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Volume: vol. 4 Collections
Issue: 1984
Month/Year: 1979
Pages: 89-124

Article Author: J.B. Segal

Article Title: Arabs in Syriac Literature before

the Rise of Islam
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JERUSALEM STUDIES IN
ARABIC AND ISLAM

1984

THE MAGNES PRESS *THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY *SERUSALEM

ISAL 4, 1984

ARABS IN SYRIAC LITERATURE

BEFORE THE RISE OF ISLAM

J.B. Segal

I
Thepresent study seeks to present an outline of Arabs as they appeared to
the eyes of the writers of Syriac inscriptions and documentsduring thefirst
six centuries of the Common Era. I cite later works and non-Syriac
material(in particular the inscriptions of Hatra) only when this mayaffect
my argument — and J have donesosparingly,so that the Syriac writers can
tell their own tale. In area my studyis restricted to Mesopotamia, and I
have therefore excluded Palmyra and the Nabatacans; but I touch upon the
Ghassanids where they are the subject of comment by Syriac chroniclers.
Time has not permitted me to venture deepinto the vast sea of ecclesiasti-
cal Syriac literature; I have, however, scanned someof the Acts of the
Saints and Martyrs and someof the writings of Aphraates, Ephraim of
Edessa, Isaac of Antioch and Jacob of Serug. I gladly acknowledge my
debt to previous writers on Syrian and Mesopotamian Arabsbefore Islam
— to Chapot, Charles, Dillemann, Dussaud and Nau andto the recent
book by Trimingham (whose learning is somewhat marred by lack of
objectivity);! with the notable exceptions of Dussaud and Nau, they were
not at homein the Syriac language.
A study of this nature must suffer from the fact that the information
upon whichit is based has arisen in a fortuitous manner and mayoffer a
partial picture. In the first place, epigraphic materialis notoriously subject
to the vicissitudes of field archaeology. In the present case this is less
serious a defect thanit wasin the past, for the numberofinscriptionsat our
disposal has greatly increased over the past few decades with the finds at
Hatra and Urfa and Sumatar Harabesi. Secondly, the historians of earlier
periods concentrate their interest upon matters far removed from those
that attract our attention; the topic thatis central to this study is no more

‘ V. Chapot, La Frontiére de ' Euphrate de Pompée a la conquéte arabe, 1907; H. Charles,

Le Christianisme des arabes nomades sur le limes et dans le désert syro-mésopotamien aux
alentours de Phégire, 1936; L. Dillemann, Haute Mésopotamie orientale et pays adjacents,
1962; R. Dussaud, La pénétration des arabes en Syrie avant islam, 1955; F. Naw, Les
arabes chrétiens de Mésopotamie et de Syrie du Vie au Vilesiete, 1933: J.S. Trimingham.
Christianity among the Arabs in pre-Islamic Times, 1979,

89
ei ce mae mam
a Na

90 J.B. Segal
than peripheral to them. Nevertheless,this is in one sense no disadvantage.
The detachment with which pre-Islamic Syriac writers discuss their Arab
contemporaries, allied to the sober characterof the writers themselves, is a
guarantee of the sincerity of their statements.
After the withdrawal of the Seleucids to the west of the Euphrates in
130-29 B.C. the power vacuum in Mesopotamia wasapparentlyfilled by a
number of Arab principalities. We knowlittle about them — with the
exception, as we shall see, of Hatra and Edessa. At Spasinou Charax
(Mesene)at the head of the Persian Gulf the population was — if we may
judge from Classical sources — largely Arab. But there is no direct
numismatic evidence of an Arab dynasty there. Its founder Hyspaosines
was probably of Iranian, perhaps Bactrian, origin, andits princes bear
Iranian or Aramaic names.?
Singar? in central Mesopotamia was, according to Pliny, the chief town
of the ‘Arabs whoare called Praetavi’; Stephen of Byzantium describesit
as ‘a city of Arabia’.‘ It fell to the Romans during a campaign of Trajan,
and became a colonia at some time between Alexander Severus and Philip
the Arab. When the Persians recovered it in 360 they razed the city and
deported its inhabitants to Persia. Subsequently it was an important
Christian centre; at the beginningof the sixth century the Qadisaye, whom
Néldeke identifies as Kurds, lived there. In the north of Eastern Mesopo-
tamia the metropolis of Beth ‘Arabaye was Nisibis. Its population was
mixed — Arabs, Aramaeans, Greeks and Parthians. Held at different
times by Parthians, Armenians, Romans and Adiabenians, the fame of
Nisibis in Syria¢ literature is based chiefly on the Carmina Nisibena ofSt.
Ephraim, composed during the defence ofthecity against successive sieges
by SahpurII in the 4th century. It was the seat of an important Jewish
community and waslargely Christian from early times.‘
A city on which we have much information in thefirst centuries of the
Common Era is Hatra, about 120 kilometres south-east of Singar. The
Hatra inscriptions extend over the first three centuries of the Common
Era, the period of the city’s existence as an independentstate.’ Its name
well describes its function. It stood in a desert region which was inhabited

See art, ‘Charakene’, Pauly-Wissowa.

3 According to P. Peeters, Anal. Boil. xliv, 1926, 271 Gk. Siggara, on coins Singara. In
Syriac Siggar, but Singar Jacob of Edessa, Hexaemeron 18.
Pliny NH v. 24, One ms, has Rhetavi and Peetersop.cit., 278 suggests that this may be for
Urtaye; this is improbable since the Urtaye seem to havelived in Hanzit.
5 ‘Zwei Volker Vorderasiens’, ZDMG xxxiii, 1879, 157.
‘ Art. ‘Nisibis’, Pauly-Wissowa.
’ Fuad Safar, J. Teixidor, Wathig al-Salibi, ‘Inscriptions of Hatra’, Sumer vii, 1951, 170;
viii, 1952, 183; ix, 1953, 240; xi, 1955, 3: xvii, 1961, 9; xviii, 1962.21 (all Arabic): xx, 1964,
Arabs in Syriac literature 91

by nomads and semi-nomads;7* and it controlled busy caravan routes

from Meseneat the head of the Persian Gulf to Nisibis and Adiabenein the
north andto the great towns of Syria and the Mediterranean seaboard in
the west.* It was a kofra, ‘enclosure’ for the safety and convenience of
passing traders.? As an emporiumit acquired considerable wealth, and we
are told that Septimius Severusrestrained his soldiers from a direct assault
uponthe townforfearthatits treasures would bepillaged by his troops.’®
Its walls withstood attacks by both Trajan in 116 and SeptimiusSeverusin
198-9; it fell to SahpurI in about 244 through, tradition hadit, treachery.
By the time of Ammian in 363 the site was deserted.!!
There was, as we would expect, considerable Parthian influence at
Hatra. This is evident from the art and the costumes of the monuments.”
But the incidence of Iranian personal namesin the inscriptionsis scanty —
indeed, it appears to be limited to no more than six."? Parthian influenceis
reflected too in the titles of rank. ‘Abdsimya, son of king Sanatruq, bears
the Iraniantitle of pzgry{ (36 A.D. 237)."4 The Iranian epithet of the god
Nergol dhgpr’ (145 279 295), ‘chief of the guards’ — his figure stands
appropriately at one of the city gates — is used also of a man rb’ dhiyhy,
140 ‘chief of the guards (of the king)’. The Iranian pdfs’ ‘of (the deity) Bar
Marayn’ (127) appears also in the form b¢#3” (143). Wefind the titles Adrpt*
(83) and nh3rptf (112) ‘lord of the chase’, -
Yet the sum totalof this Iranian influence at Hatra is superficial, if we
bear in mind that the city lay firmly under the political and cultural
hegemony of Parthia. There can be no doubt of the Arab character of a
significant, almost certainly the dominant, section of its population. Some

77 (English): xxi, 1965, 31; xxiv, 1968, 3; xxvii, L971, 3; xxviii, 1972, 26; xxxi, 1975, 171;
xxxiv, 1978, 69 (Arabic). See also A. Caquot, Syria xxix, 1952, 89; xxx, 1953, 234; xxxii,
1955, 49, 261; xl, 1963, 1; xli, 1964, 251: A. Maricg, Syria xxxii, 1955, 273: Teixi
Syria xli, 1964, 273;xliii, 1966, 91: B. Aggoula, Beryrus xviii, 1969, 85, MUSJxivii,
3; Syria lii, 1975, 181, R. Degen, WO v, 1969-70, 222; Jaarbericht Ex Orientelux xx-xxiii,
1973-4, 402; Newe Ephemeris, 1978, 67.
4 ‘The surrounding country is mostly desert and has neither water (save a small amount
and that poorin quality) nor timber nor fodder’, Dio LXVIII.31.
a Dillemann, op. cit., 190; Teixidor, Syria xli, 1964, 273.
‘ F. Nau, Bardesane. Le livre des lois des pays, 1899, 1931, 29 (Syriac); but the spelling
HTR’ is found on p. 22. Caquot Syria xxix, 1952, 112 n.1, maintains, probably correctly,
that the Arabic name Hadr,‘fixed dwelling’ is no more than a popular etymology.
But in Trajan's time Hatra was ‘neither large nor prosperous’, Dio LX VIII. 31.
" W.L. MacDonald, ‘Hatra’, Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, ed. R. Stillwell,
1976.
"2H. Ingholt, Parthian Sculptures from Hatra, 1954, D. Homes-Fredericq, Hatra etles
sculptures parthes, 1963.
0 SNTRWQfrequently; WLGS 193cf. 140, or BLGS 33; WRWD 123; KNZWY6,7, 8,9;
*PRHT 133 223; MHRDT 230,
\* Cf. pigrb’ 28, pigryb’ 287, pigry’ (perhaps with unintentional omission of 6) 195.
92 JB. Segat

personal names are Arab — ‘BYGR (245 107) and "BYGYR (301), 2
feminine "BW (30 228; cf. MRTBW 34, perhaps‘lady "BW’) to be distin-
guished from "B’ (109 225 288 right)lit. ‘father’, KBYRW (245), M‘NW
(230 288 right), SBW (297), and SB” (18). The term ‘arabaya, ‘Arab’is
applied to a proper name(78). Of special interest are the namesthat have
the affix w that is characteristic of Arabic and is found commonly in
Nabataean and frequently in pre-Christian Edessa. These Arab personal
names and names with an Arab form are,it must be admitted, a minority in
the onomastics of Hatra — the overwhelming majority of personal names
is Aramaic. The explanation may be that few Arabs who had not adopted
an Aramaic nameattained positions of sufficient importance to be recorded
on the monuments.
Thereligion of Hatra was, so far as we may judge from theinscriptions,
wholly Semitic. Most prominent in the pantheon was divine triad of Our '
Lord,to be identified with $amaéas a father deity,'® Our Lady, and the Son
of our two Lords, neither of whom can beidentified with certainty. Other
deities were B'elSamin (occasionally B‘LSMN or B‘SMYN or_B‘SMN),!¢
Nergal(properly Nergol)!’ and Marilaha ‘lord god’, whose identity may be
indicated by coins bearing the legend ‘Sin Marilaha’.'* There are several
references to the Ganda or Gadda, ‘Fortune’ (tyche), and the simya,
‘ensign’ played a part in ritual (as at Hierapolis).'* Some Hatrandeities
may be regarded as Arab. Wefind the goddess Allat (74 75 85 151), the god
Naira (79 155) and the god Sahru (23 29 74 153) or Sahiru (146), and in
personal namesis recorded the god Nasr(84).?°
As the onomastics of Hatra were principally Aramaic so its written
language was Aramaic, like that of the Nabataeans and Palmyrenes,
Hatran vocabulary contained, however, wordsthatare peculiar to Arabic.
In newly-found legal documents appear technical terms upon which the
sense of the passages turn. In one the phrase ‘b’ bmw?’ is probably Arabic
gb’ ‘be ignorant of — the context is of a murderof whichthe perpetrator is
unknown. Another prohibits the carrying of building materials from the
area of the temple, and the word for ‘carry’ seems to be the Arabic zby.
The region in which Hatra stood wascalled ‘Arab — or, somewhatless

