A cheaper catalyst

If you don't mind your electric-car, or really any car, looted for its platinum, by all means read elsewhere. For those of us trying to get by here is a catalyst without need of precious metal.

The article focuses on hydrogen but I am fairly sure this catalyst should work elsewhere we have a stubborn fuel and a weak oxidiser. Like ammonia-borane on the former side. I mean, when going into space we'd rather not schlep a catalyst at all, but: consider cleaner fuels that simply move the car around. Even an aeroplane.

The Fatimists pray at the Russias again

This blog refuses the Fátima visions as a contravention of the Assumption of Mary, therefore outside the Church. Among its own assumptions, if you will, is the notion that the Church can "consecrate" a nonCatholic nation that didn't ask for it in advance. That is nothing more or less than placing an enemy under the herem. This is an act fit for the Fourth Crusade, anathema to Christians.

So as I read this foul act of arrogance, I (literally) fear for the souls of the Church. The sheer presumption is all the more jarring in that it starts with an admission of guilt; making the reader wonder, what grounds have we for placing herem upon others. I think, though, we might salvage some reconciliation, if we stick with the Confession. If the bishops diagnose the symptoms, by name, they might be able to prescribe a remedy.

So let us read what the bishops have offered:

Yet we have strayed from that path of peace. We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young. We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns.

We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons. We stopped being our neighbor’s keepers and stewards of our common home. We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war, and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters. We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves. Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!

As noted, Russia is the outsider from a Latin (and much Orthodox) perspective. "We" cannot apply to a "them". That Mary is "queen of the rosary" further cements this in the Latin tradition, given the Greeks' employment of a different rosary entirely. Thus at stake is our conduct: greed and inattention. And aggression: expanding NATO, even unto Catholic Poland, without also bringing Russia into NATO, was an aggression.

Did the bishops ever speak out against insulting and exploiting post-Cold-War Russia? Did they show anything other than condescension to these "wayward brothers of our Faith"? I don't recall it. And the bishops don't admit it. So they have not offered a good Confession.

The "act of consecration" starts with a hollow confession of vague guilt and goes on to insult the Russians some more. It is worthless and the best we may all pray for is that our Lady does not hear it.

A metropolis without a metropolitan

I am not the only reader of Ishoʿyahb's 52 pre-metropolitan epistles who has noticed none of them (0) ever refers to his boss. He'll write to Cyriacos of Nisibin and to Gabriel of Bet-Garmay. He'll write to the lead churchmen of Arbela; he'll go over everyone's head to Catholicos Ishoʿyahb II. But he'll never talk to the metropolitan of Hidyab - where he, himself, will rule.

We know that Arbela did have metropole status and that it ran Hidyab, before these letters as well as after. Jean Maurice Fiey's diptychs (Assyrie chrétienne, 56) recall one Paul whom Thomas of Marga sends to Boran's embassy. Paul, er, doesn't seem to come back.

Enter Fiey, again. Fiey, whose preferred language was French, wasn't biased to E Wallis Budge's English and had further access to Syriac and Arabic. This led Fiey to Abboula's edition and translation of Thomas of Marga. Fiey also went back to the Syriac for Ishoʿyahb's letters, especially #40.

Per Fiey, Arbela had Makkīka (pronounced "Makkīḫa") for its archbishop - an Unausprechlicher Name for Ishoʿyahb. Fiey further sees Makkīka in #25's worm at "the head of the community" and in the Judas who came to Nineveh, and in the deceiver of M#23.

I'd love to believe this. But the one spot of evidence - the one footnote - is negative. Makkīka is not in the diptychs: note the bracketing in Assyrie chrétienne. So... where is he? Siʿrt?

Chinese archaeologism fails at Tibet

Kevin McSpadden based in South China delivers the CCP line on that country's archaeology. I call shenanigans that McSpadden has done any actual journalism.

McSpadden doesn't always deliver so much as a competent translation. What in blue blazes does this mean:

Scans performed on an ancient Tibetan seal last year revealed that it probably belonged to the son of a princess in the Tubo Kingdom (618-842), which was a consolidation of Tibetan tribes during the Tang dynasty (618-907). / The carving on the seal says “seal of nephew Azha King”, which helped archaeologists determine that the tomb was connected to the king of Tuyuhun, a Tibetan tribe that ruled what is now modern-day Qinghai province in northwest China.

The Tubo is a kingdom... or a consolidation of tribes... one of which is called Tuyuhun... which has a king. And seal of nephew Azha King is some authentic gibberish. Best I can make from this wordsalad, Tubo was like Pourshariati's take on the Sasanian Eranshahr: a federation of dynasts. The core is Tibetan. We know from Valerie Hansen that the Tibetans wrestled the Tang over the Tanggut of Gansu; and all involved struggled with the diversity of the East Turks beyond. Pity we can't know it from McSpadden.

As for the Yangshao as one of the first Chinese societies: this sounded sus to me. This society dates 5000-3000 BC and is uphill from the Han watershed; it's dangerously close to Gansu. Wikipedia holds Laurent Sagart et al. 2019 as the last word, that Yangshao could equally be counted one of the first Tibetan societies.

I know that in China today people with names like "McSpadden" cannot antagonise their minders needlessly, but a little more effort would have been nice.

Ishoʿyahb was already bishop in AD 628

A greater problem in Fiey, he shares with others, that he trusts Thomas de Marga... like a dupe.

Interestingly Fiey knows plenty cases where Thomas, and sometimes his English translator Budge, are wrong, and tells us. If Fiey thinks Ishoʿyahb was writing before Boran's embassy to Aleppo, then we should have letters which mention that embassy - even (or especially) after the fact, to boast about it. We have no such letters and Siʿrt leaves him out. The simplest solution is that Ishoʿyahb wasn't there. Here is another spot where Thomas and/or Budge has/have erred.

Among Ishoʿyahb's pre-Boran letters, Fiey thinks some were penned from Mount "ʿAwé" (ʿAbe) before he became a bishop. Fiey's hypothesis is important to Fiey's monograph which splits these letters into two sequential chapters. I hasten to interject my personal sympathy toward this hypothesis. If Ishoʿyahb wasn't a bishop under Boran, then either it didn't occur to anybody to invite him to the embassy or else he tagged along without getting his name on the documents noted by Guidi's Khuzestan or (really) Thomas (sadly Siʿrt missed an opportunity here). But... that's my argument, half-built upon my case against Thomas. Fiey, trusting Thomas, needs a stronger argument. I do not read where Fiey provides one.

Elsewhere "Diptyques nestoriens du XIVe siecle", Analecta Bollandiana 81 (1963), 371-413; 385f. This teases Assyrie chrétienne. But... diptychs do not come with dates.

Despite my sympathy I must warn the hypothesis is under constraint. The letter #8 commemorating Yazdîn went to an abbot. Yazdîn died under Khusro II when, up to planting-season AG 939, there was yet no pope. Still. This does not mean that a mid-level monk at monastery A could just fire off a pep talk to monastery B. Bet-Garmai and Nisibin each had a Metropolitan Bishop; if we trust Thomas then so did Arbela. At least the former two will go to Aleppo together. Epistle #8 makes most sense if Ishoʿyahb is someone who matters... like a bishop.

BACKDATE 3/26

JM Fiey on "Išōʿyaw"

As we're filling the gaps over this week, I'll direct those interested in Ishoʿyahb III to Jean Maurice Fiey's multi-chapter "Išōʿyaw le Grand" spread over Orientalia Christiana Periodica 35-6 (1969-70). The Introduction and first four chapters span OCP 35, 305f; the sequel commences the next volume.

Overall Fiey's monograph as far as I've read (26 March), which is as far as the fourth chapter, is good. It's the best of the (few) dedicated monographs we have. Although I'll be picking nits as I look closer.

Orthography is always a p.i.t.a. with Semitic languages as related in Latin script. I like to think we're good on the classical Arabic, at least these days; Qâric is getting there also, thanks to al Jallad and van-Putten. Syriac remains a problem; not least because the Nestorians and West-Syrians never agreed upon a standard, themselves. I dislike seeing "Išōʿya(h)b" or "mdi(n)ta" even where the rasm marks these consonants as unpronounced. Fer cryin' out loud these MSS often come to us in nineteenth-century copies. And then we look around and see he spells a similar figure, "Ichōʿdnah". So "Išōʿyaw" here is just - pretentious. Trust us the readers to figure out begadkepat on our own. (I'll admit mine own orthography isn't consistent on this here blog but... blog.)

BACKDATE 3/26

QUIBBLES 4/29/23: I think Ishoʿyahb was already bishop AD 638. I date some of the "Metro" letters, which dealt with Marammeh going out to Elam, to the last days of Ishoʿyahb's tenure as a more-humble provincial bishop not yet in Arbela. And, after Ishoʿyahb does get to Arbela, I think Marammeh will rise to become Catholicos in what we call AD 645 not 646; I place less weight upon M#26's context than does Fiey.

HD 166620's little ice age

I've been sick as a dog the last few days so not up to posting, but - this evening being a bit better - I would raise HD 166620 to general attention. Anna C. Baum, Jason T. Wright, Jacob K. Luhn, and Howard (?.) Isaacson pored over 50 years worth of 59 main-seq dwarf stars for sunspots. Here are their results.

Table 2 runs K (goldilocks) and G (i.e. our swiftly-warming Sun), with a few Fs; hence, sun like. Also if we can see them clearly enough to make out sunspots then they're pretty close, given the term is astronomy-relative. If these stars have habitable-zone planets (I assume many do) those planets - where are Earthsize - might be Earthlike.

