THE MONKS OF KUBLAl KHAN
EMPEROR OF CHINA

OR

THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND TRAVELS OF RABBAN SAWMA, ENVOY AND PLENIPOTENTIARY OF THE MONGOL KHANS TO THE KINGS OF EUROPE, AND MARKOS WHO AS MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA III BECAME PATRIARCH OF THE NESTORIAN CHURCH IN ASIA

TRANSLATED FROM THE SYRIAC

BY

SIR E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, KT.

M.A., LITT.D. (CAMBRIDGE), M.A., D.LITT. (OXFORD), D.LIT. (DURHAM), F.S.A.

Sometime Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences Lisbon; and Corresponding Member of the Philosophical Society of America

With 16 plates and 6 illustrations in the text

LONDON

THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY

Manchester, TORONTO, Madrid LISBON, BUDAPEST

First published in 1928

[All rights reserved]

Made in Great Britain

Printed by Harrison & Sons, Ltd., St. Martin's Lane, London, W.C. 2

Assyrian International News Agency

Books Online

www.aina.org

special thanks to www.nestorian.org for scanning portions of this book.

TO

THE RIGHT REVEREND

FREDERIC LLEWELYN DEANE, D.D.

BISHOP OF ABERDEEN AND ORKNEY

BISHOP BELOVED OF THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE BATTLE FLEET AT SCAPA, MASTER OF THE CRAFT OF THE APOSTOLIC "FISHERS OF MEN," GREAT FISHER OF FISH IN ICELAND, AND TRUE AND LOYAL FRIEND OF ALL THOSE "THAT GO DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS AND OCCUPY THEIR BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS"

WITH THE REVERENCE, SYMPATHY AND AFFECTIONATE ESTEEM OF THE TRANSLATOR

CONTENTS

PREFACE

THE present_. volume contains a complete translation of the Syriac History of the two Nestorian Chinese monks, Bar Sawma of Khan Balik (Pekin) and Markos (Mark) of Kawshang. This remarkable document is of great interest and importance, for it contains a mass of information about the Il-Khans of Persia and their dealings with the Mongol Christians which is found nowhere else. It describes very fully the events which brought about the downfall of the Nestorian Church in China, Central Asia and 'Irak al-Ajami, and as the statements in it are those of a contemporary eye-witness of the events which he describes, they are of very special value. It may be noted,' too, that it supplies us with an example of serendipity, which is far more remarkable than any mentioned in the old Persian story of the three princes of Sarendib (Ceylon).¹ Saul the Benjamite set out to find his father's asses; he failed to find the asses but he found a kingdom. The two Chinese monks set out to go to Jerusalem to pray at the Tomb of Our Lord in Jerusalem, where they hoped to obtain the remission of their sins and to obtain peace in their souls. They never reached Jerusalem, but the younger monk, Mark, found himself made first a Metropolitan Bishop and later Patriarch and Catholicus of the Nestorian Church, the dominions of which extend from China in the East to Palestine in the West, and from Siberia in the North to Ceylon in the South. The elder monk found himself appointed first Visitor-General of the Nestorian Church throughout Asia, and later Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of 'Argh6n Khan to the King of Byzantium, the Pope of Rome, the King of France, and Edward I, King of England. The History of these monks well illustrates the workings of Divine Providence in the destinies of the men who are selected to be its instruments.

The Syriac text of our History is, on the whole, good, and the translation of it given herein has been made as literal as possible: there are, however, a few passages in which the text is either defective or garbled, and these have been carefully pointed out. The translator of the original Persian text into Syriac assumed that his readers would be well acquainted with the general history of the period, and therefore did not trouble to supplement his work with the details which the occidental reader needs to understand the narrative. I have therefore collected a number of the most essential facts, both historical and archaeological, and grouped them in the series of paragraphs which form the Introduction, instead of printing them at the foot of the page in the usual way. This arrangement will enable the reader to peruse the translation uninterruptedly. It seemed to me to be unnecessary to annotate the passages which deal with the relics of the saints, and their resting places, for the credulity of many Christian peoples in the XIIIth century is too well known to need mention. It is surprising to find our author solemnly recording that he was shown the stone on which Peter the Apostle was sitting when the Cock crew!

My thanks are due to the Trustees of the British Museum for permission to reproduce a page of Brit. Mus. MS. Orient. No. 3636; to Dr. Lionel Barnett for permission to examine the Uighur MSS. under his charge; to Sir John Murray, K.C.V.O., for permission to reproduce the two plates illustrating the Mongol Paizah, which are given in Yule's immortal edition of the Book of Ser Marco Polo; to Mr. G. H. Dring, Managing Director of Bernard Quaritch, Ltd., for permission to reproduce six plates from Mr. F. R. Martin's invaluable Miniature Painting and Painters of Persia, 2 vols., London, 1892; and to Mr. A. D. Waley, B.A., of the British Museum, for permission to reproduce the portrait of Kublai Khan from his work on Persian Art.

The portrait of Chingiz Khan I owe to Mr. E. T. C. Werner's article in the Journal of, Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 56, 1925; the three illustrations of the Nestorian Stele at Hsi-an-fu to Havret's great monograph on the subject; and the view of the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd at Al-K to Mr. C. J. Rich's Narrative of a Residence is Koordistan, vol. 2, London, 1836, p. 99.

This work has been read in proof by Dr. C. H. Irwin, General Editor of the Religious Tract Society, and I am indebted to him for several friendly suggestions, which I have gladly adopted.

E. A. WALLIS BUDGE.

48, Bloomsbury Street,

Bedford Square, London, W.C.I.

July 17, 1928.

INTRODUCTION

ACCORDING to the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of Bar Hebraeus (ed. Abbeloos and Lamy, tome iii, Col. 451) two monks, of Uighur origin, were sent from China "by the command of the great Mongol king Kublai Khan and ordered to go and worship in Jerusalem." ² It is not clear whether the word I translate by "command" (pukdana) is to be understood here as a mere permit to travel westwards from Pekin, or as an Imperial Edict ordering the monks to go to Jerusalem. But it is well known that the Mongol Khans wished to gain possession of Jerusalem, and there can be no doubt that the two monks were sent to the West as propagandists, and to obtain the help of the Christian kings of Eastern Europe. The ease with which they travelled shows that they were emissaries of Kublai Khan, and that they were armed with proofs of his authority.

Bar Hebraeus goes on to say that the Uighur monks arrived in Kurdistan, but were unable to proceed further west because fighting was going on and all the roads were blocked. They turned aside at Maraghah, where Mar Denha, who owed his appointment as Patriarch to Dokuz Khatun, the wife of Hulagu Khan, was staying, and made themselves known to him as members of the Nestorian Church. After some conversation with them the Patriarch, for reasons of his own, consecrated one of the monks, whom he called Yahbh-AllAha, Metropolitan of China. When Mar Denha. died (1281) Yahbh-Allaha was elected Patriarch of the East, and Bar Hebraeus, though admitting that the new Patriarch was not a learned man, testifies to the goodness of his disposition, the soundness of his belief, and his friendship for the Jacobites. But he tells us nothing about Yahbh-Allaha's fellow-monk, or what became of him, and as Bar Hebraeus died in 1286, his Chronicle does not contain any account of the Patriarchate of Yahbh-Allaha, which lasted until 1317. On these and many other interesting points '','dealing with the history of that period scholars remained without information until 1887.

In March, 1887, Mr. Salomon, a Lazarist Chaldean of kurdistan, saw in the hands of a young Turkish Nestorian in Tekhama, a Syriac manuscript which he borrowed from him and read, and then had a copy of it made at Urmiyah. The contents of the manuscript turned out to be a narrative of the histories and travels of the two Uighur monks who are mentioned by Bar Hebraeus. Mr. Salomon sent his copy to Father Bedjan, who found that it contained many mistakes, and he noted the omission of words in several places, and many passages in which the readings were doubtful. Having corrected the spellings of proper names throughout, and added correct vowels and notes in Syriac on the heresy of one of the monks, he printed an edition of the text, and the eminent Syriac scholar Rubens Duval read the proof-sheets. This edition appeared at Paris in 1888. In the same year (November 29), the British Museum purchased from the Rev. J. H. Shedd, of the American Mission, Urmiyah, a well-written Syriac manuscript of seventy folios containing a good text of this narrative which Bedjan had published a few months earlier in the year. This MS. is Oriental 3636, and a facsimile of a page of it forms the frontispiece (Plate I) of this book.

Soon after this Bedjan had access to other copies of the Syriac narrative in London and elsewhere, and in 1895 he published a revised edition of this work entitled Histoire de May Jab Alaha, Patriarch, et de Raban Sauma, at Paris and Leipzig. According to Baumstark (Geschichte der Syr. Lit., p. 326) most of the MSS. used by Bedjan were copied from the MS. in the possession of Rabban Yonan, the Nestorian Patriarch of Tekhama, which came from the village of Minganish in Kurdistan: The account of the joint travels of Rabban Sawma and Yahbh-Allaha was written by the former in Persian, but the author of the abridgment in Syriac and the Life of Mar Yahbh-Allaha in Syriac is unknown. He was an eye-witness of many of the events in the Patriarch's life which he describes, and he probably wrote in the first half of the XIVth century. A short biography of Yahbh-Allaha was published in Arabic, with a Latin translation, by Gismondi, Amri et Slibae de Patriarchis Nestorianorum commentaria, 2 vols., Rome, 1896.

The first scholar to call attention to the great importance of the History of Rabban Sawma and _ Markos was Professor H. H. Hall, in the Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, vols. exxvi-cxxix (1885-88) and the journal of the same Society, xiii (1889). Portions of the History were translated into Fallaehi by the American missionaries at Urmiyah and published by them monthly in their periodical in 1885, 1886, 1887. Articles on it appeared in 1889 by Duval (in the Jour. Asiat., tome xiii, p. 313 ff.), Lamy (in the Bulletin of the Belgian Academy; tome xvii, p. 223), Van Hoonacker (in the Museon, tome viii) and Noldeke (Literarisches Centralblatt, col. 842-44); Hilgenfeld discussed the text in his Bemerkungen (Jena, ¹894); see also Baumstark in Oriens Christianus, tome i, P. 385.

The first translation of Bedjan's text was made by the Abbe Chabot and was published in the Revue de l'Orient Latin, tome i, p. 567 ff., p. 61o ff.; ii, pp. 73-142 and 223-43. This translation was published in book form with the title Histoire de May Jabalaha III, Paris, 1895, and seeing that Bedjan's revised edition of the Syriac text did not appear until the end of 1895, must have been made from the first edition of the Syriac text published in 1888. M. Chabot added in the form of notes a valuable commentary containing lengthy extracts from the standard Histories of the Mongols by Howorth and Mouradja D'Ohsson, and from the Pauthier's edition of the Ser Marco Polo's Travels published in Paris in 1865. In two Appendixes M. Chabot gave, in Latin, translations of the letters which passed between the kings of the Mongols and the Pope and the kings of Byzantium, France and England, and a Latin version of an important letter which Mar Yahbh-Allaha III sent to Pope Benedict XI in 13o8. The short notes throughout M. Chabot's note are full of carefully selected ecclesiastical information, and add greatly to the value of the translation of the Syriac text which we owe to this indefatigable scholar.

Professor H. H. Hall possessed a copy of the Syriac text of the History of Bar-Sawma and Markos (Mar Yahbh-Allaha) in 1885, and published translations of portions of it in America, as we have seen, but his articles were not obtainable generally. The translations which the American Missionaries published in Zahrire dhe Bahra in 1885-87 were useless to anyone who could not read Fallaehi, the modern Syriac dialect of Kurdistan. It was Chabot who first made the contents of the history of Kublai Khan's monkish envoys available to the general public throughout Europe. But his work has been out of print for many years, when during the winter of 1924-25 I made the translation printed in the present volume. The arrangements which I made to publish it in 1925 broke down, and it was not until the summer of 1927 that I handed my manuscript over to the Rev. C. H. Irwin, D.D., Chief Editor of the Religious Tract Society. My whole translation was in type by the beginning of March, 1928. From the Literary Supplement published by The Times on April 12 last, I _-first learned that Professor J. A. Montgomery, of the University of Pennsylvania, had published the History of Yaballaha III, New York, 1927, and when I obtained a copy of the work I found that he had given an English rendering of nearly the first half of the history of the two Chinese Nestorian monks. The present volume contains a translation of the whole History, and is the first complete translation published in English.

But it must not be forgotten that the publication of any complete translation of this History has I only been made possible by the labours of Father Bedjan on the Syriac text. When, many years ago, he was copying manuscripts in the British Museum for his Acta Sanctorum he showed me the manuscript of the History which had been put into his hands, and his own copy of it which he was preparing for publication. His patience was truly Oriental, and the skill which he displayed in supplying the words which had been omitted, and correcting the orthography, and explaining the unusual meanings given to certain words would have done credit to Payne Smith, or William Wright, or Noldeke. And in connection with such textual work the name of Professor H. H. Hall should be remembered.

