(surname from Syr. malel, “speak”; Antioch, 6th cent.), rhetor. His universal chronicle (Chronicles: I), with clearly monophysite tendencies (at least in its first portion), presents in 18 books the history of the world from Adam to the death of Justinian I in 565 (possibly continued to 574). Written for popular instruction and entertainment, both its language and content significantly influenced later Byzantine literature.
Bibliography
CPG 3, 7511
J. Thurn, ed., Ioannis Malalae Chronographia, 2000
E. Jeffreys et al., eds., Studies in John Mala…