Saka, Yaʿqub (1864–1931) [Syr. Orth.]
Minor writer, scribe, and educator. He was born in Barṭelle to Buṭros b. Saka in 1864/5 and studied Syr. under the Chaldean priest Buṭros al-Karmalīsi. He was ordained a deacon in 1906, and a priest in 1929. He taught at the school of Dayro d-Mor Matay from 1926 to 1928. His students include Patr. Ignatius Yaʿqub III and Bp. Boulos Behnam. Saka died of cancer in 1931. He was a master scribe and produced over 70 mss., found now mostly in churches and monasteries in Iraq.
His Syriac writings consist of poems (ms. Syr. Orth. Patr. Libr.). He presented a 200-page ms. of his poems to Afram Barsoum; a second copy was preserved in Barṭelle. Selections of Saka’s poems were published by Isḥaq Saka in mimre mgabayo (1945) and in Qaṣāʾid mukhtāra (1958).
Sources
- Abūna, Adab, 609–10.
- Barsoum, Scattered pearls, 523–4.
- Macuch, Geschichte, 433–4.
- Munūfar Barṣūm, Aḍwāʾ, 35–6.
- I. Saka, History of the Syrian Orthodox Church (1983–86), vol. 4, 162–6. (in Arabic)