East Syriac Christianity

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East Syriac Christianity is one of three major branches of Eastern Nicene Christianity that arose from the Christological controversies in the 5th century and the 6th century. He split from mainstream Christianity following the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD that settled the relationship between Jesus's divine and human natures. East Syriac went eastward without writing home, dodging both popes and emperors, and planted crosses as far as India, Mongolia, and China while being called a heretic by Rome and Constantinople.

Born out of early Christian communities in the Mesopotamia region of the Persian Empire, East Syriac Christianity took the road not taken by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, figuratively and literally. East Syriac Christianity developed outside the Roman Empire, which is super important. Because he was based in the Persian Empire, he avoided the theological and political tug-of-war between Rome and Constantinople. That also meant that when Roman Christians started debating over Greek philosophy and Christology, the East Syriac Church was busy surviving under Zoroastrian kings and later, Muslim caliphates.

History

Early Origins

East Syriac Christianity trace his roots to the 1st-2nd centuries AD, not long after the birth of Christianity himself. He grew out of early Christian communities speaking Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic — the same language Jesus would have spoken. According to tradition, the leader of the East Syriacs, the Catholicos-Patriarch of the East, is continuing a line that stretched back to Thomas the Apostle in the first century.

Persian/Sassanid Rule

The Church of the East, church of the East Syriacs, first achieved official state recognition from the Sassanid Empire in the 4th century with the accession of Yazdegerd I (reigned 399-420) to the throne. The policies of the Sasanian Empire, which encouraged syncretic forms of Christianity, greatly influenced the East Syriac branch.

In 410, the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, held at the Sasanian capital, allowed leading bishops to elect a formal Catholicos (leader). Catholicos Isaac was required both to lead the Easy Syriac Christian community and to answer on their behalf to the Sasanian emperor. Thus, East Syriac was officially organized. Meanwhile, in the Roman Empire, the Nestorian Schism of the years 431 to 544 had led many of Nestorius' supporters to relocate to the Sasanian Empire.

Now firmly established in the Persian Empire, with centers in Nisibis, Ctesiphon, Gundeshapur, and several metropolitan sees, East Syriac Christianity began to branch out beyond the Empire. However, through the 6th century the church was frequently beset with internal strife and persecution from the Zoroastrians. The infighting led to a schism, which lasted from 521 until around 539, when the issues were resolved. However, immediately afterward, the Byzantine-Persian conflict led to a renewed persecution of East Syriac by the Sasanian emperor Khosrau I; this ended in 545. East Syriac Christianity survived these trials under the guidance of Patriarch Aba I, who had converted to Christianity from Zoroastrianism.

By the end of the 5th century and the middle of the 6th, the area occupied by the East Syriacs included all the countries to the east and those immediately to the west of the Euphrates, including the Sasanian Empire, the Arabian Peninsula, with minor presence in the Horn of Africa, Socotra, Mesopotamia, Media, Bactria, Hyrcania, and India. Beneath the Patriarch in the hierarchy were nine metropolitans and clergy, who were recorded among the Huns, in Persarmenia, Media, and the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean.

East Syriac Christianity also flourished in the Lakhmid Kingdom (c. 268–602) until the Islamic conquest, particularly after the ruler al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir officially converted in c. 592.

Islamic Rule

After the 7th-century Islamic conquests in which the Sassanid Empire was conquered by Muslim Arabs in 644, East Syriac Christians came under first the rule of the Rashidun, then Umayyad, and later Abbasid caliphates. While Islamic authorities recognized Christians as dhimmi (protected religious minorities), East Syriac communities were subject to special taxes, including the jizya, and had certain social restrictions.

East Syriac Christians made substantial contributions to the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, particularly in translating the works of the ancient Greek philosophers to Syriac and Arabic.

Expansion

After the split with the Western World and synthesis with Nestorianism, East Syriac Christianity expanded rapidly due to missionary works during the medieval period. Between 500 and 1400, the geographical horizon of the Church extended well beyond his heartland in present-day northern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Türkiye; communities sprang up throughout Central Asia, and missionaries from Assyria and Mesopotamia took the Christian faith as far as China.

Schisms

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Beliefs

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Relationships

Friends

• Chinese Folk Religion - Thanks for recognizing us in the Tang Dynasty!
  • It's a pity that you were lost. Christian churches now here were introduced one by one later.
• Nestorianism - Jesus' human and divine natures are completely separate.

Frenemies

• Zoroastrianism - I am tolerated in his clay but he persecutes me when he fears I'll align with Rome.

Enemies

• Manichaeism - My rival along the Silk Road.
• Islam - Invaders! I influenced you though.

How to draw

East Syrian cross

East Syriac Christianity has a drawing rating of easy.

1. Draw a ball.
2. Fill it with beige.
3. Draw a brown Christian cross in the middle.
4. Add two branches split off from each point of the cross.
5. Add eyes and done.

Color Name		HEX
	Brown	#583725
	Beige	#EFE4B0