Adiabene (East Syriac ecclesiastical province)
Its known suffragan dioceses included Beth Bgash (the Hakkari region of eastern Turkey) and Adarbaigan (the Ganzak district, to the southeast of Lake Urmi), well to the east of Adiabene proper.
By the middle of the 6th century there were also dioceses in the province of Adiabene for Maʿaltha (ܡܥܠܬܐ) or Maʿalthaya (ܡܥܠܬܝܐ), a town in the Hnitha (ܚܢܝܬܐ) or Zibar district to the east of ʿAqra, and for Nineveh.
Five new dioceses in the province of Mosul and Erbil were established during the Umayyad and ʿAbbasid periods: Marga, Salakh (ܣܠܟ), Haditha, Taimana and Hebton.
[3] A number of East Syriac bishops are attested between the eighth and 13th centuries for the diocese of Hebton, a region of northwest Adiabene to the south of the Great Zab, adjacent to the district of Marga.
[13] The priest and archdeacon Bar Aba was among the signatories of the acts of the synod of Ishoʿyahb I in 585, on behalf of the metropolitan Hnana, 'metropolitan of the Athoraye', probably the same man.
An ascetic from the town of Htara in the Tirhan district, he studied in his youth under Rabban Babai in Gbilta and later opened a school in the Erbil village of Kfar ʿUzail, where he taught for many years.
In his late middle age, during the reign of the patriarch Aba II (742–52), he was consecrated bishop of Salakh by the metropolitan Ahha of Adiabene.
Ishoʿyahb, the elderly superior of the monastery of Beth ʿAbe, had originally intended to contest the 780 patriarchal election and was widely expected to win it.
His rival Timothy, then bishop of Beth Bgash, persuaded him to withdraw his candidacy on the grounds of old age, and promised to appoint him metropolitan of Adiabene if he became patriarch himself.
[28] The bishop Dindowai of 'Maʿaltha and Hnitha', formerly a monk of the monastery of Beth ʿAbe, was appointed by the metropolitan Yohannan of Adiabene at an unknown date in the first half of the 8th century.
[29] The bishop Sargis of 'Maʿaltha and Hnitha', formerly a monk of the monastery of Beth ʿAbe, was appointed around the middle of the 8th century by the metropolitan Ahha of Adiabene after the death of Dindowai.
Sargis abandoned his diocese in the wake of a raid on the Hnitha district by the Dailomaye and took refuge in the monastery of Beth ʿAbe, where he remained until his death.
[36] The monk Dnah-maran of the monastery of Beth Qoqa was consecrated bishop of Hebton at an unknown date in the first half of the 9th century.
[33] An unnamed and unperfected bishop of Hebton, 'in the province of Mosul', was present at the consecration of the patriarch ʿAbdishoʿ III in 1139.
[41] The patriarch Abraham of Marga (837–50) was originally an archimandrite in the monastery of Beth ʿAbe, and later bishop of Hdatta (Haditha).
[39] The metropolitan Yohannan Ibn al-Haddad of Mosul was present at the consecration of the patriarchs Bar Sawma in 1134 and ʿAbdishoʿ III in 1139.
[55] The metropolitan Joseph 'of Athor and Nineveh' is mentioned together with the patriarch Yahballaha II (the start of whose reign has conventionally been placed in 1190) in the colophon of an East Syriac manuscript of August 1189.
Before the 14th century the Ṣapna valley was part of the diocese of Dasen and Beth Ture ('the mountains'), which lay to the north of Marga and also covered the Berwari region and the Zibar and Lower Tiyari districts.
The last-known bishops of Beth Nuhadra and Dasen, Malkishoʿ and Mattai, were present at the consecrations of Denha I in 1265 and Yahballaha III in 1281 respectively, and it is unclear when either diocese came to an end.
[15] The bishop Ephrem of Beth Nuhadra is mentioned together with the patriarch Yaʿqob in the colophon of an East Syriac manuscript of 759/760.
[47] Elijah, Elias, or Eliya of Nisibis was consecrated bishop of Beth Nuhadra by the patriarch Yohannan V on Sunday 15 February 1002.
[65] The bishop Sabrishoʿ of Beth Nuhadra is mentioned together with the patriarch 'Yahballaha of Athor' (Yahballaha II) in the dating formula of an East Syriac manuscript of 1208 copied in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd.
[28] The bishop Stephen of Dasen was a contemporary of the metropolitan Maranʿammeh of Adiabene, who was appointed by Yaʿqob II (754–73) and died shortly after the accession of Timothy I in 780.
In the middle of the 8th century the diocese is known to have included the districts of Sapsapa (the Navkur plain south of ʿAqra, on the east bank of the Khazir river), Talana and Nahla d'Malka (two valleys around the upper course of the Khazir river) and Beth Rustaqa (the Gomel valley), and it probably also included several villages in the Zibar district.
By the second half of the 13th century the names of two villages in the Gomel valley, Tella and Barbelli (Billan), were also included in the title of the diocese.
[73] The bishop Shemʿon of Beth Bgash, who flourished around the middle of the 8th century, is mentioned on several occasions by Thomas of Marga.
[59] The bishop Mark of Beth Bgash was appointed metropolitan of Rai by the patriarch Yohannan III immediately after his consecration on 15 July 893.
[47] The monk Sabrishoʿ of the monastery of Mar Mikha'il near Mosul was consecrated bishop of Beth Bgash by the patriarch Eliya II (1111–32).
[76] A separate East Syriac metropolitan province was created for Adarbaigan in the second half of the 13th century, possibly centred on Tabriz.
Raiding and brigandage were rife in Mesopotamia at this period, and the creation of a new East Syriac metropolitan province reflected a migration of Christians from the Tigris plains to the relative safety of Adarbaigan, where there was a strong Mongol military presence.
