Arabic Christian Literature

Arabic Christian Literature
By Dr. George Khoury
Dr. Khoury Georges speaks about the contribution of the Melkites,the Jacobites, the Nestorians, The Copts and the Maronites to the ArabChristian Heritage.
The Melkites The Jacobites The Nestorians The Copts TheMaronites
1- Introduction
Arabic at the time of the Abbasids had become a language of full maturity,unchallenged mistress in the school, the mosque, and in the offices ofthe administration. It prevailed in all parts of the Muslim world, notonly as an ornament of great value for the pen, but also as a generousnurse of thought. The Iranians themselves, who later succeeded in givinglife to their nationalism and in reviving anew a literature in Persianlanguage, were unable to garble the Arabic language as a language of scienceand religion. They also had to keep its strong mark on their own vocabularyand on the alphabet. If Baghdad was an aging city hardly a century afterits founding, it was nonetheless under the first Abassids the symbol ofa new civilization and the home of the shining Arabic language which hadbecome a language of thought and culture.
The irruption of foreign nations reached its height during the Abassidcaliphate, with their cultural contributions and their specific gifts tothe social and intellectual life of Arab Islamism. It also provoked a greateffervescence of thought and an intense literary activity which pouredinto the Arabic language and brought about a development of prose. Thevocabulary waxed richer thanks to new terms it borrowed from other cultures;the syntax became suppler, and the style clearer. Literary genres wereeither recovered or created. Ideas, new doctrines and research requiredmore suitable expression.
Thanks to some talented witers of prose there was now a neat prose,eloquent in its simplicity, without affectation or mannerism, fluent andclear, without neither rhymes nor embellishment. From this period of Arabhistory we have works in theology, law, ethics, Qu'ranic exegesis, traditions,philology (i.e., grammar, lexicography, prosody), philosophy, history,geography, the exact sciences, and mystical theology.Topof page
2- The Melkites
Melkites means those Christians who adhered to the Calcidonian faith,451AD,which was supported and defended by the Bysantine Basileus in ConstantinopleConnecting Greek with Syriac as a language of life and as expression ofthought, Arabic became first and little by little the prevailing form andlater the only form of Christian literature in the Melkite community, whereasthe Syriac and Coptic communities kept for a longer time their respectivelanguages. One must distinguish, however, between two literary forms ofArabic in the Melkite literature of this period. This diversity is to beexplained by the destination of Melkite literature.
One form uses the literary language--a language in no way inferior,from the point of view of stylistic purity, to that used by the Muslims.This is used in translating the Greek heritage of philosophy and science,in the chancellories, in the writing of history, and in the Islamo-Christiancontroversies. This literary Arabic is addressed to a Christian as wellas a Muslim elite. It is not contaminated with vernacular dialect nor withforeign terms, except when these are required by technical needs or bythe lively evolution of the language, especially in the field of philosophy.
A second, different Arabic is addressed to the people; this is the languageused in hagiography, ascetic literature, and liturgy. Its users also enjoyeda bilingual education, Greek and Arabic, sometimes trilingual, Greek, Arabic,and Syriac, but its destination was the people and the monasteries. Itsform of expression often deviated from grammatical norms and from syntaxin order to borrow the suppler and livelier forms of the local dialect.Thus it frequently used foreign terms, mostly from Greek and Syriac. Itwas a language half-way between classical and local dialect. Here are someof the most famous and representative Christian Arab writers and thinkerswho issued from the different Christian communities in Syro-Mesopotamiaand Egypt, and who wrote during the Abassid era. This is by no means anexhaustive list.
a) Qusta Ibn Luqa (835-912)
Qusta Ibn Luqa was a Melkite from Baalbeck. He was an eminent translatorand a theoretician of medicine. In addition, he was mathematician, physician,philosopher, apologist, and musician. Of him Ibn an-Nadim says: "Heis an excellent translator; he knew well Greek, Syriac, and Arabic; hetranslated texts and corrected many translations. Many are his medicalwritings." (see Ibn an-Nadim, Fihrist, ed. Fugel, p. 234.) Qusta waswith Hunain Ibn Ishaq the author who best served Greek culture in the Arabcivilization.
b) Al-Bitriq (8th century)
Al-Bitriq lived during the caliphate of al-Mansur (754-775), who commissionedhim to translate numerous ancient medical works. He translated Galian'sSimplicia under the name of al-adwiat al-mufrada; the De Prohibenda Sepulturaand the De Cura Icteri of the pseudo-Galian under the name of Maqala fil-yaraqan. He also works attributed to Hippocrates: De Alimento, Kitabal-gida': De Septimanis, Kitab al-asabi, and he translated the Quadripartusof Ptolemeus, Kitab al-arabi'a. There was also Sa'id ibn al-Bitriq, Patriarchof Alexandria from 933 to 940 and whose works put him on equal footingwith Qusta ibn Luqa. In the field of medicine he wrote Kitab fi t-tibb(lost),in history, Kitab at-tarih al-magmu' ala t-tahqiq wa t-tasdiq, more commonlyknown under the name, Nazam al-gawahar. As apologist, he wrote in defenseof Christianity, Kitab al-gadal baina l-muhalef wa n-nasrani.Topof page
3- The Jacobites
Habib Abu Ra'itah Al-Takriti (early 9th century) is a contemporary anda theological opponent of Theodore Abu Qurrah, Bishop of Harran. He isthe author of four important theological treatise. 1. A letter on the Trinityaddressed to a Muslim and in which he attempts to explain the mystery ofthe Trinity with the help of philosophical concepts of substance, hypostasisand essential attributes, such as life, knowledge, and wisdom, and withnatural analogies, such as light, sun, man. He also quotes the Bible andthe Qur'an. 2. A letter on the Incarnation in which he tries to explainthe mystery of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. Demonstrationof the truth of the Christian religion and of the doctrine of the Trinity.4. Proof of the truth of the Christian religion (however, this treatisemay be inauthentic). There were also Musa al-Hagari (known as Moses BarKepha, died 903), and Al-Harith ibn Sinbat from Harran who were great biblicaltranslators. But the most prestigious among them was Yahya ibn Adi (d.974): philosopher, polemist, and theolgian. His literary corpus comprises40 philosophical treatises, several treatises of apologetics, and his refutationof al-Kindi's refutation of the Christians. He was also a skilled translatorof Plato and Aristotle. Issa ibn Zurah (Baghad, 1008), in addition to beingan apologist and theologian, was also physician, philosopher, and scientist.Yahya ibn Garir from Takrit was physician, astronomer, philosopher, andtheologian. His compendium in theology is call Kitab al-murshid.Topof page
4- The Nestorians
Because of their number and importance in Mesopotamia, the Nestorianscontributed more than any other Christian community to the Christian Arabliterary heritage. Their activity comprises all the literary genres. Inthe first place stands out the Catholicos Timothy 1 (728-823). He was theprotagonist and author of an interesting Muhawarah (debate) with the caliphal-Mahdi (775-785). Next to him stands Abu Nuh Ibn Al-Salt Al-Ambari, translatorof Greek works and author of Tafnid al Qur'an (Refutation of the Qur'an),Maqalat fi al-tawhid and Maqalat fi al-tatlit (Essaya on God's Unity andTrinity). Ammar al-Basri (1st half of the 9th century) was a contemporaryof the Melkite Abu Qurrah and the Jacobite Abu Ra'itah al-Takriti, andof the Nestorian Timothy 1. Al-Basri wrote two apologetics: Book of theDemonstration and the Book of Questions and Answers. Hunayn Ibn Ishaq (808-837)was a famous physician, philosopher, and translator of Greek works underseveral caliphs. He is the author of a Letter to Yahya ibn al-Munaggim.Yahya ibn al-Munaggim was a Muslim who invited Hunayn to convert to Islam.He also wrote a Letter on how to attain to the True Religion in which heshows that Christianity corresponds to the criteria of the true religion.His son Ishaq continued in his father's footsteps as translator and writer.From him we have Maqalah fi al-tawhid (Essay on Unity). There was alsoAbd al-Masih al-Kindi(end of 9th or 10th century) known for his Letterof Abd al-Masih to Abdallah al-Hashimi which became a classic in the annalsof the Islamo-Christian polemics. There were also the members of the Bahtishu'family who, in addition to their medical profession, produced during threecenturies an abundant philosophical and theological literature. Elias ofNisibis (Metropolitan of Nisibis (d. ca. 1049), known also as Elias barSenaya, wrote as a dogmatic theologian two significant theological treatises:Letter on the Unity of the Creator and the Trinity of Persons and Letteron the Creation of the World. As apologist he wrote The Justification ofFaith and Treatise on the Happiness of the Other World. He also bequeathedthe report of Seven Sessions with the vizir al-Magribi. In the field ofexegesis he wrote a Letter on the Difficulties of the Gospel. Another importantfigure in the first half of the 11th century is Abdallah ibn al-Tayyib,physician, commentator of the Greek classics, philosopher and a prolificChristian writer. He wrote several treatises in systematic theology, oneon moral theology and one on law. As biblical commentator he wrote morecommentaries than any other Christian writer.Top of page
