The Captive and the Hostage as Missionaries in Late Roman Tradition The Case of Pre-Islamic South Arabia

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of History and Archeology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Late Roman sources from the fourth century onward, provide us with scattered information on the features of a pattern of early missionaries to which modern scholars have paid little attention. It is what might be called “captive and hostage missionaries.” This pattern is repeated strikingly in source accounts relating to the circumstances of the emergence of Christianity in southern Arabia. Some of these accounts attributed the conversion of its people to captive and hostage missionaries, whether male or female. What is even more surprising is that these accounts seem to have an echo in the relevant Arabic tradition. This research aims to gather the scattered texts available about this pattern and attempt to reconstruct them in a context from which the historical connotations surrounding it can be deduced. It focuses on two main cases: the hostage Theophilus and the captive Theognosta, but it also does not neglect other cases about which brief references are available, such as cases of the captives Phimion, Frumentius, and others.
 تزودنا المصادر الرومانية المتأخرة، منذ القرن الرابع فصاعدًا، بإشارات متفرقة عن سمات نمط مبكر من المبشرين لم يعره الباحثون الحديثون إهتمامًا كبيرًا؛ وهو النمط الذي يمكن تسميته بـ "المبشر الأسير أو الرهينة". ويتكرر هذا النمط بشكل لافت للنظر في الروايات المصدرية المتعلقة بظروف دخول المسيحية إلى جنوب شبه الجزيرة العربية؛ حيث نسبت بعض هذه الروايات دخول المسيحية إلى مبشرين أسرى أو رهائن، سواء كانوا ذكورا أو إناثا. والأمر الأكثر إثارة للدهشة هو أن لهذا النمط، فيما يبدو، صدى في الروايات العربية ذات العلاقة. ومن هنا؛ يهدف هذا البحث إلى جمع النصوص المتفرقة المتاحة عن هذا النمط، ومحاولة إعادة بنائها في سياق يمكن من خلاله استنباط الدلالات التاريخية المحيطة به. ويركز البحث على حالتين رئيسيتين: الرهينة ثيوفيلوس والأسيرة ثيوجنوستا، وإن لم يغفل أيضًا حالات أخرى تتوفر عنها إشارات مصدرية موجزة، مثل حالة الأسيرين فيميون وفرومنتيوس وغيرهما.

