Christian Historical Imagination in Late Antique Iraq

320 Pages·2013·2.21 MB·English

OXFORD EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES
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THEOXFORDEARLYCHRISTIANSTUDIESseriesincludesscholarlyvolumeson
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TheAsceticismofIsaacofNineveh
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CreatorandCreationinEarlyChristianTheologyandPiety
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EmbodimentandVirtueinGregoryofNyssa
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The Chronicle of
Seert
Christian Historical Imagination
in Late Antique Iraq
PHILIP WOOD
1
3
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Contents
Preface ix
NotesonTransliterationandTerminology xi
Map xii
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
TheChronicleofSeert 2
ApproachingtheChronicle 4
TrustingtheChronicle 6
TheTextureoftheChronicle 9
StructuresoftheSasanianState 13
ReligionandtheSasanianState 19
GeographyofaChristianMinority 22
Babylonia 23
Khuzistan 25
Assyria 26
1. CollaboratorsandDissidents:WritingtheHagiographies
oftheFifth-centuryPersecutions 31
The410SynodofSeleucia-Ctesiphon 32
TheWarof421andtheNewPersecutions 37
TheMartyrsofYazdegardandVahram 39
Abgar’sCycle:LoyaltyandPersecution 44
TheVandalsRemembered 48
Conclusions 50
2. TheMartyrsandtheCatholicos:TheActsoftheSymeonand
TheirReinvention 52
TheRelicCultandtheInventionofHistory 52
SymeonbarSebbaʿe:MartyrforaChristianPeople 55
DevelopingtheActsofSymeon:AuthorityandtheCatholicos 57
TheActsofSymeonandtheControlofHistory 60
Conclusions 64
3. ThePatriarchalHistories:GenesisofaCentralizingNarrative 66
TheMedievalCompilations:BarHebraeus,Mari,andʿAmr 67
TheMedievalCompilations:TheChronicleofSeertand
theHaddadChronicle 70
Acacius’History 71
vi Contents
TheFifthCenturyintheAcacianHistory 74
TheSchoolofʿAbda 75
MilesandPapas:TheCouncilofDadishoʿ 78
MilesandPapas:TheReconstructionsoftheHistories 84
PapasandDemetrianus:HistoriesofExileand
theRightsofGundishapur 87
Conclusions 91
4. TheChurchandtheWorld 93
ClericalReform:AcaciusandBarsauma 95
ClericalReform:Narsai,Elishe,andtheHistoryofaCrisis 100
TheSchoolofNisibis:Barsauma,Acacius,andChristology 106
TheSchoolofNisibis:NisibeneTheologyinCtesiphon 108
TheChurchandtheShahs:SeekingFavour 112
Conclusions 118
5. RomanEcclesiasticalHistoryintheSasanianWorld:Reception,
Adaptation,andReaction 120
TheExpansioninHistory-writing 121
TheIdentityoftheEcclesiasticalHistorians 122
ANewRomanPast 124
TheDyophysiteFathersandtheReceptionoftheFifth-century
Histories 125
IshoʿyahbIandtheIncorporationofRomanEcclesiasticalHistory 128
NisibisandtheDyophysiteHistoryofBarhadbeshaba 131
ChalcedonintheChurchoftheEast 134
TheAnti-ChalcedonTradition 135
ANestorianChurch 140
Conclusions 142
6. BeyondCtesiphon:MonasteriesandAristocrats
intheChristianHistories 143
AbrahamicMonasticismatIzla 146
MonasticismaftertheHenanianCrisis 149
TheHagiographicCollections:TheBookofChastity 150
TheBookoftheGovernors 153
AuthorityandConflictintheAccountsofBabaitheGreat 156
MonasticHagiographyintheChronicleofSeert:TheCatholicoi
andtheJacobites 160
MonasticFoundationsandIranianAristocracy 163
LocalHagiographiesandIranianPatrons 166
IranianHistoriesandChristianAuthors:TheActsof
MarQardagh 169
IranianHistoriesintheChronicleofSeert 171
Conclusions 174
Contents vii
7. TheLastGreatWarofAntiquity:TheReactionofChristianIraq 176
TheGreatWarbetweenRomeandPersia 177
HistoriographyoftheGreatWar 181
NarrativeFamiliesintheHistoryoftheGreatWar 184
KhusrauandtheChristians 188
TheLifeofSabrishoʿ 189
NuʿmanandSabrishoʿ 192