5- The Copts
The Copts, who were of the Monophysite faith, adhered to their own languagelonger, and were almost one century later than the other Christian communitiesin expressing themselves in Arabic. Their contribution to the Arab Christianliterature began with a great figure: Bishop of Asmunayn (Upper Egypt)Severus Ibn Al-Muqaffa (d. ca. 987). In theology, he wrote three importantworks: Book of the Exposition, Order of the Priesthood, and Precious Pearl.In apologetics he wrote: Book of the Councils and Brief Explanation ofthe Faith. He is best known though for his monumental History of the PatriarchsfAlexandria which was continued and completed in the 11th century by Michael,bishop of Tinnis and by Mawhub Ibn Mansur, deacon of Alexandria. In the12th centiry the Patriarch Christodule (d. 1077), Cyril Second (d. 1092),and Yunus Ibn Abdalah wrote abundantly in the field of legal and liturgicalliterature. In the 13th century there was Simon Ibn Kalil (d. 1206), authorof a treatise On the Unity of the Creator and of the Trinity. He also wrotea Commentary on the Gospel of St. Mathew and an Introduction to the Psalms.In ascetic theology he left us a beautifully written work, Garden of theHermit and the Consolation of the Solitary. The 13th century was also calledthe century of "Awlad Al-Assal", Al-Safi, Al-Assad, and Al-Mu'taman,who distinguished themselves in this golden century witha rich literaryproduction. Al-Safi was a great treanslator and author of many works, amongthem: Al-Sahahih fi gawab al-nassa'ih (The Correct Answers), and Al-Kitabal-awsat (The Middle Book). Al Mu'taman was a philosopher, theologian,exegete, a homeltic and liturgical writer.Top of page
6- The Maronites
The Maronite community kept longer than the other Christian communitiesto the Syriac language and literature. However, two Maronite names standout during the classical period of Arab patrology. The first is Thomas,bishop of Kafartab, who composed in the 11th century a theological workThe Book of Treatises. The other name is Bishop David who in the 11th centurytranslated from Syriac to Arabic Kitab al-Huda (The Book of Guidance).It is a collection of canons and laws, of liturgical rules and short theologicaltreatise dealing with trinitarian and christological problems. Topof page
The Church of the East
by Mark Dickens
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Students of church history are very familiar with the spread of Christianity westward from Jerusalem. Indeed, most church history is concerned almost exclusively with the movement of the gospel from Palestine to the Greco-Roman world and thence to the rest of Europe (and many centuries later, to the New World). However, it is not common knowledge that the message of Christ also moved eastward at a very early date and indeed there was a thriving church in Asia until the late Middle Ages, long before Catholic (and later, Protestant) missionaries arrived from the West. This article is the story of that church, the Church of the East,[1][1] commonly known as the Nestorian church,[1][2] referred to by Alphonse Mingana, a scholar who worked in the John Rylands Library during the early part of this century, as "the greatest missionary Church that the world has ever produced."[1][3]
It is not known for certain exactly when the first interaction between the gospel and the East occurred. Ancient traditions maintain that the Magi were in fact from Persia. In writing of them, St. John Chrysostom (c. 345-407) said, "The Incarnate Word on coming to the world gave to Persia, in the persons of the Magi, the first manifestations of His mercy and light... so that the Jews themselves learn from the mouths of Persians of the birth of their Messiah."[1][4] Although this cannot be historically verified, we can be sure that Christ's commission to be witnesses "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8) was certainly not intended to limit the church to the West.
It is possible that the seeds of the church in the East were sown as early as the day of Pentecost, since "Parthians, Medes and Elamites [and] residents of Mesopotamia" were amongst those who witnessed the descent of the Holy Spirit on the believers and heard the subsequent sermon of Peter (Acts 2:9). All of these Jews, in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost, were residents of the Persian Empire, the future home of the Church of the East. It is not unlikely that some of them were amongst the three thousand who responded to Peter's message that day, possibly carrying the gospel back to their homes when they returned from Jerusalem. Though there is no definite historical evidence of this, it is probable that many of the early converts in the East were from amongst the Jewish diaspora. There are also ancient traditions, recorded in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, that, of the apostles, "Thomas preached to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Carmanians, Hyrcanians, Bactrians and Magians... Bartholomew is said to have preached in India... Andrew preached to the Scythians, [and] Sogdians."[1][5]
The Book of Acts follows the journeys of Paul westward from Antioch. What it does not tell us is the role that this great church played in the eastward spread of Christianity.[1][6] The church at Antioch became the mother of the Syrian Orthodox Church[1][7] and the Assyrian Church of the East, both of which have used Syriac (a Semitic dialect similar to the Aramaic spoken by Jesus) as their liturgical language throughout their long history as independent ecclesiastical bodies.[1][8]
The first centre of the Syriac-speaking church, before the two bodies separated from each other, was Edessa (modern-day Urfa, in Turkey), 160 miles east of Antioch. An early document called the Doctrine of Addai (written sometime between 390 and 430) tells the story of King Abgar V of Edessa, who apparently converted to Christianity as a result of the ministry of Addai (or Thaddeus), one of the seventy sent out by Christ (Luke 10:1). According to the legend, Addai and Mari, another disciple, were dispatched by the apostle Thomas in response to a letter sent to Jesus himself by the king, requesting healing from his leprosy. Addai healed Abgar, resulting in the conversion of the king and many of his subjects.[1][9] Mari subsequently went on to found a church in Seleucia-Ctesiphon,[1][10] on the Tigris River near Baghdad. Although the story of King Abgar is generally dismissed as unfounded in fact, there were certainly Christians in Edessa by the mid second century, possibly even as early as the late first century.[1][11] During this time, Edessa also seems to have become home to a number of heretical groups, including the Gnostics. The two most prominent Syriac Christian scholars of this era were Tatian (c. 110-180) and Bardaisan (154-222), both of whom appear to have come under the influence of Gnosticism.[1][12]
Edessa in the first century was the capital of Osrhoene, a border state between the Roman and Persian Empires which was located on a tributary of the Euphrates River, whose inhabitants spoke Syriac. After several centuries of being in a vassal relationship with either Rome or Persia, the city became first a Roman colony in 214 and then part of the Persian Empire in 258. While the Roman Empire eventually adopted Christianity, the Persian Empire remained solidly Zoroastrian until the Arab conquest of the seventh century.[1][13] Unlike their western co-religionists, these eastern Christians were never to know anything but life under non-Christian rulers. The emerging Persian church came to be composed of both Syriac-speakers and native Persians, but it was always regarded with suspicion by the Zoroastrian rulers, especially after Rome, Persia's archenemy, became a Christian empire.
