Nicholas Al-Jeloo
Without doubt, much of what we know about the demographic makeup of the medieval Middle East and its geography comes from contemporary texts in the various languages of the area. In Syriac literature, however, there are no specific geographical texts, and the amount of historical works is limited to a known few chronographies and general chronicles, mostly West Syriac, that have already been well documented. What remains for the curious scholar, therefore, is the option of scouring colophons, many of which have been studied in detail, as well as narrative genres, particularly hagiographies, much of which are set in real locations. Indeed, this latter group of literary works is one that has been seldom touched upon beyond the ground-breaking work of pioneers such as the late Fr. Jean-Maurice Fiey. Moreover, the most significant of such texts for northern Mesopotamia is undoubtedly the Book of Governors, a monastic history of the Bēth-‘Āvē monastery (near modern-day ‘Aqrah), authored by Mār Thomas, bishop of Margā, in the ninth century.[1]
One hagiographical text that has thus been studied, and the critical translation of which is available in at least two languages, is the Vita of tenth-century monastic saint Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā.[2] This narrative, written in the voice of the saint’s disciple, Rabbān John, son of Khaldūn of Mosul, is quite long and contains much more than a historical account of his master’s life and activities. Beginning with a highly philosophical introduction, each chapter of the text similarly begins with its own philosophical prelude which introduces the narrative that follows. Indeed, due to the complex language utilised and concepts referred to in this text, it becomes apparent to the reader that it was one written at the end of the golden age of Syriac literature, and during the zenith of that of Islamic civilisation. As such, it can be considered a high-level masterpiece of Syriac literature and, along with the Book of Governors, vital reading for all those wishing to understand monastic life in the Church of the East, as well as the geography, demography and socio-cultural situation in ninth- and tenth-century northern Mesopotamia.
Surviving Manuscript Witnesses and Published Editions
Whereas the Vita of Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā is largely an obscure text today, evidence shows that it was once considered a Syriac literary staple and it held distinction among the vast corpus of literature belonging to the Church of the East. We observe, therefore, that in 1298, some three centuries after it had originally been composed, Mār ‘Avd-Īsho‘ Bar-Brīkhā (d. 1318), metropolitan of Nisibis and Armenia, included it in his metrical “Catalogue of Syriac Books and Writers” – an invaluable repository of information concerning works of Syriac literary heritage and their authors, including many that are now fragmentary or lost. Later, in 1312, Mār ‘Avd-Īsho‘ translated this catalogue into Arabic, making its contents accessible to those who could not read Syriac. In 1725, the catalogue was published at Rome with a Latin translation by Joseph-Simon Assemani in the Bibliotheca Orientalis. For over a century and a half, however, this text was the only idea Western scholars had of the existence of Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā’s Vita. The relevant passage, in an English translation by Anglican missionary Rev. George Percy Badger (1852), reads as follows: “Yohanan bar Keldon wrote a valuable work called ‘Busnâya,’ another on the Most Beautiful, and a third on the Merchandize of the Monks.”[3] At the same time, the text was known among the Church of the East’s adherents in southern India. As such, research conducted in the Syriac manuscript archives of the Christian communities there has shown that a very metaphysical version of the Life of Joseph Busnāyā was among the high-level East Syriac literature read and copied by the learned elite, besides the prayer books, in the second half of the sixteenth century, under the administration of Mār Abraham (c. 1556-1597), the Church of the East’s last metropolitan of Angamaly.[4] Subsequently, this work (under the name “The book of John Barialdan” [sic]) appears to have been one of the 20 “heretical” books decreed banned by the Portuguese-imposed Synod of Diamper (Udayamperoor) in 1599.[5] As a result, all extant copies of these books which were found were destroyed.
The text of Rabbān John Bar-Khaldūn’s Syriac Vita of his master Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā has survived today in at least 12 documented manuscripts. Unsurprisingly, all of these are from the Middle East. The oldest of these is now kept in the Vatican Library (MS Syr 467), and was acquired sometime between 1831 and 1897. It was copied at the St. Elijah of Ḥīrthā monastery near Mosul in 1186, and additionally includes the only extant metrical homily about Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā, composed in the eleventh century by Savr-Īsho‘ of Nisibis (f. 223r-230v). Some missing folios in the manuscript were supplemented according to another codex possessed by the Rabbān Hormīzd Monastery, which itself was copied from the former when it was still complete.[6] An undated note in this manuscript (80v.[02.fn.0000]), mentions that it was the property of Catholicos-Patriarch Mār Elīyā VI (1558-1591), son of the priest George of the Māmā family. Moreover, it was from this copy that Fr. Samuel Giamil of Tell-Kēpē, procurator general of the Chaldean Patriarchate of Babylon at Rome, copied a manuscript for French scholar Jean-Baptiste Chabot in June 1897. On the other hand, the manuscript from Rabbān Hormīzd Monastery might have either been the Vorlage or the same as the one at Our Lady Guardian of Plants Monastery near Alqosh, catalogued by Fr. Jacobus-Maria Vosté in 1929. This one (cod. 195) was copied for Rabbān Hormīzd Monastery by the deacon ‘Īsa, son of Isaiah, son of the deacon Cyriacus, originally from Iqror but now residing at Alqosh, and completed on 11 April 1879.[7] Since then it is believed that this manuscript has now gone missing. In turn, it definitely appears to have been the Vorlage for three other copies made in the 1950s at the Our Lady Guardian of Plants Monastery. All three of these later ended up in the collection of the St. Anthony Chaldean Catholic Monastery at al-Dawrah, Baghdad. Two were copied by the monk Louis, son of Paul Ḥanonā of Kārimlish – one in 1950 (Dawra Syr. 550) and the other was completed on 14 November 1959 (Dawra Syr. 549). The third of these was copied by the monk Dād-Īsho‘, son of the deacon David Shim‘on Kikhwah of Kārimlish, and completed on 22 February 1951 (Dawra Syr. 548).[8]
