Church of the East Research Papers (original) (raw)

Kirja-arvio TA:n numerossa 5/2020.

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- Dogmatic theology, Church of the East theology, Nestorianism, Church of the East

وضع نسطور أثناء وجوده بالمنفى رسالة قام فيها بتبرير نفسه ونسبها إلى هيراقليدس الدمشقي، احتراساً من إحراقها. فعرف ايفاغريوس سكولاستيكوس (594–536) بوجودها14. فلم يسلم الكتاب على أصله اليوناني الى أيامنا هذه. بيد ان جاثليق كنيسة المشرق مار أبا الاول الذي ذكره كوزماس انديكوبليفتس باسم باتريكيوس، ساح في رحاب بيزنطية كثيراً في أعوام 525-533 وجلب منها مؤلفات نسطور الى بلاد فارس. وفي اعوام539 -540 تمت ترجمة »كتاب هيراقليدس «الى السريانية فأصبح قسماً من تراث كنيسة المشرق على حين نسيه الغرب نسياناً مطلقا. ...

- by Nikolai Seleznyov
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- Syriac Studies, Syriac Christianity, Church of the East theology, Nestorianism

Vaxt’ang I Gorgasali († 502), re di Kartli (Georgia orientale e meridionale) – la Iberìa delle fonti greco-latine – nella seconda metà del V secolo, ha informato di sé la storia della Georgia e del Caucaso meridionale in generale. È stata indelebile l'impronta da lui lasciata sulla successiva evoluzione sociopolitica e culturale del Paese. Eppure, la sua vita e l'opera, molto celebrate nella storiografia in georgiano, ancora dopo un secolo e mezzo di studi presentano enigmi irrisolti. Nella presente monografia è vagliato, in tutta la sua complessità, il suo operato, con particolare attenzione alla riforma ecclesiastica che, attuata in seguito ad un conflitto sorto tra il re e il vescovo Michele, capo della Chiesa di Kartli, comportò l'istituzione del katholikosato, venendo così a costituire una tappa fondamentale nella storia della Chiesa ortodossa di Georgia. Un'approfondita disamina delle fonti e delle teorie formulate in tempi diversi in merito alla questione porta ad una nuova interpretazione degli avvenimenti. Al tempo stesso essa scaturisce anche, e forse soprattutto, da un approccio diverso alla lettura delle fonti, in particolare, basato sulla contestualizzazione delle fonti locali nel contesto eurasiatico di quel periodo e sulla lettura costantemente parallela dei dati tramandati dagli storici georgiani con la storia delle istituzioni ecclesiastiche. Questa ricerca originale, complessa ed interdisciplinare, propone nuove soluzioni di molte questioni finora oscure non solo della storia politica ed ecclesiastica della Georgia, ma anche della storia dello stesso impero romano d'Oriente della seconda metà del V secolo e della Chiesa siro-orientale, specificamente del titolo gerarchico del suo presule, ossia katholikos.

This article summarizes the comprehensive archaeological excavations of a medieval settlement located in the Ili River valley in southeastern Kazakhstan, which is partially occupied by the modern village of Usharal, Panfilov district near the regional city of Zharkent. The article points to and strengthens the evidence that the site can be identified as medieval Ilibalyk, known in Armenian, Persian and Chinese textual sources of the 12th -14th centuries. The city was located on the left bank of the Ili River, just a two-day trek from ancient Almalyk, the former Chagataid capital of the period, currently located in China near modern Ili, China in the Xinjiang Provence. Numismatic evidence demonstrates the height of occupation occurring from the 11th to the 14th centuries. Beginning in 2016, a team of local and international archaeologists excavated sites both within the city's shahristan (administrative area) as well as discovered a large Christian necropolis (the first ever medieval Christian cemetery found in Kazakhstan) along with gravestones with inscriptions that sheds light on unknown pages in the history of the Church of the East. Excavations are ongoing and are certain to yield further answers concerning the Christian community that inhabited the region and their interactions with broader Central Asia.

- by Steven T . Gilbert and +1
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- Archaeology, Syriac Studies, Central Asia, Old Turkic

Since June 2014 the Chaldean Catholic Church has faced an existential crisis. The recent attacks of the terrorist forces of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have resulted in increasing levels of persecution and forced displacement. This essay reflects on a more secure period in Chaldean history, during which the community made a strong contribution to the development of the modern state of Iraq. Although it was proportionally small in size, the essay will show that the Chaldeans contributed in ways which far outweighed their numbers, especially in the sphere of inter-communal relations.

