Saliba or Sliba ibn Yuhanna () was a medieval

Syriac Christian Syriac Christianity (, ''Mšiḥoyuṯo Suryoyto'' or ''Mšiḥāyūṯā Suryāytā'') is a branch of Eastern Christianity of which formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are expressed in the Classical Syriac language, a vari ...

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

Mosul Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...

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

Tigris The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern 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 Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...

in the early 14th century, and in

Famagusta Famagusta, also known by several other names, is a city located on the eastern coast of Cyprus. It is located east of the capital, Nicosia, and possesses the deepest harbour of the island. During the Middle Ages (especially under the maritime ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

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

Mari ibn Suleiman Mari ibn Suleiman or Sulaiman () 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 Tower (''Kitāb al-Majdal''). The ...

's and

Amr ibn Matta ʿAmr ibn Mattā or Mattai al-Ṭīrhānī (, , ''Amru ibn Matta'') was the author of a 14th-century work known as ''The Book of the Tower'' (). Ibn Matta's work is modelled after, and takes its title from, the ''Book of the Tower'' by 12th-century ...

'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 the People of Cyprus The ''Letter from the People of Cyprus'' () is an anonymous Arabic letter to an unnamed recipient. The author is generally thought to have been a Melkite Christian, although it has been argued that he in fact belonged to the Church of the East. Th ...

'' 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 known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

), defending the authenticity of the

Church of the East The Church of the East ( ) or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church, the Chaldean Church or the Nestorian Church, is one of three major branches o ...

and making a plea for Christian unity. It is plausible that ibn Yuhanna was already in Cyprus, at the time still a crusader kingdom (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 14th-century Christians 14th-century deaths Church of the East writers 14th-century Arabic-language writers People from Mosul