Jacob of Edessa

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JACOB OF EDESSA (+ 708 A.D.)

Bishop of Edessa (684-688 A.D.), the most famous writer of the Jacobite Church. His Hexaemeron is quoted here. HO III 2-3, 191f (1954) Baumstark; Graf 1, 454ff. Ed.: Chabot-Vaschalde CSCO 2,56 (1928). T.: MC 501 r-v. A.Hjelt, Etudes sur l’Exaemeron de Jacques d'Edesse. Helsingfors 1892 S:1

The Arabian Gulf debauches from the western side of the Red Sea and extends northwards, stretching from the strait which lies near the land of the Kushaye to the desert of Faran. (Hjelt, Etudes, p. XIV-XVI).

... In the first place we have the two lakes which feed the Nilos with water, and also the Qolay Lake which pours its waters into the Astaffis River, which joins the Nile. Together with these, we place all the other lakes which the Nilos forms, and, outstandingly, the Mariyotis, which is the lake near Alexandria. (p. 24).

... To these rivers belongs Gihon, also called Nilos, which floods and fertilizes the land of Misrin. (p. 26).

Then, opposite to the whole of Libuway on the southern side, in front of the land of Kushaye, and the land of those whom we call Alodes and those called Nuqtades (? for Nobades) and the other Esperioi. there is a land unknown and uninhabited, which God has separated (from the others) and forbidden to men, lest they should get lost and finally perish. (pp. 31-32).

In the province of Kushaye, there are mountains which extend from the south to the north and continue all along the land of Kushaye as far as those which lie beyond the great lakes unto which the waters of the Nile flow: those are called the mountains of Kushaye. Their length is more than 2500 miles. (pp. 34-36).