According to the Acts of Thomas, written about 200, the roots of the church in India were also laid during the apostolic age, when the apostle Thomas travelled first to northern India and then to the Malabar coast in the south, where he was martyred around AD 72.[1][14] Eusebius (c.275-340) writes of a visit to India by Pantaenus around 180-190, during which this Alexandrine scholar encountered Christians on the Malabar coast.[1][15] A bishop David of Basra (in Persia) was reported to have visited India around 300 and another bishop, John, attended the Council of Nicea in 325 and was recorded as coming from India. Theophilus (a native of either Socotra or the Maldives), an emissary of the Roman Emperor Constantius to Arabia and India, claimed that he encountered Christians in India in 354. We have even more certain evidence of a Christian presence in the area in the Christian Topography, written by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a sixth century Nestorian merchant from Alexandria who describes "Persian" Christians (complete with bishops, priests and deacons) living on "the Island of Taprobane" (Ceylon), "Male" (the Maldives) and "Dioscorides" (Socotra), all islands in the Indian Ocean.
It is certainly possible that Thomas could have reached the subcontinent during the first century. Indeed, in addition to the Acts of Thomas, a number of early Syriac writings, as well as some of the early Church Fathers and the Didache,[1][16] claim that he did.[1][17] Furthermore, coins dating from the first century have been found in northwest India bearing the name of King Gundaphar, the Indian ruler allegedly converted by Thomas, thus demonstrating his historicity. The church that Thomas supposedly founded is still known as the Mar[1][18] Thoma Church and continues to use a Syriac liturgy to this day. The St. Thomas Christians have by and large remained a relatively small minority in the sea of Hinduism that is southern India, however, and for most of their history have been treated as a separate caste by the Indian rulers, thus hindering their efforts to evangelize those around them.[1][19]
By the time that Edessa was incorporated into the Persian Empire, the city of Arbela (modern-day Erbil, in Iraq), located on the Tigris in the Persian province of Adiabene, had taken on more and more the role that Edessa had played in the early years, as a centre from which Christianity spread to the rest of the Persian Empire.[1][20] Bardaisan, writing about 196, speaks of Christians throughout Media, Parthia and Bactria (modern-day Afghanistan)[1][21] and, according to Tertullian (c.160-230), there were already a number of bishoprics within the Persian Empire by 220. By 315, the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon had assumed the title "Catholicos,"[1][22] thus setting the stage for the later development of the church hierarchy. By this time, neither Edessa nor Arbela was the centre of the Church of the East anymore; ecclesiastical authority had moved east to the heart of the Persian Empire. The twin cities of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, well-situated on the main trade routes between East and West, became, in the words of John Stewart, a missionary in India who studied the Nestorians extensively, "a magnificent centre for the missionary church that was entering on its great task of carrying the gospel to the far east."[1][23]
The fourth century brought persecution to the Persian church. In the words of Samuel Moffett, author of the sweeping History of Christianity in Asia, "Persia's priests and rulers cemented their alliance of state and religion in a series of periods of terror that have been called the most massive persecutions of Christians in history."[1][24] By 225, the Sassanid dynasty had replaced the Parthian kingdom. The new rulers were devout Zoroastrians.[1][25] When Constantine converted to Christianity and later declared it to be the official religion of the Roman Empire, the stage was set for the Persian Empire, suspecting a new "enemy within," to become violently anti-Christian. Shapur II (309-379)[1][26] inaugurated a twenty-year long persecution of the church with the murder of Mar Shimun, the Catholicos of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, five bishops and 100 priests on Good Friday, 344, after the Patriarch refused to collect a double tax from the Christians to help the Persian war effort against Rome.[1][27] The next two successors to Mar Shimun also suffered martyrdom. The names of 16,000 martyrs have been preserved, but some estimate that as many as 190,000 were slain during this time.[1][28] Some believers fled to India to join the Malabar Christians. Others moved to Arabia, there to join Christians who had been in the peninsula since at least the third century. There are early reports of a Persian bishopric in Qatar and a Persian monastery was built in Bahrain around 390. At around the same time, Christian influence spread to Yemen. The king of the Himyarites in Yemen was apparently converted in 356 by Theophilus, mentioned above (although the Himyarite monarchs later converted to Judaism). In the early sixth century, the Ethiopians invaded Yemen and, consequently, Monophysitism became the dominant faith in that kingdom.[1][29] In 575, Yemen became a Persian province, as a result of which some Christians there probably became Nestorians. Within a century of Muhammad's death, however, most of the Christians in the Arabian peninsula had been converted to Islam or forced to leave the area. [1][30]
Although the worst of the persecution in Persia was over two decades after it began, it did not come to an end until 399, at the beginning of the reign of Yazdegird I (399-421), thanks to an embassy from the Byzantine Emperor headed by a Mesopotamian bishop. However, as a result of the antagonism of the Zoroastrian priests and the Persian nobility to the growing church, there were subsequent persecutions under Bahram V (421-439), Yazdegird II (439-457), and Khosro I (531-579).[1][31] Under Yazdegird II, 153,000 are said to have been martyred near the city of Karkh (modern-day Kirkuk) in 448. At one point, according to the accounts, a senior officer who was in charge of putting the Christians to death at Karkh was so moved by their courage in the face of suffering that he was converted and chose to join them in death. Although some Christians wanted to maintain ties with the West, the perception of the Persian rulers that the Church of the East was an agent of the Roman Empire intensified the desire of Christians to become autonomous from the Western church. At the same time, the persecutions played a significant role in the subsequent missionary expansion of the church. The fire that the church had gone through purified it and many of its members who were forced to flee for their lives to distant lands ended up sharing the gospel with those they lived among.
Early on, the Church of the East developed a monastic movement, probably introduced by monks from Egypt, where Christian monasticism started.[1][32] The first evidence of this Syrian monasticism was the B'nai Q'yama and the B'nat Q'yama (the Sons and Daughters of the Covenant), an ascetic group which began in the third century and gained ascendancy in the church during the fourth century. In some places, baptism came to be reserved only for those who had renounced the world and made a vow of celibacy. The first actual monasteries were built around 330-340. By the following century, the strict regulations of the B'nai Q'yama and the B'nat Q'yama had been largely laid aside, but monastic communities continued to spread throughout Persia, bound together by an adherence to celibacy, poverty, manual labour, prayer, fasting, study of the scriptures and silence.[1][33]
Monasticism and asceticism were a significant part of the spirituality of the Church of the East throughout the church's long and illustrious presence in Asia, a fact that is noted by some as part of the reason that it ultimately died out.[1][34] Certainly, in a political atmosphere where physical persecution was common, it was tempting to retreat from the world. At the same time, the itinerant monks were also instrumental in the later establishment of Nestorian educational and missionary work. Aziz Atiya, the Coptic author of a masterful overview of the various facets of Eastern Christendom, called them "a powerful army of devotees who strengthened the Church and fearlessly penetrated the vast Asiatic continent in an attempt at large-scale evangelization."[1][35
[1][1] The full name of the modern church is the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East. For simplicity, the terms Church of the East or Persian church will be used for the time before the advent of Nestorian theology and Nestorian church will be used for the time after the adoption of Nestorian doctrine.



