Masʿūd Zazoyo or Masʿūd of Zaz (c.1430/31 – 1509/1512) was a

Syriac Orthodox The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The church upholds the Mia ...

author, hermit, monk and prelate.

Life

Masʿūd became the abbot of the Dayr al-Ṣalīb (Monastery of the Cross) around 1462/63. He left the monastery in 1480/81 to become bishop of Ḥesno d'Kifo and the monastery of Mor Quryaqos. As bishop he took the name Basil. In 1492 he became the Patriarch of Ṭur ʿAbdin (as Masʿūd II) and by tradition took the throne name Ignatius. As patriarch he promoted monasticism in the

Ṭur ʿAbdin Tur Abdin (; ; ; or ) is a hilly region situated in southeast Turkey, including the eastern half of the Mardin Province, and Şırnak Province west of the Tigris, on the border with Syria and famed since Late Antiquity for its Christian monaste ...

. Masʿūd was not a popular patriarch. He caused confusion by appointing a ''

maphrian The Maphrian ( or ''maphryono''), is the second-highest rank in the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Syriac Orthodox Church, right below that of patriarch. The office of a maphrian is a maphrianate. There have been three maphrianates in the hist ...

'', Baselios Malki of Midyat, and twelve new bishops for the Ṭur ʿAbdin, provoking some leading bishops to denounce him. According to Afram Barsoum, they denounced him to the

Patriarch of Antioch The Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the bishop of Antioch (modern-day Antakya, Turkey). As the traditional "overseer" (, , from which the word ''bishop'' is derived) of the first gentile Christian community, the position has ...

, the head of the Syriac Orthodox church, but according to the anonymous continuator of the ''Ecclesiastical History'' of

Bar Hebraeus Gregory Bar Hebraeus (, b. 1226 - d. 30 July 1286), known by his Syriac ancestral surname as Barebraya or Barebroyo, in Arabic sources by his kunya Abu'l-Faraj, and his Latinized name Abulpharagius in the Latin West, was a Maphrian (region ...

, they denounced him to the secular Islamic authority, the

emir Emir (; ' (), also Romanization of Arabic, transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic language, Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocratic, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person po ...

of Ḥesno d'Kifo. As a result, Masʿūd was forced into retirement. According to the continuator, he was even confined to a monastery. He abdicated and ordered his supporters not to elect a new patriarch, but before the end of his life he had regained the exercise of his patriarchal functions. Some sources have him dying in 1509, others reigning as patriarch down to 1512. The identification of the abbot, bishop and writer with the patriarch was first made by Afram Barsoum in the 20th century.

Works

Only one work by Masʿūd has survived, the ''Elpo ruḥonoyto'' or ''The Spiritual Boat''. An extended poem in dodecasyllabic metre, it is a guide for monks and hermits seeking the "haven of impassibility". It is a

mystical Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight ...

tract in three sections devoted to the

Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...

Christology In Christianity, Christology is a branch of Christian theology, theology that concerns Jesus. Different denominations have different opinions on questions such as whether Jesus was human, divine, or both, and as a messiah what his role would b ...

and the

spiritual gifts In Christianity, a spiritual gift or charism (plural: charisms or charismata; in Greek singular: χάρισμα ''charisma'', plural: χαρίσματα ''charismata'') is an extraordinary power given by the Holy Spirit."Spiritual gifts". ''A ...

given by Christ to both angels and humans. The last section is based on the Pseudo-Dionysian '' Celestial Hierarchy''. The life of Masʿūd Zazoyo before he was ordained a bishop in 1480/81 is recorded in a short biographical notice written by his disciple ʿAziz and included in the oldest manuscript of Masʿūd's ''Spiritual Boat'', now kept in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

. According to this notice, Masʿūd wrote other works, but these have not survived.

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{refend 15th-century births 16th-century deaths 15th-century Oriental Orthodox archbishops 15th-century Syriac Orthodox Church bishops 16th-century Syriac Orthodox Church bishops 16th-century Oriental Orthodox archbishops 15th-century writers 16th-century writers