Book Title: Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind
Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications
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288
Melkites
After the Council of Ephesus, nearly the whole of the eastern part of the Antioch patriarchate remained Nestorian; after the Council of Chalcedon, the "orthodox" bishop lost nearly all his sheep. The small community which carried on, in union with Constantinople and, until the great schism, with Rome, adhering to the doctrine supported by the authority of the emperor, thus accepting the decrees of Ephesus and Chalcedon, was given by the Jacobites the nickname "Melkite" or "Malkite" (Syriac malka, Arabic malik, Hebrew melek = "king"), meaning "the king's men," "royalists" or "imperialists": the Semitic word for "king," like the Greek basileus, also denotes the "emperor."
The Melkites mainly used Greek, although there was also a Melkite liturgy in the afore-mentioned Palestinian Syriac. However, as the Melkite Patriarchate became more and more dependent on Constantinople, it began to use the Byzantine rite.
THE ALPHABET
Development of Nestorian, Jacobite and Melkite Scripts
The political separation between the East Syrians (Nestorians) and West Syrians (Jacobites and Melkites) and the exclusiveness and mutual hatred of the various communities, produced divergences between the liturgies and traditions of the various schools. The local dialects had also some influence over the pronunciation of the liturgical tongue. However, the changes in the derivative scripts are not great; the phonetic values of the letters remain the same, and their shapes change only in some minor details that is in the style of writing (Fig. 136, col. 4-7).
Strangely enough the Jacobite style (Fig. 136, col. 4 and 6; 137, 5) is further removed from the Estrangela than the Nestorian, and is also less graceful than the latter (Fig. 136, col. 5, and 137, 4). The main differences between the various scripts consist in the vocalization, which has already been dealt with. On the whole, the Nestorian system is more complicated, but more accurate. Nestorian manuscripts, particularly those of later origin, are often fully vocalised, and the practice of diacritical points for distinction of consonants is largely employed. In other manuscripts this system is only carried out in very careful writing.
Already J. P. N. Land, in 1862, distinguished three main varieties in the styles of writing of the Syriac manuscripts:
(1) The afore-mentioned majuscula, known as Estrangela (Fig. 136, col. 3);
(2) The minusculæ, developed out of the majusculæ in the sixth century, and used mainly after 700; it corresponds with the Serta or Serto of the Jacobites (Fig. 136, col. 4);
(3) A variety of the minuscule, strongly influenced by the majusculæ, was also used by the Jacobites; it is termed by Land semi-minuscula (Fig. 136, col. 6).
