RESOURCESby E. A. Wallis Budge as The Book of Paradise (London, 1904), and
his English translation was published separately as The Paradise of
the Holy Fathers (London, 1907). Selections have been translated into
English by H. Waddell in The Desert Fathers (Ann Arbor, 1966). As
important as this text is for early Egyptian asceticism, it is equally
important for Christian asceticism in Iraq in the seventh and eighth
centuries and later because of the ideas it contains and because it
served as an important model for the monastic life and for writing
about the lives of monks.
The development of the main themes of ascetic mysticism from the
sixth to the eighth century may be followed in the lives and works of
these monks. The Syriac text of the life of Abraham Qidunaya is edited
by T. J. Lamy in "Acta Beati Abrahae Kidunaiae monachi," AB 10
(1891): 5-49. Attention should also be paid to the Nestorian monk
Gregory of Cyprus, by origin a Persian merchant who started and
ended his monastic career at Mt. Izla in the sixth and seventh centuries.
His sermons are edited with a Latin translation by 1. Hausherr in
Gregorius monachus Cypri de Theoria sancta (Rome, 1937). See also
Hausherr's "Aux origines de la mystique syrienne: Gregory de Chypre
au Jean de Lycopolis?," OCP 4 (1938): 497-520. For Abraham of
Nethpar who returned from Egypt to spend thirty years in solitude in
Adiabene in the early seventh century, see the article of R. Tonneau,
"Abraham de Nethpar," RSO 32 (1957): 415-31. From the mid-
seventh century the letters of Sahdona and what survives of his work
on the monastic life were edited by P. Bedjan, S. Martyrii, qui et
Sahdona, quae supersunt omnia (Paris, 1902); his Book of Perfection
is published with a French translation by A. de Halleux as Oeuvres
spirituelles, CSCO, Scr. Syri, 86,90, 91, 110, 111 (Louvain, 1960-
65); and his letters and maxims in CSCO, Scr. Syri, 112, 113 (Louvain,
1965).
The major figure in terms of production and influence in the late
seventh century is Isaac of Nineveh. The main editions of his works
are by J. B. Chabot, De Isaaci Ninivitae vita, scriptis, et doctrina (Paris,
1892) and P. Bedjan, Mar Isaacus Ninivita. De perfectione religiosa
(Paris and Leipzig, 1909). A Greek text of sayings ascribed to Isaac
was published by M. Besson in "Un recueil de sentences attribue a
Isaac le Syrien," OC 1 (1901): 46-60, 288-98. Isaac's ideas are ac-
cessible in an English translation by A. J. Wensinck, Mystic Treatises
by Isaac of Niniveh (Amsterdam, 1923), but the authenticity of the
last part of this text is questionable. The "Treatise on Solitude and