$107 280.
‘© B*LSMYN 23 (29) and probably 16 17 24; BYLSMN 30; BSSMYN 23 275; B'SMN 49.
‘7 279 cf. 13; the defective spelling is frequent, so 73 81 Sa‘adiya 3f. 7f.
8 J, Walker, ‘The Coins of Hatra', Numismatic Chronicle’ xviii, 1958, 167.
9 See H.W.J. Drijvers, ‘Hatra, Palmyra und Edessa. Die Stddte der syrisch-
mesopotamischen Wiiste...", H. Temporini and W. Haase (eds.), Aufstieg und Nieder-
gang der rémischen Welt, 11. 8, 1977, 799. The term kmr’ is common; see also ‘pk[/]’ 67.
2 Note also DWSPRY,the daughter of king Sanajrug 36( = 37) 112; SPR isthe equivalent
of Arabic Sahr,cf. the Nabataean deity Du Zabr.
Arabs in Syriac literature 93

likely, the term may be used of the people who lived in the region. The
kings of Hatra, SanatrugqI, his son ‘Abdsimya, his son Sanatruq II and
Walgaiall bearthetitle ‘king of ‘Arab’.?! The region describedin this way
at Hatra was probably relatively restricted area; the term is employed to
denote other areas in Mesopotamiathat were similar in character.”* The
term is not to be equated with the province Beth ‘Arabaye.” But thelatter
included the region of Hatra, for the region maintained its nomadic
appearance after the eclipse of the city in the 3rd century.
The tribal structure of the ‘Arab of Hatra may bereflected in the
inscriptions. In an early text, tribes or clans may be recorded in the phrase
‘Nergol of bny TYMW and bny BL‘QB’ (214 A.D. 97-8; so also 293 dated
A.D. 93), and another in dny ’QLT? (280), while in other early texts the
adjective ‘syly’ (242, 243 A.D. 117 244 A.D. c. 100) mayalso be derived
from the nameofa tribe. So too thetitle ga3Si¥a in the Hatra inscriptions
may denote ‘sheikh’, rather than ‘elder’ or ‘Senator’ as at Palmyra.*4 A
similar meaning may be ascribed to rb’ d‘RB (231),‘chief of the ‘Arab’ who,
it may be noted, takes precedence of the king himself. This title may be
abbreviated as rb’, found of a man with the Arab theophorous nameof
GRM'LTin an early text (288 right A.D. 171-5). Ofinterestis the title rby?’
dy ‘RB (223). Commentators have given rabbaita here a religious connota-
tion, ‘chief of the temple of ‘Arab’. It is true that ‘RB appearsin religious
context in the phrase mrn NSR’ bmlkwth whgnd’ d‘RB (79), ‘Our Lord
Nagrain his majesty and with the Fortune of ‘Arab’. Nevertheless, rabbaita
may morenaturally haveits usual meaning of ‘Steward’, and rby?’ dy ‘RB
would then be an administrative post.
In the course of time — as life in the city of Hatra no doubt became more
sophisticated — a gulf seems to have arisen betweenthepeople of the ‘Arab
and the townspeople. Thisis illustrated by a text dedicated to king Sana-
truq II. The inscription (which contains the allusion to the Fortune of
‘Arab which has just been mentioned) concludes with the phrase dkyrn/Im
bhtr’ w'rby'y (79), ‘May they be remembered for ever in Hatra and its
‘Arab(?)’. However we render the obscure last word, it evidently stands
here in contrast to the.city. There is likely to be a similar contrast in an
unpublished text, Azry’ Sys’ wdrdq’ w'rby[ ] kihwn, ‘The peopleof Hatra,
old and young, and all the Arabs’ (the reading is confirmed by the,
probablylater, version of 336 kfry’ gJys’ wdrdq’ w'rby’).

4 SNTRWQ(194) 197 198 199 203 231 (287); ‘BDSMY 195; WLGS 193.
2 Below p. 98,
3 See Teixidor, Syria xli, 1964, 280.
232b 290 and in two unpublished texts; see also my article Jrag xxix, 1967, 7.
35 Roy? appearsas thetitle of a high official 94 109 116 144 (father and son) 218 221 278
94 J.B. Segal
There was an Arab presencealso in the region of Osrhoene in West
Mesopotamia. Pliny calls the people of this area Arabes Oroei.”* A Syriac
inscription beside the crossing of the Euphrates at Birtha (modern Birecik)
records the construction ofa burial place byits ruler (Fal/ifa) in A.D. 6. The
text, the earliest recorded Syriac inscription, contains Arab names:
..1 ZRBYN son of Ab[gar} ruler of Birtha tutor of ‘WYDNTson of
Ma‘nu son of Ma‘nu made [this buJrial place [for my]self and for
HLWY’mistress of my house and for [my] children.?’
There is evidence of Arabs too on a tomb-towerseventy kilometres further
south at Serrin on the Osrhoenian bankof the river opposite Hierapolis
(Mabbug). It was dedicated by a religious notable in A.D. 73:
I Ma‘nuthe ga3siSa budarof(the god) Nahai son of Ma‘nu grandson
of SDRW NH’built this tomb-tower (naphia) for myself and for my
sons at the age of ninety...
In the following century there was, we learn, a certain Mannos (presuma-
bly Ma‘nu) who wasruler of ‘Arabia’ adjacent to Edessa;”° and an Arab
phylarch called Sporaces was expelled from Batnae (Serug), capital of the
small state of Anthemusia, by Trajan in, probably, 115.°°
The Arabprincipality of which we have most knowledge during thefirst
two-three centuries of the Common Era is undoubtedly Edessa (Syriac
Urhay, modern Urfa). Here a group of Arabs had evidently imposed their
tule onthe city and its surrounding villages whose population appears to
have been largely Aramaean. The reputed founderof the dynasty in 132
B.C. was named Aryu. Ofhis successors and their fathers during the 375
years of their rule no more than five carried Iranian names.?°* The
remainder had Arab names — ‘Abdu, Maz‘ur, Gebar‘u, Bakru, Wa’'el,
Sahru, and particularly Abgar and Ma‘nu.?! Among the namesin the
Edessantreatises of this period andin the inscriptions from Edessa andthe
neighbourhoodthe large majority are Aramaean. We maynote, for exam-
ple, Salmath, wife of king Abgar the Great. But Salmath’s father was

(father and son) 223 (father of a rbyt’ of Bar Maryn). In three passages we haveallusion
to the rbyr’ of a deity, rbyr’ dMRN 195, rbyr’ dBRMRYN 223 224. For the interpretation
as ‘chief of a temple’ see Safar on 94 and Caquot on 109.
26 Natural History.
11 Drijvers, Old-Syriac (Edessean) Inscriptions, 1972, No.1.
3 Drijvers, op. cit., No. 2; on budar see Edessa 57ff.
29 Dio LXVIII. 21f.
30 “Dio,oc. cit.
30aTirdat is found at Sumatar Harabesi, and Mihrdat arid Peroz in the accountof the
conversion of Edessa to Christianity, ASD 7, 13. 14. It may be remarked that Mihrdatis
the Iranian counterpart to Arabic Ma'nu; the father of Queen 5 almath has the former
namein ASD, but the latter on the columninscription at Urfa.
Edessa 15 n. 3.
Arabs in Syriac literature 95
Ma‘nu, and he held the distinguished rank ofpasgriba.*? So, too, the king’s
deputy in the account of the conversion of Edessa to Christianity was
‘Abdu son of ‘Abdu.?? Several other namesin the inscriptions end in the
Arabic suffix w — Mogimu, Rahbu, Garmu, Ma‘nu, perhaps G‘W (or
*YW), ‘SW. Tiru may be an Arab hypocoristic of the Iranian Tirdat.*
Thefirst appearance ofa ruler of Edessa on the international stage was
that of the phylarch AbgarI; he wasan ally of Tigranes of Armenia when
he was defeated by Romein 69 B.C. Thereafter the kings of Edessa won an
unenviable reputation for duplicity in Roman history — which was
scarcely deserved when one considers their Parthian background. AbgarII
acted as guide to the legions of Crassus when they crossed the Euphrates to
their defeat in 53 B.C. This ‘Arab phylarch’ — whom Plutarch calls
Ariamnes, probably a distortion of ‘Aramaean’ — was, weare told,
crafty and treacherous... a plausible talker... and a subtle fellow...
whoplayed the tutor with the Romans and rode away beforehis
deceit had become manifest.?5
Plutarch’s judgement is harsh; Abgar owedallegiance to the Parthian king
who regarded Crassus’s invasion as an overtact of aggression.
The behaviourof ‘Acbar king of the Arabs’ — he is probably that Abgar
the Black whois held by legend to have corresponded with Jesus — cannot
be justified. He entertained at Edessa the nomineeto the throneof Parthia
in A.D. 49 — and then abandoned him on the field of battle. Another
Abgar of Edessa, a contemporary of Trajan, persuaded the Romans to
expel his neighbour, the ruler of Anthemusia. In the following year,
however, he revolted against his Roman masters, and methis death when
later they sacked the city. The urbane Abgar the Great (177-212) showed
greater loyalty to Romein her wars against Parthia, He was rewarded by
Septimius Severuswith thetitle of ‘king of kings’, and received an extrava-
gant welcomeona visit to Rome. Buthis successorsdisplayedless political
acumen. In probably 214, Edessa was declared a colonia, and thirty years
later, in 243, the city came underthe direct rule of Rome and was adminis-
tered by a Roman Resident.°6
How far the tortuous political decisions of the kings of Edessa were
derived from their own initiative must be open to question. Like other
Arabchieftains they ruled through a councilofelders, possibly sheikhs and
including, no doubt, members of the royal family. So, for example, the

32 Edessa 19.
4% ASD 7, 8f.
* Drijvers, ap. cit., Index of Proper names.
% Plutarch,‘Crassus’, xxii.
3% Edessa \2if.

ae gem, (Tureen ee ees

96 JB, Segal
father-in-law of Abgar the Great held the office of pasgriba. In one early
narrative the king’s principal courtiers are styled ‘the chiefs of those who
sat with bended knees’ — but we may read instead the phrase ‘chiefs of
those who sat in the council’.*” Elsewhere the nobles are termed ‘grandees’
or ‘commanders’or ‘freemen’.** The title ‘phylarch’ is correctly applied by
Romanhistorians to the rulers of Edessa. At the end ofthecity, it wasstill
divided, at least formally, into districts allocated to phylai ‘clans’.°
The kings of Edessa may have maintained the traditional structure of
tribal decision-making, but they were nevertheless Partian rulers with the
trend towards autocracy that this implied. They resided in a ‘great and
beautiful palace’, and — certainly towards the end of the dynasty — they
had also a ‘winter house’. They were buried in a ‘great sepulchre of orna-
mental sculpture’. The nobles and priests wore tiaras after the Persian
fashion, but only the king wore a diadem in addition. The king received —
or remitted — the taxes of the city and the surrounding area, andits
military forces were at his disposal. He controlled too an administrative
apparatus.*°
Theoffice of the ‘second in the kingdom’ may havebeen identical with
that of the Iranian pasgriba; the former occurs in an account of the
proselytization of Edessa, the latter in the inscription on a columnat Urfa
— and both carry Arab names, the former ‘Abdu,the latter Ma‘nu.*! The
pasgriba is more likely to have been the Viceroy than the Crownprince;
although at Hatrathetitle was held by the son ofthe king — andlaterhis
successor, at Edessa it was held by the father-in-law of the king. Another
importantoffice of state was that of the Sallita de‘Arab, of whom weshall
hear morelater.*? Probably of lesser rank was the nuhadra, perhapsthe city
Governor whohadalso military duties. The king’s Jarrire, ‘commissaries’
werehis trusted confidants; among them washis secretary andtheofficials
in charge of the archives. Public order was maintained by the gaziraye or
city police. Among the royal employees were surveyors and artisans; the
king was on friendly terms with the merchants.
We may surveybriefly the religion of Edessa at the time of its Arab
dynasty. There is no evidence for the worship thereof the divine Triad as at

7G. Phillips, Docirine of Addai, 1876.