Now the History of the two Uighur monks which Bedjan has published is one of the most important Syriac works known to us, for it contains a mass of historical information which is found nowhere else. It throws great light on the history of the Dynasty of the Il-Khans of Persia and their dealings with the Christians who were their subjects in the XIIIth century, and supplies us with a description of the events that brought about the downfall of the Nestorian Church in Persia, and Central Asia, and Mesopotamia. The narrative of the travels of the two monks. is of unusual interest, and parts of it remind us of the fabulous stories of adventurers and their successes which are found in many Oriental books. In it we see two humble Christian monks setting out on a perilous journey of some thousands of miles, across waterless deserts and difficult mountains, apparently with the sole idea of visiting Jerusalem that they might pray at the Holy Places there and obtain pardon for their sins and absolution. Fate decreed that they should never reach Jerusalem and forced them to halt at Maraghah, several hundreds of miles from the Holy City. But it ordered events in such a way that the younger monk, Mark, became first a Metropolitan bishop and then Patriarch of the East, and the spiritual head of all the Nestorians in China, Central Asia, India, Persia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Syria, and the elder became Visitor-General of the Nestorian congregations in the East, and the ambassador of Arghon, the Mongol king, to the Pope and to the kings of Byzantium, France, and England. Linguistically the narrative is of considerable importance, for it affords new material for the student of Semitic philology, especially in the matter of Syriac syntax..

The events of the last few years in Kurdistan have brought the Nestorians and their Church prominently before the minds of Western peoples, who have heard and read with sorrow of their sufferings at the hands of their inveterate enemies the Kurds and the Turks since the end of the Great War. In Urmiyah and the country round about the atrocities perpetrated on the Nestorians by Hulagu Khan at Baghdad in 1258, and^, by Timur-i-Leng in 1390, were repeated, though on a smaller scale, and all the great work which European and American Missionaries were doing among the Nestorians was brought to a standstill, and the mission houses and printing presses destroyed. It is hard to understand the insensate hate which the Turks and Kurds have displayed towards the Nestorians, for time after time Turkish Pashas and other officials have warmly praised to me their good qualities and sterling abilities.

During the parts of two winters (1887-88,1890-91) which I spent in Mosul I made the acquaintance of many of the Nestorians and visited their villages of Tall Kips (Stone Hill), Balnaye, Tall Uskuf (Bishop's Hill) and Al-Kosh. At the invitation of Kuss Yukhannis, the Prior, I spent a night in the famous monastery of Rabban Hormizd (see Plate II), and on the following day examined the monastery and the churches; on the pillar of one of these could still be seen the names of C. J. Rich and his wife, and the name of Justin Perkins, the founder of the American Mission at Urmiyah. The Prior pointed to a little stream at the bottom of the valley which had been the means of destroying over 1,000 MSS., Arabic, Syriac, Karshuni (i.e. Arabic written in Syriac letters), and Greek, which the monastery once possessed. During an attack of the Hamawand tribes in 1850 these had been removed and hidden in a small building down in the valley. In February the snows melted, the stream swelled and rushed down with much violence that it swept away the little building, and the water destroyed the MSS.

I found the Nestorians most hospitable and kindly, frugal and hard-working and very intelligent. The men are strongly and solidly built and wake splendid farmers, and for power of work and ' endurance they have no equals in Mesopotamia; p, the women are the prettiest in the country. Men and women alike make good emigrants, especially those who come from the large village of Tall Kipa. Writing in 1925 Mr. H. C. Luke, in his interesting book Mosul and its Minorities, says that the future of the Assyrians (i.e. Nestorian Christians) is not assured, but it is to be hoped earnestly that the Great Powers will find some portion of the Nestorian's ancient country in which they may be settled once and for all and allowed to follow their ancient religion and serve God in peace and security.

But to return to the anonymous history by the two Uighur monks. As said above M. Chabot's French translation has been out of print for many years, and his book is scarce and hard to obtain. It is, moreover, not well known in England, for the only account of any part of it in English is the short summary of a few pages of Chabot's French translation given by Mr. Luke (Mosul and its Minorities, London, 1925) in his chapter on Prester John. Professor P. Y. Saeki has made known, in English, the triumph of the Nestorian Church in China in the VIIth and VIIIth centuries, and when he published his book it was suggested that I should make the story of its downfall in the XIIIth and XIVth centuries available in English to the general reader. I have therefore made the translation printed in the following pages from the revised Syriac text given by Bedjan in the second edition of his work. The style of the Syriac is, as was to be expected in a version made from the Persian, somewhat abrupt, and it has often been necessary to add words (in brackets), to make the writer's meaning clear. In this Introduction are given_. briefly the most important facts about Nestorius and his so-called heresy, and the history of the rise and progress of Nestorianism in Western and Central Asia and China; references to the works of recognized authorities have been added where necessary. Such information is usually given in footnotes, but as frequent reference to footnotes distracts the attention of the reader and interrupts his continuous perusal of the narrative it has been decided to relegate all explanatory matter to the Introduction.

THE NESTORIAN CHRISTIANS AND THEIR DOCTRINES

According to ancient and wide-spread traditions Christianity was first preached to the Medes and Parthians and Indians by THOMAS, or, as he is sometimes called, "JUDAS THOMAS or the Twin "(' ), one of the Twelve Apostles. Though exact historical evidence in support of these traditions is wanting, there seems to be no good reason for doubting that the Apostle actually made his way into the countries to the east of Assyria and Babylonia, and died or was martyred in one of them. The literary facts are summarized by Lipsius, Apostelgeschichte, Bd. i, p. 224 ff. The Nestorians and Jacobites believe that Thomas evangelized Parthia, Media, Persia, and India, and that he went on a special mission to Malabar and converted the people there. The Brahmans, jealous of his success, put him to death about A.D. 52 at a place called KELAMINI, where he was buried; his remains were translated to Edessa by Bishop EULOGIUS (387-96). The most recent and fullest edition of his life and acts is by BEDJAN, Acta Martyrum, vol. iii, Paris, 1892, pp. 1-175; and see Bar Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., sect. ii, Paris, 1877, cols. 3-12.

The first writer and traveller who attempted to find the historical base of the tradition that St. Thomas preached in India was the great Venetian, Ser Marco Polo, who accepted the tradition unhesitatingly: A contemporary of his, John of Monte Corvino, buried his friend, Friar Nicholas, in the Church of St. Thomas at Maabar, i.e. Malabar, in the year 1292-93. The oldest form of the tradition says that the Saint was martyred and buried upon a "mount," and to this day the "Great Mount "of St. Thomas and the "Little Mount "in Madras are well known. The true site of the martyrdom was the Little Mount, and a church dedicated, to the saint existed there in very early times. The Portuguese built, or restored, a church on the Great Mount, and in 1547 a stone slab, with a cross sculptured upon it and an inscription in Pehlevi running round the edge of it, was discovered whilst repairs were being carried oat. A rough sketch of the stone is here given. The exact meaning of this inscription is, not clear, and the translations of it made by Pehlevi scholars differ; Martin Haug read it "Whoever believes in the Messiah, and in God above, and also in the Holy Ghost, is in the grace of Him who bore the pain of the Cross." The Syriac and other Oriental versions of the martyrdom of Thomas state that the Indian king whom he converted was called "Gondaphorus," and as coins and inscriptions of this king have been found, there can be no longer any doubt that Thomas did preach in India. The various forms which the tradition has taken are discussed by Yule in his translation Ser Marco Polo, vol, ii, second edit., p. 338 f.

The work of Thomas in India is said to have been continued by ADDAI, one of the seventy-two disciples of our Lord. He visited Edessa in the reign of ABGAR, whom he converted, and having built churches for this king, he and two disciples called MARI and AGGAI set out and preached the Gospel in the East. On his return to Edessa, he was put to death by the king, a son of ABGAR, whom he succeeded. He was buried in a church in Edessa which he had built for ABGAR. The Syriac text of the "Doctrine of Addai" in its most complete form; and an English translation, is given by Phillips, The Doctrine of Addai the Apostle, London, 1876. AGGAI, the disciple of Addai, preached the Gospel in ARMENIA, ADHORBIJAN, ASSYRIA, MEDIA, and in the country at the head of the Persian Gulf and in the neighbourhood of AL-BASRAH, which later became the seat of a Nestorian bishop. He returned to Edessa and, the king ordered him to return to his old trade as a weaver, and when he refused to do so had him killed. A short life of Aggai, in Syriac, has been printed as a footnote by Bedjan in his Acta Martyrum, vol. i, p. 51.

Nestorian writers say little about Aggai, but they revere MARY, or MAR MARI, as he is generally called, greatly. According to Bar Hebraeus (sect. ii, col. 16 f.) he left Edessa after AGGAI was killed, and went and preached in ASSYRIA and SEN'AR (not Sennaar in Nubia), where it is said there were three hundred and sixty churches! He then went to the city Of SELEUCIA and established himself as the head of the spiritual community which he called into. being in Ctesiphon (A1-Madain of the Arabs). The people were MAGIANS, but MARI converted and baptized many of them, and built a church and healed many sick folk by the Sign of the Cross. He spent fifteen years in Ctesiphon, and then went and preached in the neighbouring districts for eighteen years. He died in his monastery in BADRANA, which was called Daira dhe Kfini (Dorcene), and was near SELEUCIA. His life and acts have been published by Abbeloos, Analecta Bollandiana, tome iv, pp. 50-131; Bedjan, Acta Martyrum, vol. i, p. 45 ff.; and see Raabe, Geschichte des Dominus Magi, Leipzig, 1893.

The successors of MARI carried on the good work which he and Addai had begun in Mesopotamia and the countries further to the east, and in many towns in Syria prominent Christians practised asceticism. But the Nestorians owe monasticism in the fullest sense of the word to Egypt, and the founder of monasticism in the country east of the Jordan was MAR AWGIN. A life of this famous ascetic, in Syriac, has been published by Bedjan (Acta Martyrum, Paris, 1892, tome iii, pp. 376-480), and from it and the summary in English given in my edition of Thomas of Marga's Book of Governors, London, 1893, vol. i, p. cxxv ff., the following facts are taken: Awgin belonged to an Egyptian family who came from Clysma (Kolzum), an island near the modern town of Suez; he was born in the second half of the IIIrd century, and he died when a very old man, about 370 (?). He was a pearl-fisher, and when he had followed his trade for twenty-five years he went to the 'monastery of Pachomius in Upper Egypt and baked bread for the community. The brethren discovered that he possessed spiritual gifts and could work miracles, and when he left the monastery of Pachomius and departed to Lower Egypt seventy of the brethren accompanied him. With these he set out for Nisibis, and they crossed the river Maskas and camped by the side of it for a few days. Thence he and his party went to Mount IZLA, which lay to the south of the city, and lived in a cave there for thirty years. The brotherhood increased rapidly in number, and the 350 monks who lived with AWGIN devoted themselves to good works. Awgin worked many miracles, and healed many sick folk in Nisibis and gained great influence there. About this time Jacob, Bishop of Nisibis, is said to have discovered a plank of the Ark of Noah on Mount Kardo, and from it Awgin had a cross made which he placed in his cell.

When Julian the Apostate arrived with his hosts at Nisibis on his way to Ctesiphon, Jovianus, one of his captains, visited Awgin and begged him to pray that God would break speedily, the head of the wicked man, i.e. Julian. When Sapor II took Nisibis he sent for Awgin, and treated him with great honour, and the holy man performed a miracle in his presence. The Magians began to dispute with him, and he proposed that a fire should be lighted, and that one of them should go and stand up in it. Sapor ordered the fire to be lighted, and commanded one of the fire-worshippers to go and stand up in it, but none of the Magians would approach the fire. Seeing this, one of Awgin's monks went and stood up in the fire for a long time, and he was not hurt and his garments were not scorched. Then Sapor accepted the God of Awgin as the true God, and asked him to heal one of his sons who was possessed of a devil; Awgin expelled the devil, who confessed that he was the god of the Magians, and exposed the wickedness of his followers. Sapor's joy was great, and when he asked Awgin how he should reward him the holy man replied, "O Lord King, we ask neither gold nor silver from the realm of thy empire, but we beg that thou wilt command, and that there shall be given unto us little places by the roads and ways, that we may build upon them convents and monasteries in which we may relieve the wants of strangers. And give us the power to go to Beth Laphat, and to the country of the Huzaye, and to build monasteries and convents where we please."

