PART 11

CHAPTER - I

THE EAST SYRIAN CHURCH UNDER THE ARABS AND

THE CALIPHATE

l 'he Roman imperii~l order (Edict of Milan) in the fourth century

brought about a dramatic change in the status of the Christianity in the

Mediterranean world. A new period in ecclesial life opened up. Everywhere

in the Mediterranean basin, the Christian faith came to dominate in religious

and cultural life. The repercussions of the changes were eventually felt by

Christians who lived far beyond the borders of the Roman empire.

With a fir!n hierarchical organization, the East Syrian Church began

to look around for oppoi-tunities for expansion and had flourishing missions all

over Asia. Murray suggests that Arbil coulti well have been an independent

focus for such missionary thrust in all directions throughout the Persian

empire'. The frontiers of Persia. mainly looking eastwards laid open before

the Christians with immense horizons of hope for evangelization and

expansion. Seleucia-Ctesiphon was a natural meeting place of mercantile

caravans fkom Arabia. Central Asia, India and China. Christians were a

majority among the mercantile classes from Constantinople and Alexandria. It

was here that the East Syrian Church became acquainted with people ti.om all

the countries of rlie East.

According ro blollLt1. i ~ : !css than two hundred years after the death of

Christ, tho Syrian Christians were lieginning to carry the faith not just across

the Asian borde~s of Korne, a~ id not into Persia alone, but out across the

continent toward the steppes ofti1c. central Asiatic nomads and the edges of the

Hindu ~ u s h ' .

Initially, Christianity spread among the -4rab tribes in contact with I Rome . The Arab Kingdom of Hirah was a vassal of Persia, west of the

Euphrates and had become Christian by the late fourth century 2. Many of the

Christians who in the following centuries held positions of leadership, in

medicine or scholarship came from this srnall kingdom and from Ghassan, the

Christian Arab kingdom adjoining Syria and a vassal to Byzantium 3 .

Arabia: The land, the people arid the language

.4rabia had lung bcen a land on the margins of two world empires - I Iiorne and Parthia. For i;entilries its people had lived without having been

absorbed into either onL. Arabia was the cradle of Islam and Arabic

civilization in the sixth century .4D. It was a region with some sedentary

agricultural and commercial life centred in Yemen and the borders of Syria

and Iraq, but the interior was the domain of camel-raising Bedouin nomads.'

The Arabs lived mainly in the Arabian Peninsula and that the term Arab

meant ca~nel nomads. Eve11 M o r e the emergence of Islam the Arabs were

I The name Arab elvcn :o abulii 100 llllll~orls ocrsons who live in a arour, of independent nations Stale - - . in North Africiand the Middle East have a ;omman linguistic and cuitura! heritage. The religion of Islam has sheoed this heritaec. aithouch cbwt one tenth of'the Arabs are not Muslims. On the basis of . d ,

physrca! cliaracterislir 3. the Ar;ihs arc rcgardrd as Mediterranean

: The ivholi. ~r ibc aioi,~. with a :nciphhourir!.c trib; tioin the !;dine desert area between the Euphrates and the Hcllciristic Romar! towns north of D u r ~ s c u s had become Christian, according to Sozomen, about ten ycilrs carlier ihroug!, the ,,:ontact with priests and monks who dwelt in the neighbouring deserts.

2 . The scmi rr~dependcn~ Arab statc cf' tlirtha in southern lh4esopotamia lay on the direct route from Persia to South A~ab ia and served at least as a resting place for those proceeding further.

3. John. Niiiory. 28

4. By thc lar~. -U)SOOa. stverai slliill! Arab kingdems had been formed along the borders and had become client states of one or the other pou,er. 'The majority of Arab people, however still lived outside the domain of cithcr empire. hfostl? they were organized politically according to traditional tribal patterns

: Like Arahra therc wcrc a nurobcr oS5maii ~nilcpcndcnt buflkr svates between Rome and I'arthia Sevcrib! 01 Illern ..ii.rc ufAroh i r i t u

5 . Thc mos: idvanct .Arab comi;,u~~iii t i i~ ,c l i : 'ti liic oasis of Mccca and Medina. Mecca was a sanctuary settled in llic ceorur) AD t,) tl-ihcsolc~i c~l l i , ! thz Uuraysh It shrine the Kazba, becalrlr a centre for Arabian pilgrimage arid trade. hlcdina was a,; agrisulturai oasis, divided by bitter feuds among t!~c Arab pagans and betwccn the pagin and i c i v i sh clans of the oasis.

found in a11 the I-egions beyond the northern border in Syria Palestine,

Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and in western part of Persia. Some were cultivators

and some were nomads. \i'hile some lived in cities. A large number migrated to

live in the cities of Syria and Mesopotamia where its merchants carried

extensive commercial tradciArab merchants played a significant role in

moving goods to the markets in Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia and elsewhere

Politically and culturally the highly developed Byzantine and Sassanian

empires that surrounded it influenced Arabian Peniasula. Military techniques,

weapons, material goods, and above all the ideas of the Jewish and Christian

religions were sprexding by settlements, itinerant preachers, and ccntacts with

already converted border people. Culturally the Arabic people belonged to the

Semitic family. Arabic culture had known tradition of indigenous religious

prophets who engaged in ecstatic urterances. 'There had always been a host of

locai deities worshipped in [he vsr-ious cities where Christians lived. They

were the targets of Christian effnrts to evangelize their neighbourhoods,

encountering with the Jewish community, Manichaean and Zoroastrians, with

varying degrees of hostility being expressed and an interaction with Buddhism

and Chinese religious traditions.

Christian beginnings anlong Arabs:

I [ 15 very d~ffictil~ !o say when and how exactly Christianity came to

peninsular \rabi;l:' The coincidence of the opening of the trade routes into

farther Asla with the ascendancy of the East Syrian Church offered a ready

outlet for missionary effio1-r. Beginning with Apostle Paul himself, who, after

I . Thc Roman world III gsnci;i! ig:~orcd l i x Arab coontrics as containing nothing but sand and a few paln?s (hre rhsng ziiune n!d.ie Southern 4r;ihia important to Rome. It !tanked the Wcst's only reliable tradc rnulc to Asia, down t ! ~ c Rrd Sca and across the Indian Ocean

: Strnan Mtsslnn:rri Enrrrpi-isps. 30

2 Soins ,,:'the goods they tr;it~sportcd \ \err products of Arabia itsciS such as camels, goat skins, or the fragrznccs of the .south. hlos: <of thcin were products that Arabic traders bought and then sold at a

prolit. making then, rmpol-innt nliddle pusoris in the inti:rnational con~mercial economy. 3 . Arabia is not a laind of Ct~risiian, toda) Rut therc werz many Christians in Arabia once. The risc of

Islam cciipsed Chrlstianiti i n th;rt par: ofthe world.

his conversion, preached Christ in synagogues in Damascus, Syria. After that

he went to Arabia where he preached for three years. Syrian and Arab

historians relate the fac! that Aramean Syrian Evangelists and missionaries

converted nlany tribes iri Arabia into Christianity in the pre-Islamic periods.

Among these Christians tribes for insliince are Taghleb, the sole and strongest

tribe to enchance and enforce the throne of the first Arabic State Omayyah

whose capital was Dan~ascus during whose reign the rest of the Islamic

conquests here launched A

The Christian mesage to these areas rnight have been mainly through

the important trade route:, which were Christian centres in Arabia connecting it

to Persia, Syria and Egypt. Some historians believe that Christianity in Arabia

was a branch of the East Syrian Church, which expanded faster than other

Christian denominations in the early centuries. 3

Several historians liave suggested that another mode of entrance had

been by emigration of ('hristians from Persia at the time of persecution.

Christian refugees during the t m e of the tiercz persecutions in Persia fled to

the independent kirigdonis in the Arabian peninsula. It was mainly to the

south and !o the centre t)f Arabia that the: refi~gees of this church fled,

although some Christians !vent lo the northern Arabia too4. There was the

possibility of' Christianity being present in Arabia even before the persecution

of Shapur-11. since there was fairly constant intercourse between Yemen and

Hirtha, via l-lirtha with ~ers ia . '

I i b I I I I . I I?

- 'l 'c~unt.~. O~.!/,odot / . ,# l /wvx . I <

: Accordiilp io him rhc ruler ul !:des\;! Killg .~\lrgar. became n Christian who was of Arab Origin.

-I. Particulari) In the Isiisr part ul rhi. rrigl! 01' Sllapur 11 (310-379AD) %vho persecuted the Christians severrl) l'ro~n 339 .'ID unwartlb Ih;sc iinmzgran:~ [nust bil\c mostly gone either by land througi~ tile scml indcpenden! Ai;!l. state r n t ' ! l ~ r . t or acr(i+ :he I'ersian Gulf to the coast of Oman. and rrojn thcru sou:biiard\ to Ycnicri

: Accordsng 10 the f3ui.k of 1 1 1 tlii~i;ynritcs nil otller sources, the rchgees fled from Persia. They travellrd clther hy sca ur by 1;u:d 1.: ~ o a s t s i)filnran, Hadramaut. Hira or Hinha.

5 Stiwsrl . 1li.rsionan t n i e r a r r ~ , : ~ i! quotsd t r i l l , i , Moherg. hfmnryarilrer, 1x1 Zwemcr, Islam, 19-20.

Medium for transniission of Christian Message

I t can be broadly srated that Christianity spread through the Arabian

provinces by virtue of the work of ascetics and contribution of Theophilos, the

deacon and Abdhiso, the monk. S . I . Moffett is of the opinion that the desert

ascetics played an i~nportant role to cany the Christian message all along the

Arab countries.' Impressed by Syrian asceticism a number of Arabs embraced

Christianit!. in the fiurth ~ e n r u r y . ~

l'here is another tradition about the introduction of Christianity to this

area. During the reign (11' the Roman emperor,Constantine, Theophilus, a

deacon of Nicomedia, was sent by the emperor to lead an embassy to southern

Asia, the coast of Himayar.' He was successful in persuading the king of the

Himparites who was a non-Christianl to become a Christian. He built the

churches at %afar, ,\den. Sana, and Hormuz in tlie Persian Gulf. There were

four bishoprics being established there, among converts who were at first

Arian in theology but later embraced Nicene orthodoxy.4

The Chronic/e Setrt mentions that Abdisho, the Monk built one

monastery at Baharin abou 390 AD. Abdisho might have frequented a

company of East Syrian Christian refugees out of Persia, who were persecuted

I . I h c car!:csi ;\rab C'hrlillan c (>~~ i~ i~ l~ i~ , t i i . s SCUII! to iiavc ( I~ve I~pcd irom c0111~cts with dcxr t B S C C ~ ~ C S ~ 1 1 0

unwiitll;~l! attract~x! I,, Chrisi:an~t\ man! !\llo d~sci~vered them.

: Hilarion (291-271AL)) bvas on< o! ~ n a n y \$ho in this way fostered groups o f Arab-speaking monks in the Negcv Aquabh and further rssi

: Cragg . ('hr,,rian, 40

2 . This can br tilustrared by the fvllowing ini'ldmt . Under pressure from warrior, Arabiall queen named Mavia who was a Christiw., invited one bishc.p, Moses to live among the people (ca 373 AD). The historians Socrates, Sozomcrr, and Thcodoret reported it. It is from that date that the christianisation o f the borderland Arabs proceeded apace. In thic expansion ;I number o f monasteries played important roles at Hira. By the fifth centiiry l l i ra became ai l important center for advancing Ncstorianisrn among the Arabs oi'the east

: Socrates. 6 ; ~ ci Hisr , Yi'VI;, VI,I :!. 1 !6.

3 After Coiistn:ii~ne's a~.~.ession iu power throughoul thc Empire in 324 AD, there were increased efforts lo convert such Arabs. Julian souglit tu use thun in his ill-fated campaign against Persia in 361-363 .

3 Stewart . Miriionory tnrcrpri~es. 5:;-jJ

by Shapur-11. Undoubtedly they found haven in Arabia and bore Christian

witness there. These refugees, missionaries moved down the Arab side of the

Persian Gulf preaching the faith and establishing missionary monasteries. On

his return to Yemen, he proclaimed the gospel in Yemen as well as in the

neighbouring placcs ' ilczording to Sozomen, the whole tribe in the desert

area between thc Eupi-:rates and the Hellenistic Roman towns north of

Damascus had become C'hristian, ahout ten years earlier through the contact

with the priests and with :he rnoaks who dwelt in the neighbouring deserts

who were distinguished by their purity of life and by their n~iraculous gifts2.

Clearly by the end of the fourth centuly the Christian Church existed in

a number of centres in southern ~rabia- ' . Najran bcczme the major centre for

Christians. situated as i t was on the trade route f o n i South Arabia to Syria,

via Mecca. Tine Christians at Naj1.an were granted a wider measure of

religious liberty, or-: iol:(iit.ii~ii tiiat they paid a special tax, which in their case

was levied in ~ 1 0 t h . ~ '!he Book of Himyrites deals with the persecution in

Najaran and Yemen in tirst quarter of the sixth century and makes important

reference:; to other places and events. 5

Christians established themselves in Hira and Kufa by 380

AD.According to Van G.!3 Grunebaum, the East Syrian Christians of Hirta

formed a close co!nmurrit? calling themselves 'servants of God' whose inner

unity transcended :raditiond Arab tribal d i f fer~nces .~

I In Yemen, the jrus wsrc numerous and they persecuted the Christians at the initial stage. Scholars like, Ian Gillman. liold 15: e ~ c t r that !Irere is nu I im i indication o f Christians in appreciable nu~nbcrs on ihc Arabian I'cninsula hi,lbrc thc liio:tli century. Ambassador n;!med Theophilus was sent to seek an :illiaiice wilh 1hi. H i m j a r ~ ~ e j and to l i x l c r the work o f thz church in the Yclnen.

: i:$!, C,~lln?an, (. l~,~rmarz~ , - 8

3 I t was 3150 a ccntrc for grr,>rinf Jcwisi: pilwer from 350 .a and th~. two faiths \rere dcs:ined to come into violent coll~\lan.

P.Hitti reported that the Arab king Al-Numan (400-418AD) was a pagan

and sometimes persecuted his Christian subjects but the faith spread and

eventually reached even into his The Arab Christians of Hirta taught

the desert Arabs the language Syriac. They learned to read and write, giving

them a cultural advantage over most of the rest of the people of the northern

Arabian Peninsula'

Persecution of Christians in Arabia by a Jewish Ruler - C.520

'fhc Jews in Arabia persecuted the Christians. W.G. Young quotes an

incident of persecution in Najran. Masruq, probably the King of Yemen, and

his general, Zu-Yazan, persecuted the Christians there. His mother who was a

Jewess converted Masruq to the Jewish faith. Many of his followers would be

pagan Arabs. Masruq captured Najran. He put the Christian men to death.

The following account tells of the martyrdom of the wornen folk'.

[Masruq said to Zu-Yazan] 'Cio and enter Najran and bring together the wives of those rebels who were killed on Friday, and bid them deny Jesus. And those who decy shall be Jews with us, and be alive, but those who do not deny shall die as bitterly as their husbands.' ... They brought together to him the believing freeborn women of Najran whom they found. one hundred and seventy-seven in number. And they brought with them also many children whom they carried. They were imprisoned. But these women chose the ways their husbands' ways- the way of cross for the sake of Christ, God. Zu-Yazan reported to Masruq, who ordered them to be brought out to the place where their husbands had been killed, and there pu; to a painful death.

They prayed for help for God, while they are persecuting. 'Christ, God, come to our help! Oh our Lord, Jesus Christ, behold our oppression in this moment and turn not away from us, but grant in us the power to accomplish this our way by martyrdom for Thy sake, that we may also go and reach our brethren who died for Thy sake. And forgive us our sins, and receive the sacrifice of our lives as acceptable before Thee.

I. The musl f;t~nous 01 al! Ihc l.;lhl~llrid k i n g i i a \ Al-Muodir Ill (505-554AU). I l e bscame Christia~i towards ~ h c 2nd of The tilth cenulrj

: Hirti, ,rrahv . 83

3. Young, ,S'oiir<.es Toxl N t 408

But those women who had with them little children, set them down on the ground and covered them with their garments, and stood Themselves, spreading uut their hands to heaven. till suddenly [one] of them was overpowered, and fell to the ground. Then these murderers.. Began to slay them with swords without mercy, [so that] neither a single one of them nor a s~ngle child remained alive. So then these handmaids of God were crowned by a good confession on this same day, Monday [probably 271h November. 5231 And those men who told us of their wondrous martyrdom mentioned also to us a few of their names out of many. The'list contains 90 names in all; the children mentioned are all girls.

Another perseculion began about 522AD, though there is great

uncertainty about the dates. Perhaps it starred as taxation levied against the

Christians by the king. EIostility intensified, with Christians burning Jewish

synagogues in Najran and the .Arabs of Jewish faith tearing down Christian

churches in the south. Tile Christians appealed for help to the nearest

Christian power, Ethiopii;. The ruler had long claimed sovereignty, over

Arabia and responded ro the appeal of the Arab Christians with a massive

invasion in 523AD that drove the Himyarite king, Dhu-Nawas from his capital

of Zafar. The ?hocking massacre at Najran horrified the Christian world and

widened the conflict by drawing in both Roman Byzantium and Sassanid

Persia. It was reported that the Jewish-Arab prince Dhu-Nawas burned alive

'427 ecclesiastics. monks ;md nuns. killed 4252 christians and enslaved 1297

children and young people below :he age of fifteen''

Thc patriarch's o~era l l pobitive attitude towards the Arabs in echoed

some decades later by John of Phcnek, writing in the 690's, following plagues

in AD 686-687. With a hciglitened t.schatologica1 expectancy, John is still able

to uphold the idea that thc Arabs were divine!y called:

'We should not think of the:r ~dvent as something ordinary, hut as due to divine working. Before calling them, God had prepared them beforehand to hold Christians in honour: thus they also had a special comtnandment from God concerning our nonabtic station, that they should hold it in honour.

I t is believed that these persecutions were due to the spread of non-

chalcedonian and Jewish activities in these areas, which led to Jewish

Christian, conflict to the massacre of many Christians and Jews. In spite of

the persecutions. the Arab Christians through out the eastern part of the Roman

Empire as well as in I'ersia, with great ~nissionary spirit took the gospel to the

different parts LIC Arahi;~.

Literary Works

l'he Christianity. which reached the Arabs had the flavour of Aramaic

culture via the Syriac !anguage. It continued to do so whether it came from

Nestorian. non- chalcedonians cr non-chalcedonic sources. Its seems to be no

evidence of a pre-Muslim translation of the Bible into Arabic, or of a Christian

Church at that time using in Arabic service. It is probable that the Christian

Bible in use in i\rabi;i a1 this time was in ~ ~ r i a c . " It is believed that the

Arabic script was inve:lted by the major contributions of the East Syrian

Christians which helped :he writings of the (&ran.*

One of -thc oldest known tilanuscripts of the New Testament is an

Arabic translation of the Syriac Peshitta, fkom the eighth century. Christian

inscriptions in Greeki Syriac !Arabic have also been found at Harran and

Zabad. Hunayn ibn ishall was the Nestor'ian scholar who was one of the

greatest scholars and noblest characters of the age. He was the translator into

Syriac and Arabic of Nippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Galen and the Greek

Septuagin!. He u;as also a skilled physician also3.

The result of interaction between Arabs and East Syrian Cliurch

1 Ihc Arabians, though very powerful and achieved rapid progress, they

lacked education. Their language was a Illere dialect unfit to express the

I . Smith . Rlysticism . I l l 5

2. Cragg Kciri~eth. Arab.

3 . Hitti. A r ' i h ~ , 118

94

intellectual and political ideals of the great empire, which they were rapidly

building. Their language-. was closely related to Hebrew, Syriac and Aramaic.

The Arabic Language

Little is known about the written form of Arabic prior to the seventh

century. Even the Arclb~c language, after the Islamic Conquests, was renewed

and enriched through the Christian, Aramean, Syrians', interpretations

translations and commentaries. It is likely that the script was most likely

derived from Syriac, and mighi have emerged from trading cities where Arab

merchants needed to keep their own records. The East Syrian Christian

Mission in the Arab in Peninsula influenced Islam. Among the technical terms

in the Quran seeming to be archaic. are rather derived from the Aramic Syriac. I Here are some examples

- -- - - - - -- --

1 ( I ) Quran :

Thuugh t h ~ s hind of vcrbal noun exists seldom in ancient Arabic , however, it seems to be coincd from the Aramaic Syrlac 'Quriaiz', 'Quriano'.It means 'a reading' derived from the word 'Qro' or 'Qrorr ' means lo read recile, coll.sound

: For the Qurn,i per sr. legislates to the Arabs the religion of Moussa (Moses) and lssa (Jesus) without discrinlination, teaches them ' (he Book and the Wisdom'- the 'Torah and the Gospel' and h ~ s slogan is 'Do not make a distinction between any one of his prophets'.

( 1 4 ) Jameh (hlosque)

Tlic word did not chist even befort Islam. For it means textually and literally, Churclz, (or Kmssa). It is derived from the Arablc verb Jan~aa, to gather together, at collect. Exactly as Kaii~ssa, a church, which from the Aramaic Syriac verb Knash, to gather together or collect. Far the pronunciation of 'SH' in Arm~nic Syriac is transformed sometimes to 'S' in Arabic and vice versa

(iii) Masjed: The other uirrli in Aldnic fhr Mosqur .s Ma~qed or Mnsged (from thc verb Sajijodu or Soguda) der~vzd also tium the 41.maic Syriilr Masgdo (the verb is sged, to bow doxn or to bow in worship). This veiy act of uorshipping God by bowing down one's face to the earth.

: Ths, was periiirmed for thc tirst ;imc by ..\braham, thc first father of monotheism.

: i31hl~.Geossii. lY:18, ?2,2'.21:48

It n~cans In Arabic, thr ~a i l iug Sol piayer. I t did also exist before Islam. If this term was used, it %as probably tui the purpose of calling for prayer in the church. For Azan, the Syriac verbal noun nleszls especial!) a convenient time as it:r prayer, for work and so on.

Some have suggested that the script might have had Christian

influences behind it. Perhaps having been devised by unknown Syriac monks

were intending to tran>late Christian literature. In any case prior to the seventh

century there was virtually no Arabic literary production apart from a number

of works of Arabic poetry. They intermingled with the Aramaic-speaking

peoples of the region and spoke the language; Aramaic Language is the basis

of the Arabian cultural and political unity. It is likely that the Qur'an the sacred

revelation of tht Islamic faith which was delivered to Muhammad through a

series of divine inspirations, was the first complete book ever written in

Arabic. East Syrian Christians were employed to translate into Arabic from

Syriac translations the works of the Greek philosophers. Schools of philosophy

and medicine were opened in many of the large, cities. Most of the teachers

were E a s ~ Syrian Christians.

Inter relation between Arabic and Greek

For, besides, their own language, the Syrians were well versed in

Arabic as well as in Greek, due to the continuous contacts through cultural and

commercial relations between the Aramean Syrian world and the Arabic

world, even since the first period of Christiantiy. An important factor in the

history of the civilization of the region which should be recalled is that Greek

philosophy and Greek culture. even though they existed centuries before and

after the Christian era. d ~ d not contribute much towards religion and progress

in the east. nor even in the western world, because they were not understood in

its real sense. 'The classical learning grew out of the zeal of the Assyrian

writers who wrote the commentaries on the works of the Greek philosophers.

Thus finally they succeeded in harmonizing Greek philosophy with Semitic

thought and science with religion'. At this period the East Syrian Church

libraries contained more !nanuscrip!s of classical and scientific learning than

I . I'or example. haaling wds dune b) tlic priests. hut whcn nicdicine was introduced, thc priests offered to the patient brith .nrdicinc and )prayer.

any others throughout the world. Most scholars will admit that as far as the

beginnings of modem chemistry, gun powder, the compass, medicine,

philosophy and even in some measure, theology, are concerned, much is due to

the combined labours ol'the East Syrian Christians and the Arabs. I

There were Arab Christians through out the eastern part of the Roman

Empire ~s well as in I'ersia. The role of Arab Christians themselves was

significant in attracting others to the faith. Christian hermits found solitude in

desert areas. Their asceticism and miraculous powers had considerable

influel~ce on the .Arabs among whom they lived.3 Apart from such influences

Christian merchants who plied their trade, promoted their faith along the

caravan routes. The Arab rulers were very tolerant towards their Christian

subjects, especially towards the East Syrian Christians, to whom they granted

certain special privileges, exempting them from military service and from the

tributes, which they levied on other conquered races. Permission was given to

build churches also.

Bishoprics in Arabian Christian Community

As for the East Syrian Christians, they became strongly missionary in

the late fifth century, as they came to dominate the Christian Church in Persia.

While at first they had concentrated their efforts along the areas bordering on

the western shore of the Persian Gulf, including Bahrain, they made their

prcsencc felt also in Yemexi . But the first account of'a Christian community in

Arab territory beyond the area ol' Roman influence was a bishopric at Beit

I . It i \ intercstmg to n o t ~ lioii (irech ~!)ought aas 11-anstbrtned by the East Syrian Christians, to llie Ambs. and through thc gzi81us nf the Anbian empire to the far corners ofAfrica, Spain and Europc. and ihen back again !n Greece. 'lhu, I I encircled the heart of the world and became the greatest contr~bution which the 1-;:i51 Syrian Chriiriaus and Arabs have made to the mankind.

2. n i o i i g thrln L ~ C I C Y ~ I I ~ C I I I ~nicrchant l!a!)an ( ~ 4 0 0 ) hIil\viya, Quecn of the West Tanukhs (late fourth ccnlnry) and tilnd. wife o f the Ar;ih K ~ n g Mundir I l l (early sixth century)

3. Onc iuch ligurs. enshr~ned in legend as the founder of Christianity in Najran, was the Syrian ascetic, Phzmton, who was captl~rcd by Arabs and sold as a slave in that town. There his piety and wonder- working was uajd to h a w 1r.d to the conv~rs ion of much of the population.

Katraye on the Persian Gulf (Qatar) near Bahrain by the mid of third century.'

Those who had accepted Christianity in the region during the second half of

the fourth century were represented by a 'Bishop of the Arabs' at the synod at

Antioch in AD 363-364. ' It is said that Antioch had an Arab bishop under its

ecclesiastical authorit) in 350 .4D as well as 451 AD in Beit katraye.'

Likewise there were eighteen Arab metropolitans and bishops at the Council

of Chalcedon. In the l i s ~ of bishops consecrated by Catholicos Timothy I (780-

820AD), there is a mention of the bishops of Yemen and Sana.

By 410 A,[). Hirta had a bishop and it is believed that the king himself

became a Christian in 512 A.D. It was at about the same time that the faith was

first systematically pl.opagateJ in lower Arabia, not by foreign Persian

missionary but thl-ough the eltorts o:'a native

The East Syrian Church under the Caliphate

The Arabs conqured the Syrain world at the beginning of the 7'' century

AD. The newborn Islamic societies, Arabic and Iranic, arose out of the ruins

of the dead Syrian world. That means that the Syrians were victims of their

peoples as well as of the Byzantine before them. So in the history of Asian

church. the period 650 to 1000 AD was the loss of Middle East to Islam, which

was more than the loss of its home and birthplace. It marked the first

permanent check to Christian expansion in all the previous six hundred years

of the history of the church'. The Muslim conquest terminated the Persian era

of Asian church history.

I . The lirst known bishop ol':~omad Arab, wa fJamphilos of lhc Tarinaye who was an ascetic from tllc Sbrian ilesert in Mesopotarnia and as such attended the Council ofNicara.

2. Vun Cirunebaum. l i i s ro~ . 23

3 . kloberg. .ilrmrynrirc.s. 5 1 : Vmgana, Sources Vol.1-lO

4. Sid~lisi , Developni~,nr . 3-4 I9 l : I'n~liardt. People 75

5 Mol'feti. lf~sroq~. 3 2 5

The seventh century brought about a new religious movement that

erupted from Arabia. Guided by the inspiration of the prophet Muhammad,

Islam burst upon the ancient world with a combination of religious fervor and

military skill . Many Syriac traditions, doctorines, manners and morals, as well

as other spiritual virtues and values infiltrated Islam's life and belief. it was

an unpwallel in human history. The East Syrian Christians in Persia welcomed

the Arabs as liberators from Zoroastrian operation and that the Arab

conquerors in turn found it more to their advantage to segregate and use the

Christiar~s than to exterminate them.' Within a few short decades, Muslim

armies had toppled the Persian empire and shook the East Roman empire to its

core. During the reign of Catholicos Yashuyab-I1 (628-44AD) the Muslin1

invaders seized Seleucia-Ctesiphon after the battle of al-Qadisiya in 637, and

subsequently the whole empire succumbed to their armies. 3

Christian churchcs were being constantly converted into Mohammedan

mosques, and the cross supplanted and replaced by the crescent. The Persians

made every effort to check the ~dvance of the Mohammedan armies, but all

these attempts failed to beaken the spirit of the war like tribes of Arabia.

The old Mazdaen state came to an end, and now the Muslim ruled all

Persia under Lhe orthodos Caliphs. Persia became a simple province in the vast

Arab empire whose seat of government was moved from Mecca to Damascus.

I Sir I.lao~llton A.l<.Gibbs, in hi?, book. 'Muhmmedism', puts i t this way, '0t1 the other hand, not only thr idcas expressed by Muhammed about the resurrection of the physical and the future life, but also mainy details about the piuccsi nfjudgement and cven the pictorial presentation of the joys of paradise and torments of Hell, as ucll as several of the special technical terms employed in the Qur'an, arc clzarl\ paralleled in the writing uf the Syrllrc Christian fathers and monks.'

1. Tile Arabian cilrlquest ot I'crsia was d~llrrent, however, from that of Syria. In this instance the Mohammedans were trying to stamp out paganism, and therefore they enlisted on their side forces of the Eastern Christians who had bee11 persecuted by these same pagans. These Christians in Persia universally regarded the advent of thc lslan!ic army as the hope of salvation from the tyrannical rule of paganism.

99

T h e P r o p h e t M o h a m m e d a n d Office of t h e Ca l ipha te

The office of the Caliphate was established on the death of the profet

Mohammed in 632 AD in order to provide for the continuation of organized

community life among :he diverse peoples whom Mohammed had converted

to new faith of Islam. The Caliphs became both general of the Arab armies

with the duty of waging Jihad and administration in the territories they

conquered. As a trader Muhammad himself would have been aware of the

Christian presence in Arabia and in Syria. The Patriarch Yeshuyab-I1 (628-

643AD) was said to have seen Muhammad in person, and to have received

from him a document conferring special privileges upon christiansl.

Greater contact with East Syrian Christians would have produced a

different attitude in Muhammad towards Christology. Muhammad continued

to have a more positive attitude towards the Christians, feeling that he had

rnore in common with them, notwithstanding grave differences. But it is

understood that on hhis deathbed he decreed that there should be only one

religion in Arabia ' By combination of ideology and conquest, Muhammad

and his close followers created an Arabian nation integrating the tribes of the 1 F'eninsula. The rapid expansion and growth of Islam cannot be paralleled.

No other religion has succeeded in becoming so dominant during the lifetime

of its founder. Within ibrty years of its appearance in the East it unified the

roaming tribes of Arabia into a confederated state.

T h e Umayyad Dynasty (661-750 AD)

The oversight of l'ersia was delegated to local governors, whose attitude

towards Christians was, d reflection of that of their superiors (Caliphs). The

IJmayad dynasty was cellrered in Damascus. The new dynasty moved the

1 . l'hcrc is a tradition that i hc ai'his i n l c l ~ ~ u ~ s was a monk, named Sarjis who was nicknamed Uabiril ( l lx k:snerienced). His earl> associatch. to;!udiog 11)s adopted son Zatd werc Christians.