38 ‘Grandees* ASD 3,21 13,14; ‘grandees’ and ‘freemen’ 7,3 20,15; ‘freemen’ 15,21; ‘free-
men’ and ‘commanders’ 18,19.
3% CB. Welles, ‘The Parchment and Papyri', Excavations at Dura-Europos, 1959, 146 (No.
28).
40 Edessa 7.
“1 ASD 7, Edessa 19.
42 P.98 below.
Edessa 19ff.
eeOe

Arabs in Syriac literature 97

Hatra. Edessans worshipped the planets like their neighbours of Harran,
Hierapolis and Palmyra. The crescent moonis depicted on coins of Edessa
at this period; it is accompaniedbystars on thetiara of the kings. Planets
appeartoo in the personal names of Edessansin Syriac texts, both at Urfa
itself and in its immediate vicinity, on the walls of tombs, on mosaicfloors
andin literature. Among them are — tocite only a few — ‘maidservant of
Sin (the moon)’, ‘servant of Bel (Jupiter)’, ‘greeting of ‘Atha (Venus)’,
ee

‘Samag (the sun) has determined’, ‘servant of Nabu (Mercury)’.**

There is mention of other deities at Edessa. At Hatra Marilaha is no
doubtan epithet of Sin, at Edessait was used probablyof Be‘elSamin, ‘lord
of the heavens’. Some Edessansevidently worshipped Allat as at Hatra, for
the goddess’s name appears in theophorous personal nameslike ZYDAI-
lat.4° The personal name Kalba at Edessa and at Sumatar Harabesisug-
*

gests observation of the Dog-star. But at Hatra Nergolis evidently equated

pee

with Hercules whose symbol is the dog, and in inscriptions there he

assumes the epithet kalba, ‘(master of) the dog’.** An early Syriac docu-
ment declares that the Edessans worshipped ‘the Eagle like the Arabs
Oe ee

(‘Arabaye)’.”” Perhaps this refers, as among later Arabs,to the constella-

tion of the Lyre, or the symbol of Jupiter. We have noted the Arab deity
NSR’at Hatra.**
South of the great highlands of Mesopotamialies a vast plain.‘? In this
fertile agricultural land lived those ‘who dwelt in the villages and on
farms’.*° These folk were probably the indigenous Aramaean population
of the region. They were bound to the inhabitants ofthe city by ties of
consanguinity and economic dependence — asin otherareas of the Middle
East. These were the goryaye or pallahe men goris of a later Syriac docu-
ment.’' The farms were owned by rich city dwellers. Rabbula inherited
estates at QenneSrin in the Sth century,*? the wealthy Rospaya family
owned farms at Edessa when Maurice was Emperorat Byzantium— and
to the present day farms outside Urfa belong to landownersliving in the
— ae

city. In the early Christian period of Edessa bishops conveyed farms as

endowments to hospices and monasteries.*4 The farmers who weretheir

4+ See Drijvers, Cults and Beliefs at Edessa, 1980.

43 Drijvers, Old-Syriac (Edessean) Inscriptions, No. 51.
46 Hatra Nos, 70 71; see Safar Sumer xi, 1955, 11.
47 Phillips, op. cit., 24.
“* P92 above.
42 Chapot,Frontiére de l'Euphrate..., 4.
50 ‘Chronicle of Edessa’, Chronica minora ed. I. Guidi etc., 3.
st Zach. Rh. ii. 33, 32 foot.
32 ‘Life of Rabbula’, Overbeck 166.
33 1234 224,
54 ‘Life of Rabbula’, Overbeck 202.
98 J.B. Segal
own masters paid taxesto the city in return for protection — at Edessa in
A.D. 201 the taxes were remitted for five years after the great flood.*> At
Amidvillagers sold their produce outside the city gates.**
Further south the foothills merge into an uneven belt of rough country
stretching from west to east across the breadth of Mesopotamia.*’ Here
was the area of ‘Arab, where dwelt the semi-nomadsina state oftransition
from pastoral to settled existence. They had made a deliberate choice, but
theirs was a difficult situation. On the one hand, they were not yet accepted
by the peasants andtheartisans of urbansociety, on the other they hadstill
to be vigilant against their kinsmen, the wandering tribes of what Syriac
writers call the ‘southern desert’ that extended towards Babylon in the
south. The, semi-nomads therefore looked for economic and political
security towards the nearest ‘mother-city’. Callinicus, Edessa, Tella,
ReS‘aina and Amid each had its own ‘Arab dependents.
The ‘Arab area was governed bytherepresentative of the cities or of the
great power ofParthia in the east andlater,as thecities lost their independ-
ence, also of Romein the west. The governor was termed Arabarchos — in
Syriac Jallita de‘Arab. Sometimes this lord of the marches was a local
chieftain. Cicero ridiculed Pompey by calling him an Arabarchos who
acted both like an autocratic Parthian official and a rough Arab chief-
tain.* In a papyrus of Dura-Europos dated 121 — it was then under
Parthian rule — we read of ‘Mani§ son ofPhraates,one of the padiSahs and
the freemen, tax-collector and strategos of Mesopotamia and Parapota-
mia, and Arabarchos’.*®
The next dated inscription with the title Arabarchas is to be found at
Sumatar Harabesi in the rugged Tektekplateau. Here, at an intersection of
wadis some 60 kilometres south-east of Urfa, is an important oasis on
whose wells nomad shepherds converge to water their herds andflocks at
all hoursof the day and night even to the present day.It was also a centre of
planet-worship, with a shrine and temples, or funerary towers, and statu-
ary and Syriac inscriptions. In these are five allusions to Jallite de‘Arab —
two with Arab names, Wa'el son of Wa'el and Abgar, two with the
Aramaic names Barnahar son of BYNY, and one with the Iranian and
Aramaic namesTirdat son of Adona. Thetext of Tirdat Sallita de‘Arab is
dated March A.D. 165 and dedicated to ‘my lord the king’. The date is
significant, because at that time the old dynasty of Edessa had been

#3 ‘Chronicle of Edessa’ foc. cit,

36 Zach. Rh. ii 32 foot.
8? Chapot, foc. cit.
38 Cicero, ‘Letters to Atticus’, IL. xvii. 3.
39 Welles, op. cit., 115 (No. 20).
Arabs in Syriac literature 99

replaced by a pro-Parthian king Wa’el, himself to be expelled by the

Romansin the following November. The change of ruler may have been
marked by activity at the shrine of Sumatar. If, as seems probable, the
‘king’ of our inscription is Wa'el of Edessa, we may assumethat the ‘Arab
controlled by the fa/lita Tirdat lay within the domain of Edessa; it was,
then, a relatively small area, confined perhaps to the Tektek mountains.®
That this area, on the borderofthe settled, wholly agricultural zone, was
occupied by a semi-sedentary population may hardly be doubted. The
stony soil of the Tektek mountains, unlike that ofthe plain of Harran, does
notlenditself to intensive cultivation but to modest crops, while the place
is constantly the resort also of pastoral Beduins. Indeed, the process of
gradualsedentarization is evident at Sumatar Harabesi today. WhenI first
visited it in 1952 it was wholly deserted. Todaythesite is occupied by a
small numberof semi-nomadsliving in houses made of the worked stones
miserably vandalized from the remains of the ka/a and the other ruins
around the central mount. Their presenceis certainly due to the greater
physical security of the region. We may assumethatthis was the situation
also in earlier centuries when an Arabarchos guaranteed the well-being of
the inhabitants.
Allusion has already been madeto the term ‘Arab at Hatra at the same
period as the inscriptions of Sumatar. Hatran kings carried thetitle ‘king
of ‘RB’, there was a gna’, ‘ensign’, of ‘RB, a 7b’, ‘chief’, of ‘RB, anda
rbyt’ of ‘RB, which has been explained as‘Steward of ‘RB’.®' At that time
‘RB may have denoted nomads as well as semi-nomads and the area in
which theylived. In an early text we read of ‘Edessa and all its environs...
and Soba (Nisibis) and ‘Arab and all the North and the regions round
about it..." The inhabitants of the area are called ‘Arabaye.*

Segal, ‘Pagan Syriac Monuments...’, Anatolian Studies iii, 1953, 102{f; BSOAS xvi,
1954, 13.
‘1 P, 93 above. The kingdom of‘RBis referred to in 1234 114 top,‘in ‘RB ofthe house of
Sanajruq who ruled at the city of Hatra’.
8 ASD 34,
& ‘RB is used rarely of Arabia, as in Parisot, Book of the Laws of Countries, Pat. Syr.
602,25, ‘and yesterday the Romans occupied ‘RB and abrogatedall the previous laws’,
604,12 ‘All the Jews (practise circumcision) whether in Edom or in ‘RB orin Greece...’.
Usually Syriac employs ‘RBY’ for the Roman province of Arabia; so in the inscriptions
of Hatra, p. 93 above, of the birthplace of Bishop Theodore John Lives XLIX and his
area of authority /b. L; of the ‘Arab gulf Jacob of Edessa Hexaemeron (‘R’BY’); in an
extract from Ptolemy Zach. Rh. 207. Properly the province is "RBY’‘Josh. Styl.’ 00075,
Zach. Rh. 192 193, in extract from Ptolemy 207 (but one ms. has ‘RBY’), plur. John
Rufus Plerophories (PO VIII/1) 50, 60; Jacob of Edessa Hexaemeron 116; Documenta
ad Origines Monoph. 202. The inhabitants of the province or of Arabia proper are
‘RBY" (plur.) Zach. Rh. 207 (extract from Ptolemy).
100 J.B. Segal

Later — probably in the 4th century — the nomads of Mesopotamia

came, as we shall see, to be designated in Syriac Tayyaye, and then the term
‘Arabsignified only the area of semi-nomads in the process of sedentariza-
tion. At the end of the 5th century ‘Joshua theStylite’ writes that locusts
‘consumedall the land of ‘Arab andall the area of the people of ReSaina
and the area ofthe people of Tella and the area of the people of Edessa’.
‘Arab might also be used of the region of Amid on the Tigris, for we read in
a contemporary text that ‘locusts came to ‘Arab of Mesopotamia (byt
nhryn)... in the 11th year of Anastasius, and many Arabs(‘arabaye) died
both in Amid... and in variousplaces’.A few years later the king of Persia
‘laid waste Agilene and Sophene and Armenia and ‘Arab’.®‘Arab extended
to the Mardin district. During the persecution of the Monophysites in the
6th century monks were expelled from ‘cloisters of ‘Arab in Mesopotamia
andIzla...’.67 Elsewhere we read that some of the Monophysites ‘withdrew
even as far as the southern desert and ‘Arab and Izla and the other
districts’.‘Arab is found further of the region towards the Euphrates.
John of Ephesus, writing of a saintly trader, reports that he would ‘go
around the whole of Syria and as far as ‘Arab and Callinicus and the
desert’.©? Persian Mesopotamia also had an area called ‘Arab. It was
devastated by Nu‘manofHira andhisallies the Ma‘daye whenherevolted
inthe reign of KhusrawII.” The term persisted after the coming ofIslam.
In an East Mesopotamiantext dated probably 670-80 we are informed that
the Muslim general ‘Khalid went to the West and captured manycities as
far as ‘Arab.,.’.7!
The ‘Arab andits population were the victims of the constant warfare
between Byzantium and Persia. They werealso the targetof raids by their
Beduin kinsmen. It was primarily to prevent the destruction wrought by
the Beduins amongthe ‘Arab thatthe city of Dara, 35 kilometres south-
east of Mardin, was built. The Byzantine commanders had ‘begged Anas-
tasius that a city should be built... beside the mountain, as a refuge for the
armyandfortheir repose andfor the preparation of weapons, and to guard
the country of Arabs (‘arabaye) from the marauding bands (gayse) of

‘Josh. Styl.’ ch. 38.