TheElectionofSabrishoʿ 194
ChristiansinaTimeofWar:TheInvasionofDara 196
ChristiansinaTimeofWar:KhusrauandtheMiaphysites 199
GregoryofNisibis 202
GregoryandtheSackofNisibis 204
TheElectionofGregoryofPherat(605–9) 206
RivalsandSuccessors:ChristianPoliticalIdeasafter612 210
TheFallofJerusalemintheKhuzistanChronicle 211
TheFallofJerusaleminAntiochosStrategos 213
TheMurderofKhusrau 215
TheReignofShahrbaraz 218
Conclusions 219
8. TheChurchofBaghdad:ANewPastforChristianIraq 221
AnIndianSummer 222
TheCatholicoiandtheArabs 224
WritingChristianHistoryunderArabRule 229
TalesofConstantine 232
AnExpandingChurch 236
ANewHistoryofMonasticism:TheNestoriansintheWest 241
RememberingMuhammad:TaxationandNarrativesofSurrender 243
RememberingMuhammad:TheHistoriesofNajran 249
RememberingMuhammad:Christians,Jews,andMuslims 253
Conclusions 255
Conclusions 257
EpiscopalandRegnalLists 262
SynodsoftheChurchoftheEast 265
History-writingintheChurchoftheEast 266
ContentsoftheChronicleofSeert 268
Bibliography 274
Index 299
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Preface
ThisstudyoftheChronicleofSeertgrewoutaseriesofintereststhatdeveloped
while researching my doctorate. While my DPhil was concerned with the
eastern Roman Empire, my eyes were increasingly drawn across the frontier,
to the reception of the ideas, narratives, and institutional structures of the
easternRomanworldintheSasanianEmpire.TheChronicleofSeertstoodout
inparticularasatextthatscholarssometimesmentionedinpassing,butnever
treatedasawhole,letalonesituatingitintoitsSasanianandAbbasidcontexts.
My study of the Chronicle was aided by the opportunity to use a closely
relatedtext,theMukhtasaral-’akhbāral-biʿīya.ThiswasdiscoveredbyFather
˙
Butrus Haddad in Baghdad immediately before the second Iraq war, and
students of Iraqi history should be most indebted to him for bringing this
texttothelightofday.FollowingthecustomofcallingtheKhuzistanChronicle
afteritsdiscoverer,IgnazioGuidi,IhaveusedthetermHaddadChronicle,as
a shorthand reference. In addition, I am personally very grateful to Robert
Hoylandforallowingmetophotocopyhiscopyofthechronicle.
I was very fortunate to be funded by a British Academy postdoctoral
fellowship, which allowed me time to work on this project. I am also very
gratefultoCorpusChristiCollege,Oxford,forprovidingsuchawonderfulbase
for my Junior Research Fellowship and for the membership of the Corpus
Classicscentre.Theywereveryhappyyears.Myfellowshipalsoallowedmeto
startworkonArabic,whichIpursuedinDamascus,andtospendtimeintheSyrian
orthodoxpatriarchalmonasteryatMaʿaratSeidnaya.Thebookwascompletedat
SidneySussexCollege,Cambridge,towhomIalsooweadebtofgratitude.
I have accumulated a great many debts in the course of this project. My
very great thanks go to Averil Cameron, my doctoral supervisor, who read
the whole text in draft and made many highly pertinent observations. James
Howard-Johnston was my British Academy mentor for the fellowship and
was assiduous in offering advice on the text and urging me to remember the
geography of my subject. David Taylor has been helpful and humorous in
equalmeasure,andguidedmeoutofseveralpitfalls,andMazanRabiʿataught
me Arabic for several summers, sitting under the fig tree in his garden in
Damascus:bothhavethepatienceofsaints.
My thanks also goes to Richard Payne and Elizabeth Campbell, who were
travelling companions for trips to Iran, Iraq, and Turkey and offered much
valuable advice. Imust alsothankthevarious poorsouls whoIpersuaded to
readsectionsofthetextinvariousstagesofpreparation,especiallyRosamond
McKitterick,DanielHadas,HarryMunt,PhilBooth,AdamBecker,Khodadad