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LOGICISING ECCLESIASTICAL CONFLICTS Ḥenanīshō͐ II (775)

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LOGICISING ECCLESIASTICAL CONFLICTS Ḥenanīshō͐ II (775) Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 72(3-4), 203-215. doi: 10.2143/JECS.72.3.3288665 © 2020 by Journal of Eastern Christian Studies. All rights reserved. LOGICISING ECCLESIASTICAL CONFLICTS THE SYNOD OF ḤenanīShō͐ II (775) AND THE ARISTOTELIAN VOGUE AMONG EAST SYRIAN SCHOLARS VITTORIO BERTI (Università degli Studi di Padova) 1. SYRIAC SCHOLAstiCisM AND SYLLOGistiC RHETORIC: SOME STARtiNG POINts In revealed traditions, debating religious questions by means of logical think- ing implies the conviction that one can reach, through rational reasoning, some form of consensus on topics informing and somehow preceding lan- guage itself. Such point of view presumes an undisputed confidence that a logical approach to expression can establish a distinguishing framework for comparing mutually exclusive truth systems. This attitude was widespread in the apologetic and dialogic genres of monotheistic literatures in Late Antiq- uity and the Middle Ages, both externally, in the dialogues between mem- bers of different traditions, and internally, in theological debates conducted by scholars of a particular confession who sought to define their own ortho- doxy.1 As for late antique Christianity, its status as a revealed faith not only did not extinguish discussion, but even stimulated it, which led to an increase in the social relevance of logical and dialogical reasoning among ecclesiastical elites. According to the specialist of Tibetan Buddhism, José Ignacio Cabezón, a comparative and cross-cultural understanding of the term ‘scholasticism’, as a historical-phenomenological category, could be employed to describe a 1 On this issue a vast body of literature is available, but here I refer only to some of the most influencing works that have appeared in the past years: G. G. Stroumsa, The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2015), pp. 43-58; The Majlis. Interreli- gious Encounters in Medieval Islam, eds. H. Lazarus et al. (Wiesbaden, 1999); A. Cameron, Dialoguing in Late Antiquity, Hellenic Studies Series, 65 (Washington, DC, 2014); Dialogues and Debates from Late Antiquity to Late Byzantium, eds. A. Cameron and N. Gaul (London – New York, 2017). 204 VITTORIO BERTI sophisticated level of complex civilizations in which, besides other recurring features, logical reasoning becomes the leading criterion used by cultural elites in discerning controversial religious topics.2 Adam Becker, in his refer- ence monograph on the School of Nisibis, tried to interpret the East Syrian intellectual tradition also from this angle.3 Greek logic, appropriated by Christian schools in Sassanid Persia in the middle of the 6th century via Syriac translations, not only provided a fundamental device for developing theo- logical thinking and secular sciences,4 but also became an essential feature of the intellectual mind-set of Christian scholars and their ritualised approach to study. This is manifest when we focus on East Syrian intellectual circles during the first Abbasid epoch: in Letter 8 of Catholicos Timothy I, we find an illu- minating example of how the communication codes of two clerics belonging to the same Christian school incorporated the syllogistic method as a common rhetorical expedient for the creation of a shared pun.5 Timothy is writing to his addressee, Sergius, a former fellow student at the school of the late Mar Abraham Bar Dāshandād, in order to request some services. Yet the greater part of the letter consists of a long prologue in which Timothy shows a seem- ingly bizarre syllogistic reasoning, which can probably be interpreted as a rhe- torical game between old friends. Since Sergius had not replied to an earlier letter, Timothy claimed that his behaviour deserved to be considered rude on two levels, on a particular level because he had not replied to Timothy, and on a general level because he had not responded to the “Catholicos”: since the term ‘catholicos’ means ‘universal’, he maintained that the offence perpe- trated was itself universal. To give substance to his facetious argument, he refers to a particular kind of syllogism: the ‘syllogism of deprivation’. This example shows clearly that the East Syrian approach to logic devices was not a mere gambit, part of a wider intellectual craftsmanship aimed at 2 Scholasticism. Cross-cultural and Comparative Perspective, ed. J.I. Cabezón (New York, 1998). 3 A. Becker, Fear of God and Beginning of Wisdom: The School of Nisibis and the Development of Scholastic Culture in Late Antique Mesopotamia (Philadelphia, 2006), pp. 12-13. 4 See, for example, J. Walker, The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq (Berkeley – Los Angeles – London, 2006). 