Sunday, March 6, 2022

On Epistle 8

Ishoʿyahb's eighth epistle (Scott-Moncrieff "VII") went out not quite on the occasion of Yazdin's death, but on the misfortunes after that death. Alluded here is the shah Khusro's appropriation of that man's fortune which, it seems, occasioned a scandal in Bet-Garmay. The epistle belongs early AG 959 / turn of AD 627-8.

The recipient: Sabrishoʿ abbot of a Mar-Salîba monastery. Although I should not rule out clever wordplay from a clever bishop; of the three santa-cruz monasteries which Ishoʿdnah knew, Sabrishoʿ's is likely the one near Kirkuk - named for the cross, not for the unborn Nûhadrene. (I've edited my earlier takes accordingly.) The next Sasanian provincial-administrator hails from Kashkar so is diverting Christian attention over there.

Ishoʿdnah, then, doesn't mention this event, although I think this is the Sabrishoʿ who shall be raised as metropolitan over Bet-Garmay. But, there's only so much space Ishoʿdnah included for his liber castatis, and Robert Hoyland doesn't even think we own all of its intended content.

FIEY 4/15/23: E. VIII is summarised ch. III, p. 319 in French. Fiey opines its superscript is better applied to #4.

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