Copyright ©2011 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
Distributed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.
The (anonymous) Chronicle of 1234 is a developed universal chronicle (maktbonuto d-zabne) first composed in 1204. From the
reign of Constantine the Great onward the text is divided into a secular and
an ecclesiastical history. After the concluding remarks for the year 1204,
there are additional entries in the secular history up to 1234 (with some
references extending to 1237), ending with a lacuna, and in the
ecclesiastical history up to 1207, where the ms. breaks off. It is doubtful
if these additions were made by the original author.
The text was preserved in a 14th cent. ms. the whereabouts of which are now unknown. In the 19th cent. the ms. had been repaired by inserting new folia replacing damaged parts, although some parts were beyond repair. Chabot maintains that the text of the new folia was copied from the damaged 14th-cent. ms.
The original author was a younger contemporary of Patr.