Ecclesiastical Chronicle, Volume 1

Names of Barhebræus;

Gregory Abu'l-Faraj1 son of Aaron is usually called by the Syrians Bar Hebraeus, or "Son of the Hebrew": we do not believe there is any certain document yet that explains why this name clung to him; although it is a very probable conjecture that it originated from the fact that his father transitioned from the Jewish religion to the profession of Christianity in the Jacobite sect.

Age and fatherland;

He first saw this light in the year of the Christian era 1226, in the city of Melitene, or Malatia, the metropolis of Lesser Armenia, located a short distance from the flowing of the nascent Euphrates, which was very crowded with inhabitants, especially Christians2, and which in the previous century had produced two men noble in doctrine and writings among the Jacobites: Michael the Patriarch and Dionysius Barsalibi.

Family and education.

Barhebræus's father, Aaron, a physician by profession, was counted among the primary citizens of Melitene and took care to have his son imbued with letters from childhood; and because he was of a sharp intellect, he vigorously attacked all types of disciplines:

"He first devoted effort to the Greek, Syriac, and Arabic languages; soon, having completed the course of philosophy and theology, he practiced medicine under his father and other physicians of that age who were most famous, whom he himself praises in his books: his writings declare how much he excelled in these studies3."

While he was tranquilly occupied with studies in the city, new evils and new plundering were added to the almost continuous calamities of wars brought upon Armenia and Syria by the Saracens, Greeks, and Franks, at the hands of the Mongol Tatars, who were ravaging all of Asia from Persia to Palestine with fire and sword.

1: Bernstein is mistaken where, in his Specimen of the Syriac Chronicle (Leipzig, 1822, p. 3), he writes: "Abu'l-Faraj, that is, he is called the father of Faraj, with the name taken from his own son, Faraj, according to the custom of the Arabs." For there is no document anywhere suggesting that Barhebræus had children; on the contrary, it is proven by many arguments that he led a perpetually celibate life. Before he was promoted to the episcopacy at the age of twenty, he had taken the monastic habit, and thus was bound by Jacobite law to preserve chastity; bishops were chosen from the monks, and if any monk were to strip off the habit of his profession, he was forbidden from being further promoted to sacred orders. These statutes, accepted by the ancients, are reported by Barhebræus himself in the Nomocanon, p. I, ch. VII, sect. X, in Mai: New Collection of Ancient Writers, vol. X.
2: See below, pp. 423-424.
3: Jos. Sim. Assemanus, in the work: Bibliotheca Orientalis, Clementino-Vaticana (Rome, 1719-1728), vol. II, p. 244.