The American Foundation for Syriac Studies Est. 2007 · A Digital Library
A Special Presentation of the AFSS Digital Library

The Book of Generations

كتاب المواليد

The generations of mankind from Adam to Christ, and from Christ to the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy Evangelists — a hand-drawn genealogy in the tradition of the Syriac chroniclers.

Drawn and annotated by Hanna Issa Touma
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What follows is a rendering of a genealogical chart drawn by hand across eleven leaves of graph paper. It traces a single unbroken line: from Adam through Noah, Abraham, David, and the kings of Judah; through the exile and the return; to Joseph the Carpenter and the Lord Jesus Christ; and onward to the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy who were sent out two by two. Beside nearly every name, the author has written a marginal note — a date, a tradition, a fragment of the old chronicles. Every one of those notes is preserved here in full, in its original Arabic, with an English translation.

The chart follows the Eastern Syriac tradition, and its chronology is that of Eutychius: the Creation in 4962 BC and the Flood in 3308 BC. The ten original leaves begin with Noah; in July 2026 the author drew an opening leaf — Adam to Noah, with Qlima and Labuda the twin sisters of Cain and Abel — so that the chart now truly begins at the beginning. Their story is also told in the companion chapter From Adam to Joshua below.

The Three Sources of the Chart

  1. Sa'id ibn Batriq (Eutychius of Alexandria, 877–940)Nazm al-Jawhar ("The String of Pearls"): the chronological framework and the alternate names of the early figures.
  2. Mor Mikha'il Rabo (Michael the Great, 1126–1199)The Great Chronicle: the genealogies of the patriarchs and the prophetic interpretations.
  3. Gregorius Bar Hebraeus (Ibn al-'Ibri, 1226–1286)Mukhtasar Tarikh al-Duwal: the traditions of the early civilizations and the accounts of the first history.

The transcriptions of all eleven leaves have been reviewed and verified by the author. A few readings marked ⟨؟⟩ remain uncertain where the original leaf is difficult to read. The original leaf may be opened beside any section, and notes are always welcome at syriacstudies@gmail.com.

The Original Leaves

الأوراق الأصلية

The leaves of the chart as they were drawn, in the author's hand — the ten original leaves, and the opening leaf added in July 2026.

The Companion Chapters

الفصول المرافقة

Seven historical summaries written to accompany the chart, in English and Arabic.