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The Church of the East THE CHURCH OF THE EAST The Church of the East is currently the only complete history in English of the East Syriac Church. It covers the periods of the Sas- sanians, Arabs, Mongols, Ottomans, and the twentieth century, with information about the Syriac, Iranian, and Chinese documentation of this unique and almost forgotten part of Christendom. “This is an important book. It tells the story concisely of the ‘Church of the East’ . established in east Syria but principally in Parthia beyond Rome’s eastern frontier.... It was associated with the doctrinal view of the deposed patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, and was known as the Nestorian Church.... Today, it has survived as a small minority in parts of Persia and Iraq, and it has more adherents in the US than in its ancient homeland.... This is the best short history of the Church of the East to date . a fine, scholarly work, bringing to the notice of students the wealth of the spiritual and theological legacy as well as the sheer missionary drive of this now half-forgotten Church. As a book it will not easily be replaced, and it is a credit to its authors and publishers alike.” W. H. C. Frend, University of Cambridge “There has long been a need for a reliable book in English on the history of the Church of the East which also gives good coverage to the position of this ancient Syriac Church in the context of modern ecumenical discussion. It is most welcome that this need is now met by Baum and Winkler in this translation of their German book.” Sebastian Brock, University of Oxford “Baum and Winkler have done us good service in providing this easily accessible account of the Church of the East ... the first full history of the Church of the East since the work of Cardinal Tisserant.” Stuart Munro-Hay The authors Wilhelm Baum is Associate Professor and teaches Medieval History at the Universities of Graz and Klagenfurt, Austria. He is the author of The Transformation of the Myth of Prester John (1999) and Ethiopia and Europe in the Middle Ages (2001). Dietmar W. Winkler is Associate Professor and teaches Patristics and Ecumenical Theology at the University of Graz and the Cister- cian School of Theology Heiligenkreuz, Austria. THE CHURCH OF THE EAST A concise history Wilhelm Baum and Dietmar W. Winkler First published 2000 as Die Apostolische Kirche des Ostens by Verlag Kitab, Klagenfurt English translation published 2003 by RoutledgeCurzon 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeCurzon 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2000 Verlag Kitab Klagenfurt English translation © 2003 Verlag Kitab Klagenfurt English translation by Miranda G. Henry Produced with the support of the Foundation Pro Oriente (Austria) All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Baum, Wilhelm The Church of the East: a concise history/Wilhelm Baum & Dietmar W. Winkler. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Nestorian Church–History. 2. Nestorians. I. Winkler, Dietmar W. II. Title. BX153.3 .B38 2003 281′.8′09–dc21 2002036712 ISBN 0-203-42309-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-42483-2 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–29770–2 (Print Edition) CONTENTS List of illustrations ix Preface xi The “Apostolic Church of the East”: a brief introduction to the writing of church history and to terminology 1 DIETMAR W. WINKLER 1 The age of the Sassanians: until 651 7 DIETMAR W. WINKLER The beginnings of Christianity in Persia 7 The question of apostolic foundation 11 The centralization of the Church and the reception of the faith of Nicaea 14 The acceptance of other Western synods (420) 17 Declaration of independence of the Church of the East in 424? 19 The school of the Persians in Edessa and the Council of Ephesus (431) 21 The school of Nisibis 26 Acceptance of Nestorianism at the synods of 484 and 486? 