JACOB OF SERUGH (451-521), Syriac author, was born at Kurtam, a village on the Euphrates to the west of Harran, and was probably educated at Edessa. He wrote a series of metrical homilies (ed. P. Bedjan, Paris, 1905 seq.). Ordained to the priesthood, he became episcopal visitor of Haura, in Seriigh, not far from his birthplace. In 519, at the age of 68, Jacob was made bishop of Batman, another town in the district of SerUgh, but only lived till November 521.
According to Barhebraeus (Chron. Eccles. i. 191) Jacob em
ployed 7o amanuenses and wrote in all 76o metrical homilies, besides expositions, letters and hymns of different sorts. Of Jacob's prose works, the most interesting are his letters, which show his attachment to the Monophysite doctrine which was then struggling for supremacy in the Syrian churches, and particularly at Edessa, over the opposite teaching of Nestorius.
See Wright, Short History of Syrian Literature.