1 Badger, G. P., The Nestorians and their rituals: with the narrative of a mission to Mesopotamia and Coordistan in 1842–44, and of a late visit to those countries in 1850, London 1852, i. 296–8Google Scholar. On Badger’s mission see Coakley, J. F., The Church of the East and the Church of England: a history of the archbishop of Canterbury’s Assyrian mission, Oxford 1992, 35–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Badger, The Nestorians and their rituals, 298. The quotation is from E. Gibbon, Decline and fall of the Roman Empire, chapter xlvii.

3 On the long-term history of the Church of the East see Baum, W. and Winkler, D. W., The Church of the East: a concise history, London 2003CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Wilmshurst, D., The martyred Church: a history of the Church of the East, London 2011Google Scholar.

4 Important recent studies on religious identity formation in the early medieval Middle East include P. Wood, ‘We have no king but Christ’: Christian political thought in greater Syria on the eve of the Arab conquest (c. 400–585), Oxford 2010, and Tannous, J., The making of the medieval Middle East: religion, society, and simple believers, Princeton 2018Google Scholar.

5 Heyberger explicitly challenges the ‘confessional’ approach to eastern Christian Churches in ‘Pour une “histoire croisée” de l’occidentalisation et de la confessionnalisation chez les chrétiens du Proche-Orient’, MIT–Electronic Journal of Middle Eastern Studies iii (2003), 36–49 at pp. 37–8. His cross-confessional approach is demonstrated in his ground-breaking study, Les Chrétiens du Proche-Orient au temps de la réforme catholique (Syrie, Liban, Palestine, XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles), Rome 1994.

6 Wilmshurst, D., The ecclesiastical organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913, Leuven 2000Google Scholar; Berg, H. Murre-van den, Scribes and Scriptures: the Church of the East in the eastern Ottoman provinces (1500–1850), Leuven 2015Google Scholar.

7 A recent, brief but important, exception to this tendency to discuss the Churches in isolation is A. Pritula, ʿAbdīšōʿ of Gāzartā, patriarch of the Chaldean Church as a scribe’, Scrinium xv/1 (2019), 297–320 at pp. 305–10.

8 A recent study of the West Syrian Church based on late Ottoman archival documents is Dinno, K. S., The Syrian Orthodox Christians in the late Ottoman period and beyond: crisis then revival, Piscataway, NJ 2017CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 There is no general study of late Syriac literary production, although there is a useful summary table of East Syrian and Chaldean writers active in this period in Murre-van den Berg, Scribes and Scriptures, appendix C at pp. 317–56. The dearth of new writing in this period has sometimes been exaggerated, as in Duval’s study of Syriac literature, which contains the subheading ‘The thirteenth century and the end of Syriac literature’: Duval, R., Syriac literature, Piscataway, NJ 2013CrossRefGoogle Scholar, translated by O. Holmey from the French third edition La Littérature syriaque, Paris 1907.

10 Murre-van den Berg, Scribes and Scriptures, 39.

11 This was signalled by the papers at a workshop, ‘Towards a New History of Christians and Jews in Ottoman Society’, held in Oxford in July 2017; a conference report by John-Paul Ghobrial appeared in the Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association iv/2 (2017), 419–23.

12 The literature on early modern Catholic missions is considerable. For an important recent collection of essays see Hsia, R. Po-Chia (ed.), A companion to early modern Catholic global missions, Leiden 2018CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the potential of eastern Christian sources for this discussion see also Parker, L., ‘The ambiguities of belief and belonging: Catholicism and the Church of the East in the sixteenth century’, EHR cxxxiii (2018), 1420–45, esp. pp. 1423–4Google Scholar.

13 On the origins of West Syrian theology see, for example, A. Grillmeier, Christ in Christian tradition vii/2, London 1995, 19–178. Fundamental on East Syrian theology are the first three articles in Brock, S., Fire from heaven: studies in Syriac theology and liturgy, Aldershot 2006Google Scholar, and his ‘The Christology of the Church of the East in the synods of the fifth to early seventh centuries: preliminary considerations and materials’, in Dragas, G. (ed.), Aksum-Thyateira: a Festschrift for Archbishop Methodios, London 1985, 125–42Google Scholar.