Other manuscripts of the Vita include one personally consulted by Fr. Yoḥannān Chūlāgh for his Arabic translation which appeared “very old.” This belonged to the private collection of the late Fr. Nonā of Alqosh. Another manuscript he consulted was copied in 1907 by Hormīzd, son of the priest Thomas, son of the deacon Hormīzd, son of Bā‘ūth of Ashīthā (modern-day Çığlı), and belonged to the private collection of the deacon George of Karanjoq, near Alqosh.[9] The current whereabouts of both these manuscripts are unknown. Apart from these, there are four other witnesses to the text. One of these, copied in the late nineteenth century from an original written in 1599/1600, is kept at the Jenks Collection of Cambridge University Library (Or. 1315).[10] Another can be found in the Mingana Collection at the Selly Oak College Library of the University of Birmingham (Syr. 66). This was completed on Saturday 22 October 1893 by the deacon Francis, son of George, son of Francis, son of the deacon Joseph of the Mērē family, for the deacon Nimrod, son of the deacon Joseph, son of the priest Anthony Rassām of Mosul.[11] Yet another manuscript, copied in 1889, is kept at the Library of the Catholic University of America in Washington DC (Syr. 11).[12] On the other hand, the copy that I have largely consulted to write this article (while comparing with the existing translations and the oldest manuscript witness, which is kept in the Vatican and is available to view online on the Digital Vatican Library website) is kept at the Chaldean Patriarchate in Baghdad and represents the newest witness to the text in question (CPB Syr. 193). It was completed on 2 June 1965 by Joseph Qirmizā of Kārimlish, originally of the Jammā family of Alqosh, at the Chaldean Patriarchal Seminary in Baghdad, and had been commissioned by Fr. Michael Īsho‘ for the personal readership of Patriarch Mār Paul II Sheikho.[13]
The first person to publish a translation of Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā’s Vita was French Roman Catholic priest Jean-Baptiste Chabot, who did so in a series of eight articles published in Revue de l’Orient Chrétien between 1897 and 1900.[14] Afterward, this series was published as a single volume.[15] Chabot, however, only consulted one manuscript of the text, and the final article in his series includes an epilogue and preface which present minimal analysis of it. The only other translation of the text is in Arabic, published by Chaldean Catholic priest Fr. Yoḥannān Chūlāgh at Baghdad in 1983/4.[16] His introduction includes explanations regarding the manuscripts consulted, Chabot’s translation, the book itself, its author, Rabbān Joseph, Bēth-Ṣayyārē Monastery and the present Arabic edition. In addition to consulting Chabot’s previous French translation, Fr. Chūlāgh also referred to extant manuscript witnesses in the private collections of Fr. Nonā of Alqosh and the deacon George of Karanjoq, as well as Dawra Syr. 548. The latest major study of the text which, however, does not include a translation, is a volume published last year by Ralph Barczok, who explores everyday life in the monastery, its economic basis, as well as the relationship of the monks to their Christian and non-Christian environment, and analyses these in the context of its historical situation.[17] The manuscripts consulted by Barczok, though, appear to be the oldest witness that is in the Vatican, the one at Cambridge, as well as one in the possession of a family from Alqosh (possibly that of Fr. Nonā?). Unfortunately, I have not been able to obtain a copy of the book and have no knowledge of German, so it is largely inaccessible to me. Others who have studied the text of Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā’s Vita are Fr. Ugo Zanetti, who presented a critical reading of the hagiography as an account of the saint’s life, Vincent van Vossel, who used it as an example of East Syriac monastic spirituality at the beginning of the middle ages, as well as Joel Thomas Walker, who has written generally about ascetic literacy in the East Syriac monastic tradition.[18] Clearly, what is lacking is a critical edition of the Syriac text itself, as well as a translation and analysis of it in English, in order for it to reach a wider audience.
Who was Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā?
According to the text of his Vita, Rabbān Joseph was born in the village of Bābūsā[19] around the year 869, to parents Yaqqīrā and ‘Amrūnah.[20] At the age of 30, after his father’s death, Joseph went to the Rabbān Hormīzd Monastery to become a monk, having been preceded by his younger brother Gabriel. During his 30 years of service at the monastery, Rabbān Joseph spent his first four years as a novice, followed by 12 of solitary contemplation as a recluse. During his novitiate, he was trained by Rabbān Mārān-Zkhā. He would also go to the monastery of Rabbān Apnī-Mārān to receive instruction from Rabbān Īsho‘ of Kūmātheh,[21] as well as the Monastery of St. Īsho‘-Yāhv to be instructed by Rabbān Shūvḥā-l-Īsho‘.[22] Later, he would travel to the Upper Monastery of St. Gabriel,[23] just outside Mosul, first to receive instruction, but later as an instructor himself, as his knowledge and experience increased. Due to his fame as a spiritual man having spread throughout the Church, he was chosen for various higher offices including metropolitan of Nisibis (modern-day Nusaybin) and bishop of Ḥdattā,[24] both of which he refused. The Metropolitan of Mosul even sent his suffragan, Mār ‘Avd-Īsho‘ bishop of Ma‘althāyē (Kurdish: Malta Nasara), to convince Rabbān Joseph to reconsider his refusal. It was at this time that the monk made one of his first prophecies, addressing the bishop as “Catholicos-Patriarch,” a rank to which Mār ‘Avd-Īsho‘ was elected in 963 AD. After this, Joseph was chosen to take his place as bishop for Nūhadrā and Ma‘althāyē, but he reacted by escaping to the mountain behind the monastery of St. Abraham Bar-Dashandād at Shamrakh, until another candidate was elected to fill the vacant position.[25]
In the meantime, Rabbān Joseph’s brother Gabriel had left Rabbān Hormīzd for the Monastery of St. Abraham the Penitent at Bēth-Ṣayyārē. There, he became the sacristan and later the abbot. The rest of the saint’s family also joined the monastic life, with his two younger brothers Shūvḥā-l-Mārān and Brīkh-Īsho‘ becoming monks at Rabbān Hormīzd, their sister dying as an unmarried young woman, and their mother becoming a nun and being cared for by Rabbān Joseph at his cell until her death. A year after Gabriel’s death at Bēth-Ṣayyārē in c. 938, Joseph was convinced by the new abbot, Rabbān Moses, to move there, which he reluctantly accepted. Once there, the saint contributed to the monastery’s fame and prestige, with people coming or sending letters from as far away as Baghdad and Babylonia[26] to consult with, seek healing and receive blessings from him – even the now Catholicos-Patriarch Mār ‘Avd-Īsho‘ I (963-986). It was during this time that the monastery reached its zenith, growing to include a population of 300 monks, including 150 recluses, and it was also when the saint received the author of the Vita as his disciple.