- by Kristian Girling
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- Religion, Christianity, History, Middle East Studies

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The Lake Urmia region in northwest Iran is one often overlooked not
only in terms of Syriac studies, but also when it comes to Eastern Christianity
and especially art and architecture – not the least because many western
scholars have found the area to be inaccessible. Prior to the First World War
this region was an Assyrian Christian cultural centre and, especially from the
1830s onwards, it witnessed an unprecedented renaissance in terms of original
cultural and literary output. Indeed, the Urmia region stands out as one
where the Assyrians were sufficiently numerous and well off enough to develop
excellent skills as stonecutters, copyists, and builders – especially from the sixteenth century onwards.

- by Nicholas Al-Jeloo
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- Aesthetics, Architecture, Iranian Studies, Islamic Art
- by David Powers
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- Islamic Law, Late Antiquity, Quran, Church of the East

Cette contribution a pour objectif de s’interroger sur l’inculturation du christianisme syriaque en Asie centrale en s’appuyant sur l’exemple des faits archéologiques provenant d’une zone ethnoculturelle particulière : la Sogdiane. Nous visons à déterminer dans quelle mesure l’Église d’Orient d’expression syriaque s’est enracinée dans la culture locale, permettant ainsi aux communautés chrétiennes d’exprimer leur foi de façon matérielle et artistique.
Cet article se divise en deux sections qui présentent, pour la première, un bref aperçu des traces archéologiques de la présence du christianisme dans diverses régions culturelles de l’Asie centrale, ainsi qu’une discussion sur l’église d’Urgut et, pour la seconde, l’iconographie numismatique des monnaies sogdiennes de Boukhara.

- by Barakatullo B Ashurov
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- Iranian Studies, Syriac Studies, Central Asia, Sogdian

10-page English summary of my Finnish language book on Mesopotamian and Iraqi Christian history.

- by Emil Anton
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- Middle East Studies, Iraqi History, Mesopotamia History, Eastern Christianity
- by Charles Stang
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- Eastern Christianity, Church of the East theology, Nestorianism, Church of the East

International conference held in Colombo on 22-23 November 2018

- by Wei Jiang and +8
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- Catholic Missionary History, History of Christianity, South Asian History, Missionary History
- by Philip Wood
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- Economic History, Indian Ocean History, Late Antiquity, Abbasid History

Prior to the sixteenth century, the Assyrian communities of Hakkari were hardly an important part of the Church of the East which, at that time, was a successful missionary institution strongly rooted in the urban centres of Mesopotamia and Persia. With the subsequent emergence, however, of the Hakkari highlands as the Church’s main stronghold, and the home of its sole Patriarchate, the region’s inhabitants additionally began to increase their significance and dominance in its ecclesiastical organisation, literary output and scribal activity. This was more successfully achieved after the traditionalist Patriarchate of Alqosh united with the Chaldean Catholic Church in 1830, severing the reliance of many Hakkari villages upon that major centre. Nevertheless, as isolated and inconsequential as it had been in its earlier history, the Hakkari region produced some of the most interesting and prolific writers of not only the Church of the East, but also the Syriac world as a whole. These were people who penned treatises and discourses, wrote letters, and composed superb metrical homilies of exquisite quality, as well as vital relevance to the ecclesiastical and spiritual corpus not only of the Church of the East, but also of other Christian denominations. This paper will explore the most well-known Assyrian writers and theologians from Hakkari, from Sahdona of Halmon in the seventh century to Rabban Yonan of Tkhuma (died 1886), briefly detailing what little is known of their lives, achievements and literary works, as well as their historical and cultural significance.

- by Nicholas Al-Jeloo
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- Aramaic, Syriac Studies, Syriac Christianity, Syriac literature

A detailed topical outline of "Rainbow Body and Resurrection: Spiritual Attainment, the Dissolution of the Material Body, and the Case of Khenpo A Chö" (2016) by Francis V. Tiso. The Table of Contents of this extensive, expertly-written... more

- by Christopher Barry
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- Chinese Buddhism, Early Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism, Syriac Christianity
- by Robert Carter
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- Christianity, Islamic Archaeology, Arabian Gulf, Persian Gulf

The Luminous Way to the East offers a comprehensive survey of the historical, literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources of the first stage of the Christian mission to China. It explores the complex and multifaceted process of the interaction with the different cultural and religious milieux that the Church of the East experienced in its diffusion throughout Central Asia and into China during the first millennium.
The book provides an overview of the Christian presence in China during the Tang dynasty (618–907) by reconstructing the composition and organization of Christian communities, the geographical location of Christian monasteries, and the related historical events attested by the sources. Through a new and richly annotated English translation of the Chinese Christian texts produced in Tang China, the volume provides a documented look at what was the earliest, and perhaps the most extraordinary, encounter of Christianity with Chinese culture and religions (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism). It shows how East Syriac Christianity in its eastward expansion along the Silk Road from Persia to China was open to the adoption of other languages and imagery and was able to enculturate the Christian teaching into new cultural and religious forms without losing its identity.

