Daylam ( Persian : دیلم ), also known in the plural form Daylaman ( دیلمان ) (and variants such as Dailam , Deylam , and Deilam ), was the name of a mountainous region of inland Gilan , Iran . It was so named for its inhabitants, known as the Daylamites .
110-540: The Church of the East established a metropolitan diocese for Daylam and Gilan around 790 under Shubhalishoʿ . 36°53′20″N 49°54′20″E / 36.8889°N 49.9056°E / 36.8889; 49.9056 This Iran location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Church of the East The Church of the East ( Classical Syriac : ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā ) or
220-399: A Catholic line of patriarchs who took the name Joseph was founded at Amid (Diyarbakr). The Patriarch of this church were: Joseph I (1681–95); Joseph II (1696–1712); Joseph III (1713–57); Joseph IV (patriarch, 1757–80; patriarchal administrator, 1781–96); and Joseph V (1804–28). Strictly speaking, Augustine Hindi, who styled himself Joseph V, was merely the patriarchal administrator of
330-534: A bishop and made up of several individual parish communities overseen by priests. Dioceses were organised into provinces under the authority of a metropolitan bishop . The office of metropolitan bishop was an important one, coming with additional duties and powers; canonically, only metropolitans could consecrate a patriarch. The Patriarch also has the charge of the Province of the Patriarch . For most of its history
440-602: A breach of ecumenical good manners". Apart from its religious meaning, the word "Nestorian" has also been used in an ethnic sense, as shown by the phrase "Catholic Nestorians". In his 1996 article, "The 'Nestorian' Church: a lamentable misnomer", published in the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library , Sebastian Brock , a Fellow of the British Academy , lamented the fact that "the term 'Nestorian Church' has become
550-558: A colophon of 1429/30. Shemʿon IV died on 20 February 1497 and was buried in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd near the Mosul village of Alqosh. He was succeeded by two short-reigned patriarchs: Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on V, first mentioned in a colophon of 1500/1, who died in September 1502 and was buried in the monastery of Mar Awgin; and Eliya V , elected in 1503, who died in 1504 and
660-558: A delegations of Carmelites headed by two Italians, one Fleming and one German priests to reconcile the Saint Thomas Christians to Catholic fold. These priests had two advantages – they were not Portuguese and they were not Jesuits. By the next year, 84 of the 116 Saint Thomas Christian churches had returned, forming the Syrian Catholic Church (modern day Syro-Malabar Catholic Church ). The rest, which became known as
770-613: A free hand, and they increased missionary efforts farther afield. Missionaries established dioceses in India (the Saint Thomas Christians ). They made some advances in Egypt , despite the strong Monophysite presence there, and they entered Central Asia , where they had significant success converting local Tartars . Nestorian missionaries were firmly established in China during the early part of
880-606: A great amount of secular power. The metropolitan see was probably in Cranganore , or (perhaps nominally) in Mylapore , where the Shrine of Thomas was located. In the 12th century Indian Nestorianism engaged the Western imagination in the figure of Prester John , supposedly a Nestorian ruler of India who held the offices of both king and priest. The geographically remote Malabar Church survived
990-670: A late-6th-century church in Seleucia-Ctesiphon , beneath which were found the remains of an earlier church, also shows that the Church of the East used figurative representations. Although the East Syriac Christian community traced their history to the 1st century AD, the Church of the East first achieved official state recognition from the Sasanian Empire in the 4th century with the accession of Yazdegerd I (reigned 399–420) to
1100-756: A line that, according to its tradition, stretched back to Thomas the Apostle in the first century. Its liturgical rite is the East Syrian rite that employs the Divine Liturgy of Saints Addai and Mari . The Church of the East, which was part of the Great Church , shared communion with those in the Roman Empire until the Council of Ephesus condemned Nestorius in 431. The Church of the East refused to condemn Nestorius and
1210-657: A major role in the history of Christianity in Asia . Between the 9th and 14th centuries, it represented the world's largest Christian denomination in terms of geographical extent, and in the Middle Ages was one of the three major Christian powerhouses of Eurasia alongside Latin Catholicism and Greek Orthodoxy . It established dioceses and communities stretching from the Mediterranean Sea and today's Iraq and Iran , to India ,
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#17328514202531320-466: A metropolitan for 15 years and patriarch for 32 years; Eliya VII on 26 May 1617; Eliya VIII on 18 June 1660; Eliya IX Yohannan on 17 May 1700; Eliya X Marogin on 14 December 1722; and Eliya XII Isho[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) yahb in 1804. Eliya XI Denha died of plague in Alqosh on 29 April 1778, and was exceptionally buried in the town rather than
1430-938: A mission under a Persian cleric named Alopen in 635, in the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang during the Tang dynasty . The inscription on the Nestorian Stele, whose dating formula mentions the patriarch [[Hnanisho II|Hnanisho[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) II (773–80)]], gives the names of several prominent Christians in China, including Metropolitan Adam, Bishop Yohannan, 'country-bishops' Yazdbuzid and Sargis and Archdeacons Gigoi of Khumdan ( Chang'an ) and Gabriel of Sarag ( Luoyang ). The names of around seventy monks are also listed. Nestorian Christianity thrived in China for approximately 200 years, but then faced persecution from Emperor Wuzong of Tang (reigned 840–846). He suppressed all foreign religions, including Buddhism and Christianity, causing
1540-715: A non-existent patriarch invented purely for the purpose of bolstering the legitimacy of Sulaqa's election. The Vatican was taken in by this fraud, and recognised Sulaqa as the founding patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in April 1553, thereby creating a lasting schism in the Church of the East. It was only several years later that the Vatican discovered that Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on VII Isho[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) yahb
