Tārīkh'nāmah-yi Jān Mālālās: Persian 1403

Ioannis Malalas, Chronicle, Books 1-7 and 10-18, a high-speed, pseudo-literal translation by Brady Kiesling in 2019. Proofreaders, please step forward. The Greek text is mostly that of the 1830s Dindorf edition, apart from the restored Book 1, from that of Ioannes Thurn (De Gruyter 2000)). A few Christian passages are adapted from the Slavonic version translated by Matthew Spinka (University of Chicago Press 1940, online at Archive.org). The separate translation of books 8-9 is borrowed from Andrew Smith of Attalus.org. Anyone doing serious scholarship must consult the 2000 Thurn Greek critical edition, horrendously expensive, and the careful English translation of Elizabeth Jeffreys, Michael Jeffreys, and Roger Scott, The Chronicle of John Malalas, 1986, Brill reprint 2017, which unfortunately will remain in copyright for the foreseeable future. The effort before you is intended to advertise Malalas' importance in capturing a dramatic change in Greek language and culture by the reign of Justinian in the 6th century CE. Malalas writes a repetitive post-Classical Greek, cruder than that of his contemporary Procopius. Drawing seemingly randomly from a grab-bag of mostly third-hand sources, he glues together garbled Greek and Syrian myth and history into something a pious Christian could tolerate. He is the most detailed surviving source in Greek for Antioch on the Orontes, his hometown, and offers many unique factoids. Corrections gratefully accepted (JBK 2019). This text has 1756 tagged references to 302 ancient places.