Sapor gave Awgin permission to do these things, and a formal authorization in writing, stamped with the king's seal, was handed to him a little later. He lost no time in making use of Sapor's Edict, and soon after he received it seventy-two of his monks assembled at the foot of Mount Izla, and having been blessed by Awgin, each of them set out, holding his cross in his hand, to found a monastery in the place whither Divine Grace should lead him. The names of these monks are given by Bedjan (op: cit., tome iii, p. 473) and are transcribed by Budge (Book of Governors,^- vol. 1, p. cxxx). With the monks went forth Mart Thecla and Stratonice, sisters of Awgin. Awgin died on the list day of the month Nisan in the year of the Greeks (?) 674, and was buried in a "double cave, under the altar which he had built under the throne of the Divine Mysteries," and 3,000 monks attended his funeral. There seems to be a mistake in the date, for A.GR. 674=A.D. 363, whilst his History suggests that he lived for some years after 363. From the monastery of Awgin on Mount Izla went forth Rabban Jacob of Lash6m who, according to Thomas of Marga, was the founder of the famous monastery of Beth Abhe, probably towards the close of the IVth century.

Now the doctrines which the Nestorians held and preached were not invented by Nestorius, but were derived by him from the teaching and writings of THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA ( ), a town on the Pyramus, between Tarsus and Issus, now known as Messis. Theodore was the son of well-to-do parents, and was born at Antioch about 350; he received a liberal education and was converted to Christianity by his close friend and fellow-townsman JOHN, who was later known as CHRYSOSTOM. He devoted himself with great zeal to the study of the Scriptures, and read all day and prayed all night, and led a life of stern asceticism. When still a very young man he fell in love with a beautiful maiden called Hermione, and to the regret and horror of the Church of Antioch proposed to marry her. Chiefly as the result of Chrysostom's appeals he abandoned this idea, and devoted the rest of his sternly ascetic life to the study of divinity, and the writing of commentaries or expositions of the Books of the Old and New Testaments. In Nestorian writings he is usually called "Mepashshakana", i.e., the "Expositor"(Budge, Book of the Bee, P. 140). Early in his literary career Theodore adopted the method of the rational school of scriptural interpretation which had been put forward by CARTERIUS and Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, and it was to these distinguished men that he owed his unusual views about the Person and Natures of Christ. Theodore died in 428 aged 78 years; he was Bishop of Mopsuestia from 394 until his death.

According 'Abhd-Isho he composed forty-one volumes of commentary on the Scriptures, the greater number of which were translated into Syriac by Ma'na, a Persian of Beth Ardashir, who lived in Edessa in the first half of the Vth century. His translations added greatly to the fame and reputation of Theodore, and wherever they were known they served to spread abroad the views which were adopted and preached by Nestorius, and believed by many to be his own. The real founder of Nestorianism was Theodore and not Nestorius. The fullest account of the writings of Theodore, and a list of manuscript authorities and printed editions are given by Dr. Anton Baumstark, Geschichte der Syrischen Literatur, Bonn, 1922, pp. 102-104. After his expulsion from Edessa Ma'na went to Persia, where he was appointed Metropolitan, and prepared the way for the acceptance of the Nestorian heresy in Persia and the neighbouring countries (Duval, Syr. Lit., p. 348).

THE HERESY OF NESTORIUS

NESTORIUS was a native of Germanicia in Syria, but the year of his birth is unknown. He was probably educated at Antioch where he imbibed the doctrines of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus. He entered the monastery of St. Euprepius at Antioch, and soon became famous for his learning and the austerity of his life. He had a fine voice and his discourses were eloquent, and his reputation as a preacher spread far and wide and found its way to the Court at Constantinople. Already at this period he had many enemies who declared that he was vain, haughty, and arrogant, but Nestorius cared little about what his enemies said. When SISINNIAS, Patriarch of Constantinople, died at the end of the year 427 Theodosius II appointed Nestorius his successor, and he was consecrated in the spring of the following year (April 10). Nestorius had come to the conclusion that the views of APOLLINARIS, Bishop of Laodicea about 370; were invading the Church of Constantinople, and he determined to put an end to his heresy if possible. Apollinaris attributed to Christ a body and a soul, and to these he added the divine Logos. As a result all the divine attributes were transferred to the human nature, and all the human attributes to the divine, and the two merged in one nature in Christ. Thus he could argue that the Logos was Crucified. He made Christ a being who was neither all God nor all man. He declared the orthodox view of the union of full divinity with a full humanity in one person to be nonsense; in short he denied the completeness of Christ's humanity, and the existence of a rational human soul in Him. See Neander, Doctrine History, vol. i, p. 334 f.; Harnack, History of Dogma, viols. iii and iv; Lietzmann, Apollinaris von Laodicea and seine Schule, Tilbingen, 1905.

Soon after his elevation to the Patriarchal throne Nestorius is said to have addressed Theodosius II in one of his sermons thus: "Give me, my prince, the earth purged of heretics, and I will give you heaven as a recompense. Assist me in destroying heretics, and I will assist you in vanquishing the Persians." Without delay he attacked the Arians, the Novatians, the Quartodecimans, the Macedonians and other sects, and tumults and riots occurred in many places. Whilst this was going on, a presbyter called ANASTASIUS, whom Nestorius had brought from Antioch to assist him, began to promulgate his theories on the Nature of Christ, and so provoked much controversy. He was a firm adherent to the views of Theodore of Mopsuestia, and a bitter opponent of the Arians and of all those who were addicted to the cult of the Virgin Mary, and who persisted in calling her or the “Mother of God.ö Anastasius made this heresy the subject of one of his controversial sermons, in which he said "Let no man call Mary Theotokos: for Mary was but a woman, and it is impossible that God should be born of a woman." This sermon created great excitement in Constantinople, and the surprise and disgust of the clergy and laity were great when, instead of rebuking Anastasius, Nestorius himself preached a set of sermons in which he defended him, and amplified his statements, using the arguments and sometimes the actual words of his teachers Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus. The text of these sermons will be found in the works of MARIUS MERCATOR, an African layman who flourished in the first half of the Vth century; see Migne, Petrologia Latina, vol. xlviii; see also Galland, Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. viii, 1772.

When the report of the sermons reached Egypt, Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, saw that he had a golden opportunity for attacking his enemy Nestorius, and he entered into an acrimonious controversy with him about the Nature, or Natures of Christ. He sent letters and extracts from the writings of Nestorius to Pope Celestine, and ordered his clergy to attack the doctrines of Nestorius, and he "squeezed "the Alexandrians to obtain sufficient money to bribe the officials of the Court at Constantinople to take his side. In 43o Nestorius addressed two letters to the Pope in which he set forth his views, but Cyril succeeded in making the Pope side with him, and Nestorius was told by the Pope in plain language that the doctrines described in his letters were rank blasphemy. Little by little Cyril, unscrupulous in word and deed, won the Emperor and the Empress Eudoxia, and Pulcheria, and many bishops and monks over to his side, and in 430 the Pope in Rome excommunicated Nestorius, and Cyril did the same at Alexandria. In November of the same year the Emperor gave orders that a General Council be held at Ephesus at Whitsuntide 431. The Council was held in due course, with the result that owing to the machinations of Cyril, Nestorius was never heard, and he was condemned to expulsion from all his ecclesiastical offices by the votes of 1g$ bishops. This is not the place to describe the intrigues of Cyril, and the hesitation of the Emperor to accept the decision of the Council of Ephesus; it is sufficient to say that in the end Nestorius was deposed (October, 431) and was ordered to return to the monastery of St. Euprepius at Antioch. Cyril continued to intrigue against Nestorius, and, with the help of John of Antioch, succeeded in getting him banished to Egypt (435). Every bishop who supported him was deposed, and all the writings of Nestorius were ordered to be burnt. It is said that Nestorius was chased from one part of Egypt to another, and that to get rid of him out of the country the civil and ecclesiastical powers combined sent-him to the Oasis of Khargah in the Western Desert. During one of his journeys he was captured by the Blemmyes, who took him with them to the Thebaid and then' set him free. His freedom helped him little, for when he arrived at Panopolis (Akhmim) the great Coptic archimandrite SHENUTI and his monks persecuted him in every possible way, for they were, of course, Jacobites, and anathematized Nestorius and all his works. Nestorius was alive in 439, and he probably lived a few years more; some think that he died as late as 454. Where he died is not known, and no record of his burial-place seems to have been kept.

The enemies of Nestorius carried out the congenial task of burning his writings so thoroughly that very few of them remain. æAbhd IshoÆ, Bishop of Nisibis, the Syrian bibliographer who died in 1318, mentions certain Letters and Homilies, the Tragedy, , and Letters to Cosmas, the Bazaar of Heraclides, , and a Liturgy, which is still extant in the Nestorian Church. The most important of all these for us is the Bazaar, which is really the Apologia of Nestorius, and throws great light on the man himself and his beliefs. The pseudonym of the book preserved it from destruction, and to it we owe the existence of the Syriac version of it which was discovered by Dr. N. Goussen. The text has been published by Bedjan, Le Livre d'Heraclide de Damas, Paris, 1910; a French translation of it by F. Nau appeared in Paris in the same year, and an English translation by Mr. G. R. Driver at Oxford in 1925. For other works dealing with Nestorius, see Baumstark, Syr. Lit., p. 117. There is reason to think that Nestorius himself never held or preached the doctrines of the later Nestorians, and that he was sacrificed to save the faces of Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch. In the light of the information derived from the Bazaar of Heraclides the heresy of Nestorius assumes a different form, and both Mr. Bethune Baker (Nestorius and his Teaching, Cambridge, 1908) and Mr. F. Loofs (Nestorius and his Place in Christian Doctrine, Cambridge, 1914), show from it that Nestorius has been misjudged.

The banishment of Nestorius was ordered by the Emperor at the instance of Cyril and John, Patriarch of Antioch. The latter had formerly been a strong supporter of Nestorius, but Cyril having modified, or said that he had done so, his views about the Nature of Christ, John produced a formulary which satisfied the orthodoxy of Cyril and made him abandon Nestorius once and for all. Whereas Nestorius asserted the existence of two Christs, the formulary confessed only one, which was both divine and human. The two Natures which were spoken of in the formulary were indeed separate in mental conception, i.e. considered apart from Christ, but that after their union in Christ, the nature of the Son was but one, as belonging to one, but to One as made man and incarnate. To Nestorius, two natures meant two natures existing separately, in one who was God and in one who was man. John of Antioch, while admitting that Godhead and Manhood in Christ might be regarded as intrinsically different, yet unequivocally acknowledged His Person to be one.

But in spite of the alliance between Cyril and John of Antioch, the doctrines of Theodore of Mopsuestia, which form the base of Nestorianism, continued to spread in all directions and especially in the countries to the east of Edessa. The man who did most to produce this effect was IHIBHA, or HIBHA (Graecized IBAS), who became Bishop of Edessa in 435. As he had been one of the translators of Theodore's works he was charged with Nestorianism, and though acquitted by the Synods of Tyre and Berut he was condemned by the or Robber Council of Ephesus in 449 and deposed. He was restored to his See by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and sat till 457. The letter which he wrote to MARL the Persian, Bishop of Beth Ardashir, was all powerful in increasing the spread of Nestorianism in Persia (Wright, Syr. Lit., p. 48; Duval, La Littirature Syriaque, p. 344). On the death of Ihibha all those who had taught or studied in the Persian school of Edessa were promptly expelled, and driven to seek asylum in the countries to the east. But a certain amount of work was done in the school for another twenty years or so, for its final destruction did not take place until the Emperor Zeno ordered. it to be closed. The names of several of the distinguished men who were expelled from the school in 457 are preserved in a letter of the Monophysite bishop, SIMEON of BATH ARSHAM (5zo^-15), a village near Ctesiphon, who was commonly known as the "Persian Disputant." This letter, written in 510, is, as Duval says, the oldest document we have on the propagation of Nestorianism in Persia; for its text see Assemani, Bibl. Orient., tome i, p. 436.

Among those who were expelled from Edessa was BAR SAWMA, who was a teacher in the Persian school, and was, on account of his abrupt and masterful ways nicknamed "SAHE BETH KENAIYA," i.e. "the Swimmer among the reeds," meaning "the wild boar." BAR SAWMA went from Edessa to Nisibis, where he founded a Nestorian school, and was Bishop of Nisibis. He drew up the "Statutes of Nisibis"(now lost), but they probably resembled those of his successor published in 496 (see Guidi, Gli Statuti della scuola di Nisibi, Rome, 1890). With the consent of the Patriarch BABHAI he decreed that priests might marry. The director of Bar Sawma's school was NARSAI (NARSES) a native of Ma'alltha, whom the Jacobites called the "Leper," and his fellow-Nestorians the "Harp of the Spirit." He died about 507.

By the end of the Vth century Nestorianism had established itself in Persia and Mesopotamia and the countries around, and as the Nestorians were freed from all ties with the Byzantine Church, and Rome had excommunicated them, they were welcomed by the Persians most cordially. The asceticism of Egyptian origin, which Awgin had introduced into Mesopotamia, had been modified and absorbed, and in the VIth century the archimandrites of the great Nestorian monasteries like Beth Abhe and Rabban Hormizd worked hand in hand with the head of the Nestorian Church, who since 498 had established himself at Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and called himself the "Patriarch of the East."

