Israel of Alqosh and Joseph of Telkepe. a Story in a Truthful Language. Religious Poems in Vernacular Syriac (North Iraq, 17th Century)

East-Syrian Christians of Iraqi Kurdistan managed to develop a written literary tradition in Neo-Aramaic, transmitted in manuscripts from the 16th century onwards. A selection of the earliest dated religious poems is now published in a critical edition, with English translation and full concordances to the texts. In the introduction, the salient linguistic and stylistic features of the corpus are placed in their historical context and studied in socio-linguistic, text-critical, literary and anthropological perspectives. The poems are presented as exploring new methods of dealing with the Classical Syriac heritage. Their literary value can only be appreciated as reflecting the aesthetics of a poetic tradition, which is strongly influenced by its oral-aural background. With the work of early vernacular poets as Israel of Alqosh and Joseph of Telkepe, the vernacular language enters the space of liturgical poetry, bringing with it manners and techniques of the folk literary tradition. The multicultural milieu of Iraqi Kurdistan has a certain impact on the transformation of the late East-Syriac literary tradition. Words, motifs and myths, which are shared with the surrounding religious communities - especially Jews and Muslims - are either positively incorporated into Christian poetry or polemically used against those communities.