History of Mar Yahballaha and Rabban Sauma

History of Mar Yahballaha and Rabban Sauma
Author: Pier Giorgio Borbone
Publisher: tredition
Total Pages: 629
Release: 2021-01-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3749712980

This book tells a story of serendipity. Two Christian monks left China about 1274, headed to Jerusalem. Travelling on an itinerary similar to that Marco Polo had taken, they reached Iran, ruled by a Mongol dynasty, the Ilkhans. There, what they never had expected happened: one of them, Mark by name, was elected Patriarch of the Church of the East (with the name Yahballaha), while the other, Rabban Sauma, was sent as ambassador to the pope and the courts of France and England by the Mongol Ilkhan Arghun. From Rabban Sauma's report of his embassy, and the two monk's memories of their journey from China to Mesopotamia, an anonymous author compiled a biography of Sauma and Mark. He interspersed their report and memories with a narrative about "the occurrences of their time - what happened to them, through them or because of them, relating everything just as it happened". The result was a chronicle entitled "History of Mar Yahballaha and Rabban Sauma", a rich and lively testimony of a time of unprecedented interconnectedness in the history of Eurasia at the epoch of the Mongol Empire.

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography
Author: Koen De Temmerman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 793
Release: 2020-12-10
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0191007528

Biography is one of the most widespread literary genres worldwide. Biographies and autobiographies of actors, politicians, Nobel Prize winners, and other famous figures have never been more prominent in book shops and publishers' catalogues. This Handbook offers a wide-ranging, multi-authored survey on biography in Antiquity from its earliest representatives to Late Antiquity. It aims to be a broad introduction and a reference tool on the one hand, and to move significantly beyond the state-of-the-art on the other. To this end, it addresses conceptual questions about this sprawling genre, offers both in-depth readings of key texts and diachronic studies, and deals with the reception of ancient biography across multiple eras up to the present day. In addition, it takes a wide approach to the concept of ancient biography by examining biographical depictions in different textual and visual media (epigraphy, sculpture, architecture) and by providing outlines of biographical developments in ancient and late antique cultures other than Graeco-Roman. Highly accessible, this book aims at a broad audience ranging from specialists to newcomers in the field. Chapters provide English translations of ancient (and modern) terminology and citations. In addition, all individual chapters are concluded by a section containing suggestions for further reading on their specific topic.

Echoes of a Forgotten Presence

Echoes of a Forgotten Presence
Author: Mark Dickens
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2021-01-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3643911033

This volume is a collection of ten articles published between 2009 and 2016 by Mark Dickens on the Assyrian Church of the East in Central Asia, along with a new article on Mar Yahbalaha III, the only Turkic patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East. Most articles deal with the textual evidence for Syriac Christianity in Central Asia, including six on Christian manuscript fragments from Turfan (China) and two on gravestone inscriptions from Semirechye (Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan). As the volume title indicates, these articles remind us of the centuries-long presence of the Assyrian Church of the East at the centre of the Asian continent, now all but forgotten due to the general scarcity of sources from which this history can be reconstructed.

New Approaches to Ilkhanid History

New Approaches to Ilkhanid History
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2020-11-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004438211

New Approaches to Ilkhanid History examines moves the study of the Ilkhanate beyond the court of the Ilkhan as well as considers new source material.

Ethical Implications of One God

Ethical Implications of One God
Author: Robert Petkovšek
Publisher:
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2020
Genre: Christian ethics
ISBN: 364396126X

"The issue of the ethical implications of monotheism is a very relevant topic from the point of view of contemporary humanities and social science, and from the perspective of the cultural and political condition in Europe and at the global scale. Therefore a scientific book devoted to this subject makes a lot of sense. Throughout the history and in present times, monotheism has been subjected to several sharp criticisms. On the other hand, we find also very different evaluations of it. They stress its positive and even crucial contribution to peace, forming of rational, non-violent, tolerant culture and society, to the scientific, political and cultural development, to democracy etc. The book offers fresh interdisciplinary perspectives - mainly from the point of view of humanities - on the ethical aspects of monotheism, broadens the scientific understanding of it, and establishes a basis for resolving conflicts to which the understanding of monotheism is relevant or even decisive."--

Jingjiao

Jingjiao
Author: Glen L. Thompson
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2024-02-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1467467138