I should have noted that Baum at least is from Pennsylvania State. This is the employer of Dr Michael Mann and (before being reassigned) of Jerry Sandusky. Mann does climate here on Earth - involving himself in the Hockey Stick Graph, which ignored the Maunder Minimum. Mann does not like when you point out his academic shenanigans and has been known to hire lawyers.

All that runup, to note that, like Penn State's athletic department, Penn State's academic department might be (more slowly) redeeming itself, by noting that the Maunder Minimum is actually worthy of note, if a little further from home.

Origins of the Maya

... were the Chibcha. h/t Razib's twitter although Saraceni is on it too.

This paper is a bombshell for several reasons, starting with the sheer technological achievement of EXTRACTING EIGHT THOUSAND YEAR OLD DNA FROM A JUNGLE. Twenty samples no less!

The first five 9600 to 7300 years ago, 7600-5300 BC, were north-to-south migrants like all Americans. From 3600 BC come the next fifteen: they replace the natives. Modern Maya (where not mixed) own half their DNA from this group.

The Maya, then, rolled up from the south. From all the way down in Costa Rica; they're genetic Chibchan (these spread south to Colombia as well). ProtoMaya is defined by the Huastec split which last I looked happened 2000 BC - a long time between 3600 BC and 2000 BC.

Another point here is the definition of "maize". Everyone knows teosinte was cultivated in Mesoamerica. Everyone also knows the Olmec were the first civilisation and weren't Maya. I'd thought it was first used only as near-beer for purifying water (and getting people stupid). Apparently the Chibchans had improved its cultivation so it became useful as to eat as well. Edible maize comes to Mesoamerica with the first Maya. So if the Olmec had the first cities, they only got the ability to scale up thanks to the Maya they met (these probably being Huastec).

They looked at some indigenous languages from Tehuantepec down to the Panama Canal to see if this migration be traceable; mostly the Lenca and Xinca. I'd suggest Mixe-Zoque as well. I'd go hunt for any human remains in between, also, although the The Lost City of the Monkey God seems accurséd so - good luck. Did the migrants settle anywhere along the way north; or did they hold off until they found a place to grow their old crop again? Did volcanos wipe their trace?

BACKDATE 3/23. As noted earlier ("tomorrow") this wasn't a fun week. So, this goes to when the paper came out.

A natural-gas reactor next to the fission reactor

As we await ToughSF's return to blog, here's a natural-gas-to-CO₂ cycle. Dan Fernandes, Song Wang, Qiang Xu, Russel Buss, and Daniel Chen from 2019 (pdf). The key here is that its carbon can come out in liquid form, which may then be sold on. Perhaps even to a fission reactor with supercritical CO₂ - which also uses Brayton.

Earlier this blog had been mooting Appalachia as a place where coal could be used more for rare-earth separation than for the energy itself. Now it's looking like the water-poor basin between the Sierras and the Rockies could be energy-rich without (much) water. Maybe even competing with the Cascades.

BACKDATE 3/24

Bipolar eruptions

I mean the title literally. Bipolar for Jiamei Lin et al. means the tephra is seen on both poles. The study concerns a chronicle of explosions between 58-7kBC: h/t Glenn Reynolds. So: no AD 536-41 (sadly).

The Northern Hemisphere is more active. This is expected on account here's where the plates lie, with the South being represented not by much more than Chile and New Zealand. Although of course there's some spillover from the equatorial Indonesia.

Younger Dryas looks volcanic, in sum: four (4) eruptions occurred around then. This puts constraints (so improves) upon what this blog has already told you. Add this to the debunking of the Greenland crater and, yeah, we're not looking at a meteor anymore. (A meteor did hit... Chile, where it didn't affect anything north.)

CONSIDER SOURCES 3/29: The opposing pro-meteor team includes Kenneth Tankersley, who ascribes more to meteors (and to comets) than he should.

Ur-Quan for Windows 11

I'm working with the old games on Windows 11. I have DOSBox, and Visual Studio 2022 64bit (where I have sourcecode for whatever project). As usual, DOSBox stuff works great. FreeSpace 2 still works great (woot!). I have problems with the 32bit slate.

Ur-Quan Masters HD was my main project today. It ... didn't work great, or at all at first. It turns out that if your only Visual Studio is 64bit then the msvcr100.dll won't be loaded. You can download that from dll-files.com but (1) not everyone trusts dll-files.com and (2) why isn't this part of the package? Also you have to force the overall app to be Admin Mode and to run in 640x480 resolution. Oh: and no mouse.

I am told that the MegaMod is where Frungy players go, these days, for their fix.

Islam-skepticism in Germany

Inarah is a Germany-based association of scholars who write about Islam's origins. Their first and second books - Die dunklen Anfänge and Der frühe Islam - got translated into English. They've published many more Baende in German but these have not made their way into English. Unless you count Goodbye Muhammad which summarised the first two and the third before getting itself translated (badly).

The first book, I think, included a Frenchman lamenting that critical study of the Quran and of the Islamic da'wa generally has not been had in France as it has across the Atlantic, across the Channel, and across the Rhine. Susanne Schröter, now, claims such work is no longer happening across the Rhine, either. (Oder–und-Neisse, next?) In this she echoes Hamed Abdel-Samad in 2016.

Inarah's next symposium is scheduled for the Saarland 4-7 May. So, er, critical research is ongoing along the Rhine. Actually more critical than I endorse - Volker Popp will be there in sha'llah.

The concern is, then, that Germany doesn't support "Norbert Pressburg" types, who extend their research into critique against Islam in German society. Should it? - or should Germany ponder other threats?

Persian Christendom

In 2014, Matthew Payne illuminated Iran's Two Centuries Of Darkness... for the Christians in Fars. He claims that early in al-Mahdî's caliphate r. AD 775-85, one Ishoʿbokht composed a Book of Judgements. He did this in Middle Persian. This allowed the book to pull over a vast summary of Sasanian jurisprudence from two centuries earlier; and, in fact, scholars use it to explain Middle Persian concepts from the Denkard and such which even the Parsees have trouble interpreting.

Particularly marriage and inheritance were concerns of Iraqi Christendom. Mar Enoch of Seleucia may have been attempting such a ktaba in the 640s. If so we don't have it - but Catholicos George, then Hnanishoʿ, maybe Ishoʿyahb III, and breakaway Shimʿon of Rewardashir all got into the mix one way or another. Shimʿon also wrote in Persian; the present Syriac is a translation.

All this is telling me that entire courthouses had shifted to Christianity, in Persia under the Umayyads and first ʿAbbâsids. That is: not to Islam. Richard Bulliet's 1979 study somewhat-famously saw conversions to Islam only really kicking in during the ʿAbbâsî era; and we must always be mindful that the "ʿAbbâsî dawla" itself started as a revolution in religion as well, a "heresy". Buillet seems not to have been controverted except inasmuch as, concentrating on the major cities, it's too liberal for the hinterlands. Courts were held in the cities - which, for Christians, meant the cathedral cities, like Rayy and Rewardashir.

The first conquerers of Iran didn't really want converts until ʿUmar II, and even that one was something of an exception. Umayyad-era Iran was an armed frontier where, who else but dhimmis would pay the army's taxes? Zoroastrianism had a problem here: it wasn't a religion of the [Quran's] Book. Of the Christians (and Jews) meanwhile, Islam required that the locals were not anarchists; that they had a law, preferably in keeping with the Book.

Under the occupying Umayyads, and more so under their underlings who might themselves not have been particularly apt Moslems, the Arabs' legal culture encouraged conversion of uncontrollable Magians (likewise mostly not their own legal experts) toward the Bible. This was easier to Christianity than to Judaism, as today. Hence why oriental "Christian law" was just Sasanian law made Christian-compatible. As fellow Persians, these Christians who were legal experts didn't even have to translate its language.

Patricia Crone suggested in 1987 that the west-Syrians also produced a "Christian" legal-code, in their case from Roman provincial law. We don't have to follow her all the way into Islam to see her point for the Christians.

On Metropolitan Epistles 14 and 20

I'd "scanlated" metropolitan letter #14 a week ago; #20 yesterday - after rereading Bcheiry, 100-1, 101-2. Bcheiry held them as related, on which assumption I assemble them here.

These letters treat Moses and Sergius (respectively) as old friends. Moses would then be the chief-priest of bishop-free-now Nisibin; one or more Sergius is/are a recurrent name throughout those letters before Ishoʿyahb went to Arbela as metropolitan.

Ishoʿyahb's metropolitan letters #14 and #20 represent internal "pings" about whether this metropolitan in particular is happy with his pope. Given Ishoʿyahb’s history, given that Isaac hasn't taken up the seat in Nisibin, and given the general anxiety upon ʿUmar's passing - this pope will be the new one: Maremmeh winter AD 644-5 / AG 956.

Moses technically just a priest shouldn’t be privy to this gossip; but, as we know well, gossip happens, especially among Christian clerics, and Moses owns a particular interest if this pope be better than the previous one. Ishoʿyahb tells Moses of miracles ascribed to the new pope, which he does not tell Sergius. This may be because Moses is getting a later letter, implying that Ishoʿyahb had received Moses’s letter later. Or maybe Moses needs the boost.

As these things go, we may allow that Sergius’ inquiry had come with his diocese’s fiduciary collection; Moses’ not so much. Harvest season in Asorestan - what's now the Kurdestan - starts mid-May. So, let #20 be sent June and then #14 soon afterwards whilst this archbishop is still in a good mood.

FIEY 4/17/23: M. XIV is discussed ch. II as retrospect to earlier times. M. XX goes unremarked.

Ishoyahb to Mar Sergius

[Metropolitan Ishoʿyahb letter #20]

To the honored and most distinguished and devout priest, the beloved of our Lord, Mar Sergius the bishop. Ishoʿyahb of Hidyab: in our Lord, greetings.