1650-680: A notable part in the affairs of the church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, were 'converted' retrospectively into early patriarchs. Ahadabui was said to have governed the church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon from 204 to 220, and Shahlufa from 220 to 224. However the Chronicle of Seert , names Shahloopa (Shahlufa) as a Patriarch of the Church of the East. Fiey also claims that, for the 2nd century, three patriarchs were frankly invented: Abris (121–37), Abraham (159–71) and [[Yaqob I|Ya[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) qob]] (190). All three men were declared to be relatives of Joseph,
1760-654: A particularly keen interest in the missionary expansion of the Church of the East. He is known to have consecrated metropolitans for Damascus, for Armenia , for Dailam and Gilan in Azerbaijan, for Rai in Tabaristan, for Sarbaz in Segestan, for the Turks of Central Asia, for China, and possibly also for Tibet . He also detached India from the metropolitan province of Fars and made it a separate metropolitan province, known as India . By
1870-693: A satisfactory Catholic profession of faith and presented a letter, drafted by his supporters in Mosul, which set out his claims to be recognized as patriarch. This letter, which has survived in the Vatican archives, grossly distorted the truth. The rebels claimed that the Nestorian patriarch Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on VII Isho[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) yahb had died in 1551 and had been succeeded illegitimately by 'Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on VIII Denha' (1551–8),
1980-515: Is also considered to be an indication of a strong Nestorian Christian presence in Sri Lanka between the 3rd and 10th century in the then capitol of Anuradhapura of Sri Lanka. Christianity reached China by 635, and its relics can still be seen in Chinese cities such as Xi'an . The Nestorian Stele , set up on 7 January 781 at the then-capital of Chang'an , attributes the introduction of Christianity to
2090-547: Is not known, but a colophon mentions that he died on 11 September 1570. The dates of Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on VIII Yahballaha's succession and death (presumably in 1570 and 1580 respectively) are not known. Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on IX Denha was elected patriarch in 1580 and (according to Assemani) died in 1600. Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on X, elected in 1600,
2200-411: Is probably to be preferred. Eliya IV was succeeded by Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on IV at an unknown date in the first half of the 15th century. Eliya's death has conventionally been placed in 1437 but must have been earlier, as a patriarch named Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on is mentioned in
2310-530: Is said to have died in 1638, according to a later letter of Eliya XII (d. 1804) cited by Tisserant. Information on the patriarchal succession in the Qudshanis patriarchate for the remainder of the seventeenth and the whole of the 18th century is equally scanty. Several of the Qudshanis patriarchs who succeeded Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on X corresponded with
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#17328514202532420-713: The Ancient Church of the East . The geographic location of the patriarchate was first in Edessa and then transferred to the Persian capital of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in central Mesopotamia during the Roman conquest of Edessa. In the 9th century the patriarchate moved to Baghdad and then through various cities in what was then Assyria ( Assuristan / Athura ) and is now northern Iraq , south east Turkey and northwest Iran , including, Tabriz , Mosul , and Maragheh on Lake Urmia . Following
2530-678: The Arabian Peninsula , with minor presence in the Horn of Africa , Socotra , Mesopotamia , Media , Bactria , Hyrcania , and India ; and possibly also to places called Calliana, Male, and Sielediva (Ceylon). Beneath the Patriarch in the hierarchy were nine metropolitans , and clergy were recorded among the Huns , in Persarmenia , Media, and the island of Dioscoris in the Indian Ocean . The Church of
2640-579: The Chalcedonian Church (from which Catholicism , Eastern Orthodoxy , and Protestantism would arise). Having its origins in Mesopotamia during the time of the Parthian Empire , the Church of the East developed its own unique form of Christian theology and liturgy . During the early modern period , a series of schisms gave rise to rival patriarchates , sometimes two, sometimes three. In
2750-632: The Church of the East , Nestorian Church, the Persian Church, the Sassanid Church, or East Syrian . Since 1552, rival patriarchal lines were established, traditionalist on one side and pro-Catholic on the other. In modern times, patriarchal succession is claimed from this office to the patriarchal offices of the successor churches: the Chaldean Catholic Church , the Assyrian Church of the East , and
2860-794: The Council of Markabta of the Arabs and declare the Catholicate independent from "the western Fathers". Meanwhile, in the Roman Empire, the Nestorian Schism had led many of Nestorius' supporters to relocate to the Sasanian Empire, mainly around the theological School of Nisibis . The Persian Church increasingly aligned itself with the Dyophisites, a measure encouraged by the Zoroastrian ruling class. The church became increasingly Dyophisite in doctrine over
2970-791: The East Syriac Church , also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon , the Persian Church , the Assyrian Church , the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian Church , is one of three major branches of Nicene Eastern Christianity that arose from the Christological controversies in the 5th century and the 6th century , alongside that of Miaphysitism (which came to be known as the Oriental Orthodox Churches ) and