Historical Details from the Text of the Vita
According to John Bar-Khaldūn’s Vita of Rabbān Joseph, he died on 4 September 979, at the age of 110, and was buried in the martyrion of the Bēth-Ṣayyārē Monastery, alongside its founder and former abbots.[27] This was a year and four months after the Persian Dailamite King Panāh-Khisro invaded, provoking the “king of Mosul” to engage in battle with him; a fight in which the former proved victorious. In fact, Panāh-Khisro (936-983) was the greatest monarch of the Buyid or Buwayhid dynasty, of Dailamite origin, which ruled over central and southern Iran, as well as Iraq, between 934 and 1062. He initially ruled the Emirate of Fars from its capital Shiraz, but eventually united all the Buyid emirates, creating an empire that stretched from the Byzantine frontier in Syria to the borders of Khorasan, and from Oman to the Caspian Sea. These conquests, however, had been instigated by a rebellion against him led by his paternal first cousin, Emir of Iraq Bakhtīyār ‘Izz al-Dawlah (943-978), who had created an alliance with Panāh-Khisro’s own brother, Emir of Hamadan Fakhr al-Dawlah (952-997), Hamdanid ruler of northern Mesopotamia Abū Taghlib (r. 967-979), Kurdish ruler Ḥasanwayh Barezkānī and ‘Imrān ibn Shahīn, ruler of southern Iraq’s marshes.[28]
With their fathers, who had founded the system of Buyid emirates, all having died, ‘Izz al-Dawlah refused to recognise and openly contested his cousin’s officially conferred priority among Buyid rulers, doing this by stopping mention of him at public prayers in Iraq. ‘Izz al-Dawlah was first defeated by Panāh-Khisro at Ahwaz in 977 and obtained permission from him to retreat and establish himself in Syria. On his way, however, Abū Taghlib persuaded him to fight his cousin again, resulting in the battle of Qaṣr al-Jaṣṣ near Samarra on 29 May 978, where ‘Izz al-Dawlah was again defeated, but this time captured and executed.[29] Panāh-Khisro then advanced on and occupied the Hamdanid stronghold of Mosul, which the Buyids held onto for more than a decade, forcing Abū Taghlib to flee first to Nisibis, then Mayyāfarqīn (Silvan), then to Arzān and the mountains of Armenia, Harput, Āmid (Diyarbakır), al-Raḥbah and finally to the Fatimid-controlled part of Syria.[30] There, he tried to secure governorship of Damascus and various other areas, becoming involved in local rivalries between the Fatimids and local elites, creating even more enemies for himself. This resulted in his defeat in battle and execution on 29 August 979, effectively ending the Hamdanid dynasty and its rule over northern Mesopotamia.[31] It is worth noting that, by this time, the once powerful ‘Abbasid caliphs had been reduced to serving a purely ceremonial religious function, rather than affecting any real leadership.
After the death of Rabbān Joseph, the author of his Vita mentions that Kartwāyūthā (ܟܲܪܬ̇ܘܵܝܘܼܬ̣ܵܐ, Kurdish domination) and Ta‘lwāyūthā (ܬܲܥܠܘܵܝܘܼܬ̣ܵܐ, Taghlibite domination) reigned over “these lands” – presumably Ṣapnā, Dāsan, Margā and Bēth-Nūhadrā, which are most frequently mentioned in the text.[32] As a result, churches, monasteries and villages were destroyed, and the monks in them were scattered everywhere.[33] Particularly traumatic for the author was the destruction of Dāsan, in which innumerable inhabitants were killed by the “evil ones” who lived there, something which had already been predicted by Rabbān Joseph. Indeed, its people were scattered while about 5,000 of them were killed by the Kartwāyē (ܟܲܪ̈ܬ̇ܘܵܝܹܐ, Kurds) who are called Hakkarāyē (ܗܲܟܵܪ̈ܵܝܹܐ, Hakkarians). He does mention, however, that Dāsan was rebuilt again, as per the saintly Rabbān’s prophecies. Thus, it is quite conceivable, just as Assyrians have often been caught in the crossfire of larger conflicts which didn’t directly concern them, that this was the case in the wake of the Buyid conquest of Hamdanid territories and the resulting power vacuum. This, coupled with the dissolution of ʿAbbasid power already in 945, allowed various Kurdish tribes to become semi-independent and extend their control over certain areas.
What does the Rest of the Text of the Vita Contain?