: Srrjrant Histuri'. 104 : Zliya Histcry . 267

center of government ,)ut of Syrla. which had been the power base of the

Ilmayyads. east ward into Iraq (Mesopotamia). Umayyad derived from

Umayyad who wab a cousin of the Prophet Mohammeds grandfather and an

ancestor of the dynasty's founder, Muawiya-I. Under the Umayad Dynasty, the

military and the Government aspects of the Caliphate overwhelmed the

communal and the religious legacy in the eyes of the many contemporaries.

With the cuming of the Abbasids (750-1258AD) new capital, Baghdad on the

banks of the Tigris. became the center of authority ' The Abbasids Empire (750 AD to 1258 AD)

The Abbasids ruled Islam in Asia, 750 AD to 1258 AD as the most

celebrated and long lived dynasty in Islam. They claimed to be more strictly

orthodox than their predect~ssors and proved to be more aggressively Muslim

in the treatment of religious minorities than the practical-minded Umayyads.

The heartlands of Iran suffered next and 642 AD the final battle occurred at

Nihavand. It was but a fcw more years before the last Sasanian ruler

Yazdgard-11. was assassinated by one of his own soldiers at Merv in 651 AD.

Another.basic change in the empire was the change in the ethnic

composition of the governing Arabic community. The Abbasids, who came to

power on a tide of Islamic orthodoxy, gave religion a recognized priority over

race. True religion. not Arab birth. was to be the basis of Islamic rule. While

.~

I. Both Albert Hourani aild F 01,lar g;lve a ljsl o! the noted Abbasid caliphs. The nanles were A l - Sa<fair ( 750.754) who gavc lii; dynust) the n;une Abbsid Al-Mansur 754-755 ahu adoptcd Persian %ays and moved the capital to Damascus. Al-Mahdi !775-785). ivho frlcl~d the IS(' l'atriarch l~iniothy- I Ilarun ill-R;lslrid i 785-809) rulcd .*I Ibe hcight oi' Abbasid powrr and uppressed the Christians. Al-Amiun 1809-8 131 decline 111 Arsh influence Ap-Ma'rnuii (813-833) power tloivs to thc provinces. Al-Murasimn (833.8471 who was ina able to escape the rising power ofthe l'urkis in his empire. A l - Mutawakkil(847-861 )who irlcrease social a ~ d financial pressures on religious minorities A l - Mutamiil ( 870-892) who encouraged the Muslim religion A l -Muqadir( 908 ,9321 A1 -Mustakli (944-9461 A l - Muti (946 - 974 ) \ rho lost Egypt l u the Fatimats

: i iouri l , ,~, l iub Pey,!ci. 30-3.7 :!:)mar. -Ihh,urd Culrphate. 750-786

Until the l i n ~ of the lhird cal~ph. Mahdi (775-?85) the dynasty had been firmly established in its new capital. l 3 i the nmth centur!, thrrc was 8 period o f increasing social and religious discrimination. But after 900, as the cu!iphatr s!o.uly disintcgra~ed under the pressure oilslam's angry internal religious conflict: anhl the political 105- o f North Afilc;t and Egypt. The weakness o f the dynasty brought for a while morc ;ieedom a p i n for i-'iir;stian and i c ~ i s .

. - . ,,. .,.- ..

i~ . . - . /:

. . ' . . . . ,

101 ,. ~. : .. . ,. I ,' , .h . -

the 'Umayyad empire was Arab, the Abbasid was more iwernational: The . .i

Abbasid was an empire of Neo Moslems in which the ~ r a b s ' 6 t only one ~

-:- .- ." .. ... . of the many component races.

The Christian Church during the leadership of Timothy- I

Timothy - I (778-ST:), \vho can~e from Adiabene, the ancient seat of the

earliest Persian Christians. Ivas the greatest of all the Patriarchs who served

under the caliphateJ. He vcas a skillful diplomat in his dealings with ambitious

bishops as well as with absolute monarchs2. Timothy presided as Patriarch for

more than forty years, serving also under Mahdi's three successors. Mahdi

ordered the destruction ot borne churches and as added punishment forbade

Christians to have slaves As a theologian within the church, he strongly

defended Nestorian orthodoxy. Tuice in general synods he argued against

deviations, first in 798 AD and again in 804AD, insisting on 'purity of faith and

knowledge of the bcripturrs'.

As Baum Stark observes, it was in his time that the heresies of Henana

were finall) put to rest.' He was also strongly missionary-minded Patriarch,

who taught and dei'ended the faith, and eagerly expanded it. llis zeal was

not limited to his empire. Ibr his position gave him the authority over the East

I . The list otpatrrarchs <,ithe 1!S<' i if the Ahbastd caliphate (750-1000 AD) as follows:- Mar Aba I 1 ( 742-352), Surknus (7543, Jacob 11 ( 754 - 773) . Hananyeshy 11 (774 - 778). ~I'ilnuill). I (778-820) Josue (820 - 824'1. Gregory 11 ( 825-8291. Vacancy ( 829- 832) Sabrayeshu 11 ( 832-836)

.ii,ii;cy ( 84') - 852) 'Theodosisus ( 852 - 898) Ergius ( 860 - 872 ) Abrallam i l (836 -8.19) V' . Vacant) ( 872-877) . Eno, i 877 -- 884 1. john 11 ( 884 - 892) Johyn 111 ( 892 -- 898 ) , Juhll IV (900-'105) Abraham ! i l ( 905 '1.37). Em~n;muel ( 938 - 960), Israel ( 962) Ebcdycshu 1 (936 -986). Marcs ( 987 - 1OO01 I

2. I..E l3io\\ne relatci ;l story :ihoitt his e l c c i i ~ ~ ~ i to tlrr Patriarchate illustrating the combination of worldly ingcnuii! and Chr,m;tn intcgrtty ll~ut was ;i c!iiiracteristic ofhis administration. As the clectors galhercd for thc botc he olln\vud the811 sight of some lhcavy sacks, &hich, corrupted by thc society uf the time, they presuo~cd ro be moi;q availi~blc ib r dis:rihut~un if he were elected. AOer t l ~ c election the sacks turncd out I<, hr filled witii nothi;;g hut stones. and the unruffled new Patriarch chided them, 'the priestl~ood is not to be sold for money'.

3. mu tit^. i!rstwr,. ?7(1 Quoted fiuni Baun;i;:irk. Geschichte der sy:isclim Literatur Bonn : 1922

Syrian Christians in T'ang - dynasty China and the Thomas Christians of

India. It was Timothy who wisely granted to the churches of southern India

independence from the Persian metropolitanate of Fars (Rewardashir),

appointing what appears to have been the first known metropolitan in india'.

Mingana also reported of an assertion that Mari, the twelfth-century Nestorian

historian. that'Timothy convzrted to the (Christian) faith the Khafan (king) of

the Turks.. . . -4nd instructed Inany in Christian doctrine2.'

Timothy was educated at the great Adiabene monastery of Beit Abhe,

'Mother of Patriarchs and Bishops' and of '~ i s s ionar ies '~ . Perhaps it was

Timothy's commitment to monastic renewal and the worldwide spread of the

gospel that led him., in a world that seemed to be turning Muslim, to work co-

operatively with. the Christians of the non-Nestorian dhimmis, the Syrian

Orthodox Christians and the Melkites. He had been given a measure of

authority over them. ' His Patriarchate coincided with the great age of Muslim

intellectual ferment and enquiry. He was even bold enough to openly to pray in

the presence of the Caliph.

Contribution of East Syrian Church to develop Arabic as a literary language

By the time of the Arab invasions, the ecclesiastical boundaries

between the different Christian communities had already become virtually

fixed. In the 9Ih century Syriac began to be supplanted by Arabic in popular

speech. Syriac continued as the liturgical and scholarly language. As a result

of widespread adoption of ilrabic as a literary language, especially in the

Melkite and Maronite Churches. writers of East Syriac Church and Syriac

Orthodox Church afer have produced nll Syriac literature there in Arabic.

~

I . Mingana. ltidio. Yo, I1 . (July 1926) 467

2. Mingana . 4sia. No. II (July 1'225) 308

3. Thomas of hlarga. Booh of Goi.i.ir~ors. 2:448

4 Moffett. Ilirruty 370 quoted from l 'mothy I lcttzrs ed. 0 Braun as Simothei Patriarchae epistolae letters 21 and 39 in ('SCO scrqit Syrl. scrlcs 2a 1. 57

The literature from the middle of the 71h to the 141h centuries belonged

to the time of Islamic domination in the Middle East. From the 8"' century

onwards many writers of the Syriac Churches preferred to write in Arabic

rather than Syriac. Arabic education remained in debt to the scholars of the

Christian dhimtnis all through the first hundred years of the Abbasid dynasty.

One of the reasons why Caliph Mahdi welcomed Timothy to debate was

undoubtedlj, that the Patriarch Timothy-I was a zealous patron of education,

familiar with Aristotle and well versed in Greek and Syriac texts.

Patriarch Timothy-1 presided as Patriarch for more than 40 years,

serving also under Mahdi's three successors. He was also a strongly

missionary minded, educated Patriarch, not content simply to teach and defend

the Christian faith. but eager to expand it. He was aware of the fact that in a

world that seemed ro be turning Muslim, to work co-operatively with them

rather than against the: :vould be better. His Patriachate coincided with the

great age of Muslim intellectual ferment and enquiry. When the Islamic

thinkers were first discovering the world of Greek science and philosophy, the

church in the West was in the process of forgetting it. One of the greatest

contributions of the Asian church to the history of human thought was its key

role in transmitting 1.) the 'Arab empire the heritage of the Greek classics and,

through the Arabs. preserving then? for rediscovery and transformation of the

West in the lienaissance and Kcformation.

The best known of the scholars in philosophy and science is Hunayan

ibn Ishaq, whose normal practice was to translate first from Greek into Syriac

and then from Syriac into ilrabic. The reason was that one was able to benefit

from the experience of a long tradition of translating such Greek texts into

Syriac, while there was nn such tradition for translating from Greek into

Arabic and so it was easier to work from one Semitic language (Syriac) to

another Arabic.

It is a Sact that witli~n three centuries of the rise of Islam, the Arab

world had appropriated through indivitiu~l scholars and through translations a

good deal of the science and learning which it found in Persia and in the

conquered Uyzitntine territories. The East Syrian Churches in these regions

enriched the cu1tur;il life of the Muslim world. Though their academies in

Nisibis and Seleucia were primarily theological institutions, with a strong

emphasis on Biblical studies. they reflected their interests in other sciences

also. 'Though the organized churches played no real part in cultural

transmission. the individual Christians were active in this enterprise and

deserve st least a passing notice

Man) of the texts of the Greek origin eventually reached Western

Europe by way of translations from Arabic into Latin made in Spain in the

twelfth century. Arabic was also the source of many other medieval

translations into Persian, Cireek. Spanish and Hebrew and it were through these

translations that the work reached Western Europe. Syriac scholars thus form

an important link in the chain of transmission of ancient Greek philosophy and

science to Western Europe.

Pioneering Christian Translators

It is self evident that if scientiiic and scholarly material was to have its

maximuni usefulness in the Muslim community it would have to be translated,

from whate\.cr language i t was, into Arabic. At the beginning of the rise of

lslam these materials were in Greek, Syriac, Pahlavi, and Sanskrit. Thus the

role of translators was paramount in the transmission of foreign learning into

the language of Isla111. I

The Arabs had been little schooled but were possessed of quick and

enquiring minds and werz propelled into an intellectual revo~ution.~ Some

astronomical and mathematical works were brought to Baghdad by travellers

from India, but the earliest i~nd by far the most important source was classical

I . In the days of Khusro-I (53 1-57')) the nccd t j r translatiun was recognized. The king's physician \+ho on bls return tu Ptrsiu truln a visir 1u India brought with him Indian works, presumanly in Snilskr): I'hese hnd to he tr:lnslatcd it110 I'ahlavi

2 In onl) .I few decudcs Arab i c h i ~ l a r s ; ibslm~l~tcd :\hat had taken the Greeks cenluries to develop.

Greek con~murlicated through Christian Greece to Christians Syrians and

Persians and passed on by them to the Arabs. One of the earliest translators

was Theophilus ibn Turna (785 .AD). who was an astrologer of Mahdi, the

Caliph who debated with Timothy-I. He translated parts of Homer's Iliad into

Arabic. Another was a Syrian Christian, Yuhanna ibn Masawayh (857 AD),

who translated medical books for Harun al-Rashid.

Anc~her translator was Hunayan ibn-Ishaq (809-873) who was a student

of Yuhanna and became the superintendent of the library and school of Caliph

Mamun (813-833 AD). He was responsible for all the court's scientific

translation projects where texts were usually translated first from Greek into

Syriac, which is the language of East Syrian Church and from Syriac into

Arabic. Hunayan's son Ishaq who became the Arab empire's foremost

translator of the works of Aristotle did much of the translation into Arabic.

Hunayan himself is credited with translation of Galen, Hippocrates, Plate's

Republic, and many other works.'

In Scholarship and writing Arab Christians gained increasing respect

until as late as the I l th century. The early East Syrian Christian missionaries

in Arabia are now believed to have first invented the Arabic scripts and East

Syrian Christians made contributions to the writings of the Quran. One of the

oldest known man~~scripts of the New Testament of the Bible is an Arabic

translation of the Sv:-iac Peshitta from the 8Ih century.

The Fall of the Abbasid Caliphate

Bv the year 1000~L). the great Islamic empire of the Abbasid Caliphs

began to tall apart. They had wrested power from their kinsmen of the

I . Sever, books of Galci~'s astraiioni). losl in the original Greck, have been preserved in Arabic. I t is surpiiscd that Hunayan's version ofthe O!d 'Testament from the Greek Septuagint did not survive.

: It i s said hat Caliph paid to I lun>\m in gold thc wcight ofthe books lhc translated, so precious irzrc ihc\ cons~dcrcc!

2. Thc earliest surviving manuscrip? oi the Uiiii~ssoron of Torion rs in fact Abu- I- Faraj ibn Abdullali al-Tayylb (1043A11) But thr tradition beglns centuries earlier.

1. Among the Onhodoh Arab Chrlstiar, writzrs. John of Damascus (660-749 AD) and Theodore Abu Qurra (750-825AD! must be mentioned

Umayyad dynastic line in 750AD and for the first hundred years of their rule

had raised Arab prestige and wealth to the greatest height the Arabs were ever I to achieve. But in actual power the Caliphate by 850AD had already begun to

deteriorate. Next for four centuries the empire shriveled away to a slow

humiliating death. In 1258AD Arab Baghdad fell to the Mongols. The decline

of Abbasid Caliphate was due to the presence of non-Muslim minorities in the

Empire such as Christians and Jews. Far more fatal were Islam's own

splintering tribal and national rivalries, its bloody battles over succession to

temporal power, and unresolved disputes about the center of spiritual authority

in Islamic law and theology. In fact, its Muslim overlords were preoccupied

with their own internal rivalries.

T h e Ecclesiastical position of the Church dur ing this period

The Muslim rulers readily accepted the existing position of the East They

continued to be the Ravah (Millet) 'People of protection', in the Caliph's

domain.' Under Islam, it was found necessary for religious, political and

economic reasons. By the time of Muslim control the East Syrian Church had

built up a consrderable minority place with in the I'ersian society, being

particularly s~gn~ticant in the northwest. They were not allowed to fight in the

army, and ;n lieu ot military service they were subjected to a special tax known

as J~zya ' I n the sex enth century Islam put a stop to the growth of Christianity

in Arabia and s l o ~ l y eliminated most of its churches. It is also said that

in the eighth century many of the remaining Christians were driven out by the

Muslims and removed to the lower course of the Euphrates.

I Moffeu lii.\roty 377

2. In any casc the Arab, iiad inhcritcd Ron) thc Sasanians, system o f recognizing religious minorities, which seemed to be working reasonably wel!. 4s a dhimmi, or protected community, the Chrislians, had their own rcsidentiai sectors, and . under the genemi sozcrainty ofMuslim law, were leit to order their own aff311-s. i;i,t on)\ i.cclesiastical hut also. to .I ,:onstdciablc degree. their own l e g ~ l system.

3. The term Jc-rri carnu !,I be appl~cd sulely to :hi pull tzx levied on dhim~nis. I t is synonymous at first with Kharq. while the lcim Kh;tr;~,i ::me to use !i:r the land tux, which was levied on Muslims and non- Muslims alike

: Vinc, Ch iz rc l~u~ . 89.106 Drown . Chrisrianity , 45

Metropolitan Sees

There were fifteen re~ognized Nestorian metropolitan provinces within

the 'Abbasid Empire'. jlmong them there were seven metropolitan provinces

in the Persian Empire, which were Kaskar, Nisibis, Teredon (Basra), Adiabene

(Arbil, i.e. Arebela) Garmaea (Kzkha) Khursan (Merv), Autropatene. By

1000AD. the list of the additional metropolitans in the Abbasid empire were

Fars (probably at Rewardashir before 650), Mosul (651) Holwan (754), later

including Hamadan) , Heart (eighth century ) Rai, near m Teheran (778) and

Dailan on he Caspian s h ~ r e (at Mukar about 780) Gaulldishapur (834 ) A r m

(at Bardaa about 000). Outside the Old Persian Empire, there were China

(Chang'an 636) Damascus (before end of seventh century) Turkestan

(Samarkand 781) India (800). A metropolitan of Jerusalem was named in 1065

to care for East Syrian Church pilgrims.

Decline of the East Syrian Church in the Abbasid Empire

There was a decline of the Last Syrian Church in the Abbasid empire

during thc time of caliphate of Mutawakkil (847 -861).' In 849 Muttawakkil

abruptly deposed patriarch Theodosius. Quoting Bar Hebraeus,

(A jealous Christian) began out of hatred to accuse (the Patriarch Theodosis). . . . . .and al-Mutawakkil was angry and command him (Theodosis) to be deposed, and a month after his appointment sent to Baghdad and put in prison. and proceeded to destroy the churches and monasteries.. . ..

And hi. prevented thc Christians fiom riding on horses, and he comliianded them to wear dyed garments and to put a patch upon their shirts, and that none of them should be seen in the market on Friday, and that the graves of their dead should be destroyed, and that their house-tax should be brought to the mosque, and that the wooden images of devils should be erected on their gates, and a sound summoning them prayer should not be heard, and place should not be set apart for the liturgy.. . . . . 2

1. Gibb. C'ivilirorron . I JI-150 : Omark. i<riiphille, 136 -138 : Lewis, IsIan8 : Bishai,,Hislory

2. Brown, i'hristronrip. 54 quolcng fiom BarHebrarus. Chronican. 2 col. I92

The records of the Patriarchs were unpleasantly laced with stories of

ecclesiastical bribery and greed.' There were distressing evidences of

corruption of the monastic life, of schisms and insubordination, of then

heresies of the overly ascetic Messalians, of the decline of worship and liturgy,

which caubed confusion. Each country, town, and monastery and school had

its own hymns and songs of praise and tunes, and sang them (each) in its own

way. Monastery was poorly kept and its monks were utterly destitute .The

dhimmi sybtem protected as vcell as deprived. There were few martyrs, and no

underground church. Many fled mostly into Roman territory, but there were

few executions and no general massacres. The Christian patriarchs both

Nestorian and Syrian or tho do.^ still ruled in their seats of honour, and bishops

and priests freely preached and administered the sacraments.

The Attitude of Muslim rulers

There were restrictions imposed on the practice of the Christian

religion. but no prohibition of Christian faith and practice within the Christian I community In return for such restraint, the rulers promised not to destroy or

loot already existing churches and monasteries or hinder or forbid Christian

worship in the churches in any way

During the relgn of'Caliph, Harun Al-Rashid, all churches were ordered

to be destroyed and the Christians to wear a special dress. It was the result of

the intermittent conflicts, which Persia continued with the Roman Empire.

The Muslims still regarded the Christians with suspicion, fearing that their

sympathies might bc with the enemy Dissatisfied with the conditions of their

life under thc Caliphcite, many Christians immigrated, mostly into the Roman

I . Thomas ut hlarga reisled hoa llic pa;ri~rcl: Salibuacha tried to steal f r on~ the monks o f Beit Abhc their prrciouh u'py 01 thr ijospci5 th.n was spicuJidly adorncd with gold and jewels. Thc Nrstorian patriarch Ahrxham 111 ('~05-9?7;\il) ubcd lwgc .<urns in bribes to the caliph to discrrdit his rival, tlic Syrian Onhadox putrc,irch ui Z;itiocli, alnd l r l p from him rhc right to maintain a resident Syrian Orthodox b~shop in Baghdad.

: Thomas uf !vlarga. Book ofGo~zrn<irs 2:22X -230 Browne ('hrt,rl;oniv. 57 Quoting from Bib~lothica Clricnialies . 3 pt.2

Empire, hoping that they would be able to practice their faith with fewer

disabilities.

Dur~ng the Caliphate of Mutawakkil (846-861AD). the Christians

suffered from severe application of the oppressive laws. Christians were

commanded to wear distinctive gam~ents, with a patch on their shirts. They

were forbidden to ride on horseback, and were also forbidden to attend market

on Fridays. The graves of their dead were to be destroyed. Their children were

not allowed to attend the Muslim schools or be taught Arabic. A wooden

image of the devil h a s to be nailed to the door of every Christian house.

In addition, a number of churches and monasteries were demolished. In

spite of these anti-Christian measures, Mutawakkil retained his Christian

physicians. 'The most severe persecution during the period of Caliphate was

that of the mad Fatiinid Caliph al-Hakim which lasted for about eleven years

(1009-20AD). It appears that the motive of Hakirn was to give greater zeal for

Islam and he was particularly angry against the Christians and Jews because of

the important positions they held in the state and their insolent bearing towards

the Muslims.

In 1007 AD Hakinl began confiscating the property of churches and

publicly burning crosses. About the same time, he ordered little mosques to be

built on the roofs of the churches. Two years later, he issued an order for the

destruction of the church of the Holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem. The order for

demolition uf this church had to be signed by a Christian Wazir. Soon

afterwards 1 lakirn ordered the destruction of all churches and the arrest of all

bishops and prohibited anyone from trading with Christians. The destruction

of churches took place particularly from 1012-1014AD. The Jews also suffered

a like treatment. It is not surprising that large number of Christians became

Muslims. The geneml irripressions of' the decline of the East Syrian Church is

one of steady decline, accelerated by the troubled internal state of the

Caliphate during its later years, and in some districts culminating in final

extinction by Mongol invaiions of the early thirteenth century.

An evaluation of the Christian Church during this period

In the tenth and eleventh centuries, once more East Syrian Church

missionaries pushed tirelessly castward toward China from Merv and Hokhara

and Tashkent in Abbasid territory. They reported considerable success among

the Mongol tribes of the Keraits, Uighurs, Naimansm, and Merkits.The East

Syrian Church Patriarch in the capital. however, as head of the largest

community of Christians in the empire, was still a figure of considerable

political influence.' Christians remained a majority of the population in some

Persian Arab provinces upto the ninth century and were eminent in both

scholarship and administration until the eleventh century. Arab Christians,

their presence and achievements in the first millennium hold lasting

significance later experienced whatever tribulations. Particular Christian Arabs

were then, being elevated to positions of authority.*

Many of the Christians held positions of leadership, in both church and

caliphate, or in medicine or scholarship would come from this small kingdom

and from Ghassan. Common features in Christian communities in north, east,

and southern Arabia. included the activity of monks, both as ascetics and

missionaries. When the Caliph reigned at Baghdad, the Christians who were

most powerful had a higher tradition of civilization than their masters. They

were used at courts as physicians, scribes, and secretaries. This body of

Church officials at court gets much influence and eventually had a great voice

in canonical matters and even electing the Patriarchs. Moffett gives the details

of the fluctuating role and states of Christian communities under ~slarn.~

I. The Abbhasld caitphs Itad chosen Christiani as their doctors. This continued even into the eleventh century Men likc All iil-Tabat I (cd 8541, were unablc m stand the pressures and left the faith. Rabari was perso~iel physician to Caliplis Mutaw;tkkil slid converted to Islam during the dillicult ycars oflhat caliphate. 13y order of that 'hatcr oTChristians' he wrote the most effective and sustained defense of Islam against Christian~ty.

2. Christians \*ere ordcrcd to u c a i L cdistincl~\s lirdlc around their waists so that they might not be confused with Arabs. l.eter. a large yellow p;ttch on their outer garments, front and back, marked the wearers as Christians,

: Grifith , A w b . .3,8,10 : Uanhold, Turh 214

3. Moffett , tliitor).. 325-361 : Harthold .Turks ,214

1 1 1

Christian laymen could be found in high positions and education and

government despite their second-class social status as dhimmis. They were

sought after as teachers and personal secretaries. The East Syrian Church

colleges at Nisibis and at Seleucia, where Plato and Aristotle were taught in

Syriac and later in Arabic. and it was this that Arabs became acquainted with

Greek learning. Western Europe learned to know Aristotle through Arab

professors at Cordova and Salamanca in Spain.' The Arabs encouraged East

Syrian Church educational centres at Nisibis, Gundeshapur and Merv, for from

them came accountants, scribes, ~hysicians, teachers and interpreters to assist

the new rulers, with a good deal of responsibility for finances and local

administration left in the hands of local authorities. Arab Christian

monasticism was active, until the ninth century.

It is a fact that within three centuries of the rise of Islam, the Arab

world had appropriated through individual scholars and through translation a

good deal of the science and learning found in Persia and in the conquered

Byzantine territories. The Syrian Orthodox and Nestorian Churches as such

had little or no'interest in enriching the cultural life of the Muslim world.

Their academies. such as the Nestorian foundations in Nisibis and Seleucia,

were prinii~rily theological institutions, with a strong emphasis on Biblical

studies, and such Iibrarieb as they had would reflect these interests .

Modem Scholars like Brett Knowles is of opinion that research is

needed in the following fields such as many sided roles of women, and their

obstacles, the Christian cc;ctributions and restrictions upon Christian officials

in the adm~nistrati~)n of' Shah and Caliph, and the complex pressures and

motivations of Christianity further eastward along with the interactions of

various agents, lay and ecclesiastical m o ~ e m e n t s . ~ The regulations imposed

throughout the Persian and Arab territories upon non - Muslims, however,

I Mc Culiiiugh. ( ' I i r i s r i a n i ~ . I X ?

? Kn?wlc<, Tu (.'hi,i,;

progressively reduced both the numbers and the public roles of Christians.Yet

it was only in the wake of the crusades that antagonism between Christian and

Muslim become sharp enough to bring comprehensive discrimination and the

consequenl dismantling of Christian influence. The majority was Syriac-

speaking people: but a significant numbers being of Iranian stock. The services

of educated Christians were again widely used in administration. The majority

of the physicians. a large proportion of the merchants and artisans were

Christians.

By the end of first millennium of Christian era, all across Asia, the

centres of civilization were crumpling and churches in Asia were in trouble. In

the East Syrian Church the status of nationally recognized body of Christians

was severally limited and its survival was precarious, though the ecclesiastical

jurisdiction covered the whole continent to India and China. The East Syrian

Church Patriarch in Baghdad counted the allegiance of some two hundred and

fifty bishops in Asia, twenty metropolitans, as many as twelve million

adherents out of a horld wide population of two hundred and seventy million

people and may be fifty million Christians . There were intermittent periods

of growth and eipansion upto 1000 A.D. This period be named the period of

Christian survival in Asia. not x~ictov.

Christian merchants and land owners still had great wealth and aroused

much envy, but h e a \ ~ taxes were slowly squeezing. C!lristians denied social

equality and visible political influence at some occasions. Thus at the end of

the first Christian ~nillennium. the church was wounded, perhaps fatally and

declining. Mort: o\:er there was taxation, social ostracism and deprivation of

political freedoms. Asia's Christians by the year IOOOAD had known the weight

of these burdens longer than any Christian community anywhere in the world

of that first millennium. Afier three hundred years under Islamic rule the

church of the dhimmis, though separated, battered, limited, and self-wounded,

was still surviving and still undefeated as part of the Christian Church.

**********

CHAPTER I1

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MISSION TO CHINA

China was a thickly populated place, as it is now, the city of Chang-an,

the capital of Tang Dynasty (617-936AD) in China was world's largest city and

probably the world's first fully planned urban centre. It was a terminus of the

'Silk Road' on the Wai River in modem Shanxi, and the cultural capital of east

Asia, known throughout Asia and Europe for trade, its arts, its libraries,

embassies and religious activities. The land was prosperous and merchants and

the other residents from abroad appear to have been more interested in the area

served by the old trade route which led from Persia to Merv and from there to

China. '1t was along this route that most of silk merchandise was brought from

China to Persia and to the Roman world.

Chinese Rule through Dynasties

Shih Huang -11 (22 1-206 BC) styled by himself as the unifier of China,

sought to create a durable centralized empire. Former aristocrats were forced

to migrate to the new capital near Sian, destroyed in a single stroke their local

power and enabled the central government to govern. It was the beginning of a

dynasty rule.

I. I t was the Justmian's ttme that Constantinople began to be less dependent on this source for its silk.

Mc Cullough, Christioniiy, 180.

Procopies reports that some monks who had bccn in China, had brought Silk worm cggs and basic technology of silk production to the Byzantine capital. Procopies War5 Voi. 8, xvii,

3 The following are the d>nasties rulcd in China. Chin dynasty (221-206 BC), Han dynasty (202 BC- 220AD) period of Disunton (220-58YAD). During this period short-lived dynasties were there. Such

as Liu Sung (420-479AD) the Ch'l(47Y-502ADj, the Liang (502-537AD), the Chin (557-589AD) Sui dynasty (581-618AI)) . Tang Dynasty 1618- 906AD) , Liang (907-923AD), Tang (923-936AD3, tlan (947-950AD)

: Sung Dynil~tk (960-127YAD) Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368AD) In the 12" century wh~le China and . . southern Sung Dynasties divided china, t h e ~ b n ~ o l s were stiil scattered and is organized tribes to the NoHh west without even a common name. Thz credit for unifvine belanes to Genehis Khan and his , u - grandsons especially Kublai Khan.

The Chinese empire attained its greatest brilliance under the T'ang

Dynasty (618-907AD). The Sung Dynasty (960-1276AD) fell to the Mongols

under Ghengis Khan and his grandson Kublai Khan in the thirteenth century.

Chinese rule was restored by the Ming dynasty in AD 1386, who in turn was

ousted in 1664 by the Manchu Dynasty.The period Of T'ang rule was a hike of

prosperity and peace. Chang'an (His-an-fu) was the capital of the empire. It

was the largest walled city ever built and about two million people lived in and

around the city.

Chinese Relationship with other Countries

The sixth century historian, Cosmos, wrote about the relationship of

China with other countries:

..:Now this county of silk is situated in the remotest of all the Indies, and lies to the left of those who enter the Indian Sea, far beyond the Persian Gulf, and the island called by the Indians Selediba and by the Greeks ~ r a ~ o b a n e ' It is called Tzinitza @ and is surrounded on the left by the Ocean, just as Barbaria is surrounded by it on the right. The Indian philosophers called the Brachmans, say that if you stretch a cord from Tzinitza to pass through Persia onward to the Roman dominions, the middle of ihe earth would be quite correctly traced, and they are perhaps right.. ..' @~elediba is !vriNen rdter Sielidibu i r is island Ceylon, the name being so far changed Fbr diba, or diva means island, hence Maldive just as Sielediva, signifies the island Siele. iCeylonj

Tzinitzo is read Tsrtiu, or Sina, namely the country of the Sinoe, which a s Cosn~os hrmseifat~ests, is bolinded by [he ocean of (he east. (Chino).

For centuries commerce between its (China's) millions and Central and

Western Asia had been carried on by way not only of the Sea, but also by over

land routes across what is now Sin Kiang and through the oasis of the Oxus

valley. 2

Officials fi.oni ever) part of'the great empire, travellers, merchants and

representatives of other countries were able to meet and exchange news and

opinions. People became receptive to new ideas and customs. In its seaports

I Cosmos laphugrapiiy , Bouk 2 ,37-48

2 Latourettc H~stork 275-276

there were large pennanenr comrnilnities of Arab, Persians, Indians and other.

foreign traders. people of many races, religious background.

