Photograph of Jean Baptiste Abbeloos in L'Université de Louvain. Coup d'oeil sur son histoire et ses institutions, 1425–1900, Bruxelles, Bulens, 1900, p. 91.
The text was first edited by Jean Baptiste Abbeloos, and published in his Acta Mar Kardaghi, Assyriae Praefecti, qui sub Sapore II Martyr Occubit, AB 9 (1890). The manuscript he used was an 1869 copy made in Mosul from an original medieval manuscript he had received from E. G. Khayyath, the Chaldean archbishop of Diyarbakır. The manuscript (MS Diyarbakir Syriac. 96) was dated by Khayyath to the seventh or eighth century AD. It also contains Acts of martyrs persecuted by the Sasanian Empire between the periods of the fourth and seventh century AD. The manuscript was originally stored at the church of St. Pathion in Diyarbakir but was displaced following the First World War. The manuscript was eventually transferred to Iraq where its current condition is unknown.[3]
A second edition was also being published at Berlin in the same year as Abbeloos. In his Die Geschichte des Mâr 'Abhdîšô und seines Jüngers Mâr Qardagh (Kiel:C. F. Haesler, 1890), Hermann Feige introduced a German translation. He primarily used a mid-eighth century Syriac manuscript from Rustaqa along with variants from two late manuscripts written at Alqosh and in the nearby Rabban Hormizd Monastery.[3]
The third edition of the text was published by Paul Bedjan in his Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum (1891). His text is established upon Abbeloos's version with variants from the 1869 Mosul copy, and another from the late nineteenth century that was acquired from missionary M. Salomon of the Lake Urmia region.[4]
Joel Walker translated the text from Syriac to English, and was published in his The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq. (2006).[2] He based his translation on Abbeloos's text.[4]
The following structure of the text is summarized by Philip Wood in The Chronicle of Seert: Christian Historical Imagination in Late Antique Iraq (2013). Though he refers to the text as the Acts of Mar Qardagh, he is basing it off of Joel Walker's translation. The setting of the texts takes place in Melqi, Adiabene of northern Iraq during the reign of Shapur II.[5]
The text commences by emphasizing the significance of Mar Qardagh's lineage from the Assyrian kings. If further continues with his construction of a fortress and fire temple upon a hilltop in Melqi. Mar Qardagh then receives a vision from a figure who foretells Mar Qardagh's death. Mar Qardagh's ability to polo and hunt is rendered useless, however, he pursues an Iranian aristocrat.
Mar Qardagh converts to Christianity after a conversation he had with a Christian man. Mar Qardagh then proceeded to give away his wealth to Christian monasteries.
Despite his conversion, he continued to battle the Romans while wearing a relic of the True Cross.
When his fighting with the Romans is concluded, Mar Qardagh returned to his fire temple to have it re-established as a church. A magi informs Shapur II of Mar Qardagh's church, so Shapur requested Mar Qardagh to perform Zoroastrian rituals.
Mar Qardagh refuses. Fearing rebellion, Shapur sends his armies against Mar Qardagh but were defeated. Mar Qardagh is later stoned to death by his father in front of Pagans, Jews, and Christians.
The text is concluded by stating a great market and a great church was established in Melqi.
Aphrahat was a Syriac Christian author of the third century from the Persian / Sasanian Empire who composed a series of twenty-three expositions or homilies on points of Christian doctrine and practice. All his known works, the Demonstrations, come from later on in his life. He was an ascetic and celibate, and was almost definitely a son of the covenant. He may have been a bishop, and later Syriac tradition places him at the head of Mar Mattai Monastery near Mosul in what is now Iraqi Kurdistan. He was a near contemporary to the slightly younger Ephrem the Syrian, but the latter lived within the sphere of the Roman Empire. Called the Persian Sage, Aphrahat witnesses to the concerns of the early church beyond the eastern boundaries of the Roman Empire.
The Chronicle of Seert, sometimes called the Histoire nestorienne, is an ecclesiastical history written in Arabic by an anonymous Nestorian writer, at an unknown date between the ninth and the eleventh century. There are grounds for believing that it is the work of the Nestorian author Ishoʿdnah of Basra, who flourished in the second half of the ninth century.
Saint Anastasius of Persia, was originally a Zoroastrian soldier in the Sasanian army. He later became a convert to Christianity and was martyred in 628.