Following the six chapters concerning the life of Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā, the text continues with the seventh chapter which describes, in short, the lives and miracles of a number of other contemporaneous monks from the monasteries of Rabbān Hormīzd and Bēth-Ṣayyārē. These include Rabbān John of Ḥēlāptā, his disciple Rabbān Jonah, an unnamed ascetic from Rabbān Hormīzd Monastery, Rabbān Īsho‘ Bar-Nūn, Rabbān Īsho‘ of Kūmātheh,[34] Rabbān Shūvḥā-l-Īsho‘, Rabbān Moses of Bēth-Ṣayyārē, Rabbān ‘Avd-Īsho‘, St. Rabbān Athqin the Noisy, Rabbān John of Dāsan and Rabbān Gabriel the Sacristan. This is followed by a brief history of the Bēth-Ṣayyārē Monastery and the most well-known monks who resided in it. The eighth chapter, which forms a considerable part of the text, concerns the teachings of Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā to those who dedicated themselves to becoming monks. Among the topics he instructs upon are solitude, fasting, naziritehood, service, vigils, study, prayer, prostration and genuflection, humility, quiet, kindness and self-contempt, voluntary renunciation of worldly goods, mercy, love, knowledge, ascetic work, the solitude of leaping, and other topics. This is quite a significant text, since monasticism has long died out in the modern Church of the East, and it provides an important perspective on how, in particular, monks spent their lives in contemplation and rules they would have followed.[35] Indeed, among the works mentioned in the text of the Vita as having been widely read at the time are those of prolific and well-known authors such as Catholicos-Patriarchs Mār Īsho‘-Yāhv of Arzon (582-595) and Mār Ḥnān-Īsho‘ I (686-698), as well as saints Mār Isaac of Nineveh (613-700) and Joseph Ḥazzāyā (eighth century), who wrote extensively about the liturgy, mysticism, asceticism and monastic life. Finally, the ninth chapter concerns the death and burial of Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā and it is followed by the epilogue and colophon.
The Bēth–Ṣayyārē (ܒܹܝܬ̣ ܨܲܝܵܪܹ̈ܐ) Monastery
This monastic establishment, the name of which means “house of the painters,” was founded by St. Abraham the Penitent in the fourth century and is not to be confused with the medieval village and monastery of Bēth-Ṣayyādē (ܒܹܝܬ̣ ܨܲܝܵܕܹ̈ܐ, i.e., “house of the hunters”) near Erbil. This saint was, in turn, a disciple of St. Eugene, who had come from Egypt and founded a monastery on Mount Izla above Nisibis, introducing the Egyptian model of coenobitic monasticism to Mesopotamia. St. Abraham built his monastery at a place called Zāwīthā (known by local Assyrians as Zēwīthā and by Kurds as Zēwā Pīramūs), which is to the west of Bāmarnē.[36] It was later abandoned, however, and by the seventh century, when Rabbān Joseph of Dāsan passed by with his disciples, on their way to build their own monastery at Īnishk, all they found there was a heap of ruins.[37] Probably sometime in the ninth century, a group of monks from the Mār Savr-Īsho‘ Monastery at Bēth-Qoqā came and rehabilitated Bēth-Ṣayyārē.[38] In fact, this was not the only link between the two monasteries, and we know that another group of monks from Bēth-Qoqā visited Bēth-Ṣayyārē during the abbotship of Rabbān Moses in the first half of the tenth century, as they were building a water-powered mill for the monastery on the nearby Ṣapnā River.[39] This is quite significant, since the former is over 100 km south-southwest, as the crow flies, from the latter.
One of the disciples of the monks who re-established Bēth-Ṣayyārē was Rabbān Bar-Yaldā, who later became the monastery’s abbot, however, an unnamed army came to it and the monks were again scattered.[40] Rabbān Bar-Yaldā fled to the Monastery of Rabbān Bokhtyazd at Kurkhē in the region of Zawzān, where he met Rabbān Moses (d. 947), whom he took as his disciple. Together, they returned to Bēth-Ṣayyārē and restored the monastery, after which it reached its height of fame. According to the text, there were 60 monks at the monastery during Rabbān Bar-Yaldā’s abbotship, but this number had grown to 300 under that of Rabbān Moses, making Bēth-Ṣayyārē a sort of “upper Jerusalem,” since it had more recluses than any other monastery at the time.[41] After this, and within the first quarter of the tenth century, a group of armed Hakkarians came to Bēth-Ṣayyārē to plunder it. In fear, all of the monastery’s monks fled to the nearby mountain. One of them, however, namely Rabbān John of Dāsan, chose to remain. When the attackers entered and found him praying in his cell, they were overcome with awe and did not proceed with their plans to plunder the monastery.[42] Later on, the Bēth-Ṣayyārē community was joined by Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā, who arrived a year after the death of his brother Gabriel the Sacristan in c. 938.
