Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/881

 9lH SYRIAC LITERATURE 845 mentary on the theological discourses of Gregory Nazianzen and various forms of ordination. 1 Timothy Timothy I. was a native of Hazzii in Hedhaiyabh, and had been I. a pupil of Abraham bar Dashandadh (see above, p. 844) at the school of Bashush in Saphsapha. He became bishop of Beth Baglie>li,- and stood well with the Muhammadan governor of Mosul, Abu Musfi ibn Mus'ab, and his Christian secretary Abu Null al-Anbaii. 3 On the death of Heuan-isho' II. in 779, 4 several persons presented themselves as candidates for the dignity of catholicus. Timothy got rid of Isho'-yabh, abbot of Beth 'Abhe, by pointing out to him that he was an old man, unfit to withstand his younger rivals, and by promising, if he himself were successful, to make him metropolitan of Hedhaiyabh, which he afterwards did. Meantime Thomas of Kashkar and other bishops held a synod at the convent of Mar Pethion in Baghdadh, and elected the monk George, who had the support of 'Isa the court physician ; but this formidable opponent died suddenly. Having by a mean trick obtained the support of the archdeacon Beroe and the heads of the various colleges, Timothy managed at last to get himself appointed catholi- cus, about eight months after the death of his predecessor. He still, however, encountered strong opposition. Ephraim metro- politan of Gunde-Shabhor, Solomon bishop of al-Hadithah, Joseph metropolitan of Mara or Merv, Sergius bishop of Ma'allethaya, and others held a synod 1 at the convent of Beth Hale, in which they made Rustam, bishop of Ileuaitha, 5 metropolitan of Hedhai- yabh in place of Isho'-yabh, 6 and excommunicated Timothy, who retorted with the same weapon and deposed Joseph of Merv. Joseph brought the matter before the caliph al-Mahdi, but, failing to gain any redress, in an evil hour for himself became a Muham- madan. 7 Once more Ephraim summoned his bishops to Baghdadh and excommunicated Timothy for the second time, with no other result than a counter-excommunication and some disgraceful riot- ing, which led to the interference of 'Isa and the restoration of peace. 8 Timothy was duly installed in May 780. 9 He made the bishops of Persia subject to the see of Seleucia, and appointed over them one Simeon as metropolitan with orders to enforce a stricter rule than heretofore. 10 In his days Christianity spread among the Turks, and the khakau himself is said to have become a convert. 11 Timothy's disgraceful response to the caliph ar-Rashid in the matter of the divorce of Zubaidah may be seen in S.O., iii. 1, 161. He is said to have died in 204 A. 11. = 819-8'20 A. D., or 205 = 820-821 ; but, if he really was catholicus for forty-three years, his death cannot have taken place till 823. l - 'Abhd-isho' informs us that Timothy wrote synodical epistles, a volume on questions of ecclesiastical law, another on questions of various sorts, a third containing disputations with a heretic, viz., the Jacobite patriarch George, about 200 letters in two volumes, a disputation with the caliph al-Mahdi or his successor al-Hadl (on matters of religion), and an astronomical work on the stars. 13 Bar-Hebrseus adds hymns for the dominical feasts of the whole year and a commentary on Theologus (Gregory Nazianzen). 14 Anony- In this century too we may place the two following historical mous writers, whose names and works are unfortunately known to us histor- only through the mention made of them by a later annalist. (1) ians. An anonymous jiuthor, the abbot of the great convent (of Abra- ham on Mount Izlil), cited by Elias bar Shinaya in his Chronicle under the years 740-741. 