3080-470: The Indian subcontinent . The Church faced a major schism in 1552 following the consecration of monk Yohannan Sulaqa by Pope Julius III in opposition to the reigning Catholicos-Patriarch Shimun VII , leading to the formation of the Chaldean Catholic Church . Divisions occurred within the two factions, but by 1830 two unified patriarchates and distinct churches remained: the traditionalist Assyrian Church of
3190-797: The Malankara Church , soon entered into communion with the Syriac Orthodox Church . The Malankara Church also produced the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church . Nestorian Christianity is said to have thrived in Sri Lanka with the patronage of King Dathusena during the 5th century. There are mentions of involvement of Persian Christians with the Sri Lankan royal family during the Sigiriya Period. Over seventy-five ships carrying Murundi soldiers from Mangalore are said to have arrived in
3300-667: The Mongol kingdoms and Turkic tribes in Central Asia, and China during the Tang dynasty (7th–9th centuries). In the 13th and 14th centuries, the church experienced a final period of expansion under the Mongol Empire , where influential Church of the East clergy sat in the Mongol court. Even before the Church of the East underwent a rapid decline in its field of expansion in Central Asia in
3410-597: The Parthian Empire . In 266, the area was annexed by the Sasanian Empire (becoming the province of Asōristān ), and there were significant Christian communities in Upper Mesopotamia , Elam , and Fars . The Church of the East traced its origins ultimately to the evangelical activity of Thaddeus of Edessa , Mari and Thomas the Apostle . Leadership and structure remained disorganised until 315 when Papa bar Aggai (310–329), bishop of Seleucia - Ctesiphon , imposed
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3520-615: The School of Nisibis , leading to a wave of Nestorian immigration into the Sasanian Empire. The Patriarch of the East Mar Babai I (497–502) reiterated and expanded upon his predecessors' esteem for Theodore, solidifying the church's adoption of Dyophisitism. Now firmly established in the Persian Empire, with centres in Nisibis, Ctesiphon , and Gundeshapur , and several metropolitan sees ,
3630-714: The State Library of Berlin , proves that in the 13th century the Church of the East was not yet aniconic . The Nestorian Evangelion preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France contains an illustration depicting Jesus Christ in the circle of a ringed cross surrounded by four angels. Three Syriac manuscripts from early 19th century or earlier—they were published in a compilation titled The Book of Protection by Hermann Gollancz in 1912—contain some illustrations of no great artistic worth that show that use of images continued. A life-size male stucco figure discovered in
3740-667: The Synod of Diamper in 1599, they installed Padroado Portuguese bishops over the local sees and made liturgical changes to accord with the Latin practice and this led to a revolt among the Saint Thomas Christians. The majority of them broke with the Catholic Church and vowed never to submit to the Portuguese in the Coonan Cross Oath of 1653. In 1661, Pope Alexander VII responded by sending
3850-422: The Tang dynasty (618–907); the Chinese source known as the Nestorian Stele describes a mission under a proselyte named Alopen as introducing Nestorian Christianity to China in 635. In the 7th century, the church had grown to have two Nestorian archbishops , and over 20 bishops east of the Iranian border of the Oxus River . Patriarch Timothy I (780–823), a contemporary of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid , took
3960-417: The " Western Church ". Accordingly, the leaders of the Church of the East did not feel bound by any decisions of what came to be regarded as Roman Imperial Councils. Despite this, the Creed and Canons of the First Council of Nicaea of 325, affirming the full divinity of Christ, were formally accepted at the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 410. The church's understanding of the term hypostasis differs from
4070-410: The "two qnome in Christ" formula, a final christological distinction was created between the Church of the East and the "western" Chalcedonian churches . The justice of imputing Nestorianism to Nestorius , whom the Church of the East venerated as a saint, is disputed. David Wilmshurst states that for centuries "the word 'Nestorian' was used both as a term of abuse by those who disapproved of
4180-572: The 10th century the Church of the East had a number of dioceses stretching from across the Caliphate's territories to India and China. Nestorian Christians made substantial contributions to the Islamic Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates , particularly in translating the works of the ancient Greek philosophers to Syriac and Arabic . Nestorians made their own contributions to philosophy , science (such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq , Qusta ibn Luqa , Masawaiyh , Patriarch Eutychius , Jabril ibn Bukhtishu ) and theology (such as Tatian , Bar Daisan , Babai
4290-418: The 13th century, during the Mongol Empire, the church added two new metropolitan provinces in North China , one being Tangut, the other Katai and Ong. The Peshitta , in some cases lightly revised and with missing books added, is the standard Syriac Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition: the Syriac Orthodox Church , the Syrian Catholic Church , the Assyrian Church of the East , the Ancient Church of
4400-429: The 14th century, it had already lost ground in its home territory. The decline is indicated by the shrinking list of active dioceses from over sixty in the early 11th century to only seven in the 14th century. In the aftermath of the division of the Mongol Empire , the rising Buddhist and Islamic Mongol leaderships pushed out the Church of the East and its followers in Central Asia. The Chinese Ming dynasty overthrew
4510-418: The 1960s as the Ancient Church of the East , is in Baghdad. The patriarchate of the Church of the East evolved from the position of the leader of the Christian community in Seleucia-Ctesiphon , the Persian capital. While Christianity had been introduced into Assyria then largely under the rule of the Parthian Empire in the first centuries AD, during the earliest period, leadership was unorganized and there