The text of Rabbān Joseph’s Vita provides the names of other monks who served at Bēth-Ṣayyārē during this time. These are particularly interesting for two main reasons. Firstly, they confirm the existence of Christian Assyrian communities at certain places during this period. Secondly, they also show how far away the monastery’s influence reached and how far people were willing to travel to devote themselves to the ascetic life there. Thus, we find the mention of Rabbān Israel of Tinn, 2 km to the south, and Rabbān David of Bēth-Murdnī (Bāmarnē), 2 km to the east.[43] Another monk from Bēth-Murdnī, who is described as being evil, returned home and took off his habit, but he was killed while out hunting when he accidentally ran onto a double-ended spear that he had thrown, and was pierced by it.[44] At least four monks, Rabbān ‘Avd-Īsho‘, Rabbān John, Rabbān David and Rabbān Ḥnān-Īsho‘, came from the neighbouring Dāsan district, while two monks, Rabbān Sāhdā and Rabbān Īsho‘ came from the village of Minyānish in Lower Ṭyārē, 30 km to the northeast.[45] We also find reference made to Rabbān Jacob Shāhāyā, i.e., of Shāhe, which is in the mountain to the north of the Naḥlā valley, 55 km to the southeast.[46] Additionally, two monks came from much further afield. We thus read of Rabbān Īsho‘ of Ḥdattā, about 130 km to the south, below the junction of the Great Zab River with the Tigris, and Rabbān Gabriel of Ṭāron, a district 130 km to the northeast around the village of Mār Beh-Īsho‘, on the modern Turkish-Iranian border. Finally two monks come from unidentified locations – Rabbān Bar-Ḥadhbshabbā Ḥumaydāyā and Rabbān Isaac Shīzorāyā.[47]
Contact and Movement between Monasteries
While it is commonly known that the Church of the East, at the time in which the Vita of Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā was written possessed many monasteries in different places where its adherents lived, not much is known about how they interacted with each other. From the Vita, however, we can see that contacts between monks at different monasteries, as well as the movement of monks from one monastery to another, was quite common. As we have already seen, Rabbān Joseph himself moved from the Rabbān Hormīzd Monastery to that of Bēth-Ṣayyārē, where he lived for the rest of his life. However, he had extensive contacts with certain monks at the monasteries of Rabbān Apnī-Mārān, St. Īsho‘-Yāhv and St. Gabriel, from whom he received instruction and advice. He also spent some time at the monastery of St. Abraham in the mountain of Shamrakh, and received correspondences from one of the monasteries founded by St. John of Dailam. Finally, his funeral was attended by monks from the previously mentioned monasteries of Rabbān Hormīzd (40 km away), St. Īsho‘-Yahv (35 km away) and Shamrakh (20 km away), but also from those of Rabbān Joseph at Īnishk (11 km away) and Rabbān Qayyoma.[48] In fact, we also know that the funeral of the abbot Moses was attended by a monk from the monastery of Rabbān Qayyomā named Rabbān ‘Avd-Īsho‘.[49] Neither were these links solely between monasteries occupied by monks; we thus find one instance in the text where the monk Rabbān Īsho‘-Raḥmeh was sent from Bēth-Ṣayyārē to Balad (Eski Mosul) and stayed for a night in the Dayrā d-Bnāth–Qyāmā (ܕܲܝܪܵܐ ܕܒ̈ܢܵܬ̣ ܩܝܵܡܵܐ, lit. “Monastery of the Daughters of the Covenant”), that is, a convent of nuns.[50]
Indeed, from the text of Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā’s Vita, we can gather that, by the tenth century, Rabbān Hormīzd Monastery had begun to surpass that of Bēth-‘Āvē as being a centre from which monks would go out and either found new monasteries or rehabilitate old ones. For instance, Rabbān Īsho‘ of Ḥēlāptā began his monastic life at Rabbān Hormīzd, then left to be a solitary in the mountain of Kūmātheh for some time before retiring at the Rabbān Apnī-Mārān Monastery.[51] There, he provided advice and instruction to Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā, who would visit him from Rabbān Hormīzd. Additionally, Rabbān John of the Ḥēlāptā in Margā also began his monastic training at Rabbān Hormīzd, then left to reside at Dayrā d-Rēshā (ܕܲܝܪܵܐ ܕܪܹܫܵܐ, i.e., Monastery of the Head), in which Rabbān Hormīzd himself had lived with Rabbān Jehozadak, prior to them establishing their own monasteries in the mountains of Alqosh and Qardo respectively.[52] Moreover, we read about Rabbān Shūvḥā-l-Īsho‘, who was a disciple of Rabbān John at Rabbān Hormīzd Monastery. He then left for that of Rabbān Īsho‘-Yāhv where he spent many years before dying at the monastery built in the eighth century by Abbā Joseph of Shahrizor near Awānā opposite Balad.[53] Finally, reference is made to Rabbān Apnī-Mārān Bar-Kartwāyē (i.e., the son of Kurds), who resided in the unidentified mountain of Gidron and was often visited by the monks of Rabbān Hormīzd Monastery. He later died and was buried in the monastery of Bēth-Qoqā.[54]
Later on, it appears that monks from the Bēth-Ṣayyārē monastery would also depart to restore older monastic establishments. A prime example given is that of Rabbān ‘Avd-Īsho‘ of Dāsan, who went to rehabilitate and live in the Rabbān Joseph Monastery at Īnishk. As mentioned earlier, this was founded in the seventh century by Rabbān Joseph of Dāsan – not Rabbān Joseph Busnāyā as other scholars have posited.[55] The former, according to Īsho‘-Dnaḥ of Basrah (c. 860), was a disciple of St. Jacob the Visionary, a former monk of Bēth-‘Āvē, prior to the latter’s departure for the St. Īsho‘-Yāhv Monastery, which now bears his name.[56] At any rate, when Rabbān ‘Avd-Īsho‘ came to rehabilitate Rabbān Joseph’s Monastery, he found it empty and abandoned. He thus brought monks back to live there and, together, they built a nave, martyrion, cloister and cells. This was, however, built in a higher place than the monastery’s original location, overlooking the entire Ṣapnā valley, in order to avoid Kurdish raids. Later on, Rabbān ‘Avd-Īsho‘ moved from there and died at the St. Abraham Monastery in Shamrakh.[57] Indeed, from the abovementioned cases, one can observe that monasteries and monks were part of a region-wide network and they had extensive contact with one another.
(Continued in the next issue)
Sources and References:
1. Most Syriac names in this article have been similarly anglicised.
2. In Syriac Christianity, the title Rabbān is used for monks, abbots and certain priests. Its actual meaning is chief, master, teacher, leader, authority or superior. It is also used in Judaism as a title of scholars and presidents of colleges. On the other hand, the title Abbā, meaning father, is another title used for monks and especially abbots. Again, it is used in Judaism as a title for some Jewish scholars, especially some Amoraim.
3. George Percy Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals: With the Narrative of a Mission to Mesopotamia and Coordistan in 1842-1844, and of a Late Visit to those Countries in 1850; Also, Researches into the Present Condition of the Syrian Jacobites, Papal Syrians, and Chaldeans, and an Inquiry into the Religious Tenets of the Yezeedees, London: Joseph Masters, 1852, Vol. 2, p. 378.
