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In the liturgical literature of the Church of East (the so-called Nestorian), the Ward_ collection, meant for the liturgical performance at night services on the festival days and Sundays of the whole liturgical year, holds a special place. Strophic hymns - __n_t_ (pl. __ny_t_) - contained in the collection are still a part of the liturgy of the East Syrian Church. Altogether, the collection comprises more than 120 hymns, most of which are ascribed to G_warg_s Ward_ (13th century), who is the eponym of this book. According to their content, the hymns can be divided into five categories: exegetic, hagiographic, apocryphal narratives, describing historical events and calamities, dedicated to other subjects.
The first part of the book is a detailed study of the textual, poetical and historical peculiarities of the Ward_ collection. Ist evolution stages and the main types have been reconstructed. A special chapter focuses on the position of this book in Syriac church literature and defines ist main sources. The second part represents a critical edition of 35 hymns from the Ward_ collection according to the existing manuscripts, including English translations. Many of these hymns have been translated for the first time.

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