Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (178 page)

88
B. Green,
The Soteriology of Leo the Great
(Oxford, 2008), ix, and see ibid., 206-8, 221-5, 230-47, 252. For documents in the affair, see Stevenson (ed., 1989), 309-21, 332 - 49.

89
Proceedings, and Nestorius's relation to them, summarized in Stevenson (ed., 1989), 349 - 68.

90
Ibid., 352-3.

91
Baumer, 49-50.

92
On Cyril and
mia physis
, T. G. Weinandy, 'Cyril and the Mystery of the Incarnation', in Weinandy and Keating (eds.),
The Theology of St Cyril of Alexandria
, 23-54. At my interview in October 2008 with His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East (of the Syriac Orthodox Church), I was made aware of his irritation at the 'Miaphysite' label.

PART III: VANISHING FUTURES: EAST AND SOUTH (451-1500)

7: Defying Chalcedon: Asia and Africa (451-622)

1
For an English translation of the Greek version, G. R. Woodward and H. Mattingly (eds.),
St. John Damascene: Barlaam and Ioasaph
(Loeb edn, London and New York, 1914); this edition retains the mistaken attribution to St John of Damascus.

2
On Fairfax,
TLS
, 28 July 2006, 15. For the Georgian version and its transmission, I. V. Abuladze (ed.; tr. D. M. Lang)
The Balavariani (Barlaam and Josaphat): A Tale from the Christian East
(London, 1966), esp. 9, 20-21, 38-9.

3
Frend, 773; for a detailed account of Proterius's troubles and ghastly fate, W. Smith and H. Wace (eds.),
Dictionary of Christian Biography
(4 vols., London, 1877-87), IV, 497 - 500.

4
The word derives from a Syriac word,
malko
- 'imperial', so its origins are not in Egypt.

5
B. A. Pearson, 'Egypt', in Mitchell and Young (eds.), 331-50, at 349. On the Nag Hammadi library and Manichaean papyri from Kellis, see pp. 121-2 and 171.

6
Chadwick, 46.

7
Frend, 809-13.

8
A. Hadjar,
The Church of St. Simeon the Stylite and Other Archaeological Sites in the Mountains of Simeon and Halaqua
(Damascus, [1995]), 24-6.

9
The process is well examined in V. L. Menze,
Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church
(Oxford, 2008).

10
Sundkler and Steed, 30-34.

11
G. M. Browne,
The Old Nubian Martyrdom of Saint George
(
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Subsidia 101
, 1998), 1-2.

12
Our understanding of this people has been revolutionized by the monumental studies by I. Shahid,
Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century
(3 vols. so far, Washington, DC, 1995-2002). On their being written out of Byzantine sources, see ibid. I, i, 32-4.

13
I am indebted to Sebastian Brock for clarifying for me that the name 'Baradeus', often said in modern scholarship to derive from 'bar-Addai', comes from the Syriac
burd'ana
, 'having a horse-cloth (or horse-cloak)'.

14
Frend, 842-8; a more recent extended account is Shahid,
Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century
, I, ii, 744-91.

15
'Syriac' and not 'Syrian' in English: this change was authorized by the Church's Synod in 2000 in order not to cause confusion of identity with the modern nation state called Syria.

16
Shahid,
Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century
, II, i, 165, and ibid., 142-217.

17
J. Boswell,
The Marriage of Likeness: Same-Sex Unions in Pre-modern Europe
(London, 1996), 146-8, 151-4, 375-90, and index refs., s.v. Serge and Bacchus.

18
T. Sizgorich, 'Narrative and Community in Islamic Late Antiquity',
PP
, 185 (November 2004), 9-42, at 18. On Sergiopolis, see also Shahid,
Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century
, II, i, 115-25.

19
C. B. Horn,
Asceticism and Christological Controversy in Fifth-century Palestine: The Career of Peter the Iberian
(Oxford, 2006), esp. Ch. 2. The use of 'Iberia' for Georgia is confusing, since the same word was used by the Romans and remains in use for the western European peninsula which contains Spain and Portugal.

20
Baumer, 71.

21
I. Dorfmann-Lazarev,
Armeniens et Byzantins a l'epoque de Photius: deux debats theologiques apres le triomphe de l'Orthodoxie
(
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium Subsidia
, 117, 2004), 102-29.

