István Perczel

  1. Home
  2. Wiki

István Perczel (Hungarian: [ˈiʃtvaːn ˈpɛrt͡sɛl]; born 1957) is a Hungarian scholar of Byzantine history and early Christianity and a hyperpolyglot. He is a professor at the Central European University in Vienna, Austria. He holds a doctorate from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is one of the leading experts on Dionysius the Areopagite and the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala.[1] Since 2000 he has led a project to explore and digitalize the Syriac and Malayalam manuscripts of the Saint Thomas Christians in South India.[2] He has initiated the study of Classical Syriac as a modern Indian lingua franca and of Garshuni Malayalam.

According to his university profile,[3] he knows Ancient Greek, Latin, Classical Syriac, Garshuni Malayalam and Church Slavonic, speaks Hungarian, English, French, Modern Greek, Russian, Italian, German and Ktobonoyo and has a working knowledge of Hebrew, Malayalam and Old Portuguese.

Most important publications

[edit]
  • "Malayalam Garshuni: A Witness to an Early Stage of Indian Christian Literature," in Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 17, 2 (2014): 263–323.
  • "The Pseudo-Didymian De trinitate and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite: A Preliminary Study", in: Studia Patristica 58/6: Neoplatonism and Patristics (Leuven-Paris-Walpole, MA: Peeters): 83–108.
  • "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and the Pseudo-Dormition of the Holy Virgin," in: Le Muséon 125/1-2 (2012): 55–97.
  • "Classical Syriac as a modern lingua franca in South India between 1600 and 2006," in: Modern Syriac Literature, ARAM Periodical 21 (2009): 289–321.
  • The Nomocanon of Metropolitan Abdisho of Nisibis: A Facsimile Edition of MS 64 from the Collection of the Church of the East in Thrissur (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2005), 426 pp. ISBN 1-59333-133-9
  • The Eucharist in Theology and Philosophy: Issues of Doctrinal History in East And West from the Patristic Age to the Reformation, ed. István Perczel, Réka Forrai, and György Geréby (Leuven: University Press, 2005), 474 pp. ISBN 90-5867-499-1
  • Incomprehensibility and condescension. Metaphysics and Mysticism in Saint Augustine and Saint John Chrysostom, Atlantisz Publishers, Budapest, 1999, ISBN 9639165107, 248 pp.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ [1] Perczel's profile at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum
  2. ^ [2] Blog of Amitav Ghosh
  3. ^ "Istvan Perczel | CEU People". people.ceu.edu. Retrieved 31 October 2025.
[edit]