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4620-649: The Amid and Mosul patriarchates, but he liked to think of himself as a patriarch and the Vatican found it politic to indulge him in this fantasy. There were three Qudshanis patriarchs in the decades leading up to the First World War: [[Shimun XVII Abraham|Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XVII Abraham]] (1820–61), [[Shimun XVIII Rubil|Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XVIII Rubil]] (1861–1903), and [[Shimun XIX Benyamin|Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XIX Benjamin]] (1903–18), who
4730-401: The Assyrian Church of the East, granting its members his protection, and executing the pro-Roman Catholicos Babowai in 484, replacing him with the Nestorian Bishop of Nisibis , Barsauma . The Catholicos-Patriarch Babai (497–503) confirmed the association of the Assyrian Church with Nestorianism. Christians were already forming communities in Mesopotamia as early as the 1st century under
4840-432: The Chaldean Catholic Church split from the Assyrian Church, the respective patriarchs of these churches continued to move around northern Iraq. In the 19th century, the patriarchate of the Assyrian Church of the East was in the village of Qudshanis in southeastern Turkey . In the 20th century, the Assyrian patriarch went into exile, relocating to Chicago , Illinois , United States. Another patriarchate, which split off in
4950-442: The Christians in Persia. Over the next decades, the Catholicoi adopted the additional title of Patriarch , which eventually became the better known designation. The conventional list of patriarchs of the Church of the East includes around 130 patriarchs. A number of these patriarchs are legendary, or have been included in the standard lists on dubious evidence according to some historians like Jean Maurice Fiey . According to him,
5060-408: The Church of the East adopted the dyophysite doctrine of Theodore of Mopsuestia that emphasised the "distinctiveness" of the divine and the human natures of Jesus ; this doctrine was misleadingly labelled as 'Nestorian' by its theological opponents. Continuing as a dhimmi community under the Rashidun Caliphate after the Muslim conquest of Persia (633–654), the Church of the East played
5170-402: The Church of the East began to branch out beyond the Sasanian Empire. However, through the 6th century the church was frequently beset with internal strife and persecution from the Zoroastrians. The infighting led to a schism, which lasted from 521 until around 539, when the issues were resolved. However, immediately afterward Byzantine-Persian conflict led to a renewed persecution of the church by
5280-470: The Church of the East extended well beyond its heartland in present-day northern Iraq , north eastern Syria and south eastern Turkey . Communities sprang up throughout Central Asia , and missionaries from Assyria and Mesopotamia took the Christian faith as far as China , with a primary indicator of their missionary work being the Nestorian Stele , a Christian tablet written in Chinese found in China dating to 781 AD. Their most important conversion, however,
5390-447: The Church of the East until the end of the medieval period. The Saint Thomas Christian community of Kerala , India, who according to tradition trace their origins to the evangelizing efforts of Thomas the Apostle , had a long association with the Church of the East. The earliest known organised Christian presence in Kerala dates to 295/300 when Christian settlers and missionaries from Persia headed by Bishop David of Basra settled in
5500-557: The Church of the East was declared to have at its head the bishop of the Persian capital Seleucia-Ctesiphon, who in the acts of the council was referred to as the Grand or Major Metropolitan, and who soon afterward was called the Catholicos of the East. Later, the title of Patriarch was used. The Church of the East had, like other churches, an ordained clergy in the three traditional orders of bishop , priest (or presbyter ), and deacon . Also like other churches, it had an episcopal polity : organisation by dioceses , each headed by
5610-487: The Church of the East, although separated from the State church of the Roman Empire , was not immune to its fashions. One such fashion was to fill in the inevitable gaps in the historical record to trace a succession of bishops in individual dioceses right back to the 1st century, preferably to an apostolic founder. This fashion found particular favour in the case of the diocese of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. The first bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon for whom incontestable evidence exists
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#17328514202535720-401: The East and the Chaldean Catholic Church. The Ancient Church of the East split from the traditionalist patriarchate in 1968. In 2017, the Chaldean Catholic Church had approximately 628,405 members and the Assyrian Church of the East had 323,300 to 380,000, while the Ancient Church of the East had 100,000. Nestorianism is a Christological doctrine that emphasises the distinction between
5830-400: The East , patriarch of Babylon , the catholicose of the East or the grand metropolitan of the East ) is the patriarch , or leader and head bishop (sometimes referred to as Catholicos or universal leader) of the Church of the East . The position dates to the early centuries of Christianity within the Sassanid Empire , and the Church has been known by a variety of names, including
5940-476: The East , the Chaldean Catholic Church , the Maronites , the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church , the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church . The Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated from Hebrew , although the date and circumstances of this are not entirely clear. The translators may have been Syriac-speaking Jews or early Jewish converts to Christianity. The translation may have been done separately for different texts, and
6050-477: The East Syrians in Khanbaliq says that they had 'very beautiful and orderly churches with crosses and images in honour of God and of the saints'. Apart from the references, a painting of a Christian figure discovered by Aurel Stein at the Library Cave of the Mogao Caves in 1908 is probably a representation of Jesus Christ. An illustrated 13th-century Nestorian Peshitta Gospel book written in Estrangela from northern Mesopotamia or Tur Abdin , currently in
