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The Province of the Patriarch was an ecclesiastical province of the Church of the East attested between the fifth and thirteenth centuries. As its name entails, it was the province of the church's Patriarch. The province consisted of a number of dioceses in the region of Beth Aramaye, between Basra and Kirkuk, which were placed under the patriarch's direct supervision at the synod of Yahballaha I in 420. == Background == It was not normal for the head of an eastern church to administer an ecclesiastical province in addition to his many other duties, but circumstances made it necessary for the patriarch Yahballaha I to assume responsibility for a number of dioceses in Beth Aramaye. The dioceses of Kashkar, Zabe, Hirta, Beth Daraye and Dasqarta d’Malka (the Sassanian winter capital Dastagird), doubtless because of their antiquity or their proximity to the capital Seleucia-Ctesiphon, were reluctant to be placed under the jurisdiction of a metropolitan, and it was felt necessary to treat them tactfully. A special relationship between the diocese of Kashkar and the diocese of Seleucia-Ctesiphon was defined in Canon XXI of the synod of 410: 'The first and chief seat is that of Seleucia and Ctesiphon; the bishop who occupies it is the grand metropolitan and chief of all the bishops. The bishop of Kashkar is placed under the jurisdiction of this metropolitan; he is his right arm and minister, and he governs the diocese after his death.' Although their bishops were admonished in the acts of these synods, they persisted in their intransigence, and in 420 Yahballaha I placed them under his direct supervision. This ''ad hoc'' arrangement was later formalised by the creation of a 'province of the patriarch'. Kashkar, by tradition an apostolic foundation, was the highest ranking diocese in the province, and its bishops enjoyed the privilege of guarding the patriarchal throne during the interregnum between one patriarch’s death and the election of his successor. The diocese of Dasqarta d’Malka is not mentioned again after 424, but bishops of the other dioceses were present at most of the fifth- and sixth-century synods. Three more dioceses in Beth Aramaye are mentioned in the acts of the later synods: Piroz Shabur (first mentioned in 486); Tirhan (first mentioned in 544); and Shenna d’Beth Ramman or Qardaliabad (first mentioned in 576). All three dioceses were to have a long history. According to Eliya of Damascus, there were thirteen dioceses in the province of the patriarch in 893: Kashkar, al-Tirhan (Tirhan), Dair Hazql (an alternative name for al-Nuʿmaniya, the chief town in the diocese of Zabe), al-Hira (Hirta), al-Anbar (Piroz Shabur), al-Sin (Shenna d’Beth Ramman), ʿUkbara, al-Radhan, Nifr, al-Qasra, 'Ba Daraya and Ba Kusaya' (Beth Daraye), ʿAbdasi (Nahargur) and al-Buwazikh (Konishabur or Beth Waziq).〔Assemani, ''BO'', ii. 485–9〕 Eight of these dioceses already existed in the Sassanian period, but the diocese of Beth Waziq is first mentioned in the second half of the seventh century, and the dioceses of ʿUkbara, Radhan, Nifr and Qasr were probably founded in the ninth century. The diocese of Nahargur was in the province of Maishan during the Sassanian period, and it is not known when or why it was transferred to the diocese of the patriarch. The first bishop of ʿUkbara whose name has been recorded, Hakima, was consecrated by the patriarch Sargis around 870, and bishops of Qasr, Radhan and Nifr are first mentioned in the tenth century. A bishop of 'Qasr and Nahrawan' became patriarch in 963, and then consecrated bishops for Radhan and for 'Nifr and Nil'. Eliya's list helps to confirm the impression given by the literary sources, that the East Syrian communities in Beth Aramaye were at their most prosperous in the tenth century. A partial list of bishops present at the consecration of the patriarch Yohannan IV in 900 included several bishops from the province of the patriarch, including the bishops of Zabe and Beth Daraye and also the bishops Ishoʿzkha of 'the Gubeans', Hnanishoʿ of Delasar, Quriaqos of Meskene and Yohannan 'of the Jews'. The last four dioceses are not mentioned elsewhere and cannot be satisfactorily localised.〔MS Paris BN Syr 354, folio 147〕 In the eleventh century decline began to set in. The diocese of Hirta (al-Hira) came to an end, and four other dioceses were combined into two: Nifr and al-Nil with Zabe (al-Zawabi and al-Nuʿmaniya), and Beth Waziq (al-Buwazikh) with Shenna d'Beth Ramman (al-Sin). Three more dioceses ceased to exist in the twelfth century. The dioceses of Piroz Shabur (al-Anbar) and Qasr and Nahrawan are last mentioned in 1111, and the senior diocese of Kashkar in 1176. In 1139, at the consecration ceremony of the patriarch ʿAbdishoʿ III, a bishop from the province of Nisibis was required to proclaim the new patriarch's name, 'because all the bishops of the grand eparchy (Aramaye ) had died and their thrones were vacant; something which had never happened before'.〔Mari, 157 (Arabic), 133 (Latin)〕 By the patriarchal election of 1222 the guardianship of the vacant patriarchal throne, the traditional privilege of the bishop of Kashkar, had passed to the metropolitans of ʿIlam. The trend of decline continued in the thirteenth century. The diocese of Zabe and Nil is last mentioned during the reign of Yahballaha II (1190–1222), and the diocese of ʿUkbara in 1222. Only three dioceses are known to have been still in existence at the end of the thirteenth century: Beth Waziq and Shenna, Beth Daron and (perhaps due to its sheltered position between the Tigris and the Jabal Hamrin) Tirhan. However, East Syrian communities may also have persisted in districts which no longer had bishops: a manuscript of 1276 was copied by a monk named Giwargis at the monastery of Mar Yonan 'on the Euphrates, near Piroz Shabur which is Anbar', nearly a century and a half after the last mention of a bishop of Anbar.〔MS Harvard Syr 27〕 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「Province of the Patriarch」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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