14 On West Syrians in sixteenth-century Rome see P. G. Borbone, ‘From Tur ʿAbdin to Rome: the Syro-Orthodox presence in sixteenth-century Rome’, in H. Teule and others (eds), Syriac in its multi-cultural context, Leuven 2017, 277–87. On the negotiations over union between the Catholics and the Syrian Orthodox see Vida, G. Levi Della, Documenti intorno alle relazioni delle chiese orientali con la S.Sede durante il pontificato di Gregorio XIII, Vatican City 1948, esp. pp. 1–41Google Scholar.

15 On these events see Habbi, J., ‘Signification de l’union chaldéene de Mar Sulaqa avec Rome en 1553’, L’Orient Syrien xi (1966), 99–132, 199–230 at pp. 104–15Google Scholar, and Murre-van-den Berg, Scribes and Scriptures, 44–54. Many Roman sources relating to these events have been published by S. Giamil in Genuinae relationes inter sedem apostolicam et Assyriorum orientalium seu Chaldaeorum ecclesiam, Rome 1902, and by G. Beltrami in La chiesa caldea nel secolo dell’unione, Rome 1933.

16 Eliya vi’s letter and profession are edited in Giamil, Genuinae relationes, 492–510.

17 The letter is edited in Beltrami, Chiesa caldea, 148. See also Parker, ‘Ambiguities of belief and belonging’, 32.

18 On Niʿmatallah the foundational work remains Levi Della Vida, Documenti. More recently Pier Giorgio Borbone and Margherita Farina have done crucial work on manuscripts and documents relating to Niʿmatallah from Florence. See especially Borbone, P. G., ‘Syriac and Garšūnī manuscripts produced in Rome in the collection of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence’, Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies xiii (2013), 29–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 See the report of Leonard Abel: Vatican Secret Archives (ASV), AA.Arm.i–xviii, 3095, fos 3r, 6r and n. 47 below.

20 Levi Della Vida, Documenti, esp. pp. 1–41.

21 His report on his mission survives at ASV, AA.Arm. i–xviii, 3095.

22 See, for example, the letter from patriarch Dawudshah to Gregory xiii published in Levi Della Vida, Documenti, 103–111; on p.109 he states that nothing can be done without the agreement of ‘our brothers’, the Copts and Abyssinians.

23 See the documents edited in Beccari, C., Rerum Aethopicarum Scriptores Occidentales, x, Rome 1910, 300, 302Google Scholar, and especially documents 103, 104 at pp. 309–20, 320–2. On Roman relations with the Ethiopians see also Lefevre, R., ‘Riflessi etiopici nella cultura europea’, iii, in Annali Lataranensi xi (1947), 255–342Google Scholar, including, on Niʿmatallah, 317–20, and Levi Della Vida, Documenti, 26.

24 Levi Della Vida, Documenti, 22, 114–67.

25 His records relating to eastern Christians have been edited by Krajcar, J.: Cardinal Giulio Antonio Santoro and the Christian East: Santoro’s audiences and consistorial acts, Rome 1966Google Scholar.

26 Ibid. 64. Having consulted the original document (AAV, Armadio LII, 18, fo.195r), I see no reason to accept Krajcar’s proposed insertion of a ‘d’ in his edition of this passage, which would change the meaning substantially to imply a letter from (dal) the patriarch of Antioch, rather than to (al) him.

27 The document is contained in Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, ms Or.458. The manuscript does not have visible folio numbers in its online version; the document analysed here is available at http://teca.bmlonline.it/ImageViewer/servlet/ImageViewer?idr=TECA0001474577&keyworks=or.458#page/884/mode/1up (accessed 17 Feb. 2019). All subsequent references to the text come from this page.

28 ܠܢ ܘܠܐܘܡܬܢ

29 ܠܐܚܐ ܡܝܩܪܐ ܕܝܠܢ

30 ܗܘ ܣܢܐ ܗܘܐ ܠܢ ܘܠܗܘܢ ܡܛܠ ܬܘܕܝܬܐ ܘܠܐ ܣܟ ܨܒܐ ܗܘܐ ܠܢ ܛܒܬܐ. On Moses and Niʿmatallah see Borbone, ‘From Tur ʿAbdin to Rome’, esp. pp. 281–7, and ‘“Monsignore Vescovo di Soria”, also known as Moses of Mardin, scribe and book collector’, Christian Orient: Journal of Studies in the Christian Culture of Asia and Africa viii (2017), 79–114 at pp. 83–4, 106.

