Thomas of Marga, ( syc, ܬܐܘܡܐ ܒܪ ܝܥܩܘܒ, ') was an

East Syriac The East Syriac Rite or East Syrian Rite, also called the Edessan Rite, Assyrian Rite, Persian Rite, Chaldean Rite, Nestorian Rite, Babylonian Rite or Syro-Oriental Rite, is an Eastern Christian liturgical rite that employs the Divine Liturgy ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

and author of an important monastic history in

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

, who flourished in the 9th century CE. He was born early in the century in the region of Salakh to the north-east of

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 ...

. As a young man he became in 832 a monk of the monastery of Beth 'Abhe, which was situated at the confluence of the

Great Zab The Great Zab or Upper Zab ( (''al-Zāb al-Kabīr''), or , , ''(zāba ʻalya)'') is an approximately long river flowing through Turkey and Iraq. It rises in Turkey near Lake Van and joins the Tigris in Iraq south of Mosul. The drainage basin o ...

with one of its tributaries, about 25 miles east of Mosul. A few years later he was acting as secretary to Abraham, who had been abbot of Beth 'Abhe, and was

patriarch of the Church of the East The Patriarch of the Church of the East (also known as Patriarch of the East, Patriarch of Babylon, the Catholicose of the East or the Grand Metropolitan of the East) is the patriarch, or leader and head bishop (sometimes referred to as Catholic ...

from 837 to 850. At some date during these 13 years Thomas was promoted by Abraham to be bishop of the diocese of Marga in the same district as Beth 'Abhe, and afterwards he was further advanced to be a metropolitan of

Beth Garmai Beth Garmai, ( ar, باجرمي ', Middle Persian: ''Garamig''/''Garamīkān''/''Garmagān'', New Persian/Kurdish: ''Garmakan'', syc, ܒܝܬ ܓܪܡܐ ', Latin and Greek: ''Garamaea'') is a historical region around the city of Kirkuk in northern ...

, a district farther to the southeast in the mountains which border the

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 ...

basin. It was during the period of his life at Beth 'Abhe and his bishopric that he composed ''The Book of Governors'', which is in the main a history of his own monastery, but includes lives of Assyrian Christian holy men in other parts of

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

and the regions east of the Tigris. The work was probably planned in imitation of the famous ''Paradise'' of Palladius, the history of Egyptian monasticism which had become well known to Syriac-speaking Christians in the version of

Anan-Isho ʿEnanishoʿ (Syriac: ܥܢܢܝܫܘܥ, also romanized ''ʿAnanishoʿ'' or ''ʿNānišoʿ'') was a monk, philosopher, lexicographer and translator of the Church of the East who flourished in the 7th century. Biography ʿEnanishoʿ was from the regio ...

(6th century). ''The Book of Governors'' has been edited with an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

translation and a copious introduction by E. W. Budge (2 vols.,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, 1893
Google Books
, who claims that "it occupies a unique position in

Syriac literature Syriac literature is literature in the Syriac language. It is a tradition going back to the Late Antiquity. It is strongly associated with Syriac Christianity. Terminology In modern Syriac studies, and also within the wider field of Aramaic stu ...

, and it fully deserves the veneration with which it has been and is still regarded by all classes of Assyrians to whom it is known." It gives a detailed history of the great monastery cf Beth 'Abhe during its three centuries of existence down to the author's time. It is full of interesting narratives of saintly men told in a naive and candid spirit, and it throws much light on the history of Christianity in the Persian dominions. There is a later edition by P. Bedjan (

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, 1901).

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Toma Bar Yacoub Syriac writers 9th-century bishops of the Church of the East 9th-century writers 9th-century historians