15 (2) An ecclesiastical historian called Pethion. Pethion, identified by Baethgen (Fraginente, p. 2, No. 6) with the catholicus of that name. This is, however, impossible, because the catholicus died in 740, whereas the Ecclesiastical History of Pethion is cited by Elias bar Shinaya under the years 765 and 768. We conclude our enumeration of the Nestorian writers of this cen- tury with the name of another historian. In the Bibl. Orient., iii. 1 B.O., iii. 1, 111-113. By the " theology " of Gregory Nazianzen are probably meant the discourses bearing the title Theologicu Prima, &c. ; see, for example, Wright, Catal., p. 425, Nos. 22-25. a Hoffmann, Ausziige, p. 227 sq. 3 Also a pupil of Abraham bar Dashandadh (B.O., iii. 1, 212 note 2, 159, col. 1). He is mentioned in commendatory terms by Timothy in his encyclical letters of 790 and 805 (B.O., iii. 1, 82 col. 1, 104 col. 1 ; 'Abhd-isho', Collectio Canonum Synodicorum, ix. 6, in Mai, Scriptt. Vett. Nova Coll., x. pp. 167 col. 1, 329 col. 1). He was the author of a refutation of the Kor'an, a disputation against heretics, and other useful works (B.O., iii. 1, 212), among which may be mentioned a life of the missionary John of Dailam (B.O., iii. 1, 183, col. 2). I Or, according to others, 777. 5 Hoffmann, Ausziige, p. 216 sq. 6 B.O., iii. 1, 207. 7 We need not believe all the evil tliat Bar-Hebraeus tells us of this unhappy man, Chron. Ecdes., ii. 171 sq. 8 See the whole miserable story told in full in B.O., ii. 433, iii. 1, 158-160; Bar-Hebrteus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 165-1(59. 9 Baethgen, Fragmente, pp. 64, 131. 10 Bar-Hebreus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 169 ; J5.0., ii. 433. II B.O., iii. 1, itiO. Compare Chwolson's interesting memoir " Syrische Grab- inschriften aus Semirjetschie " (west of the Chinese province of Kuldja, more correctly Kulja), in Mem. de I'Acad. Imp. des Sc. de St. Pelersb., 7th ser., vol. xxxiv., No. 4. The oldest of these tombstones is dated A. Gr. 1169 = 858 A.D., and marked "the grave of Mengku-tenesh the believer" (p. 7); but most of them belong to the 13th and 14th centuries. 12 See B.O., ii. 434; iii. 1, 160. 13 B.O., iii. 1, 162-163. H Chron. Eccles., ii. 179. He is probably the author of the hymn in Brit. Mus. Add. 7156 (Rosen, Catal, p. 13, col. 1~, 1) and Paris, Suppl. 56 (Zotenberg, Catal. , p. 9, col. 1, i). 15 See Baethgen, Fragmente, p. 2, No. 3 ; Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Ecdes., ii. 152 note 2, 154 note 1 (Abbeloos writes "the abbots of the great convent"). 1, 195, the tex_t of 'Abhd-isho', as edited by Assemani, speaks of a writer named Isho'-denah, bishop of Kasra. Other MSS., however, Isho'- read Basra (al-Basrah), which is confirmed by Elias bar Shinayadenali in Baethgen's Fragmente, p. 2. The variation Deuah-isho' in Bar- Hebraeus (Chron. Eccles., i. 334) is of no consequence, and even there the MSS. differ. Besides the usual homilies of sorts and some metrical discourses, he wrote an introduction to logic, a work entitled The Book of Chastity, in which he collected lives and anecdotes of holy men and founders of monasteries, and an ecclesi- astical history in three volumes. 16 This valuable work is known to us only by a few citations in Bar-Hebrreus and Elias bar Shinaya,. Those in Bar Shinaya 17 range from 624 to 714, but the extract in Bar-Hebneus 18 brings us down to 793. Reverting now to the Jacobite Church, we shall find that the number of its literary men in the 9th century is not large, though some of them are of real importance as theologians and historians. Dionysius Tell-Mahrfiya was, as his surname implies, a native of Diony- Tell-Mahre, a village situated between ar-Rakkah and Hi.sn Mas- sius of lainah, near the river Ballkh. 19 He was a student in the convent Tell - of Ken-neshre, 20 and on its destruction by fire" 1 and the consequent Mahro. dispersion of the monks, he went to the convent of Mar Jacob at Kaisurn, in the district of Samosata.'-- He devoted himself entirely to historical studies, 23 which he seems to have carried on in peace and quiet till 818. The patriarch Cyriacus (see above, p. 842) had got entangled in a controversy with the monks of Cyrrhus and Gubba Barraya about the words lahtnd sliemaiydna ("the heavenly bread"), &c., in the Eucharistic service, which ended in the mal- contents setting up as anti- patriarch Abraham, a monk of the convent of Kartamin. After the death of Cyriacus in 817, a synod was held in June 818 at Callinicus (ar-Rakkah), in which, after con- siderable discussion, Theodore, bishop of Kaisum, proposed the election of Dionysius, which was approved by most of those present, including Basil I., maphrian of Taghrith. 