31 ܟܕ ܝܕܥ ܝܘܬܪܢܗ̇ ܕܠܘܬܢ ܕܠܘܬ ܟܠܡܕܡ ܛܫܝܗ̇ ܘܓܙܡ ܕܠܐ ܐܢܫ ܢܓܠܐ ܛܐܒܗ̇ ܒܪܘܡܝ ܣܟ

32 ܠܢ ܘܠܚܒ̈ܫܝܐ ܘܠܐܝܓ̈ܘܦܛܝܐ

33 ‘M’occorse anco in questo tempo, ch’essendo venuto in Roma il patriarcha d’Antiochia, ricevuto da me con ogni humanità e carità… in un tratto mi si voltò contra, con dire molte buggie al signor cardinale de’Medici, a cui s’era adherito, et essendo state intercette alcune sue lettere, le mostrai al papa, raccomandandoli di nuovo e più caldamente detto patriarcha, acciò non paresse ch’io ritenessi sdegno contra di lui et che mi volessi vendicare’: edited by G. Cugnoni, in ‘Autobiografia di Monsignor G. Antonio Santori, Cardinale di S. Severina (continuazione e fine)’, Archivio della R. Società Romana di Storia Patria xiii (1890), 153–4.

34 ‘Che non lo ….<..> ma ch’io dovevo farlo intendere; prima fu risposto che si era fatto per il Signore Cardinale di Como’, 13 Oct. 1583: Cardinal Santoro, 67.

35 ‘Dell’altro Vescovo armeno che venne l’estate passata per dare obedientia a Sua Santità, et poi disviato dal Patriarcha d’Antiochia ch’è in Roma, lasciata la speditione si partì, come che l’aria non li faceva’, 20 March 1586, ibid. 91.

36 Leonard Abel reports that the West Syrians considered only themselves, the Copts, Ethiopians and Armenians to be orthodox: ASV, AA.Arm.i–xviii, 3095, fo. 10r. On the early modern Armenian Church and its contacts with Catholicism see S. Cowe, ‘Church and diaspora: the case of the Armenians’, in M. Angold (ed.), The Cambridge history of Christianity, V: Eastern Christianity, Cambridge 2006, 430–45 at pp. 430–43.

37 ‘Delle lettere scritte da certi Nestoriani al nuovo Patriarcha d’Antiochia ch’è quì … il Patriarcha scismatico di Nestoriani che vorrebbono venire a trattare contro l’obediente’, 29 Apr. 1582: Cardinal Santoro, 49–50.

38 They are published and translated in Borbone, P. G. and Farina, M., ‘New documents concerning Patriarch Ignatius Naʿmatallah (Mardin, c.1515 – Bracciano, near Rome, 1587)’, Egitto e Vicino Oriente xxxvii (2014), 179–89Google Scholar.

39 ܘܡܛܠ ܗܕܐ ܒܥܐ ܐܢܐ ܛܒ ܙ ܙܗܝܪܐܝܬ ܘܚܦܝܛܐܝܬ ܕܬܙܕܗܪ ܘܬܬܚܦܛ ܘܠܐ ܬܓܠܐ ܚܕ ܡܢ ܐܪ̈ܙܝܟ ܠܐܢܫܝ ܣܟ ܘܕܠܐ ܬܬܥܢܐ ܥܡ ܐܢܫ ܐܘܬܗܝܡܢ ܠܐܢܫ ܐܘ ܢܗܘܐ ܠܟ ܕܘܟܬ ܡܫܪܝܐ ܐܘ ܒܝܬ ܡܥܡܪܐ ܐܠܐ ܒܗ ܒܒܝܬܐ ܕܝܠܝ ܕܐܝܬܘܗܝ ܗܘ ܘܡܪܗ ܙܒ̈ܝܢܝܟ ܘܐܦܝܢ ܢܩܪܝܟ ܐܢܫ ܣܬܪ ܡܢܢܘܒܗܕܐ ܝܬܝܪܐܝܬ ܡܙܗܪ ܐܢܐ ܠܟ ܡܛܠ ܕܠܐ ܡܦ̈ܣܬ ܐܢܬ ܒܥܝ̈ܕ ܒܢ̈ܝ ܗܢ ܐܬܪܐ ܘܒܟܝܢܗܘܢ. : ibid. 182. I have made minor alterations to Borbone and Farina’s translation.

