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DIONYSIUS TELMAHARENSIS (" of Tell-Ma...

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 286 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DIONYSIUS TELMAHARENSIS (" of Tell-Mabre ") , See also:patriarch or supreme See also:head of the Syrian Jacobite See also:Church during the years 818-848, was See also:born at Tell-Mahre near Rakka (ar-Raklrah) on the Balikh. He was the author of an important See also:historical See also:work, which has seemingly perished except for some passages quoted by Barhebraeus and an See also:extract found by See also:Assemani in See also:Cod. Vat. 144 and published by him in the Bibliotheca orientalis (ii. 72–77). He spent his earlier years as a See also:monk at the See also:convent of See also:Ken-neshre on the upper See also:Euphrates; and when this monastery was destroyed by See also:fire in 815, he migrated northwards to that of Kaisum in the See also:district of See also:Samosata. At the See also:death of the Jacobite patriarch Cyriacus in 817, the church was agitated by a dispute about the use of the phrase " heavenly See also:bread " in connexion with the See also:Eucharist. An See also:anti-patriarch had been appointed in the See also:person of See also:Abraham of I{.artamin, who insisted on the use of the phrase in opposition to the recognized authorities of the church. The See also:council of bishops who met at Rakls.a in the summer of 818 to choose a successor to Cyriacus had See also:great difficulty in finding a worthy occupant of the patriarchal See also:chair, but finally agreed on the See also:election of Dionysius, hitherto known only as an honest monk who devoted himself to historical studies. Sorely against his will he was brought to Rakta, ordained See also:deacon and See also:priest on two successive days, and raised to the supreme ecclesiastical dignity on the 1st of See also:August. From this See also:time he showed the utmost zeal in fulfilling the duties of his See also:office, and undertook many journeys both within and without his See also:province. The ecclesiastical See also:schism continued unhealed during the See also:thirty years of his patriarchate.

The details of this contest, of his relations with the See also:

caliph Ma'See also:mun, and of his many travels—including a See also:journey to See also:Egypt, on which he viewed with admiration the great See also:Egyptian monuments,—are to be found in the Ecclesiastical See also:Chronicle of Barhebraeus.' He died in 848, his last days having been especially 1 Ed. Abbeloos and Lamy,. i. 343-386; cf. See also:Wright, See also:Syriac Literature, 196-200, and See also:Chabot's introduction to his See also:translation of the See also:fourth See also:part of the Chronicle of (pseudo) Dionysius.embittered by See also:Mahommedan oppression. We learn from See also:Michael the Syrian that his See also:Annals consisted of two parts each divided into eight chapters, and covered a See also:period of 26o years, viz. from the See also:accession of the See also:emperor See also:Maurice (582-583) to the death of See also:Theophilus (842-843). In addition to the lost Annals, Dionysius was from the time of Assemani until 1896 credited with the authorship of another important historical work— a Chronicle, which in four parts narrates the See also:history of the See also:world from the creation to the See also:year A.D. 774-775 and is preserved entire in Cod. Vat. 162. The first part (edited by Tullberg, See also:Upsala, 185o) reaches to the See also:epoch of See also:Constantine the Great, and is in the See also:main an See also:epitome of the Eusebian Chronicle.2 The second part reaches to See also:Theodosius II. and follows closely the Ecclesiastical History of See also:Socrates; while the third, extending to See also:Justin II., reproduces the second part of the History of See also:John of See also:Asia or See also:Ephesus, and also contains the well-known chronicle attributed to See also:Joshua the Stylite. The fourth part 3 is not like the others a compilation, but the See also:original work of the author, and reaches to the year 774-775—apparently the date when he was See also:writing. On the publication of this fourth part by M.

Chabot, it was discovered and clearly proved by See also:

NOldeke (See also:Vienna See also:Oriental See also:Journal, x. 16o-17o), and Nau (Bulletin critique, xvii. 321-327), who independently reached the same conclusion, that Assemani's See also:opinion was a See also:mistake, and that the chronicle in question was the work not of Dionysius of Tell-Mahre but of an earlier writer, a monk of the convent of Zuknin near Amid (Diarbekr) on the upper See also:Tigris. Though the author was a See also:man of limited intelligence and destitute of historical skill, yet the last part of his work at least has considerable value as a contemporary See also:account of events during the See also:middle period of the 8th See also:century. (N.

End of Article: DIONYSIUS TELMAHARENSIS (" of Tell-Mabre ")

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