Religious Background

Islam, Judaism, Christianity. Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism were

found in the T' ang domains, each associated with its particular groups of

foreign adherents. Under the favourable conditions, each dynasty favoured the

introduction of new foreign cults to China but not their wide popularity.

Spiritual Reawakening

John Stewart refers to a tradition current among the records. According

to this tradition, among the Chinese of His-an-fu, a tradition referred to also in

Chinese records, in AD 64 the Chinese emperor Ming-ti, as the result of a

dream, sent messengers along one of the roads leading to the west to find out

who was the greatest prophet who had arisen in the West. They met two

Christian missionaries or. the way to the court and returned with them. The

missionaries remained there till they died six years later. The only relic of

their stay and teaching is to be found in a scripture of forty-two sections and a

logia of the New Testament I

Christian Presence in Pre-Tang China

Regarding the presence of' the Christianity in China, from early times

western Christians have handed down tales and traditions of how the gospel

had been preached even to the Chinese: who lived at the end of the world.

Some would ascribe an indirect Christian influence on pre-T'ang and Tang

China, maintaining that Mahayana Buddhism, which developed in India

mainly in the northwestern area of Gandhara in the first centuries AD, was

1. John Stauart, I well know11 rnlsslonary, ~csident for many years in Nanking, states that thcrc are evidrnccs of a wide spread spiritual aw&m~ng having taken place in China in the latter part of the first century A D . There is nothing to show, cither for or against, that it was definitely Christian, but such a movement is [nore likely to have had a Christian origin than any other.

: Stewilrt..Ili.rsronory l~~nierpricrs , 168, quoted fiom Church Quarterly Review vol. LXXV, 319. We ;are nut surf: oftlie reliab~litv (ifthis tradition.

inspired by Christian ideas. In the coast cities of China Christian merchants

who had come by the sea from Mesopotamia and Syria might be expected. The

direct or indirect Christian influence on pre-T'ang China remains a matter of

conjecture. There are however, traces of Manichaean and Zoroastrian activities

in the China of that period. Manichaeans ofien followed the Christians in their

eastern mission. I

The Introduction of Christianity in China

The scholars differ about the origin and introduction of the Christianity

in China. Most of the scholars are of opinion that the introduction of Christian

faith in China may be the work of the East Syrian Christian missionaries from

Persia. Some authors also refer to the presence of families of traders from

Bactria settling at Lin-tao, Kansu in China in the sixth century. Arnobius refers

to the Christian presecce in China during 30OAD and their success among the

Seres through without substantiating it with any supporting evidence. There

is also another tradition that St. Thomas brought the Christianity to China.

The Visit of St. Thomas to China

There was a tradition that before the martyrdom, St.Thomas lefi India and

' . . . . . .set sail into China on board of Chinese ships.. ... and landed at a town named Camballe, which is.. ..unknown to us.. ..'

Scholars like A.C. Moule did a critical study on this tradition3. According to

Moule, both the scholars of Latin and Syriac writers such as Francis Xavier, de

Cruz and de Gouivea, de Burros among the Latin writers and Ebed Jesus

among the Syrians, in the medieval period mention this tradition. A few

phrases in the Syriac h r e ~ i a q , ofien quote as, 'by St Thomas, the Chinese also - -- - -

I . Ian Christians. 167 quoted jrom Klirnheit. Die Begegnung von, Chrislenrurn, Gnosis : hloule . Chrisl~ons. 68 Almond . Medieval, 85 : Stewan, Missionary Eoterprises, 169 Mc Cullough , Christianiry , 180

2 . Moffelt , Hisfor?., 314, quo:cd from Arnab~ Disputaationum adversus Gentes Libri Octo , Xviiv. : Moulc . Christrons , 1 If . : Latourette , Histov .48-51

3. Mauls , C h n s t i o , ~ ~ , 22

with the ~ t h o ~ i a n s have turned to the truth. There was a tradition that before

the martyrdom, St. Thomas left India. This tradition seems to be based on

information gleaned from a breviary of the Syrian Malabar Church.

Here Latourette quotes.

. . . . ..'By the means of St.Thomas, the Chineses and Aethiopians were converted to the tmth..By the means of %Thomas the Kingdom of Heaven flew and entered into China.The Chinese, sin commemoration of St. Thomas do offer their adoration unto thy most holy name, 0. God.'. . . . . . I

The Reference if East Syrian Christian Presence

The reports of the East Syrian Church Synods of Mar Dadiso (424 AD),

Mar Aqaq (486AD), Mar Babai (497AD), Mar Joseph (554 AD), Mar Iso Yahb-I

(585 AD) indicate that there were bishops at China under the jurisdiction of the

East Syrian ~ h u r c h . ~ 'The Book of Governors' ',refers to several Journeys by

Bishops along, with the merchants to China from Persia.

An East Syrian Church family bearing the name of Mar Sargis is said to

have come to Lin-t'ao. Kan-su as early as 578 AD, and east Syrian Christians

are reported to have appeared at the court of the emperor of China in Chen-

kuan period4. Thomas of Marga records that during the time of Patriarch

Timothy-I(780-820AD) that the C:atholicos had consecrated one David as

Metropolitan of chinas.

I This breviary, however, was cumposed in or after the thirteenth century. Latourette points out that 'the tradition may hare arisen from the reports of envoys of the Malabar Church who visited Cambalue (Peking) [i.e. Khan Baliq] in AD 1282 and who may have met the East Syrian Christians who resided there under the Mongols. But these cannot be proved to trace back further than a seventh-century revision of the East Syrian liturgy. hy which time East Syrian missions had already reached China

: Latoiirette . Hisioty , 49 : Moffeti . H i s l o p . 3 14, quoicd from .J Li ( ; / en Htsroire orientale des grondsprogress de I'eglise

Carholique. Aponolique ri K,,,nnine. I h0Y 3,4, 6-9.

3 . Uuok of Gover~iors. Vol 2 . 506-507

4. Outerbridge. Cliino, 35-30

5 . Haoh of Governors, Voi 2. 458

The Entry of the East Syrian Christians in the Chinese Empire

The first recorded mission is known to have taken place during the

Catholicos Yeshuyab- I1 (628-43AD), which is inscribed in a stone monument.

It was discovered in 1623AD by Jesuit missionaries at Sian-fustele (Si-ngnan-

fu) in the province of Shensi in middle China. On the broad face of the

Monument. It was inscribed as :

'When the accomplished Emperor Tai-tsung (627-649 AD) began his magnificent career in glory and splendour .... behold there was a highly virtuous man named Alopen in the Kingdom of Ta-ch-in. Auguring from the azure sky he decided to carry the true Sutras with him, and observing the course of the winds, he made his way through difficulties and perils. Thus in the ninth year of the period named Chen-Kuan (635AD) he arrived at Changan. The Emperor despatched his Minister, Duke Fang Hsuan-ling with a guard of honour, to the western suburb to meet the visitor and conduct him to the Palace. The Sutras were translated in the Imperial Library. (His Majesty) investigated the Way in his own forbidden apartments, and being deeply convinced of its correctness and truth, he gave special orders for its propagation.' ' The Monument ' states that one 'Aloppen' arrived from the land of Da-

Qin the Mediterranean world 635 AD. The monk Alopen was sent by

Catholicos Ishoyabh-I1 of Seleucia who was facing the problems from the

aftermath of Great War between Persia and East Rome. The central

government had collapsed. There was a plague and flood at Mesopotamia.

East Syrian Church bishops had a decisive role to act on all these issues. The

donor of the monument is Yazedbouzid, (Yisi in Chinese) a Christian Monk,

whose family originally came from the city of Balkh, capital of act ria^

1 . Sack,, Oocumenr. 84 : Luggc. .Monument. 3-31 : Moule, Chrisfiuns 34-58 :Foster, Dynasy, 134-151

2. The tablet is headed with an inscribed (Persian) cross standing in a lotus blossom and edged with flame, flowers and cloud formation. its measurement is 4 feet high, 3 feet 4 inch wide and one foot deep, The inscribed text consists of 1900 Chinese characters along with seventy words of Syriac and approximately 80 names of bishops, presbyters, monks and others in both Syriac and Chinese.

3. Ya~edhouzid was at one lime a high-rank~ng military officer and Lieutenant Governor of the northern region It is said that he gave Christian monasteries objects of rock crystal , carpets, cloth and gold, which the emperor had glven him, a uell as money for the restoration, and enlarging of the monstery buildings

James Legge gives a summary of the monument in the following lines I .

The contents are three fold: Doctrinal, Historical, Eulogistic. The first part

gives a brief outline of the teachings of the religion, and the ways and practices

of its ministers. The second part tells of its first entrance into China, and

patronage extended to i t for nearly hundred and fifty years by various

emperors. In the third part, the Christians express in verse their praise of God

and their religion. and also of the emperors whose protection and favours they

had enjoyed.

It contains the teaching on creation, the fall, the birth of Jesus who is

described as establishing good works, saving activities, right faith, unfolding

life and abolishing death. It includes the Ascension of Jesus Christ, the work

of the Holy Spirit, the Twenty Seven Books of the Scriptures, Holy Baptism

and the seal of the Cross. It gives the description about the Tachin ministers

and monks. Patterns of worship in the churches such as the sacrament of

Baptism, week.1~ offering-presumably Eucharist and offices of prayer upto

seven times a day.' It also records the emperor's proclamation of the way of

salvation and the establishment of a Tachin monastery. The growing number

of the monasteries led to the controversy with Sakhya people (Buddhist) and

the destruction of some monasteries. These were restored under renewed by

the imperial orders.

Authenticity of the Monument

There are some controversies regarding the genuineness of the

Nestorian Monument. Some hold it as authentic. Some others say it is forgery.

John stewart) brought the arguments of both Voltaire and Huc.According to

Voltaire; it was nothing but a pious fraud of the Jesuits to deceive the Chinese.

But Huc insists on the genuineness of the Monument. It was unable to discover

I . Saeki . Documonis. .i6

2. John . fftsiov,

3. Stewart. M~ssionnryEnIerpnces, 17 1

the slightest hints of suspicion as to its genuineness or authenticity. Scholars

like Dr.Wall and Dr.Legge question its veracity of the monument. The Syriac

part of the inscription is genuine but that the Chinese portion is a modern

fabrication meant to save the face of the Chinese Mandarins, which the Jesuit

missionaries shared. As the mandarins were unable to decipher the original

they made a copy of the stone, substituted a new inscription for the illegible

Chinese part and then did away with the original altogether. I

Nothing is said about the miracles of Christ or anything specially

bearing on His crucifixion, death or resurrection. There is a little in it,

particularly ritualistic but there is nothing at all evangelical.

It is noteworthy that no single event connected with the life of Christ

between His birth and death is referred to, and even the latter is referred to

only very indirectly. Secondly, the flattery paid to the Chinese emperors and

the exultation with which the erection of their images in the churches,

apparently for the purpose of worship, is spoken of. This alone is sufficient to

rule out the genuineness of the inscription, for the East Syrian Christians have

never at any time tolerated the worship of images of any kind,either of

emperors or saints. nor do they tolerate a crucifix although they show high

reverence to the cross as the symbol of their faith. Thirdly, the characters of

Chinese part of the inscription dealing with the proper names incorporated in

it. Chinese writing is obscure and extremely vague, and because of its

ideographic character it is liable to become illegible.3

1 . Stewart, A4issionory Enrerpaes, 173

2. Scholars like E.E. Salisbury, professor of Arabic and Sanskrit in Yale, U S , and Professor C.F. Neumann, suggest that the Nestorian monument is now generally regarded by the learned as a forgr~y. They hold that both the Chines and Syriac characters on the inscription were modem, not such as were in use in the eighth century

: Wylie. Researcizes. 73. quoted in Straon. Missionary Enlerprixes, 173.

: Huc, Chrtslianiry 81. Wn!l. Jzwish. 160. quoted in Stewart, M i s r i o n o ~ Enterprises,\, 173

3 . Gibbon . iiisroty , 16

The scholars like 1-luc, Wall and Wylie insist on the genuineness of the

Monument. They argue that it was unable to discover the slightest hints of

suspicion as to its genuineness or authenticity. Wall holds that the Syriac part

of the inscription is genuine. The arguments given by Wall for the authenticity

of this part of the inscription are: first, two of the persons engaged in the

erection of the monument were sons of clergymen and one of them was even

the son of a chorepiscopus.

If the Jesu~ts had fabricated the Syriac part of the inscription they

would not have inserted in it a fact 30 directly opposed in a very important

particular to the practice of their representatives (viz., the celibacy of the

clergy). Secondly, it is stated, the monument was erected in 1092 of the Greek

era (viz. A.D 781), but the Patriarch Anahjesu died in the year 778 A.D.

showing that the authors of the inscription did not hear of his death for more

than two years after it happened, a delay that can easily be accounted for by

their distance from Baghdad. Had the Monument been concocted, the men

behind it would have been particular to insert the name of the patriarch who

actually was the head of the church at that time.

It is true that there is litrle evidence of the serious deterioration of

Orthodoxy since the founding of the mission. On examination, what was

written on the stone is as orthodox as what was written by the first

missionar~es a century and more earlier. Then follows in orthodox order the

doctrines of creation, of human nature as created originally good of sin and the

Fall, and of salbation through the Messiah, 'the lord of the Universe' who was

born of a virgin and appeared upon earth as a man. ' There are more passages

clearly suggest compromise and accommodation beyond the usually

acceptable limits of missionar-- adaptation.

I. The long inwiption begins with an unmistAab1y Trinitarian statement: 'There is one . . . . the origin of the Origins . . . . our Aloha (God) the T r i ~ ~ n c myserious person. This can be taken as a reference to the tirst person of the Trinlty, since the next two ,mentions of the Trinity focusing order on the Son (one Person of our Trinity, the Messiah) and on the fluly Spirit' (the Holy Spirit, anolher Person of the Trinity).

The name Buddha is used to frequently for 'God' in the earliest

document, the 'Jesus-Messiah ~ut ra ' . ' The Buddhas as well as the Kinnaras

and the Superintending Devas and .4rhans are used for the Lord of Heaven the

angels and the archangels. The mysteries of Chinese ideographs, when the

emperor suddenly ordered them to translate their sacred books it would be no

surprise if the name of the Lord could become 'the name of Buddha' without

their even noticing the difference. ' There is no mention of Christ's crucifixion

death, and resurrection on the tablet. '

The monument's inscription is the most authentic of all the sources of

our knowiedge of T'ang-dynasty Christianity. It contains the most systematic

condensation of the theology of the period. The gospel is diluted to Chinese

minds by the missionary attempt to accommodate Christian truth to Chinese

language and irnagery. We cannot but deplore the absence from the inscription

of all mention of some of the most important and even fundamental truths of

the Christian system.

One cannot ignore the fact the paragraphs on Christian life are a

satisfying balance of piety and social responsibility, of worship and witness.

There is a call ro evangeli~e and a repudiation of slavery, a summons to prayer

and a challenge to give up personal wealth for the sake of the poor, a

declaration that all people are equal and a reminder to the faithful that seven

times a day they should pause for worship and for praise. It is in the section on

-. . - --

I Legge, 1)ocumenls. I4

2. To the Chinese, the best tra114atlon of ansels and archangels and hosts of heavcn'may well have been 'Buddhas, Kinnaras, and Super~nier~ding Devas.' For the missionaries in those first few months in China while they were sti!I suffering from the initial shock of exposure.

3 . There is llrtle ernphasls on :he centrality 01 Scripture, which wzs so basic a premise of Nestorian theologicdl studies in Persia. But we cannot expect a complete systematic theology to be written on the face of even a reasonably large stone slab, and the crucifixion, death and resurrection of the Lord are all amply emphasized in the other Nestorian documents of the time. Indeed the first of the documents, the Jesus Messiah Sutra. contains clear warning against the syncretistic pluralism of those who say we have our uwn each special Lord of lleavcn.

: Moulr. Chrislions . 37n, 20 : \\;ilie, h{onurnenr, 187 : Saeki , Nestorion. 127

salvation that the borrowings from non-Christian religious concepts are most

prominent and troubling.

This inscription furnished conclusive evidence of the existence of

considerable Clhristian communities in China in the seventh and eight

Centuries. There is no doubt that it is a monument put up by East Syrian

Christians in honour of their religion. On the whole, the East Syrian Christians

encountered no serious oppositions to the preaching of Christianity in China

during the seventh and eighth centuries. It was in the ninth century that this

suffered, together with other foreign religions.

The attitude of the emperor towards the Missionaries

The T'ang emperor welcomed Alopen warmly. In the year 626 AD, Kao-

tsu's econd son of T'ang emperor, T'ai-tsung, seized power, assassinating his

elder brother the crown prince and forcing his father to abdicate. The twenty-

two years of his reign was a period of wide religious toleration for the sake of

political stability. They were given permission by proclamation in 638AD to

stay and teach. Three years later the emperor issued an edict of universal

toleration, carefully neutral but specifically granting approval to the

propagation of Christianity throughout the empire.

?'he Way had not, at all times and in all places, the selfsame name , the Sage had not, at all times and in all places, the selfsame human body. (Heaven) caused a suitable religion to be instituted for every region and clime so that each one of the races of mankind might be saved. Bishop Alopen of the Kingdom of Ta- chin, bringing with him the Sutras and Images, has come from afar and presented them at our Capital. Having carefully examined the scope of his teaching, we find it to be mysteriously spiritual, and of silent operation. Having observed its principal and most essential points, we reached the conclusion that they cover all that is most important in life. Their language is free from perplexing expressions, their principle are so simple that they remain as the fish would remain (if) the net (of language ) were forgotten. This teaching is helpful to all creatures and beneficial to all men. So let it have a free course throughout the Empire. I

I . Nestorian, L)ocunrenis. 57 f 456. : fwnchc t t Perspectives 16, : Foster, Dynasly, 39.

One reason for this tolerant attitude, apart from its political uses, may

well have been the emperor's intense interest in a revival of learning. He was

not only a warrior but also a patron of the arts. The emperor was interested

with the new faith of the East Syrian Church missionaries had brought in his

empire because they brought a book of their religion. He broughthim into the

library, and ordered him to begin translating his scriptures. ' It was an

auspicious beginning for the Christian mission to China.

In the year of the edict of toleration, 638 AD the first Christian church

was built in China at the capital Chang'an, the largest city in the world. The

emperor himself gave orders for its construction with funds from his own

treasury. As a mark of special honor he sent his portrait to be hung on the

church wall. By that time, according to the edict, there were twenty-one

monks in China, probably all Persian. 2

The Chinese East Syrian Church Texts of the T'ang Period

During the regular preaching tours, the monks translated the Christian

scriptures, hymns and other writings, churches and hermitages. From the

writings and inscriptions, it is clear that a number of Christians were active in

the leadership of Chang-an Christians during T'ang Dynasty. The texts also

demonstrate that Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist terminology was not

considered alien to the expression of Christian truth which is here seen in

dialogue with other standards of Chinese culture.' In the famous grottoes of

Tunhuang, a huge hoard of seventeen manuscripts was found at the beginning

of the twentieth century in a walled up little chapel

I . The library the emperor built in his capital next to his palace is said to have contained two hundred thousand vo lums and must have been as impressi\,e as any library in the world of that time, including the grcat libraiy of Alexandrra. Hc kept e~ghteen distinguished scholars in the library working on a standard cdition of the Confucian texts and commerltaries.

Foster, L)ynasg,, 39

2. Malech, Hlsror), 273

They contained secular, Buddhist, Manichean and Christian documents

which must have been written before the beginning of the eleventh century

when the cave was sealed he book, 'A Hymn to the Trinity', called 'Hymn

of the Saved in Praise of the Triune God', identified with the East Syrian form

of the Gloria in ' Excelsis Deop', translated in Tang times. The Book of Priase,

which is a historical note, contains list of saints and scruptures. To other

documents, found at Tunchuang, which belonged to those translated by A-lo-

pen. Their titles are 'The Jesus Messiah Sutra', (635-638 AD) and a 'Discourse

on Monotheism', (641-642 AD). This hymn must have been composed in the

beginning of the eighth century. The copy preserved, written by one Su-yuan

of the 'Ta-ch' in the temple of Shachow in Kansu, bears a colophon with the

date 720 AD.

When T'ai-tsung died in 649, he was succeeded by his son Kao-tsung

(649-683 AD) who, following in his father's footsepts continued to favor the

East Syrian Christians. He added that 'the final embellishment to the true sect

'according to the Monument Tablet. He claimed that he established illustrious

monasteries. There are, however, records of a at least eleven such churches in

I. Thesc documents, now kept in the British Museum in London and Bibliotheque National i n Paris.

: Among the Paris texts is a roll o f Christian origin, which found in Tunhuange by Pelliot in 1908. I t was probably written in Chang-an

: The library scholar PPelliot says that for scaling of it was due to the advance o f the Tanguts. M A . Stain thought that it was a dcposit of cawed wastc.

: Fuyieda : The Tung liuang hlanuscripts. A ysneral description Part 1,15 Drake , Nestorion, 291-300.

2 . F S Drakr renders thc following titles. ' !hr !'arable Part', 'The Discourse on the One Ruler o f the Universe. Part'. 'The Lord of thc Universe's Discourse on Almsgiving, Part'.

: The A-lo-pen texts, which stctn lrom the bcginn~ng of the Nestorian mission in China, u e not easily understandable. Their style is so clumsily. their content so dark, that for this reason every translation becomes a paraphase and there can be no doubt that they do not belong to the Ching-Ching literature.

: Ian, Chrisl~onr 27

3. P.Y.Sacki points out that thc 'Icsus Messiah Sutra' must have been the first work written by a A-lo- pen, containing a 'surprisingly complerc outline of the fundamental doctrine o f Christianity", for introducing to the emperor T'ai-tsung about the principals to the Nestorian faith.

: The A-lo-pen texts contain several Syriac words in Chinese phonetization, words like "Jehova', 'Messiah', and names of Biblical persons and geographical places. But also Sanskrit words, probably taken from Buddhist scriptures and written in Chinese phonetization, are used.

: Sacki . Docurnen!. 265

128

that period, and here m y well have been more. There were two in Chang'an,

and one each in Loyang, Chou-chin, Chengtu and Mt Omei, Lingwu, and four

other places. 1

Beginning of Persecution

Despite these signs of progress, omens of difficulties to come began to

appear in the long reign of Kao-tsung. Though like his father he was tolerant

towards Christians, but he became increasingly inclined to favour Buddhism

through the personal pressure from his second wife, the empress Wu and her

family. * At the time of the flourishing of Christianity in China, there were ups

and downs during these centuries For the sake of political stability the

emperors showed wide religious toleration. All of them tried to balance the

competing claims of China's three major faiths Buddhism, Taoism and

Confucianism. An unplanned byproduct of this toleration was the introduction

of other faiths from Persia, such as Zoroastrianism Manichaeism and

Christianity '.

Wu Hou deposed her two sons from the throne in quick succession and

took power herself, setting up a new dynasty (690-705 AD) in her own name.

Wu Hou, powerful, single-minded, and selfish, took a Buddhist monk as a

lover, but despite this flouting of Buddhist conventions she remained

fanatically pro-Buddhist, and in return the Buddhists hailed her as an

incarnation of their saviour, the Maitreya B ~ d d h a . ~ She officially declared

Buddhism the state religion in 691 AD and about the same time apparently

began privately to encourage opposition to the Christians. By the death of the

emperor, in 683AI1, the first days of the growth for the Church in China ended

I . The number is probably a p u s exaggemtinn. for that would mean 358 Nestorian monasteries or churches in China in the last half of rhe seventh century

2. We~ns l s~n , Buddhism, 264

3 Sark~. Uocuntenr 369

4 Mac (>owan. Hzsrory, 302

Under the Buddhist empress Wu Hou, the days of persecution began.'

Persecution began in 698A1.1, when the mobs sacked the Christian church or

monastery in the eastern capital. Lo-Yang, which had been a Buddhist

stronghold fbr six hundred year2. Outright persecution was never official but

within fourteen years it had reached the western capital at Chang'an where

hostile crowds were allowed to invade and violate the historic Nestorian

church in the westward ofthc city, the first Christian church in china.'

Recovery of the church (712-781 AD)

The empire fell into disorder until a capable grandson,the emperor

Husuantsung ascended the throne for the longest reign of the T'ang dynasty

(712-756 AD). The persecution was over. For the church this was a period of

recovery, but for China it provided to be the beginning of gradual decline of its

Empire, which now was ihrced to confront on its western borders the rise of a

rapidly expanding world power the Arabs.

The Church in Chiaa during the period between 712-781AD

It is a period of progress in China, than in any other period of the two

and a half centuries of the life of this first community of Christians in China.

The Nestorian Tablet proudlq reports the restoration of church buildings, and

the granting of imperial portraits to be hung in them, and its authors express

their exultation at these signs of a return to court favour in extravagant prose4.

Five royal brothers of the emperor had come in procession to inspect the

rebuilding of the ravaged church, an unprecedented sign of favour.

2 . Paul Pelliot reports th&t a pro laoist emperor started inb persecuting Christians along with Zoroastrians and Manichaepns. Christim monks and nuns were then evicted from their monasteries and forced to seek a seculat living and their properties were confiscated. Books and artifacts were destroyed. The leaders were forced to flee or hide. Missions from the East Syrian church head quarters strengthened the churches in some provinces, but evidence for thsir condition or survival throughout former T'ang provinces is fragnlentary.

: Pelliot, Christianity, 305.

1 Foster. Church, 39

A New name for Chr i s t i an C h u r c h

In October 745AI) the official Chinese name for the Christian religion

was changed from 'the Persian religion" to "the Syrian (Ta-ch'in) religion,' It

may be perhaps in belated recognition that the capital of the Arab Empire had

moved in 661under the Umayyad Caliphate to Syrian Damascus from its

earlier Arab power bases, Medina and Kufa. This was a help to the Christian

missionaries who were often confused with the adherents of the Persian

religions, Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism

The imperial edict of Emperor Hsuan-tsung reads thus:

'the Persian religion of the scriptures, starting from Ta-ch'in and coming to preach and practice, has long existed in the Middle Kingdom. When they first built monasteries, ["Persian"] was consequently taken for the name. Wishing to show men the necessity of correct knowledge of the original [we decree that] the Persian Monasteries at the two capitals must be changed to Ta-ch'in [Syrian] Monasteries. Those which are founded in [other] departments and districts of the empire will also observe this.'

T h e decline of Tang Dynasty

But while the Church was basking in royal favour, the dynasty was

weakening politically despile its apparent recovery from the usurpation of

Empress Wu. Her grandson Hsuan-tsung's long reign, which started so

auspiciously, ended in disaster. It was the beginning of the decline of the

T'ang dynasty but was only a grim revelation of corruptions, loss of central

control, and weakening loyalties that had been building up for years. In 755AD

a Turkish General of the Emperor revolted, seized and sacked the capital,

destroying the great library. The seventy-year-old emperor had no will left to

fight.

Three foreign religions visibly flourished in the later half of the eighth

century. The first, always thz strongest and new come, was Buddhism, which

was regulated but supported h:., the emperor and was popular in his royal army.

The second, the latest arrival, was Islam, which was the religion of an Arab

army sen1 by the Caliph in Baghdad as a gesture of friendship from internal

divisions in the Islamic homeland had ended a century of almost unbroken

Arab military expansion. The third was East Syrian Christianity, which, along

with its some time looks alike Manichaeism, was becoming the religion of

many of the Emperors Uighur allies'.

Through the persistent lahour of East Syrian missionaries - both priests

and traders - on the Old Silk Road. the Christian faith had spread widely

among this war like tribe. Much of the favour, the East Syrian Church enjoyed

at court during the latter half of eighth century may well, have been due to the

patronage of the powerful leader the emperor Tai-t'sung and his impressive

family2. Christianity was well known in China during at least two out of the

three centuries of the T'ang Dynasty and China was at least practically under

Christian influence during the period.

The reference to an organized Church in China

In the records of East Syrian Synods there is no mention of China. The

earliest mention among the East Syrian Church to an organized Chinese East

Syrian church is a passing reference in a letter of the Patriarch Timothy- I,

after XI AD.^ There is no definite information as to when an East Syrian

Metropolitan was first appointed to China. Some claim that one which sent by

the Patriarch Akha (AD 3:O-415) or by Silas (ADS03-520). Ibn at-Tayib who

died AD1043 was responsible tor the statement that the bishoprics of

Samarqand, India

I . The Uighurs formed a seinl autonomous empire in 744 that control the Silk Road and adopted Man~chaeism aj 11s state religion ahout 762. findirrg that faith more religiously flexible than Christianity.

: Hc had eight sons and seven sons-in-la\+, all in high position in government and by the time he died at the age of 85 earl) in the rclgn of Tc-tsung (called Chien-chung on the tablet), his extended family is said lo have numbercd three thousand.

3. Molklt. ilislory, ?qO, Quol;<l iioni Dauvillcr. Temoignages 2 -165

and China were elevated to the rank of Metropolitan sees by the Patriarch

Yashuyab-11 (628-44AD). Still another Metropolitan is said to have been

appointed by the Patriarch Saliba Zacha (714-728AD). The letter referred to

above written by the Patriarch Timothy in 781AD mentions the then

Metropolitan of China had just died. Thomas of Marga the secretary of East

Syrian Patriarch in Baghdad (832-901AD) cites the letter of Mar Timothy as the

source of information about David, Metropolitan of Beth Sinaye (China).

According to W.G. Young, the Metropolitanate in China was probably

not created until after 650AD. Patriarch Saliba - Zakha did it between 712 and

728AD. The seat of the metropolitan must have been Changan and East Syrian

bishop Chi-lieh who accompanied an Arab embassy to China in 713AD and

reached the capital in 732AD may do official announcement'.

S.H. Moffet comments about this and concludes that there is no record

in any Persian Church sources of actual appointment of the first metropolitan

of China2. 3. Stewart says that there is no record to show how long there

continued to be only one Metropolitan for China. But about 1093 AD the

Patriarch Sabrish-111 appointed a certain bishop1 George to Seistan and from

there transferred him to Khatai in North China-the fourth metropolitan see of

the Far ~ a s r ~ . Almost all rnformation about the East Syrian Christian came

from documents in the Chinese language points to a degree of successful

rootage in the national culture. It may had far reaching effect than the rare

glimpses of it that survive can convey.

The various attempts to explain the cause of the collapse of the Chinese

Church have resulted in several reasons. However, it should probably be that

the decisive factor was ne~ther religrous persecution, nor even its foreignness

I . Young. i'otriorch

2 Moffett , Hisrow, 296

3 SIewurr Ihssiot!ar?. Enrerpirser . 189

nor theolog~cal compromise, hut rather the fall of an imperial house on

which the church had too long relied for its patronage and protection. I

Disappearance of the Christianity from China and its reasons

By the fall of the T'ang dynasty in 907AD, the East Syrian church began

to vanish from its beac head in China. In the period of the Sung Dynasty (960-

1279 AD), China had grown extremely introverted, severing ties with foreign

forces, both political and religious.

In the year 377 ( ,ID 987) , in the Christian quarter ( of Baghdad ) behind the Church, I met a monk from Najran who seven years before had been sent by the Catholicos to China with five other clergy to set order the affairs of the Christian church.. . I asked him for some information about his journey and he told me that Christianity was just extinct in China; the native Christians had perished in one way or another. The church which they had used had been destroyed and there was only one Christian left in the land2.

The monk having tbund no one remaining to whom his ministry could

be of any use returned more quickly than he went.' This seems to be last

information on Christians in the aftermath of the Tang Church.

During the Sung dynasty period, the Chinese culture developed

unusually rapidly. An agricultural and commercial revolution based on

technological develop~aents hrought greatly increased productivity. The

founder of the dynasty. Tai Tsu subdued the warlords who had restricted

central authority and fixed the principle of civilian control over the military in

the Chinese traditions.