4. István Perczel, “Accommodationist Strategies on the Malabar Coast: Competition or Complementarity,” in Ines G. Županov and Pierre Antoine Fabre (eds.), The Rites Controversies in the Early Modern World, Leiden: Brill, 2018, p. 214.
5. James Hough, The History of Christianity in India: From the Commencement of the Christian Era, London: R. B. Seely and W. Burnside, 1839, Vol. 2, p. 544.
6. Jean-Baptiste Chabot (ed.), “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya écrite par son disciple Jean bar Kaldoun,” Revue de l’Orient Chrétien (ROC), Vol. 5 (1900), p. 197.
7. Jacques Vosté, Catalogue de la Bibliothèque Syro-Chaldéenne du Couvent de Notre-Dame dés Semences près d’Alqoš (Iraq), Rome: Bureaux de l’“Angelicum,” 1929, p. 74. This manuscript was numbered 95 in an earlier catalogue prepared by Mār Addaï Scher, Notice sur les manuscrits syriaques conserves dans la bibliothèque du couvent des Chaldéens de Notre-Dame-des-Semences, Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1906, p. 44. The earlier catalogue added that this manuscript had many lacunae.
8. David Wilmshurst, The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318-1913, Louvain: Peeters, 2000, pp. 725, 729.
9. Yoḥannān Chūlāgh (ed.), Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā / Kthāvā d-Yawsip Būsnāyā [The History of Joseph Busnāyā / The Book of Joseph Busnāyā], Baghdad: al-Mashriq Printer and Offset, 1983/4, pp. 3-4.
10. A. E. Goodman, “The Jenks Collection of Syriac Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 71, Issue 4 (October 1939), p. 594. No further details are provided in the published inventory.
11. Alphonse Mingana, Catalogue of the Mingana Collection of Manuscripts now in the Possession of the Trustees of the Woodbroke Settlement, Selly Oak, Birmingham, Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, Limited, 1933, Vol. 1 (Syriac and Garshūni Manuscripts), p. 168-9.
12. Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent et al., “Joseph Bousnaya (text) — ܝܘܣܦ ܒܘܣܢܝܐ,” in Bibliotheca Hagiographica Syriaca Electronica, last modified November 5, 2015, http://syriaca.org/work/1113. Unfortunately, the librarian at Catholic University of America did not reply to a request for more information.
13. This manuscript is available to view online, on the website of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML). I am indebted to His Eminence Mār Michael Najīb, Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, for providing me with a PDF of this manuscript, which had been digitised by the Centre Numérique des Manuscrits Orientaux (CNMO).
14. Jean-Baptiste Chabot (ed.), “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya écrite par son disciple Jean bar Kaldoun,” Revue de l’Orient Chrétien (ROC), Vol. 2 (1897), pp. 357-405; Vol. 3 (1898), pp. 77-121, 168-190, 292-327, and 458-480; Vol. 4 (1899), pp. 380-415; and Vol. 5 (1900), pp. 118-143 and 182-200.
15. Jean-Baptiste Chabot (ed.), Histoire du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya, Paris: Alphonse Picard et fils, 1900.
16. Fr. Yoḥannān (‘Abd al-Aḥḥad) Binyāmēn Chūlāgh (1935-2006) was born in Alqosh and ordained a priest by Patriarch Mār Paul II Sheikho in 1961. From 1962 onward he served the faithful in his hometown of Alqosh and, in 1974, was transferred to the parish of St. Īsho‘-Yāhv Bar-Qusrē (Mār Esha‘yā) at Mosul, where he served for about 32 years until his death.
17. Ralph Barczok, Die Vita des Josef Busnaya: Eine historische Quelle des Nordiraks des 10. Jahrhunderts, Berlin: Peter Lang, 2021.
18. Ugo Zanetti, “Les saintes moines: témoignages et vies,” in Fadi Kabbani (ed.), Le Monachisme Syriaque du VIIe siècle à nos jours; Patrimoine syriaque, Actes du colloque VI (1998), Antélias, Liban: Editions du Centre d’études et de recherches orientales (CERO), 1999, Vol. 1 (Textes Français), pp. 189-209; Vincent van Vossel, “La spiritualité monastique syro-orientale du début du moyen âge selon l’histoire de Raban Youssif Busnaya,” in Kabbani (ed.), Le Monachisme Syriaque, Vol. 1, pp. 149-186; Joel Thomas Walker, “Ascetic Literacy: Books and Readers in East-Syrian Monastic Tradition,” in Henning Börm and Josef Wiesehöfer (eds.), Commutatio et Contentio: Studies in the Late Roman, Sasanian, and Early Islamic Near East in memory of Zeev Rubin, Düsseldorf: Wellem, 2010, pp. 307-346.
19. Or Bāvūsā (ܒܵܒ̣ܘܼܣܵܐ). This is the present-day Ezidi village of Bozān, east of Alqosh. Christians were last mentioned as residing there in 1834, when a priest monk from the Rabbān Hormīzd Monastery was sent to minister to their spiritual needs, Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, p. 6, fn. 2.
20. Fr. Chūlāgh prefers the reading ‘Umrūnā, ibid., p. 20, fn. 2.
21. Also known as Dayr al-Za‘farān (دير الزعفران, i.e., Monastery of Saffron). Its ruins are located near the Slēvānī village of Gulī, on the southern side of Mount Bēkhēr, between Duhok and Zakho, Chūlāgh, ibid., p. 30, fn. 2.
22. This is the now ruined monastery of St. Jacob the Visionary (Mār-Yāqo) in the mountains above Shīyoz in the Duhok governorate. The village of this monastery is also known by local Kurds as Qashāfir (meaning, “the priest flew”).
23. The remains of this monastery became what is known today as the church of Ṭāhirat al-Kildān (i.e., Mary Immaculate of the Chaldeans), which became included within Mosul’s walls as the city expanded.
