Nsibin
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The School of Nisibis (, for a time absorbed into the
School of Edessa The School of Edessa () was a Christian theology, Christian theological school of great importance to the Syriac language, Syriac-speaking world. It had been founded as long ago as the 2nd century by the kings of the Abgarid dynasty, Abgar dynasty. ...
) was an educational establishment in
Nisibis Nusaybin () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Mardin Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,079 km2, and its population is 115,586 (2022). The city is populated by Kurds of different tribal affiliation. Nusaybin is separated ...
(now
Nusaybin Nusaybin () is a municipality and district of Mardin Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,079 km2, and its population is 115,586 (2022). The city is populated by Kurds of different tribal affiliation. Nusaybin is separated from the larger Kurd ...
,
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
). It was an important spiritual centre of the early
Church of the East The Church of the East ( ) or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church, the Chaldean Church or the Nestorian Church, is one of three major branches o ...
, and like the
Academy of Gondishapur The Academy of Gondishapur or Academy of Jondishapur (, Farhangestân-e Gondišâpur), also known as the Gondishapur University, was one of the three Sasanian centers of education (Ctesiphon, Ras al-Ayn, Gundeshapur) and academy of learning ...
, it is sometimes referred to as the world's first university. The school had three primary departments teaching:
theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
,
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and
medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
. Its most famous teacher was
Narsai Narsai (sometimes spelt ''Narsay'', ''Narseh'' or ''Narses''; , name derived from Pahlavi ''Narsēh'' from Avestan ''Nairyō.saȵhō'', meaning 'potent utterance'; ) was one of the foremost of the poet-theologians of the early Church of the East ...
, formerly head of the School of Edessa. The school was founded in 350 in Nisibis. In 363, when Nisibis fell to the Persians, St.
Ephrem the Syrian Ephrem the Syrian (; ), also known as Ephraem the Deacon, Ephrem of Edessa or Aprem of Nisibis, (Syriac: ܡܪܝ ܐܦܪܝܡ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ — ''Mâr Aphrêm Sûryâyâ)'' was a prominent Christian theology, Christian theologian and Christian literat ...
, accompanied by a number of teachers, left the school. They went to the School of Edessa, where Ephrem took over the directorship of the school there. It had been founded as long ago as the 2nd century by the kings of the Abgar dynasty. When Ephrem took over the school, its importance grew still further. After the Nestorian Schism, when the Byzantine emperor
Zeno Zeno may refer to: People * Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Zeno (surname) Philosophers * Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes * Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 B ...
ordered the school closed for its teachings of
Nestorian Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian ...
doctrine, deemed
heretical Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Christianity, Judai ...
by
Chalcedonian Christianity Chalcedonian Christianity is the branches of Christianity that accept and uphold theological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, the fourth ecumenical council, held in AD 451. Chalcedonian Christianity accepts the Christological Definiti ...
, the School moved back to Nisibis.


Early history

The school was founded around 350 by
Jacob of Nisibis Saint Jacob of Nisibis (, '; Greek: Ἅγιος Ἰάκωβος Ἐπίσκοπος Μυγδονίας; Armenian: ), also known as Saint Jacob of Mygdonia, Saint Jacob the Great, and Saint James of Nisibis, was a hermit, a grazer and the Bishop ...
(Mar Yaqub). Its model was the school of
Diodorus of Tarsus Diodore of Tarsus (Greek Διόδωρος ὁ Ταρσεύς; died c. 390) was a Christian bishop, monastic reformer, and theologian. A strong supporter of the orthodoxy of Nicaea, Diodore played a pivotal role in the Council of Constantinople ...
in Antioch. It was an ideal location for a Syriac school: in the centre of the Syriac-speaking world but still in the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
, which had just embraced
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
. Most of
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...
was under Sassanid
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
n rule, which had the ancient
Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...
religion as its official state-religion.