The influence of Confucianism

Neo-Confucianism. as synthesized by Chu Hsi became the dominant

philosophy in China during this period. Though Confucius was not a founder

of the religion (Confucianism), in the usual sense, Confucianism had

sometimes been called a religion it possessed a keen sense of universal moral

force, which Confucius spoke of as heaven and the will of heaven. The

supremacy of the teachings of the Confucius was established shortly before the

beginning of the Christian era. Confucianism has been served as the official

creed or state cult and has even been regarded as a religion of China.

This niay lead the decline of Christianity in China during this period.

Since Christianity was borne mainly by foreigners, and since it was heavily

dependent on the monastic centres where they lived, the elimination of these

centres spelt out the end of the first Christian period in China. An Arab record

written at the end of the tenth century reads.

Religious Persecution

Religious persecution fell upon the East Syrian Church in the ninth

century. For the most part the) were not specifically anti-Christian but were

part of a rising tide of xenophobia and sectarian religious strife that grew in

direct proportion to the weakening of national unity under a succession of

ineffectual emperors. The most severe religious persecutions in the entire

history of the usually tolerant T'ang dynasty occurred between (840-846AD) in

the reign of the moodj and superstitious emperor Wu-tsung. They were

directed against what Confucianists branded as the followers of 'foreign

religions', primarily Buddhists, but also Manichaeans and ~hristiansl.

But in the early 8TOb.D a rival tribe, the Kirghiz Turks clashed with the

Uighurs for control of central Asia and defeated them, driving some as

refugees lnto China proper. while others survived in scattered groups around

I. They had come to China tiom I'crsia under the protection of the Uighur "empire" whose central Asiatic cavalry had helped the T'ang Dynasty's rlse to imperial power. For two hundred years Uighur Khans were thc loyal allies m d principal military support of the Chinese against the restless, encroaching tribes of the northwest. Missions from Persia. both Nestorim and Manichaems were apparently somewhat mare successfully than thc Christians. a1 least in the Uighur Capital.

: Latourrne. llislor,;. 58: busrcr, Chrrri.1~. 1 16 : Saeki, Mission, 30, 1959

the Tarirn River basin. 4 decree of Wu-tsung in 843AD directed the

confiscation of Manichaean books. the public burning of their images and

appropriation of their property by the government.' This has a direct impact

on the Christians in China. An atmosphere, which was very hostile towards

foreign religions, thus prevailed during the period, which even terrorised the

Christian followers.

Theological issues - the Christian faith Diluted and communicated

Some say that the church diluted the doctrines of the Christian faith.

Hundreds of ancient manuscripts and written fragments of Christian

documents were found behind a wall in a Buddhist cave temple at the Tun - huang Oasis and Turfan on the Silk Road trade route. The interfaith

collaboration. both in the missionary and theological fields, diluted the

Christian faith which resulted the failure of communication of Christianity to

the grass root level on the soil of China.

Chinese Christian Church - a Church of foreigners

.4nother explanation given for the disappearance of the Church in

China was that it never became Chinese; it remained a church of foreigners.

The missionaries were Persian. Their names on the monument are entirely

Syriac or the Chinese equivalents for Syriac names. The last glimpses of the

Church, from the Tun-huang and Turfan discoveries, come not from the

Chinese center but from tribal territory in central Asia.

Dependence oa Government

The Tang dynasty. towards the end of their reign, no longer had the

power, that had once opened up China. to foreign religions and had largely

I Mackrrras. tmprre, ib8,232 : In Chang'an seventy Manichacan Woincn, probably nuns, were put to death. It is not at all improbable

that some US the hatred spilled over into the t.lestorians, who were also Persian in origin and often confused wuh the Manichaeans. 'The decrce goes on to state that more than three thousand Nestorian and Zoruastr~an priests ur monks were compelled to "return to the world".

: Foster, Church . 121 : Twitchicst . Siu 1'01 3, 46-47.

protected them, for a century and a half. It never again quite so completely

controlled the restless tribes on the central Asiatic border or the powerful

warlords that kept order in the outer provinces at the price of social

regionalism. In the last quarter of the ninth century the centre itself began to

slip into decline. Palace eunuchs usurped more and more of the powers of the

weakening throne'. The direct impact of the decline of the power of the Tang

dynasty on Christianity was its own decline. Dependence on government

became dangerous and uncertain foundation for Christian survival. When a

Church writes 'Obey the Emperol. into its version of the Ten Commandments

it is writing a recipe for its own destruction.

End of an Era

The last T'ang emperor, a fourteen-year-old boy, saw all his nine

brothers put to death by the commander of his army, and shortly thereafter,

fearing for his own life, he abdicated in 907. Thus ended the greatest dynasty

China has ever known, as the protector of religious liberties and the friend of

Christians. As it disappeared, the church, which had relied too much upon its

favour, disappeared with i t in the violence and civil wars of the age of 'the ten

kingdoms' and 'the five dynasties'. The discouraged East Syrian Church monk

in the Christian quarter of Baghdad was probably right in 987AD when he said

that there is not a single Christian left in China. Thus the first wave of

Christian advance to the Far East came in with one change of the political tide

and was washed away by the next. But it was not to be the last of Christianity

in China.

1 Of the last twelvc Tang emperors who ruled China in the ninth century and the first decade of the tenth, only four can be described as effective. The whole country was in turmoil. Towns and whole provinces fell to r e M s who were particularly cruel to foreign religionists. In the fall of Canton, for example, in 878. an Arab traveler reported that a hundred and twenty thousand Muslims, Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians were slaughtered.

: Ils~an-tsung(805-20. Wutsung ( 840-16) klsiuan -tsung ( 846-859)

: Foster Church 130

EAST SYRIAN CHURCH MISSION WORK IN CENTRAL ASIA

The office of the Catholicos-Patriarch of the East Syrian Church moved

from Seleucia-Ctesiphon to Baghdad. the capital of the Abbasid Caliphs by the

second half of the eighth century. Baghdad became the ecclesiastical centre of

a missionary enterprise unparalleled in the medieval history of Christianity all

over the world. During this period, main area of the East Syrian Church

missionary activities was the Asian continent between the river Oxus (Amu

Dayara) and the Aral Sea in the West, the coast of China in the East, the

Himalayan Mountains in the South and Southern Siberia with lake Balkhash

and Lake Baykal in the North. This largely extended to the field of innermost

Asia and China with its mountains, steppes, deserts, and fertile valleys and to

the territory of present-by China (including Tibet and Sinkiang), outer

Mongolia (the Mongol peoples Republic) and the southern Siberian Republics

(particularly Kazakhistan and Uzbekistan) of the Soviet Union.

The Religious background of Central Asian Tribes

The religious background of the central Asian tribes was characterized

by the deeply rooted Shamanism. In the world of Shamanism all human life

and action was dominated by the fear of the omnipresent demons and evil

spirits who were a threat to all the concern of daily life. And it was the

Shaman, the medicine man, who was responsible for the well being of the

people.

I'he people of central Asia were not able to overcome spiritually the

permanent threat to the human life by the crowds of evil spirits and demons in

this Shamanist context. They had not been capable of creating any doctrine of

salvation nor any doctrine promising a paradise in the life to come beyond all

troubles. Therefore, the native Turco-Mongol population of Central Asia was

very impressionable to all the foreign doctrines, which could exactly explain

things about the future life, and therefore Turco-Mongol people took from the

foreign religions, which had come in, all that they missed in their own

religious conception, without differentiating among the foreign religions and

without giving up Shamanism. For this reasons the native people of inner Asia

had an attitude of tolerar~ce towards the religions from outside their country,

which the Mongol Great Khans themselves shared.

Christian Presence

Bardaisan of Edessa (196 AD) mentioned the presence of (Christian)

sisters among the Gilanians on the shores of the Caspian Sea and among the

Kushan in far-off actr ria'. It is believed that nameless missionaries brought

the Gospel here. Perhaps they were captives from barbarian raids into Roman

territory, though the reference does not seem to suggest this. Not until the end

of the fifth century does evidence for the spread of Christianity to inner Asia

become clear and unmistakable, and then it is dramatically connected with

Shah Kavad (488-497AD).father of Chosroes the Great.

Christianity and the Central Asian Tribes

Shah Peroz. who d~ed in 481 AD, left his throne not to his son Kavad

but to his brother, Kavad's uncle, Vologases, who is also named as Balash

Kavad revolted and claimed the throne as rightfully his but was defeated and

fled for safety across the Oxus River to the domains of his father's old

enemies, the White Huns (Hephthalites). Vologases died three years later and

Kavad returned with the help of the Huns and was made the shah3

I. Bardaisan. Book of {he Laws (ed l~J.W.Drijvcrs), 61 quoted from Assent Van Gorcum.

3. Huns and Turks occupied the steppes in Central Asia. They were nomadic people. Somc times the word 'Turks' is used to designate a group of people all of whom used one form or other of a Turkish family of languages

: The 'Turks of Central Asia lo the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries occupied a strategic position. Economically the) w u e impoltant because of their control of the land routes from East to West. Polit~cally they held a key pos~tion in a power struggle involving China, Turks in Mongolia, Tibetans and thc Muslim Calcphate. Thcy felt the rr~ltural influence ofall these groups.

: Phil~p. Euphrates. 69

Shah Kavad : The follower of prophet Mazdak

Shah Kavad came to the throne in a time of national shame, social

unrest, and religious ferment. The succession of military defeats suffered by

his father, Peroz at the hands of the Huns and the humiliation of Persians

paying tribute 10 barbarians had weakened the people's pride in their empire

and their coniidence in its national religion, Zoroastrianism. The social

scenario was ripe for the rise of a prophet and a prophet named Mazdak

appeared. He preached a strange mixture of religious reform and a radical

communism that sounded curiously modern I . Shah Kavad embraced the new

doctrine, perhaps as a populist gesture to win the masses and to weaken the

power of the rich nobles who were beginning to turn against him. He

underestimated, however. the power of the groups he was antagonizing, the

aristocracy, who were understandably not attracted to Mazdak's communism,

and the Zoroastrian hierarchy which naturally opposed reforms so radical that

in effect they constituted a new religion. Priests and nobles combined to

depose him abruptly in 497AD and set his brother, Zamasp, on the throne.

Once again Kavad fled to refuge with the White ~ u n s . ~

Shah Kavad meets East Syrian Christians

Among the follo~vers of the Shah who fled with him into exile were two

East Syrian Christians, John of Resh-aina and Thomas the Tanner, who were

laymen. Ordained missionaries, Karaduset, the East Syrian Church bishop of

Arran, west of the Caspian Sea, and four priests soon joined them. The bishop

felt he had been called by 3 vision to minister to Byzantine Christian captives

among the Huns and to evangelize their captors. If possible, he hoped to

ordain priests from among the nomads.. But the mission proved to be an

unqua!ified success. They preached and baptized. The ordained missionaries

stayed only seven years, but the two laymen -

I . All men are equal, he procla~~ncd that all men are equal. All thingsmoney, food, women-are to be held incommon and s h e d and shared alike. Property rights and marriage contracts are infringements on human liberty and equality 1.ove is frer and not to be limited to one man for one woman.

2 . For murc details : Klirna. ,blazdok : Roycc, %orr>niirruns

remained with the Huns for thirty years'. The missionaries reduced the oral

language of the Huns to a written form for the first time and taught them to

read and to write. Later, an Armenian bishop joined the group and added the

knowledge of agriculture to the mission, teaching the restless horsemen of the

steppes how to plant vegetables and sow The exiled Shah, Kavad,

noticed thib and was impressed. About three years later, when he returned

from exile and regained h ~ s throne. he remembered that Zoroastrians had

organized his fall but Christians had helped him in his time of bani~hrnent.~ A

Nestorian Chronicle described his return thus:

He asked the Turkic (Hun) king for help and the later dispatched an army with him to his country, and he dethroned Zamasp.. . . . .... He killed some Magians and incarcerated many others. He was benevolent towards the Christians because some of them had helped him on his fight to the king of the Turks ( ~ u n s ) . ~

This earliest contemporary account of a East Syrian mission, with its

note of glad acceptance of' hardships for the cause of Christ, its full-rounded

blend of spiritual and practical missionary methods evangelisnl, education,

agriculture and its compassion for captives combined with evangelistic

concern for the captors does much to explain the almost unbelievable success

of East Syrian Church expansion across Asia in the next two centuries. It also

suggests that unlike the unseeml) quarrels in the church at the home base,

those early Christian missionaries to central Asia learned how to set aside their

differences and begin to work together, united in Christian mission, for the

Armenian bishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church who came to join the East

Syrian Christians among the Huns.

I . L ~ f e was difficult. The only foud lor all seven men, i f the record is not exaggerated, was seven

l i ~aves of bread and onc1;lr ol'waicr : da).

I'hus the Syriac ('hristianity penetrated the landscapes of Central and

Eastern Asia since early centuries! There was religious tolerance in medieval

Central Asia. With regard to the Christians in Central Asia, the religious

tolerance with the subsequent syncretism was not the expression of an

intended missionary method, namely method of accommodation. Such an

active attitude would demand a most suitable consciousness of the essentials of

the Christian faith and a high theological ability to judge the possibilities and

limitations of tolerable situation. In this respect the tolerance and syncretism

among the Christian communities in the East Syrian Church in medieval

Central Asia were quite different from the religious tolerance with syncretic

elsewhere.

The native Asian Christians did not practice the religious tolerance with

all its consequences deliberately, but they accepted it unconsciously as a

matter of course. This tolerance was an expression of the prevailing religious

mood of the country. Christianity was involved in, a mood of a deep

devotional awe of the numinous one. 2

In the Central Asian Christian communities Christian faith and

Shamanism was combined into a new unity, into a useful co-existence. The

Christian faith could satis& the piety concerning life beyond human death, and

I . For more dcta~ls , regarding his:or) of 'Earl Svrian Mission in Central and Eastern Asia' :

: F.Nau . L 'expamion nesroriennr ?n Asie, i,,, Anna es du Musee Guimet, vol 40, 193-388

: Messina: I l f i r s t ia~~es~n~o ira Turchr, ('inesi e Mongoli, in La Civilla caftolica, vol 96, 90-102, 290-301,

: 1.Dauvilliet : Lerprovmres Chn/r!run,?rs 'de i'exte-teur'ou moyen age, 260-316,

: Pelliot : Chrrsrianr& i,a Centrol.4si.l in the ,Mrrld:e Ages. vol 1 7 . 301-3 12,

: Mingana ,Cenfral Asia, vol 9. 297.371, : Stewart, Missionaq Enterprises , 7

: Latourette. History, vols, 1-11. : Aprem, Missions : Browne, Christian,@

2. A form of piety, which sometimes broke the limits of a traditional Christian faith, characterized every day life among the Turco-Mongol Christians In Asia. This devotion and piety in Central Asia, however, had blurred the limits between Christianity and the other religions, and therefore, this Eastern Christianity in Central Asia grew into the alienation from the East Syrian Mother Church, even before the connecting lines between the Eilsl and East Syrian Church were interrupted and the Turco-Mongol Christians became isolated.

Shamanism by means of its superficial practices was able to ensure the well

being in the permanently endangered earthly life. Precisely in this sense two

episodes that are reported by William from the last days of an archdeacon's I life complement one another .

The Christian Communities in Central Asia

Refugees from the Persian Empire spread Christianity in those early

days. It was done more systematically by the bishops and monks of the East

Syrian Church especially of the eastern dioceses of the East Syrian Church. In

particular the bahopric of Marv. the cultural centre south of the river Oxus,

became the starting point of the East Syrian missions in these early pre-Islamic

times. According to W. Hage,

'from here Christianity crossed the Oxus and entered Transoxiana, reached the urban centres of Hukhara and Samarqand, and found its way into the native Soghdian (Iranian) population as well as into the Turkish peoples who had invaded this country from the North. When, in the eighth century, the Muslim axmies, after conquering the Middle East, had penetrated Transoxiana. they found Christian communities here and even further in the North beyond the Yaxartes".

By the end of the fifth century, East Syrian Church missionaries were

making converts among the Huns and the Turks in Central Asia. According to

Wilfred Blunt,

'the Christian community there-in many Central Asian Countries included at different times Jacobite. . . . . . . ..Melkite, Armenians. But as early as the fifth century, it was an imporiant 'Nestorian Centre', and by the eighth century continuing until the fitieenth century, had its own ~ e t r o ~ o l i t a n . ~

From the middle of the sixth century, it is said that among the Turks

there were Byzantine Christian captives. In addition to the work of Christian

missionar~es, Christian iniluence mas making its way through the agency of

I Rock h l i l Journey. iY5

2 Ijage, C ' I ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ i a ~ ~ ~ ~ . 15

3. Wilfrcd Goloen Road. 137

Christian doctors, scrihes and artisans who were readily able to find

employment aniong the 'Turks and Huns. About 781AD the East Syrian Church

Patriarch Timothy-I wrote that a king of the Turks had become a ~hrist ian' .

The Main Centres of East Syrian Christian Communities in Central Asia

In Central Asia, the Christian communities are found at Samarqand of

Sogdiana, Tokmak and Pishpek. Iurfan, Dunhuang, in East Turkestan and

Tibetan area.2 There was a Turco-Mongol Christian community at Samarqand

in the West to Khanbaliq (Peking) in the East. It was the fundamental base of

the Metropolitan sees. The native religious tolerance made possible for a

successful missionery work in Central Asia. According to Hage it was both

advantages and disadvantages.

It was advantageous in so far as the East Syrian mission had been

successful among the native population in converting completely or nearly

completely tribes with the consequence that by the help of those Turco-

Mongol people Christianity was able to penetrate into China again. The

disadvantage was that the tolerance naturally no less favoured the other

religions also namely Buddhism, Manichaeism and Islam, which had

penetrated into Central Asla and became the rivals who eventually subdued

Christianity in the far ~ a s t '

The Church life of the people of Samarqand

Samarqand was the e~lporium on the ancient 'Silk Road' from China,

which was a tributary of the Oxus. It was also an important base for Christian

missions from the East Syrian Church. Soghdiana, which was the capital, a

great centre of learning, trade. Islamic arts and architecture over long periods,

included all the diverse races of the central Asian region and from the length of

I Mingana. Central Abia. 9- 12

? Young . SOI,TL.L)S , 44-77 : Mzngana . ( ' e t i t ra i Asia, 15

the many 'Silk Road' in these centuries. It was famed for its gardens,

vineyards and noble houses, man); of which lay outside the walled city.

In Samarqand largt: numbers of white Huns accepted Christianity,

which stood as a clear exnmple of mission style of the East Syrian Church,

which emerged in many parts of the region.' By the fifth century, it was an

important East Syrian Church centre, and monasteries decorated with East

Syrian Church Crosses and other Christian symbols have been dated there to

the seventh century.

By the eighth century, continuing until the fifteenth century, it had its

own metropolitan. There are also records for places of worship in nearby Urgut

and Penjikent to the southeast. There are a large number of Syriac Christian

rock inscriptions. 4 post herd shows portions of the Peshitta Psalms. A coin

also found, which a king or a city. could only have issued, shows a East Syrian

Church cross set in a ring oi' pearls. Ibn Hawqal attests the vitality of

Samarqand's church in the tenth century.

Many members of the East Syrian Church lived in village settlements.

There are remains of East Syrian Christian villages north of Samarqand dated

from at least as early as the ninth century. They were active in trade,

education. and medical occupations, and drew freely on the scholarship and

traditions of the East Syrian Church with which they appear to have been in

regular contacr. Like other communities also, Samarqand retained its churches,

schools and monastic cells under a succession of Arab and Turkish rulers for

almost thousand years. the Samariland churches survived even the Mongol

invasion of 1220:.

1. S k r ~ n c . ilearr . 397 : S i n i s Willians :ioyhdinn.JS- 43 : Bretssehneider, Reseorches. 77.

: Blunl . (;olden. 5 5 : i:ollrss, S~~nrarqnnd. 51

: Dauv~llrr . Hisroire er insrirufions des egtisas orienrales au Moyen Age, 1:283, 1:292, 2:164

2. Colles .Vesr~~rio,i . 5 1

Evidence of the city's importance as a centre for the mission eastwards

has also been found in the presence of engraved crosses located along the

direct route between Samarqand and Lhasa. A Ladakh inscription records the

visit of a Samarqand Christian on an embassy to the ruler of Tibet in 841AD. A

thirteenth century monulnent in Chinkiang, eastern China, declares

Christianity to be the dominant religion of ~ a m a r ~ a n d . ' Evidence for Soghdian

Christian presence in the north exists in the form of two engraved silver dishes

discovered in the southern and central Ural ~ountains. ' It has long been

known that traders. envoy:, and monks from the west Asia travelled the land

routes eastwards from Merv and Samarqand to 'further India' and China from

at least as early as the fifih century.

'There were stories cf an amazing missionary endeavour, which saw

monks and merchants, travellers, pastors, traders and physicians carrying the

'pearl of the Ciospel' across all the trade routes of ancient and 'medieval' Asia

to the fir north, east and south. This often meant up to year long journeys by

camel, by ass or even on faot, across the many tracks of the 'Silk Road', or by

equally lengthy sea-trips along the many routes of Arab, Persian or Indian

traders I'hey trdvelled on foot \+raring sandals, a staff in their hands, and on

their backs a basket filled with copies of scripture and other religious books.

They received gifis, some among them large grants from rulers of various

tribes. They did not keep what they received except what could be used

directly for the extension of their work. They distributed the rest to those who

were p ~ o r e r . ~

2. These depict Bibl~cal $cenr.s iqcluding !I,c dcath and resurrection of Christ, and most probably originated in the Serniryechcnsk region ic the eiphtl, l i r tenth centuries. Klim Keit, Clirislriln. 480

3. But although man) early scttlrmcnts, Budrlliists, Hindus, Zoroastrians or Manichaeans founded hospices, churches or monasteries, many were the work of eastern Christians and these centres grew wherever 'Persian'. 'Arab'. or ' Indian' trdde became established in central, south or Southeast Asia

138

The 'missionaries' in this Asia wide movement included many trained

Christian monks in the academic of Mesopotamia and Persia. Many monks

wrote to Patriarch l'imothy-I that they 'crossed the seas to India and China

with only a staff and scrip.'

The role of Soghdian merchaqts appears to have been central in both

trade and missionary endeavour Soghdian and others continued for many

centuries as a group of settlements near the lake of Balkash and Issyk-kul, East

of Samarqand. Christian churches and cemeteries contained hundreds of

inscribed stones which have been disccvered from Tokmak and ~ i s h ~ e k . ~

The Christian Communities at Tokmak and Pishpek

A.R.Vine, A.Blentisky, Grousett Rene and E.Knobloch give the

description about East Syrian Missionary activities in these places. These

authors refer to inscriptions in both Syriac and Turkic scripts of those alive

and dead who were of Turkic descent and native of Tokrnak and Pishpek.

There were regular exchanges between the distant provinces of the Eastern

churches of their highly developed pattern of church life and activity.

Among the names those recorded at Pishpek, there are nine

Archdeacons. eight doctors of ecclesiastical jurisprudence and of Biblical

interpretation, twenty-t\\o visitors. three commentators, forty-six scholars, two

preachers and an lmposing number of priests. Church buildings discovered in

these distr~cts are in cruciform and constructed according to Syrian canons.

I . Colless. I ' r a d r ~ s . 3 I

2. According to their description Tokmai \\as on the River Chu West o f Lake of lssyk-kul, situated on the northern trsdc route bnwecn Ssmarqand and Turfim. It was a headquarters of Khan Tung Shih-hu. There was a Chinese temple. South of great Toktnak lies one of the Christian cemeteries with an inscription o f a detailed picture ofchurch life for the perlod between the ninth and fourteenth centuries.

: Vlnr., i hurc1ze.s . 165: 13lcntisky ,C'eniro/ Asio, 65 : Grousett .Empire , 80 : Knobloch, Oxus, 208

3. Among the description of particular indi\iduals on about 630 great stones dated according to both Ssleucld era as well as thc 7urko-Mongolian twelve year animal cycle, found at Pishpek and Tokmak many are women. some arc designated aiudents, and others are monks from near by Monasteries.

Polychrome fresboes have also been retrieved from those of the ruined

churches in the area along with other remains of carved Christian tombs and

large incense burner with carved of the Last supper.' There was evidence of

East Syrian Christians still being present there.* By the thirteenth century, the

movement of monks, merchants and physicians which created such 3

communities as these, was reaching all the main centres of the trade routes.

'There was some agreement that among the Episcopal and metropolitan sees

recorded for the East Syrian Church as being with in the East Syrian Church

Patriarchate from fourth century to sixteenth century. The mission of the

people was through education, medical care, state service and trade. It was

notable for their friendly coexistence with Buddhists, Manichaeans and

~ u s l i m s . '

East Turkestan

Frorn the seventh tenturles onwards, East Syrian Church missionaries

penetrated east of the Pamirs to Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, Nuakith

Gandishapur Semiryechensk, Turfan, Hami and Dunhuang. Many of these

centres retained Christian churches until the fourteenth century.6 It is said that

Turkestan. Dunhuang, Turfan and surroundings had yielded many Christian

artifacts from the fifth tc~ the fourteenth centuries including paintings,

I . Buddh~st temples in the religion are aisu the cruciform with ambulatories and traces of wall paintings. South of Semiryechensk other centers upon major trade routes such as Uzegan, Kashgar, Tashkurgan and Yarkmd are not to have had East Syrian Church communities over centuries

3. i h c included arm are strctcll~ng t io~n hleditrrranean Sea, Indian Ocean, present Syria, Persia, Russian and C'hinesc 'I'urkestan. Arabia, Socolrd. Afghanistan. Tibet, Pakistan, China and India, Mongolia, Korea and Japan. The history of these Christian communities shows some to be nomadic, some monastic. Many tlourishcd ir casmopuliran ports and trading center, some where in the households of tribal khans and ~~npcrial rulirs. Son;c ihbcd in the rcrnote valleys and desert Oases.

: John Hisr,>y, 49

5 . Scull . Chrr,rna,i 91, . Purr, Hzuidhirm. 140

6. Asmussen, .Sogogdiirn, 20 : Vou. buried, 100 : Hage , Chrisriani@. 60f

: Banhold, Tzcrkesrun. 387 : Klimlcit tlans . Chrisriun, 15

manuscripts and relics in the light of the research work on the Christian

communities here especially in Turfin.' The wall paintings of Kyzil, a part of

the kingdom, are judged to be a high point of all central Asian art. Such rich

cultures blended Iranian. I'urkish. Indo-European, Buddhist, Christian and

Manichaean contributions. The greatest activity of the Christian community,

which possibly dared from the filth century, spanned under the tolerant Uighur

kingdom of ~ h o c h o ~ . They included ruined churches, some with bell-towers or

high stupas, others with large murals of such scenes as adult baptisms on Palm

Sunday; remains of monasteries and cells3. This was the evidence for the

peaceful co-existence of these faith communities over many centuries to be

noted in many areas of Central Asia.

There was a stone church with a stupa tower, East Syrian Church

crosses and murals reminiscent of Byzantine art at Shuipang. There was a

place of worship led by a Syriac-speaking priest, reading the Peshitta version

of the scriptures and celebrating the ancient Syriac liturgy, part of it in

Sogdian. The co-worshippers would be merchants and traders from Persia or

China or any country in between, a few farmers and families, soldiers and

Turkic speakers. They understand either Syriac or Sogdian languages. There

was a Psalter in the Palavi of the fifth century and Christian apocalyptic

writings in rnid- Turkish in Sogdhian and other scripts. There were parts of

Psalms New Testament Epistles, Gospels, Nicene Creed in Syriac or bilingual

manuscripts in Sogdhian and Syriac languages. They were also Biblical,

I The ' lur(al\ lies sourlieast of iJrt.inchi un thc cdge i > i the Gobi Desert and the Tien Shan chain. From before tlic Christian cra thc distr;ct had been important for trade and administration both for local kingdoms and for ccntres o r ihe major rest-west route from Chang-an to Kashgar. In the scventh century. llsuan Tsnirg on his journey to the Buddhist libraries of India witnessed the wealth and luxurlancc of well-watered 0asi.r in the Kingdom of Kucha.

2 . Amarrg rhc plrnt~iul Buddh~it ,urd Man~chacan remains, fiom the towns of Kara Khoja, Bezaklik, Syrkip, Shuipang and Turfan. Christian sources are extensive. Many travellers and traders rested there are at Shuipang. There were iiuitful oasis with farms, hostelries and monasteries of both Buddhist and Christians

3 Among tlic 140 cevc temples in the regon. there are rock-cut grottos that appear lo be Christian tombs: Clir~stians figure amungsl those pictured in Buddhist or Manichaean caves.

liturgical and other East Syrian Church manuscripts. According the Marco

Polo's description. Marco Polo visited churches at Kara Khoja and Barkul

ca.1274~1).'

The Christian Community in the Oasis of Turfan

Our literary documents clearly show that the Christians of Turfan had

formed part of thr ethnic variety in this cultural centre of innermost ~ s i a ~ .

Eastern Asian Christianity. aAer the conversion of the Kereit in the early

eleventh century, was essentially represented by the Turco-Mongol population

as seen at Qxa-Qorum-Christia~ity in the Oasis of Turfan. Soghdian speaking

Iranians dominated it, and some of their Christian Soghdian terms impressed

the texts of their Turkish speaking fellow believers3. The Christian

communities in Central Asia, the cultivation of the native languages by

translations, and insistelict: on Syriac as the official language of the liturgy,

was characteristic of the East Syrian Church with its chain of metropolitan sees

all over the continent from Samarqand in the West to Khanbaliq (Peeking) in

the East.

The well-known neighbouring centres, like Hami in the East, where

there was a bishop in the second half of the thirteenth century, or perhaps to

the city of Almaliq on the river I l i in the West, was a metropolitan see at least

in the fourteenth century. The picture of the East Syrian Church of Turfan

remains rather imperfect, and knowledge is limited to those materials, which

have survived at Turfan i t s e~ f .~ In general, it is said that the Christians at

- - ~. .- ~

I . Jotin. ll!slorv . j X : I. i<rsses, / i r !drrs. 3 1 : Hage, Chrishanily, 60

2 . Sii~c; the discovered fra81ne;its are rnosll! wriltm in the Soghdian language, and to a smaller extent in ancient Turkish (IJighur). thcic wai lhc presence of Christian people of both ethnical groups (viz. lianwn>is and Turks) in aotJu!i.cal relalioi,

3 . Sogdiiin had hccn a litiirgl;:ai langir;tgc wen fur non-Iranian people. hecausc the official liturgical I;inguage amoliij the Ct,rlsti;in5 of 1u r iL11 h,as Syrfiac inelf

4. I'hesr relics cannot a n s w r all our quest~o~is ; b u ~ !hey can say something about the situation of the small Christ~an cc,mmunity ia its non-Chr~s~iiln environment. They show how the life of the Christian minority was determined by ihc non-chiistlan majority.

Turfan were not influenced by foreign terms or ideas as much as the Christians

in China were during their first period up to the ninth century under the rule of

the Tang dynasty. I

But the Sogdian Christians at Turfan there was, indeed a response to the

world of the non-Christian religions around. The Christians of Central Asia

existed there for the apologetic and polemic interests in defending Christianity

and in opposing the other religions. This is to manifest in such literaryproducts

on the higher level of theological responsibility, quite distant from the piety

and devotion of those simple believers in the world of shamanism2. The small

Soghdian and Turkish speaking Christian community at Turfan stands

completely in the traditions of its ~ a s t ' s ~ r i a n Church, which was presented by

means of the common Syriac language in the liturgy.