6 Zach. Rh. ii. 20. About the same occasion he writes of‘the famine and the coming of the
Arabs(‘rby’} 24.
$6 ‘Josh, Styl. ch. 50. So, in a general sense, the army ofthe Persians ‘invaded Byzantine
‘Arab and burned it with fire’ Zach. Rh. ii. 95 top.
6 Zach, Rh. ii. 80.
John Lives XXXV.
6 John Lives XXXI.
7% Chron. anon., Chronica minora ed. Guidi 20.
7 Chron. anon., Chronica minora 37.
Arabs in Syriac literature 101
Persians and Jayyaye’.”? Another document explains ‘the country of
Arabs’ as ‘Arab.”} Shortly afterwards the Byzantines sought to repeat the
operation by erecting a similar fortress at Thannurion. Here, it was held,
would be a convenient site for a fort to be built ‘as a place of refuge in the
desert and fora military force to be stationed to guard the ‘Arab against the
marauding bands (gayse) of Tayyaye’. Workers were sent to prepare the
buildings, but the Beduins must already have been angered by the strong-
hold of Dara, for weare told that ‘the constructions were stopped by (the
attacks of) Tayyaye and QadiSaye in Siggar (Singar) and in Tebeth.”
Classical writers employ the word Scenitae ‘tent-dwellers’ for the no-
mads who roamedin the region extending from the Arabian peninsula to
Mesopotamia and Syria. ‘The road’, writes Strabo,
for people travelling from Seleucia and Babylon runs through the
country of the Scenitae... and through their desert. After [these
travellers] cross the river [Euphrates], the road runs through the
desert to Scenae, a noteworthy city... towards the borderof Babylo-
nia, The journey... requires 25 days. And on that road are camel-
drivers who keep halting-places which sometimes are well supplied
with reservoirs, generally cisterns... The Scenitae are peaceful and
moderate towards travellers in the exaction of tribute, and on this
account merchants avoid the land along the river andrisk a journey
through the desert.”
Elsewhere Strabo speaksless favourably of the Beduins:
The parts of Mesopotamia whichincline towards the south and are
further from the mountains, which are waterless and barren, are
occupied by the Arabian Scenitae, a tribe of brigands and shepherds,
who readily move from one place to another when pasture and booty
tend to become exhausted.”
In the course of time the nameScenitaefell out of use. In a Syriac treatise
of the schoolof Bardaisan, to be attributed to the early 3rd century, we find
the phrase ‘...in all the region of the Tayyaye and Saracens’; andit is
evident from the context thatit refers to peoples situated vaguely to the
” east of North Libya.’’ The phraseis significant, for both terms are used of

2 Zach, Rh. ii 35.

3 ‘Josh. Styl.” 90. It is interesting to observe thatlater writers could not understand the
allusion here to Arab raids. Michael 260 declares simply that‘they then persuaded the
Emperorto order the construction ofa city beside the mountain to serve as a refuge for
the army’; so 1234 190.
4 Zach, Rh.ii 92.
3 Geog. 16.i.27.
% Ib.
77 Nau,Livre des Lois des Pays 24.
{02 JB. Segal
the Beduins, the former among Syriac writers,the latter replacing Scenitae
among most Greek writers and among all writers of Latin histories.
Perhaps Saracens was at one time the nameofa tribe or groupoftribes.”
They lived in ‘Arabia’ beside the Nabataeansor in Palestine and Jordan.”
In the middle of the 4th century Ammianstates that in his time the term
Saracens had recently supplanted the word Scenitae,®° and Procopius in
the following century employs only the term Saracensfor Beduins.*! As for
the Tayyaye, they are said to live variously between the ‘black mountain
and Egypt’ or ‘to the south of Sabaeans who livein tents’.®? Pliny writes of
the Taveni who dwell alongside — among others — the Nabataeans and
Tamudaei.®?
Ammian describes the Beduins from personal observation:
The Saracens, however, whom we never found desirable either as
friends or as enemies, ranging up and downthe country, in a brief
space of time laid waste whatever they could find, like rapacious
kites, which, whenever they have caught sight of any prey from on
high, seize it with a swift swoop, and directly they have seized it,
makeoff... Among those tribes whoseoriginal abode extends from
the Assyrians to the cataracts of the Nile and the frontiers of the
Blemmyaeall alike are warriors of equal rank, half-nude, clad in
dyed cloaks as far as the loins, ranging widely with the help of swift
horses and slender camels in times of peace and disorder. No man
ever grasps a plough-handle orcultivates a tree, none seeks a living
by tilling the soil, but they rove continually over wide and extensive
tracts without a home, without fixed abodes or laws; they cannot
long endure the same sky, nor does the sun of a single district ever
content them. Their life is always on the move.**
And Malka, the monk from Nisibis who had fallen into the hands of
Beduins, relates vividly through Jerome his experiences among them:
Lying near the public highway from Beroea® to Edessa thereis a
desert through which nomad Saracens are always wandering back
and forth. For this reason,travellers along the way group together,

™ Moritz art. ‘Saraka’ Pauly-Wissowa, advances the theory that the name is connected
with Arabia Fargi, ‘eastern’.
1% Ptolemy V. 17.3, 21.
#0 ‘The Scenite Arabs whom we now call Saracens’ xxii. 15,2, cf. xxiii. 6,13.
Unfortunately Procopius scemsalso to interchangeindiscriminately the names ‘Sara-
cens’ and ‘Arabs’. Evagrius HE vi.22 uses the term ‘Scenitae’ rather than ‘Saracens*.
"Zach, Rh. ii. 207 (Ptolemy).
VIL 157.
xiv. 4, 1-4,
3 Aleppo.
Arabs in Syriac literature 103
and by mutual aid decrease the danger of a surprise attack. There
were in my company... (persons) numbering aboutseventy. Suddenly
Ishmaelites, riding upon horses and camels, descended upon us in a
startling attack, with their long hair flying from under their head-
bands. They wore cloaks over their half-naked bodies, and broad
boots. Quivers hung from their shoulders, their unstrung bows
dangled attheir sides; they carried long spears, for they had not come
for battle but for plunder. We wereseized, scattered andcarried offin
different directions... We wereled, carried aloft high on camels, and
always fearful of disaster, we hung rather than sat through the vast
desert. Half-raw meat was our food, the milk of camels our drink.
At length, after crossing a great river, we arrived at the solitude of
the inner (desert); instructed to do obeisance to our mistress and the
children, we bent our heads. Here, as though immuredin prison, I
changed my attire and learned to go naked... The pasturing of the
sheep was entrusted to mycare...°6
In East Mesopotamia too the Beduins were known in Syriac as
Tayyaye,*” the term is found also in Jewish Aramaic,** But there the
Beduin tribesmen were, in the course of time, described by the general term
To‘aye, ‘nomads’.®* St.Ephraim probably plays on the similarity of the
name to the word to‘yay, ‘error’ in a religious sense. He writes of the
Persian attacks on Nisibis in the middle of the 4th century:
The creatures shouted, for they saw conflict, truth that warred
with error (fo‘yay) at the shattered walls — and was crowned (with
victory).°°
Ahudemmeh,the great Monophysite missionary among the Beduins of
Eastern Mesopotamia, was said to have worked among the ‘Aqulaye,
Tanukhaye and To‘aye.®! According to Syriac sources, the Gospels were
rendered into Arabic in the 7th century with the help of ‘some Tanukhaye,

*© Jerome, ‘Vita Sancti Malchi...’ § 4-5 (PL XXIII. col. 55f.).

*7 So, for example, in the East Syrian Chron. anon., Chronica minora 19, cf. John Hist.
280f. 306.
Bab. Talm. Typ” BB 73b 74a, Ab. Z. 28a, Men. 69b,etc. The Aramaic‘ appears here to
reflect the Aamza of Arab. Ty’.
% Beduins in Pahlavi, Néldeke, ‘Geschichte des Artach3ir i Papakan’, Festschrift Benfey
(Beitr. z. Kunde der Indog, Spracheniv), 1879, 52, explainsit as derived from Arab. Ty".(I
owe this reference to the kindness of Prof. S. Shaked.).
% Carmina Nisibena xi.17, ed. E, Beck (CSCO 218, Scr. Syri 92). For the presence of
Pro-Persian Beduinsat the siege of Nisibis see xiit.14, ‘In the days of the last (of three
famous bishops of Nisibis) were frequent raids — and the raids ceased”; the term for
‘raid’ is gys’, ef. p. 104 below,
ot P. 120 below. ‘Aqula was the site near Hira on which Kufa was built; Hira was the centre
of the Mesopotamian group of the Tanukh federation of tribes,
104 J.B. Segal
‘Aqulaye and To‘aye who were skilled in the Arabic and Syriac lan-
guages’.°? And a generationlater the patriarch Severus b. Masqo claimed
that in his day there was tranquility ‘amongthe peoples of the Tanukhaye,
the To‘aye and the ‘Aqulaye’.* That the To‘aye are to be distinguished
from the Tayyayeis made clear by the letter of Barsauma, Metropolitan of
Nisibis, in 485; he opposes the Tayyaye of the Byzantinesto the To‘aye of
the Persians. And the distinction is confirmed by thetitle of George,
Bishop of the Arabs, in the early 8th century. In his appendix to the
Hexaemeron of Jacob of Edessa hestyles himself ‘Bishop of the Tayyaye
and To‘aye and ‘Aqulaye peoples’.®5
The sheikhs of the Tayyaye are called in Syriac rife or ri¥ane.° They
were organized in yahle,”” probably subdivisionsof the tribe, cf. Arabic ahi;
and their raiding expeditions were gayse,™ cf. Arabic gays. The Beduins
were evidently adept at archery — Osrhoenians formed a crack corps of
archers in the Roman army — but the Persians seem to have valued them
for their skill with spears.°° The Beduins were mounted on horses and
camels — the camel herds are termed Aablatha,’ perhaps cf. Arabic ‘ibl,
Simeon of Beth Argam,in urgent need to surprise his Nestorian enemies,
travelled by ‘two Tayy mounts’.!°! As Jeromewrites:‘All the barbarians of
the desertfive on the milk and flesh ofcamels becausethis type ofanimal...
is bred and nourished easily... They regardit as a sin to eat the flesh of the
pig.’°? Ammian suggests a broader fare. The Saracens, he maintains, ‘all
feed upon game and on an abundanceof milk, as well as such birds as they
are able to take by fowling; and I have seen many of them who were wholly
unacquainted with grain or wine.’!°? The eating of camels was, it may be
observed, anathema to pious Monophysites, and the Ghassanid Harith b.
Gabala was somewhatself-conscious about the practice in his encounter
with the Patriarch of Antioch, Ephraim.'™ Apparently in deference to the

2 Michael 422; 1234 263, however, omits the To‘aye.

% Michael 44).
4 Below p. 109,
% ‘Jacob of Edessa Hexaemeron 347.
% For example, Ahudemmeh 25, Ps.-Dion. 194, Michael 375, more exactly ri¥ yohle
‘Josh. Styl.’ ch. 58; ‘Josh. Styl.’ ch. 88, Zach, Rh. 93, Ahudemmeh 26 riSane
deSarbathon,
9 John Hist. 182 283 and frequently, Lives, Bar Hebraeus Chron. eccles, ed. Abbeloos and
Lamy 217.
38 Very frequent, e.g. Zach. Rh. 35, 92.
% "Josh, Styl.” ch. 62.
400 John Hist. 280 287.
108 John Lives No. x.
te? Jerome. Adversus Jovinianum ii.?7, PL 23 col. 294, 334. .
10 xiv, 4, 6.
104 Michael 311, p. 121 below.
Arabs in Syriac literature 105
attitude of Monophysites, Beduins who visited Simeon Stylites would
renounce the meat of camels andwild asses. '®°
Ammian adds of the Saracens that
they have mercenary wives, hired under a temporary contract. Butin
order that there may be some semblance of matrimony, the future
wife, by way of dowry, offers her husband spear and tent, with the
right to leave him after a stipulated time, if she so elect; and it is
unbelievable with what ardour both sexes give themselves up to
passion.'%