PROGRESS OF NESTORIANISM

In the first half of the VIIth century the Muslims began their far-reaching conquests, and the Nestorians, of whom Muhammad knew very little, welcomed the success of his arms. The Patriarch Ish6'-yahbh II, who sat from 628^-44, seeing that the downfall of the Persian Empire was imminent came to terms with Muhammad, or Abu Bakr, through the intervention of Sayyid, Governor of Najran, and Isho', the bishop of that town. For the terms of the agreement, which was ratified by 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, see Bar Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., ii, col. 117, and Assemani, Bibl. Orient., ii, p. 418; III, i, p. 108, col. is The Patriarch stipulated that the Christians should be protected from the attacks of their foes; that the Arabs should not make them go to war with them; that they should not compel them to change their manners and laws; that they should help them to repair their old churches; that the tax on the poor should not exceed four zuze; that the tax on merchants and wealthy men should be ten zuze per man; that a Christian woman servant should not be compelled to change her faith, nor to neglect fasting and prayer, etc. The Arabs, like the Persians, admired the Nestorians for the simplicity of their Faith, their common sense and practical mindedness, their energy and power of work and, above all, their learning. The Nestorians studied at Edessa, not only theology, but medicine as taught by the Greeks, and logic, philosophy, elocution and grammar, and their intellectual activity was very great. Unlike the Jacobites or Monophysites, and Melchites, the Nestorians obstinately adhered to the old Peshitta, or "Simple" version of the Scriptures, the Syriac Vulgate, which seems to have been a product of the Christians of Edessa in the IInd century (Wright, Syr. Lit., p. 3). The attempt to force a revised version on the community made by the Catholicus Mar-abha I (536--52), who was a convert from Zoroastrianism, seems to have been an utter failure.

The Nestorians of the VIth century were keen men of business, and under the impulse of their religion, and their love for mercantile transactions of all kinds, they made their way into all the countries to the east of Mesopotamia, and from Southern Babylonia they sailed to the islands in the Persian Gulf, and then to India. COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, who wrote in the first half of the VIth century, found Nestorian churches in Ceylon and India, and he says that the Nestorian bishops were guided in their work by the "Patriarchs of the East" who sat at Seleucia-Ctesiphon.

In the VIIth century the Nestorian traders and missionaries made their way into Central Asia and preached the Gospel in Turkestan, Tartary, and remote China. The first Nestorian missionary entered China early in the VIIth century, but it is probable that Christianity had entered that country at a much earlier period. ARNOBIUS (Adversus Gentes, Leyden,1651, lib. ii, p. 50) who wrote about A.D. 300 reckoned the people of the Seres as Christians (enumerari enim possunt, atque in usum computationis venire, ea quae in India gesta sunt, apud Seras, Persas et Medos). (See also Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, tome ii, Col. 1269; Assemani, Bibl. Orient., III, ii, p. 403; Du Halde, Description de la Chine; and Gibbons, Christian Church in China, Dublin, 1862, Introduction.)

Under the Patriarchate of Henan Isho' II, who succeeded Mar Jacob A.GR. io85 (=A.D. 774= A.H. 157) the famous Stele, inscribed in Chinese and Syriac, was made at Siganfu (Hsi-an-fu), in the province of Shensiin China (Plate III). Henan Isho' died in 780, and the Syriac text on the Stele says that it was set up in "the days of the Father of Fathers, Mar Henan Isho', the Catholicus and Patriarch," and the date given on it is "one thousand and ninety-two of the Greeks, i.e. A.D. 781."The Stele was actually unveiled on February 4, A.D. 781. Some of the early European writers on the monument stated, quite wrongly, that Henan Isho' died in 778, but it is now generally admitted by competent authorities that the Patriarch died in 78o. It is true that he was dead when the unveiling took place in 781, but the news of his death did not reach China in time to be mentioned in the inscription which was cut upon the Stele in the previous year. The inscription describes the fortunes of the Nestorian Church in China, from the advent of its first mission in 636 to the year 781, and shows that the influence which the Nestorians had on the religion and civilization of China for about two centuries was very great. (See APPENDIX, p. 33.) It is interesting to note that the names of seventy Nestorian missionaries are given on the Stele of Hsi-an-fu, a fact which suggests that there were many churches in China at the end of the VIIIth century.

From the evidence collected by Professor P. Y. Saeki (The Nestorian Monument in China, London, 1916) we learn that when the Chinese began to persecute the monks and nuns, about A.D. 845-46, there were over 2,000 foreign missionaries--Ta-ch'in (Nestorians) and Muhufa (Muslims) in the country. What became of the Nestorians after their persecution by the Emperor Wu-tsung in 845 is not known with certainty, but Professor Saeki thinks that some remained in China, and that the greater number of the rest retreated to the west and joined the Assyrian Church in Turkestan. A number of them most probably turned Muhammadans, for great friendship existed between the Nestorians and Muslims. The Patriarch removed his throne from Seleucia-Ctesiphon to Baghdad about 751. On all the great trade routes across Asia to China the Nestorians were greatly helped by the Muslims. The first Muhammadan mission reached China in 628 or 632, and so opened the way for the first Nestorian Mission, under the monk A-to-pen, which arrived therein 636. In 742 there were more than 5,000 Muslims in China (Saeki, Introduction, p. 51).

THE CONVERSION OF TURKESTAN

The story of the conversion of the people of Turkestan by the Nestorians early in the XIth century is thus told by Bar Hebraeus (Chron. Eccles., ii, col. 280): "At that time 'Abhd-Isho', Metropolitan of Merv, one of the cities of Khorasan, sent and informed the Catholicus (Mar John II) saying, ' When the king of the people who are called Khyreth, that is to say the inner Tirkayd, who live in the north-east, was hunting in one of the high mountains in his country, he fell into a region of deep snow, and he lost the path and wandered about distractedly. And when he had lost all hope of saving his life, one of the saints appeared to him in a revelation and said unto him, If thou wilt believe in Christ I will be thy guide so that thou shalt not die here "; and when the king had promised him that he would be a sheep in the fold of Christ, the saint guided him and brought him out into the open ground. When the king returned to his camp, he summoned to him certain Christian merchants who had business there, and he enquired of them concerning the Faith, and they said unto him, "A man cannot be perfect except through baptism." And he took from them a Gospel, and behold he bows down before it every day. And now he hath sent and asked me to go to him, or send to him a priest to baptize him. And he asked me questions about fasting, saying, "With the exception of flesh and milk we have no food at all; how then can we fast? "And he also said, that the number of those who believed with him amounted to two thousand.

"Then the Catholicus sent to the Metropolitan and told him that he must send two persons, elders and deacons, and with them the equipment of an altar, and that they must go and baptize those who have believed, and must teach them Christian customs, and that during the Lord's Fast (i.e. Lent) they must abstain from flesh food. But they were to permit them to drink milk only, provided that foods which were suitable for seasons of fasting were not, as they said, found in their country."

DOWNFALL OF THE NESTORIAN CHURCH IN CHINA

The Nestorians reached the zenith of their power in the XIIIth century under the Patriarch MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA III, who ruled the Church from Baghdad and sat from 1281-1317. This Patriarch was of Uighur origin, and had great influence- with all the Mongol and Tartar princes. During his Patriarchate the Great Khan appointed the Nestorian Mar Sergius Governor of Chinghianfu for three years, and during his period of office he built two Nestorian churches in the city, in the year 1278; see Marco Polo, ed. Yule, vol. ii, p. 162. Under Timfir (1369-1405) the Nestorians were practically exterminated in all the countries over which he ruled.

For seven hundred and fifty years at least, i.e. from 500 to 1250, the Nestorians continued their missionary and mercantile enterprise, and they undoubtedly influenced greatly the various peoples into whose countries they penetrated. Under the rule Of YAHBH-ALLAHA III there were Nestorian Metropolitans, each assisted by suffragan bishops, in Syria, Armenia, Persia, Huzistan, Seistan, Tabaristan, Turkestan, China, India, and the country about Al-Basrah. It would be wrong to assume that it was their religious opinions only that caused the Nestorians to be welcomed everywhere, for, however interesting their doctrines were to their clergy, it is impossible to think that the Chinese, Mongols, Tartars, Turks, Persians, Armenians and the peoples of the Euphrates Valley and Arabia, as nations, would understand the details of doctrine which made the teaching of Nestorius anathema to the Jacobites and Monophysites. For such matters they would care nothing, but they all would appreciate the superior mental faculties of the Nestorian missionaries and traders, and their great physical energy, and above all their knowledge of medicine, and their practical treatment of the diseases of the body, and the healings they effected.

THE CREED AND DOCTRINE OF THE NESTORIANS

Mention has already been made of the doctrines of Apollinaris and Cyril of Alexandria with reference to the Nature, or Natures, of Christ; and we may now summarize briefly the views of the Nestorians generally on the Persons and Natures of Christ. It is very difficult to find out exactly what Nestorius thought and said about them, because we have only the statements of his enemies to judge by. But it is quite clear that he, following Diodorus of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia, attributed to Christ two Natures; the one Divine and the other human, but he held them to be so entirely distinct that to all intents and purposes he made Christ a double person. Origen and other Fathers had called Mary "Theotokos," or "Mother of God," and Mary was, at the end of the IVth century, commonly called "Theotokos." Nestorius: preached that Mary was not the Mother of God, but of Christ, or the Lord, and that the creature did not, and could not, bear the Creator. Christ died, but God could not die. And God could not have a mother. He who was formed in the womb of Mary, was not himself God, but a human being whom God placed there, and with whom He covered Himself. Nestorius separated the Natures, but united the worship.

From first to last Nestorius insisted on the absolute completeness of the HUMANITY Of Christ. But, as already said, it is difficult, if not impossible, to draw up any comprehensive statement of the belief of Nestorius, and it is equally difficult to state exactly what his followers believed, or what the Nestorians of the present day believe, for no recognized formula of their creed exists. The nearest approach to a confession of faith is the treatise on the truth of Christianity by Mar 'Abhd 1sho', Metropolitan of Nisibis and Armenia, A.D. 1298, entitled the Book of the Pearl (Kethabha dhe Marghanitha). This work is held in high esteem, but it is not considered by many Nestorians to be a true or complete exposition of the doctrines held by their community. Many manuscripts of this composition are extant (see Baumstark, Syr. Lit., p. 324) and an English rendering of it was published by Badger in his Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. ii, Appendix B, p. 380 ff. But the Church Rituals contain much information about the Nestorian creed, and as these are regarded everywhere as the highest authority, from which there is no appeal, a few of them may be quoted here; for fuller details see Badger's work, vol. ii, p. 30 ff.

OF THE TRINITY--God the Father, and God the Son, the Word, and God the Holy Ghost, one substance, one God, in three co-equal persons, of Whose being there is no beginning, and of Whose Divinity there is no creation; He is living and everlasting. (From the Hudhra.)

OF THE WORD--One is the Christ, adored by all in two Natures, Who, as touching His Godhead, is begotten of the Father, without beginning, and before all ages; and, as touching His Manhood, was born of Mary, in the fulfilment of time, a body of union. His Godhead is not from the substance of His mother, neither His Manhood from the substance of His Father; but the Natures and Persons subsist in the one Parsopa of this one Filiation. And as there are in the Godhead three Persons, One Self-existent, so the Filiation of the Son is of two Natures and one Parsopa. Thus doth the Holy Church teach us to Confess of the Son, Who is the Messiah. Therefore, O Lord, we worship Thy Divinity and Thy Humanity, without dividing them. (From the Hudhra.)

O Virgin, the Holy Spirit found Him in thee, and the Word dwelt in Him by union, without conversion or confusion, the Natures continuing to subsist unchanged, and the Persons also, by their essential attributes,-the Divinity and Humanity subsisting in one Parsopa of Filiation. (From the Gazza.)

Nestorius confessed two Natures and two Persons in Christ. (From the Gazza.)

Badger understood the words "Parsopa of Filiation" to mean "that Person of the Blessed Trinity, Who through the Infinite Essence is the Son, in His special office of Son, and for which our theology supplies no equivalent term. The nearest approach to it with us is when we ascribe, often in a very lax way, different offices to the Three Persons of the Trinity in the universal Providence." (Ibid., p. 64.)

As to the Holy Spirit certain Nestorians at one time taught that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father only, and in their creed seem to have followed the Greek Church in omitting the words "and the Son." But Bedjan has called attention to the second Canon which was promulgated by the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, A.D. 410. It was drawn up by Mar Isaac, and Mar Marutha, and the Persian bishops and reads, "And we confess the Living and Holy Spirit, the Living Paraclete, which is from the Father and the Son." See Bedjan's note on p. 62 of his edition of the Syriac text of the History of Mar Yahbh-Allaha and Rabban Sawma, Paris and Leipzig, 1895.

