Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/873

 GTH CENT.] SYRIAC LITERATURE 837 Abra- ham of Kaslikar. Theo- dore of Merv. Gabriel of Hor- mizdslier. Joseph of Seleu- cia. Paul the Persian.

Psalter as Brit. Mus. Add. 7156 l and Munich, cod. Syr. 4 (Orient. 147). Hymns of his are also extant. 3 Under Mar-abha flourished Abraham of Kashkar (al-Wilsit), dis- tinguished for his acquaintance with philosophy and for his ascetic virtues. He introduced certain reforms into the Persian monas- teries. After living for some time in a cave at Hazzah, 4 he betook himself to Jerusalem and thence to Egypt. Returning to his old haunt, he led the life of a hermit for thirty years, travelling into the far north as a missionary. He died at Hazzah, but his body was secretly removed to his native place Kashkar. He wrote a treatise on the monastic life, which was translated into Persian by his disciple Job the monk. 5 He must, it would seem, be distinguished from another Abraham of Kashkar, who lived about the same time, and with whom Asse- mani has confounded him. 6 This Abraham was a student at Nisibis under Abraham the nephew of Narsai. Thence he went to Herta (al-IIIrah), where he converted some of the heathen inhabitants, visited Egypt and Mount Sinai, and finally settled down as a hermit in a cave on Mount Izla, near Nisibis, where a great number of followers soon gathered about him and a large monastery was built. He introduced stricter rules than heretofore among the coenobites. 7 His death did not take place till towards the end of the century. 8 Theodore, bishop of Maru or Merv, was appointed to this see by Mar-abha in place of David, whom he had deposed, about 540. He seems to have been much addicted to the study of the Aristo- telian dialectics, since several of the translations and treatises of Sergius of Ras'ain are dedicated to him. 9 Among his own works 10 there is mentioned " a solution of the ten questions of Sergius." He also composed a commentary on the Psalms and a metrical history of Mar Eugenius and his companions, 11 who came from Klysma and introduced asceticism into Mesopotamia about the beginning of the 4th century. What may have been the contents of the " liber varii argumenti " which he wrote at the request of Mar-abha himself it is hard to guess, in the default of any copy of it. Theodore's brother Gabriel, bishop of Hormizdsher, 12 is stated by 'Abhd-Isho' 1S to have written two controversial books against the Manichees and the Chaldaeans (astrologers), as also about 300 chap- ters on various passages of Scripture which needed elucidation and explanation. The successor of Mar-abha in the see of Seleucia was Joseph, in 552. He studied medicine in the West and practised in Nisibis, where he lived in one of the convents. Having been introduced by a Persian noble to the notice of Khosrau I., he cured that monarch of an illness, and ingratiated himself with him so much that he favoured his appointment to the office of catholicus. Of his strange pranks and cruelties as archbishop some account, doubtless highly coloured, may be read in B.O., iii. 1, 432-433, and Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 95-97. He was deposed after he had sat for three years, but he lived twelve years longer, during which time no suc- cessor was appointed. He promulgated twenty-three canons, 14 and, according to Elias, bishop of Damascus (893), 15 after his deposition drew up a list of his predecessors in the dignity of catholicus, wherein he would seem to have paid special attention to those who had shared the same fate with himself. At least Bar-Hebrreus 1(i (per- haps not a quite trustworthy witness in this case) gives currency to the charge of his having forged the consolatory epistles of Jacob of Nisibis and Mar Ephraim to Papa of Seleucia on his deposition. A little later in the century, under the sway of his successor Ezekiel (a disciple of Mar-abha and the son-in-law of his predecessor Paul), 567-580, 17 there flourished Paul the Persian, 18 of Dershar or Dershahr, 19 a courtier of Khosrau I. Anosharwan. 