This paper discusses the significance of Tur Abdin, a region in southeastern Turkey, to the Syriac Orthodox Church as observed during a pilgrimage in 2005. It highlights the historical context of Syriac Christianity, noting the area's ascetic tradition and the contributions of early Christian figures. The author reflects on contemporary challenges faced by the church in Tur Abdin and suggests a revival of interest and support for its cultural and spiritual heritage.

Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique, 118.3-4, 2023

This article publishes and discusses the fragments of the lost Ecclesiastical History of Daniel of Ṭur ʿAbdin. Daniel was a West-Syrian historian who lived in the first half of the 8th century; he was the maternal grandfather of the chronicler and patriarch of Antioch Dionysius of Tell Maḥre (†845), and one his main sources for the history of the Umayyad period. The article offers a reassessment of Daniel’s person and work, followed by the edition, English translation and historical commentary of fragments and testimonia.

The holy man cried out into the tombs, saying: 'My Godloving fathers who have died in the Orthodox Faith, do you command me to subscribe to the Tome of Leo? [.. .]' and at once, as from a single mouth, the bones of the holy men cried out saying: 'Anathema to the synod of Chalcedon! Anathema to the one who would be in communion with them! Anathema to the one who would say 'Hail' to them! Anathema to the one who would divide Emmanuel into two natures or two forms!' Panegyric on Macarius, Bishop of Tkôw (Johnson :-)

From the Tigris to the Ebro: churches and other Christian buildings Churches and other Christian Buildings under Early Islam (7th -10th c.), 2024

In this chapter, I address how and when church-building became problematic during the early Islamic period in the Syro-Aramaic regions of Northern Syria and Mesopotamia. First, I focus on the evidence provided by ecclesiastical Syriac sources concerning ongoing constructions during the seventh century, when it appears that no legal restrictions operated. Moreover, even under the Marwānid caliphate, whose social and ideological system was driven by more confessional principles, an impressive number of testimonies suggest an increase in the number of monastery foundations, which may have been a way to shelter private wealth from taxation. Things seem to have changed during the early Abbasid period. The sources are contradictory: some new laws were introduced in Syria against Christian proselytism, but no evidence of such limitations upon church building in the Jazīra is attested before the 770s. Also, legal evidence and theory suggest that, at least during the first half of the second century AH (720-770), there were two hermetic categories in urban settlements: 1/ the construction of churches was authorized within the indigenous, Aramaic-speaking, madīnas; 2/ in the amṣār however, where Arab-Muslims were supposed to hold a privileged position, the very visibility of Christian cult and social habits and practices was gradually banned, especially church-building. Finally, the growing hostility crystallized in traditions that commanded churches in the amṣār to be destroyed, even if such orders were neither systematic nor effective. The turning point of this story could be the disastrous invasion of Northern Syria by Byzantine general Michael Lakhanodrakon, in 777. Indeed, for the first time in a century, a caliph decided to lead the army in person to repel the enemy in Cilicia, and a significant policy of sunna enforcement and reform was launched by al-Mahdī through a so-called muḥtasib. Emir ʿAlī b. Sulaymān al-ʿAbbāsī was especially committed to this military, as well as ideological, counter-offensive. It struck the Syriac Orthodox church, as recalled by an inscription on the southern wall of the church of Eḥnesh, in Northern Syria. After this date of 779-780, the region of the Byzantine frontier, the thughūr, endured a process of military colonization that matches the development of new legal paradigms: the “miṣrization” of indigenous madīnas. It consisted in their transformation into miṣr-like towns or neighborhoods, where the law of the amṣār was to be applied and “new churches” had to be destroyed. Gradually, the growing number of Muslim inhabitants in the cities of Ḥarrān or Edessa led to their miṣrization too, if not simply to the downright breach of their treaties (ṣulḥ), like in Takrīt and Mosul. At this stage, governors were frequently caught between the antagonistic pressures of Christian and Muslim elites, and also had to face contagious destructing riots staged by Muslim mobs. Every ten years, in ca. 190, 200, 210 and 220 AH, “new churches” were demolished, and then for the most part reconstructed, a regularity that perhaps reflects a legal principle that has not yet been elucidated.

This article presents the hitherto unpublished Syriac text of the Turgāmā on Charms and Sorcery, a specimen of pastoral literature produced by Ignatius vii ʿAzīz bar Sāḇtā, known also as Abū al-Maʿānī, who served as the patriarch of Ṭūr ʿAbdīn from 1461 to 1481. A representative of the centuries-long tradition of polemic against magic and use of amulets among Syriac Christians, the work is a rare and valuable witness to the dynamics of popular religion among West Syrians of early Ottoman Mesopotamia. The text is accompanied by an English translation and a brief discussion.

2015

The interpretations and conclusions made in this article belong solely to the author and do not reflect IPC's official position.

