Solomon of Bosra

Solomon of Basra was an East Syriac writer who flourished in the early 13th century. He was born at Akhlat on Lake Van in the hills of Eastern Turkey at an unknown date.

He was metropolitan of Prath d-Maishan (Basra) in 1222, in which year he was present at the consecration of the catholicus or Nestorian patriarch Sabr-îshô` (Hope-in-Jesus). This is recorded in Assemani, Bibl. Orient., t. ii, p. 453, no. 75, and Bar-hebraeus, Chron. Eccl., t. ii, p. 371.

In the Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Works compiled by 'Abdisho bar Brika he is stated to have written, besides 'the Bee,' a treatise on the figure of the heavens and the earth, and sundry short discourses and prayers. A Latin translation of 'the Bee' by Dr. J. M. Schoenfelder appeared at Bamberg in 1866; it is based upon the Munich MS. only, and is faulty in many places. An English translation made by Wallis Budge from 4 manuscripts is online.

He wrote a number of smaller works, but his main claim to fame is composing a collection of biblical traditions known as the Book of the Bee.

Bibliography

• The Book of the Bee, edited and translated by Earnest A. Wallis Budge, Oxford: Clarendon Press (1886)
• Preface by Wallis Budge discussing the manuscripts.

References

1. Sebastian Brock, A brief outline of Syriac Literature (1997), p. 73-4.