Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell Mahre

A Christian Syrian historian living in the 8th century is referred to as Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell Mahre .

The anonymous author wrote a chronicle that was erroneously ascribed to the patriarch Dionysius of Tell Mahre (9th century) by orientalists such as Giuseppe Simone Assemani and Jean-Baptiste Chabot from the 18th to the end of the 19th century . The error was identified in 1896, independently of one another, by Theodor Nöldeke and François Nau . The Syrian monk (now called Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell Mahre) wrote his miaphysitic world chronicle, which goes up to 775, in the Zuqnin monastery near Amida . For this reason, the work is now often referred to as the Chronicle of Zuqnin . The work is roughly divided into four parts. The anonymous author resorted to various sources, such as the church history of Eusebius of Caesarea , that of Socrates Scholastikos , the chronicle ascribed to Joshua Stylites and the second, now lost part of the church history of John of Ephesus . For events in the 8th century, the author could also rely on his own experience. The author, who wrote in the Syrian language , could not speak Greek and therefore resorted to Syrian versions of the church histories of Eusebius and Socrates. In the chronology of events, the author dates from creation, from Abraham and according to the calendar of the Seleucids .

In his world chronicle for the period after the Arab conquest (from the 730s), the author focuses on the life of the Christian “ dhimmis ”, the “wards” of the caliph. In this context he paints a rather gloomy picture. He describes the persecution of Christians by the Arabs (for example in Armenia ) as well as the oppressive tax burden that Christians had to pay; torture and the destruction of Christian monasteries and settlements are also described. Although not particularly sophisticated from a literary point of view, the chronicle is an important and largely reliable source for the life of Christian subjects in the caliphate of the 7th and 8th centuries and conveys a not very tolerant picture of some Islamic rulers of that time, but it is authentic is to be seen. For the author, the oppressive foreign rule is God's punishment for the sins that the Christians would have incurred.

The manuscript of the Chronicle (which dates from the 9th century) was acquired in 1715 by GS Assemani in Dair as-Suryan ( Egypt ) and is now in the Biblioteca Vaticana (Vat. Syr. 162). Some missing pages were purchased from the same monastery by Henry Tattam in 1842 and are now kept in the British Library .

Translations

• Amir Harrak (Ed.): The Chronicle of Zuqnin, Parts III and IV AD 488-775 . Toronto 1999.
• Andrew Palmer, Sebastian P. Brock, Robert G. Hoyland (Eds.): The Seventh Century in the West Syrian Chronicles . Translated Texts for Historians . Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 1993, pp. 53ff. (brief introduction and some translated source excerpts).
• Witold Witakowski (Ed.): Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahre: Chronicle, Part III . Liverpool 1996 (English partial translation).

Remarks

1. ↑ See also Amir Harrak (ed.): The Chronicle of Zuqnin, Parts III and IV AD 488-775 . Toronto 1999, p. 28ff. (for the sources of parts 3 and 4).
2. ↑ Cf. Bat Ye'or : The Decline of Oriental Christianity under Islam (7th – 20th centuries) . Resch, Graefelfing 2002 (orig. Paris 1991; also contains some translated source excerpts).