Tag: Syriac

The 6th century Saint’s life of the Nestorian Patriarch, Mar Aba, is an interesting document in that it contains real insights into the political maneouverings at the court of the later Sassanid kings.  The Nestorian patriarch now had a very substantial following in Persia.  Earlier Patriarchs were merely seen as the head of an unpopular sect suspected of treacherous preference for the Byzantine emperor.  But the hostility of the latter towards the Nestorians had removed this problem, and the King of Kings was beginning to see him instead as a possible counter-balance to the sometimes maleficent power of the Zoroastrian clergy.  Keeping the latter busy with theological issues distracted them from plotting.

In chapter 35 we saw that the Magians had induced the King of Kings to imprison the Catholicos again.

36.  The Catholicos boldly raised his voice and said, “Once the King of Kings has made such a decision about me, because of the whisperings of my enemies, (further) words are unnecessary.  He orders my immediate death, and with great joy do I accept death for the truth of Christ.  The Magians persecuted me, an innocent, and imprisoned me for seven years in the power of my persecutors, and sent a renegade to murder me.  But God  in his invincible power rescued me, after I came to the court of his Majesty the King of Kings, and they did violence on me and the people of God, although they fettered me hand and foot and neck as a malefactor, and God the almighty knows that I was dragged away by them by force.  The King of Kings said that he would release me from the fetters, and after he retracted this, and they slandered me before his sublime Majesty, and he finally decided against me, so let him now demand my immediate execution.”

The PSNIK’ went and reported these words to the king.  Then the King of Kings left the Saint alone and said to him in a friendly way, “Go and write letters to the Christians of each province, that, if the insurgents do not settle down peaceably, the sword, bow and arrows will be drawn against them, they will be attacked, and any found fighting will be killed, be they Magian, Jew or Christian.”  After the PSNIK’ brought the message, he undertook to write it.

After this was done, God worked on the King of Kings, and it was suggested to him that he should release the Saint.  And when the King of Kings went into (winter) quarters near the (two) cities, the Saint went with him.

The Magians must have wondered why on earth the monarch kept dithering.

The hagiographical life of Mar Aba continues.

35. While the King of Kings intended that he should remain a few days after his release, and then go to the cities of his throne, Satan stirred up unrest and rioting through the actions of the heathen in Bet Huzaye.  The Magians accused the Blessed One before the King of Kings: “If the Catholicos had wanted, the rioting would not have broken out.”  Immediately he was chained to a foot-soldier (paig) by a strong chain to the neck, and brought to the court of the King of Kings, and everyone believed that he would be executed immediately.  The King of Kings, exasperated through the slander of the Magians, sent word to him by means of his commissioner (Farruchdâd Hôrmîzd) DZ’DGW: “You are an enemy of Our Majesty, and the Christians have become arrogant because of you.  In many cities they have risen up against the noble Magians, beaten and robbed them, and even now are rioting.  You chose bishops and priests and sent them into the provinces, even though you are in prison; but myself you treat as nothing.  Therefore I command that in the morning you will be taken and thrown into a pit, so that you will die there.”

The 6th century “Saint’s Life” of the East Syriac patriarch, Mar Aba, continues.  He has been loaded with chains, and is now being marched along on an expedition that the Sassanid Persian King of Kings is making up-country.  The Persian fire-priests at court are still trying to get him. 

After the Saint had been dragged along in these fetters in the wake of the king for about 400 parasangs, until the King of Kings went down to the (two) cities, he went down also and lived in fetters with his disciples in a house, where by the power of Christ he managed the patriarchate and all its obligations.  Then the King of Kings commanded, in his goodness, that he should be freed;  but the Magians persisted in their usual hostility and left the Saint in his fetters.  Once the King of Kings departed from the (two) cities, he was taken in chains in the wake of the court to a place named PS’I.  After they had tortured and tormented him in these hard fetters and the wonderful beauty of his patience in the fear of God had been revealed, then almighty God, the Lord of All, in his wonderful power, through his inexpressible works, gave an irresistible hint to the mind of the King of Kings, so that he sent and by a miracle loosed the athlete (ἀθλήτης) of Christ from all his fetters.  Then there was great joy in the whole people of God and they offered praise and worship.

How much of this is historical, and how much folk tale, as with all such literature is very hard to tell.  But the interest of this near contemporary account is that the Sassanid monarchy really did change its policy during this period, coming to see the Nestorian Christians as a possible useful counter-balance to the power of the Zoroastrian clergy. 

In this chapter again we see that the King of Kings had no interest in resolving the dispute, but was entirely happy to keep the patriarch dangling in front of the Magians, sometimes offering them some of what they wanted, other times not.  It kept the Magians occupied, rather than engaged in their time-honoured past-time of plotting against the throne.

The hagiographical Life of the East Syriac Catholicos Mar Aba continues thus:

33. After the Mobed spoke thus to the Lordly one, the latter instructed him extensively from the Holy Scriptures on the true faith, the permanence of Christianity, the greatness of the economy of God, about the resurrection and the judgement, about the blessings which are prepared for the righteous in heaven, and the punishments which are prepared for the wicked in eternal hell with Satan and the devils.

