The University of Alabama has launched an Assyrian (Syriac) language reference portal. According to the website:

The Syriac Research Group at the University of Alabama invites scholars interested in promoting Syriac studies to join as collaborators in the creation of a new online reference work for the study of Syriac authors, literature, and manuscripts. If you are interested please follow the link above to contact us for further details.

What is the Syriac Reference Portal?

We are pleased to announce that an international team of scholars has begun work on a new online reference resource for the study of Syriac authors, texts, manuscripts, and historical research. The Syriac Reference Portal is designed to meet the needs of a variety of academic users ranging from specialists in Syriac and related fields to students and the general public.

Specifically, the Syriac Reference Portal will bring together in an information hub the following resources:

• an ontology or classification system for Syriac studies
• a multi-lingual authority file for standardizing references to Syriac authors, texts, and place names
• an online encyclopedia
• a gazetteer of maps and geographic information related to Syriac studies
• a classified bibliography

The above resources will be available in the first generation of the Portal. In later development, we will open these resources up for collaborative augmentation and annotation by scholars around the globe. In subsequent rounds of development, we will continue adding to the hub by linking additional digital content to the hub - for example, the electronic journal of Syriac studies, Hugoye, and the electronic corpus of Syriac literature being prepared at Brigham Young University. We will also add new tools such as a prosopographical component and, ultimately, the long-desired goal of a union catalogue for Syriac manuscripts.

For more information visit the portal.