[1] W. Wright, Short Hist. of Syr. Lit. p. 51.
[2] The fullest list, by G. Bickell, contains 191 which are extant in MSS.
[3] The trustworthy Chronicle of Edessa gives his date as 451-452 (Hallier, No. lxvii.); and the recently published Chronicle of Michael the Syrian makes him contemporary with Nonus, who became the 31st bishop of Edessa in 449.
[4] The date of Isaac of Nineveh is now known from the Liber fundatorum of Īshō’-děnah, an 8th-century writer; see Bedjan’s edition, and Chabót, Livre de la chasteté, p. 63. Assemani (B.O. i. 445) had placed him late in the 6th century, and Chabót (De S. Isaaci Ninivitae vita, &c.) in the second half of the 5th.
[5] Lamy (op. cit. iv. 364-366) has pointed out that several of the poems are in certain MSS. attributed to Ephraim. Possibly the author of the orthodox poems was not named Isaac at all.
[6] Assemani’s list of 104 poems (B.O. i. 214-234) is completely covered by Bickell’s.
[7] From a really noble poem (Bedjan 60) on the problem whether God suffered and died on the cross.
[8] Possibly in the war at the beginning of the reign of Bahrām V.: but on the uncertainty see Nöldeke, Gesch. d. Perser und Araber, 117.
[9] Probably at the hands of the Hephthalites or White Huns of Kūshan: cf. Isaac’s mention of the Huns in 1. 420 of the 1st poem.
[10] The author refers to the weeping for Tammuz (1. 125 of the 1st poem), and speaks of his city as illustrious throughout the world (ib. 1. 132).