II
The advent of Christianity changed the face of Mesopotamia. I have
suggested in a recentarticle thatit arrived in two wavesofproselytization.
The first entered from the sea through southern Mesopotamia and
Babylon and reached Nisibis and Adiabene. From Nisibis it was also
conveyed westward to Edessa at a time when Osrhoene,like the rest of
Mesopotamia, still lay under the political hegemony of Parthia. The
church was Semitic and Aramaic-speaking. In the 2nd century the incur-
sion of Roman arms into Mesopotamia through Armenia under Trajan
was followed by the occupation of Osrhoene. The boundaries of Parthia
had been flung back into the centre of Mesopotamia; the fords of the
Euphrates were now securely in Roman hands. The way was open for a
second wave of proselytization — this time direct from Antioch, and the
church of Edessa now received a Greek colouring. The two layers of
Christian penetration are reflected in the different traditions and Practices
of the Eastern and Western churches of Mesopotamia. '!64
In both periods of active proselytization the methods adopted by the
Christian missionaries were the same. The new religion was diffused by
twofold activity — by healing and by teaching (and this remainsthe basis
of Christian work in the mission field to the presentday). In the traditional
Syriac account of the coming of Christianity to Edessa Jesus is physician
rather than redeemer.’®” Thefirst converts, the Arab king Abgar and his
deputy ‘Abdu b. ‘Abdu, were won byacts of healing at the handsof the
Apostle. Later followed the public instruction of the people in an assembly
convened by the king.'°8 The pattern was to be repeated elsewhere in

105 Theodoret RH (PG 82 col. 1476).

os xiv. 4, 4,

|
162 ‘When did Christianity come to Edessa?’, in B.C, Bloomfield (ed.), Middle East Studies
and Libraries, 1980, 179,
'7 Edessa 62, 71.
ASD 5, Edessa 64.
106 J.B. Segal
Mesopotamiain later years.
T havepointedto the close association between the cities of Mesopota-
mia and the surroundingvillages that were dependent on the townspeople
for their well-being.'We read that Habbib, later to be a martyr of Edessa,
was ofa village... He both went about to the churches and thevillages
secretly and read the Scriptures and encouraged and strengthened
many by his word,!!°
But the Tayyaye wholived in the ‘inner desert’, remote from towns and
villages, were evidently not touched bythe new religion. The lives of the
town-dwellers and of the Beduins were worlds apart.
Christian missionaries during the first three or four centuries seem not to
have gone out to the nomad encampments;this was to comelater, as we
shall see. Malka, the monk from Nisibis, whose adventureswere related by
St. Jerome, wasfull of astonishment at the strange habits of his Saracen
captors."'!' Isaac of Antioch, the reputed author of the poem on the
destruction of Beth Hur — the city was sacked by Persian Beduins in about
457 — hadlittle understanding of the identity of the nomads. He writes
indiscriminately of ‘Arabaye and children of Hagar and Tayyaye.
The ‘Arabaye have disturbed the land in the portion ofit that they
have seized... Furious are the wild asses, children of Hagar, and they
have laid waste both good and bad...!?
..-As the Persians have taken her captive whoserve the sun like her,
so also the ‘Arabaye have taken her captive who, with her, honour
Belti. The Persians have not let her escape who with them wor-
shipped the sun, nor have the ‘Arabaye let her be whosacrificed to
‘Uzzai with them.'?
But the poet recognized the calamities which threatened thecities and
the countryside of Mesopotamia. They followed each otherin regular and
dreadful succession and with cruel inevitability.
The heathen king is in our borders, the locusts planted in our
lands; the son of Hagar, a ravening wolf, makes raids in the midst of
our region. Three plagues that David saw, for our sins have we
received — war and famine andplague; they threatenus like vengeful
(angels)... If the heathen king will come, to the vultures will he give
our body; andif the hateful locusts will come, they will remove the

‘09 P. 102 above.

Ne ASD 73,
iP, 98 above,
“De expugnatione Beth Chur urbis’, 1.37 Isaaci Antiocheni opera omnia ed. G. Bickell,
1.208.
"3 Id. i. 95, vol. I. 210. Tayyaye are mentioned atii. 101, vol. I. 230.
Arabs in Syriac literature 107
‘ soul from our body; andif the ravening wolf will come, hewill tear
the limbs of our body.'“
i ‘Joshuathe Stylite’ describes the plagueof locusts at Edessa in 449-500 and
the terrible famine that ensued. The city was invaded by farmers and
peasantsin search of food, and plague was widespread." But at Amid the
disasters of locusts and famine were followed by an onrush of Arabs into
the city. They were received with hostility or coolness, and bishop John
reproved the rich townsmen for withholding their corn.''* In Mesopotamia
hunger knowsno frontiers. When the grazing fields in Persia were parched
by drought in 536, 15,000 Beduins crossed westwards into Byzantine
territory and were with difficulty controlled by the Byzantine
commander.!!”
Both empires — first Persia in the East, then Byzantium in the West —
sought to discipline the unruly Tayyaye by enrolling them in their armies.
Emperor Constantius had already attempted this in his war againstPersia,
and Julian enlisted some Beduins ‘adept at guerilla warfare’.!'* The Per-
sian king Bahram Gor (420-38) owed his throne to Mundir of Hira. In
return he ‘hired Mundir,king of the Tayyaye, and his army... He came with
| his many myriads, and encouraged the king of Persia and promised quickly
to subdue the Byzantines and give him possession of Antioch’. The cam-
paign ended in defeat at the Euphrates.'!? Qawad (488-530), too, at the
beginning of his reign, suppressed an incipient rebellion by inviting the
malcontents to share in the plunder of a war. The Persian Tayyaye,
when they saw the confusion of the kingdom... made... raids /
throughout the Persian territory... But when they learned that he was
going to make war with Byzantium they crowded to him with
alacrity.!?°
Ss,
Qawad narrowed the menace of the Beduins by recognizing Mundir of
! Hira as sole overlord of the Persian Tayyaye. Even by the Byzantine
Procopius, Mundiris said to have been ‘mostdiscreet, well experienced in
matters of warfare, thoroughly faithful to the Persian and unusually
i energetic’. Forfifty years his dread lay over Byzantine Mesopotamia. ‘He
plundered the whole country, pillaging one place after another, burning
4 the buildings in his tracks and taking the population captive in tens of

4 De jejunio’ 105i, vol. I, 280.

"5 ‘Josh, Styl.” ch. 38ff.
6 Zach. Rh. ii 22, 24.
"7 Count Marcellinus Chronicon(PL SI col. 943).
(a Julian ‘Constantius’; Ammian xxiii.3,8.
n® Ps.-Dion. 185 (derived from Socrates).
120 “Josh. Styl.” ch. 22.

een
108 JB. Segal
thousandsin each raid’, He movedso rapidly that ‘he wouldfall upon his
pursuers while they werestill unprepared... and would destroy them with
no trouble’. Justinian then took a leaf out of the book of the Persians;
around 530 he granted Harith b. Gabala supreme authority over the
Beduins of Byzantium. Harith, we are told, was notas successful a warrior
as Mundir, though he had somevictories. But he certainly struck terror
into the hearts of his Byzantine paymasters. He was as ready to fight
against them, claims Procopius, as against the Persians.'”! At Constantino-
ple itself it was related of the demented EmperorJustin II that he would
flee from oneplace to another and hidein his bed or a cupboard. Whenhis
warders wanted to seize him ‘they would shout, “Harith b. Gabala is
coming to get you”, and immediately he would run andenter and take
refuge’.!??
It was not unknownforthe authorities on either side to turn a blind eye
to the lawlessness of their Tayyaye auxiliaries, and eventacitly to encour-
age them to ravage enemyterritory. Mundir of Hira could rebut indig-
nantly the charge that he had broken the treaty of 532 by attacking his
Beduin enemy. The Tayyaye, he maintained, were not included in the
terms of the treaty. In the treaty of 561 this was remedied,for there it was
stipulated that the Tayyaye on both sides must observe the treaty and must
not arm themselves against the other side.!??# Sometimes the Tayyaye
would show loyalty to their employers, like Atafar, ‘a sheikh of the
(Byzantine) Tayyaye...,a warlike and wise man, and very expert in Byzan-
tine arms’.'23 Sometimes they changed sides, like a certain ‘Adid who had
fought for Persia but madehis allegiance to the Byzantines in 503-4.!%4
Moreoften Byzantine and Persian Beduinsturned their violence upon each
other. So in 502-3
the Tayyaye of Byzantine territory who are called the Tha'‘libites
went to Hira of Nu‘man and found a caravan which was going up to
him and camels... They fell upon them and destroyed them and took
the camels, but they did not make any stay at Hira because its
inhabitants had withdrawnto the inner desert.!75
Discipline lay lightly on the Tayyaye; indiscriminate fighting andpillage
were to them a wayoflife. ‘Joshua the Stylite’ comments sadly in 504-5
that‘to the Tayyaye on both sides this war was a source of muchprofit, and

121 Procopius Wars I.xvii, 40ff. Procopius was, however, probably biased against Harith,
pp. 120-121 below.
"2 John Hist. 123; somewhat differently at Michael 348.
az Zach. Rh. ii 77.
23 Zach. Rh. ii 93.
we ‘Josh. Styl.’ ch. 75.
23 ‘Josh. Styl.’ ch. 57.
Arabs in Syriac literature 109
they wrought their will upon both kingdoms’.'?6
Occasionally, however, the commanders of both the Byzantine and
Persian armies combined to insist on respect for the law in this wearisome
and bloody war. Barsauma, Metropolitan of Persian Nisibis, relates in a
letter of 485 how,in time of drought, the Persian ‘tribes from the south’
had the insolence to plunder and take captive even people andcattle
from Byzantineterritory. There assembled and cameto the frontier a
great force of Byzantines with their subject Tayyaye, and demanded
satisfaction for what the To‘aye subjects of Persia had donein their
land. The glorious andillustrious marzeban... restrained them from
this gently and wisely. He made an agreementwith them to assemble
the To‘aye and take from them the plunder and captives if the
Byzantine Fayyaye would also bring the cattle and people whom
from time to time they had taken from Beth Garmai and Adiabene
and Nineveh. Then these would be restored to the Byzantines, these
to the Persians, and they would fix the frontiers formally by a treaty
and suchevils would not recur. Otherwise God knows when an end
will come to what we haverelated. For this reason the king of kings
instructed the king of the Tayyaye and the marzeban of Beth Ara-
maye to cometo (Nisibis). We, for the sake of much peace and asa
sign of great affection, persuaded the (Byzantine) dux on Ist Ab to
enter Nisibis. He was received with much honourby him. But while
they were together, eating and drinking and rejoicing, the To‘aye
dared to go with 400 horsemen andfall upon the lowervillages of the
Byzantines. When news of this was heard it caused both sides,
Byzantine andPersian, great distress. The dux and the notables with
him upbraided us because they thought that this had been done
through our deceit when they entered Nisibis.'2”
A similar incident occurred twenty years later in 504-5.
The Persian Tayyaye... crossed over into Byzantineterritory without
the Persian (army), and took captive two villages. When the marze-
ban of the Persians who was at Nisibis learned this, he took their
sheikhs and put them to death. The Byzantine Tayyaye also crossed
over into Persian territory without orders and took a farm captive.
The Magister... sent orders... and the dux seizedfive of their sheikhs,
of whom two he slew with the sword and the other three he
impaled.'7*
126 ‘Josh. Styl.’ ch. 79. So in Zach. Rh. ii. 132 the Mauretanians of North Africa are
described as ‘a people who dwelt in the desert and lived by raiding and devastation —
like the Tayyaye’.
at Syn. Or. 526.
128 ‘Josh. Styl.’ ch. 88.
110 J.B. Segal