5 Timothei Patriarchae I Epistulae, ed. O. Braun (Paris, 1914), pp. 87-90. See now also: V. Berti, ‘Notes sur la fonction de la logique dans l’église de l’Orient avant l’Islam’, in La philosophie en syriaque, eds. E Fiori and H. Hugonnard-Roche, Études Syriaques, 16 (Paris, 2019), pp. 249-265. LOGICISING ECCLESIASTICAL CONFLICTS 205 pleasing the caliphal client, but rather an intellectual penchant, which revealed itself even in daily relations within the ecclesiastical sphere during the Abbasid age. Let us consider now a specific case where such a mentality, which was inclined to use, sometimes pretentiously, the logical jargon, informed the interpretation and solution of political and religious rifts within the Church. This case is a vivid reminder that the role assumed by the Greek intellectual heritage in a wider communitarian context was not episodic. It is described in the acts of a synod held in 775 in order to consecrate Ḥenanīshō‘ II, Tim- othy’s predecessor on the Catholicos’ see of Seleucia-Ctesiphon.6 The text,7 preserved in the Synodicon Orientale, the official collection of the ecclesiasti- cal assemblies held by the Church of the East between 410 and 775, shows the impact the Syriac Aristotelian vogue had on Church life. 2. THE ELECTION OF ḤenanīShō͐ II: TWO DIFFERENT STORIES As the text reports,8 the Church of the East was emerging from a dark period, which had lasted nine years. During this period the patriarchal see had been vacant. ‘Caravans of infidels and Jews’ had allegedly occupied churches and the Caliphate had confiscated ecclesiastical properties. As a result traditional Christian structures, notably schools and hospitals, which mostly dated back to the last phase of the Sassanian regime, had decreased in number, and there had been widespread apostasy in the Church. The synodical acts of Ḥenanīshō‘ underline that the new Caliph Al-Mahdī (775-795) changed direction, inau- gurating a more peaceful policy towards the Christians of Iraq, and allowing a new patriarchal election to take place. It is said that the sovereign was greatly impressed by a sort of public lamentation made by Giwargis, a monk promot- ing the plan to allow an electing synod for the new Catholicos of the Church. 6 On the Catholicos Patriarch Ḥenanīshōʻ II see V. Berti, Vita e studi di Timoteo († 823), Patriarca cristiano di Baghdad. Ricerche sull’epistolario e sulle fonti contigue, Cahiers de Stu- dia Iranica, 41, Chrétiens en terre d’Iran, III (Paris, 2009), pp. 148-152. Ḥenanīshōʻ II is the patriarch mentioned in the Xi’an inscription, cf. S. Lieu, ‘The “romanitas” of the Xi’an Inscription’, in From Oxus river to Chinese Store. Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia, eds. L. Tang and D. W. Winkler (Zürich – Berlin, 2013), p. 131. 7 Synodicon orientale ou recueil de synodes nestoriens, ed. J.-B. Chabot (Paris, 1902), pp. 245- 252 (French translation, pp. 515-524). 8 Synodicon orientale (see n. 7), pp. 245-246 (French translation, pp. 515-517). 206 VITTORIO BERTI The Caliph, seduced by his rhetorical performance, would have endorsed the monk for the task. Although reluctant to accept the appointment, Giwargis would have involved in the electing procedure Isaac, the bishop of Kashkar,9 as, according to the tradition, this latter was the upholder of the East Syrian communion during the vacancy of the patriarchal see. So, in accordance with canon law, the bishop of Kashkar announced that the elective synod would be held. A commander of the army, which must be identified as Abū al-Qasīm Mūḥriz ibn Ibrahim al-Jubani,10 is reported to have protected and supervised the episcopal assembly on direct order of the Caliph. Abū al-Qasīm was a high-ranking military commander of the caliphal army since the first Abbasid revolt. Probably non-Arab, he is mentioned first in two lists of seventy duʻāt (propagandists of the revolution). During the war, he had played a leading role in the political purges in the district of Merw; he was lieutenant of Qahtabah b. Shabīb and a loyal ally of Abu Muslim. Aṭ-Ṭabarī11 informs us that in the same year in which the synod of Ḥenanīshōʻ II was held, the Caliph charged Abū al-Qasīm with supervising the fitting out of a regiment consist- ing of 1500 volunteers, who were to man the frontier garrison in Al-Hīnd. This makes sufficiently clear the level of military control and patronage that Al-Mahdī imposed when he allowed the new election, by which de facto he entered the elective process. Abū al-Qasīm would have persuaded Isaac and the high clergy of Kashkar to confirm the election of the Caliph’s favourite. Isaac for his part would have accepted the candidature of Giwargis. Faced with such an intrusion into the life of the Church, some members of the high clergy, led by Ḥenanīshōʻ, bishop of the diocese of Lashom, turned against the policy of Kashkar and 9 About the diocese of Kaškar, part of the “Patriarchal province”, see J.-M. Fiey, Assyrie chrétienne. Contribution à l’étude de l’histoire et de la géographie ecclésiastiques et monastiques du nord de I’Iraq, Recherches publiées sous la direction de l’Institut de lettres orientales de Beyrouth, 42 (Beyrouth, 1968), pp.
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