[1][2] Several sources were used in the preparation of this article, including Aziz S. Atiya, History of Eastern Christianity (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968), 239-302; Lawrence E. Browne, The Eclipse of Christianity in Asia (New York: Howard Fertig, 1967); Gordon H. Chapman, "Christianity Comes to Asia," in The Church in Asia, ed. by Donald E. Hoke (Chicago: Moody Press, 1975), 181-203; Henry Hill, "The Assyrians: The Church of the East," in Light from the East, ed. by Henry Hill (Toronto: Anglican Book Centre, 1988), 100-131, 163; Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christianity (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953); Alphonse Mingana, The Early Spread of Christianity in Central Asia and the Far East: A New Document, reprinted from The Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Vol. 9, No. 2 (1925); Samuel Hugh Moffett, A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. I: Beginnings to 1500 (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1998); John Stewart, Nestorian Missionary Enterprise (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1928); Robin E. Waterfield, Christians in Persia (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1973); and Nicholas Zernov, Eastern Christendom (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1961). Of these, Moffett's book is the most recent and most in-depth treatment of the Nestorians.



[1][3] Mingana, 53. See full bibliographic details in note 2. Mingana was instrumental in bringing the Nestorians to the attention of the academic world in the early part of this century and, as a result of his work with early manuscripts kept in the John Rylands Library, published several articles in the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library concerning the early spread of Christianity in various parts of Asia.



[1][4] Quoted in Waterfield, 16. A later addition to this tradition was the legend that the visit of the Magi (who were probably Zoroastrian priests) was foretold by Zoroaster himself, who had a vision of a new set of divine laws and principles. "His prophecy stipulated, amongst other things, that a number of Magi from his priestly caste should proceed under the guidance of divine light to the great One who was empowered to rule the whole world" (Atiya, 242-243).



[2][5] John Foxe, Foxe's Christian Martyrs of the World (Uhrichsville: Barbour & Co., 1989), 5-6. There are also early traditions of Thomas preaching in India, about which more will be said below. Apart from India, all the people mentioned by Foxe lived in the territory between Persia and Central Asia. As noted below, Bactria is in modern-day Afghanistan. The Scythians, also known as the Saka, lived on the great steppes which are now located in Kazakhstan, southern Russia and the Ukraine. The Sogdians (or Soghdians) were the original inhabitants of what is now Uzbekistan.



[3][6] When the book of Acts says that "all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord" (19:10 NIV), it is referring of course to the Roman province of Asia, located in modern-day Turkey. However, it is interesting to note that Paul sends greetings to a woman by the name of Persis in his epistle to the Romans (16:12). Her name means "Persian woman" and he describes her as "my dear friend... who has worked very hard in the Lord." Nothing more is known of her. Another interesting scripture which begs the question of whether or not Paul had contact with people to the north and east of the Greek-speaking world is Col. 3:11: "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all." Is it possible that Paul knew some Scythian believers at this early date?



[3][7] This West Syrian Church is one of the Monophysite churches that separated from Rome after the Council of Chalcedon in 451. During the fifth century, a Monophysite bishop of Edessa, Jacob Bardaeus, reorganized the West Syrian church by appointing priests and bishops. As a result, that church has come to be known as the Jacobite church.



[4][8] For more background on the relationship between these two churches, see Atiya, 239-242, 246-252. The division between the two developed during the time of Bishop Rabbula of Edessa (421-435). It was formalized as a result of the East Syrian Church adopting the theology of Nestorius under Bishop Ibas of Edessa (435-457).



[5][9] For a more detailed account of the legend of King Abgar V, see Atiya, 243-245 and Moffett, 47-50.



[6][10] This city was the capital of the Parthian Empire. It was named after Seleucus, one of Alexander the Great's generals, who founded the Seleucid dynasty in Persia after Alexander's death.



[7][11] King Abgar VIII (177-212) was probably a Christian, as evidenced by the appearance of the cross on coins of the time. In addition, an early Christian book of hymns, called the Odes of Solomon, may come from Edessa and may date from as early as AD 80-100 (see Moffett, 52-56 for more details).



[8][12] For more on these two scholars, see Moffett, 64-69 and 72-77.



[9][13] "The religion of Persia was not a dying heathenism, but the highly organised and living religion of Zoroastrianism" (Browne, 2).



[10][14] For more on this tradition, see Moffett, 26-36.



[11][15] Though, interestingly enough, he reported that Bartholomew, not Thomas, had preached to the Indians.



[12][16] Which dates from about AD 80-130.



[13][17] The Syriac document, Doctrine of the Apostles, dating from about 250, states, "India and all its own countries and those bordering on it even to the furthest sea received the apostles' hand of priesthood from Judas Thomas who was guide and ruler in the church which he built there" (quoted in Stewart, 87).



[14][18]Mar is Syriac for "My lord" and is often used for "Reverend" or "Saint."



[15][19] For more information on the St. Thomas Christians, see L.W. Brown, The Indian Christians (Cambridge: CUP, 1982) and Stewart, 85-99. For a discussion of the possible influence of Nestorians on Hinduism in India, see Stewart, 302-304.



[16][20] Various traditions credit the founding of the church in Arbela to Addai, Mari or Aggai, a disciple of Addai.



[17][21] "We are Christians by the one name of the Messiah. As regards our customs our brethren abstain from everything that is contrary to their profession.... Parthian Christians do not take two wives.... Our Bactrian sisters do not practice promiscuity with strangers. Persians do not take their daughters to wife. Medes do not desert their dying relations or bury them alive. Christians in Edessa do not kill their wives or sisters who commit fornication but keep them apart and commit them to the judgement of God. Christians in Hatra do not stone thieves" (quoted in Stewart, 78).



