EAST-SYRIAC MESSALIANISM IN JEWISH AND MUSLIM HERESIOGRAPHY

Abstract

he eighth-century East-Syriac (“Nestorian”) spiritual writer John of Dalyatha is a prominent representative of Syriac mystical literature. Though some of his teachings on the Trinity and mystical vision of God—to be discussed below—were condemned by a church council convened in 786-787 by Timothy I, the Catholicos of the Church of the East (r. 780-823), John of Dalyatha was posthumously rehabilitated by Timothy’s successor the Catholicos Īšōʿ bar Nūn (r. 823-827).1 In Syriac and Arabic documents pertaining to the controversy, John of Dalyatha’s teachings are typically characterized as “Messalian” (from the Syriac mṣallyānē, “those who pray”).2 The purpose of the present study is to examine echoes of East-Syriac Messalianism in Jewish and Muslim heresiography. I shall focus on two testimonies: the Jewish scholar Saʿadia Gaon’s (d. 942) discussion of Christianity in his famous treatise Beliefs and Opinions (Kitāb al-Amānāt wa-l-iʿtiqādāt) and the Muslim scholar al-Šahrastānī’s (d. 1153) account of Nestorian beliefs in his heresiographical work Religions and Sects (Kitāb al-Milal wa-l-niḥal), though other sources will be considered as well. Saʿadia divides the Christians into four communities, as follows. ،قرف عبرأ ،الله كمحري ،موقلا ءلاؤاهو .اًبيرق تجرخ ةعبارلاو مدقأ مهنم ثلاث هحورو همسج مهحيسم نأ ىرت ىلولأا ثلاو ،ىلاعت قلاخلا نم نأ ىرت ةينا ،قلاخلا نم هحورو قولخم همسج ناقولخم هحورو همسج نأ ىرت ةثلاثلاو امأو ،قلاخلا نم ىرخأ حور هيفو لوّأتتو طقف ءايبنلأا ماقم هميقتف ةعبارلا لوّأتن امك هيف مهدنع ةروكذملا ةوّنبلا نحن ֵארָשְׂיִ ירִכֹבְ ינִבְּ ל فيرشت هّنإ ُريغ لوّأتي امكو طقف ليضفتو م ان ىنع .الله ليلخ ميهاربإ 3