Mari ibn Suleiman or Sulaiman ( ar, ماري إبن سليمان) was a 12th-century

Nestorian Christian Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian ...

author writing in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

. Nothing is known of his life. He is the author of a theological and historiographical work known as the Book of the Tower (''Kitāb al-Majdal''). The work consists of seven parts. The first is a general introduction, the second a theological treatise on Nestorian

Christology In Christianity, Christology (from the Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, -λογία, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Christ", is a branch of theology that concerns Jesus. Diff ...

, the third discusses

Baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

and

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was institu ...

, the fourth the seven virtues (piety, charity, prayer, fasting, pity, humility, chastity), the fifth on the "seven pillars" of

Creation Creation may refer to: Religion *''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing *Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it *Creationism, the belief that ...

Last Judgement The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...

, the Prophecies, the coming of the Messiah, the history of the

Eastern Church Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent and ...

, the history of heresies, and the canon of biblical texts. The sixth part presents the four "moats" of the Tower, as prayer, the observation of the Day of the Lord, candles and incense, and penitence. The seventh part describes the "gardens" of the Tower, where Christians, liberated from the obligations of Mosaic law, may repose. The main interest of the work in modern scholarship is the historiographical material in its fifth part, an important testimony of the 11th to 12th-century history of the Eastern Church. The work can be dated approximately from the fact that the history ends with patriarch

Abdisho III Abdisho III bar Moqli was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 1139 to 1148. Sources Brief accounts of Abdisho's patriarchate are given in the ecclesiastical history of the Nestorian writer Mari ibn Suleiman (), in the ''Ecclesiastical C ...

(r. 1139–1148), suggesting a composition in the 1140s. In the 14th century, another author, Amr ibn Matta, imitated the work, and the two works have often been confused, even in their manuscripts. The main manuscript for the work is Paris arab. 190 (13th century), besides Paris arab. 191 and 192 (14th century). Three further manuscripts are in the Vatican, one in London.

References

* H. Gismondi (ed.), ''Maris Amri et Slibae De patriarchis nestorianorum commentaria'', Rome, 1896-1899. * Georg Graf, ''Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur'', 5 vol., Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1944-53. * Éphrem-Isa Yousif, ''Les chroniqueurs syriaques'', L'Harmattan, 2002. {{Authority control 12th-century Christian theologians 12th-century deaths Nestorians Church of the East writers 12th-century Arabic writers