Ungrateful, I think, to be said are those who are reputed to show themselves toward a great debt of abundance of spiritual charity with a small recompense. Therefore I myself, O lover of God, who in a short time received, possessed, and preserved the abundance of your Holiness's love, could scarcely have hitherto met with a few lines of greeting to Your Holiness during the long days, when I thought that nothing could be worthy of a fitting recompense to your Holiness’ charity. But it is good for him who has a debt and is in need, so that he always goes to meet the humble lender by greeting them.

Take, then, our brother, a small interest in your charity toward me, namely this salutation, which is the first, I think, by which I tell you that our Catholic Father is very successful in honoring the Church of God according to your prayers. We too, all delighted with the abundance of God's auxiliaries toward us, praise the providence poured out upon us with the joy of our heart. May your Holiness rejoice in the peace of the Church. Pray that we may be saved forever, according to the promise of our Lord. Pray also for my humility, that I may spend the rest of my days in life pleasing to the will of God.

Ishoyahb to Mar Moses

[Metropolitan Ishoʿyahb letter #14]

I received once on the road both hastily and with a traveler, but now at home and in the quiet I have experienced the alterations, and the letter of your Charity from a courier who is waiting for a reply. The first letter, from being first answered, the manner in which it thus came, and the defects of other mail, prevented to the other, to the present, the answer is now also in the present time itself, and at the same time also in the former.

You have written in the past about many doubtful questions and many advices to me and to the happy man with whom the business of your charity is well placed. It seems to me that you no longer labored so hard by persuasion, but persevered in being refreshed with works of charity, and your works are already works of charity; even by works faith is accomplished, as it is written, that is, charity is made perfect by its fruits. This is true for the previous letter.

But for this present letter, which provided only mentions of charity and fittingly greetings, it is fitting that it is fair to give the fruit of salvation. So be in peace, brother. Rejoice and thank God for the things that are done with us. For our Catholic father himself is whole, and his works yield successfully to the glory of God with various signs and miracles. The providence of God abundantly fosters my weakness, and now I enjoy peace in freedom much higher than the submission of time suffers and my sins deserve it. Pray, then, that our will may be accomplished by the will of God. Be healthy and the Lord help you.

The WTF molecules of helium

Hat-tip to Pixy Misa, here is a helium atom with an antiproton in its electron-shell. What the...

First I had to figure out what this monster even is. If you run an antiproton at a proton they both go boom. Helium has two protons, with a neutron or two sealing them together. But apparently the He-4 nucleus doesn't get mutually exploded when it meets an antiproton; these two agree to behave like Hadrian and Antinous, with the helium simply trapping the antiproton into its lower "orbit". The outer shell remains an electron as usual. UPDATE 4/1: So, like muonic helium, but longer-lived. Chemical pseudohydrogen.

Contrast hypertriton, where some exotic is in the nucleus itself; this one is in the shell.

But this chimaerical atom(?) is not the discovery. Anna Sótér, and others like Masaki Hori, have been working with this since 2013. The discovery is the spectroscopy - the wavelength of light (i.e. colour) that gets emitted when that outer electron is pushed to the next higher state, and then snaps back in again. In a gas the atoms don't do this all at once, smudging the colour. Usually they need as few helium atoms as possible. Sótér says that she's picked out a near-perfect spectrum from a hybrid in a superfluid bath of normal He-4 at 2.2 K.

The researchers couldn't believe any of the above either, only publishing yesterday after years of re-checking.

Hori and Sótér (in that order), with most the same team, have already pushed pions (easy enough to make) into these shells (again: around their nuclei). Kaons are next. We're told that all this work can constrain fundamental constants better.

USE 3/12/22: Rockets.

Isa the Redeemer in Safaitic

Ahmad al-Jallad has found an inscription in common Safaitic, next to a cluster of fine Safaitic. Here one Wahbel bin Gyz bin (etc.), who had married into that cluster's clan, made his mark. Where other contemporary Arabs might invoke for their aid Allat or (like Wahbel's dad) El, Wahbel asks aid from one "ʿsy". Against those who deny (kfr) Thee.

This is new in Safaitic - not just ʿsy, but the concern against kufr. The Qurân which Juan Cole has read doesn't quite use kafara as the verb for disbelief with bare object, preferring kafara bi- in parallel with amana bi-. Al-Jallad sees a Qâric parallel with "Syriac"; although Marijn van Putten might prefer extending this to Aramaic in general, starting with Nabati. Anyway noncanon protoclassical Arabic texts do omit the bi-; most dramatically Ubay's sura.

The next time we see an ʿsy venerated nearly as highly, as al-Jallad notes, is the sura 3/10 complex. These suwar and beyond write it ʿÎsey, now the famous ʿÎsâ - it's Jesus, but as a mortal this time. I do not see this name in suwar 17, 30, 47 &c. Wahbel's graffito proves that the Qurân did not simply make this name up, midstream.

Given the concerns new to the Safaitic mind which this author brought to ʿsy, al-Jallad argues that this name was ʿÎsey then too.

We still have the problem of why not, er, Îshôʿ like the Nestorians - or Yashûʿ like other Aramaeans, or like the Melkite Arabs for that matter. Now we know this was not the Prophet's problem. One old theory was that the qurrâ introduced a deliberate metathesis so as not to sully the Divine Name; but this never worked for sura 3, arguing against exactly that. It might, by contrast, work for Wahbel bin Gyz.

Al-Jallad sees, further, an old calque for "redeemer" like good ol' Syriac paroqa. Although: Wahbel spoke a ha- Arabic; so, why this is not *ha-ʿÎsey, like "al-Farûq" in a later time for a later Divine hero, I know not.

On treacherous grounds

Professor Peter Woit affects a disinterested We're Only Here For The SCIENCE tone but nobody who reads him should believe him. In his comments he won't let you disbelieve his premises, as happened when he accused Assange of being in league with THE RUSSIANS. Lately he's signed on with the Russian boycott - problematic enough - where he again controls the matrix: I don’t want to host a general political discussion here, especially not with the all too many people I’ve heard from who don’t have a problem with burying liberal democracy.

So when Woit's next post contrasted Charles Hoskinson with Michael Harris, I had a dark feeling that Harris was going to bear his own little issues. Over on Harris' Substack - yeah, he's fluent in Newspeak. A more interesting post, on the face of it, was the apologia for Ned Ludd. Except for this: no one seems to be talking about what will be done about all the people — including mathematicians — whom technology will make superfluous.

I scented the stench of Baby Boom-Boom here so looked it up and, oh yeah - Harris was born 1954. He hasn't read or watched Palahniuk's Fight Club. Someone born 1974 would know that You Are Not Your Job. You are not even your career. If your job is redundant you find a new one; or at least your progeny should.

And sure, for the 1974 generation: this process of reinventing your skillset is difficult. That is where the no one seems to be talking assertion steps in. It was argued all my life that many jobs were redundant, such as in manufacturing and in energy. Some people talked about all this like my post here just has. Others, like Patrick Buchanan and, more recently, Donald Trump, were talking about finding means to keep at least such businesses here so they could hire more people and keep the people they had. The point is less which side we take but more on the no one seems to be talking guff which was weasel-wording and, well, plain false.

The next question (objectively) is whether he's got a point about the Tech Singularity overall - which I concede he has. My followup question, from that assumption, is - does Harris want to engage with Trump's electorate? - we know Woit doesn't. We know Woit considers us like Richard Spencer considers us - a coalition of Russian spies and traitors. We do not hear the words of traitors, as the Klingons say.

The first step in a meaningful dialogue about, how we keep pace with technology: is to assure the work-force which America currently has, that you are taking their concerns seriously. And I mean: as a group - not cant about "racism" or "sexism" which only people of that race and/or sex will care about. You claim to value loyalty to nation, transcending these identities. Prove your own.

Orion v Starship

Last October I touted Starship as, implicitly, better than pulsed tactical-nuke launch, of Orion-Project (in)fame. Yesterday we looked at whether pulsed tactical-nuke launch was legal. At the same time I was typing, Zimmerman was dismissing ol' Boom Boom as politically impossible. But never mind all that. Tonight, we discuss whether this be practical, as compared with the competition, since the competition is likely to get to space first.

First: the point of Orion. This was to get lots of cargo into space for cheap, at once.

Nuclear-pulse, from a planet, is a one way trip: the process cannot decelerate this thing for a soft landing for itself with safety for everyone else. The Orion chassis stays in orbit, or just disintegrates. If in orbit, dead-Orion's orbit is polar. Orion should only launch above, what, 75°. This because in temperate-tropical lattitudes even small nuclear blasts mess with the Earth's magnetic field and, of course, they EMP all those densely-populated LEO sats and maybe even Nairobi and Rio de Janeiro. What's the delta-V to salvage a polar sat for reuse as, I dunno, a cargo habitat? By the way, Boom Boom's backend is probably radioactive - although, in space, all hulls get a bit glowy, so, maybe that's okay.

Starship, when we allow it to, stands to ship cargo not all at once. The model is a rotating fleet of reusable craft, fueled by chemical reactions burning white-hot through the Raptor Two. Chemical reactions also stand to be cheaper than fissile metal.

Overall, Orion looks like an emergency situation for Earth, or something for other planets lacking a magnetic field (meaning: before they build a ring) and don't care about the rads. The best use is to push asteroid ores around orbit-intersecting trajectories, probably Hohmann.

tl;dr Zimmerman is right.

I do still wonder about metastable metal as something that can heat propellant in a cheap and ecliptic-friendly latitude. But now we're not really talking Orion anymore.

Light pollution is bad

Glenn Reynolds links NWU on light pollution. It's pulling me into a response inasmuch as Sabine Hossenfelder was on the case just a few days before.

