RESOURCEScomparative religions. Although it contains only minimal citations of
the literature on Christians under the Sasanians, it cites excavations
that include sites in Iraq. A great part of the surviving literature which
was composed in Iraq in the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries was
written in Syriac, and one can use surveys such as W. Wright's A Short
History of Syriac Literature (London, 1894) and A. Baumstark's more
updated authoritative Geschichte d~r syrischen Literature (Bonn, 1922)
to identify the major Syriac-writing authors whose works should be
consulted. These works also put their authors into an historical con-
text. More specifically, many of the thirty-four east Syrian authors
identified and discussed by A. Scher in his "Etude supplementaire sur
les ecrivains Syriens orientaux," ROC 11 (1906): 1-33, are sixth,
seventh, and eighth-century writers. A more detailed guide is provided
by I. Ortiz de Urbina's Patrologia Syriaca (Rome, 1958; superseded
by the 2nd ed., 1965), in which pages 45 to 201 contain a bibliography
of east Syrian Christian authors with references to manuscripts, edi-
tions of texts, and studies regarding them. This is brought up to date
and narrowed down to the seventh century by S. P. Brock's "Syriac
Sources for Seventh-Century History," in Byzantine and Modern Greek
Studies 2 (1976), pp. 17-36, which provides an indispensable descrip-
tion of editions and translations of texts. Brock's "Syriac Studies 1960-
1970: A Classified Bibliography," Parole de l'Orient 4 (1973): 393-
465, is an equally useful guide to published books and articles, in-
cluding editions and translations of texts.
Arabic-writing authors have a great deal to say about the sixth and
seventh centuries; therefore Arabic literature is second only to Syriac
for an understanding of Iraq in this period. From the eighth century
onward, Arabic literature becomes predominant. Early Arabic literary
sources can be identified in C. Brockelmann's monumental two volume
Geschichte der arabischen Literature (Weimar, 1898-1902). Although
Brockelmann is still worth consulting, F. Sezgin's equally monumental
Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (Leiden, 1967-79) is more up
to date and easier to use. References to early Arabic-writing historians
and to quotations of their work in Arabic literature, as well as the.
location of fragments, manuscripts, editions, and translations, are found
in the section on "Geschichtsschreibung" in vol. I (Leiden, 1967), pp.
235-389. Christian Arabic-writing authors are surveyed and discussed
in the second volume of P. Kawerau's Christlich-Arabische Chresto-
mathie aus historischen Schriftstellern des Mittelalters, CSCO, Sub-
sidia, 53, (Louvain, 1977). R. Blachere's Histoire de la litterature arabe