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The province of Fars, the historic cradle of Persian civilisation, was a metropolitan province of the Church of the East between the sixth and twelfth centuries. It was centered in what is now Fars Province, and besides a number of centres in Fars itself, the East Syrian ecclesiastical province also included a number of dioceses in Arabia and a diocese for the island of Soqotra. == Background == According to tradition, Christianity was brought to the Persian province of Fars (Syriac: Beth Parsaye, ܒܝܬ ܦܪܣܝܐ) by Persian merchants exposed to the teaching of the apostle Addai in Roman Edessa. This tradition, which rejected a significant role for the apostle Mari, widely credited with the evangelisation of the Mesopotamian provinces of the Church of the East, reflects a deep division within the Church of the East in the Sassanian period between its Syrian and Persian converts. The patriarchs of Seleucia-Ctesiphon frequently found it difficult to exert authority over the ecclesiastical province of Fars.〔Harrak, page number to be supplied〕 A number of dioceses in Fars and northern Arabia (Syriac: Beth Qatraye, ܒܝܬ ܩܛܪܝܐ) existed by the beginning of the fifth century, but they were not grouped into a metropolitan province in 410. After establishing five metropolitan provinces in Mesopotamia, Canon XXI of the synod of Isaac merely provided that 'the bishops of the more remote dioceses of Fars, of the Islands, of Beth Madaye, of Beth Raziqaye and of the country of Abrashahr must accept the definition established in this council at a later date'.〔Chabot, 273〕 The signature of the bishop of Rev Ardashir (the metropolis of Fars) came between those of the five metropolitans and the suffragan bishops in the acts of the synod of Dadisho in 424, suggesting that Fars had by then been recognised as a sixth metropolitan province.〔Chabot, 273 and 275〕 There were at least eight dioceses in Fars and the islands of the Persian Gulf in the fifth century, and probably eleven or more by the end of the Sassanian period. In Fars the diocese of Rev Ardashir is first mentioned in 420, the dioceses of Ardashir Khurrah (Shiraf), Darabgard, Istakhr and Kazrun (Shapur or Bih Shapur) in 424, and a diocese of Qish in 540. On the Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf dioceses are first mentioned for Dairin and Mashmahig (Bahrain) in 410 and for Beth Mazunaye (Oman) in 424. By 540 the bishop of Rev Ardashir had become a metropolitan, responsible for the dioceses of both Fars and Arabia. A fourth Arabian diocese, Hagar, is first mentioned in 576. A fifth diocese, Hatta (previously part of the diocese of Hagar), is first mentioned in the acts of a regional synod held on the Persian Gulf island of Dairin in 676 by the patriarch Giwargis to determine the episcopal succession in Beth Qatraye, but may have been created before the Arab conquest. After the Arab conquest Fars and northern Arabia (Beth Qatraye) were marked out for a thoroughgoing process of islamicisation, and Christianity declined more rapidly in these regions than in any other part of the former Sassanian empire. The last-known bishop of the metropolitan see of Rev Ardashir was Abdisho, who was present at the enthronement of the patriarch Abdisho III in 1138. In 890 Eliya of Damascus listed the suffragan sees of Fars, in order of seniority, as Shiraz, Istakhr, Shapur (probably to be identified with Bih Shapur, i.e. Kazrun), Karman, Darabgard, Shiraf (Ardashir Khurrah), Marmadit, and the island of Soqotra. Only two bishops are known from the mainland dioceses: Melek of Darabgard, who was deposed in the 560s, and Gabriel of Bih Shapur, who was present at the enthronement of Abdisho I in 963. Fars was spared by the Mongols for its timely submission in the 1220s, but by then there seem to have been few Christians left, although an East Syrian community (probably without bishops) survived at Hormuz. This community is last mentioned in the sixteenth century. Of the northern Arabian dioceses, Mashmahig is last mentioned around 650, and Dairin, Oman (Beth Mazunaye), Hagar and Hatta in 676. Soqotra remained an isolated outpost of Christianity in the Arabian sea, and its bishop attended the enthronement of the patriarch Yahballaha III in 1281. Marco Polo visited the island in the 1280s, and claimed that it had an East Syrian archbishop, with a suffragan bishop on the nearby 'Island of Males'. Thomas of Marga mentions that Yemen and Sanaa had a bishop named Peter during the reign of the patriarch Abraham II (837–50), who had earlier served in China. This diocese is not mentioned again. 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「Fars (East Syrian Ecclesiastical Province)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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