22
V. N. Nersessian, 'Armenian Christianity', in Parry (ed.), 23-47, at 29.

23
On its supposed origin, see p. 433.

24
Horn,
Asceticism and Christological Controversy in Fifth-century Palestine
, 393-4.

25
Nersessian, 'Armenian Christianity', 31-2; P. Cowe, 'The Armenians in the Era of the Crusades 1050-1350', in Angold (ed.), 404-29, at 412. For extended discussion of the place of the Cross in Miaphysite theology and devotion, see Horn,
Asceticism and Christological Controversy in Fifth-century Palestine
, Ch. 5.

26
Acts 8.26-40.

27
S. Munro-Hay,
Ethiopia, the Unknown Land: A Cultural and Historical Guide
(London, 2002), 236, 272.

28
A sour relic of the separation of 1951 can be found in that menagerie of Christian pettiness, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Copts then expelled the Ethiopian Christians from the rooms which they had occupied for centuries in the Coptic patriarchate in the church complex. The Ethiopians constructed a makeshift village for themselves a few yards away on the church roof, where they still live in dignified holy poverty, including the transport of all their daily water across courtyards and up two flights of stairs.

29
Munro-Hay,
Ethiopia, the Unknown Land
, 52, and on the lithic bells, cf. ibid., Pl. 50.

30
Sundkler and Steed, 35.

31
S. Munro-Hay,
The Quest for the Ark of the Covenant: The True History of the Tablets of Moses
(London, 2006), 76-9.

32
It will be appreciated that the origins and status of the Falasha are very controversial subjects, but for sensible remarks, see Hastings, 13-16, and on the wider background, ibid., 11-13.

33
On the lateness of the story of Menelik and the Ark, Munro-Hay,
Quest for the Ark of the Covenant
, 126-8, and on the late date for the
tabot
, ibid., 192-4.

34
Baumer, 140-42. Yusuf is called Masruq in Syriac and Dhu-Nuwas in Arabic.

35
Ibid., 141-2. On the dam, M. A. S. Abdel Haleem (tr. and ed.),
The Qur'an: A New Translation
(Oxford, 2004), 273 [34.16].

36
Jenkins, 18, 78.

37
Baumer, 81-4. I am grateful to Sebastian Brock for information on the present-day site of Gondeshapur.

38
On Syriac loanwords and controversy about them, A. Neuwirth, 'The Qur'an and History: A Disputed Relationship',
Journal of Qur'anic Studies
, 5 (2003), 7-10.

39
Baumer, 129. 'Mar' is the Syriac word for 'lord' or 'master' and serves as the equivalent of 'Saint'.

40
Ibid., 91-3.

41
Ibid., 169-70.

42
Ibid., 235.

43
A serviceable translation based on a not wholly satisfactory text is J. W. McCrindle (ed.),
The Christian Topography of Cosmas, an Egyptian Monk
(Hakluyt Society 1st ser. 98, 1897). See esp. ibid., 55-6, 118-20, 351-2.

44
Baumer, 29-30.

45
For cautious remarks on Sigehelm's journey, which may only have been to Rome, and for later misidentification of him with a Bishop of Sherborne of the same name, see D. Pratt, 'The Illnesses of King Alfred the Great',
Anglo-Saxon England
, 30 (2001), 39-90, at 69-70.

46
Sebastian Brock points out to me that despite the Church of the East's deep admiration for Evagrius as a spiritual teacher, it reviles Evagrius's inspiration Origen, condemning what it regards as his irresponsible use of allegory (so foreign to the style of literal biblical scholarship deriving from Antioch), and also seeing his cosmological speculation as dangerous.

47
S. Brock (ed.),
Isaac of Nineveh (Isaac the Syrian): 'The Second Part', Chapters IV-XLI
(Louvain, 1995), 165 [39.6].

48
R. Beulay,
L'enseignement spirituel de Jean de Dalyatha: mystique syro-oriental du VIIIe siecle
(Paris, 1990), 62, 448 (qu. Centuria 1.17, Letter 5.1; my English translations).

49
P. Brown,
The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity
AD
200-1000
(Oxford, 1997), 174, 192.

50
Baumer, 94-5.

51
I am grateful to Martin Palmer, who materially developed earlier scholars' discussions of the monastery, for escorting me around the site and for our discussions about it. Much remains to be investigated at this fascinating place. Previous accounts of the recognition of the monastery site as Christian are in P. Y. Saeki,
The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China
(2nd edn, Tokyo, 1951), 354-99. See also Baumer, 95-8, 179-81.

