2. The history of the church from the 5th to the 9th century is one of gradual separation from western Christianity and the establishment of separate Syriac churches with their own hierarchy and geography, competing with one another and expanding toward East Asia. The political history of this era began with a series of confl icts between Rome and the Sasanians, caused by the question of Rome’s tribute to Persia. However, the rulers of each empire supported each other in the face of internal challenges: Arcadius (r. 383 – 408) asked Yazdegird I to be the guardian of his young son Theodosius after his death, while the emperor Maurice helped Khosrow II Parvez (r. 590 – 628) to retake his throne. The Persians later took the assassination of Maurice by Phocas as a pretext to invade the Roman Empire.
3. At the same time, the cultural history is one of continued production and transmission of knowledge between the 6th and the 9th century, with scholars translating Greek as well as Indian and Iranian works into Syriac and then Arabic. The Roman Near East was occupied twice in the 7th century, fi rst by the Sasanians, who conquered the territory from Egypt to Constantinople between 602 and 628 and even besieged Constantinople itself in 626 (unsuccessfully), and the second time by Arab Muslims just after the Byzantines counterattacked the Persians under the emperor Heraclius. This time, the conquerors would establish a new state, the caliphate. For the fi rst time since Alexander the Great, the frontier between the “Western” states and Persia disappeared. This period of political disruption obviously affected the population on the frontiers as wars and the changing of administration usually did, but it did not affect the development of churches or the Syriac cultures. The rhythms of cultural, political, and religious history are not the same, and periodizations inevitably confl ict with one or the other. The 7th century saw an enormous surge of commentaries and translations from Greek into Syriac as well as the missionary expansion to China (see chapter 5). Although this period was “the Dark Ages” for Byzantium, defeated and shorn of its eastern provinces, it was also a time of fl ourishing for Syriac culture, which in turn helped preserve the Greek heritage in the Middle East. During the 8th and 9th centuries, Syriac Christians played a central role in the translation movement that took place in Baghdad under the patronage of the ʿAbbasid caliphs, where scholars of all religions and areas of the empire participated in what is called the ʿAbbasid Renaissance.
4. Although sometimes characterized as a resurgence of ancient Greek culture, it was in reality the extension of a process that had been ongoing since the end of late antiquity, especially in the Syriac world. Greek texts were selected, read, transmitted, and commented on in the Christian circles in which they were circulating. Because of the amount of intellectual activity that took place in the East, it was a period of “light” for the ʿAbbasid world, and only a dark age for the Byzantines. This literary production in Greek and Syriac took place both before and after the arrival of the Arabs, including the Umayyad period, before the ʿAbbasids. Thus, the concepts of an ʿAbbasid Renaissance and a Byzantine Dark Ages do not fi t the Syriac world, especially since it was not only Greek but also eastern knowledge that enriched the intellectual world of late antiquity.
5. The 4th and 5th centuries were a period of theological refl ection and refi ned doctrine, marked by the meeting of four ecumenical councils that resulted in the permanent division of the Christian world. These two centuries also saw the restructuring of the church via patriarchates, of which the three main centers were Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome, along with Constantinople, the capital of the empire, which asserted its independence as a fourth patriarchate. Another small patriarchate, which held sway over Palestine and outer Jordan, was created in 451 to honor Jerusalem and its link with Christ. Finally, as we have seen, Seleucia- Ctesiphon established itself as the independent patriarchate of the Church of the East in the same period. Although the Council of Chalcedon established the patriarchate organization, the Church of the East created its own pentarchy, substituting itself for the patriarchate of Jerusalem, which it did not recognize, and claiming to be the head of the other patriarchates.
6. letter of the catholicos timothy on the primacy of the church of persia:

1. This was the period that saw the emergence of the bishop as the shepherd and defender of orthodoxy, but also as a new community leader, responsible for organizing the defense of the cities’ walls and the construction of churches, hospitals, and bridges, and for conducting the prayers and processions during times of war or natural disasters, as Ephrem shows in his poems on the bishops of Nisibis. The bishop Rabbula of Edessa (d. 435/436), who was renowned for his forceful personality, was an example of these new roles. In addition to his hagiographic Life, an inscription about him also survives. It shows that in the 5th century Syriac spread in a Christian environment on the western side of the Euphrates (see Nabgha, page 67) and very quickly around Antioch.
2. The Later Ecumenical Councils
3. Syriac Churches in the Roman/Sasanian Empires around 600 C.E:

