Mar II (sometimes written Shimun II) was the

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 Cath ...

from 1385 until 1405. He succeeded

Denha II Mar Denha II (also written Dinkha II) was patriarch of the Church of the East from 1336/7 to 1381/2. Although no history of his reign has survived, references in a number of Nestorian, Jacobite and Muslim sources provide some details of his pat ...

, who died in 1381/2, and his reign corresponds to the beginning of a period of obscurity in the Church of the East and the patriarchal succession. He is mentioned in one near-contemporary list of patriarchs in a 15th-century manuscript copy of the ''

Book of the Bee __NOTOC__ The ''Book of the Bee'' () is a historiographic and theological compilation, containing numerous Biblical stories. It was written around 1222, by Solomon of Akhlat, who was Bishop of Basra, within the Church of the East. It is written ...

''. He is listed between Denha II and

Eliya IV Mar Eliya IV (or IV) was the patriarch of the Church of the East from 1405 until 1425. His reign falls in a period of obscurity owing to the limited contemporary evidence. He appears in a contemporary list of patriarchs in a 15th-ce ...

, and the copy was produced in the time of Eliya's successor, Shemʿon III. The traditional listing makes Shemʿon III the successor of Shemʿon II and predecessor of Eliya IV, but the contemporary source is preferred. Shemʿon II probably selected his name in honour of the 4th-century patriarch Shemʿon bar Sabbaʿe, a victim of the Forty Years' Persecution. Possibly he foresaw a similar period of persecution. His choice of name became very common thereafter. In view of the upheavals in Iraq in his time, it is unlikely that he was consecrated 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 ...

. Probably he was consecrated and resided in a monastery in northern Iraq. His reign fell in a period of intense persecution of Christians under the

Timurid Empire The Timurid Empire was a late medieval, culturally Persianate, Turco-Mongol empire that dominated Greater Iran in the early 15th century, comprising modern-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, much of Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and parts of co ...

. The 1390s saw a "flight to the mountains", as Nestorians took refuge from the upheavals in the region of Hakkari in northern Iraq. In 1401,

Pope Boniface IX Pope Boniface IX (; ; c. 1350 – 1 October 1404, born Pietro Tomacelli) was head of the Catholic Church from 2 November 1389 to his death, in October 1404. He was the second Roman pope during the Western Schism.Richard P. McBrien, ''Lives of t ...

granted an indulgence to

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

and Nestorian Christians who sheltered

Latins The term Latins has been used throughout history to refer to various peoples, ethnicities and religious groups using Latin or the Latin-derived Romance languages, as part of the legacy of the Roman Empire. In the Ancient World, it referred to th ...

fleeing the Timurids.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Patriarchs of the Church of the East 14th-century bishops of the Church of the East 15th-century bishops of the Church of the East Patriarchs of the Church of the East