Saliba or Sliba ibn Yuhanna ( ar, Ṣalībā ibn Yūḥannā, script=Latn) was a medieval

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 ...

, author of a 1332 Arabic compendium known as ''The Books of Secrets'' (''Asfar al-Asrar''). Born in

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second large ...

in the late 13th century, he was active in Jazīrat Ibn ʿUmar on the upper

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

in the early 14th century, and in

Famagusta Famagusta ( , ; el, Αμμόχωστος, Ammóchostos, ; tr, Gazimağusa or ) is a city on the east coast of Geography of Cyprus, Cyprus. It is located east of Nicosia District, Nicosia and possesses the deepest harbour of the island. Duri ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

, in the 1330s. He is principally known for his edition of

Mari ibn Suleiman Mari ibn Suleiman or Sulaiman ( ar, ماري إبن سليمان) was a 12th-century Nestorian Christian author writing in Arabic. Nothing is known of his life. He is the author of a theological and historiographical work known as the Book of the ...

's and

Amr ibn Matta ʿAmr ibn Mattā or Mattai al-Ṭīrhānī ( la, Amrus, , ''Amru ibn Matta'') was the author of a 14th-century work known as ''The Book of the Tower'' ( ar, italic=yes, Kitāb al-Majdal li-l-Istibṣār wa-l-Jadal). Ibn Matta's work is modelled aft ...

's ''Book of Towers''. MS Paris BNF Arab. 204 is a likely autograph, where ibn Yuhanna copied texts that interested him. The manuscript is internally dated to June 1315 and placed in Jazīrat Ibn ʿUmar. Years later, ibn Yuhanna added a ''Letter from Cyprus'' to the manuscript, dated to 1336, written in Famagusta, Cyprus. Ibn Yuhanna's "Book of Secrets" opens with a letter addressed to the Christians in the "West" (

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

), defending the authenticity of the

Church of the East The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...

and making a plea for Christian unity. It is plausible that ibn Yuhanna was already in Cyprus, at the time still a

crusader kingdom The Crusader States, also known as Outremer, were four Catholic realms in the Middle East that lasted from 1098 to 1291. These feudal polities were created by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade through conquest and political in ...

(under king Hugh IV) when he completed this work.

References

*David Thomas, Alexander Mallett (eds.), ''Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History'' vol. 4, BRILL, 2012
900
ndash;905. {{DEFAULTSORT:Yuhanna, Saliba ibn Syriac Christians 14th-century Christians 14th-century deaths