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?
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