I reckon Daylight Savings Time has inspired all this, along with the advent of the Equinox, which makes it lighter longer faster. You know, by the d/dt cos(t) principle.

I agree with all this, including the suggestion we shift outdoor lighting (which we do need: A World Lit Only By Fire and such) to point-downward-only LED with red (antiblue) filters. Mind, those of us with apnoea or aging prostates aren't getting sleep anyway...

My only real problem with Hossenfelder's blog was when its end shifted against satellites - because muh 'stromony. We should be doing that work in space, not on Earth. In space, no Hawaiian rentseeker can picket your telescope.

Project Orion may be legal

Glenn Reynolds and Leigh Ootten posted this essay a few days ago, which Reynolds has been pinging since then. Up until the 1961 test-ban treaty the Americans were planning Boom Boom, a pulsed rocket into space with much cargo... so much cargo. Per Outten and Reynolds the treaty was lightened up in 1967, with a different treaty.

The Arctic-facing nations, counting NORAD as one nation for this purpose, worry a bit about nuclear bombs going off nearby. Also lately we might get Starship for our cheap, heavy-lift needs.

On the proÖrion side mainland China never signed the 1960s treaties. The official US (and to an extent Soviet) line back then was that Mao was a bandit and that Chiang was President. The US line famously changed under Nixon who, you'll recall, took office in 1969. But if Reynolds is right we all forgot to bring China into the framework. For the purpose of these treaties, I take it that Russia at least is heir to the Soviet Union.

Orion's engine based on smallscale nukes as it is would fall under that "tactical" category. This on account that, when used in war, they're meant to bust up a small target - best would be an army base in the wilderness - and not half a city as was done in Japan. They're in a grey area in international law. As David French points out, Russia could detonate such a low-critical-mass bomb in its warzone and we'd not be able to do much about it - because MasterCard has already shot its wad. What, we're going to boycott Putin more? Also President Trump himself banned "weapons grade Uranium" in space, although maybe it doesn't count if whatever heavymetal is tactical and we're not in space yet.

I personally think that the Orion should be restricted to the polar latitudes, which basically means the far north on account the Antarctic treaties keep that particular continent off-bounds for this stuff. Kerguelen maybe? I dunno. Either way what "should" be legal and what the US Senate has actually ratified are different things - as Reynolds rightly notes.

On Metropolitan Epistle 15

I was going through Bcheiry again, this time for the Metropolitan middle; fixing or deleting some of my translations (M#10, C#7) and fixing some of his dates (M#9). In page 105 he'd summarised #15. I'd actually speed-translated epistle #15 five days back but not posted it so - seems shaphîr to catch up.

Bcheiry summarises about right that some old fool in the Nestorian communion has, in the middle 640s / 950s, taken upon himself to spread tales of horror. The result has been to uproot monks and Christians from some areas toward others... like Anatolia and even Italy (Italy will see several Syrian-born popes). Mar Abraham likely approached his bishop inasmuch as Ishoʿyahb hasn't reproached him for slipping the chain of command. Anyway, word of his plans has reached Arbela.

Bcheiry's date is AD 647. I would assign this unrest around the turn of AH 23/4 = early AG 956, with the deaths of Ishoʿyahb II and of ʿUmar, and with the eclipse, all coming close together. An element in Nisibin is considering a theological switch to Constans II. The upper bishops share the motive to say that all is well with the world (cf. #14, 20 now handled here).

Unlike with #14 and #20 this #15 makes no note of the uppermost bishop, the Catholicos. With #15 (and maybe #11, Bcheiry 102-4) Ishoʿyahb of Arbela is in concert with Maremmeh; but there's no mention of his name, and the buck stops at the metro' layer. For #15: the rainy season early AG 946 / AD 644-5.

As to, who's the alarmist: this isn't Sahdona's error, which was straight-up had-qnoma, such errors as assuredly would have attracted everyone's attention. Seems like a homegrown apocalyptic interpretation of history, such as John bar Penkaye will provide. I don't know where later east-Syrian historians ever asterisked Daniel bar Maryam's history being undertaken about this time.

FIEY 4/17/23: M. XV is discussed ch. V, p. 13-14 as an extension of M. III-IV's regulations.

Ishoyahb to archimandrite Abraham

[Ishoʿyahb of Hidyab, Ep. #15]

I have heard from the great humility with which you are endowed the cause of your trouble given to you and to the coenobium in which you live. This is not fair, indeed it is very disgraceful that a loss of this kind arises from a profitable work of men. For if humility is the mother of virtues, it is very fitting to feed the patience of one another as if it were an attractive child. He who is in a humble spirit has the virtue of prudence attached to his patience. For this reason, blessed one, let not the upsetting rumors which happened to you dislodge you from the beautiful state which you enjoy, by the man who is of today's error and the parent of yesterday's trouble, tossing the restless world through rumors. For the demonstration of his stupidity has been sufficiently recognized by all the people of our world: who, therefore, will make his words to a few of the wise men, and will count him in the number of those who are worthy of an answer, unless he be as a fool as he is? Or to whom among the honorable and the saints, who were from the beginning even to the present time, was there power, or even concern, to remove rejection from the mouth of the insane against the wise, or to ever prevent them from saying bad words of a bad tongue? However, it is absolutely necessary for him who wishes to live well, to persevere in a beautiful manner determined by prudence adorned with the fear of God, to strengthen in God himself the hope of his labor at all times, and to attend to his counsel.

Therefore, blessed man, persevere in your perfectly fitting order. Nor does order harm humility, nor does humility harm order. Espouse the order of leadership with the humility of your person. Mix the humility of your person with the rank of pre-eminence, and the king with the humility of the pre-eminence that was entrusted to you by the grace of God. Drive first, far from the face of your mind, all the vain and unsavory words of hearing, which some conceal and transmit, on account of that foolish man who wanders in his folly. Do not ever listen to them, nor answer them, nor do them to a few. Whether in the counsel of God or in the error of men, unless you have found some treasures of the grace of God, who descend into the monastery of your habitation, you will not be able to see how much your desire is. You have neither the opportunity to move away from thence nor neglect the works of its ministry. For the word of God, which is administered by us, forbids you all these things, gives you the right in all these things.

Therefore endeavor to do so nicely, as I have written, in the matter of that foolish old man mentioned above and in the government of the government. It is within you, I think, to obey the grace of God to be obedient to your brothers, and it is fitting for you, by your keen guidance, to provide them with all the advantages of their labors in life. What if, God forbid! Let him also excel in the evil of disobedience, as in other places; then, not with your usual meekness, but with useful severity, must he be used against the evil of disobedience; Let him advance before you from this time and beyond that rule brought by me. It is not lawful for any brother who will oppose your orders to live there and to wake you in the midst of a perilous tumult in the peace of your dwelling. But if there is a complaint against him which seems fair, and thinks that he has been wronged, let him send in peaceable words to our brother your bishop, who is near, and if necessary also to me; and thus he will undertake the task of correcting it, with the help of God.

Let the things which I wrote and write be read in the sight of all the brothers in the monastery, and let all take care of their own design and order of life, in all the fear of God and the chastity; He wants to live in Christ our Lord {2 Tim 3:12}. Let all division and discord and disobedience be cast out of the midst of you by the chastisement of the mighty Lord, by the chastisement of our God. Run to the harmony of the spirit and the bond of peace, and to the prompt obedience without which no one can please God; and most of all, run, pursue spiritual charity, reach to it, and hold it fast with all your strength and with all your diligence, so that by it you may grow "to the perfect measure of the perfect age of the perfect fulness of Christ." {Eph. 4:13}

Know also my good intention toward you; for I have sent to you those whom I long for to obtain extraordinary information at the beginning of their approach to the spiritual life. But if so, God forbid! they take a hurtful example from you as a stumbling block to your mind, or as a starting point for wicked behavior, a dangerous evil will fall upon you, like men who harm themselves and others. Take heed therefore, and for her sake, brothers, loving God, concerning all the beautiful order which your institution calls for, and about all friendly obedience, which is the source of spiritual life. Keep not only for yourselves a good deposit, in whose name you have been signed, but also to others who wish to acquire from you an example of virtue. Give both to me and to all, wherever God-fearing materials suitable for the glorification of God at all times. And the merciful God himself, who is able to make those who fear him abound with all grace, accomplish you in every good work, so that you may do his will at all times, throughout the days of your life, amen.

The first stage is a... catapult

Eleven days ago Jonathan uí-Callaghan posted about JPL’s sMars Ascent Vehicle. NASA’s notion is that for small, nonbrittle cargo on a 3.7 ms^-2 planet whose oxygenpoor atmo goes exospheric fast, the more efficient initial delta-V can be had by lobbing the canister downfield like Tom Brady lobbing a football. Its trajectory goes from parabolic past V_∞ by means of the rocket firing whilst in (thin) air.

It all sounds Kerbal Krazie (to ToughSf) but JPL say the unit tests work. Full regression testing remains a problem to be solved on Mars itself.

Looks really good for scaling toward delivering Mars-made rocket fuel and other such supplies onto Phobos. Until they get the Ring Of Iron of course.

Breathing Mars' air

Obviously Mars has oxygen - O₂ even - but atmospherically this atomic duo is (almost) all bound up in carbon. Absent a greenhouse, MOXIE was supposed to get that (also getting carbon-monoxide). There's more oxygen in water, which exists in ice and (maybe) in perchlorate brines. There's oxygen gas in the atmosphere but it's very low, so I hadn't taken it seriously. Ivan Ermanoski is taking it seriously. h/t Nyrath the SF author's tech-support.