Exile to Edessa

The Persians soon gained Nisibis, in 363, and the school was moved westward to an existing school in
Edessa, Mesopotamia Edessa (; ) was an ancient city ('' polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, in what is now Urfa or Şanlıurfa, Turkey. It was founded during the Hellenistic period by Macedonian general and self proclaimed king Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the ...
, where it was known as the 'School of the Persians' (Eskuli d-Forsoye/Eskuli d-Parsaye in Edessan Aramaic/Syriac). There, under the leadership of Ephrem, it gained fame well beyond the borders of the Syriac speaking world. Meanwhile, in Antioch,
Theodore of Mopsuestia Theodore of Mopsuestia (Greek: Θεοδώρος, c. 350 – 428) was a Christian theologian, and Bishop of Mopsuestia (as Theodore II) from 392 to 428 AD. He is also known as Theodore of Antioch, from the place of his birth and presbyterate. ...
had taken over the school of Diodorus, and his writings soon became the foundation of Syriac theology. Even during his lifetime, they were translated into Syriac and gradually replaced the work of Ephrem. One of his most famous students was
Nestorius Nestorius of Constantinople (; ; ) was an early Christian prelate who served as Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April 428 to 11 July 431. A Christian theologian from the Catechetical School of Antioch, several of his teachings in the fi ...
, who became
Patriarch of Constantinople The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople () is the archbishop of Constantinople and (first among equals) among the heads of the several autocephalous churches that comprise the Eastern Orthodox Church. The ecumenical patriarch is regarded as ...
, but the doctrine he was preaching made him run afoul of
Cyril of Alexandria Cyril of Alexandria (; or ⲡⲓ̀ⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ Ⲕⲓⲣⲓⲗⲗⲟⲥ;  376–444) was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444. He was enthroned when the city was at the height of its influence and power within the Roman Empire ...
. Cyril sought to brand Nestorius as a heretic, and at the
First Council of Ephesus The Council of Ephesus was a council of Christian bishops convened in Ephesus (near present-day Selçuk in Turkey) in AD 431 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. This third ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church th ...
in 431, he had Nestorius formally censured. The resulting conflict led to the Nestorian Schism, which separated the Church of the East from the Western Byzantine form of Christianity. The opponents of
Nestorius Nestorius of Constantinople (; ; ) was an early Christian prelate who served as Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April 428 to 11 July 431. A Christian theologian from the Catechetical School of Antioch, several of his teachings in the fi ...
attacked Theodore's School of Diodorus as well, and the Syrians answered by giving protection to the followers of Nestorius. In 489, the Byzantine emperor,
Zeno Zeno may refer to: People * Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Zeno (surname) Philosophers * Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes * Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 B ...
, ordered the school closed for its Nestorian tendencies, and it returned to Nisibis.


Centre of Syriac theology

Back in Nisibis, the school became even more famous. It attracted students from all the Syriac churches, many of its students embodied important church offices, and its teaching was normative. The exegetical methods of the school followed the tradition of Antioch: strictly literal, controlled by pure grammatical-historical analysis. The work of Theodore was central to the theological teaching, and men like Abraham of Beth Rabban, who headed the school during the middle of the 6th century, spent great effort to make his work as accessible as possible. The writings of Nestorius himself were added to the curriculum only about 530. At the end of the 6th century, the school went through a theological crisis, when its director Henana of Adiabene attempted to revise the official exegetical tradition derived from Theodore of Mopsuestia. The controversy over Henana divided the Church of the East, and led to the departure of many of the school's members, probably including
Babai the Great Babai the Great ( , c. 551 – 628) was an early Assyrian people, Assyrian church father of the Church of the East. He set several of the foundational pillars of the Church, revived the monastic movement, and formulated its Christology in a syst ...
. A focus of the controversy was the debate between supporters of a one-''qnoma'' (roughly " hypostasis") and of a two-''qnome''
Christology In Christianity, Christology is a branch of Christian theology, theology that concerns Jesus. Different denominations have different opinions on questions such as whether Jesus was human, divine, or both, and as a messiah what his role would b ...
, and the divide was worsened by interventions on the part of
West Syriac The West Syriac Rite, also called the Syro-Antiochian Rite and the West Syrian Rite, is an Eastern Christian Ritual family, liturgical rite that employs the Divine Liturgy of Saint James in the West Syriac dialect, West Syriac dialect. It is p ...
miaphysites. Babai's attacks on Henana's one-''qnoma'' theology came to be generally accepted by the Church of the East, though Henana remained a significant influence in the Church's subsequent tradition of interpretation. The controversy over Henana and the monastic revival initiated by Abraham of Kashkar, supported by Babai, diminished the school's influence, and the spread of other schools founded on its model throughout the Sassanid Empire also reduced its centrality. In the first half of the 7th century, after the death of Henana in c. 610, the school seems to have entered terminal decline.


Influence on the West

The fame of this theological seminary was so great that
Pope Agapetus I Pope Agapetus I (489/490 – 22 April 536) was the bishop of Rome from 13 May 535 to his death on 22 April 536. His father, Gordianus, was a priest in Rome and he may have been related to two popes, Pope Felix III, Felix III and Pope Gregory I, ...
and
Cassiodorus Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Christian Roman statesman, a renowned scholar and writer who served in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senato ...
wished to found one in Italy of a similar kind. The troubled times prevented their wishes from being realized, but Cassiodorus's monastery at Vivarium was inspired by the example of Nisibis that he had learned from the Quaestor Junillus during his time in Constantinople.M.L.W. Laistner, ''Thought and Letters in Western Europe: A.D. 500 to 900'' second edition (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1957), p. 96