6160-452: The East also flourished in the kingdom of the Lakhmids until the Islamic conquest, particularly after the ruler al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir officially converted in c. 592. After the Sasanian Empire was conquered by Muslim Arabs in 644, the newly established Rashidun Caliphate designated the Church of the East as an official dhimmi minority group headed by the Patriarch of the East. As with all other Christian and Jewish groups given
6270-410: The Great , Nestorius , Toma bar Yacoub ). The personal physicians of the Abbasid Caliphs were often Assyrian Christians such as the long serving Bukhtishu dynasty. After the split with the Western World and synthesis with Nestorianism, the Church of the East expanded rapidly due to missionary works during the medieval period. During the period between 500 and 1400 the geographical horizon of
6380-408: The Greek terms φύσις ( physis ) and ὐπόστασις ( hypostasis ), these Syriac words were sometimes taken to mean something other than what was intended; in particular "two qnome " was interpreted as "two individuals". Previously, the Church of the East accepted a certain fluidity of expressions, always within a dyophysite theology, but with Babai's assembly of 612, which canonically sanctioned
6490-494: The Jacobite church are recorded by the continuator of Bar Hebraeus's Ecclesiastical Chronicle between 1358 and 1364, and on each occasion Denha was living in Karamlish. Denha II is conventionally believed to have been succeeded by the patriarchs Shemʿon II , Shemʿon III and Eliya IV , but a 15th-century list of patriarchs mentions only a single patriarch named Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on between Denha II and Eliya IV, and
6600-405: The Mongols (1368) and ejected Christians and other foreign influences from China, and many Mongols in Central Asia converted to Islam . The Muslim Turco-Mongol leader Timur (1336–1405) nearly eradicated the remaining Christians in the Middle East. Nestorian Christianity remained largely confined to communities in Upper Mesopotamia and the Saint Thomas Syrian Christians of the Malabar Coast in
6710-401: The Sasanian Empire and soon also beyond the empire's borders. By the 10th century, the church had between 20 and 30 metropolitan provinces. According to John Foster, in the 9th century there were 25 metropolitans including those in China and India. The Chinese provinces were lost in the 11th century, and in the subsequent centuries other exterior provinces went into decline as well. However, in
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#17328514202536820-411: The Sasanian emperor Khosrau I ; this ended in 545. The church survived these trials under the guidance of Patriarch Aba I , who had converted to Christianity from Zoroastrianism . By the end of the 5th century and the middle of the 6th, the area occupied by the Church of the East included "all the countries to the east and those immediately to the west of the Euphrates", including the Sasanian Empire,
6930-410: The Sri Lankan town of Chilaw most of whom were Christians. King Dathusena's daughter was married to his nephew Migara who is also said to have been a Nestorian Christian, and a commander of the Sinhalese army. Maga Brahmana, a Christian priest of Persian origin is said to have provided advice to King Dathusena on establishing his palace on the Sigiriya Rock . The Anuradhapura Cross discovered in 1912
7040-421: The United States in 1975 and succeeded in 1976 by Dinkha IV Hnanya , the first non-Patriarch of the Church of the East to be appointed not by hereditary succession since the 15th century. Dinkha IV was succeeded by Gewargis III . Following the resignation of Gewargis III on 6 September 2021, he was succeeded by Awa IIl . The recognition of the Mosul patriarch Yohannan VIII Hormizd by the Vatican in 1830 marked
7150-978: The Vatican, but the surviving correspondence does not enable individual patriarchs to be distinguished. The following list of 17th- and 18th-century Qudshanis patriarchs has conventionally been adopted, most recently by Fiey and (provisionally) by Wilmshurst: Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XI (1638–56), Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XII (1656–62), Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XIII Denha (1662–1700), Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XIV Shlemun (1700–40), Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XVI Mikhail Mukhtas (1740–80), and Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XVI Yohannan (1780–1820). These names and reign-dates were first given towards
7260-466: The acts of his synod, was consecrated in February 1318. He was still alive in 1328, but probably died two or three years later, to be succeeded after an uncertain interval by Denha II in 1336/7, who himself died in 1381/2. Denha II is known to have been consecrated in Baghdad, thanks to the patronage of the Christian emir Haggi Togai, but may have been normally resident in the Mosul plain village of Karamlish. Three ceremonial contacts between Denha II and
7370-666: The birth of the Chaldean Catholic Church . Yohannan Hormizd died in 1838, and was succeeded by Joseph VI Audo (1848–1878), [[Nicholas I Zaya|Nicholas I Zay[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) a]] (1840–1847), Eliya Abulyonan (1879–1894), [[Audishu V Khayyath|[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) Abdisho[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) V Khayyat]] (1895–1899), Emmanuel II Thomas (1900–1947), Joseph VII Ghanima (1947–1958), Paul II Cheikho (1958–1989) and Raphael I Bidawid (1989–2003). Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly
7480-419: The bishops of the Sasanian Empire met in council under the leadership of Catholicos Dadishoʿ (421–456) and determined that they would not, henceforth, refer disciplinary or theological problems to any external power, and especially not to any bishop or church council in the Roman Empire . Thus, the Mesopotamian churches did not send representatives to the various church councils attended by representatives of
7590-442: The church had six or so Interior Provinces. In 410, these were listed in the hierarchical order of: Seleucia-Ctesiphon (central Iraq), Beth Lapat (western Iran), Nisibis (on the border between Turkey and Iraq), Prat de Maishan (Basra, southern Iraq), Arbela (Erbil, Kurdistan region of Iraq), and Karka de Beth Slokh (Kirkuk, northeastern Iraq). In addition it had an increasing number of Exterior Provinces further afield within
