RESOURCESArchives d'histoire du droit oriental 5 (1950-51): 307-51, continues
to be widely cited, it is now largely out of date.
Syriac and Arabic Documents Regarding Legislation Relative to
Syrian Asceticism (Stockholm, 1960) by A. V66bus is a collection of
Nestorian and Jacobite monastic rules from those of Rabbiilii, bishop
of Edessa in 411, to those of the catholicos Ish6' Bar Nun (823-26).
The monastic rules of Abraham of Kaskar (ca. 503-88) are edited
with a Latin translation by J. B. Chabot on pages 41 to 59 and those
of Dadhish6' on pages 77 to 99 of Rendiconti delta Regia Accademia
Nazionale dei Lincei, 7 (Rome, 1898). They are discussed by T. Her-
mann in "Bemerkungen zu der Regeln des Mar Abraham und Mar
Dadischo vom Berge Izla," Zeitschrift fur Neutestamentliche Wissen-
schaft 22 (1923): 286-98.
For early Christian asceticism and the Sons and Daughters of the
Covenant (or Resurrection), one can start with "The Origins of Mon-
asticism in Mesopotamia," Church History, 20/4 (1951): 27-37, by
A. V66bus, and S. Jargy's "Les Fils et les Filles du Pacte dans la
litterature monastique syriaque," OCP 18 (1955): 304-20. The classic
study is History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient: A Contribution
to the History of Culture in the Near East, I, The Origin of Asceticism,
Early Monasticism in Persia, CSCO, Subsidia, 14 (Louvain, 1958); 11,
Early Monasticism in Mesopotamia and Syria, CSCO, Subsidia, 17
(Louvain, 1960) by A. V66bus. See also his article on "The Institution
of the Benai Qeiama and Banat Qeiama in the Ancient Syrian Church,"
Church History 30 (1961), 19-27. More recently, early asceticism has
been treated by J. M. Fiey in "Le Cenobitism feminin ancien dans les
eglises syriennes orientale et occidentale," L'Orient Syrien 10 (1965):
281-306; by G. Nedungatt in "The Covenanters of the Early Syriac-
speaking Church," OCP 39 (1973): 191-215; and by S. P. Brock in
"Early Syrian Asceticism," Numen 20 (1973): 1-19, who argues that
qeyiimii should be understood as "resurrection" rather than as "cov-
enant."
By the late sixth century, Christian ascetics from Iraq were going
to Egypt and bringing cenobitic monasticism back with them. The
lives and sayings of Egyptian ascetics were so important to them that
in the mid-seventh century the monk 'Aniin-Ish6' at the monastery
of Beth 'Abhe in Margha compiled the accounts by Palladius and
other Egyptians and translated them into Syriac. The entire seventh
volume of P. Bedjan's Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum (Leipzig, 1897)
is occupied by this text. It was also edited with an English translation