Ermanoski has crunched the numbers such that taking the ambient O₂ gas would be less expensive than running electrolysis. This matters on Mars where solar irradiance is weak and whilst nobody's built a powerplant there yet. Ermanoski recommends thermal swing sorption/desorption.

In future, when Casey Handmer's built his hectare-span greenhouse, or aerogels, there the colonists can pump in their CO₂ and get cheap O₂ to pump back. Whilst we're still in the remote robot phase, there's no such greenhouse. In future one might consider also Zubrin's model of small prospecting camps far from the greenhouse.

Gateway 2000

Whilst I was engaged in not-outer-space, which engagement has engaged me for some months, last week Bob Mahoney defended the Gateway concept. Not the sporadic promises floated here and there; Mahoney means the original. Back before NASA promoted pronouns. Before NASA promoted Islam.

This blog started from Doug Plata; Mahoney is, here, rebutting Plata. Mahoney is rebutting 2015-era Hop David too inasmuch as the Gateway orbit - TLL2-Southern Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit - competes with Farquhar's L2 which Hop touted back then. Overall-STL2 is now occupied, by the James Webb telescope. (Hop is, since, aware of NRHO but hasn't posted about it directly yet.)

Mahoney's sell-point is that NRHO should be modular, so flexible. Once at NRHO you are doing better than you are at LEO, in terms of being closer to outer space. LEO becomes a gas-station.

Mahoney does admit one problem with the Gateway - politics. Several projects have been binned because they overran estimates. The JWST came within a whisker of the bin. And then there's NASA's pronoun fetish. Plata's alternative "just wait for Starship and we won't need Gateway" does, at least, bypass NASA. Maybe Axiom can build it in NRHO instead.

The Tabarestan revolt

PseudoSebeos has a chapter on how the "Medes and Armenians" joined the Arabs. The text refers to T'etal troops and the turncoat prince of the Marats' mountains; Bedrosian the translator thought Marats' were the Medes. After the Iranian mountaineers slew the Shah Of Nowhere, their Tachik (=Tayy) masters rewarded the Marats' and T'etal for their treachery ... with a levy of tribute.

In the thirteenth year of Constans so AD 653-4 / AG 965, Muâwiya failed to take Constantinople. Marats' and the T'etal took this opportunity not to pay the tribute anymore.

As to who PsSebeos thought the the Marats' were, he first mentions a "Gaz" river. Today there's one of those in Hormozgān, but Bandar-e Gaz is closer to where Yazdegird died which was Merv. There's also a Chora pass. The famous one today is over in Orūzgān but Armenians applied it to the "Darband", the Caspian Gate. So: the Marats' were Gilaki-Mazanderan speakers and their revolt ran along the southern Caspian shore. This checks out: the Tabaris, Daylamis, and Jurjanis never did bow to the Umayyads. PsSebeos' epilogue claims that the Tachiks had posted an army up there but that they pulled it back for the Fitna of Siffîn.

All this was to provide some (additional) support for Bcheiry, 106-16 on Catholical epistle #7. Shahrazur's bishop in the early 650s / 960s is dealing once more with Zoroastrians, descendants of that vicious "Rad" - a magistrate - which Guidi's Khuzestan noted. That's soooo AG 915, as the bemused Ishoʿyahb points out. Technically the Shah Of Nowhere is still out there - Pērōz, over in Tang territory - but everybody with nose and eyelids knows the shah ain't comin' back, not as a Parsee anyway. What this pope does not understand, or refuses to understand, is that it's not about the empire but about the people. These are not Bedrosian's "Medes" from the great northern lake - but they don't have to be; as the Iranians themselves knew, Medes can be found anywhere.

On Metropolitan Epistle 5 and Papal Epistle 7

The Metropolitan of Adiabene sent the fifth(-collected) letter to a nonMetro' bishop: one Jacob. This concerns two Christians called to holiness who are thumbing their noses at (Ishoʿyahb's) authority. Here the Metropolitan informs the bishop that he's not to permit Communion to these two.

The Jonah imagery might suggest that they've gone overseas, but you'd think that the overseer of Hidyab would use the chain-of-command: not writing to literally-who Jacob but - say - to Marammeh at Bet-Lapat, or even to the Catholicos himself. Given Ishoʿyahb's letter assumes the Pope would back him on this one; all this is a local business.

Meanwhile Assemani summarised the Papal Epistle #7 to Jacob of Shahrazur; Bcheiry devoted all pp. 106-16 to this. Bcheiry also translated all of it that matters, excepting only an ellipsis which Duval himself could not figure out: The last words are from Tim. 5:25; they can scarcely be correctly adjusted with the preceding ones, and the period seems to be confused [UPDATE 3/15 so I've deleted my clumsy weekend speedread]. Shahrazur would be the region now represented by Sulaymaniya: more on the Kirkuk side, than on the Arbela. Either way Shahrazur was a subset of a metropole. So: opposite problem as M#5! in C#7 the Catholicos has written straight to a nonMetro'.

I cannot find either Jacob in Ishoʿdnah, although Chabot thought that #66 be a candidate for Shahrazur's. The founder of Bet-ʿAbê is long dead; Ishoʿyahb himself had dealt with the aftermath. That Jacob in charge back when Nineveh was a metropole ruled under shah Shapor so was even deader. On the other side Jacob Hazzaya as a Nûhadrene is (much) later. The founder of the Hbîsha convent is in Bet-Garmay and, anyway, I don't hear he's a bishop.

Overall these two illustrate most about how much we do NOT know about post-Futûh Iran in its "two centuries of darkness". Even in its foothills.

FIEY 4/17/23: M. V is not discussed; C. VII is discussed only in relation to his health, at the last chapter.

Ishoyahb to bishop Jacob

[Ishoyahb as metropolitan, letter #5]

Some of the "saints" in our time, when they are often filled with their own justice, often fall into the aberration of folly, and under the guise of humility and fear of God, as has been said, go above the order and ecclesiastical life. They institute for themselves strange manners, which the holy fathers have neither handed over to us, nor the conscience of experts proves.

First of all, while they humble themselves much, they begin from disobedience, which the administration advises helping them to act. And then, while they add a little to their humility, they fall down to insubordination and daring. When also it turns out that ecclesiastical power moves the force of its action against them, in order to reduce them in every way to the advantage of their lives, then do not even Christians appear to be of this kind humble they move those whom they think are far from God. And they also compel us, to whom by divine grace all the orders of our Lord have been commended, as disabled men run after them to all winds, to correct and direct and convert a great variety of their morals by the variety of their knowledge. We should take special care to turn away from their vain hope those who, after changing their positions, think that the power of our Lord's church is to be nullified.

For two of the more notable men, whom I, obeying the opinion of some concerning them, ordered or persuaded or encouraged or warned or asked or solicited, that they engage themselves in the ministry of the Lord, in the name of the direction of the most distinguished places; they grew furious, they kicked against the stings of the priests, and departed afar off. When they thought that the power of their priesthood was less concerned with you than with God, they dwelt, as they say, in places subject to your dominion: let your solicitude therefore show to those who are so, that God is everywhere and that his fugitives should be taken not only by the servants of God in any place, but also by the sea and the whales living therein. Therefore, when your Holiness has heard the names of those who are thus from the bearer of the letter, let them keep them from all countries subject to the power of your administration, and at the same time from sharing in the divine mysteries in any place; so that when they turn to the Lord, they turn themselves to the Lord, become mindful of themselves, escape from the net of Satan, in whom they are taken by his will; all and in us all. When they have come out of the bonds of necessity to the grace and understanding corresponding to their transgression, when I shall see their sincere conversion, I will come before them in giving profits according to the sense of our Lord's teaching, so that each of us, according to his order, may be found through spiritual trade the exacting of his advantage. May the help of the Lord guide us all at all times to what pleases him. Farewell and pray for me.

What happens if we win WW3?

As to this "Ukraine" business let us pretend the Baghistan is not taking sides, for this post's purpose. But I'll have to start with a capsule-history.

Laurent Guyénot has some ideas as to Time Immemorial, but we'll not get into any of that. The West started the present violence overthrowing Ukraine's government in 2014, with the "Maidan protests" (riots). Having conquered the place, a lot of American politicians got rich; the Ukrainian people not so much. (And what the hell is up with the bioweapons?)

Putin then embarked upon a programme to retake the Russian parts of the Ukraine, the parts which are actually "frontier" with respect to Moscow. Crimea returned to the Tsardom first. Donbass was more of an open sore, with the Ukrainians and the Russians fighting each other. Putin and the Ukrainians were each hoping to wear each other down, but neither could do that, so the Ukrainians raised the possibility of joining NATO, which - geopolitically - Russia north of Ukraine cannot tolerate. Thus the invasion.

I am not Richard Spencer so I am not supporting the Azov Battalion. I am also not Guyénot: I do not think Byzantinism was wonderful the first time 'round when it was Greek, so I am uninterested in its Slavic fanclub.

There are many ways this can end badly, so here I'll focus on how it might end well ... for the sons of Mitt Romney and of Joseph Biden. What if the united West forces Putin to retreat. Maybe he gets assassinated by his own doodz, Khusro II style. Whatever. Here Russia goes back to where it was under Yeltsin but worse; the long Cold War ends with Russia under Washington's feet - but again, whatever. This post has already stated indifference (for argument's sake) to which East Slav wins the East-Slavic civil war. I'm concerned with what happens over here.

The New Yorker would call this a victory for the West. Ehh. This would be a victory for MasterCard and for all the Western corporations (lately DuckDuckGo) which Took A Stand.

The precedent is even more firmly established that, if you dissent, you are Misinformation and Disinformation. Watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical, a liberal. Oh yeah, "liberals get the bullet too".

So: an oligarchy backed up by street gangs in the name of "antifascism", followed by selective prosecution. That is what the West is fighting for.

