sometimes in various monasteries of his party, for considerable intervals at the monastery Dair Za'faran, north of Mardīn in Mesopotamia. Already, in the end of the 6th century, Jacobitism obtained a foothold in Persia. Tagrīth on the Tigris, and the famous monastery of Mâr Mattai in the heart of the Nestorian country, south-east of Mosul, were the centres from which their missionaries spread in all directions. They converted a number of Nestorians, among others Gabriel of Shiggar, chief medical adviser of King Chosroes II (590-628). Even the King's chief wife, Shirin, became a Jacobite Christian.[1] The Jacobites had a Metropolitan for Persia (under their Patriarch of Antioch) who at first lived at Mâr Mattai. In the 7th century their Patriarch Athanasius I (595-631) organized the Persian mission on a larger footing. Chosroes II, after his victories, had brought a great number of Syrian prisoners back to Persia, who were mostly Monophysites. Athanasius moved the Metropolitan see to Tagrīth. Here Maruthâ, a monk who had been a zealous missionary, ruled over twelve suffragans in Persia.[2] Then he made three more sees.[3] Later the Persian Jacobite Metropolitan acquired a special title, famous in the history of this sect, which still exists; he was the Mafrian (mafryânâ, p. 340). Naturally the Nestorian Katholikos always detests Jacobite activities in his territory and excommunicates the Mafrian and his adherents as obstinate heretics.
The Jacobites, nevertheless, continued to make converts. They had during the Middle Ages flourishing schools of theology, philosophy, history and science of all kinds, so that their sect at one time held an exceedingly high place in the history of Christian literature. Notably in the 12th century was there a great revival of letters among the Jacobites.[4] One of their great scholars was the Patriarch Michael I (1166-1199), the same who condemned Mark ibn alḲanbar in Egypt (p. 241). His
- ↑ For Jacobite Missions in Persia see Labourt: Le Christianisme dans l'empire perse, pp. 217-221.
- ↑ Barhebræus: Chron. Eccl. ii. 118-128.
- ↑ Ib. Labourt (op. cit. p. 241) considers fifteen sees to be impossible in the 7th century.
- ↑ Duval (Littér. syriaque) and Wright (Syriac Literature) give an idea of this.