[18][22] The title that was given to the leading bishop in a church outside the Roman Empire. The first Catholicos of the Church of the East was Papa (285-326). Later on, at the Synod of 424, the Catholicos was given the title Patriarch. The other patriarchs in the early church were the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and later Jerusalem.



[19][23] Stewart, 13. See full bibliographic details in note 2.



[20][24] Moffett, 138. See full bibliographic details in note 2. For more on this period, see Moffett, 137-144 and Stewart, 16-35.



[21][25] For a good overview of Zoroastrianism, see Moffett, 106-109.



[22][26] The dates given for the Persian Shahs are their reigns.



[23][27] The patriarch's last words to his flock were, "May the cross of our Lord be the protection of the people of Jesus. May the peace of God be with the servants of God and stablish [sic] your hearts in the faith of Christ, in tribulation and in ease, in life and in death, now and for evermore" (Stewart, 18-19).



[23][28] Moffett, 144.



[23][29] See below for more on Monophysitism.



[24][30] For more background on early Christianity in Arabia, see Atiya, 258-259; Browne, 11-23; Moffett, 273-281 and Stewart, 50-75.



[25][31] The persecutions under Bahram V and Yazdegird II occurred in 420-422 and 445-448, respectively.



[26][32] There is, however, some question as to whether Christian monasticism may have actually started in Syria, rather than Egypt (see Moffett, 76-77).



[27][33] For more on Syrian and Nestorian monasticism, see Atiya, 291-294; Moffett, 77-80, 96-100 and Stewart, 36-49.



[27][34] See, for example, Browne, 64-70.



[27][35] Atiya, 292. See full bibliographic details in note 2.



[27][36] Moffett, 77.



[27][37] Also known as Jacob of Nisibis, he is the first bishop of Nisibis mentioned by name (about 306). He was also a major leader in the development of the monastic movement in the Church of the East and a representative of that church at the Council of Nicea.



[27][38] In the process of translating the Scriptures from Greek into Syriac, the Syrian Christians became very interested in Greek science and philosophy. As a result, the School of Nisibis was modelled after Greek schools. When the school moved back to Persia from Edessa in 489, the Persian Shah Kavad I (488-531) invited some students to start a medical school, along with a hospital, in Jundishapur. The Nestorians, who brought with them Syriac translations of Greek medical and philosophical works, soon came to hold the most prominent positions in the school. When the Arabs captured Jundishapur in 636, they allowed the Nestorians to continue to operate the school and indeed, received their knowledge of Greek medicine and philosophy through these Christian scholars. This later made possible the flowering of Muslim culture under the 'Abbasids, when the school was moved to Baghdad, the seat of the Caliph.



[28][39] Aphrahat was a converted Persian nobleman. For an English translation of the text, see Hill, 126 and Moffett, 130. For more on the teaching of Aphrahat, see Moffett, 125-130 and Stewart, 332-333.



[29][40] For more on the Diatessaron, see Stewart, 331-332 and Moffett, 73-74. Some think that the Diatessaron was the first translation of the Gospels from the Greek originals.



[30][41] For more on the Peshitta, see Stewart, 330-331.



[31][42] For a discussion of this ancient liturgy, including the text in Syriac and a translation in English, see William Macomber, "The Ancient Form of the Anaphora of the Apostles," in East of Byzantium: Syria and Armenia in the Formative Period, ed. by Nina Gargoian, Thomas Mathews and Robert Thomson (Washington, DC: Centre for Byzantine Studies, 1982), 73-88.



[32][43] For more details on Nestorian rituals, see Atiya, 294-297.



[33][44] The jurisdiction of a bishop. Episcopal see cities have a bishop, whereas metropolitan see cities have a metropolitan (archbishop).



[34][45] This was not the first synod of the Church of the East. Papa, the first Catholicos of the church, convened the first synod in 314, but at that time, the ties between the Persian church and the church in the West were much stronger. By 410, they had weakened considerably.



[35][46] Shortly before the Arab conquest, in 628-29, the Jacobites (the Syrian Monophysites) became a separate melet in the Persian Empire. As such, they were no longer considered by the Shah to be under the authority of the Nestorian patriarch.



[36][47] It is not possible in this article to go into the Nestorian controversy in depth. Many theologians who have studied the views of Nestorius are of the opinion that he was not in fact a heretic, but that much of the controversy was the result of politics, misunderstanding, and difficulties in translating words between Syriac and Greek. For more detailed accounts, please consult the following sources: Browne, 6-7, 70-74; Everett Ferguson, Michael P. McHugh and Frederick W. Norris, The Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (New York: Garland Publ., 1990), 644-648; Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, Vol. I: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation (New York: Harper Collins, 1984), 253-261; Latourette, 164-169; George Maloney, "Dialogues Between the Assyrian Church of the East and the Church of Rome," in Diakonia, Vol. 29, No. 3 (1996), 204-214; Moffett, 170-180; Zernov, 58-61.



[37][48] Moffett says of the council, "Its legality is questionable. Its conduct was disgraceful. And its theological verdict, if not overturned, was at least radically amended by the Council of Chalcedon" (175).



[38][49] From exile, he wrote his memoirs, titled The Bazaar of Heracleides. The following quote should suffice to show his disposition while in exile: "Earthly things have little interest for me. I have died to the world and live for Him.... As for Nestorius - let him be anathema!... And would God that all men by anathematizing me might attain to reconciliation with God..." (quoted in Moffett, 168).



[39][50] By this time, there were actually three schools in Edessa. The Nestorians taught at the Persian School, which had moved there from Nisibis.



[40][51] The fact that Nestorians were now regarded by Rome as enemies made them less of a threat to the Sassanids. The antagonism between the Nestorians and the Monophysites was finally resolved in 1142, when there was a formal reconciliation between the Nestorian patriarch and the Jacobite primate.



[41][52] For more on the movement of Nestorian theology into the Persian Church, see Moffett, 187-190, 193-204.



[42][53] As noted above, other important schools were located at Seleucia-Ctesiphon (it later moved to Baghdad), Jundishapur and Merv, where, as late as 1340, a college for "Tatars" (the common term for Turkic-Mongols) was in operation.



[43][54] The Indian Christians formally came under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Nestorian Church in the early fifth century.



[43][55] The Doctrine of the Apostles, written no later than 250, speaks of Christianity spreading to certain tribes southwest of the Caspian Sea (known as Gog and Magog) as early as 120-140, as a result of the work of Aggai, but this is generally dismissed as legend. Mingana speculates that this may be a reference to early Christians among the Turks (8), but this seems unlikely.



[44][56] In Eastern Christianity, the term "metropolitan" is used instead of "archbishop." In general, Nestorian metropolitans had six to twelve bishops under their authority. Another date given for the appointment of a metropolitan for Merv is 554. Note that the dates given for Nestorian patriarchs are for their terms as Catholicos.