But anyway, this post wasn't picking sides. It's just a thought experiment.

The Study Quran and its discontents

Karen Bauer produced a review of the HarperOne "Study Quran" by Joseph Lumbard, Maria Massi Dakake, et al. Against this review Dr Lumbard and Dr Dakake defend their work, in their professional capacity.

I have no real friendship nor animosity to Dr/Ms Bauer - as a person. I don't share her politics, but - I don't share IQSA's politics, inasmuch as IQSA takes political sides. Ms Bauer is entitled to her opinions as, I think, IQSA is not. I've found Dr Bauer's scholarship insightful in places; my projects have cited her work. As for Lumbard there are those who think little of him. All this said, Drs Lumbard and Dakake seem correct in their assessment. Some editor should have intervened before Bauer stepped in it, frankly.

As far as mine own critique of the "Study Quran" project, which a previous blog mooted, I agree with Bruce Fudge that Dakake, Lumbard and his team had produced a "Protestant" tafsîr: presenting the Sunnite consensus from the Mutawakkil caliphate to the Cordova emirate. Thus: Abû Jaʿfar Ibn Jarîr al-Tabarî, al-Qurtubî, and al-Suyûtî (mostly Jalâlayn). Shîʿism is here but not such as kicks against the edges of the matn, like ʿAyyâshî and Sayyârî. As a mainstream Sunnî reference, I study this Qurân. But where I need it most, which (in my view) concerns whether the Qurân even exists in its present form, or even in the Umayyad form which al-Jallâd and van Putten reconstruct ... it's limited.

Going back to the issue of editors, for Dakake and Lumbard my problem was with their publisher. The Study Bible was, in fact, an excellent work of secular scholarship, explaining in painstaking detail what each reference meant based on archaeology and on variant texts, sometimes wildly variant (Samaritan Torah, Qumran . . .). If someone wants mediaeval Jewish footnotes to Exodus (say) he's referred to Telushkin or Fox or Alter or (more for concerned Christians) Dennis Prager.

tl;dr this "Study Quran" should not have been a secular imprint. It should have been an al-Azhar imprint. To the extent its authors sinned the khatiya was in submitting the manuscript to, I suspect, a Reputable publisher. Sayyid Nasr explicitly stated that HarperCollins' Bible was his model. As for Lumbard, Robert Spencer had his number in 2014: puffball. I don't know to what degree Makake went Along For The Ride, so to speak, but it's a dangerous ride to be on. Bauer can be dispatched, and maybe Spencer also (if Lumbard will dare); but I remain unsure about Fudge.

Isho'yahb of Hidyab to Maremmeh of Bet-Lapat

[Ishoʿyahb metropolitan letter #2]

Once upon a time when I was anxious for the cause of many doubts about what happened to you, divine providence was supplied with your gentleness in the rough road which God's grace had prepared for you. A short time later a more excellent message was imparted to me by my desire and every hope of my weakened prayer. For the people who love God wrote to me first, to whose ministry you were called, and then you wrote also; and the letter which had been written, strengthened the bearers, and many coming from there, who saw with their eyes the sense of the divine help accompanying your election, which touched them with their hands. And indeed, filled with joy, as it should be, on account of the fulfilled hope of my prayer, I thanked the kindness of God, who, in every generation, keeps to him the truth of his holy promise made to his church, among the rest of those who care to purify themselves. But with me I have joined in such joy the multitude of God-fearing people who are here.

When he will not come near me, to say so, whoever carries the letter, and he who brought yours to me will not come to me at his arrival, I have been waiting until now. Now, when the faithful God-loving Mar Subha had come to us, and informed me of all the glory of our Lord's help toward your piety, and of the manner in which the providence of the kindness of God lead you in this time of sickness of the world, he had said that you, due to your great wrath indeed burning against me, were unable to write to me. Now those who grow angry and boil over, they write too much and blame too much. But perhaps your anger has so far led you to refrain from writing, and in this way has left you neither boiling over nor writing. But I, when I was angry, wrote, and above all I write: when it was so pleasing to the mercy of our good Lord, that you were visited by him in proportion to your faith toward him, take care of your name, for this will remain with you; Whatever you have the ability to do, do it; Do your work carefully; The glory of your virtues fill your treasure; pour out your goods upon the people and on the people in abundance by the strength of our Lord's help. Send the hope of prayer to me even sooner, not as usual, but as much as I am sorry. For the affairs of the brotherhood which are with me are weak; paternity also lowered itself to cowardice, and Satan could bring about an intimate division among those who by name are called directors of the church of God. For they have all been taught, behaved themselves wisely, and have been perfected in spiritual charity. I alone am without this perfection. If God will not have pity, the common affairs will be in danger, not only in what they are already supposed to be, but also in the life of faith itself. It is necessary indeed, that he who begins from evil begins to end in complete evil. Pray, then, brother, that the commotion which began sharply, may the divine nod sit without loss and without disturbance to the church of God, and may it be done for us by the grace of our Lord's mercy, that we may meet one another in the peace of the world and in the salvation of the holy church. Once again, pray for me also that I will spend the rest of my life pleasing the will of God.

On Metropolitan Epistle 12

In Epistle 12 this blog presents the primary source for the reference in Michael Morony (1974) pp. 124-5 n. 1. Ishoʿyahb expects Enoch to tag along with the Catholicos, whereever they are and whoever he is.

Morony was bold with his account of years. Not many scholars since 1974 have pinned Ishoʿyahb II to AD 628-43! 644 were better. (956 be best but, hey.)

Metropolitan Ishoʿyahb does not tell Mar Enoch what negotium is diverting him from Arbela which, we must assume, is not to Kirkuk or Seleucia. He's been to Nineveh before but that might not be his last visit up there.

Also Morony was unaware of any updated work of canon-law Mar Enoch might have written. We do know the 640s / 950s for the East was a decade of literary activity, not least from our dear Ishoʿyahb, but also Daniel bar Maryam the historian - Guidi's Khuzestan might actually excerpt Daniel, explaining its parallels with Siʿrt and Ishoʿdnah. (Elias, I think, no longer knew Daniel direct.) The Catholicos may have had Enoch's work destroyed. Under pope George AD 676 the synod at Dirin will declare canon law the law for Oriental Christians.

Mar Enoch is compiling a text for marriage and inheritance. Every Christian being in agreement that bigamy is Bad, marriage to the maternal uncle's wife is most likely in effect for his widow. It wasn't likely that her second marriage could bear much issue. If the widow was poor, this might work as charity. But what if her (late) husband was rich? Shouldn't their children get the inheritance? - or at least her father's and his father's extended family. Marriage was exploitable; just plain ol' property. Ishoʿyahb denies this as Sasanian praxis, per Payne; but, of course, the Sasanids are no longer with them. The custom perhaps was held (as leviritism) with the Jews. Iraq used to have lots of these.

FIEY 4/17/23: M. XII footnoted mainly V p. 8 in French, and the last chapter (on his health). Chapter IV relates E. XXVI to this situation, of driving out an obstreporous monk.

Ishoyahb of Adiabene to Mar Enoch

[Metropolitan Ishoʿyahb letter #12]

I received and read what you wrote and thanked our Lord for your health. Because in time of needing counsel you summoned me to assent to the decrees, which your Holiness had long ago arranged in the law of fathers in the affairs of those who broke the laws; But what your Holiness has placed in doubt, in which the manifestation of your activity is praised by canons, books, and nature, does not seem to me to have been done beautifully.

For it is fair to say the truth at all times. It is a beautiful thing to execute the truth at all times. It is especially beautiful for the priests of God, first to claim the quality of the priest's canons, then to examine the interpretations of the priests, as it is also written, and to go so far: "Whatever the eyes of the priest see, let the priest see." And if he is deprived of such a sight, and therefore errs in the divine laws, and therefore deserves the pardon of his incapacitated, what blindness can they, however, be overwhelmed by the rules, which, in name and sense, are clearly fixed in eternal institutions and of course in writing? It is one of them which your paternity has rejected according to the canon, but some, like unjust praisers, have raised it in a deceitful hope.

Without a doubt, then, let the experience of your Paternity be always guarded, which is fixed in writing by you and has been sent to my weakness: to reject the illegitimate marriage of a man with the wife of his maternal uncle, and especially to deprive a husband of such an inheritance as this woman, who was unjustly united with him and died in guilt. I say the inheritance of women not be that which a perverse custom has given, contrary to the intention of the Book of God and against the doctrine that has hitherto prevailed in this government, that is, to give wives the inheritance of their husbands without the will or the gift of their husbands; this, God has commanded to be received by sons, or daughters, or brothers, or uncles, or near-relative. But I say that the inheritance of women is just, namely, that the dowry which was given by her father's house, or from the house of her husband at the time of the tradition of the woman himself, or her husband at the time of her death, or of her own free will by her children, or by the leaders of the Church as an equal and right alms, according to the good manners of the woman and her domestic attitude toward her husband and her children. In fact, the law takes away from them this legitimate inheritance of women, when they themselves defile their marriage with the illegitimacy, and deliver it to their just heirs, that is, to their sons. These are the laws of Christianity which we hold and execute in our province.

But if among you, the traditions of the elders are now being brought forward against ecclesiastical law by some men, which abolish the decree lawfully sanctioned by your Paternity, so that those men not only permit the marriage of an uncle's wife - as your Holiness wrote to me - but they also take the inheritance of the sons of these women, and hand them over to their illegitimate husbands, and by the reproach and insult of outsiders object to the holy doctrine of Christians: let your care be that they may be excused from common injury, and that the judgment be brought before the dreadful tribunal of the heavenly King.

