Campus
- Downtown Toronto (St. George)
Fields of Study
- Aramaic & Syriac Studies
Areas of Interest
- Syriac chronography and epigraphy
- Syriac art and architecture
- Middle Eastern Christianity, including Coptic and Armenian
- Old and Biblical Aramaic epigraphy and texts
- Relations between Syriac Christianity and Islam
Biography
Amir Harrak has a diploma in Classical Philosophy and another in Theology from the Syro-Chaldean Dominican Seminary in Iraq (1973), licence degree in Semitic Philology and another in Archaeology and Art History from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium (1980), and MA and PhD in Assyriology and Aramaic Studies from the University of Toronto (1987). His teaching covers Biblical Aramaic, Aramaic Epigraphy, Syriac historical and Exegetical texts, in addition to Middle Eastern Christianity, and Christian literature from the Middle East. He has many publications pertaining to Syriac chronography, Syriac legal literature, history of Syriac Christianity, and Syriac epigraphy. His current projects include a Guide to the Aramaic of Ezra and Daniel and art and architecture of churches of Iraq.
Education
Publications
- The Political and Cultural History of the Kurds (Peter Lang : 2021)
- The Code of Law of Simeon, Bishop of Rev-Ardashir (Gorgias Press : 2020)
- Syriac Inscriptions in the Monastery of Mōr-Jacob the Recluse in Ṭūr-‘Abdīn,” International Journal of Levant Studies (International Journal of Levant Studies, Budapest : 2019)
- The Chronicle of Michael the Great (The Edessa-Aleppo Syriac Codex): Books XV–XXI. From the Year 1050 to 1195 AD (Gorgias Press : 2019)
- Reports and Drawings of Celestial Observations in the 8th Century Chronicle of Zuqnin (Auroral and Meteoric Phenomena); Journal of the CSSS 18 (Gorgias Press : 2018)
- Le Monastère de Mar-Behnam à la période Atabeg (XIIIe S), Cahiers des études Syriaques 5 (Geuthner : 2018)
- The Chronicle of Zuqnīn Parts 1-II from the Creation to the Year 5-6/7 AD, Gorgias Chronicles of Late Antiquity 2 (Gorgias Press : 2017)
- “Dionysius of Tell-Maḥrē: Patriarch, Diplomat, and an Inquisitive Chronicler,” in Syriac Encounters ( Peeters Publishers Leuven : 2015)
- Kurdish Garshuni in a 19th Century Syriac Manuscript,” in Johannes den Heijer, Andrea B. Schmidt & Tamar Pataridze (eds), Scripts Beyond Borders: A Survey of Allographic Traditions in the Euro-Mediterranean World (Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgique) : Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste : 2014)
- Catalogue of Syriac and Garshuni Manuscripts: Manuscripts Owned by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and Heritage ( Peeters Publishers Leuven : 2011)
- Syriac and Garshuni Inscriptions of Iraq, Répertoire des inscriptions syriaques (Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres : 2010)