Relations between the rulers of Byzantium and the Tayyaye were invari-
ably uneasy. The Byzantines regarded their Beduinallies with suspicion
and fear and with some contempt.In 573 occurred a famousincident. After
repeated victories over Qabus of Hira the Ghassanid Mundir,flushed with
success, demanded gold from Justin to hire more mercenaries. Justin was
enragedat the request — evidently there was noclearpolicy about subsi-
dies — and impotently plotted the Arab’s death — by correspondence. He
wrote to Mundir inviting him to visit the Byzantine commander Marcian,
to the latter he wrote instructing him to decapitate Mundir. But Justin had
not reckoned with the inefficiency of the postal service. ‘By’, as John of
Ephesus piously puts it, ‘divine providence’2** the wrong names were
inscribed on the letters. Mundir, receiving the letter intended for Marcian,
was outraged at the treachery of the Emperor. He sulked in his tents,
allowing the Persians and their nomadsfreely to destroy and loot as far as
the district of Antioch. About three years passed before Mundir was
reconciled with Byzantium.!2° :
Seven years afterwards suspicion flared up again between Mundir and,
this time, the Byzantine commander Maurice (later to become Emperor).
The two leaders had carried out a sweep through the desertinto Persian
territory. Arrived at the Tigris, they found the bridge destroyed and further
advance impossible. Maurice instantly accused Mundir ofcollusion with
the enemy. In the same year Mundir wasseized and transported to Byzan-
tium, ‘humbled and subdued’, declares his admirer John of Ephesus,‘likea
lion in the desert imprisoned in a cave.’8° His son Nu‘man also encoun-
tered the hostility of the Byzantines. In vengeanceforhis father’s imprison-
ment — and claiming too that the annonae on which, he maintained, the
Tayyaye depended, had been abolished — he had raided and devastated
‘all the villages of Arabia and Syria’. The Byzantine general, ‘a well-known
and distinguished man’, despised the Beduin chief. Determined to teach
him a lesson, he assembled his army — only to meet defeat and death.”!
Between the kings of Persia and their Beduin allies of Hira relations
seem to have been very different.
It is said that when Khusraw(II) fled to Byzantine territory before
Bahram he required of (Nu‘man)that he should go with him, and he
did not agree. He also demanded of him an admirable horse, but he
did not give it to him. He demanded, moreover, the daughter of

"88 1234 i205 is more explicit: ‘God took pity on the orthodox and sent a fortunate and
providential error’,
129 John Hist. 280ff.; Michael 347,
30 John Hist. 176.
Ut John ib.
Arabs in Syriac literature 111

Nu‘man who wasvery beautiful. Nu‘man did not consent, but sent
him a message, ‘To a man who marrieslike an animal J shall not give
my daughter’. ... When Khusrau hadrespite from his wars he wished
to take revenge on his enemies — among them Nu‘man. One day he
invited him to a banquet andinstead of bread he crumbled fragments
of straw in front of him.
Nu‘manwasvery angry. He sent a messageto his fellow-tribesmen
the Ma‘daye, and they laid waste and destroyed many regions
belonging to Khusraw and reached as far as ‘Arab. Khusraw was
disturbed when he heard this. [When Nu‘man was treacherously
enticed to the Persian court], Mawia, Nu‘man’swife, said to him, ‘It
is better for you to die with the title of king than to be cast out and
bereft of the title of king’. When he reachedthe courthe did not kill
him, but ordered him to stay at the court. Afterwards,it is said, he
killed this glorious martyr with poison,'*?
For the ordinary townsman there was no reason to comeinto contact
with Beduins unless he venturedfar from thecity. On the highways he must
have always been conscious of their lurking menace. They roamed,
moreover, along the sensitive lines of communication between East and
West Mesopotamia. The frontier between Persian and Byzantine territory
seems not to have been exactly fixed. By the Codex of 408-9 there were
customsposts at Nisibis and Artaxata on the Persian side, at Callinicus on
the Byzantineside. According to the treaty of 56] they were at Nisibis and
Dara respectively, and smuggling was to be severely punished.'? The
customsposts were no doubtonthe route taken by two pious brothers who
travelled, John of Ephesus tells us, from West Mesopotamia to Persia
where theirsisters lived.‘ Nisibis, the metropolis of Beth ‘Arabaye, was,
we learn, ‘a meeting-place offoolish, troublesome and quarrelsome people
from every place, and particularly because of the famous academies in
itv’.45 At the Academy of Nisibis, students were forbidden to cross the
border to the West, whether‘on the pretext of practising commerce or on
the pretext of study or prayer’.'36 Constantine, a Byzantine general who
had defected to the Persians in 501-2, returned furtively to the West two
years later by ‘the uninhabited desert road’ with his two wives; the journey
lasted fourteen days.'*? The same route was followed by KhusrawII fleeing

"2 Chron. anon, Chronica minora 19,

33 J. Kawar, ‘The Arabs in the Peace Treaty of AD 561°, Arabicaiii, 1956, 192,
4 John Lives no. XXXI.
35 Chron. anon., Chronica minora 18.
136 J.B, Chabot, L’école de Nisibe...’, JA® viii/2, 1896, 74f.
7 “Josh. Styl.’ 48, 74.
112 J.B, Segal
from revolt in Persia and he announcedhis arrival in Byzantine land to the
Ghassanid chief Nu‘man b. Mundir."* Sixty years earlier John ofTella,
who had been seized in Singar by agents of Patriarch Ephraim, was
extradited and conveyed to Antioch; the journey from Nisibis to Antioch
took thirty days."* The road across the frontier was not new to John.
Asked by the marzeban, ‘How did you dare to cross over to our country
without our (knowledge)? Do you not know thatthisis a different state?’,
John replied coolly, ‘This is the third time I have crossed over to this
country... Now that there is peace between these kingdoms, I do not
recognize one state from another... If [am here I feel that Iam among the
Byzantines, and if I am among the ByzantinesI feel I am here because of
the peace.”!*° Simeon of Beth Argam, John’s contemporary, also passed
surreptitiously across the uncharted desert boundaries, moving rapidly
from one Monophysite communityto another.'*! This was the route taken
by Tayy raiders, and this was the way taken by Maurice and Mundir of
Ghassan ontheir abortive drive to the Tigris in 580.”
Butthe dangeralong the desert road was not only from nomadbrigands.
Marutha, Monophysite Metropolitan of Tagrit, and contemporary of
Muhammad, built a monastery to ease the journey through the desert.
It was a harbour and place of rest for whoevertravels and lives in
the desert..., a protection against danger, hungerandthirst... Those
whocross the desert to go to ‘Aqularest there... Those who go from
the Euphrates to the Tigris or from the Tigris to the Euphrates stop
there... They eat... and drink... The needy, the afflicted, the sick and
feeble are broughtthere, especially those who live in Mesopotamia.
And in an interesting allusion to the semi-sedentary inhabitants of the
region, the writer adds, ‘...It is also for those who live in the hamlets
(astra) in the middle of the Euphrates’.'*3
The cult of the seven planets with its sacrifices and libations was prac-
tised by Arabs, both nomad and semi-sedentary, in the Middle East. ‘They
worship (Venus)’, writes St. Jerome,
...to whose cult the Saracen nation in dedicated... Saint Hilarion...
healed many Saracens who had been seized by a demon. The Sara-
cens met him in crowds with their wives and children, inclining their

Wa 4234 4.215,
09 E,W.Brooks, Vitae virorum apud Monophysitas celeberrimorum, 86.
49 Brooks, op. cit., 71.
441 John Lives No. X.
142 John Hist. 312 and p.i10 above. Contact between Christians on both sides of the
frontier was close, John Lives Nos. [, IV.
13 Nau, ‘Histoires d’Ahoudemmeh et de Marouta...’, PO iii, 85.
+ ee

Arabs in Syriac literature 113

necks and shouting in Syriac Barech — that is, ‘Bless (us)’.'“*
In the 5th century Isaac of Antioch, writing probably in the area of Amid,
tells of the ‘Arabaye who adored Belti and ‘Uzzai. He describes too the
worship of Venus by the women.
With sacrifices and with libations the Star [Venus] they placate
every day, that their appearance may be comely and that they may be
loved by their menfolk. But who has taught these silly women about
the Star that it can give beauty more than all the (other)
luminaries?!#5
And in another poem hewrites:
Lo, they weep for Tammuzin ourland, andin it they pay worship to
the Star; wefill a table to Fortune on the roofs in our days, by the
fountains are lanterns and lampsare bythe wells.'“6
Jacob of Serug, too,forall his poetic hyperbole, probably reflects the scene
in the Sth-6th century when he declares:
Youths in multitudes were given as sacrifices and maidens slaught-
ered to female idols..., to the Sun and Moon andto the Star of Venus
and to the (other) luminaries.'47
So

Persistent are the stories of humansacrifice by Nu‘man’s son Mundir, a

fervent devotee of‘Uzzai. He is said to havekilled in honourofthat star the
son of Harith b. Gabala, seized while he was feeding his horses.'4* Even
more blood-curdling was the rumour that Mundir, on an expedition to
Emesa, Apameaandthe region of Antioch
carried off many people and brought them downwith him. And four
hundred virgins who were suddenly taken captive in the congrega-
tion of Thomas the Apostle in Emesa he slaughtered in one day in
honourof ‘Uzzai. Data the anchorite, an old man, who was taken
captive from the congregation, saw it with his own eyes, and (con-
tinues the chronicler) related it to me.'*%
The story may well be apocryphal — thefigure of 400 is not uncommonof
Christian martyrs. Yet there may be somebasis in fact, for the terror
inspired by Mundir was real enough. Andin the cities were reports of the
PST aes

fate of monks and nuns who had been taken by the Beduins. The former,it
was told, ‘were compelled to serve idols or whatever the barbarian Beduins

44 Jerome, “Vita S. Hilarionis Eremitae’ (PL 23/ii col. 41).

45 “De expugnatione Beth Chururbis’ ii. 411 (vol. I, p. 244).
448 ‘Contra eos qui ad hariolos vadunt’ 125 (vol. I, 210).
47 ‘On the fall of Idols’ lines 113f., 119f. Homiliae selectae Mar Jacobi Sarugensis, ed.
Bedjan iii, 1907.
48 Procopius Wars II. xxviii, 12.
“9 Zach. Rh.ii, 77, cf. Michael 270.
114 JB. Segal

worship, the nuns to becomeprostitutes and to stand in the public places.

For such was the custom of the barbarians.’!%°
It is a sobering reflection that repeated attempts by the Emperors of
Byzantium to impose a compromise Christian dogmain the nameofthe
unity of the Empire had exactly contrary results. The formula finally
recognized at Chalcedon in 451 won few adherents in Mesopotamia. On
the contrary, the Diophysite Nestorians had now formed Persian church,
secure against the attacks of Byzantine prelates. The Monophysites suf-
fered repeated bouts of persecution, from the beginning of the reign of
Justin [; their churches were closed, altars overturned, priests and bishops
seized and incarceratedin cells and prisons. Given no more than enough
food to maintain life, and vinegar instead of wine, they continued stub-
bornly to perform their own services, refusing to participate in the worship
of the Chalcedonians.'*! But the Monophysites throve on persecution. As
hundreds ofpriests were exiled from their place of residence and settled in
the remote desert,
the desert was at peace and was abundant with a population of
believers living in it, and fresh ones were added to them and aided in
swelling the numbersoftheir brethren, some outof a desire tovisit
their brethren out of Christian love, and others again because they
were being driven from country to country by bishopsin the cities, >?
There was built a commonwealth of expelled priests of a tenacity and
courage that won the admiration of their contemporaries. Certainly they
won the admiration of the pagan Beduins among whomthey now lived and
who themselves were inured to hardship.
We should observe the contrast between the Diophysite and the
Monophysite churches. The former has a gentler attitude whose dogma
allowed a role for the human alongside the sternly divine. It was suited to
the Persians among whom it made its home. The Persian church, estab-
lished at the Council of Seleucia in 410, severed its link with Antioch and
became independentin 424. Perhapsit is indicative of the defiant mood in
which the act was carried out that this Council was held at a place called
Markabta de Tayyaye; the site has not beenidentified, but it was presuma-
bly far from a settled community.'*
The contrast between Diophysitism and Monophysitism is well illus-
trated by a comparison between the Book of Chastity by ISo‘denah and the