20 He is said by Bar-Hebraus 21 to have been distinguished alike in ecclesiastical and philosophical lore, and to have aspired to the post of metropolitan 1 Rosen, Catal., p. 12. 2 Verzeichniss d. orient. Handschriften d. k. Hof- it. Staats-Bibl., &c., p. 111. 3 See Bickell, Conspectus, p. 37, and comp. Brit. Mus. Add. 17219, f. 105b(beg., Glory to Thee, Lord ; how good Thou art .'). 4 A village near Arbel or Irbil, in Hedhaiyabh. 5 B.O., iii. 1, 155, col. 1, 431 ; iii. 2, dccclxxiii. fi Comp. B.O., iii. 1, 154, note 4, with Hoffmann, Ausziige, p. 172. 7 B.O., iii. 1, 93. 8 See Hoffmann, loc. cit. 9 See Brit. Mus. Add. 14058 (Wright, Catal., p. 1154); Renan, De Philosophia Peripat. ap. Syros, p. 29. 10 B.O., iii. 1, 147. 11 See B.O., iii. 1, 147, note 4, and 633 ; iii. 2, dccclxii.; Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., i. 85, with note 5 ; Hoffmann, Ausziige, p. 167. If the poem mentioned by Assemani (B.O., iii. 1, 147, note 4) really speaks of Abraham of Kashkar and still more of Babhai of Nisibis, it must be of later date, and Hoffmann is inclined to ascribe it to George Warda, a writer of the 13th century (see Aiisziige, p. 171, note 1327). 12 A corruption of Honnizd-Ardasher, still further shortened by the Arabs into Hormushir. It is identical with Suk al-Ahwaz, or simply u-AhwfiZ, on the river Kariin. See Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser u. Araber, p. 19, with note 5. 13 B.O., iii. 1, 147. 14 Ibid., iii. i. 435. Elias bar Shinaya cites his " synod" ; see Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 96, note 1. is In his Nomocanon, quoted by Assemani, B.O., iii. 1, 434. 16 Chron. R-cles., ii. 31. 17 See B.O., iii. 1, 435-439 ; Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 97, 103. 18 B.O., iii. 1, 439 ; Renan, De Philos. Peripat. ap. Syros, pp. 16-22. 19 f -A. j...?. a place not known to the present writer. 20 See Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser u. Araber, p. 160, note 3. 21 Chron. Eccles., ii. 97. bishop of Persis, but, being disappointed, to have gone over to the Zoroastrian religion. This may or may not be true ; but it is cer- tain that Paul thought more of knowledge than faith, for thus he speaks 22 : " Scientia enim agit de rebus proximis et manifestis et quse sciri possunt, fides autem de omnibus niateriis qua? remota? sunt, neque conspiciuntur ncque certa ratione cognoscuntur. Hrcc quidem cum dubio est, ilia autem sine dubio. Omne dubium dis- sensionem pant, dubii absentia autem unanimitatem. Scientia igitur potior est fide, et illam prse hac eligendum est." Bar- Hebraeus speaks of Paul's " admirable introduction to the dialectics (of Aristotle),"- 3 by which he no doubt means the treatise on logic extant in a single MS. in the Brit. Mus. 24 It has been edited, with a Latin translation and notes, by Land. 25 About this same time Assemani- 6 places the periodeutes Bodh, who Bodh. is said to have had the charge of the Christians in the remoter dis- tricts of the Persian empire as far as India. Among his writings are specified "discourses on the faith and against the Manichees and Marcionites," as well as a book of "Greek questions," probably philosophical, bearing the strange title of Alcph Mlyin.' 27 All these have perished, but his name will go down to remote posterity as the translator into Syriac of the collection of Indian tales com- monly called Kalllah and Dimnah. Of this work a single copy has come down to our time, preserved in an Oriental library. A transcript of it was first procured by Bickell, 29 who, in conjunction with Benfey, edited the book (Leipsic, 1876) ; and since then three additional copies of the same original have been got by Sachau. 30 That Bodh made his Syriac translation from an Indian (Sanskrit) original, as 'Abhd-Isho' asserts, is wholly unlikely ; he no doubt had before him a Pahlavi or Persian version. 