7700-431: The church to decline sharply in China. A Syrian monk visiting China a few decades later described many churches in ruin. The church disappeared from China in the early 10th century, coinciding with the collapse of the Tang dynasty and the tumult of the next years (the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period ). Patriarch of the Church of the East The patriarch of the Church of the East (also known as patriarch of
7810-416: The church's jurisdiction in India. In the 8th century Patriarch Timothy I organised the community as the Ecclesiastical Province of India , one of the church's Provinces of the Exterior. After this point the Province of India was headed by a metropolitan bishop , provided from Persia, who oversaw a varying number of bishops as well as a native Archdeacon , who had authority over the clergy and also wielded
7920-704: The church's leading bishops to elect a formal Catholicos (leader). Catholicos Isaac was required both to lead the Assyrian Christian community and to answer on its behalf to the Sasanian emperor . Under pressure from the Sasanian Emperor, the Church of the East sought to increasingly distance itself from the Pentarchy (at the time being known as the church of the Eastern Roman Empire ). Therefore, in 424,
8030-625: The decay of the Nestorian hierarchy elsewhere, enduring until the 16th century when the Portuguese arrived in India. With the establishment of Portuguese power in parts of India, the clergy of that empire, in particular members of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), determined to actively bring the Saint Thomas Christians into full communion with Rome under the Latin Church and its Latin liturgical rites . After
8140-683: The definition of the term offered at the Council of Chalcedon of 451. For this reason, the Assyrian Church has never approved the Chalcedonian definition . The theological controversy that followed the Council of Ephesus in 431 proved a turning point in the Christian Church's history. The Council condemned as heretical the Christology of Nestorius , whose reluctance to accord the Virgin Mary
8250-793: The earthly father of Jesus, and given plausible backstories. Fiey also claims these five phantom 'patriarchs' were included in all the later histories of the Church of the East, and by the 12th century their existence was an article of faith for the historian Mari bin Sulaiman. According to Feiy, they are still included by courtesy in the traditional list of patriarchs of the Church of the East , even though most scholars agree that they never existed. However, not all historians and ecclesiastical scholars regard Fiey's opinion to be correct. The patriarch Yahballaha III died in November 1317, probably on Saturday 12 November. His successor Timothy II , according to
8360-467: The eastern Roman Empire . However, the Persian Church faced several severe persecutions, notably during the reign of Shapur II (339–79), from the Zoroastrian majority who accused it of Roman leanings. Shapur II attempted to dismantle the catholicate's structure and put to death some of the clergy including the catholicoi Simeon bar Sabba'e (341), Shahdost (342), and Barba'shmin (346). Afterward,
8470-894: The end of the 19th century by the Anglican missionary William Ainger Wigram. A recently discovered list of Qudshanis patriarchs compiled after the First World War by the bishop Eliya of Alqosh, however, gives a completely different set of dates: Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on X (1600–39); Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XI (1639–53); Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XII (1653–92); Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XIII Denha (1692–1700); and Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XIV Shlemun (1700–17). In 1681
8580-573: The generally accepted ecumenical councils were held earlier: the First Council of Nicaea , in which a Persian bishop took part, in 325, and the First Council of Constantinople in 381. The Church of the East accepted the teaching of these two councils, but ignored the 431 Council and those that followed, seeing them as concerning only the patriarchates of the Roman Empire ( Rome , Constantinople , Alexandria , Antioch , Jerusalem ), all of which were for it " Western Christianity". Theologically ,
8690-565: The heritage of the Church of the East. The Church of the East organized itself initially in the year 410 as the national church of the Sasanian Empire through the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon . In 424, it declared itself independent of the state church of the Roman Empire , which it calls the 'Church of the West'. The Church of the East was headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch of the East seated originally in Seleucia-Ctesiphon , continuing
8800-470: The human and divine natures of Jesus . It was attributed to Nestorius , Patriarch of Constantinople from 428 to 431, whose doctrine represented the culmination of a philosophical current developed by scholars at the School of Antioch , most notably Nestorius's mentor Theodore of Mopsuestia , and stirred controversy when Nestorius publicly challenged the use of the title Theotokos (literally, "Bearer of God ") for Mary, mother of Jesus , suggesting that
8910-541: The latter half of the 20th century, the traditionalist patriarchate of the church underwent a split into two rival patriarchates, namely the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East , which continue to follow the traditional theology and liturgy of the mother church. The Chaldean Catholic Church based in Iraq and the Syro-Malabar Church in India are two Eastern Catholic churches which also claim
9020-431: The metropolitan Isho[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) yahb Bar Mama, who had been natar kursya throughout his reign, is first mentioned as patriarch in a colophon of 1539. Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on VII Isho[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) yahb died on 1 November 1558 and