What the Nestorian Faith was in the XIIIth century is made clear by Rabban Sawma's confession before the Cardinals in Rome which is translated on p. 96 f., but whether it represented the belief of the Persian Church only or of all Nestorians cannot be said. According to this the Father is the Begetter, the Son is the Begotten, and Holy Spirit proceedeth," and the Son has two Natures (KEYANYN) and two Persons (KENOMYN, or KENUMYN), one PARSOPA (). On the tomb of Mar Shem'6n in the church of Rabban Hormizd, the Patriarch, who died A.GR. 1849= A.D. 1538, says, “From the time when I became Catholicus and Patriarch of the East, I acknowledged God, the First Light. And I confessed and believed in His Son Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect Man, two Natures and two Persons--one Parsopa. And I loved His Spirit. And I adored His Sign (i.e. the Cross). I partook of His Body and Blood, and I died with my hope on Him." For the text, see Budge, Book of Governors, vol. i, p. clxxii.

THE TRAVELS OF THE NESTORIAN CHINESE MONKS, RABBAN SAWMA AND MARKOS

The monks Sawma and Markos (Mark) set out from China with the intention of visiting Jerusalem and the holy places, especially the Tomb of our Lord, so that they might obtain forgiveness of their sins and full and complete absolution. They travelled together as far as Baghdad, but there Providence interfered with their plans, Mark became Patriarch of the East, and was obliged to abandon his journey to Jerusalem, and Rabban Sawma was appointed to a very high office in the Nestorian Church, namely, that of Visitor-General, and was subsequently sent on a mission, partly ecclesiastical and partly political, to Byzantium, Italy, and France. We may now briefly summarize: z. The account of the joint travels of the two monks; 2. Rabban Sawma's account of his journey to Europe; 3. The History of the Patriarchate of Mark, who was called Yahbh-Allaha (III).

I.--THE TRAVELS OF SAWMA AND MARK

Sawma, later called Rabban Sawma, was the son of a well-to-do Nestorian called Shiban by his wife Keyamta, who held the office of Visitor in the community, and lived in the great city of Khan Balig or Khan Bahk, (i.e. City of the Khan) in China,. Khan Balik is no other than the great city of Pekin or Peking, and is called Cambaluc by Marco Polo, who, describes its history and plan of it as it was in 12go when he visited it. (See The Book of Sey Marco Polo the Venetian, vol. i, London, 1875, p. 364 f.) Shiban and Keyamta remained childless for a long time, but at length a son was born to them and they called him "Sawma," i.e. the Fast, for he was probably born during Lent. The child was carefully educated_ and studied ecclesiastical literature at an early age, and when he arrived at the age of puberty, his parents betrothed him to a maiden, and his father caused him to be made kankaya, i.e. ostiarius or keeper of the great church of Pekin. At the age of twenty he, to the great grief of his parents, refused to marry the maiden to whom he was betrothed, and renounced the world and all in it. In response to their prayers and entreaties Sawma dwelt with his parents for three years, but finding their manner of life intolerable, he distributed all his goods among the poor and adopted the garb of the monk; he received the tonsure from Mar George, Metropolitan of Pekin. At length he left Pekin, and after journeying for one day he found a cave in the mountain side and a spring of water, and he settled down there and lived a life of stern asceticism. His fame spread abroad and men came from all parts to hear his discourses.

In the first half of the XIIIth century there lived in the city of Kawshang in Kh6rasan a Nestorian called Bayniel, who filled the office of archdeacon in that city. He had four sons, and the youngest of them; who was born in 1245 and was called Mark, decided to become a monk, and went to the place where Sawma was, a distance- of fifteen days' journey, to ask him to help him to become one. Sawma tried to persuade him 'to return to his parents, but Mark refused to do so, and three years later he was endued with the garb of the monk and received the tonsure at the hands of Mar Nestorius, the Metropolitan.

The date of the birth of Sawma is not known, but as Mark went to him for spiritual help and guidance it is clear that he must have been several years older than Mark. Sawma died in 1294, and was an old man, so he was probably born between 1220 and 1230. Sawma and Mark, who according to Bar Hebraeus (Chyon. Eccles., ii, col. 451) were fellow-countrymen, for he calls them Yagiraye, i.e. Uighurs, lived together with great content for some time, but at length they became restless and discussed the possibility of going to Jerusalem to receive pardon for their sins and absolution. The more eager to go was Mark, and he vanquished all Sawma's scruples and fears, and this done they gave away such possessions as they had, and set out for Pekin to join one of the caravans that traded between China and the West. When the Christian- community of Pekin heard that the two monks were going to Jerusalem, they entreated them to abandon their plan and to settle down among them, but seeing that their words had no effect upon them they gave them their blessing and bade them 9 loving farewell. We may assume that the Metropolitan gave them letters to the heads of the various Nestorian communities through whose towns and villages they would pass. Though it is not so stated, it is clear that Kublai Khan provided them with a "permit "to travel unmolested through his kingdoms.

Sawma and Mark set out on their way and arrived without difficulty at Kawshang, where the kinsfolk and family of the latter lived. Here they had an impressive welcome, and when the Tartar princes K6nb6gha and If6gha heard of their arrival they sent messengers to bring them to their camp. These princes were sons-in-law of Kublai Khan, the fifth Mongol king of China, who ascended the throne in 1260, and died in 1294, aged 79 years. Like his predecessor Mangu, who reigned from July 1, 1251 to 1260, he treated Christians, and Muslims, and Buddhists with kindness, and was especially anxious to attract Christians, i.e. the Nestorians, to his country, where he found their medical learning and great business capacity of much benefit to his subjects. For good accounts of his acts see the pages of Sey Marco Polo, ed. Yule, London, 1874; and Howorth, History of the Mongols, London, 1828. Like the Christians of Kawshang the princes endeavoured to persuade the two monks to stay in their native country. When they found that prayers and entreaties were alike useless, the princes and the kinsfolk of the two monks gave them horses and rugs, and clothing and money, and the people brought them large supplies of provisions for the way. The monks having had no experience of desert travel in Central Asia refused these at first, thinking that such a large amount of baggage was unnecessary, but at length they accepted the gifts, and bade farewell to the princes and their kinsfolk, and departed.

In due course Sawma, and Mark arrived at Shachau, an outpost of China Proper, on the eastern edge of the worst part of the Sandy Desert. Here was situated the province of Tanguut, or Tangg6d, which the Chinese call Hia, and the Mongols Tangut or Tanguth. This province is represented by the modern province of Kansuh; the name Tangut is now applied to Tibet (Marco Polo, vol. i, p. 209). There were Nestorians in Tangut in Marco Polo's day, and three large churches. When the Christians in Tangut heard of the arrival of the monks they went out to meet them and rejoiced at their coming; but they made no attempt to keep the strangers with them, and having loaded them with gifts they set them on their way. Then after travelling for two months over well-nigh waterless deserts Sawma and Mark arrived at a place which the Syriac writer calls L6t6n, but which, as Chabot and others have seen, must be a misspelling of Kh6tan, the capital of a province of the same name and the seat of a b shop. The people were all Buddhists (?) and extremely well-to-do, for the city was the centre of the cotton industry. For a description of the city and its exports,-carpets, rugs, cotton and linen stuffs, black and white jade, etc., see Marco Polo, vol. i, p. 196 ff. On the excavations made at this place see Aurel Stein, Ancient Khotan, Oxford, 1907. But the arrival of the monks at Kh6tan took place at an inopportune moment for them, for they found that the country had been laid waste by a king called Ok6, who was at war with Kublai Khan, and that provisions were scarce. Worst of all for them was the blocking of the caravan routes and the insecurity of the roads, and the result of this was that they had to remain where they were for six whole months.

At the end of this period they again set out on their way, and under the favour of Providence they escaped the attentions of highway robbers and cut-throats, and arrived safely in the city of Kashkar, or Kashkar, the Cascar of Marco Polo (vol. i, p. 189), who reproduces a view of the city from Shaw's Taytary. The town was an important centre of trade, and formed the terminus of many caravan routes from the east and west; the country round about was very fertile, and the merchant and farmer classes were well-to-do. The town was famous for its jade, for the variety of the stone found there was obtainable nowhere else. At Kashgar the two monks ought to have found friends and fellow-Christians, for the city was, like Samarkand, the seat of a Nestorian Metropolitan, and Marco Polo says there were many Nestorians in the country, and, that they had churches of their own. But when Sawma and Mark went into the city they found that it had been looted by the enemy, presumably the troops of Kublai Khan, and that the inhabitants had fled, and they marched on to the place where King Kaido was encamped by the river Talas. Kaido was a grandson of Ogatai, the Kakhan, who died in December, 1241, and he waged war against Kublai Khan for many years, and made himself king of Turkestan. His frontier on the east touched the old kingdom of Kashgar; he died in 1301.

As the two monks in continuing their journey westwards would have to pass through his territory; they left the main road and spent several days in reaching his camp in order to obtain from him a written permit and authority to travel through his country. Whether they obtained the permit or not is not stated, but it would seem that they did not, for they arrived at their next halting-place, Khorasan, only with the greatest difficulty, and in the last state of mental and physical exhaustion. The text goes on to say that they had lost on the road nearly everything they had, and considering the state of the country they were fortunate to have won through with their lives. As long as they travelled in the dominions of Kublai Khan, they had only the difficulties of the way to contend with, but as soon as they passed the frontier near Kashgar, they entered Kaido's territory, and he was powerless to make the roads safe for caravans.

As Sawma and Mark were practically penniless they went to the monastery of Mar Sehyon, which was situated near Tus, the capital of Khorasan and Mashad, which lies a few miles to the south of Tus. In the Xth century of our era 1'us was the second city of the Nishapur quarter of Khorasan, and the seat of a bishop. It consisted of the twin towns of At-Tabaran and Nukan, the latter being the larger half of Tus. A century later the Mongols laid waste Tus, and Tabaran increased in size and flourished. Nukan was a very wealthy city, and it had a large export trade in serpentine stone vases, gold, silver, copper, iron, turquoise, malachite and the "santalum" stone. Mashad, i.e. the "Place of Martyrdom," or Shrine of the Imam is now the capital of the Persian province of Khorasan (see the Arab geographers Yakat iv, 414; Ibn Khurdadbih, p. 24; Ibn Rustah, p. 171).

The two monks were kindly received in the monastery of Sehyon, about which nothing is known, and when they had received the blessing of the bishop they set out on their road through AdhorbijAn intending to proceed to Baghdad. The province of Adhorbijan (the Persian Azarbijan and the Greek Atropatene) became of great importance under the Mongols who made Maraghah its capital; at the present day its capital is Tabriz: For a general description of the province see Mukaddasi, P. 373; and Le Strange, Eastern Caliphate, p. sag ff. The object of the two monks in going to Baghdad was to place themselves under the protection of the Catholicus, Mar Denha, but when they arrived at Maraghah they found that he was in the city and transacting business there. Maxagah, or Maraghah, i.e. Kariyat al-Maraghah, or "Village of the Pasturer," the Afrazah Rudh of the Persians, was situated on the river Safi, and was about 70 miles from Tabriz. The city was pleasant to live in and the country round about it was fertile and abounded in orchards. Near it stood the great observatory, built by the astronomer Nasir ad-Din of Tus, where, by order of Hulagu Khan, the celebrated Il-Khani tablets had been calculated and published (Plate IV). (Le Strange, Eastern Caliphate, p. 164.)

Sawma and Mark rejoiced to find that the Patriarch was in the city and they went and made themselves known to him; he received them kindly, and a few days later they asked his permission to go to Baghdad, whence they proposed to proceed to Beth-Garmai in the north, and Nisibis in the west. The Catholicus approved their plans and gave them a letter of introduction, which would ensure them a kindly reception among every Nestorian community they visited. Armed with this they went to Baghdad, and visited the churches and monasteries at and near Seleucia-Ctesiphon. They returned to Baghdad and then went to Beth-Garmai in the North, and visited the tomb of Mar Ezekiel, the prophet, who, according to an ancient tradition was buried in Mesopotamia, in the grave of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah (Book of the Bee, ed. Budge, p. 72). The see of Beth-Garmai was very large (see Hoffmann, Ausziige aus Syr. Akten Pers. Martyrer, Leipzig, 1880), and they had not time to visit all the holy sites in it. They then went on to Arbil, or Irbil, the ancient Arbela, which lay in the plain between the Greater and Lesser Zabh rivers. The town was a great trading centre, and a large export trade in cotton was done there; many of its merchants were Nestorians, and its churches were, together with those of Mosul, under the direction of a Nestorian Metropolitan.

