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Ahatallah (1590 – c. 1655) was a Syrian bishop chiefly known for his trip to India in 1652, on which he claimed to be the designated "Patriarch of the Whole of India and of China". Apparently, he had previously claimed to be the rightful Patriarch of Antioch ; though these claims appear to be exaggerated, he was evidently at least a bishop. His mysterious appearance in, and disappearance from, Portuguese India caused a great uproar there, and resulted directly in a revolt by the Saint Thomas Christians against Portuguese rule and the establishment of an independent Malankara Church. ==Biography== Ahatallah's biography is obscure. Many earlier scholars, including the Lebanese Orientalist Joseph Simon Assemani and Edward René Hambye, believed he was a Jacobite; a member of the Syriac Orthodox Church.〔Vadakkekara, pp. 80–81 and note.〕 However, later research by Joseph Thekedathu, relying on additional documents found in the archives in the Vatican and Goa, has established further details of his life.〔Neill, p. 317.〕 He was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1590, and did enter the Syriac Orthodox Church, eventually being consecrated Bishop of Damascus. While bishop he converted to the Catholic Church, and in 1632 he traveled to Rome. He stayed there for over a year, and became fluent in Italian. Eventually he requested to return to Syria, where he vowed he would bring the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Hidayat Allah, into communion with Rome. What happened thereafter is unclear.〔 Ahatallah was certainly unsuccessful in converting the Patriarch before his death in 1639. After that point, he apparently began claiming he was Hidayat Allah's rightful successor, and began styling himself "Ignatius", the name traditionally born by Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs. Whatever the base for this claim, opposition by the Ottoman Empire precluded him from ever visiting the patriarchal see, and Ahatallah was sent instead to Persia, which had no Latin Rite bishop at the time. By 1646 he was in Cairo, where he seems to have been known at the court of the Coptic Pope of Alexandria. That year he sent a correspondence to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide) in Rome, but received no response for several years. While Ahatallah was in Cairo, the Pope of Alexandria, Mark VI, received a letter from Thomas, Archdeacon of the Saint Thomas Christian community in India. Thomas was at loggerheads with the Portuguese administration in India, and had begun appealing to various foreign patriarchs – the Patriarch of the Church of the East in Persia, the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch in Syria, and Pope Mark in Egypt – for assistance. Either unable or unwilling to send someone from his own church, Mark evidently suggested that Ahatallah might go to India instead. Having heard nothing from Propaganda Fide, Ahatallah seized the opportunity.〔 Ahatallah arrived in India in 1652, coming first to Surat.〔Neill, p. 316.〕 There he made the acquaintance of the Capuchin monks, but afraid of being taken by the authorities and subjected to the Inquisition, he quietly boarded a Dutch vessel bound for Mylapore, which he reached most likely in August 1562.〔Neill, pp. 316–317.〕 There, he began claiming that the Pope had commissioned him as "Patriarch of the Whole of India and of China", and that his patriarchal name was Ignatius. The Portuguese decided he was an impostor, and possibly a heretic, and summarily arrested him and put him in the custody of the Jesuits. However, the Jesuits extended considerable kindness and freedom to him, and allowed him to meet with Zachariah Cherrian Unni and two other members of the Saint Thomas Christian clergy. Ahatallah greatly impressed the native clergymen, who returned to their home region of Kerala with a letter from their community's new "Patriarch".〔 Historian Stephen Neill notes the difficulty in determining what of Ahatallah's story can be accepted as true.〔 There is no evidence whatsoever that the Roman pope had authorized him to go to India, let alone claim to be its Patriarch. Similarly, the Coptic pope could not have given him the commission, as he could assert no authority in India, which was under the jurisdiction of other patriarchs – historically the Patriarch of the Church of the East and now the Roman pope. However, Neill notes that however exaggerated these claims were, there is little reason to doubt that Ahatallah was at least a bishop, who had converted from the Syriac Orthodox Church to Catholicism.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ahatallah」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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