A balanced, accessible, and thorough history of Jingjiao, the first Christian church in China Many people assume that the first introduction of Christianity to the Chinese was part of nineteenth-century Western imperialism. In fact, Syriac-speaking Christians brought the gospel along the Silk Road into China in the seventh century. Glen L. Thompson introduces readers to the fascinating history of this early Eastern church, referred to as Jingjiao, or the “Luminous Teaching.” Thompson presents the history of the Persian church’s mission to China with rigor and clarity. While Christianity remained a minority and “foreign” religion in the Middle Kingdom, it nonetheless attracted adherents among indigenous Chinese and received imperial approval during the Tang Dynasty. Though it was later suppressed alongside Buddhism, it resurfaced in China and Mongolia in the twelfth century. Thompson also discusses how the modern unearthing of Chinese Christian texts has stirred controversy over the meaning of Jingjiao to recent missionary efforts in China. In an accessible style, Thompson guides readers through primary sources as well as up-to-date scholarship. As the most recent and balanced survey on the topic available in English, Jingjiao will be an indispensable resource for students of global Christianity and missiology.

Central Eurasian Reader

Central Eurasian Reader
Author: Stéphane A. Dudoignon
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 668
Release: 2021-10-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3112400399

No detailed description available for "Central Eurasian Reader".

Christian Thought in the Medieval Islamicate World

Christian Thought in the Medieval Islamicate World
Author: Salam Rassi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2022-02-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0192662171

Christian Thought in the Medieval Islamicate World: ʿAbdīshōʿ of Nisibis and the Apologetic Tradition is the first monograph-length study and intellectual biography of ʿAbdīshōʿ of Nisibis (d. 1318), bishop and polymath of the Church of the East. Focusing on his works of apologetic theology, it examines the intellectual strategies he employs to justify Christianity against Muslim (and to a lesser extent Jewish) criticisms. Better known to scholars of Syriac literature as a poet, jurist, and cataloguer, ʿAbdīshōʿ wrote a considerable number of works in the Arabic language, many of which have only recently come to light. He flourished at a time when Syriac Christian writers were becoming increasingly indebted to Islamic models of intellectual production. Yet many of his writings were composed during mounting religious tensions following the official conversion of the Ilkhanate to Islam in 1295. In the midst of these challenges, ʿAbdīshōʿ negotiates a centuries-long tradition of Syriac and Arabic apologetics to remind his readers of the verity of the Christian faith. His engagement with this tradition reveals how anti-Muslim apologetics had long shaped the articulation of Christian identity in the Middle East since the emergence of Islam. Through a selective process of encyclopaedism and systematisation, ʿAbdīshōʿ navigates a vast corpus of Syriac and Arabic apologetics to create a synthesis and theological canon that remains authoritative to this day.

The Syriac World

The Syriac World
Author: Daniel King
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1064
Release: 2018-12-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317482115

This volume surveys the 'Syriac world', the culture that grew up among the Syriac-speaking communities from the second century CE and which continues to exist and flourish today, both in its original homeland of Syria and Mesopotamia, and in the worldwide diaspora of Syriac-speaking communities. The five sections examine the religion; the material, visual, and literary cultures; the history and social structures of this diverse community; and Syriac interactions with their neighbours ancient and modern. There are also detailed appendices detailing the patriarchs of the different Syriac denominations, and another appendix listing useful online resources for students. The Syriac World offers the first complete survey of Syriac culture and fills a significant gap in modern scholarship. This volume will be an invaluable resource to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Syriac and Middle Eastern culture from antiquity to the modern era. Chapter 26 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Christian Monks on Chinese Soil

Christian Monks on Chinese Soil
Author: Matteo Nicolini-Zani
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2016
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0814646999

The contribution of monks to the evangelization of lands not yet reached by the preaching of the Gospel has certainly been remarkable. The specific witness that the monastic community gives is of a radical Christian life naturally radiating outward, and thus it is implicitly missionary. The process of inculturation of Christian monasticism in China required a bold spiritual attitude of openness to the future and a willingness to accept the transformation of monastic forms that had been received. In Christian Monks on Chinese Soil, Matteo Nicolini-Zani highlights the willingness of foreign monks to encounter the cultural and spiritual realities of China and the degree of acceptance by the Chinese of the form of monastic life that was presented to them by the missionaries.