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superb tributes to the foreigners who toiled amid the darks ss and confusion of the past twenty-five years. Great problems confront the present administration. The politico-religious alliance between Islam and the State must certainly give way to soi151ething more suited to the modern world. Those who have fanned the fanaticism of the ignorant Moslems are guilty of awful crimes. But closer contact with European influence, the growth of education, the reading of the Bible, the phenomenal increase of newspapers, and the spread of a purer Christianity are surely leavening the minds of an increasingly larger number of Mohammedans. Diplomacy can never regenerate the East. The patient work of education, the preaching of the Gospel, the distribution of God's word among the masses, and the diffusion of Christian literature, will gradually disarm prejudice, awaken inquiry, promote social harmony, destroy polygamy, reform the oriental churches, and bring the followers of Mohammed to the religion of Jesus Christ. Thus will the press, the Church, and the school cooperate in hastening the true regeneration of this most interesting, and, until recently, so degraded land.

H. H. JESSUp1'. Revised by F. E. HOSKINS.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: On the geographical and political history up to the fall of the Seleucidan kingdom the literature is fully included in the lists given under ASSYRIA; BAHYLONIA; PERSIA; AHAB; ISRAEL, HISTORY OF (where such works as McCurdy's History, Prophecy and the Monu ments deal with Assyrian and Babylonian control of Syria) ; PALESTINE; PTOLEMY; and SELEUCIn.E; see also under DR.USEa; and MAnONI'rn' 8. Consult further: G. Cormack, Egypt in Asia. A Plain. Account of pre-,Biblical Syria and Palestine, New York, 1908; Schrader, KAT, ed. of 1902, pp. 132-135; A. P. Stanley, History of Syria and Palestine, new ed.,London, 1883; W. L. Gage, Palestine, Historic and Descriptive, London, 1887; H. Winekler, Keilinschriftliches Teztbuch zum A. T., 2d ed., Leipsic, 1903; idom, Auszug sus der vorderasiatische Geschichte, ib. 1905; A. Henderson, Historical Geography of Syria, Edinburgh, 1885; A. Sands, in Der alte Orient, v. no. 3, Leipsic, 1902; T. Noldeke, in Hermes, v. 443-468; A. Neubauer, La Geoyraphie du Talmud, Paris, 1868; W. M. Miiller, Aaiem and Europa each aLtagyptischen Denkmalern, Leipsic, 1893; A. 1lfiiller, Der Islam im Morgen-and Abendland, 2 vols., Berlin, 1885-87; E. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, vols. i., iii., Stuttgart, 1884-1901; idem,Die EnLstehunB den Judentums, Halle, 1896; idem, Die Israelites and ihre Nachbarstkmme, Halle, 1906; W. Geiger and E. Kuhns, Iranische Philoloyie, ii. 395-604; F. Hammel, Grundriss der Geographic and Gesehichte des alters Orients, pp. 187194, Munich, 1904; idem, Geschichte den alters Morgenlandes, 3d ed., Leipsic, 1904; G. L. Bell, Durch die Wiisten and Kulturstatten Syriens, 2d ed. Leipsic, 1910.

On missionary work, besides the reports of the various bodies operating in Syria, consult: T. Laurie. Historical Sketch of the Syria Mission, New York, 1862; R. Anderson, Oriental Missions, 2 vols..Boston, 1872; J. S. Dennis, Sketch of Syrian Missions, New York, 1872; H. H. Jessup, Women of the Arabs, New York, 1874; idem, Syrian Home Life, ib. 1874; idem, Mohammedan Missionary Problem, Philadelphia, 1880; idem, Fifty-three Years in Syria. New York, 1910; E. D. G. Prime. Forty Years in the Turkish Empire; Memoirs of . . . W. Goodell, New York, 1876; W. A. Holliday, Historical Sketch of Missions to Syria, Philadelphia, 1881; Mrs. E. R. Pitman, Mission Life in Greece and Palestine, London, 1881; The Star in the East: quarterly Record of the Progress of Christian Missions within the Turkish Empire, London, 1883; F. Conil,Jerusalem moderne. Hist, du mouvement catholiquedaps la Ville Saint, Paris, 1894; J. H. Wilson and J. Wells, Sea of Galilee Mission of the Free Church of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1895; M. Jullien, La Nouvelle Mission de la compagnie de Jesus en Syrie, 1831-96, 2 vols.,Tours, 1898; A. Forder, With the Arabs in Tent and To~en; an Account of misaionr ary Work in Moab and Edom, London, 1902; H. J. E.;

One Hundred Syrian Pictures, illustrating the Work of the

Syrian Mission, London, 1903; W. A. Essery, The Ascending Cross. Some Results of Missions in Bible Lands, London, 1905; Jehay, Sujets Ottomans non-Muaaulmans, Brussels, 1906; Baedeker's Syria and Palaatine, Leipsic, 1908.

SYRIAC LITERATURE.

Divisions of Syrian Literature (§ 1). General Works on Syrian Literature (§ 2). Juda:o-Pagan Writings (§ 3). Bible and Apocrypha (§ 4). Native Christian Literature (§ 5). Theological Literature under Greek Influence (§ 6). Rise of History under Islam (§ 7). Period of Decline (§ 8). Collected and Miscellaneous Writings (§ 9). Works on Philosophy and Science (§ 10). Translation Literature (§ 11). Juristic Literature (§ 12). Historical Treatises (§ 13).

Syriac literature-the literature of the language designated as " Syriac " or " Syrian " (R. V. marg. " Aramaic," " Aramean ") in the Old Testament (II Kings xviii. 26; Dan. ii. 4; Ezra iv. 7)-is of prime importance in the history of the Christian religion, though not so much for its bearing on the Bible and its exegesis as because of the high value of the Christian literature which it contains. This statement holds good both of the works originally written in Syriac by native authors, and of those works which were first composed in other languages, but which now, their original texts having, been lost, are preserved only in Syriac translations. Of the latter type it is sufficient simply to allude to such recent finds as the Old Syriac Gospels from Sinai (see BIBLE VERSIONS, A, 111., 1, § 3), to the Odes of Solomon (see SOLOMON, ODES OF), or to the list of " Old Syriac Versions of Early Christian Greek Literature " given by Harnack (Litleratur, i. 885-886).

Syriac literature may be divided (1) from the religious point of view into (a) heathen, (b) Jewish, and (c) Christian. (2) Chronologically it ranges from the beginning of the Christian era, or, if the recent discoveries of Aramaic papyri in Egypt be included, from the fifth century B.C.

r. Divisions to the Middle Ages; while in the nine- of Syriac teenth century a modern Syriac litera Literature. tore sprang up, largely through the agency of the American Mission at Urumiah. (3) Geographically the literature ranges from the southern frontier of Egypt and the shore of the Mediterranean across Mesopotamia to India (Kottayam in Malabar), Turkestan (Semiryeshchie), and China (Singan-fu). (4) In extent and contents Syriac literature is sufficiently rich to arouse the zeal of the scholar, without being so huge as to make him despair, as is the case, for instance, with Arabic. The new Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (Paris, 1903 sqq.) allows 125 parts for the Syriac section, or more than for any other branch; a single editor, Paul Bedjan, during recent years has published over thirty volumes, mostly inedita; and Paul de Lagarde (q.v.) began a Bib liotheca Syriacta (Gottingen, 1892).

Though mainly theological, Syriac literature covers all branches of science-history, geography, philology, medicine, law, and astronomy-and even contains specimens of the romance.