Dunhuang - A centre of Christian Community

It was the last Caravan halt before the Taklamakan desert to the west

and the first after crossing to the east. Dunhuang became prosperous over the

centuries. with markets and temples. Eventually more than a thousand chapels

were carved and decorated with a wealth of Buddhist art.' Judging from the

paintings and manuscripts discovered, the Christian community that formed

there included, by the elghth century, scribes, scholars and skilled artists. The

majority of local Christians were Turkish, with some being Chinese or

~ibetan. ' '4 East Syrian Church community was still active there in the 131h

2 . D r Hdns-loachim Klimkcil ha& devottlcd lo the study of the history of the non-Christian religions in Central Asia. He knows Central Asian Buddhism and Manichaeism best, and he is especially interested in the contacts between those religions and Eastern Christianity.

3 . Hansen. Berliner RruchFnc~?cke. Vol.10

4 Brctcschneider , Ilrsearcliei, 18f

5 Hop Kirk. Fr,rer~r, . 131

century when Marco Polo visited, and it seems that it was then the centre of an I

ecclesiastical province with several bishops.

The Literary Evidences

The libraries of Christian manuscripts preserved at Shuipang and

Dunhuang included no tonly I'salters and scriptures, liturgies and

commentaries, bur also medical treatises, philosophical works, Christian

apocryphal and many others.' They dated from the fifth century on, and

although the principal languages appear to be Syriac and Sogdian, seventeen

different languages and twenty-four alphabets are represented, from areas in

the region between Syrla and China, showing that Christianity had indeed

become rooted in the life of the local peoples themselves. Many manuscripts

identified as originating in eastetm l'urkestan are hagiographics or biographies,

homilies or treatises, which concern asceticism and the religious life, but many

also are notable in including both strongly indigenising and strongly apologetic

emphasis

Tibetan Early Syrian Church Community

In Tibet there is evidence of Persian trade from the fifth century and

records of west Asian physicians at the royal court in the seventh and eighth

centuries. This indicates :I policy of toleration on the part of Tibetan rulers

accorded to thost: of other nationalities and religious faiths.

.Timothy -I wrote (792AD) that Tibetans, along with 'Turks and Chinese,

are under his Patriarchate. He declared that he is appointing a metropolitan and

bishops fbr the Tibetans.' C:hristiar, remains discovered for Tibet, include

2 John, ll,.stari, 5 3 quotins ! i o < n /)avi/it'r ,'iistoire er ,nsr;rzilions 11 165

3. Thls 1s recorded am~dst othcr appoinlmenli being made in order to f i l l vacancies and thus suggests that thcre had been previous appointments and that a number of Christians were already established there. Thomas of Marga writes (L. 840AD) of scvcn bishops appointed "beyond Dailam" after the year 650, and this regton included Turkcstan and Tibe!.

: Oauv:l /~er, vo1.2. 164, quoted in John . IIisrory. 54

artifacts, such as the large iron corn-measure from Lhasa decorated in silver

with a Nestorian cross, metal or carved crosses, manuscripts and inscriptions.'

It would be natural to conclude that here there were Christians belonging to all

of these language groups. At Shatschukul nearby, a cross with Tibetan

inscription and the figure of' a dove has been found and at Lake Thsomo-riri, a

cross of iron and bronze. The Tibetan manuscript discovered at Dunhuang, on

which is painted a cross in Sassanian style2. It is not known how long beyond

the tenth century Christian communities continued in Tibet, although the Abbe

Huc was astonished at the large number of Christian rituals, symbols and other

practices, \vhich had persisted within Lamaism, into the nineteenth century.

Decline of Christianity

It is difficult to trace the demise of Christianity in Central Asia. One of

the reasons for its final deathblom in the middle of the fourteenth century was

the spread of the plague3. There were intermittent times of persecution,

especially in the wake of the Arab conquest of West Turkestan. In particular

the Turks, tunling to Islam. adopted this new faith with fervor4. However the

major reason for the demise ot' Christianity was the spread of an intolerant

Islam, wh~ch in~tially hacl exercised tolerance over against Christians as a

people having a huly book

I . Platc 112 . (Trmslatcd) J Hogruth : Succi Trans Himalaya,

2. Thc cruis has been dentitied as the wurh o l a local Tibetan artisan. These works show strong Christian intluencz and include treatnients of such Christian themes as salvation by grace, which interrupts the operation ofKarmic law.

: Dau~i l l~e r , H;.sroirt,. 11:165. I l l 135. V :'7

3. A numhrr of inscriptions at Kutluk (Qurlugh). in 1339 AD make reference to the plague, which seems also to have heen one of the reasons for ihe demise of the small Christian community in areas west of Lake lssik-Kol. Thc plague haunted Central Asia in 1337-1339 AD. It was to spread to China, India, the Near East and Europe in the middle of llic fourteenth century. It affected other religious communities also

: Stciuiir! . M~,ssjor:.,ry Enirr - , , r~ ,sc~i , 2 l i

4. Among lhese were the Scliuks. ono 01 rile firs1 Turkish trlbes of importance to become Islamic. Sprcad~nl: the~r rule to the \rsst and caplurlllg Baghdad in 1055 AD, their dynasty was to last up to 1156 AD, when their realm staned iu break up. .Although among the Seljuk rulers there appear to have been Christians bearing such names as Isreal and Michael, a ruler like Alp Arslan (1072 AD) violently persecuted adherents of Christianity.

'l'he spread of Islam in Turkestan does not allow discerning a definite

pattern of Muslim attitude rowarc! Christians. So far as either the Turks or the

Mongols were concerned, the fact of a man becoming a Christian did not

weaken his sense of nationality-. The nation was put first, and Christian and

pagan alike were united in common loyalty- to their country1. In South east of

the Golden Horde in the thirteenth century two main centres of power were the

Persian-Arab Hukhara and the Turkish-Uighur Beshbaliq. Main religions in

this realm were Buddhism and East Syrian Christianity, besides indigenous

religions of a shamanistic type.

Christians in Persia and Central Asia became extinct in the second half

of the thirteenth century. The political change has the main factor, which leads

to the extinction of Christian communities there. Although such communities

continued to exist into the fourteenth century, the demise was epitomized by

the bloody conquests and ravages of Timur (1405 AD), who established the

house of the Timurids which was to exist up to 1500 AD 2.

T h e Li terature and the writings

Among the documents from these areas dated between the fourth and

fifteenth centuries and found in such districts as Turfan, Kara khoja, Dunhuang

and Kao-chang, are liturgical. Bibilical, medical and other East Syrian Church

manuscripts. These i~cluded, in Syriac, hymns and anthem cycles, anaphorae,

prayers. calendars. lectionaries, gospels, commentaries, homilies; in Greek,

creeds, gospel and apocl.yphal nl.itings; Psalter and lectionaries in Pahlavi;

Christian apocalyptic and apocryphal writing in mid- Thurkish and Parthian

translation, as well as paintings and church furnishings of Byzantin style3.

I . Whcn thcy became Muslims. however. rciigion was put first, and gradually the Turkish rulers came to look upan the comb:ning of the ~cligioilh illid political elements as one way by which their power might be increased, arid acted accord~ngl);

2 Young i'orrrai~ch. 127-143

3 . Strill . LJrxerl. 11: 173. 359 : Vonl~: . Uurird, 100 : Hopkirk Devils, 130, 184

It must be added that most of the writings in the Sogdian and Uighur

languages. are either translations from the Syriac or depend on a Syriac

original. Other texts or fragments of the Peshitta, the Diatessaron and the

collection 'Dakdham wa-dhather-' (Hymns Before and A3er)which is a Syriac

collection of hymns, from the East Syrian Church Service Book, for Sundays

throughout the year from Persian scholars have also been found'.

Among the forty four commemorations and responses which are

preserved on fourteen pages, are a number which recognize 'merchant

missionaries' and others for Chines martyrs. In this it is in marked contrast to

other Syriac calendars and liturgies, which recognize only west Asian figures.

It is a collection of hymns and anthems from the yearly cycle which have been

discovered at Kao-ch'ang in east Turkstan and are ascribed dates in the ninth

to eleventh centuries.

Further writings in Syriac are still being identified from places like

Dunhunhang and this accumulating evidence will continue to expand our

knowledge of the use ol'East Syrian Church thought and practice.2 Documents

in these scripts have beer1 discovered at various lavations in east Turkestan

from the period ot'the ninth to the fourteenth centuries3. The Sogdian language

was infict something of a iinguafianca for Central Asia in this period. These

documents show between seventy and eighty Christian texts or fragments in

Sogdian and Uighur have been identified so far. The majority came from the

Turfan and Dunhuang. A small number of writings in Persian language

have also been li~und. Sogdian t3ibilical texts provide many sections of the

Gospels, Epistles and I'saltns. which were used in the East Syrian Church

annual lectionaries. Sonle Syriac rexts appear in Sogdian versions earlier than

I A lu l l 1r;inslacion i s also pn,rjdcd by Si:ck : Saeki . Uocunzenls, 320-334

2. K i c ~ n . Syrische. 7 5

3 I-luge, i'hrisfrani/r , 46-iii

the tenth centuq of local origin. Among them is East Syrian Church creed,

Helena finding the True (.'ross: the Martydorn of Sergius and texts and

fragments of homilies, histories of the Apostoles. The Fragment of the

Magicians is one. of the four documents in Old Turkic or Uighur, discovered in

Turfan and dating from between the ninth and eleventh centuries.'

Scholars havt: seen an apologetic concern in this free rendering

of the origlnal text, leading to a comparison of Christ with contemporary

figures of religious and worldly authority and also presupposing a mission

being undertaken tc Zoroastrian groups.2 One East Syrian Church Sogdian text

criticizes Buddhist cults ' A number of Sogdian texts, including introductory

words of some hymns, a list of names of saints and a conversation between a

teacher and a disciple about Noah and Mary Magdalene still await publication.

A further Christian Uighur text is a collection of sayings of apostles,

reminiscent of an oracle hook.

Oreanisation of u u r c h in Central East Askt The main characteristic feature of the East Syrian Church, spreading

out to Central Asia was the striking of a balance between ecclesiastical

I . Based O H tile Syrbac Book ol lhc Cave at' Ircasures (late fifth century), and the apocryphal Gospel of James (second cenlury), this lsil gives t l i ~ . story of the gifts of the wise man to see Jesus Christ gold, frankincense and myrrh.

: Asmussen . Sogdran . ? I

2 . it is theretbre possible to tracc in this tiag~nent also both the persisting Syriac tradition and the developing response of central Asian Christians to their particular cultural environment. In all three series of texts from rurkestan and China. these two elements are discernible. They provide either a prototype ur nucleus for the compilation of canticle, commentary or sutrq in which Buddhist forms are used to e m p h i r e basic Christian beliefs such as the Incarnation and the Resurrection. They also show a Christian disdain for image worship.

: Hage . Chrislionity . 49.22 : Klimkcil , Huddhist, I

3 . Thesc writings however include nlany rlements native to their own environment whether in language, metaphor. or imagery. They oficn present rxtsnsive variations of theme and emphasis in response to the realitlei of a particular furkcsfan i n Chinese context. These features, along with the established use US vcrriacular language Sogdian. Ughur and Chinese - show the extent to which "Chaldean" or 'Nestorian' traditions found local and indigenous form across vast areas of central east Asia. These contextual expressions of ?h!h are thrrcfilrc clearly distinguishable from the documents in Syriac, similarly d~scovered in widely scattcl-ed Iocati~ms.

: Kliml.ei!. liuddhirr 4

centralization and regional autonomy granted to more remote 'outward areas'.

Early Synods of the East Syrian Church in the fifth and sixth centuries had

made it obligatory for the Vetropolitans and Bishops to take part in Synods to

be held at the See of the Catholicos-Patriarch every fourth year. The

Metropolitans of the Outer Szes' (in the remote countries) of course had been

dispensed fi-om this obligation. but in lieu of it, they had to report to the

Catholicos-Patriarch. by letter from their ecclesiastical provinces. To fill the

vacant bishoprics and generally to erect new ones according to their own

responsibility, was part of the often confirmed authority of the Metropolitans

in the area of their jurisdiction. The ordination of each bishop had to be

sanctioned by the Catholicos-Patriarch himself. This regulation, however was

not binding to the Metropolitans of the Outer Sees. Those privileges, granted

on the basis of the geographical situation, led to a far reaching independence of

the metropolitans in Central and East .4sia.'

The structure of the hierarchical order in the Church

The hierarchy of the Church was divided into three triads, a three-fold

ministry namelj High pries^, Priest and Deacons. In reality, there were also

other offices having a supervising or serving function. Basically, this structure

can also be found in Central and East Asia.

Under the metropolirans were the archbishops and bishops. Junior to

these was the chorepiscopoi, the 'village bishops', who looked after the

country districts. Although there was supposed to be only one Chore

episcopos in a diocese, the vast areas of Central and East Asia sometimes

made it necessary to have several. Under the Chore episcopos there was one

visiting superintendent. l'here was no limit to the number of visiting

superintendents in a diucese. Next rank was the archdeacon who was

responsible for the daily administration of the diocese and the supervision of

I. SO(Mal). 18-421, Quoted from ilauvillicr. !'r-uv~ncus, 271-272 : Andrews, Sources, 86-,90

the priests, deacons and sub deacon. Below the priest in a stricter sense, to

whom the greatest number of clergymen belonged, were the deacons and sub

deacons. Their number was much smaller than that of the priests.

Besides the clerics, there were also laymen serving in the Church in

different positions. There was a stcward, subject to the control of the bishop, to

take care of the local prcperty and material wealth of the church. Similar in

function was the office of the Church supervisor. I

The Monastic life

A number of texts found at Turfan reflect monastic and eremitic ideals

with an emphasis on fasting, penance, mystic experience and preparation for

death and judgment. Beside priests of various ranks, Christian monks played a

decisive role in the religious life in Central and East Asia. Many Christian

envoys in Central Asia in the following period, including those sent out by

Timothy I, were monks. Mar Sergius who is credited with the conversion of

the king of the Keraits retired to the remote Altai Mountains as a hermit.

Although the gravestones uf the region of Lake Issik-Kol contain no

hints as to monks buried here, there must have been a monastery in this region

in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as there was one in a mountain pass

between Lake Issik-Kol and Kashgar; perhaps the monks were buried in

monastic cemeteries. 2

Uighur Language

About forty fragments of Christian scrolls in Uighur language and

script are preserved ' A number of Uighur texts are written in Syriac script.

1 Asmusseni. Sogdian . 19

2. Ibid, 23

3 . Ian (iillmm, Chrisrruns , 2 5 3

Among these there is a wedding song, written in Uighur (old Turkie), but with

Syriac letters, asking God to bless the young bride and bridgegroom.

A fragmentarily preserved Turkish text in Syriac script from Kara-

Khoto is on the passion of Christ.' On the whole, the East Syrian Church texts

in Uighur reflect the spoken language of the people. Like the Uighurs, other

Christian peoples in Central Asia were of course also acquainted with the

Syrian tradition, both directly and through the medium of their language. Once

a regional language had advanced to be used in the liturgy beside Syriac, it

could become so esteemed that its ecclesiastical use was perpetuated even after

it was no longer in general use.

In 1295, the Catholicos-Patriarch left Baghdad, receding to the

highlands of Hakkari in the border area between Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Here,

as well as in the Mossul area, the contemporary representatives of the East

Syrian Church community still exist as the national 'Assyrian Church', having

lost its 'outer metropolitans' further east.

The inscriptions of Semirice throw the last beams of light on the

vanishing Christian comrriunity. The full history of Christianity's movement

into inner Asia has yet to be reconstructed. Whatever mixture of commercial

motive and political or military pressure may have also been present, the

evidence of sustained endeavours by 'monk and merchant' to cany Christian

teaching ever further east cannot be ignored. Most valuable however may be

the examples already available in art and literature, for the development of a

distinctive imagery and theologj- as Christianity found expression from within

the cosmopolitan comiilunities of west and east Turkestan. Syriac, Sogdian

and Uighur writings have been found at many points on the ancient trade

routes between Persia and China, and in many provinces of China itself. By

far the most significant materials from this region are the document collections

in Chinese. Sogdian and IJighur languages, and the frescoes, silk paintings and

seals, from churches and caves in Turkestan in west China.

The decline of Christianity in Central Asia

There were some Christian tombstones from the Far East with Buddhist

symbols. One of them refelred to a 'most learned priest' among the Eastern

Christians who was convinced of the idea of reincarnation.' It would suggest

that Turco-Mongol Christian communities could easily be influenced by other

religions. For iwo centuries or more it may have appeared possible that

Christianity would become the dominant faith in the reign between the

Caspian and what later became Chinese Turk Stan or Sin kiang. The majority

of the population seems to have inherited types of polytheism, which usually

offer ineffectual opposition to a faith such as Christianity or Islam. The chief

rival of Christianity was Manicheanism. Manicheanism lost, perhaps in part

because Muslim rules opposed it more strongly than they did Christianity.

Islam began to penetrate into central Asia from seven century and by the

thirteenth centu~y it became the predominant faith among the Turks in central

Asia. Yet numerous bodies of thr East Syrian Christians were still scattered

over all Central Asia. Tho~~gh the Christianity made great success in Central

Asia, it did not mean Christianity was the predominant religion there. Except

among certain tribes such as Keraits, Naiman, Merkits and Uighers,

Christianity was only a minority among the Central Asian people.

In the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries Christianity appears to have

been very strong. The recent archaeological discoveries in the province of

Semiryechensk in Southern Siberia, within the erstwhile union of Soviet

Socialist Republic. proved beyond doubt that Christians must have been

numerous in Turkestan until the fourteenth century.

I . Hage , ('hriritonriy 37

The inipact of East Syrian Church upon Turco-Mongol Christians b

Even the attacks of the East Syrian Church against all pagan

divination, sorcery and .witchcraft could not hinder the Turco-Mongol

Christians from remaining in the dominating belief in demons and ancestor

spirits, and from resorting to a!! the remedies, which shamanism offered to

cope with earth11 life. C'hr~stians in Central Asia protected themselves with

amulets. They made Shamans peep into the future and they practiced the

commonly known divining by magic sticks. Nevertheless, in the Central Asian

Christian community's Christian faith and Shamanism was combined into a

new unit). into a useful co-existence. The Christian faith could satisfy the

piety concerning life beyond human death, and Shamanism by means of its

superficial practices was able to ensure the well-being in the permanently

endangered earthly life. I

I Hagc.M : Chrislentunr und Schail~:~nismus. rur Krise des nestoriancrums in zentralasien, in : Tradilio Krisis-Renovat~ aus iheologischer Sicht, (ed Jaspert and R.Mohr) Marburg 1976, 116-120. Quoted in Haee Christianity. 34 : William of Rubruck, Sogdhian, 165

For morc defa~ls.

William of Rubruck. Sogdliron : !%rown, Chri~lionrly : Stewart, Missionay Enterprises

CHAPTER-IV

EAST y SY OL

Time was shaping Asia into new and uncomfortable configurations by

the close to 1000. .AD. It \&,as a time of declining empires and collapsing

civilization on the great continent. All across Asia the centres of civilization

and even the church were crumbling. The second part of the ninth century was

a period of internal rebellions and civil wars in China, which caused to the

decline of Tang dynasty. About the year 950 AD, the people of Baghdad might

have looked with pity on the sight of three of their former rulers.' After a

period of divisions, the Sung dynasty reunified the empire and established their

control over China by 960 AD.' The church in Asia at the beginning of the

second millenriium of its history Ihced prospects as bleak and unpromising as

the apparent disintegration of the political and social structures of the whole

continent.'

The Tribe Mongol

Mongol belonged to an Asiatic ethnographic group of closely related

tribal peoples who lived on the Mongolian Plateau and share a common

language and nomadic tradition. hlongolia is a geographical region of East

Central Asia, lylng principally between the Soviet Union and China but

including portions of those cou!ltries. Traditionally Mongolia was divided into

i Al-Qaliir (93:!-911 \D) /\I-h'lsi;iqqi (910-L)J,IAD) and Al-mustakfi (940-946AD)

: Arnold. ('airi,huic~. 60

2 . Fur cc~lturies thc iiiost powerlui empires <11Asia had been the Tang dynasty in China at one end o f the continent and the Arab enipire o f lslenl a! the other. The Arab heirs o f Muhammad were losing their western boundaries to Farirnfd Egyp: and Christian Constantinople, while their eastern provinces were failing in great blucs to resurgent Perslms and rising Turks. The warriors o f the Islamic conquest had become puppets in the hands of their m b n mercenaries, the Turks.

3. In the western Asla &err W E a signitiinntly a Page nationally recognized body o f Christians, but even there i t s smtus was severely limited and i ts survival precarious. On the narrow Mediterrenean fringes the Byzant~nc C'hrisflan Asia, the old Mcikites and Syrian Orthodox communities were comparatively numeioils.

two district regions. Inner Mongolia and outer Mongolia separated by the

Gobi desert. Today the continguous area inhabited by Mongols is divided into

three political units.' They were one of several groups of peoples who

inhabited the steppes and mountains north and west of China. At times, strong

leaders of well-organised nomadic groups founded states and dynasties in the

steppes, and occasionally they established their rule over parts of China,

southwest Asia and India.

The Mongols captured and burned the Chin capital, Yenching (now

Peking). They unexpectedly halted their eastward march into the empire and

turned fatefully west, over rhe high mountains of the Altai Range toward Lake

Balkash and on into the fertile valleys and great cities between the Oxus and

the Jaxartes. The Mongol (Yuan) dynasty which was dominated by Mongol

nomads in China, was in power in China from 1251-1386AD.

The formation of Mongol En~pire and Genghis Khan

The great invasion of the Mongols under Genghis Khan began and

swept over China. Transoxiana, and Persia. Genghis Khan rode against the

Tangut dynasty of the His-Hsia Tibetan Buddhists who controlled the eastern

approach of the Old Silk Road into northwest China. Genghis Khan, who laid

the foundations of a temporary interlude in the turbulent history of the

thirteenth century Asia, gained control of China under his grandson Kublai

Khan(l215--94~~).' He moved still farther east against a Manchurian dynasty,

The Inner Mongolian autonornorib region. uhlch belongs to China, The independent Mongolian People's republic, and The Buryat autonomoii~ rcpuhl~c .I subdi, )\ion of thr Russian Republic

Genghts Klmn was burn as i h i 5f:11 of a pel!) and unimportant chiet By the power of his personality and the attraction of tiis victoria, h r drcii all !he people to himself and was recognized by the whole nation as the grcat c h ~ e f and perfect warier hcfore his 45'h year. Genghis Khan came to power in 1162 within the all the Monpols league and was proclaimed khan in 1206AD. Between 1207AD and 1227AI) he undertook military campaigns that extended Mongol domains to Russia and northern China, taking Peking in 12ljAI)Genghis Khan had occupied North China in 1215AD, but it was not until 127YAD that Kublai was able to effect the capture of South China. The Mongol rulers continued to maintaln their separateness from thr nativc population

the Chin (or Jin). which had wrested northern China from the imperial Sung

dynasty The Mongol Empire de\ eloped its line of authority and rule through

the Chin (or Jin). which had wrested northern China from the imperial Sung

dynasty. laws of descent and tradition through the sons of Genghis Khan. He

had four sons-Jochi, Changatai, Ogetai and Tolui. The empire was divided

into four units, one for each of the sons. The election of the Great Khan was

by the royal family council. The succession to Great Khanate is marked by

names in bold Italics, Genghis. Ogetai, Kuyuk, Mongke, and ~ub la i ' .

The rule of the family heartland was given to the youngest principal son

Tolui (1232AD) as per the Mongol custom. It was through the line of the fourth

son that Asian Church histor) was most directly open to and influenced by

Christianity. Upon the death of Kuyuk a momentous dynastic change in

succession brought to the Mong1.d throne as the fourth Great Khan Mongke

(Mangu), grandson of Genghis Khan through the line of Tolui and the

Christian princess Sorkaktani whose imperial name was Pieh-chi.

Kerait influence at Mongol C o u r t through Royal Marriage

Genghis Khan strengthened his position as a ruler by making marriage

alliances with Keraits tribes. Genghis's new daughter-in-law was a Nestorian

Kerait princess Sorkaktxii (Sorghaghtani). She was one of the three Christian

sisters. each ol'wtiom played a nc:te worthy part in the history of the Mongol

L.The chart otthe Cenghis Khan hmi ly

lochi Chdrig~rdl fku Tolur (12271 (12421 (1229-41) (1232) t t

Batu (12561 &.I!& (1246-48) f * s a r t k Mother Sorkaktani(l252)

t Huleg! Ihdlld t

(1251-59) (1265) (1260-94) After Gcngl i~s death, h i s sons loch,. Chagal;!~ and l'olui expanded their empire. Jochi received the west extending III Russi:~. Chagatai obtained northsrll Iran and Southern Sinkiang and western Mongolia.

empire. The eldest. Ibaka-beki, became the wife of Genghis Khan; the second

was, Bekqutmish. was the senior wife of Genghis's oldest son Jochi.

Sorkaktani who married the fourth son, Tolui, became Christian mother of

three imperial sons - Great Khan of the Mongols, an emperor of China and an

emperor of Ilkhan of Persia. I

East Syrian Christian Presence in Mongol Empire

During the Mongol rule. Christianity.found a second opportunity to

enter China under the toleration of Mongols. It is clear that the history of East

Syrian Church of nearly two centuries, thirteenth and fourteenth, was the

history of the three Mongol emperors namely Hulegu, Kublai, and Tamerlane.

References in Chinese sources in the hundred years of Mongol rule are

rare and tantalisingly brief, but they do confirm the existence of a fairly

widespread Christian presence at the Mongol court and irregularly throughout

the empire, most notably in the northwest and the east. There are records of

many East Syrian Churches in Turkestan, Mongolia and China.

Main sources of information

From the twelfth century until the early fifteenth century, there was a

wide spread vitality and growth for Christianity through out Central Asia and

China. Christian comniilnities across the Central Asian steppes are known to

have a continued history from the nine to fourteenth centuries. Physical

remains from the eleventh to fourteenth centuries have infact been discovered

in hundreds of localities in the region extending from west Turkestan and

northern Mongolia to so~~them and eastern China. They included inscribed

crosses and steles, village and cemetery remains, monastic and church ruins,

seals, frescos and silk paintings and manuscripts. The other main sources of

I For morc details Sailndres , Ifislor?, 52-7(1 : Spulrr t f i . s r o ~ , 97-108 : Howorth , Hisrory , 1:103 : Buylc . Sucressorr , 99 : Moffe l i Hi.slory. 404. 440- 445

information about the church in the Mongolian empire are from the writings

and reports of the v~sitors and traders. Especially, the works of the thirteenth

century h~storian Gregory Bar Hebraeus, the Maphrian of the East is unique as

an eyewitness source of iniormation from the Christian perspective about the

church in Persia under the ~ o n ~ o l s . ' Bar Hebraeus goes on to quote a letter

from Ebedyeshu to the East Syrian Patriarch John VI in Baghdad (1009AD)

which reports that as a result of the mission that followed, the Kerait prince

and two hundred thousand of his tribesmen accepted baptism. For the next two

hundred years the Keraits were known as East Syrian Christian tribe of ever

increasing importance.

The missions of Franciscan groups led by John of Plano Carpini,

William of Rubruck and John of Montecorvino are also another sources of

information '. The travel account of the Polo family, their journey to Mongol

- - .

I . Bar: ((1226-1286AD) : He was the son o f a Jew& physician liv~ng in Melitene and his mother may have been Ambic, for he

also had an A n b name, Abu'l Faraj. The interweaving of race, language, denomination, and cultural influences combined with the political advantage of his family's felicitous connection with the Mongol rulers formed the base office background

: Bar Hebraeus was able to bw!d a remarkably effective Christian ministry in the chaotic world of the thirtemth-century Middle East. At about the age of seventeen Bar Hebraeus became a non - Chalcedonian monk and he became the leader of the Asiatic Christianity. The position of Maphrian of the East was the second highest post in the Syrian orthodoxy. As Maphrain, he became the head of all the churches of Asia, i'ast of thc Cuphratci

: His Buok Chronography is divlded in rhrsc pans.

: History ol the Worlii : ilistirry nl'thi: Church to 1286AD. : History of the Eastern Church from StThotnar

2 William ul' Rubruck's report irSCast Syrian i::lir~stians in Mongol Empire

: Also known, as Wtlliam varr Ruysbrocck (1215-1295AD) was a French Franciscan friar whose eyewitness account of the Mongol realm is generally acknowledged to be the best written by any medieval Christian traveler. He was the contemporaly of Roger Bacon, the scientist and philosopher. King L.ouis IX of France sent hirn as a mission to Mongol Empire in 1253AD.

: Mongul ruler of Volga River region was Oatu Khan at that time. He sent them to the court of Great Khan at Karakorum in central Mongolia Willlam and his companions remained there until July 10, 1254AD. He wrotc his Mongol~an experience for lhr. French King.

: Noth~ng 15 kn0u.n about his lare: life except he was altve when Marco Polo returned from the East in 1255AD

China and of the Christians he found there is one of the most important pieces

of information that has come down about East Syrian Christianity in China in

the thirteenth century.' This was the first eyewitness description of China from

a western point of view. They took reports back to Europe about the Christian

Community in China and Turko-Mongolian Tribe-Keraits.

Unknown East Syrian Church lay missionaries and Christian merchants

engaged the trade with the restless tribes of Mongolian steppes. They

converted the 'Turko-Mongolian tribe called Keraits (Kereyid) to Christian

faith.2 Gregoxy Bar Hebraeus gives an account of the first conversion of Kerait

Towards the end of the twelfth century (1162-1227AD) the Christian

chief of the Keraits Togrul Wang Khan became to patron of Genghis Khan.

The semi-evangelized tribes such as Merkit, the Naiman and the Ongut united

as an empire. It was in this period the Mongols became a political entity, in the

organization of the confederation of Keraits.

I . Thr I'olu brothers are knoiun as Mnfb). Nlcolo Polo and Nicolo's son Marco Polo who were not missionartes bur as iravelleri Thc I'olr> brothers became the first known Europeans to reach China. Travrlcrs and missionaries to !he East hsloic that had not been able to penetrate beyond the Mongol capital in Mongolia. Of more i!lterest ot'urstern Christians were Polo's references to wide spread East Syrian ('hurch Co~nlnunitirr scattered ;lc:i,ss the China.

: For more details rlie f o l l o w ~ r ~ g books are helpful:

: Chsn Yuan Westcr~~ and Central Asians China under the Mongols, 75

: The hesl English translation and editions of Marc0 Polo's travels are as follows:

: Marco 1'010, L)escr~prion ojil,'<;rid 2 Jii1.s. (Ed. Mou1e.A.C & Pe1liot.P)

: The Nooh ofSer .?filreo Polo 2 v o l s (Ed i'oidicr.H. & Yule. H) : EberhardHfs~ory ofChina, 236

2. There were the sccnc of the u:iccasing lnigrjtions and conflicts of the nomadic work of Mongol peoples. Dcspitc this, some ancient triiditions i r t culture had been preserved since the wide range of cultural contacts existing between thz Huns and China, Iran and Syria. in early centuries. East Turkish inscript>ons from rhe eighlh centur). .lrc of high literary quality and later Uighur culture contributed furrlizr ctvililinp iiitluenccs to the Keriiit i ~ r t l Naiinan tribes.

3 Thc k ~ i ~ g of Kcrarts had a iis:oii of C11rc.i while hunting in the mountains. At his request to the Christian mcrch;lnts, priesti and deacons were ill\ ~ r t d through the East Syrian Metropolitan o f Merv, Ebedyeshu. Mary had been thc seat of a Bishop of 1hr: East Syrian Church since the fourth century.

T h e Christ ian Church in the Mongol Empire

The victories of the religiously tolerant Genghis opened up Asia to

Christian missions. The waves of Mongol conquests were as follows. The first

was that of' Gerlghis Khan and his sons, and sons of the Pax Mongolica, who

had ruled Asia for a hundred and ijfty years or more. The Persian Ilkhanate of

the line of Genghis's fourth son Tolui, through Hulegu disappeared in 1335

after six generations. The Chinese empire of Kublai Khan survived to the

seventh generation but fell more spectacularly than any of them in 1 3 6 8 ~ ~ ' .

