Gorgias Press

Founded in 2001 Gorgias Press is an independent academic publisher of books and journals related to history, languages, and religious studies, with specific areas of expertise in the Ancient Near East, Arabic and Islamic Studies, Archaeology, Biblical Studies, Classics, Early Christianity, Jewish Studies, Linguistics, and Syriac.

Gorgias [GOR-gee-us] Press was originally created by George and Christine Kiraz as a specialty press that could keep up with their research interests. With a background in computational linguistics, George Kiraz envisioned combining cutting-edge technology with humanities research. The new company would be completely online, with no physical storefront, and it would use automation and digital printing technology rather than traditional print runs. With these tools, the press could afford to publish rare and understudied topics that were previously considered unprofitable, and Gorgias soon became known for its pioneering work in language and linguistics, religion, and especially Syriac and Eastern Christianity.
Gorgias’ philosophy of “Publishing for the Sake of Knowledge” rather than profit, attracted a number of new authors, and the press’ areas of interest rapidly began to expand. Today, Gorgias Press publishes 50-60 new titles a year, including monographs, edited volumes, translations, and more, and Gorgias books can be found in academic collections all over the world.

That Nothing May Be Lost: Fragments and the New Testament Text Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 294
ISBN: 9781463243678
Pub Date: 15 May 2023
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Texts and Studies
Description:
Fragmentary material comprises a significant part of the manuscript tradition of the New Testament. Whether it be tattered papyrus documents, the abbreviated citation of biblical texts in early Christian writings, or the scattering of once-whole manuscripts, the story of the New Testament is a gathering of fragments—in all their forms—in the hopes that “nothing may be lost.” This volume is a result of the Twelfth Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament, wherein presenters were invited to approach the theme of “fragments” from any philological or philosophical framework.
Watering the Garden Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 403
ISBN: 9781463244934
Pub Date: 15 May 2023
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
The essays collected in Watering the Garden are intended to honor Deirdre Dempsey, a distinguished biblical educator, translator, and scholar. The contributions to this Festschrift mirror Dempsey’s own scholarly interests, including biblical studies, with particular attention to the Old Testament and intertestamental literature, the theology of visual arts, the history of spiritual traditions, and modern theology. The content of the Festschrift closely follows Dempsey's own spiritual and scholarly journey and reflects the breadth and scope of her influence on the academy.
Journal of Language Relationship 20/3-4 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 132
ISBN: 9781463245504
Pub Date: 15 Mar 2023
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Journal of Language Relationship
Description:
The Journal of Language Relationship is an international periodical publication devoted to the issues of comparative linguistics and the history of the human language. The Journal contains articles written in English and Russian, as well as scientific reviews, discussions and reports from international linguistic conferences and seminars.
Langage et théologie chez Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī (543/1148) Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 615
ISBN: 9781463243845
Pub Date: 16 Feb 2023
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
The Qāḍī Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī was an Ašʿarite theologian, a Maliki jurist and an Andalusian traditionalist of the fifth-sixth / eleventh-twelfth century. His influence in the Muslim West is undeniable: he is one of the most important figures in the history of ašʿarism in al-Andalus, and introduced kalām books that quickly became references of local teaching, such as the Iršād of al-Ǧuwaynī. He also introduced treatises of uṣūl al-fiqh such as the Mustaṣfā and the Manḫūl of al-Ġazālī.
A Reader in Syriac Based on the Entertaining Stories of Gregory Bar ʿEbrāyā Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 227
ISBN: 9781463244897
Pub Date: 14 Feb 2023
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Handbooks
Description:
Thirty short reading selections from the Book of Entertaining Stories of Gregory Bar ʿEbrāyā, with an analysis of the grammar and vocabulary of the texts.
Shiʿite Rulers, Sunni Rivals, and Christians in Between Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 197
ISBN: 9781463244736
Pub Date: 14 Feb 2023
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
The study of sectarianism in Islam and the study of Muslim-Christian relations are both sub-specialities attracting growing numbers of scholars in Islamic studies. Rarely, though, are these two fields put into direct conversation with each other. In this work, Steven Gertz brings the two together to ask how the Sunni-Shi'a divide in Islam impacts Muslim relationships with Christians.
The Prosperity of the Wicked Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 358
ISBN: 9781463244248
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2022
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures and its Contexts
Description:
Does Job convincingly argue against a fixed system of just retribution by proclaiming the prosperity of the wicked—an assertion that distinctly runs contrary to traditional biblical and ancient Near Eastern wisdom? This study addresses this question, giving careful consideration to the rhetoric, imagery, and literary devices used to treat the issue of the fate of the wicked in Job’s first two rounds of dialogue, where the topic is predominantly disputed. The analysis will glean from related biblical and non-biblical texts in order to expose how Job deals with this fascinating subject and reveal the grandeur of the composition.
The Stories They Tell Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 326
ISBN: 9781463244569
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2022
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
In this engaging book of commentary on the Talmud, the author upends the long-held theory of the immutability of halakhah, Jewish law. In her detailed analysis of over 80 short halakhic anecdotes in the Babylonian Talmud, the author shows that the Talmud itself promotes halakhic change. She leads the reader through one sugya (discussion unit) after another, accumulating evidence for her rather radical thesis.
On Knowing God Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 319
ISBN: 9781463244620
Pub Date: 20 Dec 2022
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
Theology is the discipline that mainly explores what it means to know God. This book therefore explores the topic Knowing God, from an interdisciplinary theological perspective, against the backdrop of celebrating 500 years of Reformation which was celebrated in 2017. Approaching the issue from the perspectives of their respective theological disciplines, scholars ask what it means to know God, how people of faith have sought to know God in the past, and indeed whether, or to what extent, such knowledge is even possible.
The Life of Theodotus, Bishop of Amida (d. 698) Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 425
ISBN: 9781463244095
Pub Date: 15 Dec 2022
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
The Life of Theodotus of Amida is that rare thing: a securely dated eye-witness account of life under Arab Muslim rule in the first century of Islam, and one of the few extant texts from seventh-century North Mesopotamia. It is imbued with local color and contemporary detail, revealing an intimate knowlredge of the terrain, its inhabitants and officialdom, as well as the precariousness of the lives of those living in the borderlands between the Byzantine and Islamic empires.
Gregory Barhebraeus' Mystical Hermeneutics of the Love of God in Dialogue with Islamic Tradition Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 374
ISBN: 9781463242473
Pub Date: 30 Nov 2022
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
This book is an inquiry into the mystical thought of Gregory Barhebraeus (1226-1286CE) and its contemporary relevance, to offer a reading of Barhebraeus’ mystical texts by bringing them into conversation with critical religious studies and the hermeneutical tradition of philosophy. The methodological focus of my thesis has led me to pay particular attention to the language used for the study of mysticism, and I lay emphasis on finding a new language that avoids the phenomenological assumptions concerning ‘mysticism’ to attend to the particularity of ‘mystic’ traditions, such as that of the Syriac mystic tradition inherited by Barhebraeus.
Rule of Law, ‘Natural Law’, and Social Contract in the Early ‘Abbasid Caliphate Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 422
ISBN: 9781463206499
Pub Date: 30 Nov 2022
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
The book analyses all extant works by Ibn Jarir al-Tabari (d. 224/839–310/923), referring to their individual methodologies; their legacy as al- madhhab al-jariri; and their scholarly and socio- political context. Through the study of al- Tabari’s works, the book addresses research debates over dating the legal and scholarly institutions and their disciplines; authorship and transmission of scholarly writings; political theory and administration; and ‘origins’ of the Qur’an and Islam.
Shbītho Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 207
ISBN: 9781463244750
Pub Date: 29 Nov 2022
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
The Shbītho d-Dayroye is a thirteenth-century anthology dedicated to the personal prayer of monks and nuns. The collection comprises the writings of great saints in the Syriac Orthodox tradition including Ephrem the Syrian, Abraham Qidun, John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus, Philoxenos, Basil the Great, and Isaac the Syrian. For each of the seven daily prayer times (morning, third hour, noon, ninth hour, evening, and night), there is a main prayer and a closing prayer.
Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 22 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 142
ISBN: 9781463244910
Pub Date: 03 Nov 2022
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies
Description:
A refereed journal published annually by the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies.
The Syriac Orthodox Church in the Time of the Syriac Renaissance Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 246
ISBN: 9781463244675
Pub Date: 26 Oct 2022
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Series: Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies
Description:
An English translation of the second edition of Peter Kawerau's Die Jakobitische Kirche im Zeitalter der syrischen Renaissance (1960).
Jacob of Sarug’s Homilies on Abgar and Addai Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 245
ISBN: 9781463244699
Pub Date: 18 Oct 2022
Imprint: Gorgias Press
Description:
Jacob of Sarug's homilies on King Abgar and the Apostle Addai, recounting the famous legend of Abgar of Edessa's conversion to Christianity.