Who am I?
Dr. Julia Furman is a research fellow at the Institute for Semitic Studies (FU Berlin). Her expertise lies in Syriac literature and Christianity, as well as classical and modern Aramaic languages. The project is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (2024–2026).

How do I work?
All extant manuscripts—nine late codices—have been collected and collated to establish the textual basis for the critical
edition. One of these manuscripts, preserved in the library of the Chaldean Antonian Order of St. Hormizd in Erbil, Iraq, was
identified later and studied on-site in February 2025. The next stage involves preparing the text for publication in the Digital Syriac Corpus, annotated according to the TEI standard. For contextual analysis, the project draws on a broad range of primary sources and scholarly literature, focusing on topics such as the Arabic conquests in non-Muslim sources, apocalypticism, Syriac historiographical traditions, anti-Jewish polemics, minority perspectives on power and authority, and theological developments in 7th-century Syriac Christianity.

Which results are most important?
The project’s most significant result will be the first critical edition and English translation of The Book of the Main Points, making this vital text accessible not only to specialists in Syriac literature but also to scholars of Late Antiquity, Early Islam, and Middle Eastern intellectual history.

What remains to be examined?
The Book of the Main Points is a complex and multifaceted work that opens avenues for further research—ranging from exegetical traditions and the use of the biblical past in historiography, to philosophical theology and mystical literature. I hope this project will lay the groundwork for a new wave of studies on this fascinating text.