Ktâbâ d-rêš mellê (Summary history of the world) by John bar Penkaye: A Historical Report of the Seventh Century AD

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John bar Penkaye was a member of the Nestorian Church in the seven-century AD. He witnessed the Arab invasion of Byzantium and the fall of the Sassanids, the interaction between Christians and Arabs, the plague and the famine in late seventh-century Syria.
He considered Arabs as God's revenge for Sassanid's harassment against  Christians. On the other hand, from the very beginning, he provoked conflict within Muslims (referring to the war between the Umayyads and the family of the Prophet) in order to restore the honor of Christians.
The book Summary history of the world is the only extant complete book by John bar Penkaye. The book, written in Syriac, begins with human creation and ends with world domination by Arabs. The book content is unique because not even its author is a non-Muslim but its style is dissimilar to regular history books of his era.

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کتاب تاریخ عالَم یوحنا بن فِنکی
Iranian Journal for the History of Islamic Civilization
Volume 53, Issue 1
September 2020
Pages 251-271

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  • Receive Date: 21 September 2020
  • Accept Date: 30 September 2020

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