9130-819: The monastery, which had been abandoned and locked up following a Persian attack in 1743. The information available on Sulaqa and his successors is much less exact. The date of Sulaqa's election in 1552 is not known, but he was confirmed as 'patriarch of Mosul' by the Vatican on 28 April 1553, and was martyred at the beginning of 1555, probably (according to a contemporary poem of [[Abdisho IV Maron|[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) Abdisho[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) IV]]) on 12 January. The date of [[Abdisho IV Maron|[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) Abdisho[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) IV]]’s succession in 1555
9240-506: The next decades, furthering the divide between Roman and Persian Christianity. In 484 the Metropolitan of Nisibis, Barsauma , convened the Synod of Beth Lapat where he publicly accepted Nestorius' mentor, Theodore of Mopsuestia , as a spiritual authority. In 489, when the School of Edessa in Mesopotamia was closed by Byzantine Emperor Zeno for its Nestorian teachings, the school relocated to its original home of Nisibis, becoming again
9350-623: The office of Catholicos lay vacant nearly 20 years (346–363). In 363, under the terms of a peace treaty, Nisibis was ceded to the Persians, causing Ephrem the Syrian , accompanied by a number of teachers, to leave the School of Nisibis for Edessa still in Roman territory. The church grew considerably during the Sasanian period, but the pressure of persecution led the Catholicos, Dadisho I, in 424 to convene
9460-403: The patriarchal family available, he was succeeded by his twelve-year-old nephew Eshai, who was consecrated patriarch on 20 June 1920 under the name [[Shimun XXI Eshai|Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XXI Eshai]]. [[Shimun XXI Eshai|Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XXI Eshai]] was murdered in
9570-520: The primacy of his see over the other Mesopotamian and Persian bishoprics which were grouped together under the Catholicate of Seleucia-Ctesiphon; Papa took the title of Catholicos , or universal leader. This position received an additional title in 410, becoming Catholicos and Patriarch of the East . These early Christian communities in Mesopotamia, Elam, and Fars were reinforced in the 4th and 5th centuries by large-scale deportations of Christians from
9680-559: The region, which forbade any type of depictions of Saints and biblical prophets . As such, the Church was forced to get rid of icons. There is both literary and archaeological evidence for the presence of images in the church. Writing in 1248 from Samarkand , an Armenian official records visiting a local church and seeing an image of Christ and the Magi. John of Cora ( Giovanni di Cori ), Latin bishop of Sultaniya in Persia, writing about 1330 of
9790-508: The region. The Saint Thomas Christians traditionally credit the mission of Thomas of Cana , a Nestorian from the Middle East, with the further expansion of their community. From at least the early 4th century, the Patriarch of the Church of the East provided the Saint Thomas Christians with clergy, holy texts, and ecclesiastical infrastructure. And around 650 Patriarch Ishoyahb III solidified
9900-467: The same status, the church was restricted within the Caliphate, but also given a degree of protection. In order to resist the growing competition from Muslim courts, patriarchs and bishops of the Church of the East developed canon law and adapted the procedures used in the episcopal courts. Nestorians were not permitted to proselytise or attempt to convert Muslims, but their missionaries were otherwise given
10010-532: The standard by the early 5th century. It was often said in the 19th century that the Church of the East was opposed to religious images of any kind. The cult of the image was never as strong in the Syriac Churches as it was in the Byzantine Church , but they were indeed present in the tradition of the Church of the East. Opposition to religious images eventually became the norm due to the rise of Islam in
10120-402: The standard designation for the ancient oriental church which in the past called itself 'The Church of the East', but which today prefers a fuller title 'The Assyrian Church of the East'. Such a designation is not only discourteous to modern members of this venerable church, but also − as this paper aims to show − both inappropriate and misleading". At the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 410,
10230-433: The state authorities in the Roman Empire suppressed Nestorianism, a reason for Christians under Persian rule to favour it and so allay suspicion that their loyalty lay with the hostile Christian-ruled empire. It was in the aftermath of the slightly later Council of Chalcedon (451), that the Church of the East formulated a distinctive theology. The first such formulation was adopted at the Synod of Beth Lapat in 484. This
10340-456: The superior of the monastery of Rabban Hormizd near Alqosh, but were unable to consecrate him as no bishop of metropolitan rank was available, as canonically required. Franciscan missionaries were already at work among the Nestorians, and they persuaded Sulaqa's supporters to legitimize their position by seeking Sulaqa's consecration by Pope Julius III (1550–5). Sulaqa went to Rome, where he made
10450-410: The throne of the Sasanian Empire . The policies of the Sasanian Empire, which encouraged syncretic forms of Christianity, greatly influenced the Church of the East. The early Church had branches that took inspiration from Neo-Platonism, other Near Eastern religions like Judaism , and other forms of Christianity. In 410, the Synod of Seleucia-Ctesiphon , held at the Sasanian capital, allowed
10560-515: The title Theotokos "God-bearer, Mother of God" was taken as evidence that he believed two separate persons (as opposed to two united natures) to be present within Christ. The Sasanian Emperor, hostile to the Byzantines, saw the opportunity to ensure the loyalty of his Christian subjects and lent support to the Nestorian Schism . The Emperor took steps to cement the primacy of the Nestorian party within
10670-495: The title denied Christ's full humanity. He argued that Jesus had two loosely joined natures, the divine Logos and the human Jesus, and proposed Christotokos (literally, "Bearer of the Christ") as a more suitable alternative title. His statements drew criticism from other prominent churchmen, particularly from Cyril , Patriarch of Alexandria , who had a leading part in the Council of Ephesus of 431, which condemned Nestorius for heresy and deposed him as Patriarch. After 431,