24 The poor monk was accordingly fetched to Callinicus, received deacon's orders on Friday in the convent of Estuna or the Pillar, priest's orders on Saturday in the convent of Mar Zakkai or Zacchanis, and was raised to the patriarchate in the cathedral on Sunday the first of Abh, 818, the officiating bishop being Theodosius of Callinicus. Abraham and his partisans, seeing their hopes disappointed, main- tained their hostile attitude, which led afterwards to the usual scandalous scenes before the Muslim authorities. 25 Immediately after his installation, Dionysius commenced a visitation of his vast diocese, going first northwards to Cyrrhus, thence to Antioch, Kirkesion (Kirklsiya), the district of the Khabhur, Nislbis, Dara and Kephar-tutha, and so back to Callinicus, where he enjoyed the protection of 'Abdallah ibn Tahir against his rival Abraham. He did not on this occasion visit Mosul and Taghiith, because the maphrian Basil thought the times unfavourable. 26 In 825 'Abd- allah ibn Tahir was sent to Egypt to put down the rebellion of 'Obaidallah ibn as-Sari, where he remained as governor till 827. 27 His brother Muhammad ibn Tahir was by no means so well disposed towards the Christians, and destroyed all that they had been allowed to build in Edessa. 28 Wherefore the patriarch went down into Egypt to beg the emir 'Abdallah to write to his brother and bid him moderate his zeal against the church, which he accordingly did. 2 ' On his return from Egypt the patriarch had troubles with Philoxenus, bishop of Nislbis, who espoused the cause of the anti- patriarch Abraham 30 ; and he then went to Baghdadh in 829 to confer with the caliph al-Ma'mun as to an edict that he had issued on the occasion of dissensions between the Palestinian and Babylonian Jews regarding the appointment of an exiliarch. 31 During his stay in the capital disputes took place among the Christians, which ended in a reference to the caliph and in the deposition of the bishop Lazarus bar Sabhetha. 32 From Baghdadh Dionysius pro- ceeded to Taghrlth and Mosul, and nominated Daniel as maphrian in place of the deceased Basil. In 830 al-Ma'mun made an attack on the Greek territory, and the patriarch tried to see him on his return at Kaisum, but the caliph had hurried on to Damascus, whither Dionysius followed him and accompanied him to Egypt on a mission to the Bashmuric Copts, who were then in rebellion. Any efforts of his and of the Egyptian patriarch were, however, of no avail, and the unfortunate rebels suffered the last horrors of war 16 B.O., iii. 1, 195. 17 Baethgen, Fragmente, p. 2. 18 Chron. Eccles., i. 333 ; B. 0., iii. 1, 195, note 4 (where 695 is a mistake for 793). See also Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 42 note 2, 114 note 1, 122 note 1, 127 note 3, 138 notes 1, 2, 140 note 1. 19 See Hoffmann in Z.D.M.G., xxxii. (1878), p. 742, note 2. 20 Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Ecdes., i. 347-349. 21 B.O., ii. 345, col. 1, where the rebuilding of it by Dionysius is mentioned ; Bar-Hebneus, Chron. Eccles., i. 355, at the top. 22 Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Ecdes., i. 347-349. A previous residence at the con- vent of Zuknin near Amid (B.O., ii. 98, col. 2) is uncertain, as the words daira dhllan probably mean no more than "the convent of us Jacobites." 23 Bar-Hebroeus, Chron. Ecdes., i. 347, last line. Ibid., i. 347. by his brother Simeon as anti-patriarch. 26 Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Ecdes., i. 353. 27 Wiistenfeld, Die Statthalter von Aegypten, Ite Abth., p. 32 sq. ; De Sacy Relation de I'Egypte par Abd-allatif, pp. 501-508 and 552-557. 28 Bar-Hebneus, Chron. Ecdes., i. 359. 29 ibid., i. 369. 30 Ibid., i. 363. 3J Ibid., i. 365. 32 ibid., i. 365-371.
 * 5 Ibid., i. 355-357; B.O., ii. 345. Abraham died in 837, and was succeeded