Jean Maurice Fiey (30 March 1914 – 10 November 1995) was a French Dominican Father and prominent

Church historian Church Historian and Recorder (usually shortened to Church Historian) is a priesthood calling in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The role of the Church Historian and Recorder is to keep an accurate and comprehensive record of th ...

and Syriacist.

Biography

Fiey was born in

Armentières Armentières (; vls, Armentiers) is a commune in the Nord department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille. The motto of the town is ''Pauvre mais fière'' (Poor but proud). Geogra ...

on 30 March 1914, he entered the Dominican Order at an early age and received his Licentiate in philosophy and theology from the order's schools in France. Fiey became acquainted with

Syriac Christian Syriac Christianity ( syr, ܡܫܝܚܝܘܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ / ''Mšiḥoyuṯo Suryoyto'' or ''Mšiḥāyūṯā Suryāytā'') is a distinctive branch of Eastern Christianity, whose formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are expr ...

tradition during his residence in Iraq from 1939 to 1973. He was one of the founders of the Mosul Dominican College in 1944 and functioned as its dean until 1959. After the Baathist takeover in 1968, Fiey was viewed suspiciously by the Iraqi government. He was expelled after being accused of being a spy, other Iraqi scholars including the Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako claim the real reason lay behind his refusal to accommodate government view in his writings. Following his expulsion Fiey resided in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

as a lecturer in the Jesuit University. He received his doctorate from the

University of Dijon A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

in 1982.

Works

Fiey was considered for decades the "undisputed authority on the historical geography of Syriac Christians". He published throughout his life over 127 books and articles.

Selected bibliography

*''Mossoul chrétienne'', 1959 *''Assyrie chrétienne'', vol.1 1965, vol.2 1966, vol.3 1968 *For the ''

Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium The Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium is an important multilingual collection of Eastern Christian texts with over 600 volumes published since its foundation in 1903 by the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and the Catholic Univer ...

'' **''Jalons pour une histoire de l'Eglise en Iraq'', 1970 **''Anonymi auctoris chronincon ad annum christi 1234 pertinens, II'', 1974 **''Chrétiens syriaques sous les Mongols (Il-Khanat de Perse, XIIIe-XIVe s.)'', 1975 **''Nisibe, métropole syriaque orientale et ses suffragants des origines à nos jours'', 1977 **''Chrétiens syriaques sous les Abbassides'', 1980 *''Les Syriaques'', 1996 *''Saints Syriaques'', 2005

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiey, Jean Maurice 1914 births 1995 deaths People from Armentières Dominican scholars French orientalists French historians of religion