[45][57] Some claim that these Huns also heard the gospel through Byzantine captives and Jacobite Christians, but the Nestorians seem to have carried out most of the work. The origin of the Huns is still disputed, though they probably came primarily from Mongol or Turkic stock. In some accounts of this story, they are referred to as Turks.



[46][58] Mingana thinks it was written between 760 and 790 (55-57).



[47][59] Quoted in Mingana, 68-71. See Mingana, 49-73 and Stewart, 138-143 for more on this letter.



[48][60] Melkite (from the Arabic word for "king" since they adhered to the orthodoxy that was accepted in the Roman Empire) refers to those Christians in the East who agreed to the Chalcedonian confession and were therefore neither Monophysite nor Nestorian.



[49][61] For more details, see Waterfield, 46.



[50][62] Moffett, 231.



[51][63] Quoted in Stewart, 90.



[52][64] Some maintain that Nestorian Christianity survives in Tibet in some of the rituals of Lamaism, including the use of holy water and incense. See Atiya, 263. It is not known exactly where the bishop of Tibet had his seat, but some have suggested Tangut, located in the Gansu corridor.



[53][65] Atiya, 287.



[54][66] Atiya, 256-257.



[55][67] During the Sassanid period, Christians came to make up a large portion of the lower and middle classes, including significant numbers of "the mercantile and artisan classes... the civil service... [and] the medical profession" (Wigram, History of the Assyrian Church (London: SPCK, 1910), 230, cited in Moffett, 222).



[56][68] Richard Foltz, Religions of the Silk Road (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), 68.



[57][69] For an example of Nestorian teaching in the late eighth century, see Sidney Griffith, "Theodore Bar Koni's Scholion: A Nestorian Summa Contra Gentiles from the First Abbasid Century," in East of Byzantium: Syria and Armenia in the Formative Period, ed. by Nina Gargoian, Thomas Mathews and Robert Thomson (Washington, DC: Centre for Byzantine Studies, 1982), 53-70.



[58][70] Interestingly enough, it was a Nestorian bishop, Cyrus, who, as civil governor of Egypt, was responsible for handing that country over to the Arabs.



[58][71] In actual fact, the Sassanid monarchy continued on in exile in China from 677 to 707, when the last member of that royal line finally died at the court of the T'ang emperor.



[58][72] This may be in part due to favourable statements in the Qur'an regarding Christians (e.g. Sura 5:85; 9:113), as well as the existence of a covenant that had reputedly been made between Muhammad and the Nestorian patriarch Yeshuyab II (628-643) and confirmed by the Caliph 'Umar I (634-644). The Monophysites in Syria and Egypt were also relieved to see the Arab conquest, which "delivered [them] from the cruelty of the Romans" (quoted in Browne, 40). For more information on the treatment of Christians during the Arab conquest, see Browne, 28-43.



[59][73] Further prohibitions included "criticizing the Muslim religion... adultery with or marrying a Muslim woman, robbing a Muslim, evangelizing a Muslim, or helping the enemies of Islam" (Moffett, 345). For more on what was required of religious minorities, see Browne, 45-47 and Moffett, 344-346, 356-357.



[60][74] The scientific and philosophical works of classical Greece were usually translated first into Syriac and then into Arabic. This work was done primarily in the Dar al-Hikmah ("House of Learning"), established by Caliph al-Ma'mun in 830 and composed primarily of Nestorian scholars. For more information on Nestorian scholars and doctors at the Caliph's court, see Atiya, 270-271 and Moffett, 354-355.



[61][75] Quoted in Moffett, 354.



[62][76] See, for example, Atiya, 271-273.



[63][77] Quoted in Browne, 53. See full bibliographic details in note 2. For more details on the political intrigues of Nestorians who were involved in the Arab court, along with some of the restrictions experienced by the church under the Caliphate, see Atiya, 269-270 and Browne, 53-63.



[64][78] There were also Jacobite (Syrian Monophysite) and Melkite (Byzantine Orthodox) communities in Baghdad, each with their own bishop or metropolitan. These Christians had been brought to Persia under the Sassanids, who had captured them during the periodic wars with Rome.



[65][79] Again, as with the Persian Shahs, the dates given for the Caliphs are for their reigns.



[66][80] Meanwhile, to the west, the Shi'ite Fatimid dynasty had been founded in Egypt in 969. Under the Fatimids, Christians - Nestorian, Jacobite and Melkite - experienced considerable religious tolerance, although there was a short period of persecution under al-Hakim (1009-1020), the "mad caliph."



[67][81] The Breviary of the Syrian Church of Malabar states that "by the means of St. Thomas the Chinese... were converted to the truth" (quoted in Chapman, 196), but there is virtually no historical evidence of this claim. There were probably Nestorians in China as early as the fifth century, but the Nestorian monument gives the first mention of an intentional mission to the Chinese. For more discussion of early stories of Christian influence in China, see Chapman, 196.



[68][82] Mingana argues that it was erected in 779 (37-39). The dating of early Nestorian manuscripts and monuments is made difficult by the fact that Eastern Christians did not use the Western calendar at this time. Dates were reckoned according to the calendars in use by the various regimes they lived under, including the Seleucid calendar used in Persia (which began with the inauguration of Seleucid rule in Syria and Palestine in 312/311 BC), the Muslim calendar used in the Caliphate (using the Hejira, the flight of Muhammad to Medina in AD 632, as a starting point), and the Chinese calendar, which usually dated events relative to the reign of the Chinese Emperor. Many Nestorian documents, as well as certain monuments and gravestones, used the Seleucid calendar, but the method of reckoning the starting point for this method of dating was not always uniform, so the year 0 SE (Seleucid Era) can actually vary from 313 to 309 BC.



[69][83] Some authorities maintain that the monument was discovered in 1623 (see Moffett, 314).



[70][84] Interestingly enough, this was the same year that St. Aidan carried the gospel from Iona to pagan Northumbria. For the Chinese text of the monument, along with an English translation, notes and a lecture, see James Legge, The Nestorian Monument of Hsi-an Fu in Shen-Hsi, China (London: Trubner & Co, 1888, reprinted by Paragon, New York, 1966).



[71][85] One such Christian was Yazdbozid, a married monk from Balkh (modern-day Afghanistan) who was a general in the Chinese army with a reputation for serving the poor and healing the sick.



[72][86] Hill, 108-109. See full bibliographic details in note 2.



[73][87] Waterfield, 45. See full bibliographic details in note 2.



[74][88] Christianity was known in China as the Ta-ch'in religion; Ta-ch'in was the Chinese name for the area around the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, it appears that Christianity was considered a foreign religion throughout the time that it was present in China.



[75][89] Some have also speculated that Persian Christians may have reached Japan in the eighth century, but there is little evidence of any successful evangelization of that land. See P. Y. Saeki, The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China (Tokyo: Maruzen, 1930), 444-447. For more on the demise of Nestorianism in T'ang China, see Moffett, 302-314, where the author examines four possible reasons: religious persecution, theological compromise, cultural foreignness and political dependence on the ruling dynasty.



[76][90] In fact, more coins with Christian symbols have been found near Bukhara than anywhere else in Central Asia. For more information, see A. Naymark, "Christians in pre-Islamic Bukhara: Numismatic Evidence," in Annual Central Eurasian Studies Conference, 1994-1996 (Bloomington, 1996).