24. This city was located on the East bank of the Tigris River, just south of its confluence with the Greater Zab, and is now identified with the modern town of Tell al-Sha‘īr in the al-Qayyārah district of Nineveh governorate, Ernst Herzfeld, “Ḥadītha,” in B. Lewis, V. L. Ménage, Ch. Pellat and J. Schacht (eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam: New Edition, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986, Vol. 3 (H-Iram), p. 29.
25. Shamrakh is located on the other side of the mountain, to the south of the modern Assyrian town of Mangēsh, in the Doski district of Duhok governorate, Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, p. 34, fn. 1.
26. The text mentions a monastery of St. John of Dailam. From the Book of Chastity by Īsho‘-Dnaḥ of Basrah (c. 860), we know that this saint had actually founded two monasteries – one for Persian-speaking monks near Arragān (Arjan) in the mountain of Fārs, and another for Aramaic-speaking monks near Kashkar (Wāsiṭ) in Babylonia, Jean-Baptiste Chabot (ed.), Le Livre de la Chasteté, Rome, 1896, pp. 50, 60. Fr. Chūlāgh erroneously equates the former location with Argin, a Christian Assyrian village in the Gahrā Mountains, to the south of the Ṣapnā Valley, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, p. 49, fn. 3. However, this would not provide the desired effect of demonstrating how far people travelled just to see the saint, and the monastery which he founded at Kashkar would thus be a more likely candidate for this.
27. Vat. Syr. 467, 217v, 219r-219v; CPB Syr. 193, pp. 308, 311; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 5 (1900), pp. 186, 188-189; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, pp. 200, 202.
28. Ch. Bürgel and R. Mottahedeh, “ʿAżod-Al-Dawla, Abū Šojāʾ Fannā Ḵosrow,” in Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. III: Ātaš–Bayhaqī, Ẓahīr-al-Dīn, Fasc. 3, London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1989, pp. 265-269, available online at: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/azod-al-dawla-abu-soja (accessed on 30 December 2012).
29. Hugh Nigel Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century, Harlow: Longman, 2004, pp. 230, 272.
30. Marius Canard, “Ḥamdānids,” in B. Lewis, V. L. Ménage, Ch. Pellat and J. Schacht (eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam: New Edition, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986, Vol. 3 (H-Iram), p. 128.
31. Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine, 634-1099, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, p. 355.
32. The Syriac –ūthā (-ܘܼܬ̣ܵܐ) ending is equivalent to –ism or –ness in English. It is often used as a collective noun and examples include Suryāyūthā (ܣܘܼܪܝܵܝܘܼܬ̣ܵܐ), Armāyūthā (ܐܲܪܡܵܝܘܼܬ̣ܵܐ), Yhudhāyūthā (ܝܗ̄ܘܼܕ̣ܵܝܘܼܬ̣ܵܐ), Yāwnāyūthā (ܝܵܘܢܵܝܘܼܬ̣ܵܐ), Ṭayyāyūthā (ܛܲܝܵܝܘܼܬ̣ܵܐ) and Rhomāyūthā (ܪܗܘܿܡܵܝܘܼܬ̣ܵܐ). Most frequently, such words refer to a people or nation, or to its dominion (sovereignty, control or domination). They may also relate to concepts similar to the Arabic terms Millah (ملة, meaning anything from ideological community, worldview, philosophy, creed, doctrine, confession, denomination, sect, order, communion or guild) or Ummah (أمة, meaning a community and its members [especially religious], a common group of people, followers of a certain religion, a tribe or tribal confederation, race, nationhood, a crowd, the general population, populace or public). Often, such Syriac terms ending in –ūthā can refer to the language, learning, literature, faith or religion of a particular people. In the extreme case of Rhomāyūthā, for instance, the word may refer to the rights of a Roman citizen, being a Roman or even to military service.
33. Vat. Syr. 467, 51v-52r; CPB Syr. 193, p. 84; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), pp. 83-84.
34. Fr. Chūlāgh believes that this area was either around the modern Assyrian village of Komānē (50 km from Rabbān Hormīzd and 25 km from Bēth-Ṣayyārē) or rather the Kurdish village of Dērash, in the Gahrā Mountains 9 km to the south of it (which is also 45 km from Rabbān Hormīzd and 30 km from Bēth-Ṣayyārē). He assumed that the name Dērash derives from the Kurdish phrase Dēr-Rash, meaning “the black monastery,” in reference to the name modern Aramaic word Komā or Kūmā, which means “black” and is part of the names Komānē and Kūmātheh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, p. 30, fn. 1. However, there is also the possibility that the name Dērash could instead be a Kurdish rendering of the Syriac phrase Dayr-Rēshā (ܕܲܝܪ ܪܹܫܵܐ, “monastery of the head”).
35. Another interesting point is the mention, within the text, of Church practises that are now obsolete – such as the use of Makhshāthā (ܡܲܟ̣̈ܫܵܬ̣ܵܐ, rhipidia/flabella, i.e., ceremonial fans), as are still used in Eastern and Oriental Churches today. At this time, we see that the Church of the East included them at least in processions with censers and lights, after the cross and Gospel. One more detail of something now obsolete concerns the Bēth-Yāqundē (lit. house of the jacinths or rubies), which appears to have been a (burial?) chamber between the nave and martyrion in some medieval churches.
36. Zāwīthā (ܙܵܘܝܼܬ̣ܵܐ) is a Syriac word meaning corner or angle.
37. Vat. Syr. 467, 150v; CPB Syr. 193, p. 232; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), pp. 464-465; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, p. 137.
38. Vat. Syr. 467, 150v; CPB Syr. 193, p. 233; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), p. 465; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, p. 137. The Bēth-Qoqā Monastery was founded by St. Savr-Īsho‘ of Awānā (modern-day Wānā, Iraq) around 630. Its ruins can still be seen at the village of Dērā Bēsh-Barmāgh, 30 km west of Erbil and 8km south of Kalak, which is on the Great Zab River. Jean-Maurice Fiey, Assyrie Chrétienne: Contribution a l’étude de l’histoire et de la géographie ecclésiastiques et monastiques du nord de l’Iraq, Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique, 1965, Vol. 1, pp. 136-139.
