Daniel bar Maryam (or Mariam) was a historian and chronographer of the Church of the East who lived in the 7th century.

Daniel is known to have been a contemporary of the Patriarch Ishoʿyahb III (r. 649–659).[1][2] He may be the same person as Daniel bar Ṭubanitha.[1]

Daniel wrote a four-volume Ecclesiastical History in Syriac that does not survive, but is mentioned by the Patriarch Timothy I, Pseudo-George of Arbela and Ishoʿdad of Merv.[1][3] It is cited or quoted five times in the Arabic Chronicle of Siirt,[1][4] but whether it was used directly may be doubted.[5] It is one of three lost 7th-century histories that the anonymous author of the Chronicle appears to have had access to, along with those of Elias of Merv and Bar Sahde.[1] According to Daniel, as cited by the Chronicle, the Patriarch Ahha wrote the biography of his master, the Life of ʿAbda of Deir Qoni, during his patriarchate.[6] He is also cited in a passage on Demetrianus of Antioch. Philip Wood, however, doubts that Daniel is the main source for these passages.[7] Daniel is quoted on the successors of Demetrianus: a certain Azdaq in Gundeshapur and Paul of Samosata at Antioch.[8]

According to ʿAbdishoʿ bar Brikha's list of Syriac authors, composed in the 14th century, Daniel also wrote an exposition of the Chronicon of Eusebius.[3]

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b c d e Van Rompay 2018.
  2. ^ Hoyland 1997, p. 444.
  3. ^ a b Wood 2013, p. 123.
  4. ^ Hoyland 1997, p. 392.
  5. ^ Brock 1976, pp. 25–26.
  6. ^ Wood 2013, pp. 9–10, 75.
  7. ^ Wood 2013, p. 88.
  8. ^ Wood 2013, pp. 90–91.

Bibliography edit

  • Brock, Sebastian P. (1976). "Syriac Sources for Seventh-Century History". Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. 2 (1): 17–36. doi:10.1179/030701376790206207. S2CID 162305771.
  • Degen, Erika (1968). "Daniel bar Maryam: Ein nestorianischer Kirchenhistoriker". Oriens Christianus. 52: 45–80.
  • Degen, Erika (1969). "Die Kirchengeschichte des Daniel bar Maryam — eine Quelle der Chronik von Seʿert?". In Wolfgang Voigt (ed.). XVII. Deutscher Orientalistentag vom 21. bis 27. Juli 1968 in Würzburg: Vorträge. Teil 2. Franz Steiner. pp. 511–516.
  • 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 (2018) [2011]. "Daniel bar Maryam". In Sebastian P. Brock; Aaron M. Butts; George A. Kiraz; Lucas Van Rompay (eds.). Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition. Gorgias Press [online ed. Beth Mardutho].
  • Wood, Philip (2013). The Chronicle of Seert: Christian Historical Imagination in Late Antique Iraq. Oxford University Press.
  • Wright, William (1894). A Short History of Syriac Literature (PDF). Adam and Charles Black. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-10-26. Retrieved 2020-10-23.