The Syriac World

Cultures in Contact Transfer of Knowledge in the Mediterranean Context

2020

Scritti in onore di Giovanni Oman. Studi Magrebini XXV, 1993-1997, 2002

With the return of the Syriac population at Tur Abdin (South Eastern Turkey) the question of the tangible and intangible heritage relating to these communities is being questioned once more : the property ownership, land and houses for instance. The issue of jurisdiction and legal status of village churches and other places of worship remains uncertain as well, as the Syriac people of Turkey do not fall into the jurisdiction of a « minority » according to the Lausanne Treaty (1923). On the other hand, the study of the links of the Syriac diaspora with this motherland brings a new light on the attachment problematic. Apart from the tangible heritage, there is the issue of intangible heritage, which is composed of several patterns of identity as well. Moreover, the transmission of the written and vernacular language belonging to this community remains uncertain.

Pr. Viorel Sava (ed.), De la lumina rugăciunii la teologia luminii – secvențe ale cercetărilor doctorale actuale. Studia Theologica Doctoralia XIV, Doxologia, Iaşi, 2022

Ishoyahb I (or Ishoyahb of Arzun) was Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East at a time of significant liturgical changes. These began with the Patriarchate of Mar Aba (540-552) and continued until the 7th century. In this context, Bishop Jacob of Dirin (an island in the Persian Gulf, near Bahrain) had some questions concerning liturgical, moral and disciplinary matters and wrote to the Catholicos to ask for clarification. Bishop Jacob's letter has not survived, but we do have the reply of Catholicos Ishoyahb I. Scholars have noted the importance of this Syriac reply in that it was included in the "Synodicon Orientale", an important canonical collection of the Church of the East. According to them, the letter of Ishoyahb I is a pastoral-liturgical compendium and an important source for the East Syriac liturgical tradition at the end of the 6th century. Despite the appreciation that scholars have shown for this text in the past, it has received little analysis, except for its contribution to the history of the East Syriac Anaphora. In my view, the importance of Ishoyahb's letter goes beyond liturgical studies and is also relevant to the field of church history, because it provides valuable information about the life of Christians in the region of present-day Bahrain and Qatar at the end of the 6th century. Furthermore, the letter contributes to the history of the East Syriac Patriarchs because it plays an important role in establishing the intellectual profile of Catholicos-Patriarch Ishoyahb I and the sources of his theological thought. The aim of this paper is to place the letter in its historical context and to make some observations about its textual transmission and its value for liturgical and historical research.

2010

Taking into account the Maronites connections with the West the article rises aquestion: in what areas did the Syriac Christian community constitute a bridge between the East and the West? Although not all critical remarks of Kamāl Ṣalībī (b. 1929) on the Maronite view of history are accepted without reservation, his remark that “the awareness of the historic truth constitutes the ultimate foundation for the possibility to build a healthy society” seems valuable. The postulate of the verification of over-interpretation is always valid, nevertheless the discussion: what is a myth and what is the truth in the history of Lebanon continues.

Evangelical Quarterly, 1968

The Christian Heritage of Iraq, 2009

2012

In The Churches of Syrian Antioch (300-638 CE) Wendy Mayer and Pauline Allen for the first time draw together all of the existing evidence concerning the Christian worship sites of this influential late-antique city, with significantly new results in a number of cases. In addition to providing a catalogue of the worship sites, in which each entry critiques and summarizes the available data, supplemented by photographs from the excavations, the authors analyze the data from a number of perspectives. These include the political, economic and natural forces that influenced the construction, alteration and reconstruction of churches and martyria, and the political, liturgical and social use and function of these buildings. Among the results is an emerging awareness of the extent of the lacunae and biases in the sources, and of the influence of these on interpretation of the city's churches in the past. What also rises to the fore is the significant role played by the schisms within the Christian community that dominated the city's landscape for much of these centuries.

North American Syriac Symposium, 2019

My paper focuses on the reception of Christianity from the Syriac context in early modern Egypt. In particular, I examine in detail a text that—to my knowledge—has received very little attention in scholarship: the introduction to a collection of 12 treatises by Yaḥyā b. ‘Adī that circulated in Egypt from the late medieval period, if not earlier. Witnesses to this collection include three manuscripts in the Sbath/Salem collection in Aleppo, two belonging to the Coptic Orthodox patriarchate in Cairo, and one in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The introduction to the texts appears both in the Paris manuscript (from 1654) and in one of the Aleppo manuscripts (from the 18th century). However, after copying the text of the Paris introduction with little alteration, the Aleppo introduction continues for a second page, more than doubling its length. This attests to a diachronic development in this short text, all of whose versions were composed by Egyptian scholars or scribes. This text preserves valuable information about the ways that the Syriac and post-Syriac Christian world, specifically Iraq, was perceived by its coreligionists in Egypt. The earlier Paris version of the introduction explains that it is normal in Iraq—and, it is implied, not normal in Egypt—for Christians to bear Muslim-sounding names and honorifics, such as Yaḥyā. The expansion in the Aleppo manuscript states that Yaḥyā was a member of the “Syrian Jacobite” sect, gives a brief history of the Syriac Orthodox maphrianate, and discusses Iraqi geography, noting which parts of Iraq still have a large Christian population and which are now “the lands of Islam.” While this text is of course not an exhaustive account of relations between Egyptian and Iraqi Christianity in the early modern period, it contains a wealth of fascinating information, and I hope to explore it further in this presentation as a window into the historical relations between the different Churches of the Middle East.

Authority and Control in the Countryside, A. Delattre, M. Legendre, P. M. Sijpesteijn (eds.), Brill, 2018

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