31 Just at this period the Nestorian Church ran a great risk of IlannanS disruption from an internal schism. Hannana of Hedhaiyabh, o'f H8- the successor of Joseph Hiizaya in the school of Nisibis, who had, dhaiyabh it is said, a following of 800 pupils, 32 had dared to assail the doc- trines and exegesis of Theodore of Mopsuestia and to follow in some points those of Chrysostom. 33 He commenced his work at Xisibis, under the metropolitan Aha-dh'abhii(hl), 34 by publishing a revised edition of the statutes of the school. 35 During the time of the catholicus Ezekiel (567-580) 36 he brought forward his theological views, which were condemned at a synod held under the next catholicus, Isho'-yabh of Arzon (581-595), ^ and at another synod presided over by his successor, Sabhr-isho' (596-604). 38 On the death of this latter a struggle took place between the rival factions, the orthodox Nestorians putting forward as their candidate Gregory of Tell-Besme, 39 bishop of Nisibis, whilst the others supported Gregory of Kashkar, a teacher in the school of Mahoze or Sellk (Seleucia). 40 The influence of the Persian court decided the matter in favour of the latter, who was a persona grata in the eyes of the queen Shhin and her physician Gabriel of Shiggar (Sinjar), 41 a keen Monophysite, who naturally availed himself of this oppor- tunity to harm the rival sect of Christians. Gregory was not, however, a partisan of Hannana, but an orthodox Nestorian, as appears from the account given of the synod over which he pre- sided, 42 by which the Nicene creed was confirmed, the comment- aries of Theodore of Mopsuestia approved, and the memory and writings of Bar-saumil vindicated against his assailants. He died at the end of three years (607), and the archiepiscopal see remained vacant till after the murder of Khosrau II. Parwez in 628, during which time of persecution Babhai the archimandrite distinguished himself as the leader and guide of the Nestorian Church. In the overthrow of Khosrau the oppressed Nestorians bore a part, more especially Shamta 43 and Kurta, the sons of the noble Yazdin, who had been the director of the land-tax of the whole kingdom and had amassed an enormous fortune, which the king confiscated. 44 To return to Hannana, his works, as enumerated by 'Abhd-Isho', 45 are commentaries on Genesis, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, the twelve minor prophets, the Gospel of St Mark, and the epistles of St Paul ; expositions of the (Nicene) creed and the liturgy ; on the occasions of the celebration of Palm 22 In the Preface to his Logic, as translated by Land (see note 25 below). 23 Chron. Eccles., ii. 97. 24 Add. 14600, f. 55b ; see Wright, Catal., p. 1161. 25 Anecd. Syr., iv., Syr. text, pp. 1-32 ; transl., pp. 1-30 ; notes, pp. 99-113. 26 B.O., iii. 1, 219. 27 Assemani, loc. cit., note 1, proposes to read Aleph Mellln, "the Thousand Words"; )it Aleph Migln is more likely to be a corruption of some Greek word. 28 The Syriac title keeps the older forms Kalilagh and Damnagh. 29 Gottingen, university library, MS. Orient. 18d. 30 Berlin, Royal Library, Sachau 139, 149, 150. 31 See Keith-Falconer, Kalllah and Dlmnah, Introd., xlii. sq. 32 B.O., iii. 1, 81, note 2, 437. 33 Ibid., iii. 1, 84, note 3. 34 Who was probably, therefore, the immediate predecessor of Gregory (596). 35 B.C., iii. 1, 83, at the end of the first note. 36 jud., ii. 413 ; iii. 1, 435. 37 Ibid., ii. 415, iii. 1, 108 ; Bar-Hebraus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 105, note 3. 38 B.C., ii. 415; iii. 1, 82, 441. 39 Not aromatarius, as Assemani translates Besmdya. B.0.,ii.416; iii. 1,449. Weneed not believe the statements of Bar-Hebroeus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 107. 41 See B.O., ii. 404-406, 416, 472 ; Bar-Hebrseus. Chron. Eccles., ii. 109 ; Noldeke Gesch. d. Perser it. Araber, p. 358, in the note ; Hoffmann, Aitsziif/e, pp. 118-121 42 B.O., iii. 1, 452. *3 See B.O., iii. 1, 471. 44 See Hoffmann, Ausziige, pp. 115-121 ; Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser u. Araber p. 383. To Yazdin is ascribed a hymn which appears in Nestorian Psalters, e.g., Wright, Catal., p. 135 ; Zotenberg, Catal., p. 9. B.O., iii. 1, 83-84.