Notable students and teachers

*Patriarch
Aba I Aba I (or, with his Syriac honorific, Mar Aba I) or Mar Abba the Great was the Patriarch of the Church of the East at Seleucia-Ctesiphon from 540 to 552. He introduced to the church the anaphoras of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Nestorius beside ...
, student and teacher * Abraham of Beth Rabban, director 530–569 *
Babai the Great Babai the Great ( , c. 551 – 628) was an early Assyrian people, Assyrian church father of the Church of the East. He set several of the foundational pillars of the Church, revived the monastic movement, and formulated its Christology in a syst ...
, student * Barhadbshabba Arbaya, teacher * Barhadbshabba of Hulwan, student *
Barsauma of Nisibis Barsauma (, ''Barṣaumâ''), nicknamed ''Bar Sawma'', "son of Lent" in Syriac, was Metropolitan of Nisibis in the 5th century, and a major figure in the history of the Church of the East. Under his leadership the church moved away from Roman l ...
, teacher *
Cyrus of Edessa Cyrus of Edessa (or Qiyore of Edessa) was a Syriac language, Syriac writer and teacher in the Church of the East. He was probably a native of Edessa. He studied at the school of Nisibis (c. 533–538) under Aba I, Aba, the future patriarch, and th ...
, student *
Dadisho of Mount Izla Dadishoʿ (528/9–604) was a monk and author of the Church of the East. He was the second abbot of the great monastery of Mount Izla after its founder, Abraham of Kashkar. He has sometimes been conflated (e.g., by Giuseppe Assemani) with Dadisho ...
, student * Elishaʿ bar Quzbaye, director ?520s *
ʿEnanishoʿ ʿEnanishoʿ (Syriac language, Syriac: ܥܢܢܝܫܘܥ, also romanized ''ʿAnanishoʿ'' or ''ʿNānišoʿ'') was a monk, philosopher, lexicographer and translator of the Church of the East who flourished in the 7th century. Biography ʿEnanishoʿ wa ...
, student *
Ephrem the Syrian Ephrem the Syrian (; ), also known as Ephraem the Deacon, Ephrem of Edessa or Aprem of Nisibis, (Syriac: ܡܪܝ ܐܦܪܝܡ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ — ''Mâr Aphrêm Sûryâyâ)'' was a prominent Christian theology, Christian theologian and Christian literat ...
, teacher *
Gabriel of Qatar Gabriel of Qatar, also known as Gabriel Qaṭraya bar Lipeh, was a Qatari Syriac writer of the Church of the East. He wrote a commentary on the East Syrian liturgy. Life Gabriel's date are uncertain, but he probably flourished in the late 6th a ...
, student (possibly) * Gregory of Kashkar, student * Henana of Adiabene, director 571–610 *Patriarch
Ishoyahb II Ishoʿyahb II of Gdala was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 628 to 645. He reigned during a period of great upheaval in the Sasanian Empire. He became patriarch at the end of a disastrous war between Rome and Persia, which weakened both po ...
, student *
Joseph Huzaya Joseph (Yawsep) Hūzāyā (fl. c. 530) was a Nestorian teacher and author. His name indicates that he hailed from Khuzestan. Joseph was a disciple of Narsai. He was the ''maqryānā'' ( reader) of the School of Nisibis at the end of the 5th and in ...
, teacher *
Paul the Persian Paul the Persian or Paulus Persa was a 6th-century East Syriac theologian and philosopher who worked at the court of the Sassanid king Khosrau I. He wrote several treatises and commentaries on Aristotle, which had some influence on medieval Islami ...
, student and teacher *Patriarch
Sabrisho I Sabrisho I (also Sabr-Ishu, Syriac for "hope in Jesus") was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 596 to 604, during the rule of King Khosrow II. Sabrisho was born in 525 in Beth Garmai (near modern-day Kirkuk) in the Sasanian Empire. He was ...
, student * Severus Sebokht, teacher * Thomas of Edessa, student and teacher


See also

*
School of Edessa The School of Edessa () was a Christian theology, Christian theological school of great importance to the Syriac language, Syriac-speaking world. It had been founded as long ago as the 2nd century by the kings of the Abgarid dynasty, Abgar dynasty. ...
*
School of Seleucia-Ctesiphon The School of Seleucia-Ctesiphon (sometimes School of Seleucia) was a theological school of the Church of the East located in the western half of the city of Seleucia-Ctesiphon on the right bank of the Tigris. It was an independent Christian scho ...
*
Academy of Gondishapur The Academy of Gondishapur or Academy of Jondishapur (, Farhangestân-e Gondišâpur), also known as the Gondishapur University, was one of the three Sasanian centers of education (Ctesiphon, Ras al-Ayn, Gundeshapur) and academy of learning ...
*
Syriac literature Syriac literature is literature in the Syriac language. It is a tradition going back to the Late Antiquity. It is strongly associated with Syriac Christianity. Terminology In modern Syriac studies, and also within the wider field of Aramaic st ...
*
Nizamiyya The Nezamiyeh () or Nizamiyyah () are a group of institutions of higher education established by Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk in the eleventh century in Iran. The name ''nizamiyyah'' derives from his name. Founded at the beginning of the Seljuk Empire, ...
*
Sarouyeh Sarouyeh () was a large library in ancient pre-Islamic Iran. The 10th century chronicler Ahmad ibn Rustah refers to it as "Sarough" (). The ''Fars Nameh'' of Ibn Balkhi calls it ''Haft Halkeh'' (). The library, located near where the city of Isfa ...


References


Bibliography

* * * * {{Authority control Church of the East
Nasibin Nusaybin () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Mardin Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,079 km2, and its population is 115,586 (2022). The city is populated by Kurds of different tribal affiliation. Nusaybin is separated ...
Osroene Christianity in the Sasanian Empire History of Christianity in Turkey Christian schools in Asia