Tammuz and a Christian martyr (1)

Summary
Jūrjīs probably derives from St. George.

Text
Ibn Waḥshīya, Nabatean Agriculture 297:
The Christians have a memorial feast which they hold for a man called Jūrjīs who, so they claim, was killed many times in horrible ways, but he returned to life each time. Then he was killed again, and again returned to life, until he died at the end of the story which is too long to be explained. It is written down in a book which the Christians possess and they hold a memorial feast for him which they call the memorial feast of Jūrjīs. I do not know whether the Christians heard of the story of Tammūz who lived in the ancient times and they changed the name of Jūrjīs at his place and then related the story of Tammūz under the name of Jūrjīs and disagreed with the Sabians concerning the time (of the feast). The Sabians hold the memorial feast of Tammūz on the first day of (the month) Tammūz and the Christians hold the feast of Jūrjīs at the end of Nisan or a little before it. Now we think that the story of Jūrjīs, how he was punished and killed several times by the king is the very same as that of Tammūz, but the Christians stole it from the Sabians and set Jūrjīs, one of the disciples of the Christ (in his stead) and claimed that he called a king to the Christian religion, and that the king tortured him by killing him these many times.

Source (list of abbreviations)
Ibn Waḥshīya, Nabatean Agriculture 297

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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