From Arbil they went to Mosul (Nineveh) on the Tigris, where there were large congregations of Nestorians and many churches. There the two monks were entertained at the monasteries, and were probably supplied with funds for their journey. From Mosul they travelled westwards to Sinjar by the old caravan road which passes Tall Afar. Sinjar was a walled town, and when Sawma and Mark visited it there was a fine mosque there and many bath-houses with mosaic floors. The houses were, and still are, built in step-fashion up the slope of the hill, and the country round about was very fertile. Tradition says that the Ark rested on the top of the mountain above the town, and Christians and Muslims considered the town one of the holy places. It will be remembered that it was Gabriel, a native of Sinjar, who was the physician of Shirin, the wife of Khusrau, and saved her life. (Budge, Book of Governors, vol. ii, p. 80.)

From Sinjar the two monks followed the old caravan road to Nisibis, a very old town which is mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions. It lies about i2o miles north-east of Mosul and is two days' journey from Jazirat ibn-'Umar on the Tigris. It is surrounded by the river Hirmas. According to Yakut (iv, p. 787) it contained 40,000 gardens! Still following the old caravan road the two monks went to the great rock fortress of Mardin, with its castle which was called "AlBaz," i.e."the Falcon." The houses were, and still are, built in step-fashion up the mountain side, and the town was famous for its markets, its khans or inns, and its colleges. The Sawr river from Tur 'Abhdin flows through the town. Close by are: 1, The monastery of Za'faran, and the monasteries of Mar Awgin (see p. 17 f.) and Mar Yuhanna (see Shabushti's Book of Monasteries, quoted by Hoffmann, Ausziige, p. 167). Our two monks visited the tomb of Mar Awgin, who because he sent forth two and seventy disciples is called the "second Christ."

From Mardin the two monks paid visits to the monasteries in the district of Beth-Zabhdai, i.e. the country on the right or west bank of the Tigris near fazirat ibn-'Umar. Here lived many monks in many monasteries, and the strangers were well received and blessed by the bishops, and as they "spread tables of food "for the poor and needy they must have contrived to save money enough for the purpose. The Gazarta mentioned in the text is probably the town of Jazirat, i.e. "the Island," better known as Jazirat ibn-'Umar, which was founded by Al-Hasan ibn-'Umar, of the Taghlib tribe. Yakut says that the Tigris flowed half round the city in a semicircle, while a ditch filled with water on the land side made it into an island. It was an important trading centre, whither all the products of Armenia were brought for sale; the houses were of stone, and the town was surrounded by a wall (Le Strange, Eastern Caliphate, p. 93). It is about 105 miles down stream of Diyar Bakr, or Amid. Opposite Jazirat ibn-'Umar was Beth-Zabhdai, the Bazabda of the Arab geographers, and the Bezabda of classical writers. It will be noted that all the towns visited by Sawma and Mark were trading centres, where well-to-do merchants congregated for business purposes; and we may assume that many of the merchants would be Nestorians, and that our travellers would receive help from them.

Their visit to Gazarta ended, the two monks turned their faces eastwards, and directed their steps to the monastery of Mar Michael at Tar'il, which was probably situated at no great distance from Mosul and on the road to Arbil. Here they decided to settle down for a time at least, and having "bought a cell," they lived with the monks in amity. It may be noted in passing that the word "cell "is applied to any building in which monks, or bishops, or even a patriarch lived; many of the "cells "of the higher orders of the clergy were comfortable and spacious houses, and the cell "of the Patriarch at Baghdad was a palace.

Whilst Sawma and Mark were living at Tar'il, Mar Denha, the Patriarch (ordained 1266), who had made himself acquainted with their manner of life, summoned them to Baghdad. When they arrived he pointed out to them that their life at Tar'il was a selfish one, and that they had better come and live with him where their abilities and piety would help the whole community, and perhaps strengthen the hands of the Mongol Government; and they agreed to live in Baghdad, under his protection. But the Patriarch needed them not so much for the welfare of the whole community as for his own benefit. Soon after their arrival in Baghdad he asked them to go to the Court of Abhgha, or Abhaga, King of Kings, the son of Hulagu Khan, to obtain from him an Edict confirming him in his appointment as Patriarch of the East. Sawma and Mark were well acquainted with the manners and customs of the Mongols, and could speak and write Chinese and Persian. And as they were under the protection of Kublai Khan (see Bar Hebraeus, Chyon. Eccles., sect. ii, col. 451) the Patriarch believed that he would gain more by sending them to Abhgha than if he went himself. The monks agreed to go to Abhgha, but told the Patriarch that he must send with them a man to bring back to him the Edict if they obtained it, for they intended to continue their journey to Jerusalem. The Patriarch agreed to do so and gave them his blessing and they set out on their way. The mission of Sawma and Mark was crowned with success, for when the Amirs had reported their arrival to King Abhgha, and placed the Patriarch's petition before him, he ordered the Edict (Pukdane) to be drawn up and given to them. These they handed over to the messenger who had come with them, and sent it back to Baghdad, and they set out on their journey to Jerusalem.

As all the country of Northern Syria was in a very disturbed state our monks knew that it was impossible to travel by the ordinary routes to the West, and they made up their minds to march to the North, and to try to reach Jerusalem by sea. They therefore went to Ani, the famous capital of 'Christian Armenia, which was taken and sacked by Alp Arslan, the Saljuk in io64. This event broke up the older Armenian kingdom of the Bagratids, and caused Rupen to found the kingdom of Little Armenia. Though built in the mountains Ani contained several fine churches, but it is probable that many of them were in ruins when our monks came to the town. The town was captured from the Turks in 1123-24, by the great general, John Orbelian, on behalf of David the Restorer, King of Georgia (Marco Polo, vol. ii, p. 544 From Ani, Sawma and Mark made their way westwards through the country of the Georgians, with whom the Nestorians were friendly, probably with the intention of embarking at one of the ports in the Gulf of Iskanderun, but they were warned that robberies and murders were frequent on "Darb As-Suhani" or King's Highway, and they returned to Baghdad.

When they arrived the Patriarch Denha told them that it was unnecessary for them to go to Jerusalem, and that he had otter and better work for them to do, namely, to go back to China and help to rule the Nestorian Church there. To enable them to do this he had determined to ordain Mark Bishop, and Sawma Visitor-General. The two monks said they were unworthy of such honours and responsibilities, that they only wished to live and die in a monastery, but Mar Denha insisted, and at length they bowed to his will. Now Mar Denha wished to give Mark another name, and having written several names on pieces of paper and laid them on the altar, by means of a kind of divination (or lottery?) one of the papers was selected, and on it was written "Yahbh-Allaha," i.e."God gave (him)." Mar Denha thereupon gave Mark this name, and ordained him "Metropolitan of Kathay and Wang," i.e. two districts of Northern China, in 1280. Sawma, or Rabban Sawma, or Rabban Bar Sawma was named "Visitor-General," and allowed to keep his own name. Mark was 35 years of age at the time, and Sawma was probably 10 or 15 years older. The Patriarch gave them letters of introduction, and written authorizations, and Mar Yahbh-Allaha and Rabban Sawma set out on their journey to China. But they were unable to go very far for they found that the kings on both sides of the Oxus were at war, and that in consequence the caravan roads were cut they therefore went back to the monastery of Mar Michael at Tar'il near Mosul, and lived there in their old quarters for about two years. Whilst they were there Yahbh-Allaha had two remarkable dreams in which, according to Sawma's interpretations, it was indicated that he was marked out by God for promotion to the highest position in the Nestorian Church (see pp. 45).

Meanwhile Mar Denha, who had been ailing for a long time, became seriously ill, and Yahbh-Allaha was moved to go to Baghdad to obtain from him the insignia of his office, namely, the special cloak and the pastoral staff, but before he arrived there the Patriarch was dead. The day after Mar Denha was buried the bishops and nobles and all the notables assembled to elect his successor. After much discussion all agreed that Yahbh-Allaha must be elected head of the Nestorian Church, not because of his learning or piety, but because he knew the manners and customs and language of the Mongol kings who were at that time governors of the world; thereupon he was nominated Patriarch of the East, in spite of his protest that he did not know the Syriac language. Rabban Sawma, the practical, told him that he must accept the position, and hinted that the sooner the consent of the King of Kings to his election was obtained the better. In due course they set out with a large company of bishops and monks and went to the king's summer residence at Siyah Kuh, or the Black Mountain, in Adhorbijan, which rose up above the little town of Kalantar, which was picturesquely situated among the woods.

The story of the election of Yahbh-Allah, is given by Bar Hebraeus thus:-"In the year 1592 of the Greeks (A.D. 1280) the Catholicus Mar Denha set out to go down to Baghdad, and on the way he fell ill. After he reached the city he lingered for a few days, and then suddenly, on the night of the Monday which ushered in the Great Fast, he departed. this life on the 24th day of the month Shebhat (February) of that same year. Whilst he was alive two Uighur monks came from China by the command of Kublai Khan to go and worship in Jerusalem. When they came to these countries they were unable to find a road or an opportunity to travel thither, and they sojourned with Mar Denha. And in order that his enemy Bar-Kaligh might not go to China, he ordained one of these two Uighurs (i.e. Turkish) monks Metropolitan of China, and his name was Yahbh-Allaha. Now whilst these two monks were preparing to return to their own country Mar Denha died. Then the Amir Amshut, who was a kinsman of the two monks, spake to the King of Kings on behalf of Yahbh-Allaha, saying that the Christians wished him to be their Catholicus, and that all the Nestorians of Baghdad wished it also, because, owing to his kinsmanship with the Mongols, both by race and language, they would be helped by him. And therefore a royal Edict that he should be appointed Catholicus was promulgated. And twenty-four bishops assembled, and went down to Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and there they consecrated him Catholicus.

"Now although Yahbh-Allaha was somewhat deficient in the knowledge of the doctrines and writings of the Syrians, he was a man of good disposition, and the fear of God was found in him; and he showed great love towards us, and to the children of our people, i.e. the Jacobites" (Chron. Eccles., sect. ii, col. 452). The Bar Kaligh who is mentioned above was Simon, Bishop of Tus in Khorasan; he insulted Mar Denha, who had appointed him in 1279, and was summoned by him to Ashnu, or Ushnuh, a Kurdish town famous for its trade in horses, cattle,- and sheep. Mar Denha had him shut up in the monastery of Mar Behnam in the city of Lakha, but he escaped, and having been captured by some mountaineers they brought him to the Patriarch, who shut him up, and the bishops and monks who were with him, in a building near his cell. A few days later all there were found dead, and many stories, discreditable to the Patriarch, as to how this happened were current. The incident was never forgotten, as the subsequent happenings showed.

The king received Mar Yahbh-Allaha with honour, and gave him his throne and the cloak which lay on his shoulders and a parasol; on the use and signification of the parasol see Marco Polo, vol. i, p. 345. The king also gave him a gold PAIZA, i.e. a tablet of gold about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide, perforated at one end for suspension, and inscribed with a formula containing the name of God and the king, which conferred upon the holder of it great authority and privileges. A lithograph-facsimile of the "Gold Tablet of Command," or Paiza is given in Marco Polo, ed. Yule, vol. i, facing p. 342. The great seal of the Catholicus Mar Denha was placed in his hands, and a sum of money to defray the cost of the consecration ceremonies in Baghdad. In the winter of that year (1281), soon after his consecration in the Church of K6kA in November, King Abhgha visited Mar Yahbh-Allaha in Baghdad and gave him authority to levy a tax on the people of 30,000 dinars for the upkeep of the monasteries and churches, but after the death of Abhgha in 1282 the Patriarch was unable to enforce the payment of it. A summary of the history of the Patriarchate of Yahbh-Allaha III is given later (p. 22 f.).

THE PAIZAH OR BULL OF THE MONGOL KINGS

The Paizah (or Paiza, or Paizah) was a gold tablet, about a palm in breadth and half a cubit in length, and it seems that it was originally given by the Mongol kings to members of the royal house who were deputed to act for the king. It gave the bearer authority to call upon the people of a village or town to supply him with everything he needed, without payment, and they were expected to pay him royal honours. Later, the Paizah was given to favourites of the king and to men whom the king wished to honour. With the Paizah was given a written warrant, or patent, which was called "Yarligh or Yarlikh," which the holder of the Paizah could produce as proof that he had not stolen it, and that he was not an impostor. The word Paizah is derived from the Chinese pai-tseu; Yarligh is said to be a native Mongol word, and is the name given to-day by the Turks in speaking of a rescript or edict of the Sultan. The Yarligh al-tamgha is the warrant with a red seal or stamp, and a specimen of such a Yarligh is reproduced in Marco Polo (ed. Yule, vol. ii, p. 472). It gives the first three lines of a Mongol letter written in the Uighur character by Arghon Khan to Philip the Fair of France in 1289. For the seal see p. 32. There were several kinds of Paizah and Yarligh, and in some cases they were identical in character with the Sultan of Turkey's Buyuruldi, which is nothing more than a permit to travel, and to demand relays of horses or mules on payment.

