An important source for the Persian siege and conquest of Jerusalem in 614 CE, and of their subsequent taking into captivity of the Cross, the patriarch Zachariah, and many other Christians, is a composite work attributed to an apparent eyewitness, Strategios: The History of the Persian Conquest of Jerusalem (or Expugnationis Hierosolymae) [CPG 7846]. It was presumably composed in Greek, or compiled from Greek sources, but until the present it was known to survive only in six Arabic manuscripts (each preserving a different recension), and three Georgian manuscripts (preserving a single recension). This article presents a previously unrecorded Syriac version of the History, found in manuscript Sinai Syriac 82 of St Catherine’s Monastery. This Syriac version was translated from Arabic by ‘Basil the tailor of Edessa’, otherwise unknown, perhaps in the early decades of the 12th century. The manuscript was copied by a Syrian Orthodox scribe, Barsauma, in Jerusalem itself, in 1143 CE. The Syriac version differs significantly from the other Arabic versions, especially in its extensive use of direct speech and dialogue, which appear to be the work of the translator, but its lists of fatalities are similar to those of Arabic manuscript C. Included with the main text are two shorter texts, the first a legendary account of the empress Helena’s origins in the former royal house of king Abgar in Edessa, and the second a summary, building on Josephus, which lists the various conquests of Jerusalem, and is warm in its praise for the crusaders.
