The chronicle of Seert : Christian historical imagination in late antique Iraq / Philip Wood. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013
Content
Contents
Preface
Notes on Transliteration and Terminology
Map
Abbreviations
Introduction
The Chronicle of Seert
Approaching the Chronicle
Trusting the Chronicle
The Texture of the Chronicle
Structures of the Sasanian State
Religion and the Sasanian State
Geography of a Christian Minority
Babylonia
Khuzistan
Assyria
1. Collaborators and Dissidents: Writing the Hagiographies of the Fifth-century Persecutions
The 410 Synod of Seleucia-Ctesiphon
The War of 421 and the New Persecutions
The Martyrs of Yazdegard and Vahram
Abgar’s Cycle: Loyalty and Persecution
The Vandals Remembered
Conclusions
2. The Martyrs and the Catholicos: The Acts of the Symeon and Their Reinvention
The Relic Cult and the Invention of History
Symeon bar Sebbae: Martyr for a Christian People
Developing the Acts of Symeon: Authority and the Catholicos
The Acts of Symeon and the Control of History
Conclusions
3. The Patriarchal Histories: Genesis of a Centralizing Narrative
The Medieval Compilations: Bar Hebraeus, Mari, and Amr
The Medieval Compilations: The Chronicle of Seert and the Haddad Chronicle
Acacius’ History
The Fifth Century in the Acacian History
The School of Abda
Miles and Papas: The Council of Dadisho
Miles and Papas: The Reconstructions of the Histories
Papas and Demetrianus: Histories of Exile and the Rights of Gundishapur
Conclusions
4. The Church and the World
Clerical Reform: Acacius and Barsauma
Clerical Reform: Narsai, Elishe, and the History of a Crisis
The School of Nisibis: Barsauma, Acacius, and Christology
The School of Nisibis: Nisibene Theology in Ctesiphon
The Church and the Shahs: Seeking Favour
Conclusions
5. Roman Ecclesiastical History in the Sasanian World: Reception, Adaptation, and Reaction
The Expansion in History-writing
The Identity of the Ecclesiastical Historians
A New Roman Past
The Dyophysite Fathers and the Reception of the Fifth-century Histories
Ishoyahb I and the Incorporation of Roman Ecclesiastical History
Nisibis and the Dyophysite History of Barhadbeshaba
Chalcedon in the Church of the East
The Anti-Chalcedon Tradition
A Nestorian Church
Conclusions
6. Beyond Ctesiphon: Monasteries and Aristocrats in the Christian Histories
Abrahamic Monasticism at Izla
Monasticism after the Henanian Crisis
The Hagiographic Collections: The Book of Chastity
The Book of the Governors
Authority and Conflict in the Accounts of Babai the Great
Monastic Hagiography in the Chronicle of Seert: The Catholicoi and the Jacobites
Monastic Foundations and Iranian Aristocracy
Local Hagiographies and Iranian Patrons
Iranian Histories and Christian Authors: The Acts of Mar Qardagh
Iranian Histories in the Chronicle of Seert
Conclusions
7. The Last Great War of Antiquity: The Reaction of Christian Iraq
The Great War between Rome and Persia
Historiography of the Great War
Narrative Families in the History of the Great War
Khusrau and the Christians
The Life of Sabrisho
Numan and Sabrisho
The Election of Sabrisho
Christians in a Time of War: The Invasion of Dara
Christians in a Time of War: Khusrau and the Miaphysites
Gregory of Nisibis
Gregory and the Sack of Nisibis
The Election of Gregory of Pherat (605–9)
Rivals and Successors: Christian Political Ideas after 612
The Fall of Jerusalem in the Khuzistan Chronicle
The Fall of Jerusalem in Antiochos Strategos
The Murder of Khusrau
The Reign of Shahrbaraz
Conclusions
8. The Church of Baghdad: A New Past for Christian Iraq
An Indian Summer
The Catholicoi and the Arabs
Writing Christian History under Arab Rule
Tales of Constantine
An Expanding Church
A New History of Monasticism: The Nestorians in the West
Remembering Muhammad: Taxation and Narratives of Surrender
Remembering Muhammad: The Histories of Najran
Remembering Muhammad: Christians, Jews, and Muslims
Conclusions
Conclusions
Episcopal and Regnal Lists
Synods of the Church of the East
History-writing in the Church of the East
Contents of the Chronicle of Seert
Bibliography
Index