- by Matteo Nicolini-Zani
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- Syriac Christianity, Church of the East, Christianity in China, Jingjiao

Scheda di approfondimento sul martirio di quattro francescani in India. Thāṇe è una citta oggi compresa nell'area metropolitana di Mumbai (Bombay). Questo martirio è particolarmente interessante sia per la sua rappresentazione da parte di... more

- by Paolo Aranha
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- Religion, Art History, Medieval History, Hagiography

In this book the author presents 86 selected documents, which provide us with accurate and objective information concerning the schism of Chaldean Bishop Rokos in India, which was only a side effect of the conflicts between the Congregation of Propaganda Fide in Rome and the Chaldean Patriarchate. The book also highlights the origin and development of Chaldean jurisdiction in India, invalid and unlawful suppression of Chaldean authority in the Synod of Diamper in 1599, subsequent Western governance of the Catholic St Thomas Christians who in the course of time were divided under two contrasting and conflicting jurisdictions of Portuguese Padroado and Propaganda Fide, the tragic ecclesial situation of the said Christians and their strenuous efforts to obtain a bishop of their own rite.

- by Prof. Paul Pallath
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- Pope Pius Ix, Church of the East, Propaganda Fide, Assyrian church of the east
- by Mark Dickens
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- Syriac Christianity, Church of the East

Collection of all official agreements and common declarations between the different Oriental Orthodox Churches plus the Church of the East and the Catholic Church existing till to 2013. This publication was the result of a meeting of a small group “Old Friends of PRO ORIENTE” still including the pioneers of ecumenism among the Oriental Orthodox theologians, Their Graces Achbishop Mesrob Krikorian and Metropolitan Mor Gregrorios Yohanna Ibrahim. The visit of Mor Gegorios to Vienna for the 2nd meeting, when the collection of the agreements could already be presented was the last time I have seen him. We had great ideas. We wanted to prepare a round table meeting of all heads of the Oriental Orthodox Churches together with the Pope, in those days still Benedict XVI. But soon everything changed. Pope Benedict retired, Pope Amba Shenuda passed away, Mor Gregorios was kidnapped. Soon also the patriarchs in Damascus and in Addis Abbeba changed and also Archbishop Krikorian left us. So the collection of agreements may be the lasting result of this hopefully started initiative. – An Ethiopian translation of this collection was started 2016, its presentation was to take place in December 2018. But appearently this did not yet happen. – Unfortunally I have to apologize for many typing errors, which I was not able to correct in this PDF to be uploaded.

Works concerning astrology and divination comprise one of the least studied Syriac literary genres. The most common of these is that simply titled Spar-Sammané (Book of Medicines). It is a work which arouses strong feelings of mystery in most Assyrians today, with a great number of original manuscripts jealously guarded by their owners from inquisitive eyes. The Spar-Sammané exists in many different recensions and versions, with most manuscripts originating from northern Iraq and southeast Turkey – largely within an East Syriac milieu. At the present time, an uncritical edition of only one manuscript has ever been published and translated into English – by Sir E.A. Wallis Budge in 1913. The translation of another version into Neo-Aramaic was published in Chicago during the 1990s. Between September and December 2009 this writer has, for the first time, managed to document and digitise eight versions of this book in Classical Syriac and Neo-Aramaic, still kept in private collections which he was given access to in Dohuk (Iraq) and villages of the Khabur region (Syria). The aim of this paper will be to provide an introduction on Syriac literature concerning astrology and divination, an overview of the different versions known to exist in both manuscript and print form, and will briefly touch on some of what is contained in different versions of the Spar-Sammané.