40 Audience notes from 12, 26 January 1581: Cardinal Santoro, 37–8; Borbone and Farina, ‘New documents’, 183. Borbone notes that Krajcar has mistranscribed the date of this record.

41 As noted by Borbone and Farina, ‘New documents’, 183.

42 Moses’s manuscript is now in the British Library: Wright, W., Catalogue of the Syriac manuscripts of the British Museum acquired since the year 1838, Part 1, London 1870Google Scholar, ms 283 (ms Harleian 5512), pp. 214–16. For Niʿmatallah’s letter see Lefevre, Reflessi Etiopici, 320. Sam Kennerley’s recent work on Ethiopians in early modern Rome has revealed the presence of other Miaphysites, including Armenians, at the monastery: ‘Ethiopian Christians in Rome c. 1400–1700’, in M. Coneys Wainwright and E. Michelson (eds), A companion to religious minorities in early modern Rome, Leiden 2020, 142–68.

43 ASV, AA.Arm.i–xviii, 3095, fos 13v, 14v.

44 ܘܬܘܒ ܕܥ ܐܒܘܢ ܐܢܗܘ ܕ ܕܡܫܐܠ ܐܢܬ ܡܢ ܐܚܝ ܦܛܪܝܪܟܐ ܕܘܘܕܫܗ ܘܐܚܪ̈ܢܐ ܒܣܝܡ̈ܐ ܐܝܬܝܗܘܢ: ed. and trans. Borbone and Farina, ‘New documents’, 185–6.

45 The document is printed in J. Wicki, Documenta Indica, XI: 1577–1580, Rome 1970, appendix 4 at pp. 864–8.

46 My translation from the Italian text published ibid. 866–7.

47 ‘No[n] haveva paura delli officiali del Turcho, essendo egli loro medico amico, e favorito, e potente à liberare se stesso, e noi da ogni persecutione’: ASV, A.A.Arm.i–xviii, 3095, fo. 6r.

48 ‘delli primi di questa natione Giacobita, et anco delle altre nationi christiane di Aleppo … tiene in appalto la dogana, e la zeccha di Aleppo, et è molto stimato appresso li officiali del Turco’: ibid. fo. 8v.

49 These poems are translated into French in Vosté, J.-M., ‘Mar Ioḥannan Soulaqa: premier patriarche des Chaldéens, martyr de l’union avec Rome (†1555)’, Angelicum viii (1931), 187–234Google Scholar.

50 The manuscript is available online through the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, Collegeville, Mn, with the project number CCM 00398. This poem is at fo. 248r–v. On these poems see also Pritula, ‘ʿAbdīšōʿ of Gāzartā’, 310.

51 ܐܒܘܢ ܡܪܝ ܒܣܠܝܘܣ: CCM 00398, fo. 248r–v.

52 Ibid. fo. 248v.

53 ܡܪܝ ܐܓܢܛܝܘܣ ܪܒܐ ܦܛܪܝܪܟܐ ܕܡܥܪܒܐ: ibid. fos 248v–249r.

54 The next poem is captioned ‘another by the same Mar Abdisho’, suggesting that the anonymous text was also written by Abdisho. The poem is in a similar style to Abdisho’s other works.

55 ܪܥܝܐ ܪܒܐ ܬܐܘܦܘܪܘܣ. ܦܛܪܝܪܟܐ ܬܗܝܪܐ ܕܡܝܪܐ ܐܓܢܛܝܘܣ: CCM 00398, fo. 247r.

56 The monastery of Mar Hananyo is the official name of the monastery better known as Deyrulzaferan (monastery of Saffron), seat of the West Syrian patriarchate throughout much of its history; the monastery of Mar Azazel is in the village of Kafarze; and while there are many monasteries ‘of Mar Yaqub’, from context this probably refers to the monastery of Mar Yaqub the Recluse in Salah. On the Tur ʿAbdin see, for example, A. Palmer, Monk and mason on the Tigris frontier: the early history of Tur ʿAbdin, Cambridge 1990.