The Paizah represented on Plate V is made of silver, and is about 12.25 inches long and 3.75 inches broad; it was found in the Minussinsk circle of the Government of Yenisei in 1846, and is now preserved in the Museum of the Academy of St. Petersburg. The moulded ring at one end is of iron, and was used for suspending it. The inscription is in the Mongol language and in the Baspa character, and is said to mean "By the strength of the eternal heaven! May the name of the Kakhan (i.e. King of Kings) be holy! He who doth not pay him reverence shall be slain and must die." On the back of the Paizah is the number 42. On Plate XIII we have a Paizah with the inscription in the Uighur character. (See Schmidt, Uber eine Mongol. Quadratinschyift, in the Transactions of the Academy of St. Petersburg, 1847.) The weight of the silver Paizah varies between 12 and 2 pounds. Apparently no Paizah in gold has yet been discovered.

II.--THE TRAVELS OF RABBAN SAWMA

During the short reign of Ahmad, the second son of Hulagu Khan (1282-84), Sawma seems to have lived with or near Yahbh-Allaha III, and to have done what he could to help his friend during that period of anxiety and trouble. When Arg6n or Argh6n succeeded to the throne the Nestorians rejoiced greatly, for he loved the Christians, and was a close friend of the Patriarch. Some of Argh6n's predecessors had wished to invade Syria and Palestine and capture Jerusalem, but they had never, for various reasons, been able to do so. Argh6n had the same wish, but he realized that he would never be able to capture Jerusalem unless he could obtain the help of the Western kings, and he therefore asked the Patriarch to find him a suitable ambassador to carry letters to the kings of Byzantium, Italy, France, and England. Yahbh-AllAha knew well that there was only one man who was fit to undertake this difficult task, namely, Rabban Sawma, and without more ado he ordered him to prepare for the journey to the West. Sawma rejoiced at the opportunity of going to the country of the Romans, and told the Patriarch that he longed to go. Thereupon Argh6n wrote dispatches to the kings of the Greeks and Romans, and prepared gifts for each of them, and as marks of royal favour and honour he gave Sawma a Paiza (see above p. 19) and also a Yarlikh, 2,000 mathkale of gold and 30 good riding horses. Sawma also obtained a letter of authority from the Patriarch, who sent by his hands letters and gifts for the Pope. Having chosen a number of priests and deacons to accompany him Sawma set out for Beth-Rh6maye, i.e. Byzantium. The text does not tell us by what route he travelled, but as he embarked in a ship at some port on the Sea of Meka, i.e. the Great Sea, or Black Sea, we may assume that he followed the old caravan road from Baghdad northwards, and passing through Mawsil (Mosul), Jazirat ibn-'Umar, and Diyar Bakr, arrived at Samsun, on the Black Sea. Here he and his party embarked in a ship which carried 3oo passengers, and in a few days he reached Constantinople. He sent messengers on to announce his arrival to the king, and he was honourably entreated and suitably housed by the Basileus, i.e. Andronicus II (1282-1328) (see Krumbacher, Byzant. Litteyatuy, p. 1054). Whether Andronicus II promised to help Argh6n or not is not stated, but as soon as Sawma had eaten and drunk he asked the king to depute some one to show him the churches, and shrines, and tombs of the saints, and the sainted relics. Having seen the principal churches and relics he returned to the king and asked his permission to continue his journey to the country of the Franks. The king gave him gifts of gold and silver and dismissed him in peace.

Sawma left Constantinople, and on his road to the quay visited (?) a monastery on the sea-shore which contained the head of John Chrysostom, and other precious relics, and then he embarked on a ship and sailed into the Mediterranean. During his voyage westwards, he saw either Mount Vesuvius, or Mount Etna, or, perhaps, as Bedjan suggests, Stromboli, which was then in eruption, and, after two months of weariness and exhaustion, he and his party landed at Naples. Here he waited upon the king who, according to Chabot (Hist. du Patyiarche, p. 60, note 3), was Charles Martel, the son of Charles IL, and explained to him the object of his mission, and the king treated him honourably. Whilst there he witnessed from the roof of a house a naval fight between the ships of Charles II and those of the king of Aragon, James II. About the time of Sawma's visit there was war between the two kings because Charles II had seized the town of Agosta in Sicily. In the naval action which followed, Charles II was defeated and a large number of his ships were sunk; for details of the engagement see the extracts from the historians quoted by Chabot (p. 61, note 5). The identification of "Y rid Ark6n "with the "king of Aragon "is due to Bedjan. The result of Sawma's audience of the king is not stated.

From Naples Sawma set out by land for Rome, and on the road he heard that the Pope, Honorius IV (1285-87), was dead. After a few days he and his party arrived in Rome, and he at once sent a message to the Cardinals who were administering the papal throne, to tell them that he had brought letters to the Pope from Argh6n, King of Kings. The Cardinals received him courteously and begged him to defer the discussion of his mission for a season; they provided him with suitable quarters and installed him therein. Three days later they sent for him and discussed his mission, and Sawma, explained to them the close relationship which existed between the Nestorian Church and the kings of the Mongols, and told them of King Argh6n's desire to rescue Jerusalem from the infidels. Then the Cardinals questioned him closely as to his Creed, and drew from him the very interesting confession of the Nestorian Faith, which is given on pp. 53.

After much talk Sawma told the Cardinals that he did not come to^. Rome to discuss questions of faith, but to be blessed by the Pope and to transact Argh6n's business with him, and then he asked the Cardinals to allow him to see the holy places in Rome. They at once summoned an official and certain monks and directed them to show him everything. He was greatly interested in St. Peter's, but he seems to have misunderstood what he was told about the crowning of Emperors by the Pope, and the way in which the crown was placed on their heads (see p. 54). When he had seen all the sights he returned to the Cardinals and asked their permission to go and see the other kings for whom he had dispatches, and as he was leaving them they told him that they could not give him an answer to King Argh6n's letter until a new Pope was elected.

From Rome, Sawma and his party went into Tuscany, where they were well received, and thence to Genoa, where the people were living under a democratic regime. He visited the cathedral church of Saint Lawrence (founded in 985), and saw and greatly admired the famous vessel which is now known as the "Sacro Catino." This object was captured by the Genoese at Caesarea in 1101, and brought to Genoa, but was carried off to Paris by Napoleon I in 18og. One tradition says that it was given to Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, and another says that our Lord and His disciples ate the Paschal lamb from it, and that Joseph of Arimathea caught in it some of the drops of Christ's Blood on the day of His Crucifixion. It is a beautiful green colour, and it was believed by everyone to have been made out of a single emerald. But it was broken in Paris, either by accident or design, in 1815, and it was then found to be made of green opaque glass. From Genoa Sawma went to Onbar, a town or city which has not been identified; Bedjan in a footnote suggests Lombardy or Ambron.

Leaving Italy, Sawma entered France, and after a journey which seems to have lasted a month, arrived in Paris, and sent a messenger to announce his arrival to the king, Philippe IV le Bel. The king received him with great honour, and when he had read King Arghon's letter, and accepted his presents, he told Sawma that he was prepared to send a force to help the Mongols to wrest Jerusalem from the hands of the infidels. Sawma remained in Paris for a month and during this time he was shown the educational institutions of Paris, with their 30,000 pupils, who were maintained by the king. One day he was taken into the church of St. Denis, containing the mausoleum of the Kings of France, and on another day into the famous Sainte Chapelle. In the latter the king led him up to a gilded chamber, and brought out a beryl or crystal coffer and showed him the Crown of Thorns which, he said, his ancestors had brought from Constantinople. The king promised to send one of his nobles to carry his answer to Arghon, and Sawma, having received from him gifts and valuable apparel, set out for Gascony (?) to see the king of England, Edward I. After riding for twenty days Sawma arrived at the chief city (which Chabot thinks was Bordeaux), and had an audience of the king there at which he presented Arghon's letter and gifts. Having stated that his views were the same as those of Arghon, the king commanded Sawma to celebrate the Eucharist, and he and his nobles partook of the Mysteries. After further talk the king gave Sawma many gifts and money to defray his travelling expenses. Having delivered his dispatches to the various kings Sawma returned to Italy and passed the winter in Genoa.

SAWMA RETURNS TO MONGOLIA

Towards the end of the winter a Cardinal Legate arrived in Genoa from Germany on his way to Rome, and he and Sawma met and held converse together. This great ecclesiastic who is styled a periodeutes or "Visitor "in the Syriac text can only have been, as Chabot has shown (p. 83), John of Tusculum, whom Pope Honorius IV had sent to Germany at the close of 1285 to arrange for the coronation of the Emperor Rudolf of Habsburg. In the course of his talk with the Visitor," Sawma complained to him that he had spent a whole year in waiting for a new Pope to be appointed, and told him that he did not know what to do, and what answer he could carry back to his master's letter to the Pope. The Visitor, saying that he would go and see the Cardinals and urge them to act promptly, went on his way to Rome. When he reached that city he found that a new Pope had been appointed, and he told him of his conversation with Sawma. Thereupon the Pope, Nicholas IV (1288-g2), sent a messenger bidding Sawma and his companions to come to Rome, and deputed a Metropolitan bishop and many clergy to go and meet him. The Pope received him with great honour and Sawma presented to him Arghon's letter and gifts, and the letter and gifts of Mar Yahbh-Allaha III, and the Pope invited him to stay and keep the Easter Festival with him in Rome. A few days later Sawma celebrated the Eucharist according to the Nestorian rite, and the congregation agreed that though the language was different the order was the same; during the Festival the Pope celebrated High Mass, and Sawma partook of the Offering at his hands.

The description of the Easter Festival in Rome is of great interest for the student of Oriental Liturgies, but a discussion of it would be out of place here. When the Festival was ended and Sawma wished to leave Rome, the Pope tried to persuade him to remain there and live under his protection. In reply to his words Sawma said that the interests of the Christians in the East dernanded his return, and then asked the Pope to give him some sacred relics to take back with him. The Pope gave him portions of the apparel of sour Lord and His Mother, and some small pieces of the relics of some of the saints. To Mar Yahbh-Allaha he sent a gold crown inlaid with precious stones, some vestments of red and gold brocade, stockings and sandals, a ring from his finger, and a Bull authorizing him to rule the Eastern Church. To Sawma he gave, a Bull confirming his appointment as Visitor-General, and his blessing, and he ordered his officers to provide him with 1,500 mathkale of red gold for the expenses of his journey home.

Of Rabban Sawma's route on his return journey we know nothing, because the translator of his narrative from Persian into Syriac found himself obliged to abridge the original considerably. All we know is that he returned safely to King Arghon, who rejoiced to hear of the success of his mission to the kings in Europe. As a reward the king promised to build a church in his capital and to make Sawma priest thereof. Arghon kept his promise, and following the example of the Mongol king Kuyuk Khan (1248-57) he set up a church so close to the royal tent that the ropes of the curtains of the church crossed those of his own tent. When the king's tent was moved, the church was moved also. The direction of everything connected with the church was committed to Sawma, who was ordered to arrange that service should be performed in it all day long. In 1289 Arghon had his son Kharbande baptized by the Patriarch in Maraghah, and in i2gi he died and was succeeded by Kaikhato.

A year or two later Sawma, feeling that he was no longer able to bear the hard manner of life of the Mongols and the fatigues of travelling, obtained permission from Kaikhato to build a church in Maraghah. Taking with him from the Royal Camp the vessels and vestments which he had used in the church there, he went to Maraghah and built a church in the names of Mar Mari and Mar George. By some means or other he obtained relics of forty martyrs to place in it. On the building, furnishing, and endowment of this church he spent 105,000 zuze, or nearly £4,400 (one zuza=10d.). The church was finished in 1293, and he went down to Baghdad to assist the Patriarch. He attended the banquet at Shaharzur in Kurdistan, which King Baidu gave in honour of the Patriarch, but was taken ill and collapsed with an attack of fever. With the help of his co-religionists he journeyed from Arbil to Baghdad where he died in January, 1294. He was buried in the church of Der ar-Rhomaye, near Baghdad.

III.--THE PATRIARCHATE OF MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA III

We have seen that Mar Yahbh-Allaha III was consecrated Patriarch of the East with the consent of King Abhgha, who authorized him to levy a tax for the upkeep of the churches and monasteries. Abhgha was succeeded in 1282 by Ahmad, who was also called Takudar, and whose baptismal name was Nicholas. This king was a stupid and ignorant man, and as he was attached to the religion of the descendants of Hagar, i.e. the Muhammadans,, he persecuted the Christians. Two high officials, Shams ad-Din and 'Abd ar-Rahman, and the Amir Shamot, and two bishops, Isho'-Sabhran of Tangoth, and Simon of Arna, entered into a conspiracy to depose Mar Yahbh-Allaha and destroy Rabban Sawma. They made Ahmad believe that they were conspiring against him in favour of Arghon, the son of Abhgha, and writing accusations against him to Kublai Khan in China. The Patriarch and the Visitor-General were brought before him in the Hall of judgment, and he took from the former the Paiza which Abhgha had given to him, and cast him into prison where he remained for about forty days. But for the mediation of the Queen Mother Kutui Khatun, who was probably a Christian, and certain of the Amirs he would have slain the Patriarch. In the end, however, he restored the Pukdana and Paiza to him and sent him away content.