10780-563: The title of Catholicos , a Roman designation probably adopted due to its use by the Catholicos of Armenia , though at first it carried no formal recognition. In 409 the Church of the East received state recognition from the Sassanid Emperor Yazdegerd I , and the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon was called, at which the church's hierarchy was formalized. Bishop Mar Isaac was the first to be officially styled Catholicos over all of
10890-491: The traditional East Syrian theology, as a term of pride by many of its defenders [...] and as a neutral and convenient descriptive term by others. Nowadays it is generally felt that the term carries a stigma". Sebastian P. Brock says: "The association between the Church of the East and Nestorius is of a very tenuous nature, and to continue to call that church 'Nestorian' is, from a historical point of view, totally misleading and incorrect – quite apart from being highly offensive and
11000-771: The whole work was probably done by the second century. Most of the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament are found in the Syriac, and the Wisdom of Sirach is held to have been translated from the Hebrew and not from the Septuagint . The New Testament of the Peshitta, which originally excluded certain disputed books ( Second Epistle of Peter , Second Epistle of John , Third Epistle of John , Epistle of Jude , Book of Revelation ), had become
11110-569: Was Papa, who was consecrated around 280. During the 6th century ingenious attempts were made to link Papa with Mari , the legendary apostle of Babylonia. The author of the 6th-century Acts of Mari simply ignored the gap of two and a half centuries that separated the two men and declared that Mari had founded the diocese of Seleucia-Ctesiphon shortly before his death and consecrated Papa as his successor. According to Fiey, later writers were more cunning with their inventions. Shahlufa and Ahadabui , two late-3rd-century bishops of Erbil who had played
11220-623: Was a member of the Church of East, but later joined the miaphysite church of Antioch. Drawing inspiration from Theodore of Mopsuestia , Babai the Great (551−628) expounded, especially in his Book of Union , what became the normative Christology of the Church of the East. He affirmed that the two qnome (a Syriac term, plural of qnoma , not corresponding precisely to Greek φύσις or οὐσία or ὑπόστασις) of Christ are unmixed but eternally united in his single parsopa (from Greek πρόσωπον prosopon "mask, character, person"). As happened also with
11330-490: Was buried in the church of Mart Meskinta in Mosul. Eliya V was succeeded by the patriarch Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on VI (1504–38), who died on 5 August 1538 and was buried in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd. According to the colophon of a contemporary manuscript, the patriarchal throne was still vacant on 19 October 1538. Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on's brother
11440-636: Was buried, like his predecessor, in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd near Alqosh . His reign saw the schism of 1552 that resulted in the creation of the Shimun line in 1553. In 1552 a section of the Church of the East, angered by the appointment of minors to important episcopal positions by the patriarch [[Shemon VII Ishoyahb|Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on VII Isho[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) yahb]], revolted against his authority. The rebels elected in his stead Sulaqa,
11550-531: Was consecrated at an uncanonically early age. Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XIX Benjamin (1903–18) was murdered in the village of Kohnashahr in the Salmas district in 1918, and was succeeded by the feeble [[Shimun XX Paulos|Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on XX Paul]] (1918–20). Paul died only two years after taking office. As there were no other qualified members of
11660-650: Was developed further in the early seventh century, when in an at first successful war against the Byzantine Empire the Sasanid Persian Empire incorporated broad territories populated by West Syrians, many of whom were supporters of the Miaphysite theology of Oriental Orthodoxy which its opponents term "Monophysitism" ( Eutychianism ), the theological view most opposed to Nestorianism. They received support from Khosrow II , influenced by his wife Shirin . Shirin
11770-403: Was no established succession. In 280, Papa bar Aggai was consecrated as Bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon by two visiting bishops, Akha d'abuh' of Arbela and Hai-Beël of Susa , thereby establishing the generally recognized succession. Seleucia-Ctesiphon thus became its own episcopal see , and exerted some de facto control over the wider Persian Christian community. Papa's successors began to use
11880-654: Was of the Saint Thomas Christians of the Malabar Coast in India , who alone escaped the destruction of the church by Timur at the end of the 14th century, and the majority of whom today constitute the largest group who now use the liturgy of the Church of the East , with around 4 million followers in their homeland, in spite of the 17th-century defection to the West Syriac Rite of the Syriac Orthodox Church . The St Thomas Christians were believed by tradition to have been converted by St Thomas, and were in communion with
11990-474: Was still alive. The patriarchal succession after the schism of 1552 is certain in the case of the Mosul patriarchate, because up to the beginning of the 19th century all but one of its patriarchs were buried in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd and their epitaphs, which give the date of their deaths, have survived. Shem[ʿ] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) on VII's successor Eliya VI died on 26 May 1591, after having been
12100-547: Was therefore called the "Nestorian Church" by those of the Roman Imperial church. More recently, the "Nestorian" appellation has been called "a lamentable misnomer", and theologically incorrect by scholars. The Church of the East's declaration in 424 of the independence of its head, the Patriarch of the East , preceded by seven years the 431 Council of Ephesus, which condemned Nestorius and declared that Mary, mother of Jesus , can be described as Mother of God . Two of
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