Ishoyahb III

For the near-contemporary patriarch Ishoʿyahb II of Gdala (628–45), see Ishoyahb II.

Ishoʿyahb III of Adiabene was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 649 to 659.

Sources

Brief accounts of Ishoʿyahb's patriarchate are given in the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of the Jacobite writer Bar Hebraeus (thirteenth-century), and the ecclesiastical histories of the Nestorian writers Mari (twelfth-century), ʿAmr (fourteenth-century) and Sliba (fourteenth-century).

Ishoyahb's patriarchate

The following account of Ishoyahb's patriarchate is given by Bar Hebraeus:

Maremmeh died after fulfilling his office for three years and was succeeded by Ishoʿyahb III, who had previously been metropolitan of Mosul. He resisted the orthodox who wanted to build a church in Mosul, spending much money in order to bribe the judges and thus preventing the church being built.^[1]

Letters regarding Islam

His letters during that period open a glimpse into the early period of Islam as seen by non-Muslim eyewitnesses.

• The heretics are deceiving you [when they say] there happens what happens by order of the Arabs, which is certainly not the case. For the tayyaye mhaggre (Muslim Arabs) do not aid those who say that God, Lord of all, suffered and died. And if by chance they do help them for whatever reason, you can inform the mhaggre (Muslims) and persuade them of this matter as it should be, if you care about it at all. So perform all things wisely, my brothers; give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.^{[citation needed]}

In a letter addressed to the metropolitan Shemʿon of Rev Ardashir:

• You alone of all the peoples of the earth have become estranged from every one of them. And because of this estrangement from all these, the influence of the present error came to prevail with ease among you. For the one who has seduced you and uprooted your churches was first seen among us in the region of Radhan, where the pagans are more numerous than the Christians. Yet, due to the praiseworthy conduct of the Christians, the pagans were not led astray by him. Rather he was driven out from there in disgrace; not only did he not uproot the churches, but he himself was extirpated. However, your region of Fars received him, pagans and Christians, and he did with them as he willed, the pagans consenting and obedient, the Christians inactive and silent. As for the Arabs, to whom God has at this time given rule (shultana) over the world, you know well how they act towards us. Not only do they not oppose Christianity, but they praise our faith, honour the priests and saints of our Lord, and give aid to the churches and monasteries. Why then do your people of Oman reject their faith on a pretext of theirs? And this when the people of Oman themselves admit that the Arabs have not compelled them to abandon their faith, but only asked them to give up half of their possessions in order to keep their faith. Yet they forsook their faith, which is forever, and retained the half of their wealth, which is for a short time.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Adiabene (East Syrian Ecclesiastical Province)
• List of Patriarchs of the Church of the East

Notes

1. ^ Bar Hebraeus, Ecclesiastical Chronicle (ed. Abeloos and Lamy), ii. 129

References

• Abbeloos, J. B., and Lamy, T. J., Bar Hebraeus, Chronicon Ecclesiasticum (3 vols, Paris, 1877)
• Assemani, J. A., De Catholicis seu Patriarchis Chaldaeorum et Nestorianorum (Rome, 1775)
• Brooks, E. W., Eliae Metropolitae Nisibeni Opus Chronologicum (Rome, 1910)
• Gismondi, H., Maris, Amri, et Salibae: De Patriarchis Nestorianorum Commentaria I: Amri et Salibae Textus (Rome, 1896)
• Gismondi, H., Maris, Amri, et Salibae: De Patriarchis Nestorianorum Commentaria II: Maris textus arabicus et versio Latina (Rome, 1899)
• Wigram, W. A. (2004). An introduction to the history of the Assyrian Church, or, The Church of the Sassanid Persian Empire, 100–640 A.D.. Gorgias Press. ISBN 1593331037. 

External links

Preceded by Maremmeh (646–649)

Catholicus-Patriarch of the East 649–659

Succeeded by Giwargis I (661–680)