39. Vat. Syr. 467, 119r, 125r; CPB Syr. 193, pp. 189, 197; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), pp. 300, 306; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, pp. 110, 115.
40. This probably occurred sometime during the Kharijite Rebellion against the ‘Abbasid Caliphate (866-896), which was centred in Mosul and Upper Mesopotamia.
41. Vat. Syr. 467, 113r; CPB Syr. 193, pp. 179-180; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), p. 294; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, p. 106.
42. Vat. Syr. 467, 144r; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), p. 327. In CPB Syr. 193, we find the term “Indians” (p. 222) which, in Syriac literature from this time, was also used to refer to Ethiopians, Cushites and Nubians. This error would lead one to believe that these attackers must have, in fact, been East African “Zanj,” who led a major revolt against the ‘Abbasid Caliphate from their base in Basrah between 869 and 883. Fr. Chūlāgh, on the other hand, just uses the Arabic term for “thieves,” ignoring the ethnonym used in the original text, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, p. 132.
43. Tinn is still inhabited by Christian Assyrians belonging to the Chaldean Catholic Church. Bāmarnē, however, is now a large Kurdish Muslim village.
44. Vat. Syr. 467, 121r; CPB Syr. 193, pp. 191-192; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), p. 302; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, pp. 111-112.
45. Rabbān Sāhdā appears to have returned to his home village, since one of the four churches in Minyānish during the nineteenth century was dedicated to him. Rabbān Īsho‘, on the other hand, is known for having seen angels serving the cells of abbots Rabbān Bar-Yaldā and Rabbān Moses, Vat. Syr. 467, 159r-160v; CPB Syr. 193, p. 242; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), pp. 474-476; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, pp. 145-146.
46. This village had an Aramaic-speaking Jewish community prior to their migration to Israel in 1951.
47. It is not known if the gentilic of the first refers to a place or a tribe. For instance, is he a Christian Arab from the Ḥumaydah tribe, or is he from a place called Ḥumaydīyah?
48. Vat. Syr. 467, 217v; CPB Syr. 193, p. 308; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 5 (1900), p. 186; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, p. 200. The last one mentioned is most probably the same as the famous cave monastery near Dūrē in Berwārī-Bālā, 25 km away from Bēth-Ṣayyārē, which served as the residence of a bishop of the Assyrian Church of the East until 1973. However, there was also a shrine dedicated to the same saint in the mountain above Dehē, about 7 km away, which might have been the former location of a monastery.
49. Vat. Syr. 467, 133r; CPB Syr. 193, p. 209; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), p. 314; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, pp. 121-122. Incidentally, it is the tomb of this saintly man who revived Bēth-Ṣayyārē, which has remained a place of pilgrimage for the local Kurdish Muslim population, who have renamed him Pīra-Mūs or Shaykh Pīr-Mūs. Whereas Mūs is a variation of Moses or Syriac Mūshē, the saint’s name, the Kurdish word Pîr has various meanings alluding to a saint, founder of an order, sage, father, patriarch, old man, grandfather, guardian, patron, custodian, protector, senior or venerable.
50. Vat. Syr. 467, 132r; CPB Syr. 193, p. 208; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), p. 313; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, p. 121.
51. The text does not actually specify if this saint’s native village was in Margā, where there is currently a village named Khelaft, divided into upper and lower quarters, roughly 20 km northwest of ‘Aqrah and to the east of the Khāzir River. This, however, is about 50 km northeast and 105 km southeast of Rabbān Hormīzd and Rabbān Apnī-Mārān monasteries respectively. There is, however, another village called Khelafta 9km to the southeast of Zakho, about 50 km northwest and less than 20 km west of the Rabbān Hormīzd and Rabbān Apnī-Mārān monasteries respectively. The name Ḥēlāptā (ܚܹܠܵܦܬܵܐ) is a Syriac word meaning a small willow tree.
52. Vat. Syr. 467, 93r-97r; CPB Syr. 193, pp. 149-155; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), pp. 171-175; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, pp. 89-92. Fr. Chūlāgh identifies Dayrā d-Rēshā with a ruin known locally as Mor Abrohom, in the mountain behind St. Matthew’s Syriac Orthodox Monastery on Mount Maqlūb, rising above the Nineveh Plain. Indeed, Rabbān Abraham had restored the fourth century monastery around the turn of the ninth century, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, p. 89, fn. 3.
53. Vat. Syr. 467, 107r-111r; CPB Syr. 193, pp. 171-176; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), pp. 186-190; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, pp. 100-104. Abbā Joseph was a former abbot of Bēth-‘Āvē monastery who, around the year 728, left for the desert beside the Tigris opposite Balad. There, with two other monks whom he found, they built a new monastery, Chabot (ed.), Le Livre de la Chasteté, pp. 48, 58.
54. Vat. Syr. 467, 126v; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, p. 116. Chabot, probably relying on the manuscript he consulted, omits the monk’s lineage and information regarding his burial place, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), p. 307; CPB Syr. 193 does the same (p. 200). At any rate, he is not the same as St. Apnī-Mārān “the great” of Kirkuk, who founded the abovementioned Dayr al-Za‘farān (i.e., Monastery of Saffron) in the seventh century, Chabot (ed.), Le Livre de la Chasteté, pp. 43, 51.
55. Wilmshurst, Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, p. 132.
56. Chabot (ed.), Le Livre de la Chasteté, pp. 49, 59.
57. Vat. Syr. 467, 134r-136r; CPB Syr. 193, pp. 210-214; Chabot, “Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya,” ROC, Vol. 3 (1898), pp. 315-317; Chūlāgh, Tārīkh Yūsuf Būsnāyā, pp. 122-125.