The space of a brief letter and the hurriedness of the journey prevent me from doing everything to write the business which your Holiness requires, and moreover, I am persuaded that you know them better than my weakness, and again what I encourage is the hope that, when God will please you, we will meet one another when the Catholicos comes into our province. I have written these things to your Fatherhood to respond to the request of a friend asked by you; Let your Father therefore pray that, when we, who are worthy to go out to meet one another, having fulfilled our vows, may undertake those affairs with the help of God in perfect rectitude. Pray also for me that I will spend the rest of my days in life pleasing to the will of God.

On Metropolitan Epistle 10

As Metropolitan at Arbela, for the first time, Ishoʿyahb mentions Nûhadra which bêt is now Kurdish Duhok... back home in what has become the Sultanate's province of Mosul. Bcheiry, 103 summarises this (due credit to his translation of the taxes which informed mine). Abba Seliba will build a monastery there. That time is not yet.

Ishoʿyahb is following up on his first journey as Metropolitan when he did, in fact, return to Mosul. Thus the apologia opening letter #17 to one bishop Abba not in that region: Whilst I wished to give a satisfying argument to [your] first and last epistles, a pressing matter of the Lord's ministry seized me, and compelled me to change my seat and place, and make my journey from plain to mountain for official business, so that, for the Lord's ministry, on the north side of our region I might appoint a priest elected and holy - as you have heard. As metropolitan "north" implies Mosul which has no metro'. I'd figured he was appointing his own replacement for Nineveh herself but, he's got time for other matters.

"Qardawaya" in this Syro-Latin means I think the man of Qardu. I know not if modern Arabic "Qaraḍāwī" stems from the same root.

This #10 concerns a Mar Abraham monastery which had been administered for fifty years by the same "bishop". Ishoʿdnah #68 says Mount Izla had been under Habiba since at least AD 628. Other sources think Mar Babay was running the place - I refer to Siʿrt and to Thomas of Marga. Ishoʿdnah counters: the man was in semiretirement in his last decades. Looking around elsewhere Babay didn't contribute to, say, the disputations against Gabriel of Sinjar. Per Ishoʿyahb #17 as bishop we learnt that Dadishoʿ, abbot, had heirs; Babay, teacher, had disciples. Therefore the bishop of Bet-Nûhadra must be Dadishoʿ's heir - Habiba.

Of other potential Mar Abraham sites, I cannot see them in Bet-Nûhadra. Mar Job might have named his convent after another Abraham, the hermit of Nethpar; but Ishoʿdnah's #43-4 imply this for Hidyab. Letter #15 is to an Abraham archimandrite but, come on.

That father patriarch who whacked Qardawaya with anathema was probably Ishoʿyahb II; Maremmeh, recently from that monastery, may have reinstated him.

FIEY 4/17/23: M. X footnoted chapter V p. 8, in confused frustration.

Isho'yahb of Adiabene to Bet-Nuhadra

[Ishoʿyahb epistle #10]

But you, oh faithful sages, who, on account of your much zeal for honesty, have written to us from afar, and have sent our beloved and honored brother among us to exhort us, or to solicit us about what you desire; so that through us the power of carrying on the sanctuary and the offerings of the Lord may be strengthened by the chaste, holy, and strong in all interests Mar Qardawaya, where were you a little while ago, when we crossed your country from the nearest border to the last, we tarried in the middle of it for about fifty days, and we returned, and we crossed it again from the farthest border to the nearest frontier? Did you not go out to meet us like any other man? Did you not now write to me as to any other man, and did you send even among us our honored brother? Where are the reproaches, by which you have reproached in me by words and deeds, because we have not hastened to do that which you then demanded be done by us? How, when shall we escape the criticisms of any kind? But if men had a praiseworthy work from those who praise the divine law, we might perhaps comprehend it and avoid the danger of daily rebuke; but, since the world has lost the enchantment of the love of virtue, now placed in danger and undergoing many hardships by anyone, now is the time for us to earnestly hope for death as a good helper.

For I grieved, was amazed, I became destitute of good spirit, and my pain was renewed when I had read the things you wrote, and had heard the things you sent, and had seen the strength of your wisdom in the works of the fear of God; Silence from worldly conversations seemed to me better than anything else; but I have learned the danger of this opinion, and have been able to speak a little about the bearer of your letter and the promoter of your mission, so that I may pay the honor of your friendship for your reply. I imagine that I can bring you a demonstration of my sadness as a weak argument. From the honorable man whom you sent to us, having heard the things that are necessary now, and leave me in the bitterness of mind, according to the prophet's lamentation.

Behold, God and Qardawaia are among you. Whom it pleases you to take, take. For neither will the one and the other be taken by you; even if you press them a lot. But if you take them separately, they are easy by a great judgment to be taken(?), as you yourself know. If perhaps you may be devoid of wisdom, behold, I have said to the bearer of your letter that few words are to be referred to you; Having provided little material for our commemoration, I am writing this to you alone:

Your bishop is an honorable and chaste old man, by whom as mediator the monastery of our father Abraham advanced to great wealth and riches for about fifty years. We compelled him, on account of his infirmity and old age, and especially of the honor of him precious to us, and not because of the episcopate, which urged him thence to his paternal seat, do so; nor, when we saw that the treasure of the Lord's offerings had been delivered to him by a disgraceful and dangerous man, we rescued from him the power of carrying on the treasure of the offerings; nor do we in any way bear him in any tolerable circumstance, nor even now, although we are convinced that we all will suffer the loss of our father Abraham's house, so long as he is so disposed towards the chaste and holy man Mar Qardawaia! For if Qardawaia does not stay outside the monastery, nor even if he is outside the country and province, we can prevent a great loss, which is immediately realized by him in the house of our father Abraham. But if you think that in that monastery, which dwelt in name and adorned with power and direction, the monastery of our father Abraham would be without harm to this side, you are greatly mistaken. But it was better, as we have thought, to be plundered without our assent and with the house of our father Abraham, that is, without knowing the name and authority of that direction, and not living in a monastery. But now, since your great wisdom and understanding may wish to explain it differently, since you who are better approvers of Christianity and the works of the world than I, we put the money of the mouth of the Lord {Matt. 25:27} on the table of your hearing, and hand it over to our Lord. wants to demand, or further in the heat of the fire? We say this now as much as the letter can contain.

But if, on account of his infirmity and old age, the bishop wishes to appoint in his place a director of this monastery, let him appoint a man like himself, that is, chaste and holy, to whom he should give the care of his monastery, as is the case everywhere in all the great monasteries. But if you think that such a man is not to be found in the order of monks, because of the great works and riches of the criminals - and, yes, it is not fitting to find a monk fond of riches - let the bishop select from among your faithful [laymen] a superior to you all, to be the monastery's procurator: concerned about the monastery's worldly goods, and to deliver taxes and tribute to the shulîtanê d'alma equally; let the bishop sit in tranquility and rest, as he desires, while the monastery will be ministered to the monastery in the manner and uprightness of the monasteries. The bishop will treat these things in such a way that he possesses the wealth which he possesses for God and for the monastery; But if he possesses in the possession of Qardawaya and his posterity, and is willing to appoint him as his heir, as he has already established in the will which he did, then you also raise up your minds, open the eyes of your hearts, and listen to what we say to you. We say, however, with alacrity and peace, without covering and without anger, these things:

May the blessed bishop calmly take all the wealth and riches that he decides to hand over to Qardawaya as an inheritance, but give them to a monastery not named, so that the heirs may take possession outside the monastery as they please. And we have nothing to discuss with them regarding possession, and especially now, since we know that it has been pleasing and pleasing to you, that the property of the monastery, which was given by God to all men, to the holy monastery of our father Abraham, may be considered. But we beseech you only that we may leave the monastery of our father Abraham immune from the direction and sanctity of Qardawaia, without those riches which are so valued before your eyes. Let the monastery of our father be the inheritance of despised men like me; let the Lord possess his monastery and Qardawaia his wealth; but the bishop is to be honored by the monastery as by the sanctuary of the Lord and by Qardawai as the heir of his wealth.

But if not even this please you, but let that please you so much as it has already pleased you, that the monastery of Qardawaia should be the inheritance of our father, the blessed Apostle Paul will call out to you by us: There is no custom of this sort among us, nor in the church of God. Wherefore affairs require powerful prayer, to raise up the dead, cast out demons, and to give men a new heart and a new spirit, so that they may know the will of the Lord.

I have written these things to you, so that I may excuse our father patriarch, who himself anathematized Qardawaia, leading him according to the will of the will of God, and expelled him from the direction of our father's monastery. Since he is not present near you to excuse himself among those who blame or harass him, it is fitting that I, who am here near me, should speak in his place. I have written of my own accord, and I have sent the writings. Furthermore, you will soon receive a expedited response of your mail to him. Maybe he will respond to you according to your desires and you will be free of angst. But don't you labor in vain to write to me on these matters, because I am confident that in God He will not forsake me, that hatred should ever please me; but that he may guard my freedom in a pure conscience all the days of my life in this world. May his grace also guide you in the way pleasing to his will throughout the day of your life, amen!

On Metropolitan Epistle 26

The best part of epistle 26, to the Catholicos Marammeh, is that it panicked the metropolitan of Adiabene so much he postmarked the Papal letters which had earlier come to Arbela. 1 Shebat on the fourth day means Wednesday 1 February.

The source planting Maremmeh's papacy earliest is Elias of Nisibin who would start his Februaries in AH 24 so AD 645 / AG 956. The next year is when 1 February falls on a Wednesday. This pope has one more February in him, two at most; so the next candidate for #26, AD 652, is ruled out.