[76][91] Transoxania (or Transoxiana) was the ancient Greek name for the region that lay beyond the Oxus River (present-day Uzbekistan).



[77][92] Browne, 95.



[78][93] His name is Syriac for "the cross has conquered."



[79][94] Mingana, 12. Moffett notes "The episcopal seats of some bishops appointed to nomadic tribes were probably only tent chapels mounted on wagons, movable 'cathedrals,' as it were" (448).



[80][95] The first mosque in Bukhara (later to become one of the holiest cities in the Muslim world) was not built until 712, the second one not until 771.



[81][96] Stewart, 84.



[82][97] Moffett, 385. Other sources give the name of Seljuq’s third son as Israel. Since all of these names have their origin in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) and Christians also used Old Testament names, this could indicate either a Jewish or a Christian influence before the Seljuqs converted to Islam when they moved to Bukhara in the late tenth century. In 1055, they captured Baghdad, established the Seljuq Sultanate, and became the official protectors of the Caliphate.



[83][98] The modern-day Kalmuks.



[84][99] According to contemporary accounts, this people-movement appears to have resulted from the work of travelling Nestorian merchants. For more on the story, see Mingana, 15-17 and Stewart, 143-144.



[85][100] The Uighurs had originally adopted Manichaeism as their state religion around 762, while they lived on the Siberian steppe. Conversions to Christianity probably started under the Nestorians of the T'ang dynasty. When they were defeated by the Kirghiz (another Turkic group) and their empire collapsed in 840, they fled west to the Tarim Basin (in modern-day Chinese Turkestan) where they adopted both Buddhism and Christianity before eventually converting to Islam in the mid-tenth century.



[86][101] The modern-day Buriyats.



[87][102] A Nestorian document dating from 1298 indicates that, at that time, this tribe had a Christian queen, called Arangul, the sister of George (probably the Prince George mentioned below).



[88][103] It should be remembered that, even at this time, the distinction between Turks and Mongols was not always clear, since there were so many cultural, linguistic and even physiological similarities between those who belonged to the many Turkic-Mongol tribes. For more on the history of Christianity amongst the Turkic-Mongol tribes, see Stewart, 143-156.



[89][104] The Uighur script, no longer in use, was the basis for the development of the Manchurian and Mongolian scripts, which are still used today. For more on the development of these scripts, see Stewart, 333-337.



[90][105] The cemeteries were discovered in 1885 by Russian explorers. For details of the tombstone inscriptions, see Atiya, 261, Mingana, 39-42 and Stewart, 197-213.



[91][106] Chapman, 194-195. See full bibliographic details in note 2.



[92][107] These Nestorians were later converted to Catholicism by Portuguese explorers in the late fifteenth century.



[93][108] Indeed, the traveler Cosmas Indicopleustes reported meeting Christians in Burma and Siam as early as the sixth century.



[94][109] See Stewart, 100.



[95][110] Pope Urban II issued the call for the First Crusade in 1095, but the Crusaders did not arrive in the Middle East until 1097.



[96][111] The original story of Prester John seems to have been based on a distorted report of the defeat of the Seljuq Sultan Sanjar in 1141 by the Qara-Khitai, a Buddhist empire based in northern China. For more information on the legend of Prester John, see C. F. Beckingham, "The Achievements of Prester John," in Between Islam and Christendom, ed. by C. F. Beckingham (London: SOAS, 1983), 3-24; and Robert Silverberg, The Realm of Prester John (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1972).



[97][112] Commonly rendered Genghiz Khan in the West, the name means "Universal Ruler." The dates given for Chingiz Khan are for his life. The dates given for the other Mongol khans are for their reigns.



[98][113] For a good background to Chingiz Khan's rise to power, see Peter Jackson, tr., The Mission of Friar William Rubruck (London: Hakluyt Society, 1990), 9-11. Toghril Wang Khan may also have been the historical figure on which the legend of Prester John was based.



[99][114] His conquests destroyed cities like Samarkand, Bukhara, Khwarezm, Merv, Balkh, Herat and Nishapur, all important Nestorian centres. For an overview of the destruction unleashed by the Mongols in Nestorian areas, see Stewart, 256-264.



[100][115] Quoted in Stewart, 266. Tartarus is Greek for "hell."



[101][116] See Moffett, 407 for a list of the different missions from the West.



[102][117] For an account of his journey, see Jackson.



[103][118] The Chaghatayid Khanate was one of the divisions of Chingiz Khan's empire, encompassing most of Central Asia and ruled over by the line of Chagatai, his second son.



[104][119] There were also Jacobite bishops in Yarkand and Barkul by this time.



[105][120] For an account of his travels, see Ronald Latham, tr., The Travels of Marco Polo (London: Penguin Books, 1958).



[106][121] The reply of Khan Güyük to the papal bull of Innocent IV, delivered by John of Plano Carpini, is typical: "By the power of Eternal Heaven we are the ruler of all nations and this is our command: if it reaches thee, thou who art the great Pope together with all the Princes shalt come in person to pay us homage and to serve us... How dost thou know that thy words have God's sanction? From the rising of the sun to its setting all lands have been made subject to us. Who could do this contrary to the will of God? Now thou shouldst say with a sincere heart "I will submit and serve you," and we shall recognize thy submission. If thou does not observe God's command we shall know thee as our enemy" (quoted in Zernov, 122).



[107][122] Khan Güyük's chief minister was a Christian named Kaddak, while the chancellor in charge of finances and domestic affairs at Khan Möngke's court was one Bulghai, a Nestorian who was probably from the Kerait tribe.



[108][123] Rubruck writes of the Nestorians that they are "ignorant... they chant like the monks among us who know no grammar... they are completely corrupt... they are usurers and drunkards, and some of them... have several wives... they are all simoniacs [charging a fee for their religious services]... and... have an eye not to spreading the Faith but to making money... the lives of the Mo'als [Mongols]... are more blameless than their own" (Jackson, 163-164).



[109][124] There were also Buddhists and Muslims at the Mongol court.



[110][125] Both Muslim and Christian historians speak highly of her: "If I were to see among the race of women another woman like this, I should say that the race of women was far superior to that of men"; "Among the Tartars this lady is... more powerful than anyone else except [Batu, the khan of the Golden Horde]"; "She was extremely intelligent and able and towered above all the women in the world" (quotes from Moffett, 410, 418). Sorkaktani died in 1252, but she was given the title of "empress" in 1310 in a ceremony that included a Nestorian mass.



[111][126] Only two Dominican friars accompanied the Polos on their second journey to China, both of whom turned back long before the party reached the court of Kublai Khan.



[112][127] Kublai's ultimate choice not to convert to Christianity may have been influenced by his four year civil war with his brother Arik-buka (1260-1264), who was supported by the Nestorians, and the later rebellion of Nayan (1287), a baptized Nestorian who challenged Kublai's rule and went into battle with the cross displayed on his standard. See Browne, 152-154 and Latham, 119-120 for more on why Kublai did not become a Christian.



