Ishoʿdad of Merv

h/t Davila, whilst I recover from the massive hike I just did: Schmidt's translation of Ishoʿdad Marwazi on Daniel.

Ishoʿdad has, best I can tell, an Iranian name (and the man is traditionally thought to have come from the Margiana) but he settled as bishop of al-Ḥadītha over the first half of the ninth century AD so the middle 1100s AG. As an East-Syrian who didn't limit himself to East-Syrian exegesis, and as a fairly intelligent specimen of the breed, West-Syrians paid him the tribute of citing his work in turn.

Ishoʿdad's old-testament has been published before but, I guess, Schmidt felt he could do better with the Daniel part. And C. Van den Eynde's translation was in French.

Daniel is important for students of apocalyptic and, the ʿAbbasī era certainly raised up a lot of that. Ishoʿdad piques interest inasmuch as he rejects apocalyptic. He couches his study of Daniel such that Daniel's "prophecies" although true prophecies were all fulfilled in the Maccabean era. Which is the churchman's politically-correct dodge around Daniel's clear status as a Maccabean forgery.

Ishoʿdad is also, thereby, able to tell his fellow Christians to quit citing Daniel against the ʿAbbasid sultans. Which makes his commentary, perhaps, not terribly useful for Islam As Others Saw It... directly. Although one wonders if one might spot Daniel-based anti-Islam apocalypse in this book's shadow.