LENT 3/12: I forgot last night that Lent's beginning was not a Wednesday in the Church as of the middle seventh century. I don't want to dive into the Cadbury rabbithole (yet) of Julian-calendar Easter but, in case some Syrian does cough up an Easter reference with the day of the month in it: here. For AD 646: 9 April, so Lent started Sunday 26 February.

In our year, which is AG 957, the great headache for the Eastern Church is Sahdona. Ishoʿyahb referred to him as Bar-Sahde earlier, and EW Budge translated a massive letter about him. More letters are forthcoming, for instance #30 to Beth-Garmay: Behold, now great Rome, and its ally Ravenna, and all Italy, and the whole kingdom of the Lombards, and the whole kingdom of the Franks, and all Africa, and all Sicily, all Thrace, and all Crete, and Rhodes, and Chios, and all the whole islands, and Constantinople and its jurisdiction, and Asia and Bithynia, and Lycaonia and Pamphylia, and Galatia and Isauria, and all Greece, and Jerusalem and Cyprus, and many Palaestinians and Phoenicians profess with unanimous consent the two hypostases and two operations and properties of Christ. This overstates the case for Constantinopolitan patriarch Paul II; but it certainly applies to Theodore bishop of Rome - and wait 'til you see what Martin is cooking up.

I do not know what to make of the Papal failure in the West to which #26 alludes. For an earlier generation I'd immediately think Nisibin. But although Guidi's Khuzestan got Maremmeh's starting year wrong, I do trust him inasmuch as Maremmeh (at last) had cajoled Nisibin's Christians - who had stayed in Orthodoxy - into accepting a metro'. This setback instead may entail a failure across the border, into gathering West-Syria into Orthodoxy. With Mar John and Mar Maruta still active, er... yeah, good luck with that.

FIEY 4/17/23: M. XXVI discussed chapter V p. 15-16 especially on the dates.

Isho'yahb of Hidyab to pope Maremmeh

[Ishoyahb of Hidyab, letter #26]

On the fourth day of the week, which was the beginning of the month Shebat, two letters from your Paternity came to me in the middle of the day: the one from Ukama, our boy, and the other from a man of the village of Bet-Magosh. Immediately I've dispatched this response in accordance with the dispatch required by your Fatherhood's letter. I am writing very briefly, because in the present affairs I see a great removal, which indicates to me a departure altogether necessary - not from the Lord, forbid! nor from the sight of those who are seen or are capable of good and evil, but from the very substance of those vexing affairs, with little by little many signs and many offending tumults succeed one another. We must now work together: either by a true removal to effect a free departure, or by the manner of a curator, to show a fair attack against depraved morals.

But let your Paternity know what he wanted to know, not to please me, and perhaps not even before the sight of God to change it, for which reason Your Paternity wrote, even though in fact that country was really not less than the riches reputed among our country, which calls for my vileness as a bishop. If the Lord would depart from this place altogether, it is fair, I think, not to prove myself again to others, but to keep me alone by the free habitation, as it pleases the Lord, and thus to spend a few days remaining, which will be given to me by our Lord in this world. Whatever it is, I firmly hope that I will come to the holy fast [Lent] before your Paternity; but let your Paternity make a worthy bishop for those who seek peace.

Don't be influenced by the violence perpetrated on you, I write to your Fatherhood: Take good care of the person who has been told, and above all take care and always be careful lest you, as if it were an incident, repent. Suffice it for us to feel the pain arising from Sahdona, of whose sad heresy we are still disgraced. But if, when we offend him as if with a small finger, he poured so much pus upon us, how much more, if we had voluntarily fixed our thorn in the eye of the very head of the body of the community, known and experienced, should we not at all be wretchedly tormented by incurable pain? And perhaps, with many accusers, even the angels of God will be angry with us, because, although he is an angel from heaven, so to speak {Gal. 1:8}, he who suggests this to your Paternity, the rebuke of your Paternity should bravely depart from the face of your Paternity.

To the people who loved you and whom you loved, who had already entrusted your faith to the choice of casting away from you, give the man of God a choice who is the most distinguished in our time. If the respected old man who is there does not wish to assent to the persuasive words, he will by coercive force, just as each of us willed that which he did not wish. And if it shall be established by your Paternity, for all of them with him, and for him with them all, that there will be none other than them but this one, I will order him even against his will, and he himself will consent even against his will; but until they will be drawn in with the hope of obscuring another, as now, neither will he consent nor will they give him consent. Remove them, therefore, from remote and inferior men; And if by every means and every necessity, and whatever it is, let the word pass from that precious old man, turn your mind to our Mar N... I know him, namely, in matters of faith, morals, stature, and habit, and of a moderated speech suited to time and sound.

Inspect your Lord's granaries well, and give what kind of food you may find; if not him himself, at least our brother N..., who has no requisite interest, although I again become poor and deprived of that little thing which I possessed the day before. And to speak briefly, bring your word beyond the obstacles which I have experienced, and replace it with the good, who have been tried in approved cases. Spare your soul, and the soul of my frailty, and the soul of all the orthodox, that stumbling block, to which some men in ignorance of this man directed your mind. Remember briefly also the disobedience which occurred to you lately in the West, even though you expected that you would have success. Although you have had success with the help of our Lord, for all grace is from the Lord, yet fear has been domestic to you and perhaps to some others. And if, on account of the man who is such, such things have happened to you, how much more will it happen to you and me and to us all who are not such because of the man who is such. Bring, therefore, a greater vigilance than the greatest business, the best flight to temptation, and a precious gift to the people.

Although the matter is urgent, the quality of the persons mentioned above must be written down and sent thither; and although a greater time is required for a business, a longer period of time should be given. For non-existence, which is evil, is more powerful than an evil existence. Expected poverty is more powerful than fulness of despair. Remember above all things and at all times the help of God who attends your holiness, who makes daily the work of your guidance sufficiently prosperous, and whose marvelous depth from the depth of your humiliation brilliantly shines to the glory of all of us. Let him now, even in the matter set before you, grant in his mercy outstanding perfection through your hands according to the counsel of his will, amen!

Let him also easily loose the episcopal fear that exists in that man by virtue of his providence in an eager encounter with your Fatherhood and in the glory and honor of his holy Church, amen!

May he also grant me his grace, that I may rejoice in all the labors of your Fatherhood, and glory in the works of the best wonders, which by your hands shall be served for the glory of God in his holy church all the days of your life, amen.

The brothers who are with me venerated your fatherhood. May my salvation be given to the dear brothers who minister to Your Holiness. Pray for me that I may be worthy of the mercy of God, and that I may hate you, even as a calf is prepared.

On Metropolitan Epistle 9

The ninth letter assigned to those which Ishoʿyahb sent as Metropolitan of Adiabene went to the leading clergy of Nisibin. I had wondered if the correspondence had actually gone to Jerusalem, or even to some city along the Nile; but that Balad was noted - in Cyriacos' time, nominally under the Nisibene "Maternity" - affirms the superscript. Bcheiry, 99 has a summary which I shall expand here.

"N" is short for nomen - anonym, really. Guidi's Khuzestan informs that Nisibin won't get another archbishop until catholicos Maremmeh appoints Isaac. I had been directed over to #9 by Addai Scher's note 3 that - hey - there's theology going on over there. As it turns out Scher was wrong. But hey - thanks for the French translation (of two sentences).

When we last left his predecessor pope, Ishoʿyahb II was ruling from that Seleucian karka in Bet-Garmay which is Kirkuk. The archbishop's letter #9 is ambiguous: he had got the Nisibene letter en route to a famous Selîq which must be the Madain; but the letter notes also a Karka of Seleucia. That all the bishops are taking the river for speed suggests they're going downstream. That archbishop Ishoʿyahb is so emphatic on its fame, also, suggests he's distinguishing this Selîq from Kirkuk.

This entails that an emergency synod was convoked to the Madain - to Kokhe - in the early-mid 640s / 950s. The synod was expected to come up with some decisions.

The letter tells not what other, apocalyptic emergency cut it short. The conflagrations surrounding would-be caliph ʿUthmân won't kick in until spring 656 / 967 followed by Siffîn the next year - under Ishoʿyahb III with no need to travel to any Seleucia by then. A better candidate is the murder of ʿUmar by a nonMuslim which Elias bar Shenaye from Khwarizmî marks near the end of AH 23 so: October 644 / early 956. (This is not so well-constrained in the Syriac sources, except inasmuch they relate the Islamic tradition of a dozen lunar years prior to AG 967.) Per Khwarizmî: ʿUthmân is elected 28 Dhû'l-Hijja, 7 Tishrîn II (November). And there was an eclipse 5 November which various Syriac sources get wrong in their own way: Hoyland, Theophilus, 127. Michael (alone) notes the general terror.

Yazdegerd, of course, was then shah of nothing. But as of Indiction III the Greek king Constans II was firmly ensconced having quelled Valentine over a year before. Whilst and wherever Islam was thought leaderless, border cities like Nisibin might have exhumed the arguments of Mar Hnana for the malkiya. Notwithstanding as the Nisibenes had, under Cyriacos, used Hnana as a pretext against him.

Of note in Elias' notes for AH 23 is one more death: of Ishoʿyahb II. An election would naturally follow, at one Seleucia or the other - a.s.a.p. The neutral ground of the Madain would be the speedier choice, although still not of the best security; once completed, everyone can return home (or, for the elected one, to the Catholical Cathedra) on his own good time. Pace Bcheiry certainly from Fiey who pinned that date to AD 646. UPDATE 3/10: The next pope's reign must span January AG 957 as Fiey notes pp. 15-16. That about does it for Guidi's Khuzestan and for Siʿrt: Ishoʿyahb reigned sixteen years and change.

FIEY 4/17/23: M. IX footnoted chapter V p. 18 in French. Mostly I'm concerned here with the dates which Fiey has expounded pp. 6-8.