The Chagatai line in the Mongol Empire

In 1269.4D the central Asiatic Khanate split into two parts, roughly 2 corresponding to east and west Turkestan . The eastern part, under Prince

Kaidu, protected both Christians and Muslims with the typical religious

tolerance of the first three or four generations of the Genghis clan.3 The

western part of the khanate (west Turkestan) remained under the line of

Chagatai, whose successors centered their rule more and more on the highly

civilized Muslim cities of Tashkent, Bokhara Samarkand. Of the minority

religions that remained, Jews outnumbered Christians in the larger cities, but

the tenth century ruins of a. large Nestorian monastery have been found south

of Samarkand, and there are passing notices of many towns with Christian

churches from that time on

Atter the death of Kaidu in 1301 the Christians increasingly felt the

pressures of Muslim intolerance. Taliku (1308-1309) the twelfth khan in the

west, was criticized by his Mongol warriors for over favouritism towards,

I . For more details -

: Saunders . Hislo? . 17 : Ilaydar. !lisiurv. 290 : Moffett , History. 401

2. Craussct . Enzpi,~ . 326

3. Though almost constantly at i%i!r wlth l h ~ h cousin Kublai Khan, he graciously received Sauma and Mark, the two monks from Kubali's Peking and sent them on their way to Persia with letters a f safe passage.

: Barthoid . Sfvdres. Vol. I . l IS 1

Muslims. Kebek, the fourteenth khan (1318-1326) protected the Muslims of

west Turkestan and northern Afghanistan from the enmity of his more fervent

shamanist followers. Under Lhe fifteenth Khan, Elechigidei there arose a brief

revival of Christian activity.'

Even under Musl~m rulers some freedom remained for Christian

Missionary outreach Buzan (1334) allowed East Syrian Church Christians to

rebuild their churches and Jews their synagogues? The last Chagatai Khan,

Chingshi or Jenkshi. (1333-!338), was a Muslim but no friend of Islam. After

his death a massacre of Christians swept through the streets of the capital.

There is very little other mention of Christians in Chagatai territory,

though among their subject were numbers of Uighurs, who had once been part

Buddhist, part ~ h r i s t i a n . ~ The Khanate in Central Asia of Changatai fell in

1338 AD.^ The Mongol line 01' Chagatai was displaced by Muslim Turkic

governors. Kaidu's successors in the Ogedei line of eastern Turkistan failed to

match him in Mongol leadership.

1. Moffcfl His~srom. 482 quoted tiom , Llelao-oix 'llistoire U~iverselle des Mission Catholiques',Paris, 191.

2 . Spliler Uuslrm 2 45

: Molfett. His ton 483 quoted iiom , h 'l.hornas 'Hutore de laMission de Pekin' Paris (1923) 64.

3 . Marignolli, who passed through Alrnal~i: on his way to Peking the next year, was the first to report the glorious rnartydom' ofthe hishap ofi2lrnalik. Richard, and six Franciscan missionary priests.

: Anothcr list of martyrs it~cludes the n a ~ ~ i c iii'Master John of India, a black man belonging to the third ordcr of St. Francis' who had heen con\erled by Franciscans in India.

: 1-lic persecution \\as viole~lr a .~d rothli.\.. but mercifully short. By the time Marignolli arrived, he was ablz tu build a church and bapt i~e and preach openly for some months before proceeding on his way to China. The mosl complrtr iiccount on the catholic work and the massacre in Almalik was written by Bartholomow of l'isa a Franciscan of 1 . ~ ' ~ century.

: 3puli.r Asia 1 135

5 . The Changatai Mongols at first remaincd nomadic, roaming the grasslands, dominating the caravan routes between East and West, and iul~ng their more settled Turkic-speaking town centres with the arrogant, arbitary power i,f country hrteii and city suspicious warriors

The later princes of both lines took Muslim names and became the

puppets of their Turkic governors. Both eastem and Central Asia was tom by

poverty and savage civil disorder from the 1360-1370AD. Huge areas including

the Christian communicates of the cemeteries uncovered around Lake

Issykkul., \Yere virtually depopulated. It was in this time of bitterness that

Timur the great, known to history as Tamerlane (1336-1405AD) came to the

world scene, which will be discussed later.

