From Beatific Sanctuary to Besieged Stronghold: Syriac Monastic Conflicts and Early Islam

The Syrian Orthodox Church, a prominent Christian community in the late antique Middle East, experienced a schism in the eighth century due to differing views on its relationship with the Muslim caliphs. The Monastery of Mar Gabriel, also called the Qartmin monastery and located in Southeast Turkey, sought close ties with the caliphs, while the Qenneshre Monastery, located in Northern Syria, opposed such relations. This led to a seventeen-year schism that had lasting effects on the Church into the ninth century. This dissertation argues that the origins of this conflict can be found in the Church’s foundations in the sixth century. Miaphysites in Syria experienced repression from the pro-Chalcedonian faction, with their bishops and leaders being expelled from cities, imprisoned, or exiled to the rural frontier of Northern Mesopotamia. Without the cities, the Church came to rely on the monasteries to organize the rival Syrian Orthodox Church. This Church was governed by a diffuse network of monasteries rather than a singular authority. Following the Arab conquest in the seventh century, Church leaders sought to determine how they should interact with their new Muslim leaders. However, given the diffuse leadership structure, there was no way to enforce canons and rulings written by Jacob of Edessa in determining these relationships. Over the seventh and eighth centuries, the Qartmin monastery grew closer to the caliphate, and in turn, the caliphs began to patronize the monastery and appointed patriarchs directly from it. This created a rivalry with Qenneshre, and the schism occurred when a monk from each monastery was named patriarch, one by the Church and the other by the caliph. The factors that caused the schism were addressed in the ninth century by centralizing authority with the patriarch, diminishing the power of other bishops and monasteries, and aligning the patriarch with the caliph. These reforms were framed in the history of the Church’s experience of persecution and suffering in the sixth century, thus positioning ecclesiastical reforms in continuity with the Church’s past.

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