The Acts of the Apostles is a genre of Early Christian literature, recounting the lives and works of the apostles of Jesus. The Acts are important for many reasons, one of them being the concept of apostolic succession. They also provide insight into the valuation of "missionary activities among the exotic races," since some of them feature missionary work done among, for instance, the Cynocephaly.
Timothy I was the Patriarch of the Church of the East from 780 to 823 and one of the most influential patriarchs in its history. Respected both as an author, a church leader and a diplomat, Timothy was also an excellent administrator. During his reign he reformed the metropolitan administration of the Church of the East, granting greater independence to the metropolitan bishops of the mission field but excluding them from participation in patriarchal elections. These reforms laid the foundations for the later success of Church of the East missions in Central Asia.
The Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, also called the Council of Mar Isaac, met in AD 410 in Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the capital of the Persian Sassanid Empire. Convoked by King Yazdegerd I (399–421), it organized the Christians of his empire into a single structured Church, which became known as the Church of the East.
Sabrisho I was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 596 to 604, during the rule of King Khosrau II.
The Church of the East, also called the Persian Church or the Nestorian Church, was an Eastern Christian church of the East Syriac Rite, based in Mesopotamia. It was one of three major branches of Eastern Christianity that arose from the Christological controversies of the 5th and 6th centuries, alongside the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Chalcedonian Church. During the Early modern period, a series of schisms gave rise to rival patriarchates, sometimes two, sometimes three. Since the latter half of the 20th century, three churches in Iraq claim the heritage of the Church of the East. Meanwhile, the East Syriac churches in India claim the heritage of the Church of the East in India.
Saints Behnam, Sarah, and the Forty Martyrs were 4th-century Christians who suffered martyrdom during the reign of Shapur II. They are venerated as saints in the Oriental Orthodox Church.
Mār Qardāgh, was a legendary Assyrian prince who was martyred for converting to Christianity.
Marutha of Tikrit was the Grand Metropolitan of the East and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church of the East from 628 or 629 until his death in 649. He is commemorated as a saint by the Syriac Orthodox Church.
George of Izla was an East Syriac martyr, theologian and interpreter. He was mainly remembered for his role in a royal disputation which eventually led to his execution.
Yazdin was an influential Iranian aristocrat, who served as the financial minister of the Sasanian king Khosrow II.
The Acts of Mar Mari is a Syriac Christian apocryphal acts. It pertains to the introduction of Christianity in northern and southern Mesopotamia by Addai's disciple Saint Mari in the first century and in the beginning of the second century AD.
The Acts of Pusai or Martyrdom of Pusai is a Syriac narrative about the martyrdom of a Christian saint named Pusai. English-speaking literature refers to this work by a variety of names, including the Martyrdom of Pusai-Qarugbed, on account of Pusai's title Qarugbed, "Head of the Craftsmen", and as the "Martyrdom of Pusay. Other variants include Acts of Mar Pusai and the Passions of Pusay.
The Martyrdom of Simeon is an account concerning the martyrdom of Simeon or Shemon Bar Sabbae, a leader in the Church of the East under the Sasanian Empire. It is one of four Syriac martyr acts, and also known by its longer name, The Martyrdom of Mar Simeon, the Archbishop of the Church of the East. It is not to be confused with the History of Simeon, another narrative about the same individual. There are conflicting chronological notes in the relevant ancient sources, but the death of Simeon must be placed in the neighborhood of 344 CE.
The Chronicle of Arbela claims to record the early history of Christianity in the city which is now known as Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, but which was then Arbela, capital of Adiabene. First published in 1907, its age and historicity are disputed among scholars.
Miles, sometimes Mar Miles, was the bishop of Susa in Sasanian Persia from before 315 until his martyrdom in 340 or 341. He engaged in efforts to evangelize Susa, traveled widely in the Eastern Roman Empire and led the opposition to Papa bar ʿAggai and the supremacy of the bishops of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in the Persian church. He was executed by the Sasanian authorities at the start of the Forty-Year Persecution.
Gregory of Kashkar was the bishop of Kashkar and then from about 596 the metropolitan of Nisibis in the Church of the East. His hagiography treats him as a pivotal figure in the preservation of the church's distinctive theology.
Ishoʿdnaḥ was a historian and hagiographer of the Church of the East who served as the metropolitan bishop of Mayshan at Baṣra. Some manuscripts refer to him as metropolitan of the diocese of Qasra, but this appears to be a simple spelling error, since Qasra was never a metropolitan see.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