[113][128] His grandfather had been from Samarkand and had apparently healed one of Chingiz Khan's sons through a combination of prayer and medicine.



[114][129] For more on Christianity under Kublai Khan, see Moffett, 443-456.



[115][130] Latham, 105-106. His Turkic name was probably Gorguz or Korguz. His father had married one of Kublai's daughters and he himself married one of the Khan's granddaughters.



[116][131] Moffett, 451. As noted below, when the Franciscans arrived in the late thirteenth century, George converted to Catholicism, a major coup for the Latin missionaries.



[117][132] However, apparently there were still some Nestorians near "Cathay" as late as 1440, according to Nicolo Conti, who travelled throughout India: "It would seem as if some tribe of the Kerait or the Uighurs had maintained their Christianity till near the middle of the fifteenth century" (Browne, 173). In addition, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci found a very small remnant of Nestorians in Hsi-an-fu in 1608, but there is no reference to them after that date. Some have also speculated that there are remnants of Nestorian Christianity in certain religious movements found in China and Japan (see Stewart, 297-302).



[118][133] Il-khan is Mongolian for "subordinate khan," since these rulers still swore allegiance to the Great Khan in Mongolia (and later China).



[119][134] Hulagu was aided in his conquest of the capital of the Caliphate by Armenian and Georgian Christians.



[120][135] The Muslim historian Rashid al-Din attests to the favour that was shown to the Christians: "To please his princess [Dokuz Khatun] Hulegu heaped favors upon [the Christians] and gave them every token of his regard so that new churches were continually being built and at the gate of dokuz-khatun's ordu [tent] there was always a chapel where bells were rung" (quoted in Moffett, 426).



[121][136]Rabban is Syriac for "monk." His father may have been an advisor to Kublai Khan.



[122][137] For an annotated translation of the Syriac text of their journey and the subsequent mission of Rabban Sauma, see James Montgomery, The History of Yaballaha III (New York: Columbia University Press, 1927). Another translation can be found in E. A. Wallis Budge, The Monks of Kublai Khan, Emperor of China (London: Religious Tract Society, 1928).



[123][138] Like most Christians of that time, the Nestorians held relics in high regard.



[124][139] According to the Syriac History of Yaballaha III, Abaqa greeted the news of Yaballaha's election with these words: "Worthy of admiration is this purity of motive and conscience, and God is with those who seek Him and do His will. This man and his companion have come from the East to go to Jerusalem. This [the election] has happened to them by the will of God. We too serve the will of God and the prayers of the Christians. He shall stand as their head and sit upon the throne" (Montgomery, 45). Although Yaballaha could not speak Syriac, it was a politically wise move to entrust the patriarchate to a Mongol-Turk at a time when the Mongols ruled over most of the lands where Nestorians lived.



[125][140] Although he spent considerable time in conversation with European rulers (including Edward I of England) and church officials, it seems that one of Rabban Sauma's chief interests was viewing the churches, shrines and relics in each place that he visited.



[126][141] Quoted in Zernov, 125-126. For the full text of Rabban Sauma's dialogue with the Roman cardinals, see Montgomery, 57-58.



[127][142] For an outline of the various embassies and diplomatic letters between the Mongols and Europe during the Il-khanate, see Montgomery, 7-10.



[128][143] There is a reference from 1503, after the time of Timur, to the appointment of a metropolitan for Java, but nothing before this time.



[129][144] For more discussion on the possibility of Nestorians in these locations, see Moffett, 459-461.



[130][145] Ghazan's two predecessors, Gaykhatu (1291-1295) and Baydu (1295), had both been favourable to Christians, but neither of them were capable rulers. Upon conversion, Ghazan took the Muslim name Mahmud.



[131][146] In 1310, the Patriarch made his last visit to the Mongol court, saying, "I am wearied with service of the Mongols."



[132][147] For more on the conversion of the Mongols to Islam and the subsequent persecution of the Christians, see Browne, 159-172 and Moffett, 475-480.



[133][148] Montgomery, 24. The chronicler of Yaballaha III reports "there befell division, and civilization was disturbed, and the hordes of the Arabs roused themselves upon the Church and her children for their losses through the father of these Kings [Arghun]" (Montgomery, 80).



[134][149] Montecorvino did not receive this news until 1313, when the bishops dispatched by Rome to consecrate him finally reached China.



[135][150] Other prominent Franciscans who worked with Montecorvino were Andrew of Perugia and Odoric of Pordenone.



[136][151] Whereas the Franciscans headed up the work in China, the Dominicans were entrusted with Persia.



[137][152] This church was to be dedicated to John the Baptist. It is not apparent if this is the same church alluded to by Marco Polo, who had visited the area 50 years earlier and whose Travels had been written 25 years before Thomas reached Central Asia. This seems highly unlikely, unless there had been such a church there previously and Thomas was seeking to rebuild it. At any rate, when Thomas returned to the pope, he was consecrated as the Catholic bishop of Samarkand. In the end, the church was never built. Even after this time, there must still have been Nestorians in the city; there is a Nestorian lectionary in Paris which, according to Mingana, was "written apparently in Samarkand in A.D. 1374" (43), after Timur had consolidated his rule in Transoxiana and established the city as his capital.



[138][153] However, John of Marignolli, the last Catholic bishop of Khanbaliq who actually resided in the city, passed through Almaliq on his way to China around 1340 and was able to build a church, baptize and preach.



[139][154] For more on this second disappearance of the church in China, see Moffett, 471-475.



[140][155] For more on the campaigns of Timur and especially his hatred of Christianity, see Moffett, 483-487 and Stewart, 274-281.



[141][156] At Isfahan, for example, they left 70,000 skulls, at Baghdad, 90,000. An Arab historian of the time, ibn Arabshah, questions how "Muslim" Timur truly was.



[142][157] As Moffett notes, "Asia never produced a Constantine" (505).



[143][158] It should be noted, however, that many Nestorian scholars began to write works in Arabic after the establishment of the Caliphate in Baghdad. In addition, Nestorian hymns and lectionaries have been found that were written in Mongolian and Soghdian (a Persian dialect spoken in Transoxiana), but these seem to be an exception to the rule. See Mingana, 42, 44 and Stewart, 163 for more details.



[144][159] The chronicler of Yaballaha III freely confesses that "the glory of their Church grew... by the great diligence and good management of Mar Yaballaha and his skill in adulation of the royal household" (Montgomery, 76).



[145][160] Quoted in Browne, 85.



[146][161] Browne, 92. For a full discussion of this factor, see Brown, 87-92.



[147][162] Just prior to the return of the Chaldeans to Nestorianism, another branch of the church also made a Catholic profession, thus resulting in two Uniate (i.e. united with Rome) Patriarchates for a short period of time.



[148][163] For more on the probable conversion of many Nestorians in India to Roman Catholicism, see Stewart, 286-294.



[149][164] Quoted in Waterfield, 103.



[150][165] For a good overview of the Nestorian Church since the time of Timur, see Atiya, 277-288.



[151][166] For more on contact with the Catholic Church, see Maloney. For more on contact with the Anglican Church, see Hill, 100-131.



[152][167]Stewart, vii-ix.