52
W. A. Kaegi,
Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium
(Cambridge, 2003), 205-7, 212-13.

53
Baumer, 97, 181.

8: Islam: The Great Realignment (622-1500)

1
I. Shahid,
Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century
(Washington, DC, 1989), 350-60.

2
For a good summary of the issues, see A. Neuwirth, 'The Qur'an and History: A Disputed Relationship',
Journal of Qur'anic Studies
, 5 (2003), 1 - 18.

3
Baumer, 144.

4
M. A. S. Abdel Haleem (tr. and ed.),
The Qur'an: A New Translation
(Oxford, 2004), 66 [4.171], and see also ibid., 75 [5.73].

5
M. P. Brown,
The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality and the Scribe
(London, 2003), 319-21.

6
Jenkins, 194-206; see also T. Sizgorich, 'Narrative and Community in Islamic Late Antiquity',
PP
, 185 (November 2004), 9-42.

7
Cf. esp. Haleem (tr. and ed.),
The Qur'an
, 75 [5.82].

8
Z. Karabell,
People of the Book: The Forgotten History of Islam and the West
(London, 2007), 15-16; Haleem (tr. and ed.),
The Qur'an
, 16 [2.142]. The detailed exposition of this case is P. Crone and M. Cook,
Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World
(Cambridge, 1977), 3-34.

9
Haleem (tr. and ed.),
The Qur'an
, 9 [2.62].

10
P. Grossman, 'Neue Funde aus Abu Mina', in E. Dassmann and J. Engemann (eds.),
Akten des XII. Internationalen Kongresses fur Christliche Archaologie
(2 vols. and Register, Munster, 1995), II, 824-32, at 830-32.

11
Crone and Cook,
Hagarism
, is a quirky study which has nevertheless become fundamental to reassessing the nature and impact of the Arab conquests.

12
O. Grabar,
The Dome of the Rock
(Cambridge, MA, 2006), esp. 98-109; Crone and Cook,
Hagarism
, 8. Some sources give other versions of the surrender with a less harmonious takeover.

13
Baumer, 143, 146; see p. 247.

14
For two west Syrian apocalyptic texts of this era (one admittedly controversially dated), ed. and discussed by S. Brock, see A. Palmer (ed.),
The Seventh Century in the West Syrian Chronicles
(Liverpool, 1993), 222-53.

15
Karabell,
People of the Book
, 33-4.

16
Baumer, 151-2.

17
M. Piccirillo, 'The Christians in Palestine during a Time of Transition: 7th-9th Centuries', in A. O'Mahony et al. (eds.),
The Christian Heritage in the Holy Land
(London, 1995), 47-51; M. Piccirillo,
The Mosaics of Jordan
(Amman, 1993), 45-7.

18
M. Smith,
Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East
(London and New York, 1931), 120.

19
Cf. Haleem (tr. and ed.),
The Qur'an
, 75-6 [5.82] and 119 [9.31, 34].

20
Sizgorich, 'Narrative and Community in Islamic Late Antiquity', 27-9, and for a parallel story, 28 n. 47.

21
A. Zachariadou, 'Mount Athos and the Ottomans c. 1350-1550', in Angold (ed.), 154-68, at 155.

22
K. Cragg,
The Arab Christian: A History in the Middle East
(London, 1992), 77-8.

23
Baumer, 148, 153-8.

24
J. M. Bloom,
Paper before Print: The Impact and History of Paper in the Islamic World
(New Haven and London, 2002), esp. 116-23, 135-41. The traditional association of the transfer of paper-making technology with the Battle of Talas in Kyrgyzstan (751) is probably apocryphal: ibid., 42-3.

25
Jenkins, 6.

26
Ibid., 7, 91-2.

27
The inscription is translated in full in P. Y. Saeki,
The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China
(2nd edn, Tokyo, 1951), 53-77, unfortunately not easy to access: an older and less accomplished translation can be found at
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/781nestorian.html
. For useful comment on the political context of the stele, see M. Deeg, 'The Rhetoric of Antiquity: Politico-religious Propaganda in the Nestorian Stele of Chang'an',
Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture
, 1 (2007), 17-30, esp. 27-9. See also Baumer, 179-86. A new discovery of a Tang-era funerary pillar in the former eastern imperial capital of Luoyang in 2006 promises to tell us much more about Dyophysite Chinese Christianity in this era; we await Matteo Nicolini-Zani's forthcoming article on it in
Monumenta Serica
, 2009, and I am grateful to him for sharing his findings with me in advance.