28 The Church of the East in the sixth century 32 From Babai the Great to the Arab conquest 37 v CONTENTS 2 The age of the Arabs: 650–1258 42 WILHELM BAUM The period of Catholicos Ishoyahb III and the dawn of Islam 42 The China mission in the seventh and eighth centuries 46 East Syriac Christianity in India 51 Timotheos I (780–823) and the Abbasid period (749–946) 58 East Syrians as cultural mediators 64 Church history and church law 69 Missionary activity in Central Asia 73 The image of the Apostolic Church of the East in thirteenth-century Europe 81 3 The age of the Mongols: thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 84 WILHELM BAUM The Church of the East and the Mongols 84 The Church of the West discovers the Church of the East 89 The era of Catholicos Yahballaha III (1281–1317) 94 The period of Catholicos Timotheos II (1318–32) 101 The dark centuries of the Church of the East 104 4 The age of the Ottomans: fifteenth to nineteenth centuries 112 WILHELM BAUM Chaldean and Indian unions 112 The “Mountain Nestorian” Catholicate and further unions with Rome 116 Russian and Western missionary activity in the nineteenth century 123 5 The twentieth century 135 DIETMAR W. WINKLER vi CONTENTS World War I 136 Postwar diplomacy and the question of an Assyrian state 139 The end of the British mandate in Iraq 142 Emigration and diaspora 144 Ecclesiastical reorganization and patriarchal schism 146 The patriarchate of Mar Dinkha IV Khnanaya and ecumenical efforts 150 Present situation and structure 154 6 Language and literature of the Church of the East 158 Syriac literature 158 DIETMAR W. WINKLER Iranian literature 165 MANFRED HUTTER Turkish, Uighur, and Chinese literature 171 WILHELM BAUM Appendices 173 List of the catholicoi of the Church of the East 173 WILHELM BAUM List of sovereigns 176 DIETMAR W. WINKLER Bibliography 178 Index 195 vii ILLUSTRATIONS 1.1 Map of the Church of the East in the Sassanian empire (around ad 500) 31 2.1 Nestorian monument of Xian/Sianfu (781) 48 2.2 Coins from Bukhara (eighth century) 50 2.3 First copper plate (the reverse is blank) of the older series from the times of King Stanu Ravi (ninth century) with privileges for the Terispalli Church in Quilon. Kottayam, Kerala (India) 55 2.4 Front and reverse of the third copper plate with Pahlavi, Kufic, and Hebrew signatures. Tiruvalla, Kerala (India) 56 2.5 Stone cross with Pahlavi inscription. Valiyapalli Church in Kottayam, Kerala (India) 57 2.6 Nestorian cross, found in Mantota, the port of the former capital of Sri Lanka, Anuradhapura (destroyed in the eleventh century) 58 2.7 Front of a page from an East Syriac lectionary (Luke 16) from the Sogdian Turfan Psalter found in Bulayiq, north of the Turfan oasis (ninth/tenth century) 75 2.8 Gravestone from Kirgistan (thirteenth/fourteenth century) 77 3.1 Tombstone of Elizabeth, the wife of the Christian government official Xindu, in Yangzhou (1317) 93 3.2 Imprint of the seal which the great khan Mongke had given to the Catholicos of the Church of the East (1302/4) 95 3.3 Map of the general view of the Church of the East in the Middle Ages 98 3.4 Ruins of the former East Syriac monastery Mar Augin (Tur Abdin), founded in the early fourth century 106 ix ILLUSTRATIONS 4.1 Monastery Rabban Hormizd near Mosul (Iraq) 118 4.2 Former church of the Catholicos in Kotchannes in the mountains of Hakkari 121 4.3 Catholicos Shimun XVII Abraham (1820–60), lithograph (1852) 123 5.1 Parish Church of the East Syriac Metropolitanate of Trichur, Kerala (India) 149 5.2 Catholicos Mar Dinkha IV Khnanaya and Pope John Paul II in Rome (1994) 152 x PREFACE It is still the case that the Orient is commonly regarded as belonging to Islam. Western consciousness is not very much aware of the facts not only that Christianity has its roots in the Middle East, but that it is still alive in the various Oriental Christian churches, which have a troubled and eventful history as well as a rich theological, spiritual, and liturgical heritage. We have followed the track of one of those apostolic churches: the “Church of the East” which spread outside the Roman empire and is today the smallest among the Oriental churches. However, in the European Middle Ages, it was geographically far larger than any Western church, with followers along the Silk Road, in Central Asia, China, and of course in India. This book aims to provide a concise history of this remarkable church. It is based on the current state of research and covers the periods of the Sassanians, Arabs, Mongols, Ottomans, and the twentieth century. It also describes the Syriac, Iranian, and Chinese literature of this unique part of Christendom. However, our inten- tion was to present the history of the Church of the East in a com- prehensive manner, not only for students of church history or Syriac scholars, but also for a wider public and the general reader, in an understandable language. Those who are interested in culture, religion, and theology can gain access to an almost forgotten part of Christianity with a marvellous literary and spiritual heritage.
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