Life of Nestorius:

1. In the 5th century, discussions about the nature of the union of the divine and human natures of Christ (known as a “hypostatic union”) crystallized a number of tensions between the Christian communities of the Near East, which later resulted in permanent ecclesial division. Two schools of thought emerged: one from Alexandria, marked by its affi nity for Neoplatonism, which strongly affi rmed Christ’s divinity and the unity of his nature after the incarnation, according to the formulation of Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria, “a single nature (mia physis) of the Incarnate Word”; and the other from Antioch, which centered on the economy of salvation and insisted on emphasizing the human nature of Christ, by which he won salvation for all people. The debate began when Nestorius, a prominent theologian from the Antiochian school, declared that he could not assent to giving Mary the title “Mother of God” (theotokos), since she was only the mother of Christ’s human nature. He suggested instead that she should be given the name “Mother of Christ” (christotokos). A new council to resolve this question was convened by the emperor Theodosius II at Ephesus in 431, but in the absence of the Antiochians, who were prevented by mischance from arriving, the council was dominated by the authority of Cyril of Alexandria and adopted the Miaphysite position. It also explicitly condemned Nestorius and his mentor Theodore of Mopsuestia
2. Christological Divisions in the 5th Century:

1. Narsai
2. A fi gure with one foot in both Rome and Persia, the East Syrian theologian Narsai (d. ca. 503) was educated at the School of the Persians at Edessa, where he also later taught and eventually became a leader. Just before the closure of the school in 489, he crossed into the Persian Empire after a disagreement with Bishop Cyr of Edessa. He founded the School of Nisibis, where he was followed by some of the students of the School of Edessa, and became its leader. Renowned in the Church of the East, where he became the most famous poet and theologian, known as the “Harp of the Holy Spirit,” he penned roughly eighty memre about the Old and New Testaments, on subjects such as creation, the fl ood, Noah, the Tower of Babel, Jonah, Joseph, the revelations made to the prophets, the Virgin, Saint Stephen, the Nativity, Epiphany, the Resurrection, Pentecost, the Eucharist, baptism, martyrs, and many more. According to the history of Barh.adbshabba, he composed a poem for each day of the year, fi lling twelve volumes. Only one of his memre is dedicated to someone outside the Bible: the three doctors of the Church of the East: Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Nestorius. Again, according to the history of Barh.adbshabba, Narsai was inspired to begin writing in order to counter the infl uence of his contemporary, Jacob of Serugh, who defended Miaphysite theology. He hoped to attract believers to his theology by the beautiful sound of his memre. This anecdote helps show the importance of liturgy in the culture of different churches and their role in catechizing the faithful.

1. The Birth of the Syriac Orthodox Church
2. An “eternal peace” was signed in 532 during the reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan (“The Immortal Soul”), but in 541–562 and in 572 –591, war broke out once again between the two empires. Although the emperor Justinian (r. 527–565) declared his support for the decisions made at Chalcedon, his wife, the empress Theodora, protected major Mi a physites and welcomed them into the palace of Hormisdas in Constantinople. The Miaphysite historian John of Ephesus (ca. 507–585), originally from the region of Amida, was chosen by the emperor despite his theology to lead campaigns to convert the pagans who still lived in Asia Minor. In his Ecclesiastical History and Lives of the Eastern Saints, he created a memory of anti-Miaphysite persecution by the Chalcedonians who represented the offi cial church. The history of Pseudo-Zachariah the Scholastic, also from the region of Amida, also helped shape the local memory of persecutions. The separation between Chalcedonians and non-Chalcedonians happened slowly. Under the reign of Justin and Justinian, the scattered communities of non- Chalcedonians took shape and formed the church that would later be known as Syriac Orthodox or Syro-Orthodox, because it declared itself to be the only orthodox faith, as opposed to the Roman-Byzantine church, which also labeled itself orthodox, but according to the revisions made at the Council of Chalcedon (both churches retain the label “orthodox” to this day).