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Extispicy at Harran, 736 CE (1)

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Topics (move over topic to see place in topic list)
Continuity of “Old Faith” beside Christianity
12 Assyrian Identity
12.03 Assyrian identity in Christian Era
12.03.02 Continuity of “Old Faith” beside Christianity
Harran
12 Assyrian Identity
12.03 Assyrian identity in Christian Era
12.03.02 Continuity of “Old Faith” beside Christianity
12.03.02.01 Harran
Liver omens (Bārūtu)
05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore
05.03 Mantic
05.03.01 Extispicy
05.03.01.02 Liver omens (Bārūtu)
Mantic
05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore
05.03 Mantic

Keywords
extispicy
Harran
omens

Period
8th century CE
13th century CE
Byzantine Empire

Channel
Christian-Syriac philosophers and scholars

Summary
A man named Bashir appeared at Harran in 736 CE, claiming to be Tiberius, the son of the Byzantine emperor, Justinian II. In order to prove his identity, he asked the pagans of Harran to play the role of haruspices, and examine liver omens.

Text
Bar Hebraeus, Chronicle:
When this man entered Edessa, he went inside the altar, and he took in his hands The Offering from the Table of Life, according to the custom of the kings of the Romans. And he called upon the Jews to bring up [his ancestors] for him by enchantments, and he also commanded the chief of the Harranites to examine for him a liver to see whence his family sprung. Finally the miserable man was exposed, and he was killed.

Source (list of abbreviations)
Bar Hebraeus, Chronicle

Bibliography

Budge 1932, 1.110	Budge, E. A. Wallis. The chronography of Gregory Abû'l Faraj, the son of Aaron, the Hebrew physician commonly known as Bar Hebraeus. Being the first part of his political history of the world (2 Vols.). London: Oxford University Press 1932 (reprint: Amsterdam: Philo Press 1976).
Green 1992, 92	Green, Tamara. The City of the Moon God, Religious Traditions of Harran. Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 114. Leiden, New York, Cologne: E. J. Brill 1992.

Simo Parpola
Philippe Talon

URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000049.php

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