Mar Yahbh-Allaha then went to Urmi, or Urmiyah, which lay close to the western shore of the lake of the same name. This town was of considerable size and was fortified and had a castle, it was a busy trading centre and famous for its cloths and fabrics. Tradition says that it was the birthplace of Zardusht, or Zoroaster. The Patriarch continued his journey to Maraghah, and arrived there with the bishops who had calumniated him. Soon after this Ahmad and his army went to Khorasan to seize Arghon who, together with the other princes, he intended to slay; and he determined to make himself Khalifah of Baghdad and to kill the Patriarch. Ahmad was at first victorious, but subsequently his officers and men forsook him, and he was captured and slain by the order of Arghon in 1284.

As soon as Arghon ascended the throne he began to consider the possibility of conquering Syria and Palestine, and getting possession of the Holy Sepulchre, but he knew that it was impossible to do this without the help of the kings in Europe. He therefore summoned Mar Yahbh-Allaha and told him to select an ambassador who was able and willing to go to Byzantium and other countries and carry out his mission successfully. The envoy chosen was Rabban Sawma, and how he performed, his task has already been shown.

During the reign of King Arghon (1284-91) Mar Yahbh-Allaha obtained great power and influence, and his relations with the king were so friendly that his royal master came to Maraghah and paid him a visit. But this happy state of affairs was of short duration, for Arghon died March 10, 1291 and was sorely lamented by the Christians. He was succeeded by Imaghin Tonghin, who was called Kaikhato or the "Wonderful," the son of Abhgha and Tukdan Khatun, and began to reign in July or August, 1291, and died in 1295. He favoured the Christians greatly and his generosity to everyone was proverbial; money had no value in his sight, and before his death his treasury was empty. When he was in Ala Dagh he attended divine service in the church which Dokuz Khatun, the great Christian Queen and wife of Hulagu had built there, and at the conclusion of the Mysteries he gave the Patriarch 20,000 dinars,, and nine vestments made of gold brocade. Mar Yahbh-Allaha was his constant adviser and he directed the king's actions to the advancement of the glory and honour of the Church. Under the king's direct patronage Rabban Sawma, built the great church at Maraghah. Kaikhato visited Mar Yahbh-Allaha twice in his Cell at Maraghah, and remained there as his guest for short periods. On one of these occasions he bestowed on the Patriarch the greatest honour which he could give to a subject, namely, the Paiza of gold of the "Sunkor "class. The word "Sunkor "means gerfalcon (shonkay), and Sunkor Paiza was a gold tablet on which figures of gerfalcons were engraved in addition to the ordinary inscription (Plate XIII). Marco Polo says a tablet with gerfalcons on it was only given to the very greatest of the Khan's barons, and it confers on them his own full power and authority. So that if one of these chiefs wishes to send a messenger anywhere, he can seize the horses of any man, be he even a king, and any other chattels at his pleasure (ed. Yule, vol. i, p. 342). With the Paiza the king gave the Patriarch 7,000 dinars.

In April, 1294, three months after the death of Rabban Sawma, Mar Yahbh-Allaha went to visit the king in his camp at Ma Dagh, and received from him many valuable gifts, viz., a cloak, a couple of fine riding mules, a parasol to be held over his head on state occasions, and 6o,ooo z2ze, or about X2,500. With this money the Patriarch set to work to build the monastery of Mar John the Baptist about a couple of miles from Maraghah, where he had already built a fine church in honour of Mar Mari.

When all the world seemed to be at peace suddenly the country was convulsed by civil war which broke out as the result of a drunken quarrel between Kaikhatb and his cousin Baidu. The nobles took sides and fighting began, and the Arabs took the opportunity to attack villages, loot the towns, and murder the people as they pleased. In the end Kaikhat6 was murdered and his cousin Baidu succeeded him and reigned for about four months, and then he was murdered. The Arabs began to rise all over the country, and to take vengeance on the Christians for all the evils which they had been made to suffer through Dokuz Khatun, Hulagu's Christian Queen. She hated the Arabs and their religion, and had caused large numbers of mosques to be razed to the ground, and the Arabs now thought that the time had come for them to destroy the churches and kill the Christians. Their attack was led by a fanatic called Nawruz, who. sent messengers throughout the country calling upon the Arabs to rise, and they did so. A party of them entered the Patriarch's Cell in Maraghah and plundered it, and then they seized Mar Yahbh-Allaha and the bishops who were with him; they hung the Patriarch up head downwards, and gagged him, and called upon him to become a Muslim, and the bishops they stripped naked and tied up with ropes. Then they beat the holy man with sticks, and demanded gold from him. One of his friends went out into the town and succeeded in borrowing 15,000 zuze, which was handed over to the Arabs by installments. Then having ransacked the Cell they took the 5,000 dinars, which they found, and the chalices and the patens, as well as the 15,000 zuze which the disciple had borrowed, and departed to destroy the church of Mar Shalita.

But at this moment the Christians received help from an unexpected quarter, for Khetam, or Hathom, the Takawor or king of Armenia, appeared with his troops, and partly by bribes and partly by force succeeded in saving the church which Rabban Sawma had built. The Patriarch managed to escape from his Cell and fled to the church, but on the following day, when he heard the fanatical Nawruz asking for him that he might kill him, he fled from the church and left King Hathom to deal with him. Hath6m gave gifts to Nawruz, i.e. bribed him for allowing Mar Yahbh-Allaha to escape, and then left Maraghah. The Syriac text calls the Armenian king Takpur, but Takpur represents the Armenian word Takavor, which means "king" or "prince."

A few days later Hathom set out for Tabhriz, the capital of the great province of Adhorbijan, and he took the Patriarch with him disguised as a servant. When they arrived there they found that Kazan, the son of Argh6n, who succeeded Baidu in 1295, had pitched his camp there. Whilst Hath6m was waiting for an opportunity to speak to Kazan on behalf of the Patriarch, Yahbh-Allaha kept himself hidden, but at length Hath6m told him to go to the king, and he went accompanied by the few men who had stayed with him. When he entered the presence Kazan asked him, "Whence comest thou?" and "What is thy name? "The Patriarch answered briefly and having blessed him, left the king in bitter grief and sorrow. The Court moved on to Mugan, or Mughan, or Mughkan, or Mugan, the capital of the district of the same name, which stretches from the base of Mount Sablan to the east coast of the Caspian Sea. According to Mukaddasi the city lay on two rivers, with gardens all round, and it was almost as large as Tabhriz. It probably stood on the site of Bajarvan, where the prophet Elijah is said to have discovered the Fountain of Life. For descriptions see the Arab geographers quoted by Le Strange, op. cit., pp. 175, 176.

When the Patriarch heard that Nawruz was in Tabhriz, he decided to leave the town, and on foot he managed to return to his Cell in Maraghah. He had nothing to hope for from Kazan, and took refuge in his Cell for a few days,. but the spies of Nawruz found out where he was, and again he sought safety in flight. That winter he sent a messenger to the king to describe his sad plight, but the man returned in haste as if fleeing for his life. In 1295 Nawruz brought a written authority to the Patriarch, ordering him to disgorge the 10,000 dinars which he had received from Kaikhato, and to escape a severe beating the Patriarch borrowed 2,000 dinars in the town and gave it to the Amir's men. The disciples managed to squeeze the Patriarch through an opening in the wall of the upper room in which he was confined, and having let him down by a rope he escaped. Whilst he was in hiding a renegade Christian came to demand 36,ooo dinars from him, and as he could not find the Patriarch he seized the men in the Cell, and beat them and tortured them, and hung them up head downwards on the walls during the days of bitter frost and snow. Their friends only saved their lives by paying the robbers 16,000 dinars (£8,000).

At the Easter Festival Mar Yahbh-Allaha sent a messenger to King Kazan at Mugan, and the Amirs took him into the presence and he delivered the Patriarch's message to him and his blessing. Whether the Patriarch had sent a large sum of money to the king, and his messenger had bribed the Amirs, is not stated, but it is very probable. In any case the king gave a Pukdana to him, and restored to him all his rights and privileges. He further ordered that all moneys extorted from the Patriarch should be returned to him and sent to him a gift of 5,000 dinars. When the king's Edict reached the Patriarch, he had the doors of his Cell opened, and his followers gathered about him again. A month or two later he set out for Ujan, where the king was, and on his arrival there Kazan received him with great honour, and seemed to regard him with affection.

In 1297 the Arabs again plundered the Patriarch's Cell in Maraghah, and carried off the great seal which Mangu Khan (see p. 32) had given to the Patriarch in his day (1251-6o), and the gold crown given by the Pope to Mar Yahbh-Allaha, and the silver throne given to him by Argh6n. On the following Sunday a serious riot broke out. The Arabs drove away the Amirs, and stoned the Christians and pulled down the walls of the Cell, and broke into the treasury of the church of St. George and carried off everything there was in it. Queen Bfirgesin Argi hid the Patriarch and the bishops with him in her house for five days, and then they fled to Shakat6 and afterwards to Siyah Kuh. When the king went to Hamadan early in 1297 the Patriarch went to him there, and Kazan issued an Edict and order that the people of Maraghah should be beaten until they restored to the Patriarch's Cell everything they had taken from it. As a result a- very small portion of the stolen property was returned to the Cell.

Soon after the riots in Maraghah serious trouble broke out in Arbil, and the Christians in the town were persecuted cruelly. A strong castle or fortress stood on the top of the hill on which the town was built, and the deep ditch which ran round it was partly enclosed by the town wall. Arbil was a busy trading centre, and there were many Nestorian traders in its bazaars. Mongol soldiers formed the garrison of the town, and the general population was made up of Muslims and Christians and Kayajy6 or "mountaineers," who were also Christians, and were soldiers of the king. One day one of the last-named shot and killed a well-known Arab of the town, and fighting broke out between the Arabs and Christians, and in a short time the whole town was in an uproar. There were agents of Nawruz in the town and they did all they could to embitter the strife with the view of killing the Christians. During Lent of the year, 1297, the soldiers captured the brother of Nawruz and his wife and children, and Kazan the king had them slain. This act gave new life to the rebellion, and the Arabs attacked the Fortress with battering rams and ballistae. They captured Mar Abraham, Metropolitan of Arbil, and many priests and believers, and some of them they killed, and some they sold as slaves. The Mongols and their Kurdish allies captured the Fortress, and looting became the order of the day; men who were bitter enemies made friends temporarily in order to rob the Christians. The king realized that Nawruz was the instigator and leader of the rebellion, and he sent out his soldiers to capture him. They discovered that he had fled to a fortress in Khorasan, and when the governor delivered Nawruz into their hands they cut off his head and sent it to Kazan.

But the fighting between the Syrians and Arabs went on with ever increasing bitterness, and King Kazan was greatly disturbed by the reports of it which reached him. At length he sent to the Patriarch Rashid ad-Din, the famous physician and historian who was put to death by the Mongol Il-Khan in 1318, and an Amir called Tarmadad, who proposed to Yahbh-Allaha that the Christians should evacuate Arbil and live upon territory which he would give them. The Patriarch could not agree to this suggestion, and when the king heard of his grief and sorrow, he gave orders that the Christians were to be fed at his expense and to stay in their homes in Arbil. A little later a peace was patched up between the Syrians and Arabs in Arbil, and to effect this cost the Patriarch 10,000 dinars, besides a certain sum of money drawn from the revenues of the Cell. In spite of this the Arabs continued their attacks on the Christians, and Nasir ad-Din persuaded King Kazan to decree that all Christians should pay the poll-tax.

In the winter of 1297 the Patriarch went to Mugan, and then on to Tabhriz and dwelt in the royal camp all the summer. The king showed him favour and gave him a new throne and a parasol, and the following winter he stayed in Arbil. A little later the king ordered him to return to Maraghah, and in 1299 he collected money for the building of his monastery. In 1300 Kazan paid a three days' visit to the Patriarch, and honoured him greatly. In 300-01 the Patriarch finished building his monastery, and consecrated the church in September, 1301. The cost of building the monastery was 420,000 zuze, or between £40,000 and £50,000. In 1302 the king bestowed a Paiza upon the Patriarch, and gave him many rich vestments. In 1303 the Patriarch went to Baghdad, which he had not visited for nine' years, and then he went to visit King Kazan, who was in camp at Hillah, and concluded with him arrangements that were very favourable to the Christians. He returned to Maraghah, where the king went to visit him, and gave the royal cloak which he was wearing to the Patriarch as a mark of his affection. The king passed the night in the monastery, and saw a vision in