57 ܒܪ ܚܘܒܢ ܘܒܪ ܥܢܝܢܢ ܪܒܢ ܬܐܘܡܐ.: CCM 00398, fo. 247r.

58 ܪܚܘܡܢ ܐܦ ܡܚܒܢܢ ܪܒܢ ܚܢܐ: ibid. fo. 247v.

59 :ܬܪܝܢ ܐܚ̈ܝܢ...ܝܫܘܥ ܘܕܢܝܐܝܠ ܕܝܪ̈ܝܘܢܐ ܟܝܬ ܫܪ̈ܘܝܐ. ܕܠܡܚܝܠܘܬܢ ܫܡܫܘ ܒܛܟ̈ܣܐ ܠܡ ܘܠܝܝ̈ܐ܀ibid. fo. 248r.

60 Ibid. fos 249v–250r.

61 Pritula, ‘ʿAbdīšōʿ of Gāzartā’, 305–10.

62 The manuscript is available online via the Hill Museum Manuscript Library, number DCA 00065.

63 :ܒܝܘ̈ܡܝ ܪ̈ܥܘܬܐ ܛܪ̈ܩܐ ܘܛܘ̈ܠܝܩܐ... ܡܪܝ ܐܓܢܛܝܘܣ ܦܛܪܝܪܟܐ ܘܡܪܝ ܒܣܝܠܝܘܣ ܡܦܪܝܢܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐibid. fo. 113v. The colophon has been partially edited by Pritula, ‘ʿAbdīšōʿ of Gāzartā’, 306–8.

64 On conventions for East Syrian colophons see Murre-van den Berg, Scribes and Scriptures, 113–42.

65 On East Syrian pilgrimage to Jerusalem in this period see Brock, S., ‘East Syriac pilgrims to Jerusalem in the early Ottoman period’, ARAM xviii (2006), 189–201CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Fiey, J. M., ‘Le Pélerinage des Nestoriens et Jacobites à Jerusalem’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale xlvi (1969), 113–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

66 ܚܢܢ ܡܕܢܚ̈ܝܐ ܢܣܛܘܪ̈ܝܢܐ ܘܝܥܩܘܒܝܐ ܘܐܪ̈ܡܢܝܐ ܘܚܒ̈ܫܝܐ ܘܡܪ̈ܘܢܝܐ ܥܕܥܕܢ ܥܡ ܚܕ̈ܕܐ ܘܡܥܪ̈ܒܝܐ ܡܠܟ̈ܝܐ ܘܐܓܒܛ̈ܝܐ ܘܦܪ̈ܢܓܝܐ ܘܓܘܪ̈ܓܝܐ ܥܕܥܕܘ ܥܡ ܚܕ̈ܕܐ.: Hill Museum Manuscript Library, project number CCM 00103. The note is at fo.1v.

67 ܘܐܦ ܐܬܐ ܥܡܢ ܩܫܝܫܐ ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܩܫܝܫܐ ܣܠܡܐܢ ܝܥܩܘܒܝܐ ܕܡܢ ܓܙܪܬܐ.: a photograph of this note is provided in S. Fogg, Manuscripts of the Christian East, London 1996, no. 36, p. 57. See Brock, ‘East Syrian pilgrims’, 194.

68 On the interplay of different aspects of eastern Christian identities in an earlier period see especially Tannous, Making of the medieval Middle East, 209–10 and passim.

69 Parker, ‘Ambiguities of belief and belonging’.

70 ܠܘܩܒܠ ܝܥܩܘ̈ܒܝܐ Abdisho wrote a list of the books he owned in a manuscript now preserved at St Mark’s Monastery, Jerusalem, ms 116, fo. 139v.

71 They barely feature, for instance, in the seminal collection edited by Braude, B. and Lewis, B., Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: the functioning of a plural society, New York 1982Google Scholar.

72 Beltrami, Chiesa caldea, 148.

73 Murre-van den Berg, Scribes and Scriptures, 30.

74 Parker, ‘Ambiguities of belief and belonging’, 1423–4.

75 A useful recent discussion of some possible causes is found in Murre-van den Berg, Scribes and Scriptures, 44–50.