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[German Version] Malankara Church / Syro-Malankara Church, is the more recent self-designation of the Jacobite or West Syrian Church (Syria: V, 2) in India. The decrees issued by the Synod of Diamper (convoked in 1599) met with considerable resistance on the part of the Thomas Christians (Malabar Christians) because of the intended Latinization. In 1653, 12 priests consecrated the archdeacon Thomas (c. 1637–1670/ 1672) as metropolitan bishop in Alangad. The Discalced Carmelites (in Malabar from 16…

[German Version] (Shemʿōn; probably born in Beth-Arsam – before 548, Constantinople), Monophysite missionary (Monophysites) in Sassanian Mesopotamia; after a religious disputation with the¶ Nestorian Catholicos Baḇai (497–502/503), he was made bishop. He often stayed in Ḥīra and at the Sasanid court, where he learned more about the persecution of Christians by the Himyarite king Yūsuf Asʾar Yat̠ʾar (517–525). Probably the Liber Homeritarum, a description of the persecution, was written by Simeon. He died during a visit to the empress Theodora (died 548) in Constantinople. Jürg…

[German Version] (Qēnnešrīn – Aug 8, 436, Edessa). Rabbūlā was elected bishop of Edessa at a synod in Antioch in 412. In Edessa he undertook various ecclesiastical reforms (including imposing an ascetic life on the clergy); he also incorporated heterodox groups like the Arians (Arius), Audians, and Messalians into the Catholic church. In Christology he became an early supporter of Cyril of Alexandria, triggering a conflict with the “Persian school” (Nisibis), whose teachers favored Theodore of Mop…

[German Version] (c. 640, ʿĒn Dēbā near Antioch – Jun 5, 708, Tell ʿAddā monastery), Syrian Orthodox theologian. After studying under Severos Sēbōkt at the Qennešrin monastery, Jacob of Edessa went to Alexandria and subsequently returned to Edessa, where he was appointed bishop in 684. Owing to contentions with the clergy over the observance of the church canons (Canons/Canon collections), however, he relinquished his office already in 688 and retired to a monastery in the vicinity of Samosata. Fr…

[German Version] (in Ḫūrasān). Īšōʿdād became bishop of Ḥadīt̲ā (Arab., Syriac Ḥdāttā, “Nea[polis]”) in the vicinity of Mossul apparently in 837. His planned elec-¶ tion as katholikos was thwarted by al-Mutawakkil's (846–861) physician Boḫtīšōʿ ibn Gibrāʾīl (d. 870). Īšōʿdād's exegetical studies are documented in a comprehensive commentary on the Old and New Testaments which also gained attention among western Syrian biblical exegetes. As secondary literature, Īšōʿdād used no-longer extant Syriac and Greek sources, as …