Epistle #12 breaks off, at least as of 1904 it did; and there's probably at least one other epistle between #12-13, which we ain't got at all. Indeed Scott-Moncrieff did not offer us any of #12. We must remember that S-M relied upon two copies, which Budge made of a MS floating around Mosul in the late AD 1800s.
S-M did summarise #11 however (as "X"). That sorrow to which #12 is referring is likely the passing of Izla's former abbot, none other than the great Mar Babay.
If #11 is anno superiore to #12 then we must stick intervening #15 into some months c. AD 629, about when Shiroë was shah or (more likely) Ardashir III.
What we do got in Duval's one MS is another witness to Isho'yahb's Kokha sojourn of #15. Bcheiry Table Two implies that the man is still down there. It is true that Isho'yahb has made some friends at court and, also, that he has tried to make himself useful. But Scott-Moncrieff said nothing of this - and I tend to agree. That the ex-bishop "hoped" to be useful agrees with #15 inasmuch as it floats "anywhere"... but #12 implies that the pope found him of most use elsewhere. In addition, if Isho'yahb is now working with Seleucia, why does he even care what those northern hillbillies think anymore.
The best solution is that the pope gave our man that one last chance to prove himself - back home, at Nineveh.
FIEY 4/15/23: E. XII is discussed ch. III, p. 320 in French.
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