PREFACE.

Last year, while providing some excerpts from the Book of the Perfection of St. Martyrius or Sahdona following our Liber superiorum original: "Book of the Superiors", we promised to publish a complete edition of his works (XIV); we are happy to be able to offer them today to our benevolent readers.

Dr. Goussen, in his brochure entitled Martyrius-Sahdona’s Leben und Werke original: "Martyrius-Sahdona’s Life and Works", has spoken of our author's life and has given an account of the precious manuscript that we are editing for the first time; we add our own observations and reflections to it.

The life of Sahdona was written by two contemporaries of this famous personage: by Bar-Idta in his monastic history, and by Joseph Hazzaya in The Paradise of the Orientals. These two works are lost, but they were used, the first by Thomas of Marga in his monastic history or Liber superiorum original: "Book of the Superiors", and the second by Ichodnah in the Liber fundatorum monasteriorum original: "Book of the Founders of the Monasteries" (see our previous publication of 1901). The letters of Ichoyab of Adiabene, who became patriarch under the name of Ichoyab III, still contain useful information on Sahdona; they were published by Assemani in his Bibliotheca orientalis original: "Oriental Library".