80 J,P. Martin, RSE xxx, 1875, 22.

SI See, for example, Michael 336, 341.
182 Zach. Rh. ii. 81 foot,
153 Syn. Or. 36, 676, 53.
Arabs in Syriac literature 115
Lives of the Eastern Saints by John of Ephesus.'*4 Both describe the careers
andactivities of the luminaries of their church; they set up a model which
their flocks were to emulate. The Book of Chastity, brief biographies of the
founders of Nestorian monasteries, is remarkable for its moderation. The
extreme form of asceticism wassilence, but the Syriac term Selya denotes
rather‘tranquility’. Monophysite asceticism, on the other hand, was vio-
lent and harsh.'*>
Nestorian rites encouraged the introduction of music. Bardaisan had
won the hearts of the nobles of Edessa by his poetry and melodiesin the
2nd century — and a Persian origin is attributed to Bardaisan.'* St.
Ephraim sought to imitate him with poetry that incorporated Monophy-
site doctrine’5? — with little success; the songs of Bardaisan were still
popular at Edessa in the time of Rabbulain the Sth century.'** So in the
Persian church. A Monophysite treatise, the biography of Marutha, writes
sourly:
The Nestorians of the East who wished to attract the simple to
their errors and enchantthe ear of laymen — whichis easily deceived
by singing and by gentle modulations — andalso to please people
u
and to dominate them... had taken care to set up a school in each of
their villages. They had organized them with songs, canticles,
responses and hymns.
The Monophysites copied them;they ‘beganto set up excellent schools’.\%?
There was constant representation of Arabs at Diophysite Synods.
There was a bishop of Hira at the Synods of 410, 424, 486, 497 (when there
wasalso a representative of the Metropolitan of Beth ‘Arabaye), 585 and
790; a bishop of Peroz Sahpur (Anbar) — which is called the ‘city of
Tayyaye’ — was present at the Synodsof 486, 576, 605 and 790.!®Yetit
may be questioned how deep was the Arab attachmentto Nestorianism.
During the persecution in the reign of Bahram V (420-38) the terrible
tortures inflicted upon Christians led many to emigrate to the West. The
frontier regions were the home of the Tayyaye, and they were active, we
learn, in hunting downthe refugees. (One Beduin phylarch was an excep-
tion. He refused to harm the Christians, and himselffleeing to Byzantine
territory, was converted to Christianity; as Peter, bishop of the Saracens,
he attended the Council of Ephesusin 431).'' Indeed, Arabsplaylittle part

"4 Chabot, Le Livre de Chasteté, Brooks, Lives PO xvii, xviii, xix.

35 p. 118 below.
‘6 Drijvers, Bardaisan of Edessa, 1966, ch. v.
‘97 Theodoret HE IV ch. 26 (PG 82,col. 1189).
ist “Life of Rabbula’, Overbeck 192.
138 Nau,‘...Ahoudemmeh et Marouta’ 65.
160 Syn. Or. 36, 43, 53, 62, 164, 603; 70, 214, 603.
‘| Trimingham 109ff.
116 J.B. Segal
in the Book of Chastity. Over ninety of the biographies of worthies com-
memoratedthere give the town orregion in whichtheir family originated.
Only eleven of these were born at Hira or elsewhere in Beth ‘Arabaye
(including Nisibis); another four are said to have been connected with
Arabsin the course of their careers. And the very fact that the Jacobites
could, as we shall see, penetrate into the Nestorian centre of Hira is
evidence enoughofthe light hold that that doctrine maintained amongthe
Arabs.
Mundir b. ‘Amr al-Qays of Hira is reported to have offered human
sacrifices to ‘Uzzai, but amonghis wives was the Christian Hind ‘the elder’,
daughter of the Kindite Harith b. ‘Amr b. Hugr. According to the inscrip-
tion on the church that she erected at Hira, she brought her son ‘Amrb.
Mundir to Christianity.'6* His brothers Qabus and Mundir — both of
whom succeeded to the chieftainship of Hira — may have reverted to
paganism. But the most celebrated Nestorian Beduin was their brother and
successor Nu‘man b. Mundir. His conversion in 593 is attributed to three
men, Simeon b. Gabir, bishop of Hira, SabriSo‘, bishop of LaSom (later
Catholicus) and [$o‘zekha; they healed him of a demon. His sons Hasan
and Mundir were baptized a yearlater with their families. Hasan, who was
very devout, is said to have ordered his slaves to permit the poor to
approach him as he entered church.’
The strength of Nu‘man’s commitment to Christianity is uncertain. By
his contemporary Evagriusheis described as an ‘impious and abominable
pagan’.'® At his conversion he gave order for a goldenstatue of‘Uzzai to
be melted down and the proceedsto be distributed to the poor. But his
sister Hind ‘the younger’ was knownfor her devotion to Christianity. The
Catholicus ISo'yahb, in disfavour with Khusraw II whom he had angered
byrefusing to espouse his cause when he ascendedthe throne,fled to Hira
onthe return ofthe king to Persia. He died before he could reach Hira, and
his body was brought with great pomp and buried by Hind in the monas-
tery that she had founded.'®
It was a sterner form of Christian doctrine that appealed to the Arabs. In
the 4th century Mawiya, queen of the Tanukh federation in Syria, opened
waragainst Valens. As condition of peace she insisted on the ordination as
bishop of a certain Moses. He was, we are informed, of Tayy origin,
‘celebrated for his faith and glorious in his pure life and his miracles
because he had been reared in the desert of the solitaries’. Prevailed upon

‘62 Trimingham 196,

‘85 Hist. nest. PO xiii 486.
(64 Evagrius HE VI.xxii.
185 Hist. nest. PO xiii. 442; Labourt 206.
Arabs in Syriac literature 117

to undertake the office, Moses nevertheless refused to be consecrated by

the Arian bishop of Alexandria, whose hands, he declared, were‘filled with
blood’. Instead, Moses was taken to the desert for ordination by exiled
priests, and ‘peace reigned between the kingdoms’.'®
This readiness to do battle for the faith was commonto Christian Arabs.
Among the nomads Christianity evoked vigorous emotion and dedication.
We have an eye-witness account of the Saracen devotees of Simeon the
Stylite (389-459)in Syria. Before he ascended his column he had performed
exercises of remarkable endurance. Andas he stood upon the column on
which he remained for thirty years, the ‘Ishmaelites’ came thronging in
crowds, two hundred, three hundred or a thousand, smashingtheiridols,
abjuring Venus, ‘which they had long worshipped’, to be initiated into the
ih mysteries of Christianity. They were astonished by the miracles of the holy
man. A paralyzed Arab was healed by Simeon's word — he not only arose
and walked, but carried a stout phylarch on his back. A worm falling from
the column becamea jewelas it touched the ground. A ‘Saracen queen’ was
granted a child through the prayers of Simeon;andfive years later the child
was curedof grave sickness. The tribesmen argued and fought over which
sheikh should receive Simeon’s blessing; he called them dogs and com-
mandedthem tobestill. ‘How many Arabs’, exclaims our biographer,
who have never known what bread is, but feed on the flesh of
animals, came and saw the blessed (Simeon) and becamedisciples
and Christians, abandoned the images of their fathers and served
God... It was impossible to count the Arabs, their kings and nobles,
who came and acknowledged Jesus... and erected churches beneath
their tents."67
There were political implications in this devotion to Simeon, andthis
was not lost upon Nu‘manI of Hira. A sheikh warned him,‘If you let them
go to Simeon they will become Christians and be attached to the Byzan-
tines’. Nu'man assembled his tribesmen and threatened to kill anyone
who made the journey to Simeon. The angry protests of the Beduins
obliged him to alter his mind; anyone who wished was free to accept
Christianity. '6
The persecution of Monophysites brought, as we have seen, the exiled
priests into contact with the Beduins. Monophysitism appealed to the
Beduins.'® Its simplicity of dogma and behaviour reflected their own

166 Ps,-Dion. 183, Socrates IV ch. 36, Theodoret IV ch. 20; Michael I5If.
is? Lietzmann-Hilgenfeld, Das Leben des Heiligen Symeon Stylites (TU xxxii/4) 108.
1 Lietzmann-Hilgenfeld,op. cit., 146.
's@ But present at the Synod of Chalcedon were bishops Eustathios of the Tayyaye in
Phoenicia and Yohannan of the Tayyaye in Osrhoene.
18 J.B. Segal
simplelife; it was in revolt against the Imperial power just as the Beduins
werein constantrevolt against the comfortsofcivilization. The Monophy-
site leaders, like Jacob Burd‘aya and Simeon of Beth Argam, were rough
men, speaking blunt words and living hard lives. John of Tella would
neither eat meat nor drink wine. He prostrated himself in prayer, his hands
clasped behind him,his hair resting on the ground, and would remain in
that position until the deep of the night. ‘The base of the altar was, as it
were, bathed with his tears as he knelt or crouched — all the time, as was
his custom, in great silence."!”° Prostration in prayer was central to Jaco-
bite worship — in that text-book of Jacobite asceticism, John of Ephesus’s
Lives of the Eastern Saints, worshipis always called segdetha, ‘bowing’. Of
one holy man weare told that he performed
severe labours of fasting and prayer and protracted recitation of
service and constantvigil, so that he gave himself rest for one hour or
two for the sake of the demands of nature, and through the whole
extentofthe night he carried out a constantseries of inclinations and
genuflexions with prayer, and, besides these things, barefootedness
and austerity,!?!
Johntells of another saint that
he used to make three knocks in quick succession. The sound
would come to mejustas if three men were striking together upon a
smith’s anvil with hammers, the sounds following one anothertill
morning, since his handsfirst struck the ground, and after them his
knees, andlastly his head; and so he would suddenly sink downuntil
I thought that the sound was coming up from beneath me... and I
would go outside by night and would hear the sound; and I would
comein again, and there was the same sound.'7?
The self-torments of the Jacobite hermits were violent and constant. They
would tie knotted rope aroundtheir handsandloinsso thatit ate into the
flesh, they kept vigil, they deprived themselves of food and drink and
clothing, they spent years wrestling with the devil in caves three foot high
— still to be seen in Tur ‘Abdin. The columnson which theysat through the
blinding sun of the day and the cold of the winter night were to be foundin
every greatcity of Mesopotamia, from Edessa to Anbar and Hira.'”
We have no description in Syriac of the evangelization of Beduinsin

"0 Vitae virorum..., 43, 65.