- by Nicholas Al-Jeloo
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- Aramaic, Astrology, Medical Astrology, History of Astrology

This dissertation seeks to examine changes in the identity of the Church of the East over a span of several centuries particularly in relation to events and experiences undergone by this church body in its own milieu. It aims to do this through the analysis of key texts by or about prominent church figures and secondary texts which establish the context for these men in each of three separate time periods. The figures under investigation are Mar Babai the Great at the turn of the 7th century during the last years of the Sassanid Empire, Catholicos Timothy I in the height of Abbasid Culture at the turn of the 9th Century, and Mar Yaballaha III during the Pax Mongolica at the end of the 13th century. This dissertation asserts that these men acted as representatives of their churchmen in their day, and that said representation, judging by the esteem in which they were held, extended to subsequent generations. Because of this, an analysis of their milieu and their responses to it provided in their writings grants insight into their corporate identity in their respective time periods, and what variations exist can be described as identity shifts. In this way, this dissertation establishes that the Church of the East in the Sassanid period was working to establish an identity as the Church of the Persian Empire, in distinction from that of the Romans, and furthermore, due to their lofty connections, they were highly anticipating the acceptance of their faith by the leadership of their empire. By the time of Timothy, a century and a half later, due to the religious inclinations of their new political masters, such aspirations were at least in part abandoned locally, but at the further extents of the
church’s reach, a greater degree of freedom was granted its members. This freedom contributed to the state of the Church of the East in the final period, where distant unexpected church members came home at the head of an army to establish a kingdom, and Church of the East leadership understandably interpreted this to mean that they might finally have a Christian king. Such aspirations proved short lived. This dissertation shows that there were a number of Church of the East identity points that shifted over the centuries, but two stand out as prominent: 1. their relationship with their political rulers including the role their ecclesiastical group played in society, and 2. the role of missionary outreach in the life of their church.

- by Andrew Platt
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- Church of the East

The text and translation of the selected letters presented here (twenty-one in all) forms part of a hitherto unpublished corpus of letters in Syriac, Neo-Aramaic and Arabic written and sent during the 1880’s from Mosul to Berlin by Gabriel Jeremiah Shāmīr to Carl Eduard Sachau. The former was a local Assyrian book-collector and copyist whilst the latter was a renowned Orientalist and prolific scholar who edited and translated many Syriac and Arabic works.

- by Nicholas Al-Jeloo
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- Arabic Literature, Aramaic Dialectology, Arabic, Aramaic

Proceedings of the first international conference on the traces of the Church of the East and her Christian doctrine – Jingjiao – in medieval China, held in Salzburg/Austria 2006. – In this upload are copied only the table of contence, the preface by Peter Hofrichter and the introduction to this volume by Roman Malek. - My dear friend fr. Roman SVD went to God on November 29th 2019. We thank so much to him. Requiescat in pace!

- by Peter L Hofrichter
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- Chinese Religions, Early Christianity, Missionary History, East Asian Studies

The “Book of Sessions” (Kitāb al-majālis) of Elias of Nisibis, Metropolitan of the Church of the East (975–1046), with his Muslim vis-à-vis, vizier Abū ʾl-Qāsim al-Maghribī (981–1027), is a remarkable example of the Christian Arabic literature of the 11th c.—the time of the flowering of the Arabic culture. In the present edition, it is compared with the “Epistle” of Elias to the vizier and some documents that reveal the history of the creation of the “Book” are also taken into consideration.

- by Aaron Butts
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- Arabic Literature, Arabic Language and Linguistics, Arabic, Arab Christian Studies
- by Philip Wood
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- Cultural History, Religious Conversion, Minority Studies, Church of the East
- by Mark Dickens
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- Christianity, History of Christianity, Central Asian Studies, Central Asia (History)
- by James Toma
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- Canon Law, Patristics, Legal History, Law and Religion

This article argues that the Chronicle of Seert preserves an ʿAbbāsidera re-imagination of the correspondence between the Prophet Muh  ammad and the Christians of the Arabian Peninsula. These narratives were responses to Muslim efforts to produce consistent rules for non-Muslims in the caliphate with regard to tax levels and political rights. They draw on knowledge of the Qurʾān and the Sīra to assert better rights for Christians that were rooted in alleged historical precedents.

- by Philip Wood
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- Abbasid History, Abbasid Intellectual History, Syriac Christianity, Nestorianism

"Нэстоор чулуу" хэмээгддэг тус гэрэлт хөшөө МЭ 635 онд Христийн Дорнын Чуулган Хятадад байгуулагдаж, энэ хөшөөг босгосон 781 он хүртэл цэцэглэн хөгжиж ирснийг алдаршуулан тэмдэглэсэн байдаг бөгөөд Ази дахь христитгэлийн түүхийн хамгийн чухал баримтуудын нэг юм. Тус нийтлэлд гэрэлт хөшөөний бичээсийг бүрнээр нь монгол хэл рүү орчууллаа. Цаашлаад, 7, 8-р зуунаас Монгол нутагт түгэн дэлгэрсэн христитгэлтэй ямар уялдаа холбоо, харилцаа байгааг хөндөн үзлээ.