Hulegu and Kublai

The first two werc brothers. sons of the East Syrian Church princess

Sorkaktani. The third Tamerline vias an outsider, not of royal Mongol blood

and more Turk than Mongol. H~llegu and Kublai protected Christians, while

Tamerlane destroyed them. I

Sorkaktani and the line of dynastic succession

Three Christian sisters each of whom played a noteworthy part in the

history of the Mongol empire. The eldest Ibaka-beki, became the wife of

Genghis Khan, the second. Bektutmish, was the senior wife of Genghis oldest

son, Joch~ The youngest sister Sorkaktani married Tolui,the youngest son

of Genghis Khan. She became the mother of three imperial sons, Hulegu and

Kublai and Mongke who has Christian inclination. The emperor, Kublai was

the Great Khan of the Mongols. Hulegu was the emperor of China, and an

emperor (Ilkhan) of Persia. Tolui was the greatest of the Mongol rulers of

China in the short Yuan dynastj ( 1 2 6 0 - I ~ ~ s A D ) , ~ and the most powerful man

- ~~~~

I . Boylc . .\uccessors. 241

2. Sorkakrani was a Christian Kerait princ<sses. Between the two sons Kublai Khan owed much to both sides of'hls lineage He had something of the same world-conquering ambition of Genghis and the love of combat for which his father. Tolui. nz, limed. He also had a good measure of the political wisdom and rrlig~ous fair-lnlndedncss of his mutlicr. Sorkaktarli.

3 Mongol history backdates the dynasty In (icnghis Khan in 1206; and official Chinese history begins it only with the final t i l l of llir sourhern Song in 1279/80. But Kublai was already ruler of most of China by 1260

in the world of his time. I-le was destined for yet greater things. Sorkaktani

died in 1252AD. She lived just long enough to see her first son, Mongke,

succeed to the title Great Khan borne by her father-in-law Genghis, Great

Khan of the Mongols. But she did not get the chance to rejoice in the elevation

of her third son, Hulegu, LO the Persian throne as Ilkhan in 1261. Nor she lived

to see her second son, Kublai, carry the line of Genghis to its greatest heights.

She died while Kublai was still fighting his way to imperial power in China,

the 'centre of the world'. But her influence on her sons' character and policies

was widely credited as the shaping factor in the ultimate success of this

remarkable family of rulers of Asia. Her husband, Tolui, had died when he

was forty-two years old, two years after the death of his father, Genghis Khan.

Kublai Khan was a fi-iend of the Christians, but he was not a Christian

himself. I-Ie fully intended 10 hccome a Christian, but this was a standard

political practice ti)r a blongol ruler.3 The line of Genghis's grandsons by

Tolui and princes Sorkaktni begn to unravel. Her eldest son, the Great Khan

Mongke died in I259 AD. Her third son, Hulegu, ruler of Persia, was

occupied with his own wars against the Muslims in the South and with threat

of civil war with Golden Horde in the North.

1 Boyle Sc,l,uk, 3451

2. The thin1 ruling Mongol emperor or Chln;i. a grandson of Kublai, acknowledged the dynasty's debt to Sorkaktan~, in 13 10,\D posihumously grarrted her the title of 'empress'. The elaborate ceremonies included a East Syriaii mass se!ebrated probably before her imperial portrait in her own tablet halls, one in far inorthwestern (.lrina2 and a~!othcr ncdr !he ncw capifal at Peking.

3 . 1 1 . 1 1 Iloi*urth remachi. 'With hubtill, ah >ri.h his prcdeccssors, religion was treated usapolitical muttcr. The Khali [Great Khan] must hi. 21hcj'ed; I j ~ i i , man shall worship God is indifferent.'

: It was in t h ~ s third gci~cratioi~ ;~ficr Gcnghis hiran, following the death of Kuyuk Khan, son of Ogetai that dynast~c rivalries with~n fhe house of Genghis began to chip away at the authority of the Great Khan and ultimatell destroyed the Mongo! hegemon) in Asia.

The Christianity under Kublai K h a n (1260AD)

Kublai Khan became great Khan in 1260 AD. He devised a phonetic

alphabet somewhat like his own Mongolian script but more like the related

Tibetan written language rhat might be used to transcribe Chinese characterise

the ideographs. into a readill pronounceable language.

The tolerance of Kublai Khan, the Great Khan towards all religions was

pragmatic and political. K~~bla i had Muslims, Buddhists, Confucianists, and

Christians in his inner circle. ' Basically he was a shamanist like his ancestors.*

The openness to the religions shows the attitude of tolerance, which was

upheld by later rulers. This allowed Christianity to thrive. He was convinced

that the Christian faith was the best of all the religions and his fear that

adherence to an) one religion would divide the people and set the

otherreligions against the government, prevented him from being baptized.

Kublai himself did not convert to Christianity for the sake of the non-

Christians attached to his court who would demand an outward sign that the

Christian God is stronger than the divine powers of the Buddhists.

The position of Christianity under Kublai Khan is a mixture of

considerable visibility hut fluctuating influence. When non-Christians made

I , Polo, 1~)escr~prion. 188

2. fle shinved i~ spccial afinit) towards Buddhism. When Kublai received private religious instruction f ro~n ihc Lama. he used to stt on a loiier platform than the Tibetan cleric, a generous gesture. Kublai wai careful in h ~ s treatment of C~~n!Lsianism.Kublai built Confucian temples in his capitals and encouraged the \cncratiun o! ancestors, ~ncluding of course his own. In spite of his leanings towards Buddhism and his interest in Confucianism. he had an open attitude to other forms of faith. Islam was another stm11g influence ;n ;he Yuan-dynasty government. Through his brother Hulegu, Kublai Khan was well acquainted with ;he power o t Islam and of its potential threat to the Mongol rule of Asia. Islam never !had a popular influence in Moiigol China. Kublai was open to Buddhist familiar with Confucian ideas. and acquanited with lsl,~m. Tiic c t l~~ca l !deals of the Confucius include the important duties of goodncss, appealed to Kublai pzrso!!;ill\ Kubiai's vulnerable situation as a foreign Mongol ruler of a conquered but th~cWy popuiaied and highly civilized Chinese nation led him to adopt a strategy of governmg through inrermrdiatesTl~is in turn tended to enlarge the powers of foreign advisers, including Christians.

: fluworth , Hisrnry , 534 Polo, Description, 188

: Rossabi, Kublui Khon. 1 1 . 114, 154-151) : Wright. Hlstory, 75 : Latourette, History, 61-71

fun of the cross, the Khan rebuked them comforting the Christians. Christian

advisers were well known at his court I. Kublai held the Christian faith 'for

the most true and good' ' Kublai Khan who he expressed interest in Christian

learning may have been more interested in the 'seven arts'-western science and

learning.3 In 1289AD, Kublai Khan created a department of the Chinese

government to deal with the affairs of the increasing numbers of Christians in

his empire. Its President was a East Syrian Christian physician named Ai-

hsueh who later became president of the Han -]in academy

Kubla~ divided his empire into giving preference to the Mongols,

central Asiatics, Persians. anti Westerners. In the latter years of Kublai's reign

he was troubled by an outbreak of revolts on the fringes of his empire from

Tibet to Manchuria. It involvcd the rebellion of a Christian Mongol prince,

Prince Naian. Naian was J I:ast Syrian Christians secretly baptized but more

superstitious than actually practicing the works of a Christian. He rode into

battle under the banner of the cross. "

I . Accbrding to Marco Polo the fathcr o f the monk Sauma, is probably the Siban who is described as one o f Kublai Khan's esrliesr Christian advisers.

: Moule , Cilrisli'ms. 94

2 The Khan observed the chief feasts of the Christians-Easter and Christmas. He summoned all Christians and revered 'the book in which are the four Gospels.' On the Khans birthday, people of varioos religions prayed to their gods to glve long life, health and joy to Khan-Tartars, Saracens, and Chrisrians

3 . Accolding to ivlarco Polo 'wise men US learning in the Christian religion and doctrine . . . who should know also the seven arts and be titled to teach his people and who should know well how to argue and to show plainly to him and to the idolaters and to the other classes of people ... that all their religion was erroneous, . and who should know well how to show clearly by reason that the Christian faith and religion is better than theirs and more true than all the other religions; and if they proved this, that he [Kublai] and all his potentates would beccme men ofthe Church'.

4. Ai-hsurh once persuaded Kubla to clit short the personal pleasure of a hunting trip and to give priority instead to thc country's strclggling farmers. And when a later empress ordered him to "consult the secret courses o f the stars" likc and astrologer, he had the courage to refuse.His five sons bore Christian names-Elijah, Denha. h a , George, and Luke-who rose to high rank. Ai-hsueh became well known for his age advice to the crnperor against extravagance and in favor o f mercy.

5 Prince Nian was a junior rousln o l Kublai through a stepbrother o f the great Genghis, joined in rebsllioi, the more powerfui I'rincr Knidu, Central Asia. They denounced Kublai as a sinicized, over civilired traitor to the front><,- fighting tr;tditions o f real Mongols. Kublai challenged and led an imperial counter anack. Nai;lii Bar capturril . executed and put to death

In the year 1294AI) the emperor Kublai Khan, protector of the Church

in China died. The death of Kublai, last of the truly great Khans, signaled the

approaching dissolution of the Mongolian empire in the Far East. Kublai's role

as the founder of the Yuan Dynasty was decisive for he paved the way for a

religious policy that was to be observed by later Khans. Mongols rule in China

was strongly determined by the po!itical and cultural outlook of Kublai Khan. I

The Christipn Church at the time of Hulegu

'The history of the church in Asia in the thirteenth and fourteenth

centuries outside the subcontinent of India to the south is dominated by the

political power and traditions of Mongol China. Among the three Mongol

rulers Hulegu and Kublai protected Christians. When Mongke was raised to

the Mongke throne as the fourth Great Ghan (1251AD), he announced that it

was his will to complete the conquest of the world begin by his victorious

grandfather Genghis and that the Mongols would ride again to the attack. He

himself intended to lead one army east against China, but left most of the

actual warfare there to his brother Kublai.

The commander of the Mongol army's vanguard was an East Syrian

Christian named Ked buka. 'the Eull.' Hulegu's queen, Dokuz, was also a

Christian and travelled with a portable, East Syrian Christian chapel on an

accompanying wagon.' Hulegu. under his most gifted general led the way

across the Oxus into Persia. As the Mongols approached his Persian capital,

the Mongols simply surrounded the city. The defense faltered and the Caliph

sent a group of envoys. including the East Syrian Church Patriarch to sue for

peace. ' Hulegu gave the Persians ~~nconditional surrender. The Caliph refused.

1. O.I.'ranke remarks 'This niilli. who %a& 10 become one of the greatest rulers of world history, not only towcred highly abuve the pilff'<d u p wurld uf letters of the Sung, but also above his whole time with respect to intellectual prudence. un prejudicbal quality of character and goodness of hear'.

: Ian (;illman, Christ~ans, 31'1

2 Saundcrb. Hislov 108 : Hoyle, hlo,igol. 342 : Howonh, History, 3:90-217, 1 5 4 2

3. Howonll . H i s ~ o ~ , 3 123 . quoird fro!^^ I'ic? Syrraquev , Vol. 362

The result was annihilation. They cut the Caliph's troops to pieces, drove

almost the entire population out of the city, and massacred them by the

thousands. Only the Christians who took refuge in one of the churches of the

East Syrian Church Patriarch were spared,' because the Patriarch had been

willing to serve as negotiator or perhaps because of Hulegu's family

connection with Christianit). His queen Dokuz personally managed to handle

the lives of many of'her fellow believers. Year later the victorious Hulegu

invaded Syria, with the Christian general Ked-buka and received the surrender

of Damascus in 1260AI). During this period,-the Mongol advance was

checked at this place.

The factors that checked the Mongol Advance

Four important factors checked the Mongol advance. The first was the

unexpected death of the Great Khan Mongke. At the news, Hulegu abruptly

departed for Mongolia to take part in the election of a new Great Khan, taking

most of the m y with him. He left Ked-Buka with only ten to twenty

thousand troops. 'The result was momentous.' Second factor was the loss of

Mongol unity in a series ofdebilitating disputes over the succession to the

title of Great Khan of the Mongols. Third factor was the ambivalent attitude of

the Crusaders. At first they welcomed the Mongols.Then, when a nephew of

the Christian Mongol general Ked-Buka tried to restrain them from

plundering, they turned and began to help their former foes, the Muslim armies

of Egypt. The fourth factor that drove the Mongols out of Syria and back into

Persia was the emergence of a new military power in Egypt.

I Boylc Fvldngol, Vci, V. 34h

2 . The Cai~ph was brwght beti~rc liulegu i \ho lhanded him over to thesoldiers with the reminder that royal blood must nor bc spilled <in !he ground They rolled the last of the Abbasid Caliphs in a red and trampled him under their horse'; feet.

: Kirakos . Georgjon , 3:129

3 The death of Clgeia~ in 1241 \ d ~ c d Chrl>l~ali Europe, the death of Mongke in 1259 was to save Musl~m Asid

. Muir ialaphote, 592

The death of both Hulegu and his Christian princess Dokuz in 1265AD,

the same year that the East Syrian Church Patriarch Manicha I1 also died,

brought mourning and a sense of foreboding to Christians all through the

Middle East. Ecven in Baghdad the power of Islam was on the rise again.

Those first thirty-seven years of Mongol rule in Persia (1258- 1295AD) were the

last short years of flowering for the East Syrian church. The East Syrian

Church Patriarch Makika-I1 was favourably treated with the help of Hulegu's

Christian wife. He rescued his Christian community from at least some of the

bloody massacre that followed the sack of Baghdad. Hulegu even turned over

a palace of the fallen Abbasid Caliph to the Christian Patriarch.

It was also reported that Hulegu was about to be baptized. The new

Patriarch, Denha-I, soon found himself fleeing from an outbreak of Muslim

violence that had erupted i n protest against his baptizing of a convert from

Islam. liulegu was probably always, to the end of his life, no candidate for

baptism but an eclectic Shamanist who might have even have finally turned I Buddhist, rather than Christian. The new Ilkhan, Hulegu's son Abaka, who

ruled for the next seventeen years (1265-1282), proved to be as protective of

Christians as his father, The llkhan Abaka's wife Kotai was a Christian, and in

general his reign was just and favourable to Christians. 2

The arrival of Roman Catholic Church delegates(1095-1291AD)

In 1095 AD Pope [Jrban I1 appealed to the Christian lords of western

Europe to rescue the Hal) Land from the Turks. The imperialist violence of

I. Both the Muslim historian Rashid al-Din and the Armenian Christian chronicler Vanan attest to Hulegu's openness to Christianity. Rashid wrotr: T u please his princes [Dokuz] Hulegu heaped favors upon [the Christians] and gave them e\,cry ioken of his regard so that new churches were continually being built and at the gate of Doquz-khatun's ordu there was always a chapel where bells were rung. Vartan, who was at thc court of Hulegu in i 264, noted the presence there of the Christian kings of Little Armenia and Georeia and the Crusader prince o f Antioch and was given a private interview with the ilkhan in which Hulegu told him "thal his mothcr was a Christian and that he felt much attached to Christians

: Ho~vi~lh.Hislory. 24.: Hausant. i?uligton,540 : Moffctt , Hislory, 438 quoted from Dulaurier Mongols, 2

2. Buckler, I %arler: the (ireal,l8

the two centuries that brought East and West, Muslims and Christians, into

eight or nine great series of battles are popularly called 'the Crusades'. There

were three distinguishing features of the age, namely the fall of the Arabs, the

triumph of the Turks pouring in from the east, and the brief, bitter, failing

interlude of Atlantic Europe's intervention from the west.

This was the first Crusade landed in Asia in 1097AD near ~ i c a e a . ' In

1009 the Caliph of' Cairo, al-Hakim, tore down the church of the Holy

Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the most holy shrine in Christendom. Then he added

insult to injury and repudiated a treaty reportedly agreed upon two hundred

years earlier by two of the greatest figures in Christian and Islamic history, the

Roman emperor Charlesrnagne and the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid. It

was this treaty that despite wars and revolutions had long allowed a steady

stream of pilgrims safge passage from the West to worship at Christian shrines

in Muslim Jerusalem.

The second Crusade was (1144-1187AD) dominated by Islamic

counterattack. Of the great Saladin ( I 138-1 193AD) the third periods of the age

of the Crusades ( I 187-1?9IAD) was a century of downward spiraling, abortive

attempts by the 1.atin west to rr\ive the spirit and successes of the First

Crusade. rhe agc of the Crusades also saw the rebirth of a humbler form of

Western Christian mission to the East more in the spirit of the Christ, in whose

name it was practiced. These were exemplified by the emergence of two

Roman Catholic missionary orders,the Franciscans in 1209AD and the

Dominicans in I22OAD The East Syrian Christians and Armenians welcomed

the Crusders as libercitors but icmained Orthodox, and as ecclesiastically

independent of L ~ t i n C hrlstianit) as was possible under the circumstance^.^

I . Bar llebracus C'hronogrsphy ( Ed. Uudgc) 417 : Doyle -Saljuq, 340 : Howorth, History, 3::90 : l lowur th . Hislor>. 1:2!0 : Saundrrs , Hisloty, 108 : Boyle . Mongol, Vol. V, 342 ff : Chen . Wesrern . 41-53 : Moscs, in~rodzcction . 52 : Grousset . Empire, 257

3. Condor Latin, ? ! 9 . : Salibi Maronltc. Y i : MoosaMaronites 195, : Hamilton Crusader, 217

The Intervention of Muslim extremists

Ghazan (1295-1304A1)) the seventh Ilkhan and the first to rule as a

Muslim, was the ablest since Hulegu. But he was the angel of doom for the

Christians.' The history of Syriac Christians under the Mongols was described

as 'Black Clouds'. His first decree ordered the destruction of all churches,

synagogues, and Buddhist Temples through out the land. Islam became again

the official religion of Iran. ' Bar Hebraus describes the plight oiC:hristians in the days as :

No Christian dared to appear in the streets (or market), but the women \vent out came i n bought and sold, because they could not be dlstlnguished from the Arah women and could not be identified as Chr~stians , though who were reco n i ~ e d as Christians were disgraced, and slapped, and beaten and mocked. Y -

The Muslim extremists irritated Christian and Ilkhan intervened to

restore order and stop the looting. Ghazan brought the shaken Patriarch,

Yaballah, to the palace and restored him, to some of his former h ~ n o u r . ~

Thereafter the llkhan showed himself more lenient towards Christians though

no less immovably Muslim. Two years after his accession to the throne

Ghazan and all his highest nobles publicly and ritually exchanged their broad-

brimmed Mongol hats for thc Muslim turban.'

.- ~~ . --

I . At Kublal's death, (itikhatu (1291-129ji\Il) who was the fourth llkhan and grandson of Hulegu, reigned as an llkhan He war a disaster as ruler, but like his brother , Arghun. He befriended Chrislians visiting the great ~ncw Church bull1 by his fellow Mongol, the Patriarch Mar Yaballaha , in the llkhan's nonhcrn capital oi' Maraghch . But his mismanagement of tinances triggered rebellion and hc was strangled His shun lived successor. Baidu, was more inclined to Christianity. According to Bar Hebraeus, the llkhan personally claimed to be a Christian and wore a cross around his neck. He told to the Christians that he was a Christian and to the Muslims that he had convened to Islam.

: Howonh H i s t q . 3 278 : 13ar Hebraucs . Chronography, 462,505 : Grousset , Empire. 127

2. Bausani . Religinn . i ol. 5.542

3 . Bar liebiaues, tThront,groph>, 5fi7

4. Since Gl~azan last his to losr coi~lidcnce ( 8 1 l bc chirf'persccutor, his Muslim general Nauruz, who had prcsscd him to leave iiuddhisxrl I 'L~ Islam I IL. ,now discovered that Nauruz had been plotting behind his back i v ~ t h Muslim Egypt aganst thc Moligcil> i n Persia Thc hated Nauruz was executed in 1297 and Christlanb rejoic:ed

5 Boylc,, / i ! rn . 31) : How.,rtl? i i is~or:~. . l J X X

Sporadic persecution of Christians continued throughout his region.

Though Yaballaha was allowed to build a great monastery at the capital, the

Patriarchate never completely regained either its former power or its assurance

of Government support. Occassionally, when the Ilkhan threatened to destroy

the citadel of Arbela, birthplace of East Syrian Christianity, because of

continuing troubling outbursts of violence between Muslims and Christians,

the Patriarch was effec~ive in changing the strongman's mind. ' Throughout

this whole span of royal history, the major channel of continuous Christian

influence, apart from the Patriarchate itself, runs through the blood of royal

women from Sorkaktani to Uruk-Khatun. Afier Abu Sa'id (1316-1335AD),

Tamerlane. who was a Muslim brought the unparalleded destruction of

churches. synagogues, and temples all across Asia from the western edge of

China to the Christian fortress of Symyrna on the Aegean Sea and as far south

as Indian Ilelhi. i

Tamerlane, the Terror of the world to the Scene

He dreamed of reviving an Islamic caliphate. He boasted that he would

make Samarkand the capital of all Asia. Tamerlane zigzagged way upward by

cunning, courage, deceit, and terror. He destroyed seven hundred large

villages, wiped out the inhabitants and reduced all the Christian Churches of

Tiflis to rubble 'l'amerlane personally directed the slaughter as his warrior's

systematically colleted Christian heads as souvenirs. At Tana on the Black

1 Budge Monhr 731.19

2. A few ycars laler. l o 1307 hc ordorcd lo pt ic u p Christ~an faith and their churches to be destroyed. It may havc been the courageous of the Christians in resisting this decree that so impressed one of the Mongol generals named Chobur, a ~ea lous Muslini, became known as a protector of the Christians. By then he had risen to the highest milltar) position in the ilkhan Oljeitu's m y as "amir of amirs" (Commander-in- chiel). a son-in-law of one dkhan (Oljcilu) and brother in law of another (Abu said).

3 . Abu Salds father. Oljeitu, was ilften oniwardly friendly and sometimes generous, that was found in him a kind of hatred of the Chr~stians. He first ordered the East Syrian Church Patriarch to give up his magnificent new monastery in Maragheh and the Church in Tabriz to be converted into mosques and was dissuaded from this only with grea: difficult by his uncle, a Naiman or Kerait Prince, who argued that ir would be lrnnccessarily provocative

Sea, Muslims iri the city wcre spread, while the Christians were killed, sent

into slave?, or ransomed at enormous price. Sometimes, when Christians did

not oppose him, Tamerlane could treat them with great courtesy. Samarkand,

Tamerlane's maln capital. always had a sprinkling of Christians. They were,

however, mostly traders and prisoners. and there is no mention of an organized

church. '

According to A.R Vlne, twenty years later Tamerlane swept through

Persia. Vine writes that we can only say with certainty that there were

churches at Baghdad, Mosul. Erbil, Nisibis, Bakerda (Gezira), Tabriz and

Maragheh. I'amerlane died in 1405 . it may not have been Tamerlane alone

who wiped out the church in Persia; ~t had been eroding steadily ever since the

Muslim conquest2. Before the century ended Tamerlane's successors proved

completely unable to hold the empire together. Persians took back Iran from

the Mongols. The Uzbeks in 1500AD defeated the last Central Asiatic ruler of

the line of Tamerlane in Samarkand In Mongolia the twenty seventh successor

of Genghis Khan died and left the blongolian east in anarchy in 1467. By then

a Chinese dynasty, the Ming came to power in China. As Mongols faded away

all the Asia north of the Himalayas was one more either Muslim or Chinese. If

there were any Christians left here and there, no one noticed them.

The decline of East Syrian Christianity in Mongol Empire

It is difficult to pinpoint any precise moment at which progress turned

into decline. It may be ar the rise of the Island is the first decisive turning

point. In the space of one year (1291-1295AD) the Emperor Kublai Khan

Protector of the Church in China died and in Persia the Ilkhan Ghazan

announced his conversion Islam. The death Kublai Khan signaled the

approaching dissolution of the h4ongolian Empire in the Far East.

- - - - - -- ---

i Boyie Ira,, 407

? Vlne . Churi1ii.s 159

Gha~an 's conversion turned the Persian sector of that empire

irreversibl) Muslim and carried w ~ t h it into the world of Islam most of Asia

from the western end ot the Great Wall to the Euphrates. In the next one

hundred years, the religious tolerance of Mongol imperial rule gave way to a

new destructive wave of wide-spead Mongolian ferocities fueled by

conquering Muslim zeal, and the shattered remnants of Asian Christianity

were left isolated in ever smaller pockets of desperation.'

Browne notes a vacancy of nine years (1369-1378AD) in the East Syrian

Church list and twenty five years (1379-1404AD) for the non Chalcedoninan

and suspects many more such vacancies went unrecorded. The East Syrian

church had once directed a continental network of Christian influence and

expansion from its first tentative beginnings in Edessa, later in Seleucia-

Ctesiphon, and finally in Baghdad, which was left without a home on earth.

According to Bar Hebraeus's Chronography, in those days the foreign

peoples (the Mongols) stretched out their hands to Tabriz, and they destroyed

all the churches, The persecutions, and disgrace, and mocking and ignominy,

which the Christians suffered at this time, especially in Baghdad, words cannot

describe.' Abo1.1t the Mongolian period, Mingana gives a brief description

about the church life in Mongol empire. "ccording to him there were nine

archdecons. eight doctors of ecclesiastical jurisprudence and of biblical

I For mure dclails

: Brownc, (7irisrionri.y lacksori. .Ilunjiol, Juurn;ll 23, Nw3.4

2. For more dcpails :

: Hookhum .ihmburluirir : l imb . Tun~rrlune : Grousset Empire : Browne , Christiuniry

3 Bar Hebraeus. Chroriogrophr 610

4 . A Minganu quol.es from onc lombiionc, dated about !322 (Seleucid year 1627) : "this is the grave of Shliha. thc celebrated commentator and teacher. who illuminated all the monasteries with light son of Peter the aaugst r:ommcntPtor of ~visdom, hls voice range as high as the sound of a trumpet. There was cviderlce of a total of 630 tornhsloncs. lie spcaks around of a possible million Christians among the Turkish trlhcs of the Ctiagatin Khiinatc

183

interpretation, twenty-two preachers and an the imposing number of priests

which was inscribed in a an inscription, reported by D.A Chwolson. I

Christian practices were diverse. The East Syrian Christians maintained a

full sacramental life and observed the major festivals of the Christian year,

both within their church and in public procession. There is a church building,

which possessed both nabc and sanctuary, with an icon of the Virgin, a

baptistery, one chapel, and a special room where bread for the Eucharist was

baked. Curtains of gold silk brocade draped the interior as they did the tents of

the Khan Services of the East Syr~an Church rite were often choral, incense

was used and f a t s were observed for the major festivals. The tolerance of

the Khans made possible the continued appointments of East Syrian Christian

metropolitans and bishops throughout their empire3.

The Nature of the East Syrian Church in the Mongol Empire

Regarding the growth and nature of the East Syrian Church in the

Mongol empire., there were two places to be mentioned with special

references-Karakorum and Chinkiang4. William of Rubruck records that he

found crowds in regular attendance at the services and processions and

observed the baptism of sixty persons at the Easter. Mangoke is said to have

convened debates in 1254 at Karakorum among spokesmen from the various

religious communities. Poio also reported the presence of Christians and East

! Christians i n Central Asia wcrs I I I sufticicnl nutnbers a td well enough known to compel one popular East Syrian Church hyrnn writcr named Kll;icn!s to compose a hymn for them. It begins, 'The Son of Mary i s bore to u:;' and was urj!tr~i iv,th al!rrna!c stanzas jo Syriac and Mongolian.

: Moffell . li6slory 483

2. Rubruck, was inciuded by the Ncsiormns ill thjs tirst discussion, which he repons fully. They also gave him the use of a chapel and he finds amongst them monks who are "prudent men" (though others he condemns as ignorant) He alsotound thc Ncsturianr fully capable of leading worship and teaching the Gospel. all able to read the Uighur script. and capable also of presenting in writing a full chronicle of Christian belief, from ( reation to tnc final judgment.

3. Among the records cxtant are those appointed tbr Kitai (Mongolia), Kashgar, Sian-fu, Hami, Khanbaliq (Peking),Tangut (Sinkiang), and South China 1490. Stewan. Missionav Enrerprixrr. 151. 161. ! 88. 286 : Atiya , Histo,y, 262

4. The cosmopolitan populace of Karakorum ~nc!uded Hungarian, Alan, Georgian, Ruthenian, Armenian and Chaldran Christtans.

Syrian Churches 'in at least eleven other Chinese cities.' He found the largest

concentrations in the northwest along the old Silk Road. There was a seat of

an East Syrian Church metropolitan at Kashgar, and at Kanchou (Canpicion),

the capital of Kansu pro\ince2. Another area with many Christians was on the

southeast China coast in the provinces - ~ h i n k i a n ~ . ~ The Christian community

present there enjoyed official patronage.

Christian Monks and Hermits in Mongol Empire

At one time the East Syrian Church had seven monasteries in and

around the city of Chinkiang. All of them founded about the year 1279AD by

Mar Sargis who was a Turkish East Syrian Christian from Sarnarkand and has

a high official in the service of Kublai Khan. The monasteries built by Mar

Sargis around 128 1AD were given Chinese and Turkic names, which indicated

that Turkish monks musi have iived here perhaps beside some Chinese

brothers. The monastic centre at Khan Bariq could go back to earlier times.

There were also monastic establishments in the lower arches of the Yangtze-

Kiang, especially in Chen-chiang and Yangchow.

1 Foundcd in the second century H.C.E., i t had been for centuries a terminus for one of the trade routes to west A S I X It locatcd on ths south bank <if the Yangste River, where the Grand Canal crossed it, 140 miles frum the coast it had later beconic a Buddhist centre for pilgrimage. Buddhist monasteries were extendrd under the Sung llynasly and a golden age of Confucian scholarship also began in the mid- twel(ih centug..

3. It nes an important city on the empires trade routes. The East Syrian Christian'centre at Chinkiang was between Nanking and Shanghai were the Yangtze River intersects with the Grand Canal.

: There were the 'three churches, which were large and beautiful'. One o f these was probably that East Syrian Church monaster, in u,hrch Sorkaktani, mother of Kublai Khan, was buried. He mentioned Camul (I<ami) the seat of a Eaa Syrtan Church bishop who had attended the consecration of the Nestor~an patriarch Uenha l o Persra in I2OhAD.

: Mule. ('hrisfians , 400-44.5

4. These w e n monasteries wcrr :ruly the outcome ot'his Excellency's zeal. He was royal to the sovereign and der'oted to the empire. no; seeking tu make himself conspicuous but only making his monasteries. Of the monastic centres esrabllshed by hi:n. six were built in Chan-chiang and one in Lanchow. It also throws light on the untiring efforts of Mar Sargis, who had been active as an official in that city. In spite of all hi,nour!; beiitowul upon h ~ m in pol~t~cal life. he was devoted to the propagation of the Christian faith

5 . Moilett . HLrrryv. 401 : Moiilc i hrrsrians, 145-155

Laymen played an important role in all walks of life including

commerce, administration and even politics. The monasteries were pillars of

religious and intellectual life. They were places of learning, and it is clear from

documents found that the East Syrian Christians in Yuan China had a literature

of their own. in Syriac in Turkish, and perhaps also in Chinese.

Beside the monastic institutions, there were also hermitages where

individual monks would !ive a life of seclusion rather than coenobitic one.

This was quite in accord with the Syrian tradition. Such hermits must have

lived in various secluded spots in the wide deserts and waste lands of Central

Asia as well. Monks were also active in court life, hence appeared on the

political scene and had contact with those who wielded power.' According to

them the purity of the soul. the sanctification of life and the consecration in

God were the aims of hermetic life.

Prominent East Syrian Christians during the. Mongol Rule.

In the early Mongol history, there were prominent East Syrian

Christians from the Turkish tribes. Naimans, Keraits, Uighurs and Onguts

who had various positions in the administration of the new realm. It is

interesting to note that he high military official had no inhibitions in

expressing then Christian affiliation publicly. Besides being army leaders, East

Syrian C'hr~stians of Turkish and Mongol extraction also had high positions in

the admin~strat~on. The father and grandfather of Mar Sargis, an East Syrian

Christians from Samarkand working in the service of Kublai Khan, were court

physicians. The most prominent of Christian ladies among the Mongols was

- - -- - -- - --

I Budge , blanks, 94

2 . One among them wcrc . one. Chlnkai, a Kcriiit born around 1171 AD, was companion ofGenghis Khan. He rose lu such a raiik that in nonhern ('ncna that, no cdict could be issued without his signature. He was 'Secretary of thc State' undcr (ienghls as well as Ogedei and he held the position of a 'Chancellor' under Kujuk. Qadaq, had scrvcd under (ir-nghis as an arms leader, made 'Administrator of the Realm' under Kuyuk. Holghai, the Chancellor of Mangu, the fourth Khan, was also a Christian from the tribe of the Kera~t One of the leading mil~lary men in Yuan China in the early fourteenth century was a Central Asian Turkish official of East Syrlan cl rur ih The gravestone of his young Christian wife had recently been discovered. It I S ernbell~shed by a crohb on a lotus.

: Ian Gillnriin Christian , 288 quoted fro~n . Gengshimin Klimkel Eine neue nesrorinische, 14, 170.

Sorkaktani. who was active politically even after the death of her husband

Tului, son of. Genghis. The East Syrian Christian Onguts were administrators

of the Mongols in China and participated the cultural and intellectual life of

the time Christian physicians worked for the Mongols Central Asia. There

were also East Syrian Christians from Central Asia who became recognized

physicians in Mongol Empire. There is evidence to the effect that the East

Syrian Christian Turkish officials in the south Chinese ports must have had

contact with European merchants '

East Syrian Church Organisation in Mongol Empire.

We dit! nat have any systematic picture about the hierarchical

organization in the East Syrian Church during the Mongol's time. The

foundations 0 1 Asian medieval E:ast Syrian Christianity and its expansion

across the continent were laid as early as the Patriarchate of the great Timothy-

I towards the end of the eight-century. He reorganized the metropolitans, into

two classes Electoral Metropolitans and Missionary Metropolitans with the

interests of a greater internal administrative regularity and more efficient

evangelistic o ~ ~ t r e a c h . ~

Electoral rnetropolitans were dominant in the domestic administration

of the church. Missionary nietropolitans more accurately designated as

Metropolitans of the Exterior" \vere located too far away to take part in

elections and in effect were virtually independent of the control of the home

church in Persia. By the end of the thirteenth century, the East Syrian Church

2. The law book of T~mothy-l is entitled ' I hc Rules of'Ecclesiastical Judgements and of Succession' and is presented in the form of 99 decisions. It consists of three p a t s dealing with (i) the ecclesiastical hierarchy, (ii) marriage and (iii) succcssion The letters written by Mar Timothy which witness his rnultit?~rrn activities are also famous. I h c discipline of Timothy-1 was enforced even in the farthest regrons of Indian and China For more details S A C H l . Syrische Rechtshuc!~er. 11, pp 5.3-1 17, LABOURT, De Timotheo I, pp 50-36.

: OBRAUN, Timothei Patriarchae I, Epistolae, in CSCO, vols, 74-75 (Syr, 30-31) Louvain, 1953. The Synodicon contains also $1 discuss~on ofTimothy I with Al-Madi; Cf SELB, Kirchenrecht, .63 n.68.

Patriarchate in Baghdad, was seeking to re-establish and extend its hierarchical

network ofmissionary bishoprics across central Asia to the Pacific. The

precise shape, locations. and numerical strength of East Syrian Church

organization cannot be traced with any credible assurance. Some Episcopal

dioceses were planted for a time and disappeared. The episcopal seats of some

bishops appointed to nomadic tribes were probably only tent chapels mounted

on wagons, known as movable 'cathedrals".

The major metropolitanates of the exterior were Ray Rewardashir and

Merv. It was Timothy4 who reorganized Rewardashir and Merv from electoral

to missionary status. Timothy-I created also new missionary metropolitans for

Tibet Sarbaziyeh, and further southeast beyond Rewardashir towards India. In

the Mongol period, five metropolitans were created along the old silk road

namely Heart, Samarkand, Kashgar. Almalik or Tangut, and Navekath, the last

of which was in Uighur territory north of ~ a s h ~ a r . ~

During the reign of Kublai Khan a metropolitanate was created for the

new Mongol Capital of China at Peking. Missionary metropolitans were

empowered to consecrate new bishops in their territories and missionary

bishops were entitled to be assisted by one or more archdeacons who were

usually chosen from the indigenous clergy.' The East Syrian church in this

period was persistently expanding east and south, towards India and China and

supporting its growth with as structure of highly independent East Syrian

I. Marco Pulu says aho~it this s~lualian likc !!:IS They are called Nestorian and Jacobite and Armenians and they are the worst herc1:cs . They ih.:vc a great Patriarch (who) makes archbishops, bishops and abbots and all other rclates p~iests and ciencs and sends them every where to preach, into all the pans o f India and to the Carai (China). and into i3audac (Baghdad) and heretics made heretics ...' But from the records uf the East Syrian Church synods in Persia and from various sometimes conflicting sources, i t is possible to discern ageneial autltne oithe building blocks of the East Syrian church in its transient period of widest glory.

: Moffett . , History. 449, quotcti frurn Pui<r. /)escrrplion, 100

2 Motkt t H8sloq ,464 Quot~d I-orn Pel l lu~ Kecherches Sur les , 4

3 Mo lk t t HIS~O? , 449, quoled from Polo lIesrrrp!~on, 100

Church missionarq episcopate.' The remarkable election of Yahballaha-I11

resulted due to the important missionary success. It had opened a new period

in the history of' Far Eastern Christianity after its decline in the ninth century.

Hence the East Syrian Christians succeeded more and more in penetrating the

Central Asian native population of the Turco-Mongol tribes.

Enthronement of Yaballaha -111 as the Mongol Catholicos-Patriarch

On 2 l February 128 1 AD ihe Catholicos-Patriarch Denha I expired in

Baghdad. Yahballaha-111 had been elected Catholicos Patriarch of the East

Syrian church.' Yahballaha-111 was not a Syrian from Mesopotamia. He was

from China, a member of the Turco-Mongol people of Central Asia. This was

an event that could clearly demonstrate that the Syrian Church of the East had 7 grown into a universal one. -

Yahballaha who had really been chosen for the position of the

Metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of China, was then elected

Catholicos-Patriarch. He ascended the throne in November 1281AD and was to

hold it for exactly thirty-six years. Yahaballaha -111 had become the Patriarch

of the East Syrian Church at a time still characterized by the enmity of

Mongols against Islam and their kindly disposition towards the Christian

people. The Mongol ruler heaped all honours on the Mongol Patriarch. He

1. Moffett . iltsroty . 464

2. His Biography included history ol'hls Patriarchate originally wrinen in Persian is well preserved in a Syriac Version. Its English translat~on was by Budge M o n k . 119-306

: Histaire de Mar Yab-laha (Ed) Budjan . 1-205

3 . Denha I who had jusl hecomc thc Cathol~cos-Patriarch in the autumn o f 1265 recognized the utility of the forrigti monks in view o f thci! double affinity to the East Syrian Church and to the Mongol ruling class. So at first they were eiigagcd by the newly elected head o f the church to supply him with the Ilkhan's certificate of appoinrmciil: and thcn they were designated as candidates for two exalted positions ol the Church in thc f i r East, whlcl i the Catholicos-Patriarch Denha had to fill in 1280. The elder Rabban Sauma was appaintcii \/isitor-(feoeral' for the Christian communities in the far East, and the younger Marl: \r;ls conscu~~teil 'blctr.,poli:;~n 01' the SLX of Kathay and Wang'China by the ncw name ai"Ynhballahn

gave him the authority to act in the name of the Ilkhan and granted him the

privilege to collect taxes fbr the purpose of the church.

The official centre ol'the church was still the city of Baghdad with the

Patriarch's residence in the tbrmer Abbasid palace, which had been transferred

to the Christians after the Mongol conquest of the city and the murder of the

last Caliph. But Yahballaha himself rather preferred the neighborhood of the

Mongol court in Azerbaijan, mostly dwelling in the city of Maragha, where he

built two great churches with a new residence, using it to welcome the IlKhans

as his guests.

The Patriarch's situation and the conditions of his church soon took a

turn for the worse. The death in 1294 of his spiritual father and intimate friend

Rabban Sauma was a hard blow. for Yahballaha. After one year, revolts shook

the IlKhanid state, in which Islam became powerful. The Muslim people of

Persia took advantage of the new situation and full of hate they attacked the

Christians who had been favoured until then over the Muslims. The Muslims

killed many Christians, destroyed the churches or turned them into mosques;

broke into the Patriarch's residence to pillage it, and repeatedly ill-treated the

Catholicos-l'atrisrch and robbed all properties of his Church.

Nevertheless. there were a few happy events in that dark half of

Yahabaliaha's lifetime: He completed the construction of a great monastery at

Maragha. and he built another. monastery in the metropolitan city of Arbela,

which, however, \vas destroyed b) the Muslims soon afterwards.' The

Catholicos-Patriarch of the East Syrian Church died on fifteenth November

1317AD, and he was laid to rest in the Monastery at Maragha. However

Yahaballaha he was not equal to those of his predecessors who had become

famous in the history of Syrian Christian theology and Syriac literature. In

contrast to. those scholars who had sat on the East Syrian Patriarchal throne,

the Mongol Patriarch from the Far East was only poorly acquainted with the

Syriac language of his church, its liturgy and theology. Yahballaha himself

was clearly aware of h ~ s limitations and therefore hesitant to become the

patriarch' But Yahballaha gained importance as the person who in all the

history of the East Syrian Christian was the only representative of its eastern-

most people chosen to be its spiritual head.

The period of Yahballa's bast Patriarchate stretching over the rule of no

less than eight Ilkhan's was 9f much importance in East Syrian Church history.

Yahballaha I11 headed his Church at its turning point from strength to decline.

During his patriarchate he consecrated seventy-five metropolitans and bishops

with a number of sees extending from Tarsus and Jerusalem in the West to

South India and China in the East. * But Yahballaha was the head of a Church,

which suffered from the hatred of the Muslims in the then Islamic Ilkhanid

state. About a hundred years after Yahballaha's death, and finally after the

cruel canlpdlgn of l imur Lcnk, thz most important missionary church of the

Middle Ages had nearly disappeared after the break down of the Mongol

~mpire. '

Christianity then was spread even among those people, which in the

early thirteenth century was united by Genghis Khan to be the nucleus of his

growing Mongol Empire, so that the Great Khans themselves came into

contact with the Christian religion. The East Syrian Christians, expelled after

the fall ofthe T'i~nng dynasty, now reentered China in the thirteenth century

I 'I am defic~cnt in education and in eccles$as~ical doctrine, and the member of my tongue halteth. How can I possibly becomc your Patrialch' And, mureover, I am wholly ignorant of your language, Syriac, which i t is absolutely neccsar) for tho Patriarch to know'

: Budge , . / u , i k , I53

2. lbid, , 204

3 . This church in the past had been thc spiritual centre of many people with diverse languages. This really universal church was obliged to withdraw into itself and to make out rather miserable existence in seclusion in the remote mountains of the north Mesopotamian Kurdistan. The East Syrian Church entered the modern period as the small Christian community of the 'Assyrians', but 'it still lefi behind it an imperishable memory that may \\,ell prove an incentive, in the matter <oyalty to Christ and devotion to His servlce. to the more highly hvoured churches of to- day.

with a more visible and better-recognized status than they had ever achieved

under the T'ang. In the next one hundred years the religious tolerance of

Mongol imperial rule gave way to a new destructive wave of wide spread

Mongolian ferocities fueled by conquering Muslim zeal, and the shattered

remnants of Asian Christianity were left isolated in ever smaller pockets of

desperationi

Chinese against the Mongols

A long rule usually implies strength and stablitiy of the empire, but

not in the case of hlongol Emperors especially the fourteenth and last of a line

of Great Khan that !stretched back through a hundred and fifty years of Mongol

victories to Genghis. Chinese rose against the Mongols. The South invaded

the North under the anti-Mongol slogan, 'These barabarians are created to

obey and not to command a civilized nation'.* The Mongol armies came out

of the North to the aid of the dynasty, instead of attacking the rebels. It caused

to revive the old rivalries of the descendants of Ogetai, Tolui. It led to civil

war - one Mongol army against another.

'l'oghan Timur abandoned Peking in panic. The Chinese kept

advancing. They defeated. pursued and butchered the Mongols all across north

China and into central Asia They burned the Mongol palaces and tore down

the walls of Peking. They destroyed all traces of China. The new China was to

be isolationist, nationalist. and orthodox Confucian, ruled by a completely

China-centered dynasty, the Ming (1368- 1644AD)

With the defeat of the Mongols, China turned Chinese in religion. It is

just as likely thxt East Syrian Christians and foreigners were killed

indiscriminately in the pursuit of the Mongols. During this time without - - -- -- - -- --

I Moffett. /ii.~iory, 47 1 Ilusrai, Kublikhon, 141 f

2. Prawdlil Mongol, 386

3 Saunders, iii.srory . l 5 l Preudin. Mongol. 386

192

foreign support a church that had become dependent upon it withered away in

China. The Church fell with the old dynasty. But the Christians of the Yuan

dynasty compounded the errors of their forerunners under the T'ang who had

disappeared with their imperial patrons four hundred years before. The China

of the fourteenth century however could not but fail to note the enmity

between East Syrian Christians and their newly arrived rivals, the Catholics,

and the Chinese considered both foreign. Compounding the handicap this

imposed on the Church, the Mongol dynasty itself was foreign.

To the Chinese, Church appeared as a foreign religion protected and

supported by a foreign government. Catholic missions gave the impression of

being even more foreign rhat the East Syrian Christians who were almost

entirely Mongol, for they received far more visible support from outside China

that ever was true of the East Syrian Christians either in the 9" or 14' century'.

Interaction of Cultures between the East Syrian Church and the Mongol.

In the course of East Syrian Church missionary enterprises, some

cultural elements from the Christian West penetrated deeply in a manifold