™ John Lives No. XXXVI.
12 John Lives No. XIII. We read, however,also of a Nestorian in probably the 8th century
who ‘during the day took only six mouthfuls of food, (and) cach day recited the Psalms
twice and made 3,000 prostrations’, A. Scher, ROC xi, 1906, 194.
‘2 Brooks, ‘Letters of Severus’ (PO xii/2), xxiii. 216ff.
Arabs in Syriac literature . 119
West Mesopotamia. More worthyof record was the Monophysite penetra-
tion of Persian Mesopotamia. Simeon of Beth Ar§am, the ‘Persian
preacher’, using on occasion his ‘two Tayy mounts’, moved rapidly — to
the discomfort of his Nestorian foes — to and fro across thefrontiers of
Persia.
Hewas sedulous in going among the countries as far as Hira of the
house of Nu‘man, which hevisited often so that he gained a large
number of Tayyaye there, and he induced the nobles who were
converted by his words to build a Christian church in it.'’
John of Tella visited the Monophysite faithful in the mountains of Singar
three times. It was there that he was apprehended and extradited to
Antioch.’75
A biographyis extant of the Monophysite Anudemmeh whom Jacob
Burd‘aya created bishop of Beth ‘Arabaye and Metropolitan of the East in
559. ‘In his time’, declares the writer with the disdain of the city-dweller,
there were many people between the Tigris and the Euphrates...
(who) lived in tents and were barbarians and murderers; they had
manysuperstitions and were the mostignorantofall the people on
earth,
Ahudemmehhimself came from an Arab region — he wasborn at Baladin
Beth ‘Arabaye, and had been Nestorian bishop before he turned to Mono-
physitism — and dedicated himself wholly to ‘bringing these people from
the error of demons’. He recited the psalms and destroyed their temples
andidols. Someof the Tayyaye encampmentsresisted and would not allow
Ahudemmehto approach, but their idols were overcome by prayer. His
reputation for expelling demons, cleansing lepers and healing the sick
brought a request to expel the demon of the daughter of the chief of an
encampment; and his success opened to him all the Tayyaye tents.
He endured and bore manysufferings of cold and heat, difficult
roads and deserts and bitter water. He continuedto fast and pray and
keep vigil; he gathered priests, and begged and cajoled to establish in
eachtribe a priest and a deacon. He founded and named churches
after those chiefs of the tribes who would help him in whatever he
needed; he set up altars and placed them in churches.!"6
Thewriter tells of the generosity of Arabs to churches and monasteries, to
the poor andstrangers.
They loved fasting and the ascetic life more than other Christians

"4 John Lives No. X. It was while ona visit to the Lakhmid chiefin the desert near Hira that
Simeon met the envoys of the king of Nagran.
8 P.112 above,
178 Nau, ‘Histoire d’Ahoudemmeh...’, 21-6.
120 JB. Segal
to the point that they would begin the holyfast of forty days a week
beforeall Christians...; many persons among them do not eat bread
during the whole time of the fast, not only men but many women.
In persecution theysacrificed themselves for the Church — ‘aboveall, the
choice and numerouspeoples of ‘Aqulaye and Tanukhaye and To‘aye’.!””
Ahudemmeh was well aware of the political problems of the Christian
Arabs of Persian Mesopotamia. He endeavouredto discourage them from
going on pilgrimage to the great shrine of Saint Sergius at Rusafa.
He built the large and beautiful house of Pesilta in the middle of
Beth ‘Arabayein a place called ‘Ainganye, and setin it an altar and
holy martyrs and gave it the name of MarSergius the illustrious
martyr, because these Tayyaye people loved his name much and
resorted there more than other men. He soughtto cut them off from
MarSergius on the otherside of the Euphrates by the churchthat he
had built because it was far from them. He madeit as muchlike the
otheras he could, so that by its appearance they wouldberestrained
from going to that one.
In the end Ahudemmehfell victim to Zoroastrian fanaticism. He had
baptized the son of king Khusraw, and wasarrested in 573. When the
Tayyaye who had beeninstructed in Christianity by him heard the report,
they were grieved and wished to give the king moneyforhis release or to
offer ten men in his place. But he was consigned to prison and lingered
there until his death two years later.'7*
West of the Euphrates the Ghassanids too had a long-established and
firm commitmentto the Monophysite cause. Invited to participate at Mass
with the Chalcedonians, Nu‘man b. Mundir replied simply,‘Ail the clans of
the Tayyaye are Jacobites. If they would become aware (that I have
accepted yourinvitation) they would kill me.’!”? For the central govern-
ment at Constantinople the religious convictions of the Tayyaye of Ghas-
san were obviously an embarrassment. The empire was uneasily dependent
on their military prowess. Their support for the anti-Melkite Monophy-
sites was as awkward for the emperors as the Arian faith of that other
group of mercenaries, the Goths, who demandeda church oftheir own in
the capital.!7°*
It has been plausibly maintained that the historian Procopius was
antagonistic to Harith b. Gabala because, among other reasons, he dis-

7 Tb. 276.
"Tb. 29, By the time of Marutha (d. 649) there were Monophysite bishops of Beth
‘Arabaye, singar, Peroz Sahpur (Anbar) and the Taghlibite Arabs.
79 John Hist. 181.
Wa John Hist. 153.
Arabs in Syriac literature 121
liked Harith’s championship of the Monophysite cause.’*° The bias is
compensated for by John of Ephesus. John was born and bredin a village
near Amid where he must have been familiar with Beduins and their
practices. He was, of course, utterly dedicated to Monophysitism. Respon-
sible for the baptism of perhaps 23,000 pagansand for 70,000 conversions
— the numbers vary — andthebuilding of a great numberof churches and
monasteries, he also suffered painful persecution for his beliefs. Harith is
his hero. He telis how Harith revitalized the flagging Monophysite cause
by requesting Empress Theodora to have twoor three priests consecrated
as bishops, and so Jacob Burd‘aya was created bishop of Edessa and
Theodore bishop of Harith’s home, Hirtha deTayyaye.'*! We read in
several places how Harith used all his great influence to promote the
Monophysites, Letters and instructions were transmitted through ‘the
lover of Christ and glorious patrician Harith’, He summonedthe bishops
to Arabia. When secession threatened, he demandedofreligious leaders
that they should declare themselves by signing — or refusing to sign —a
statement of faith. The blunt character of Harith is reflected clearly in a
Syriac letter to Jacob Burd‘aya. Briefly and firmly, he advised him to
choose ashis assistants only men who would be competentfor the work.!®?
Perhaps mostrevealing is the account of the encounter of Harith with
Ephraim, Patriarch of Antioch, ‘who visited him in order to persuade him
to modify his extreme Monophysite stance. To Ephraim’s deferential
words, ‘Why are you offended with us and with the Church?”’, he replied,
“Weare notoffended with the Church. But wereject the evil faith that you
have introduced.’ Ephraim protested that not all the 636 bishops of
Chalcedon can have erred. ‘I am a barbarian and a soldier’, retorted
Harith,‘and I cannotread the Scriptures... (But if in many pots of meat)a
little rat is found — byyourlife, Patriarch,all the pure meatis soiled by the
rat, yes or no?’ ‘Yes’, admitted Ephraim. ‘Then’, continued Harith, ‘if a
great quantity of meatis corrupted by a small infected rat, how areall the
assembly of those who adheredto that impure heresy (of Chalcedon) not
soiled? All have set in writing their adhesionto the Tome of Leo — which is
an infected rat.”
Harith invited Ephraim to partake of a meal, and in Arabic instructed
his servants to bring camel meatto the table. He asked Ephraim to bless the
table; Ephraim, troubled, refused. As Harith ate of the meat, Ephraim
protested, ‘You havesoiled the table because you have brought camel meat

'0 Kawar, 'Procopius and Arethas’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 1, 1957, 66f., 362.
sal John Lives No. L.
'™ Chabot, Documenta ad origines Monophysitarum illustrandas 196, 205, 206, 143.
122 IB. Segal
before us’. Harith rejoined, ‘Do you want me to take the oblation (in
church) if you think yourself soiled by my meat? To us your oblationis
more detestable than is to you this camel meat, forinit is hidden apostasy,
the abandonmentof the orthodoxfaith.’ Ephraim blushed and departed;
he had failed to win over Harith to Chalcedon.!*?
Harith lentthe full weight of his support to Jacob Burd‘aya, and Paul the
Black took refuge with him whenhis enemies were in pursuit. But the two
priests were at loggerheads, and the loyalties of the Tayyaye were
divided.'** On Harith's death his son Mundir, ‘a believing, zealous and
eager man’,!®tried in vain to reconcile the factions. When Tiberius
succeeded Justin, Mundir’s enemy, on the throne of Byzantium, Mundir
went to the court, ‘clothed in zeal of heroism and piety’.'® Tiberius
honoured him ‘with a royal tiara which up to then had never been... given
to any of the kings of the Tayyaye’. For a short while the persecution of the
Monophysites ceased.'*’ But it was not long before Mundirfell victim to
Byzantine treachery; he was apprehended andsentinto exile. In revenge
his son Nu‘man, ‘more cunning and more warlike than his father’,'**
pillaged the countryside, and ‘all the land ofthe East wasterrified of(the
Tayyaye)as far as the sea’. Nu‘man wasnotleft long atliberty. At risk of
his life he visited the Court at Constantinople. He regarded Byzantine
promises with scepticism, vowing he would neversee the Byzantinesagain.
Hetoo wasseized and sent to join his father in exile.
The end of the Ghassanid kingdom wasin sight. Khusraw II hadleft
Persia with Arab connivance whenhis throne was threatened; he returned
to Persia with, apparently, Arab assistance. Constantinople felt it no
longer had need ofits troublesome Ghassanid allies. The epilogue was
written:
And the kingdom of the Tayyaye was divided among fifteen
chieftains, and most of them were attached to the Persians.'*? The
kingdom of the Christian Tayyaye came to an end because of the
guile of the Byzantines, and heresies began to sprout among the
Tayyaye.'
A Ghassanid Gabala foughtwith the Byzantinesatthe battle of Yarmuk
in 636 and submitted to ‘Umarin the following year; but subsequently he

‘3 The full text is in Michael 310 end f.

"4 John Hist. 216.
4 John Hist. 208.
"6 Sohn Hist, 218.
187 John Hist. 224.
"John Hist. 176.
"© Trimingham 187 n. 5 regards this clause as an error.
190 Michael 375.
Arabs in Syriac literature 123
returned to Byzantine territory as a Christian.'!?! One Syriac chronicle
states that the Christian Tayyaye joined Emperor Heraclius, and that a
Muslim armywasdirected against them.But, the report continues, the evil
behaviour of the Byzantines in Syria persuaded them to desist from
resistance against the Muslims.'9? A new age had dawned.

Addendum to p. 92, bottom

See myarticle, Journal of Jewish Studies xxxiii, 1982, 109.

‘1 Trimingham 188.
"2 1234 i, 240, 250.
124 J.B. Segal
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS

Ahudemmeh — Nau,F.,, ‘Histoires d’Ahoudemmeh et de Marouta’, POiii, 1905.

ASD — Cureton, W., Ancient Syriac Documentsrelative to the Earliest Establish-
ment of Christianity in Edessa..., 1864.
Chronica minora — Guidi, I., etc., Chronica minora (CSCO 1, 3,5, Ser. syri1,3,5),
1953.
‘Chronicle of Edessa’ — See under Chronica minora.
Edessa — Segal, J.B., Edessa. ‘The Blessed City’, 1970.
Hexaemeron — Chabot, J.-B., Jacobi Edesseni Hexaemeron... (CSCO 92 Ser. syri
44), 1953.
Hist. nest. — Scher, A., Histoire Nestorienne inédite (Chronique de Seert), PO
iv-xili, 1908-19.
JA — Journal asiatique.
John Hist. — Brooks, E.W., Johannis Ephesini Historiae Ecclesiasticae pars tertia
(CSCO 105 Scr. syri 54), 1952.
John Lives — Brooks, E.W., Lives of the Eastern Saints (PO xvii, xviii, xix), 1923-5.
‘Josh. Styl.” — Wright, W., The Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite..., 1882.
Labourt — Labourt, J., Le Christianisme dans l'Empire perse sous la dynastie
Sassanide (224-632), 1904.
Michael — Chabot, J.-B., Chronique de Michel le Syrien..., 1899-1924.
Overbeck — Overbeck, J.J., S. Ephraemi Syri, Rabbulae... aliorumque Opera
selecta, 1865.
Patr. Syr. — Patrologia syriacai.
PG — Patrologia Cursus Completus... Series Graeca.
PL — Patrologia Cursus Completus... Series Latina.
PO — Patrologia Orientalis.
Ps.-Dion, — Chabot, J.-B.; Incerti auctoris Chronicon Pseudo-Dionysianum vulgo
dictum (CSCO 91, 104 Ser. syri 43, 53), 1952-3.
ROC — Revue de I’ Orient chrétien.
RSE — Revue des sciences ecclésiastiques.
Syn. or. — Chabot, J.-B., Synedicon orientale, ou Recueil de synodes nestoriennes,
1902.
Trimingham — Trimingham, J.S., Christianity Among the Arabs in Pre-Islamic
Times, 1979.
Vitae virorum — Brooks, E.W., Vitae virorum apud Monophysitas celeberrimorum ,
(CSCO 7 Ser. syri 7), 1955:
Zach. Rh. — Brooks, E.W., Historia Ecclesiastica Zachariae Rhetori vulgo adscripia
(CSCO 83-4 Ser. syri 38-9), 1953.
1234 — Chabot, J.-B., Anonymi auctoris Chronicon adannum Christi 1234pertinens
(CSCO 81-2 Ser. syri 36-7), 1953.