- by Bayarjargal Garamtseren and +1
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- Church of the East, Nestorian Christianity, Christianity in China, Christianity In Mongolia

The Church of the East, even if it was outside the Byzantine Empire and did not take part in the Christological discussions and controversies there, could not be silent. Our analysis of the Christological statements and professions of faith shows the reaction of this Church to the Christological controversies. These statements demonstrate this Church’s own progress in Christological thought, its way of responding to the most important Christological questions, in two different Christological currents: the qnomâ-parúopâ current and the two-qnomê current. This analysis could help scholars understand better the development of the Christology of this Church before the assembly of bishops in 612 and her “Nestorianization,” namely, the doctrine of two kyanê (natures) and two qnomê (hypostases) in the one parsopâ (persona) of Christ. This analysis could also assist scholars who study the Christology of the Church of the East after the year 612, since the controversy between the two different Christological currents did not stop with the victory of the two-qnomê movement in 612.

- by Bishara Ebeid
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- Christology, Syriac Studies, Dogmatic theology, Syriac Christianity

This article sets out the layers of the (c.10/11) Chronicle of Seert. I argue that there were bursts of activity by historians in the Church of the East in c.410, c.480 and c.530, and then consistently from the mid-sixth century. While early phases produced a core narrative centred around the catholicoi, from the late sixth century historians sought to juxtapose the deeds of catholicoi with those of scholars, Roman churchmen, Persian shahs, Roman emperors and monastic founders. I gather the scanty evidence for individual historians such as Bar Sahde and Daniel Bar Maryam. I conclude by classifying different sections of the Chronicle according to source type. This is the pre-print version.

- by Philip Wood
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- Iraqi History, Syriac Studies, Sasanian History, Ecclesiastical History

The uncovering of a church and monastery on Sir Bani Yas Island off the coast of Abu Dhabi in 1994 was a discovery of international importance. Subsequent archaeological surveys and excavations have provided us with a fascinating insight into the Church of the East within the Arabian Gulf. The history of this period can be told by the many interesting finds from these excavations and from those in adjacent regions.

Статья посвящена проблеме рецепции Первого собрания сочинений известного аскетического писателя Церкви Востока Исаака, епископа Ниневийского, христианами других конфессий. Исследование разделено на три части, первая из которых представляет собой критический обзор этой проблемы в научной литературе. Автор исследования ставит целью подробно проанализировать проблему рецепции Первого собрания св. Исаака за пределами Церкви Востока и выявить малоизученные аспекты той трансформации, в результате которой подвижник Церкви Востока стал одним из наиболее авторитетных святых для Сиро-Халкидонской, Сиро-Яковитской, а впоследствии Греко-Православной и прочих поместных Православных Церквей. На основании проведённого исследования автор делает вывод о том, что в своем историческом развитии исследование вопроса о конфессиональной принадлежности св. Исаака прошло несколько этапов. Первый характеризуется безусловным доверием к интерполированному яковитскому житию. Переход ко второму этапу произошёл после нахождения и публикации в 1892 г. «Книги целомудрия» Ишоʿднаха, епископа Басрского, и безоговорочном принятии аутентичности сообщаемых им сведений о св. Исааке. После этого события в науке утвердился консенсус о принадлежности св. Исаака к Церкви Востока, который нашёл дополнительное подтверждение в текстологическом и богословском анализе Первого собрания. Вслед за этим встал вопрос о том, кто стоит за созданием альтернативной редакции, в которой большая часть элементов, указывающих на несторианское происхождение автора, была нивелирована.
П. Беджан и большинство исследователей вслед за ним считали, что за искажением стояли сиро-яковиты. Позиция же И. Осэрра, утверждавшего, что это могли сделать только мелькиты, оставалась без внимания вплоть до 2016 г., когда Г. М. Кессель, независимо от Осэрра, убедительно доказал истинность данного утверждения. После этого дискуссия по вопросу адаптации аскетических сочинений св. Исаака перешла на этап прояснения различных деталей трансформации первого собрания св. Исаака при пересечении конфессиональных границ.

- by Алексей Макаров
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- Syriac Studies, Syriac Christianity, Isaac of Nineveh, Nestorianism
- by Klaus Koschorke
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- World History, Connected History, Global History, Church History