someone handed you a page that had clearly been torn out of a book...”
- Dr. James Walters
“This Book is Free From Banned Content” — Ottoman Censorship of al-Yāzijī’s Arabic Lexicon
“The Lebanese poet, journalist, and linguist Ibrāhīm al-Yāzijī (1847–1906) has gained fame as a...”
- Dr. Vevian Zaki
Ḫeruy Walda Śellāsē’s “History of Ethiopia”
“Printing reached Ethiopia rather late. In Europe, texts were occasionally printed in Ethiopic characters from...”
- Ted Erho
A Book You Would Love to Read...
“A book you would love to read is lost, altered, destroyed, buried, hidden, left unpublished, unwritten, banned.”
- Dr. Catherine Walsh and Margaret Bresnahan
Books that Survived the Ban — Syriac Manuscripts in India
“Christianity has a long, rich history in India. Some even trace the origins of Christian communities in India to...”
- Dr. James Walters
Lifted on Wings
“Angels occupy an important place in monotheistic religions. They are mainly presented as celestial beings...”
- Sister Marie-Thérèse Elia
Postscript — King Solomon the Gynecologist, a Forgotten Tale From the Syriac Book of Medicines
“The Syriac Book of Medicines is a fascinating compendium of medical lore from the...”
- Dr. David Calabro
Between the Sun and Moon
“Today, depending on what communities you are a part of, your concept of a year may follow a calendar that is...”
- Ted Erho
Signs in the Heavens — Astrological Books of Daniel in Eastern Christianity
“In Syriac Christian communities, astrological texts were sometimes appended to medical books and...”
- Dr. David Calabro
Why was Esau so Hungry? Genesis 25 in Arabic Manuscripts
“Among the well-known biblical narratives is that of the twins Jacob and Esau, and...”
- Dr. Vevian Zaki
Postscript — A Sister’s Vows
“In 1744, the French Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary established a convent in ʻAynṭūrah, Lebanon, known in Arabic as...”
- Dr. Vevian Zaki
A Syriac Poem on Wine
“Who doesn’t love a good glass of wine? White, red, or something in between, authors throughout history...”
- Dr. James Walters
The Travels of the Ebony Horse
“The history of Arabian Nights stories in Christian communities is still imperfectly understood.”
- Dr. David Calabro
Arabian Nights of the Christian East
“On a shelf in the Syriac Orthodox Church of Saint George in Aleppo is a manuscript copied in Arabic Garshuni...”
- Dr. David Calabro
Want to Marry the Princess? Know thy Bible!
“Who hasn’t heard a fairy tale about a princess whose beauty moves the richest and...”
- Dr. Vevian Zaki
Parabiblical Literature in the Horn of Africa
“Biblical narratives often leave the audience wanting to know a bit more.”
- Ted Erho
Tracing Folktales in Magic Texts — The Story of Umm al-Ṣibyān
“Despite having been contested in Islamic history by powerful groups rejecting them as illegitimate practices, magic and...”
- Dr. Celeste Gianni
Ottoman Soap Operas and Other Stories
“HMML’s digital collections include entertaining stories from a wide range of linguistic and...”
- Dr. Josh Mugler
Where We’re Working: The Balkans
“When people ask how we find new projects for HMML, I admit that sometimes they just come to us.”
- Dr. Columba Stewart
From Cairo to Mardin, Manuscripts on Camelback
“This note is the sole testament to the manuscript’s remarkable journey from Egypt to Mardin, a city in...”
- Dr. Vevian Zaki
Prof. Getatchew Haile — A Giant in His Field and in the Hearts of All Who Knew Him
“Much has been said about the scholarly achievements of Prof. Getatchew Haile...”
- Joe Rogers
Medicine, Ritual, and Magic in Ethiopia
“Towards the middle of the 15th century, the Ethiopian Emperor Zar’a Yā‘eqob, a prominent theologian and scholar, faced...”
- Ted Erho
Early Miniatures of Ethiopians
“On this day seventy-five years ago, an early-14th century illuminated gospel book arrived at the...”
- Ted Erho
An Anonymous Syriac Medical Compendium
“Many medical works from antiquity were translated into Syriac and transmitted through the...”
- Dr. James Walters
Remedies in the Margins of Syriac Manuscripts
“People in past centuries would sometimes use the blank flyleaves and margins of manuscripts to...”
- Dr. David Calabro
Where We’re Working: Dayr Anbā Maqār, Egypt
“The Monastery of Saint Macarius is one of the oldest active Coptic monasteries in Egypt.”
- Dr. David Calabro
Getatchew Haile, Ethiopic scholar
“The work of Dr. Getatchew Haile, long-time curator of the HMML Ethiopia Study Center...”
- Ted Erho
Where We're Working: Missionary Society of Saint Paul, Harissa, Lebanon
“Lebanon is one of the most religiously variegated countries in the Middle East.”
- Dr. Melissa Moreton