Shemʿon of Rev Ardashir

Shemʿon of Rev Ardashir (7th or 8th century), also anglicized Simeon of Rewardashir, was the metropolitan bishop of Fars and a notable jurist of the Church of the East. His dates are uncertain.[1]

A metropolitan named Shemʿon, possibly but not certainly the same person as the jurist, was the recipient of two letters from the Catholicos Ishoʿyahb III (649–659).[2] The metropolitan refused to recognize the authority of the catholicos, specifically the requirement that he and his suffragan bishops receive "perfection" (confirmation) from the catholicos. There were at that time twenty bishops under Shemʿon who had not been perfected, as well as Shemʿon himself and his predecessor.[3] After Ishoʿyahb paid a visit to Rev Ardashir, Shemʿon recognized his authority.[4]

Ishoʿyahb also wrote to Shemʿon with his concerns for the faith in Beth Qatraye, where the bishops had submitted to the Islamic authorities, and Beth Mazunaye, where Christians were converting to Islam to avoid paying the jizya. Both provinces were under Shemʿon's jurisdiction.[3][5] Ishoʿyahb also accused Shemʿon of refusing to appoint a bishop of Kalnah (Quilon) because the Indian Christians had offended him.[6][7][8]

Shemʿon wrote a treatise, the Law of Inheritance,[9] on hereditary law and family law in Middle Persian. It is written in the form of questions and answers in 22 chapters.[10] In the preface, Shemʿon offers his treatise as the answer to four basic questions:

Why did our Lord not confer them [ecclesiastical laws] by his own legislation, what is the reason that we do not make dīnē [rules] according to the nāmōsā [law] of Moses, from where did we receive the legal tradition which has reached us, and how are certain special cases of laws in the practice we follow to be treated?"[11]

In his discussion of the principles of canon law, Shemʿon gives priority to the Church Fathers.[10] He also cites unwritten practices.[12] His book was treated as authoritative by later generations and became an important source for the Synodicon Orientale.[10] The Persian version is lost, but a Syriac translation survives, made by an anonymous monk of Beth Qatraye at the request of a priest named Shemʿon.[10][13] This may be a contemporary translation.[13] The monk notes that the work was difficult to translate.[13] He calls the author a "priest and teacher" as well as metropolitan of Fars. A copy is found in the manuscript Alqosh Syr. 169, where it comes before the treatise of Ishoʿbokht. There is some dispute over which of these treatises was written first.[10][14]

Editions

• Adolf Rücker, ed. and German trans, Die Canones des Simeon von Rêvârdešîr, Ph.D. diss., University of Breslau, 1908.
• In Eduard Sachau, ed. and German trans, Syrische Rechtsbücher, 3 (1914), pp. 207–253.

Notes

1. Weitz 2018, p. 46, places him at the forefront of the Church of the East's legal tradition, which probably arose in response to the Arab conquest of Persia and the need to better define Christian practice as against Islamic.
2. Baum 2003, p. 43, accepts their identity. Van Rompay 2011 writes that "whether the two metropolitans by the name of Shemʿon are one and the same person must ... remain undecided."
3. Wilmshurst 2011, pp. 104–105.
4. Baum 2003, p. 43.
5. Brock 1999, pp. 85–87.
6. Wilmshurst 2011, p. 121.
7. Baum 2003, pp. 53–54, identifies the place as Qalah (Qalang) in Malacca, rather than Quilon.
8. Hoyland 1997, pp. 178–182, quotes extensively from Ishoʿyahb's letters.
9. Title used by Weitz 2018, p. 46.
10. Van Rompay 2011.
11. Hoyland 1997, p. 209 n128.
12. Hoyland 1997, p. 209.
13. Brock 1999, pp. 94–95.
14. See Hoyland 1997, p. 209 n127, for the argument for Ishoʿbokht's priority.

Bibliography

• Baum, Wilhelm (2003) [2000]. "The Age of the Arabs: 650–1258". The Church of the East: A Concise History. Translated by Miranda G. Henry. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon. pp. 42–83.
• Brock, Sebastian P. (1999). "Syriac Writers from Beth Qaṭraye". ARAM Periodical. 11 (1): 85–96. doi:10.2143/aram.11.1.504452.
• Hoyland, Robert G. (1997). Seeing Islam As Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam. Darwin Press.
• Van Rompay, Lucas (2011). "Shemʿon of Rev Ardashir". In Sebastian P. Brock; Aaron M. Butts; George A. Kiraz; Lucas Van Rompay (eds.). Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage. Gorgias Press.
• Weitz, Lev E. (2018). Between Christ and Caliph: Law, Marriage, and Christian Community in Early Islam. University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Wilmshurst, David (2011). The Martyred Church: A History of the Church of the East. East and West Publishing.