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by V. Berti (Author)
The period coinciding with the education and with the first part of the patriarchate of Timothy I, more or less corresponding with the second half of the 8th century, is one of the best observation points for evaluating the cultural reorganisation of the ancient Oriental Christian communities after the Muslim conquest, in particular in consequence of the establishment of the Abbasid Caliphate. The case studied here refers in particular to the life of the Church of the East, or East-Syrian Church, a vast network with a liturgical and literary tradition in aramaic language, spread along the Asian commercial routes. This Church was also the Christian community that enjoyed the best relations with the Caliphate, particularly for the role played by its schools, that acted as cultural go-betweens for the transmission of the Greek secular knowledge to the Arab speaking world. This element, that was to give its best results in the 9th and 10th centuries, thanks to the work of Christian scholars, translators and philosophers, had its starting point under the rule of Timothy. This study traces a pathway that starts with the school reform of Babai the Musician in Northern Iraq at the beginning of the 8th century, going through the vicissitudes of the Church during the Abbasid Revolution, the history of the School of Mar Abraham and Mar Gabriel, where Timothy received his education, leading to an analysis of the structure of the teachings received, based on the patriarch's intellectual output, with the aim of identifying the characteristics of the cultural policy he promoted within the Church: a decisive moment of the history of Christianity in the Middle East and, more in general, in the history of Islamic-Christian relations.
