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Dialogue Elements in Late Syriac Poetry: The Ways of Transformation
In numerous works by Sebastian Brock, a very detailed typology of Syriac dialogue poetry has been worked out that shows also the stages of its evolution. Most of such poems (sōghīthā, pl. sōghyāthā), being strophic and used for liturgical antiphonal singing, were composed in the 4th-7th centuries. Later on, after the Arabic conquest, the Syriac poetic tradition was still producing different kinds of verse texts that contain dialogue elements, and clearly represent the next stage of the evolution. Some of the pieces are strophic and were meant to be sung in church, whereas others were forming small text-collections that consist of short poems and quatrains representing (or, rather, imitating) poetic correspondence of different Syriac authors or historical personalities. Most of these texts remain unstudied since these manuscripts were not available until very recent times; the methodology and scholarly approach developed by Sebastian Brock open new opportunities for the research of this type of poetry.