When the Mobed heard this, he was seized with amazement and fear; he clapped his hands together at the great manysidedness and invincibility of these thoughts, and he stood up and recognised and praised God.  Then the Lordly one said, “Go and tell them: I am the servant of God and I do not transgress the command of my Lord, who says, ‘Go into all nations and baptise them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.’  I shall not go to eternal Hell with Satan and the devils; I am not afraid of the long agony of passing time, and I do not confuse the true life and eternal blessings with the corruptible (blessings) of this impermanent world.” When the Mobed went and said this to the Magians, they marvelled at the courage of the Lordly one and said, “You see that he does not obey us and does not give way so that we might release him from his fetters.  Now he can only blame himself.”  After a few days, when he was exhausted from his heavy fetters and the effort of (walking) the difficult paths, and had come to a stop in order to rest from the rigours, the Magians brought two pairs of thick, new fetters, took the old ones away, and left him bound with them hand and foot, so that he could no longer get up because of their weight.  He received these joyfully and confessed and praised God.

The hagiographical life of the 6th century East Syriac Catholicos Mar Aba continues.

32.  At the time of the journey, when the King of Kings set out to go to Azerbaijan, the saint was led with him in his fetters, in great discomfort, over mountains and hills, in heat and drought, in thirst and hunger, in much prayer with his disciples.  Wherever they came, the believers welcomed him with great joy and everyone went to his tent as a means of grace and blessing.  Wherever the king camped, believers came from place and asked that the Saint should be released from these harsh restraints.  When the King of Kings came to Azerbaijan and the magians of the place where the Blessed One had been in custody, hearing that he was at court, all came to honour and greet him, weeping that by the removal of the Noble One they had been robbed of such a blessing.  Everywhere they went, wherever the great ones of the Kingdom were, they spoke of his wisdom and manner of life.  The leaders of the magians at court forbade them to say such things about him, until, of the leaders of the magians, Kardag the Ainbed, and Shahrdawer, and Azadsad the Mobedan Mobed, calmed down in their anger against him, because they became ashamed of themselves through the beautiful things which people said about him.  So they told him through a Mobed, “We hear from many people that you are a good and an upright man, and we are anxious that you should be released from your bonds.  Just state publically that you are not opposed to magianism and will not convert (anyone) else to Christianity, and we will immediately release you and you can go wherever you like.”

All this seems rather fictional to me.

31.  Then they bound the saint hand and foot and neck with heavy iron fetters, and covered his face so that no-one would know him and no rebellion would break out, placed him on a mule and handed him over to the mobed who had oversight of the prison at court.  The mobed did as he was commanded and the house in which the blessed one was was guarded by horsemen and foot soldiers.  When the saint heard that zealous believers were hanging about, looking to break open the house, he was very worried and forbade them to remain in the vicinity of the house.  Immediately they left at his command;  but the saint stayed in the prison guarded by God, who had said, “With the righteous am I in distress; I will strengthen and honour him and show him my salvation.”  And although fettered, he consecrated bishops, priests and deacons, strengthened them with blessings and prayers, and sent them out to the provinces.

Here is another chapter of the 6th century hagiographical life of the East Syriac patriarch, Mar Aba I. 

The text is valuable as it was clearly written in the Persian realm, and with knowledge of the political change going on in the mid-6th century.  This is the period in which the Sassanid monarchs begin to see the Nestorian Christians as a possible counter-balance to the power of the Zoroastrian clergy, rather than as alien intruders.  The anti-heretical policies of Justinian, where Mar Aba himself had had to flee from Constantinople, facilitated this change.  

The Magians were always a threat to any ruler on the Persian throne, and Chosroes II can have had no objection to entangling them in endless religious disputes instead.  When Mar Aba died, the same Persian ruler promptly appointed his own man as patriarch rather than allowing an election.

Mar Aba has been in exile.  He has returned, after an assassination attempt, and is now engaged in a political battle at court with the Magians.  The latter are determined to have him executed on one pretext or another if they can; but the King of Kings blows hot and cold on each of their initiatives.

30.  While they devised these things, the Christian people came up and went about everywhere in the belief that he had been crowned^[1], or that he was about to be crowned.  But God in his mercy delivered him from their hands.  By his secret work he inspired one of the great men of the empire to stand up before the King and say, “King of Kings, best of men, may you live in eternity and may your majesty reign forever.  The Christian people who are in your empire are a strong, great people, an innumerable multitude, and also useful for the service of the government.  If this man, their leader, is put to death, it injures them greatly and your empire suffers no small damage.”  When the King of Kings in his benevolence heard this from this man, it pleased him and his whole court, so that they would not hear the petition (τάγμα) of the Magians, and he ordered that the holy one of Christ must not be killed.

We need not doubt that the unnamed noble spoke what he knew the King already wanted to have said in public.

1. ^[1]I.e. martyred.↩

29.  On the morning of the (following) day, when the blessed one in the company of the Christians went to the court in order to thank the King of Kings, the aforementioned magians sought for a way to kill him.  They were afraid to seize him openly on account of the number of believers accompanying him, in case there should be an uproar when they approached him, and decided to send the Rad and the Ainbed to arrest him secretly.  That day there was heavy rain, and so they went into the hunting lodge at a place called the Birdhouse, near the (palace of) the King of Kings.  The magians send to him, as if they wanted to speak to him.  After he entered, they closed the door so that no-one could follow him and said to the blessed one: “Ever since you became a Christian, you have converted many magians into Christians, and you cannot be allowed to live (longer).”  Some said, “He should be thrown to the lions.”  Some said, “He should be strangled.” Others said, “We’ll throw him into a well so that he dies there, without the Christians knowing.”

This seems more like standard hagiographical material to me.  The author has already made clear that the King of Kings is not in favour of extreme measures, and the Magians would certainly not proceed in this way — as has already been seen — without his approval.  So I suspect this chapter is fiction.

But it is hard to tell.  How can we extract useful historical information from texts of this kind, in some kind of structured and objective way?