manner into the life of the native Christian population modifying their Central

Asian native traditions. A11 the cultural influences from Christianity in the

West concern only the tiny realrn of the Central Asian Christian people. The

chronology, alphabet, literature and art broke up the narrow frame of Central

Asian Christianity. But they did not open the door to the non-Christian world

around.

I'hilology is competent in the history of the development of the central

Asian alphabets. It has been known for a long time that the Mongolian

characters oflicially used in the administration of the Mongol Empire, were

derived step by step from the 'IJighur script' in the thirteenth and fourteenth

centurie~.~ Since this 'Uighur Script is quite similar to the Syriac alphabet,

1 . Moule,Chrrsr:ons. 192 : Mollrri . Hisfop, quoted from Yule, Cathay, 3:179

2. Hagc. Chrfsfia,> Influrnci, . 55-67

scholars had come to the conclusion that the Uighur characters directly

depended on the Syriac ones especially on the East Syriac style, and they

regarded this as a result of Ea3t Syrian Missionary activities in Central ~ s i a . ' It

was an impressive influence on the part of East Syrian Christianity far beyond

its own Christian realm. The relationship of the 'Uighur script' to the Syriac

alphabet was so direct, because the relationship of both, Syriac and Uighur

alphabets were not that of 'mother and daughter", but rather of "aunt and

niece':

The Uighur characters were independent of the Syriac ones. They had

descended from an older Aramaic alphabet, from which the Syriac

"Estrangela" also was d e r i ~ e d . ~ The far Eastern Christians themselves,

composed their texts in the native languages and made use not only of the

Syriac 'Estrangela', but a!so of the Soghdian and mostly of the Uighur

alphabet3

When in the thirteenth century the less civilized Mongols, for the

administration of their net\ empire, accepted the script of the subjugated but

more civili~ed Uighurs. The Turco-Mongol Christian people also took part in

this process and under Mongol rule. ascended to the highest ranks in the

government, including the ministerial office^.^ Although the above mentioned

Central Asian alphabets were not the immediate descendants of the script of

i. The impurtance o f the lvlonpolian alphabet (with its off-shoots including the Manchu alphabet) for the cultural life 111 Central Asia was replaced h) the characters by the characters o f the Russian Cyrillic alphabet in recent times

Hage . Chrisrimn in/lur,,<e. 63 yici,ie,i Iron1 (;i>t:iiirz EinJiehrung, 62-72

2. This knowledge, howevcr, abou! tlic system o l dependence on each other does not deprive the East Syrian Christians of dll significa~ice because they had neveRheless a share in the history of the development of the Central Asian alphabels. although in a less striking manner than was assumed in the past.

Hage <'i, i . i \ i~~rn mjlur.,,i i, 63 i y i , o i ~ ~ i ti-oiri (;irt"iii~ Ei~$<e/incny. 62-72.

3. Hage, Chrisrzun Itzjlue,,~e. 70

4 Howorr i~ ,Iiisolry. Vo! 1 134. Ihl . lh4. l87. 2lO. 723. 741 : Stewarf, Missiono~Enlerprises ,102

the Syrian missionaries. Eastern Christians had an important role in the

cultural l i f of Asia. In the service of the Mongol rulers, they wrote the

Uighur language and taught it to the illiterate majority.

According to the Franciscan Friar William, in the middle of the

thirteenth century, the secretaries of the Mongols were principally Uighurs,

whose script could be read by nearly all-native Christians. Several Christian

priests educated the sons of !he Mongol nobility and of the imperial family of

the Great Khan. Some o!'those prominent Central Asian Christians are known

by their names. 1

This Christian participation in a culturally important place did not

disappear in the course of history without leaving any trace. For although the

Central Asian scripts thernselves were not the immediate result of the Christian

mission there, the characteristic style of writing them was a typical one .2 The

prototype of this cannot be found in the world of the culturally dominant

Chinese who, indeed, write likewise in vertical lines, but arrange them in the

opposite direction, from the right to the left. The prototype of the Uighur-

Mongolian arrangement of the lines from the left to the right , can be found

only in the Syriac script of the Eastern Christians. Indeed, the Syrians did not

generally write thelr documents horn the top downward in vertical lines, but

there exists several Syriai ~nsc~iptions written in just this way. 3

I. An Engl~sli translation o f the report o f \billtam o f Rubruck is given by the journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern parts o f thc World. 1235-53 translated from Latin and edited with an introductory noIicc.

Rackh~ll. Journey. 1'01.4 I S i J 159. 189. LO6

2. Hans Jen~en, draws our attentiun to the [act that the Mongolian script with its daughters, and sometimes the Uighur script as well. arrangc the lcttsrs not horizontally hut vertically placing the lines side by side from the iefi to the iipht.

3. The alrcady mcntbunzd tornhstoncs in 111s ilica of Lake ljsyk-kul thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as well as partly Syriac monon,i.nt of Shl:t~~tU and even several earlier inscriptions in the Syrian Middle East ltself

Hagr .C/,rislian tnJl!ience, 64

. . I he Mongol style of writing, according to the Syriac prototype, would

exactly correspond to our knowledge about Christian secretaries among the

Mongols and the presence of Syriac as the liturgical language of the East

Syrian Church. This is the contribution of Philology regarding the influence of

Eastern Christianity on the wider world of Central Asia outside the Christian

community

Regarding the contribution of science and religion about this issue,

Hans- Joachim Klimkeit has recently published about relations of Christology

with Buddhology in the Central Asian art.' He deals with the syncretic use of

the symbol of the cross on the portraits of Buddha in a West Tibetan

monastery in the eleventh or twelfth century. In the Buddhist use of the cross

he supposes the influence of the ~anichaeans'.

In the manifold religious world of Central Asia, the various religions

interact each other especially when their adherents had to live closely together

in an area. It was, characterized by native Shamanism and its spirit of

tolerance. It was also conducivc to all kinds of syncretism. The Central Asian

Manichaeans, in using thr. symbol of the cross, were inspired by their

Christian neighbours, especially because the sign of the cross was deeply

venerated by the Central Asian Christians at the centre of their piety, as

understands from many excavated cross-shaped amu~ets .~

Afier the settlement of Buddhist monks in a deserted Christian

monastery near Khanbaliq (Peking). and at Tunhwang in Western China, they

I. His Houk IS H. J. Ki~mkeit . L)ai Kreuzessyrnbol in der zentralasiatischen Religious begegnung, zum Verhaeltnis von Chrtstologit: und Huddhologie in der zentralasiatischen Kunst, in : Zeitschrifi fuer Religions und geistcgeschichir. vol. i korln, 19791, 90-1 15. (Relations o f Christology with Budhology in G:ntraI Asian Art' )quoted in Hage ,Christian inflz~ence, 65

2 . Because ur~ginal Christian ideas could be more easily accepted by the Buddhists, if they were presented in the format o f a dualistic-docetistic Christology, represented in the religious world o f Central Asia by the influential community o f the Manichaeans Hage .Chrrsrian influence, 66

took over the portrait of an East Syrian Saint, interpreting him as ~odhisattva.'

Syrian Christian presence in its broad missionary activity did not remain

without any cultural consequences to the world of Central Asia. Syrian

influence on the native Christian people of Inner Asia disappeared along with

these Christians themselves and nothing but some archeological relics

remained. Syriac Christianity could act upon in the world of Central Asia

beyond the limits of its own (;hristian communities.

According to the scholars like, W. Hage, the results gained until now

gives us hope for more !n the future, to be gained from the collaboration of

Church History with History of Religion, Central Asiatic Philology, Ethnology

and History of Arts. We are still waiting for the final verdict about the

importance of Syriac Christianity and its tradition for the culture and

civilization of Central ~ s i a ' .

Asian Christianity was in some of its features different from that form

familiar to Western Christians. The witnesses of East Syrian Christians across

Central Asia to China in the East marked the Church in Iran. The openness to

Central Asian Christians to the cultural world in which they lived and their

determination ':o adhere to the faith as it was expressed in the Syriac and East

Syrian tradition ;ind the \villingness on the part of Christians in China to

address their compatrioks informs of language understandable to them using

even Taoist and Buddhist terminology to express the tradition of faith were all

factors which helped East Syrian Christianity in Central Asia to survive.

I . They actually placed sane texts of Chr~sltdn Chinese literature in their famous library in the 'Caves of the thousand Buddhas' along w~th other writing of non-Buddhist origin. Regarding monastery, portrait, and library, Saeki , Neslorimr Docun,i,i,~~. 429-433 , quoted from Schurchammer Der "Tempel des Kreuzcs. vol. 5 Waley . ('hrist or L3odhisattv:i (11-529

2 Hagc . i ijrulriln irqitrence . 66

CHAPTER- V

EAST SYRUN CWSTIANITY IN SOUTH. SOUTH-EAST ASIA AND

NORTH-EAST ASIA

The beginning of Christianity in Asia especially South East and East

Asia (except China), has not onl) been neglected or ignored but also distorted

by the historians for a long time. For the majority of the western historians,

the history of the churches in Asia belongs to the history of the western

missionary movement and the churches do not have an independent story of

their own. Both the Roman Catholic missionaries and the Protestant

missionaries from Europe and America claim that, during the sixteenth,

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they carried Christianity to the various

states and regions of south - - eastern Asia - Burma, Malay Peninsula, Siam and

parts of what are known collective!y as Indo China.

'There is evidence to show that Christianity found its way into South

East and East Asian countries. even before the coming of the western

missionaries, through the efforts of the East Syrian Christian merchants and

missionaries from Persia or India or China or from all the three places. There

are a number of writers who acknowledge that Christianity was widespread in

Asia before 1500 Al l . According ro the scholars like A Mingana, P. Y. Saeki,

A. R. Vine and Atiya, there were episcopal and metropolitan sees recorded for

the East Syrian Church from the fhurth to sixteenth centuries inter alia for

India and China. The Metropolitan sees of India and China included within

their jurisdiction a number of Southeast Asian episcopates.

The evidences of the Christian communities

In South Asla and East Asla there is evidence of Christian communities

formed wherever 'Persian'. 'Arab' or 'Indian' trade became established. The

trading and other contacts between Persia and South and South East Asia were

apparently well established at least from the fifth century onwards. Trade and

cultural exchanges among India, Southeast Asia, China, etc. had intensified

both by land and sea routes. East Syrian Church monks frequently travelled

with merchants, and merchants themselves sometimes became monks I .

Evidences from Manuscripts, Crosses and Inscriptions

Some manuscript evidences in early chronicles and correspondence

confirm this for such places as Ceylon, Malaya, Indo-China, and .lava.' The

evidence thus far discovered for the period seventh to fifteenth centuries from

the sites in south-east Asia, includes inscriptions, crosses, frescoes and ruins,

along with contemporary manuscript evidence.

It must be emphasized ho\ve\ler that these form only part of a very

complex series of' pictures that are still being completed. John England

mentions some of the places in Asia where inscriptions, crosses, frescoes,

paintings and manuscripts and such evidence of Christian history are found.'

By the sixth century. we have crosses and inscriptions from Sri Lanka and Turkestan (where some early manuscripts were also found); and by the eighth century, Sian-fu-stele, documents from Gobi sites, inscriptions from central Japan and Russian Turkestan (which has frescoes and church remains also) along with large bodies of the writing of the golden age of Syriac literature from west Asia. With local writings, these have been found across the region, especially in South India and West China. In the next three centuries would be added the large collections of crosses and tombstones from Kirghizstan (ninth to fourteenth centuries), others from central and north China; relics in Burma and Malaya; crosses, inscriptions and documents in Tibet and South China; along with contemporary manuscript evidence for Christian activity in Syria, Iran, Turkestan, [ndo-China, Sumatra, and China (north and south).

It is believed to have bcen written in Mesopotamia some where

between the seventh and tenth centuries, and presents the 'unfolding story of

I . Wolters 6.orIy. 68 , Collcs , ?a&,~, Vol I . 1 Y f

2. Mingana. i a r l y Spruiid,473 - Vinc , (.'itziirihrs . 112, : Saeki , Documenfs , 347 : Atiya , Hixtory, 265

3 . John. t l i s r u ~ . 93

all the major cultures and religions encountered by Christianity as it travelled

across Asia from Syria to China. I

Paintings, Carvings and Artefacts.

.A wide variety of Christian art forms from the period of the sixth to the

fourteenth centuries were disco\,rred across the region, which comes in the

localities between Mesopc~tarnia in the west, Korea in the east and Kerala in

the South. The form and :;ymholism of the art and inscriptions show clearly

that the East Syrian church was able to express Christian truth in the art-

forms and imager): of central and east Asian culture. * Many versions of the

lotus and the cross have been discovered. Among the artefacts and

implements on which has been inscribed Christian symbolism, is a large iron

corn-measure from Tibet, decorated in blue and silver with a large East 4 Syrian Church cross. A large metal incense-burner, shaped in the form of a

large chalice, comes front Semiryechensk in the ninth to tenth centuries.

Deeply carved in relief upon i t are scenes of the Last Supper. Two silver

dishes from the eighth to tenth centuries, although found in the south and

central Ural mountains, probably originated in Semiryechensk also. 6

These sho~c, both how early Asian Christianity became rooted in the

local cultural contexts and yet maintained distinctive Christian features. They

demonstrate a freedom i n shaping content and artistic style. The study and

interpretation of Christian artifacts, recently found in the Department of

1. John. i<~~.scarches. I33 : Sc<~,.t. ;ls;o, 25

2. Klimke~r. Chrirliuil :lrl. 4''

3 . A cc~rtrill symbol ui the incer:ii~li;,n was tliu mstern cross, standing in a lotus. The cross is always empty and similar in shape to thc Maltese cross, although often embellished with serifs and pearls at the extremit~es. With the lotus beneath, the symbol therefore signifies the historical events of the Gospels within the spiritual quest, and purity, of'ilsian religiosity. The versions of lotus and cross sometimes also embellished with plant-life. clouds, an~~ni l ls or angels. But full scale paintings and frescoes were also a medium used creati\'ely thn,ughuut centrdl and eastern Asia.

4. Sack, . Uocumenrs piales 1 & 1 I

5 . Tucci. hen. Himalii,vo pioir 112

6. Sark i . i)~xumenrs, 418,428,434 : Mi,~ili., (~'hrislions Plate No.I,78ff, Fig.1 l : Dauvillier, Histoire. 14

oriental Antlquitieb. State Hermitage Museam of St. Peters burg, in particular,

promises to greatly amplib oar knowledge.

Letters

A wide range of letters. written principally in the Syriac and Arabic, are

documented from a period of more than one thousand years. Metropolitans

and Patriarchs of the East Syrian Church have written many of these to, or

with various purposes regarding the Church administration, ecclesiastical

affairs etc. The letters of the Metropolitans were required to be sent to the

Patriarch at least one in three to six years although references to them appear

in chronicles and other documents. The great majority of them are devoted to

administrative or doctrinal matters. There are other letters written by Patriarchs

such as Timothy I, in response to reports or requests from bishops in such

places as Turkestan. India and China. Other correspondence, comes from the

Franciscan n~issionartes travelling in Cathay. John of Montecorvino, who was

in Mongolia and China 1291-1323, wrote from Khanbaliq, of the establishment

of congregations and choirs. of work in translation and church building, and

pleads for more colleagues. I

Thc eLidences have t~een collected by scholars and travellers over many

centuries and subjected to cnrcful study especially since the work of Assemani

in the eighteenth century. Much of the new evidence now available is in the

work of the Syriac and Arabic scholars, specialists in medieval church history,

or of historians studying the early trade routes linking west Asia and east by

land or sea.After discussing many technical and critical problems involved in

the study oi'the Asian history. John England states that :-

. . . . . . . . and drawing upon tlie range of evidence now available to us, it is possible to outline the presence of the Christian communities from Syria in the west to Japan in the north -- east and as far as Java in the south - east by the first half of the eighth century.. . . . . . 2

I Young, Pairiorcll. 141-153 : M 11gl11. 1.i1~~rilizti.c. 168. 276,257 : Moule, Christians, 166-216

? John ,Res ror ih i~~ . 131

T h e account of Cosmos lndicopleustes

The earliest apparently eyewitness accounts of the Christian

communities in south-east Asia, are those of Cosmos Indicoplcustes. Cosmos

Indicopleustes speaks of the Christian communities in Socotora, India, Ceylon,

Pegu (Burma), Cochin-Cliina (southern Vietnam), Siarn and Tonquin (northern

Vietnamj ' . Cosmos observes:-

'This is a large oceanic island lying in the Indian sea. By, the Indians it is called Sieledibe, but by the Greeks Taprobane, and therein is found the hyacinth stone. It lies on the other side of the pepper country. Around it are numerous small islands all having fresh water and cocoanut trees. They nearly all have deep water close up to their shores. The great island, as the natives report, has a length of three hundred gaudia, that is, of nine hundred miles, and it is of the like extent in breadth. There are two kings in the island, and ihey are at feud the one with the other. The one has the hyacinth country, and the other the rest of the country where the harbour is, and the centre of trade. It is a great mart for the people in those parts. The island has also a church of Persian Christians who have settled there, and a Presbyter who is appointed from Persia, and a Deacon and a complete ecclesiastical ritual. But the natives and their kings are heathens. In this island they have many temples,and on one, which stands on an eminence, there is a hyacinth as large as a great pine-cone, fiery red, and when seen flashing from a distance, especially if the sun's rays are playing round it, a matchless sight. The island, being as it is, in central position, is much frequented by ships from all parts of India and from Persia and Ethiopia, and it likewise scnds out many of its own.. . . 7 2

1 I t is b c l ~ r ~ r d tnat Liismos ails a I'ersiai) (.hristian. it is understandable if his main interest was in the Perslan Christian c(irnrnunit>cs of all placcs which he mentioned in his book. Moreover, he did not personall? visit 01' the placcs he rnentionrd in his book. He did not make any claim to have made a completc survey of [he Christianity in those places. He also states :' "I do not know whether there be any Christians in thc parts bcyorid it '

Ceylon lhas bet:n known by Inany names. 111 Sanskrit works i t is called Lanka. Megasthenes, (300 B.C)., calls i t I aprobaneli is regarded as a transliteration of 'l'amraparni, copper-coloured leaf, a name given to tlic island b:i its Indian conqueror. Vilayarhis name i s found in its Pali form, Tambaparni, in Asoka's inscription on the girnar rock. Some arc, however, o f opinion that Taprobane is a slightly-altered form of Dwipa-Ravana (Island uC Ravana) a h the country was called by Brahmanical writers. From the Periplus and Ptolerny we learn that Faprobane was anciently called Simoundou, but in his own time, salike, ie . the country of the Salai. I-lure we have in a slightly-altered form the Siele-diva o f Cosmos, for diva i s but a form o f dwlpa, the Sanskrit for island. Both salai and siele have their common source in sihalam (pronounced as Silam) the Pali form o f the Sankrit sinhala, a lion. To the same source may be traced all its other iiames, such as Serci~divus, Sirlediba Serendib, zeilan, Sailan and Ceylon. As there are no l~ons in Ceylon, sinhaia ,must be takcri to mean a lion-like man- Vbaya.

: Co~mo.,. Top~~graptiy . Book 1 I I'agc 363.364

In another passage, Cosmos says :

..... even iri Taprobane, an island in further India, where the Indian sea is, there is a church of Christians, with clergy and a body of believers, but I know not whether there be any Christians in the parts beyond it.. . I

From the above observations of Cosmos, it is often assumed that in

Ceylon in the sixth century thcre were only East Syrian Christians from Persia

who settled there. But there is no indication about the indigenous Christians

there.

Though the arrival of Christianity in Ceylon is not certain, probably it

will be earlier than the sixth century as there were Christian communities in

south India from the first centuly onwards. The East Syrian influence might

have been felt in Ceylon through Persian merchants and East Syrian Church

missionaries or perhaps through the St. Thomas Christians in south India.

However, the early medieval Christian communities in Taprobane appear to

have grown because of the activity of the East Syrian Christians and the Indian

St.Thomas Christians on the marine routes between the Mediterranean and

China. Cosmos describes the Christians in Ceylon in another part of his book.

Male (Mcllabar) where the pepper grows, there is also a church and at another place called Calliana there is moreover a bishop, who is appointed from Persia . . . . . Theisland of Dioscorides (Dvipa Sukhadara (Sanskrit word) :ie, Isiund Abode of Blissj.. ... the inhabitants speak Greek, ..... there are clergy who receive their ordination in Persia and are sent on to the Island and there is also a multitude of Christians.. . .I met some of its Greek speaking people .... among the Bactrians and Huns and Persians and the rest of the Indians, . . . . . there is no limit to the number of churches with Bishops and very large communities of Christians people as well as many martyrs, and monks 3 1 s ~ living as hermits.. ... 2

A series of inscripaons crosses and coins record and contemporary

accounts reveal the presence of Christians from both the north-central and later -- -- - - . . --

I . Cosmui. I'rii,ographr. Rook I I . l'dgc 365

2 . This pdssagc clearly indicates that thc popuiat~on and intermixture of foreigners Arabs, Indians, and even Greeks who were enpged in commercc.' Here the presence offhe foreign Christian high officers at the service of Sinhala k~ngs from 473-508AD i s also mentioned.

: Cosmos, 7opogrtaphy. Book N 0 : 3 I 18- 120

south western kingdoms. East Syrian Christian crosses have been found in

several places such as :inuradhapura. Kotte (east of Colombo) and

Gintumpitya. I

Anuradhapura: A Centre of Christianity in Ceylon

Anuradhapura, in North Central Kingdom, which held authority over

other k~ngdoms of the island, uds [he capita! of the north-central kingdom

from the second centur! HC to the eleventh century AD. It was also an

important ~nternational centre for pilgrimage, trade and creative arts. Along

with Greek and Tami! traders, there was also by the fifth century, a colony of

Persian merchants in the c ~ t y In the city itself, there were palaces, temples 2 - . and monasteries. rhere were a number of references to the Christian presence

international religious contacts and for trade with India and Persia during this

time at Anuradhapura.

An East Syrian Church ('Persian') cross of floriated design on a three-

step base, remarkably similar to those found in India, was also seen in

~nuradha~ura . ' Abu Zayti Hassan, who was a geographer from Bassora - Basra (9 i 1 AD), referred to Anuradhapura and Pollonarva, as centres for

religious rolerance irrespective (11 the Jews and other sects. In 1154 the Muslim

Geographer Idrisi wrote of the Sinhalese King presiding Aghna, among whose

I . Marco 1'010 quotes that Ahulfeda, t i le historian, says the people were East Syrian Christians . Sir H Yule the scholar says that this passagc shows some indications to point to the connection o f the Islands Christiar~iry with Synan Chrlstla~is and Abyssinian church.

: The Rook ol'Sir Marco P i~ lo Vol2,pi; 101-402.

3 . The Mahavira monaster). whlch had bccn tbunded in the third century B.C. b e m e the center for l'hcravada Buddhism in CcylonThere were also lakes and gardens, hospitals, cemeteries, markets and suburbs for workers lr was in addition an important international center with widespread rclatioos: in lradc with Grcecc and I'crsia, India and Burma. There were art forms related with Huddhism ;md Christian~t? at Jam. i'clebes, Tonking and Thailand Burma,. India, Cambodia, Siam and C'hlna.

4 1:ur example at Kottaya~n. licrala. S InJla, dated lo the eighth century and to those from the period fioirl the sixth to tenth crntbi~es, foiul:! In Mosul, Persia, Chang-an, China and i n Tibet and Armenia. I'lalc ?

ministers were four representing each of the major religious communities,

Buddhist. Christian, Muslim and ~ewish.' There are many historians who

testify to the Christian presence in Ceylon. * It is most probable that as in

southern India :d that time, the thought and practice of churches in Taprobane

were almost wholly dependent on the traditions and texts of the Persian

~ h u r c h . ~ Presence of Eastern Christianity in Burma - Siam - Annam

References to early Christianity in Southeast Asia, in Burma, Thailand,

the kingdoms of the CambodidVietnam peninsula, Java and the Philippines - are even less verifiable The traders from Persia, China and India were very

active in South East Asia during this period and we cannot rule out the

possibilities of some Christcan presence among them. 4

Burma was temporarily conquered by the Mongol armies of Kublai

Khan in 1277AD and 1283 AD. as vividly described by Marco Polo, and the city

of Pegu northeast of present-day Iiangoon was sometimes referred to, late in

the fifteenth century as a Christian centre. A few years later another traveller,

Louis of Varthema claimed that he found a thousand Christians in the service

of the king in ~ e g u . ~ There were Indians and west Asians in Tenasserim, in

Charnpa and Tonking since the fourth century. There is evidence to show that

Christians were present irl Siam from the 1 l'h to the 15Ih centuries. Moffett

mentions the presence of Christians in Siam in the 6" century while referring

to the travelling companions of Varthema based on ancient documents.

HIS (Varthzma's) ~iavelling companions, the Nestorian merchants, were from the capital of Siam (Sornau), he says. Two northern Thai kingdoms,

~ -- ~

I . John , i l i i r o ~ . 9.1

2. Desilv;!. H ~ s l n v 43. 46.86 : ( 'udi- in~ron Ceylon. 48 : Arasaratnam,Ceylon, 52

: Q u e r c ('hrisrcanin 133, 137.1,44 : Butler. lconugruphy , 83-9Sf :Somaratne , PrePortugese, 144-155

3. Harve). Hurma, 48

4. Phblip, Euphrates. I57

5. Mofk t~ . Histury, 400

Changrnai and Sukhotai had become dependencies of the Mongol empire in 1294 AD. About 1350AD a powerful new kingdom was founded further south at Ahudaya just north of present day Bangokok. It welcomed traders from China and Persia, some of them perhaps Nestorian, like those whom Varthema met a hundred and fifty years later. But there is no record of Christian churches there. I

In the Kyanzitha Unin log4 AD, one fresco depicts the cross in the

midst of'eight peta!s of the lotus. I'he style is close to that found in west China

and is agreed to belong to the period eleventh to thirteenth centuries. A fresco

resembling the 'Last Supper' in the Kubyaukyi Temple at Myinkaba also

shows strong Christian influence in the composition and hairstyle of the

figures2

These are evidences of Christian artists at Anawrahta where Indian

Christians had previously ~ e t t i e d . ~ The presence of Christians in the kingdom

of Malea (North Burma) in the ninth century is recorded along with other

south Asia centres. It shoulci be remembered also that Marco Polo discovered

the East Syrian Christians arnong the Shans when the Mongol armies entered

Burma in 1152. Pegu in Burma was a trading centre on Arab trade routes until

the fifteenth century and ~ccording to Cosmas there were Christians there in

the sixth century. lLlarco Polo in 1278 found East Syrian Christians in the

Chinese province of Yun-an which borders on Burma. According to Marco

Polo, Kublai Khan temporarily conquered Burma in 1277 and 1283'

I. Moffett. Hisiory, 46l.quoted from Schcffer. Lrs Voyuges de Ludovic de Varrhema (1502-1508 AD) : Western historians often refers Eas~ Syrian Christians as Nestorians inadverantaly. I t is to be noted that

East S)rlan Church was divided into two 8s a result ofthe Nestorian Controversy.

3 . Win, Biii-nirir. ! I

4 Vine, C ' l~~~r , , i~w .~ , 1>7

j Marco I'olo tc!Is th,: s ~ o r y of Ltiii,,ii:<, di Vtirtlicirra, a L!o!ognesc, while traveling in Southeast Asia in 1503 or I501 ;AD nict in Uenga! i un rc !:>st Syrlail Church merchants from Ayutia(Siam). They later contacted him at Pegu \+here thrrc wcrz some ' hundreds o f Christian in the King's service.

: Cordier. Cnlhv. V o l !. 124 : \!nard L q l I I ?

: Colles . Padr . 4 :I21 quoted from Wmg Gung Nankai, 1-135, 99-104

East Syrian Christun presence in Tibet

Towards the end of the eighth century, the East Syrian Church Patriarch

Mar Timothy-I (779-823 AD) in his letter to the Monks of Mar Maron

concerning the addition of the formula Cruczfucus es pro nobis (Crucified for

us) to the trisagion wrote, 'And also in the countries of Babylon of Persia, and

Assyria, and in all the countries of the sun rise, that is to say - among the

Indians, the Chinese. the Tibetans. the Turks, and in all the provinces under the

jurisdiction of this Patriarchal see. there is no addition of Crucifiwus es

pronobis '. In another of hi.. letter, Patriarch Timothy mentioned that he was

about to consecrate a metropolitan for ~ i b e t . ' According to A.S.Atiya, the

existence ot' a relic of East Syrian Christianity in Tibet is the survival of its

ritual in a debased fbrm in the Lamaism of Tibet. The striking resemblances

with Lamaist Monasticisnl. the use of holy water, incense and vestments of a

similar character to East Syr~an Church practices, must be traced to the days of

the East Syrian Church missionary in the high middle ages.

Malaya Peninsula references to Episcopal See

By the end of the iifteenth century there were many references to

Persian merchants at Malacc~. This is the ancient port near Trang, probably at

present day Kedah, :I major port of the Peninsula. Indian and Persian traders

were active there frorn the third century and by the thirteenth century it was the

most important Malaya trading centre for both Arabs and Persians. Other

maritime centres for Persian trade are now known on both the west and the

east coasts ofthe Malay Peninsula.

-.

I . Mingana, ta r l y Spreiij /Cenlriill. 466

2. Atya, ( 'hr:il ianiri. 20;

3 . The scvcnlh century Huddhist ptlgr~rn I - h n g )net in Kcdah a Hu, and this term most oflen reCers to Iranian or Sogdiarl merchants or monks.

4. By the end <, f the fifteenth cenlur! thsre are many references to Persian merchants at Malacca, and also Christian Armenians Tome Pircs for example records (1512 AD), the presence in Malacca of Turkish and h i e n t a n tratles people who were of Chrirtian birth.

: Conesao. 7 ; m e fires. Vol.1, 22

The Malaya Peninsula also offers a number of records which amplify

the brief references to Episcopal sees like Kalah. According to the East Syrian

Church ecclesiastical texts, lshoyab 111, the East Syrian Church Patriarch (650-

660 AD), refers in a letter to the interruption of Episcopal succession in 'the

India that extends.. t o the country which is called ~ a l a h ' . ' In the early 171h

century, a small. subterranean building was discovered, identified as a pre-

Roman Catholic hermitage or oratory, and having a copper cross set on a

marble square. *

The evidence for Christian community a t Dabag (Java - South Sumatra)

The evidence for Christian presence at Dabag comes from an Arabic

work of the Annenian Ahu Salih. the traveller of the 7~ century who found

East Syrian Churches, one named .4jer Our Lady at Fansur. In the seventh

century, there were man) centres of the East Syrian Christian activities in

Central, East. and South-East Asia. Palembang and Jambi, which were also

flourishing centres of Buddhist activity. There were Persian merchants and

missionaries of Syrian Christianity who were prominent in this period. There

was an East Syrian Church metropolitan at Dabag, which was ranked fifteenth

within the Patriarch's jurisdiction. Important evidences for this includes the

references by Abdisho (13 18AD) in his Rules of Ecclesiastical Judgements to

the Metropolitan of the isles of the sea.. .. Dabag, Sin and Masin. 5

I Exhaustic ~ l u d y of early Arabic texts. Kalah has been located on the coast of west Malaya north of the island ol'Langkaw~, where there havc been accounts of East Syrian Church Christians from 650.

: Colless trade. M i s s i o n a ~ , Vol 2. 105

2. I t was rrportcd by Eredia. a Port<igucse chronicler, although here again the cross itselfhas been lost Dauvillieri . 'Les pravlnccs chi!ldceiiss de I cxtcrieur au Moyen Age', 315.

3. Fansur has now been idzntified w~llt Baroes ( I . < Uarus) in west Sumatra near the port of Sibolga. Much later Abu Salih tells us of similar ,:hurches he visited there.

: Muskens. /rid-onesio, 38. : 4bii Salih, Egypt. 300. : Hambye, Documenration. 97-101

4 Hall, Suurh i a s r Aszu. J8

5 Dauvill~er J Les prov~nces chaldeencs de I exterleur au Moyen Age', 315 Quoted in John History, 97

Giovanni de Marignolli of Florence, visited Java on his return from

China in ( 1 347AD). and reported finding Christians at Majapahit, East Java,

and at Palembang, south sumatrat Of the three bishops ordained by the

Patriarch Elias - V ( I 503AD), and whom he sent to 'India, and the isles of the

sea between Dabag. Sin ( ie . China) and Masin (i.e. India)', one seems to have

had responsibility fix Dabag (Strivi,jaya) and was termed metropolitan by

some historian^.^ It is reported that there are many such appointments

recorded, and believed that the bishops both reached and worked in the areas

designated, which fit in with other fragments of evidence.

According to the writings of Chou Ch'u-fei, Marco Polo, and Tome

Pries Lambri. the northern tip of Sumatra was a prominent centre of Persian

and Chinese trade by at ieast the twelth century. Once again the evidence

suggests that Persian Christians were active here.4 Sources so far available,

therefore suggest that the churches of Sumatra and Java, like those of Ceylon,

Burma, Siam and the Malay Peninsula at that time grew from the work and

witness of resident foreign traders such as Persian, Arab, and Indian, who were

sometimes assisted by visiting missionaries, but often having their own clergy.

They were sometimes closely associated with, and always dependent

upon, the tavour of the rulers of each territory, yet maintained at least

occasional correspondence with the Patriarch at Seleucia-Ctesiphon. In these

respects their experience was closely similar to that of the Indian churches and

there is little doubt that wiih them the East Syrian Christians in south east Asia

drew the Syriac scriptures and liturgies. and the writings of such Eastern

fathers as Tatian, Ephrem. Aphrahat, Barsumas, Mar Babai, Barhebraeus and

Abdishu.

I . Colless, Paders, Vol.lll.7

2 Colless, Poders, Vo1.111.6

3 . John, Hislorv. 98

4. Colless, ?rodeis, Vol.llI.3

Further research is needed in order to fill out this incomplete picture of

Christian communities in the region. In particular the remains in Ceylon and

Burma, and the witness of travelers for Siam and Java, offer tantalizing

glimpses of Christian presence, which take the story beyond mere speculation.

We cannot yet estimate, however, how many communities in the region

maintained Christian practice, nor for what periods did these churches of

which we know exist. Archeo!ogical, epigraphical and textual research, which

might amplify this history, has barely begun.

The Missionary Activities At North - East Asia

From China Christianity came to East Asia which included Korea and

the ancient kingdoms of Koguryo. Paekche and Silla. They had been

increasingly influenced by Chinese culture from the third century onwards and

received Buddhism from there in the fourth century. In the fifth and sixth

century Paekche and Silla were instrumental in introducing these influences in

creative Korean forms to the emerging Japanese state.' By the seventh century

a flow of teachers, students, novices and monks from Japan to China and back,

often following long periods of study, brought back books and knowledge

from China's diverse religious and political traditions.' The trade routes of the

'Silk Road' are also known to have reached Korea, Japan and Russia by this

time. Against this background it is from China, in particular from Chang-an

during the Tang Dynasty, that Christianity also first came to Korea and Japan.

I . Silla's foreign trade had lnrreased steadily in the sixth and seventh centuries, the bulk of it being with China. By then also Buddhist monks often studicd in China, to return laden with books. Many scholars and officials obtalncd their education in China, and Silla adopted Chinese language institutions, and Confucl;~o :rcholarship. These trends continued in the United Silla Kingdom of eighrh century, which inc!uded Koguryo and Paekche, with Buddhism becoming the predominant religion. Intercourse berween Japan and Korea had grown rapidly from the fourth century with Korean exports far out\rc~ghing imports in both trade and in the flow of cultural artifacts and ~nflucnce. Entire comrn~~nities of Koreans settled then in Japan, bringing literary, artistic and rechnical skills

: Hong Poekche 2-4. -'ovel, Korean Impocl.

2 Samson, Hcstori 59. 1 1 i

T h e evidence of ancient East Syr ian C o m m u n i t y in Korea

Evidence has been fhund in the Korean Chronicles Samguk Yusa and

Samguksa, for the presence of East Syrian Christianity during the united Silla

Dynasty (661-9:15).' The East Syrian Church missionaries enjoyed full

acceptance from the Khans of the Mongol Empire from 1236AD throughout

their territories, which enabled to open to the peninsula. In the fourteenth

century, when the Koryo state remained under Mongol control, Koryo crown

princes were held hostage in Khanbaliq and often forced to marry Mongol

princesses, who were East Syrian ~ h r i s t i a n s . ~

Prof: P.Y. Saeki mentions the remains of a Christian community in the

late tenth or early eleventh centur! AD which was discovered (1927AD) near

An-shan on the Liaotung Peninsula. In a large tomb, clay crosses had been

placed at the head of seven bodies. showing conclusively the existence of a

strong Christian community in the area. The Sung Chinese coins were also

found in the grave dated between 998-1006AD. This area was formerly under

the rule of Koguryo, north of the present Korean border. In the early twelfth

century a number of East Syrian Christian families are known to have

immigrated to I.iaoyang, on the Liaotung Peninsula, from Titao and Lintao

(west of ~ i a n ) . '

With regard to Korea there are differences of opinion mong the

historians as to the time when Christianity came to Korea. Historians like

Yoon Tae and John England find evidences in Korean Chronicles for the

presence of East Syrian Christianity during the Silla and Koryo dynasties, in

the seventh to the ninth centuries. According to S.H. Moffett,

The question remains, was Ansharl in Korea or Manchuria at the beginning of the tenth centurq ? In the seventh century the Liaotung Peninsula was Korean. But by about 1000. the apparent date of the burial, the Korean

I On Y a o ~ r H ~ S I O ~ L '242-290

2. Grouseti Rene. 3O!lt: 706 : Grai , Religion, 122 : Gordon, DiscoveriesV (1): 1-39

3 . Saekl . l lncumsnl~ 440

border had been pushed south to the Yalu, and a Manchurian tribe, the liao (or Chitan I,~ao), had taken that part of the north east from the Chinese Sung emperor. All we can say with certainty, therefore, is that as early as 1000 there were Nestorian Christians in what had not long before been Korean territory ' '

Other materlal remains which were discovered and identified as East Syrian

Christian relics aid are now held in the Christian Museum of Soongsil

University. Seoul !n Kqung Ju. capital of the United Silla Dynasty (661-

935AD).They include a stone cross. a statue of the Virgin Mary, number of

seals, and crystal chalices2.

In the Korean territory at Kyungju, the ancient capital of unified Korea,

the historian Kim Yang-Sun discovered what appears to be a stone cross used

by Buddhist monks at Pusoksa, Korea's most famous temple, as a charm to aid

in child birth. It is now kept in the Christian museum of Soomgsil University

in Seoul. Moffett says that there is no way to date it or even to determine

whether it is indeed an ancient Christian cross. It is possible that Christianity

existed in Korea at least from the tenth century. There are the representations

of a flabellum and the offering of incense in a form that echoes liturgical

practice of the East Syrian Christian rather than in Buddhist ceremony.3 In the

southwest of Korea (formerly Bagje or Paekche) a cave has been discovered

which is patterned as a Syrian cave-church. Inside, sixteen stone plaques on

the walls reflect Syrian C'hristian scenes rather than Korean or Buddhist

images.4

2 Korcan ('hristian htuscum 31 Soongsil i!n~vrrsity Seoul. Soongsil University. 1988,90f : Also in this museum are a number of hrunze mirrors engraved with symbols of the fish and the

grapcvrnr, norably Christian symbols. from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. The grotto shrine of Sokkaram, or1 the summit of Mount l u h m above Pulguk-sa Temple (near Kyung Ju), includes among the figures carved in relief, two of women, one with a flagon, and the other, who is crowned, presenting a cup to a worshippcr in a mariner unknown to Buddhism.

3. Gordon , Discoveries ,l7ff

4. Holdcrdli , In ro.41i . 80 : But an accurate dating for these has not hcen made. Much research is still to be done on other sources.

Although the evidence so far assembled for southeast or northeast Asia

is in some cases more fragmentary than for central or south Asian localities, or

draws on traditiona! rather than 'scholarly' sources, the items and forms of the

evidence available are too numerous and varied to be easily discounted. They

demonstrate that the Christian movement, through the far-extended and diverse

mission of the E:ast Syrian Church. was known in most lands of the southeast

and northeast regions by the eighth century, whatever the duration or strength

of this presence might have been in particular localities. In some areas the

evidence suggests that it was to continue until the sixteenth century, when the

members of the Roman Catholic orders arrived.

The Christian Church in Japan

There are several historians, like P.Y.Saeki, who claim that Christianity

first came to Japan and Korea from China during the T'ang period. According

to Saeki, the East Syrian Christians had no small share in the creation of the

golden age of China and through China these same western influences passed

on to Japan He argues that the Japanese were consciously or unconsciously,

directly or indirectly, much ~nfluenced by the East Syrian Christians and

received Christian thought 111 Chinese garb during T'ang period'.

It was not until the invasion of Japan by Kublai Khan (1268-1281 AD)

that Japan began to assert her spiritual and material independence. John

England seems to suggest that Christianity came to Japan by the end of the

sixth or the beginning of the seventh century. He writes, 'regarding Japan, the

Seventeen Articr'es of injunction o f the Regent Prince Shotoku (574-622AD)

apparently include a grant 1.0 the Nestorians (East Syrian Christians) of 'full

liberty and personal rights'. Festivals. which have persisted over the centuries,

are also cited for their Christian references. and incised crosses and tombs have

been found in the north west Japan from the Nara or early Heian periods

(seventh to eleventh centuries). ' ~

I~ Sarki, . l~onumeni. 112

2 Ihid, 62 : Aprem. ,llissions. 77. Young China ,19.

214

The Christian Community at Nara and Kyoto

Reconstructing the story of Christian presence in these cities of central

Japan, there are records, from the seventh century of churches at Nara and

Kadona near Kyoto. Nara was from 710-794 the imperial capital of a

centralized, bureaucratic state on the Chinese model, although Shotoku's

political reforms preceded this in the 7th century, when many of his religious

and social foundations were already sited at Nara. From 794, Kyoto became the

capital until 1598. Nara (and later Kyoto) was also the eastern terminus for the

'Silk Road' trade routes across Asia, and extensive collections of artifacts from

the west, the central and east Asia are still held in such repositories as the

Shoso-in Museurn and the Horyu-ji (Temple).

There are also carvings from the seventh century of the Maitreya (the

Coming Buddha), which have striking similarities to the Dunhuang painting of

'Le Bon Pasteur' (and also to Orthodox icons of the sixth and seventh

centuries.) In addition, the old temple of Horyu-ji at Nara had two beams,

dating from the late seventh century, now held in Tokyo Museum, which have

crosses and verses inscribed in a language closely similar to Syriac.

There is a ninth century manuscript entitled The Lord of the Universe

Discourse on Alrns giving at Nishi-llonganji in ~ ~ o t o . ' It is not known how

the document came to Nishi Hongan-ji, whether through Kobo Daishi or

through the activity of the Christian teachers. It has however been valued and

carefully preserved in Kyoro ii)r almost twelve centuries. 2

Imper~al envoys to the Tang court were no longer sent after 894AD and

little evidence is available ibr Christian activity in the following Heian period.

It is likely that Christian cc:mmunities in Japan, at the eastern extremity of

1. The Lord ol rhe Unrver,e's Discoiirse on :lim.s-y~vmg, is based on the Sermon on the Mount and other Matthacan passages. This is one ofthe A-lo-pen documents frum Dunhuang. Kobo Daishi, founder of this Shingon temple is known tu have visited Chang-an in China, where Nestorian Christians were active, prior to 806

2 Stewart. M,.s.sionuv I<,irrrprrsei . 88

communications with Persia, were particularly vulnerable to the disruptions in

trade and civil life which periodically overwhelmed the peoples and nations

through which the .Silk Koad' as in China, passed. It seems, however, that at

least for a period, Christian communities in Japan, received imperial approval,

and that thelr acthities included the works of medicine, social service and the

arts. Though the evidences of the presence of the early Syrian Christianity in

Japan before the coming of the \\eslern missionaries, are fragmentary and in

several cases not convincing, the possibility of the Christian influence in Japan

through Chlna needs to be seriously considered. The same could also be true

of Korea.

Conclusion

The evidences of the East Syrian Christian presence in different parts of the

South East and East Asia are very scanty and fragmentary. But there are

sufficient evidences to show that Christianity was present in a number of

countries in South East and East Asia. There is no doubt about Christian

presence in Ceylon, Burma, Tibet, Indonesia and Korea before the arrival of

the western missionaries. We do not know the number of Christians in these

various countries. It coultl probably be very small. Assemani says that in the

thirteenth century, there were twenty-five Nestorian metropolitan provinces,

with an average of eight to ten Episcopal sees for each province, thus totally

about 200 to 250 bishoprics. Some of these bishoprics were in the South East

and East .4sia, South-East. Asia, North-East Asia and South Asia.

The coincidence of the opening of trade routes into further Asia with the

ascendancy of the East Syrian church, offered a ready outlet for missionary

effort. The East Syrian. Christians, especially Persian, Indian and Chinese

missionaries and trader:;. who ,were strongly influenced by missionary

motivation, seized this opportunity in different parts of Asia before the arrival

of the western missionaries.