Keywords

References

Primary Sources:
Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, trans. J.C. Rolfe, vol. II, [Loeb Classical Library], London, 2000.                                                                                                                              
Athanasius of Alexandria, Apologia ad Imperatorem Constantium [PG 25, cols. 593f].
Bausi, A. (ed.) “Il Gadla Azqir”, Adamantius Rivista del Gruppo Italiano di Ricerca su “Origene e la tradizione alessandrina”, 23 (2017): 341-380.
The Chronicle of Zuqninn, Parts I and II. From Creation to the Year 506/7 AD, ed. & trans. A. Harrak, Gorgias Press, 2017.
Coptic Synaxariun, Lives of Saints, Oxford: Oxford Publishing House, 2006.
Gregory of Nyssa, Contra Eunomium I, ed. M. Brugarolas, Brill: Leiden, Boston, 2018.
Hieronymus. De Viris Illustribus, Liber ad Dextrum, PL 23, cols. 683-686; Eng. trans. E.C. Richardson, in: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ed. Ph. Scaff, New York, 1893.
Ibn Hishām, Al-sīrah al-nabawīyah [Biography of the Prophet], ed. M. al-Saqā et al., Cairo, 1955.
Jerome, The Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk. https://westminsterabbey.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Life-of-Malchus.pdf
John Malalas, The Chronicle, trans. E. Jeffreys and R. Scott, Byzantina Australiensia 4, Brill: Leiden, Boston, 2017.
John of Nikiu, The Chronicle of John, Bishop of Nikiu Translated From Zotenbserg’s Ethiopic Text, trans. R.H. Charles, Oxford, 1916.
Kosmas Indicopleustes Christian Topography III, 66, 2-3, ed. Wanda Wolska-Conus, Cosmas Indicopleustes, Topographie Chretienne, I-III, Paris 1968-1973.
Michael the Syrian, Chronique de Michel le Syrien, ed. & trad. J.-B. Chabot, Paris, 1899.
Moberg, A. (ed.) The Book of the Himyarites: Fragments of a Hitherto Unknown Syriac Work, Acta Regiae Societatis Humaniorum Litterarum Lundensis 7. Lund, 1924.
Philostorgius, Church History, trans. Ph. A. Amidon, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007.
Philostorgius, Kirchengeschichte, Berlin, 1981.
Pliny, Natural History ed. with an English translation. H. Rackham, 10 vols. [LCL], Harvard University Press 1986-1999.
Rufinus of Aquileia, History of the Church, trans. Ph. R. Amidon, The Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C., 2016.
Scher, A. (ed.) Histoire nestorienne: (chronique de Séert), Patrologia Orientalis 5 (1910): 219-340.
Socrates Scholasticus, History of the Church, London, 1853.
Sozomen, History of the Church, trans. E. Walford, London, 1855.
The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, trans. C. Pharr, New York, 1969.
Theophanes Confessor, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284-813, trans. C. Mango and R. Scott, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.
Wahb ibn Munabbih, Kitāb al-tījān fī mulūk Ḥimyar [The Book of Crowns on the Kings of Himyar], Sanʿa, 1928.
Secondary Sources:
Allen Joel. Hostages and Hostage-taking in the Roman Empire, Cambridge/New York, 2006.
Angelov, A.B. Conversion and Empire: Byzantine Missionaries, Foreign Rulers, and Christian Narratives (ca. 300-900), PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 2011.
Barnard, H. “Additional Remarks on Blemmyes, Beja and Eastern Desert Ware”, Egypt and the Levant: International Journal for Egyptian Archaeology and Related Disciplines 17 (2007): 23-31. 
Chatonnet, F.B. “L’expansion du christianisme en Arabie: l’apport des sources syriaques”, Semitica et Classica 3(2010): 177-187.
Christou, P. “The Missionary Task of the Byzantine Emperor”, Byzantina 3 (1971): 279-286.
Christides, V. “Ethnic Movements in Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan: Blemmyes-Beja in Late Antique and Early Arab Egypt until 707 A.D”, Listy Filologiké 103, no.3 (1980): 129-143.
Dihle, A. “L’ambassade de Théophile l’lndien ré-examinée,” in L’Arabie préislamique et son environment historique et culturel: Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg 24–27 Juin 1987, ed. T. Fahd, Leiden: Brill, 1989,  
Fernandez, G. “The Evangelizing Mission of Theophilus ‘the Indian’ and the Ecclesiastical Policy of Constantius II,” Klio 71 (1989): 361-366.
Fiaccadori, G. “Teofilo Indiano,” Studi Classici e Orientali 33(1984): 295–331. 
Fiaccadori, G. “Teofilo Indiano: Parte II. Il Viaggio”, Studi Classici e Orientali 34(1985): 271-307.
Harland, Philip.  “Arabians: Agatharchides and Diodoros on peoples of Arabia Felix on the eastern coast of the Red Sea (second-first centuries BCE),” Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World, last modified May 7, 2023, https://philipharland.com/Blog/?p=13760
Horovitz, J. “Wahb b. Munabbih”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1st edition, VIII, 1084a–1085b.
Jamme, A. “Inscriptions of the Sabaean Bronze Horse of the Dumbarton Oaks Collection”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 8 (1954): 315-330.
Khoury, R.G. “Wahb b. Munabbih”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, XI, 34a–36a.
Klein, R. Constantius II und die christliche Kirch, Darmstadt, 1977.
Kosto A. J. “Transformation of Hostageship in Late Antiquity”, Antiquité Tardive 21 (2013): 265-282.
Lankina, Anna. Reclaiming the non-Nicene Past. Theophilus the Indian and Ulfila the Goth as Missionary Heroes, MA diss., University of Florida, 2011.
Lightfool, C.S. The Eastern Frontier of the Roman Empire with Special Reference to the Reign of Constantius II, PhD dissertation, St. John’s College, Oxford, 1981.
Mayerson, Ph. ‘Mauia, Queen of the Saracens – A Cautionary Note’, Israel Exploration Journal 30 (1980): 123-131.
Mayerson, Ph. "A Confusion of Indias: Asian India and African India in the Byzantine Sources", Journal of the American Oriental Society 113, no.2 (Apr.-Jun., 1993): 169-174.
Monferrer-Sala, J.P. “New skin for Old Stories: Queen Zenobia and Māwiya, and Christian Arab groups in the Eastern Frontiers during the 3rd -4th Centuries CE”, In Mapping Knowledge: Cross-Pollination in Late Antiquity and the middle Ages, ed. Ch. Burnett and P. Mantas-Espaňa, Córdoba: CNERU-The Warburg Institute, 2014, 72-98.
Nadeau, J.Y. “Ethiopians”, Classical Quarterly 20(1970): 339-349; Dihle, A. “The Conception of India in Hellenistic and Roman Literature”, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 190= new ser. 10 (1964): 15-23.
Nau, F. “Analyses des parties ine´dites de la chronique attribue´e de Denys de Tellmahre´,” Revue de l’Orient chre´tien 2 (1897): 41-61.
Ramadan, Abdelaziz. “Maʿāyīr Ikhtiyār al-Mabʿūthīn al-Diblūmāsiyyīn fī al-ʿAṣr al-Bīzanṭī al-Bākir” [Selection Criteria of Diplomatic Envoys in the Early Byzantine Era], in Annals of Center for Research and Historical Studies, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Special Issue, 2016, 11–119.
Robin, Ch. J. “Le judaïsme de Ḥimyar”, Arabia 1 (2003): 97-172.
Robin, Ch. J. “Najrān vers l’époque du massacre: notes sur l’histoire politique, économique et institutionnelle et sur l’introduction du Christianisme”, in Le massacre de Najrān II: juifs et chrétiens en Arabie aux Ve et Vie siècles regards croisés sur les sources, ed. J. Beaucamp et al., Paris, 2010, 64-106.
Ryckmans, J. “The Pre-Islamic South Arabian Bronze Horse in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 29 (1975): 275-303.
Schneider, P. L’Éthiopie et l’Inde: Interférences et confusions aux extrémités du monde antique (VIIIe siècle avant J.-C.–VIe siècle après J.-C.), École française de Rome, 2004.
Shahid, Irfan. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, Washington, D.C.:  Dumbarton  Oaks, 1984.
Sivan, Hagith. “Ulfila’s Own Conversion”, The Harvard Theological Review 89, no.4 (Oct., 1996): 373-386; Scott, Charles. Ulfilas, Apostle of the Goths, Kessinger Publishing., 2009.
Snowden, F.M. Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in Greco-Roman Experience, Harvard University Press, 1970.
Sterk, Andrea. “Mission from Below: Captive Women and Conversion on the East Roman Frontiers”, Church History 79, no.1 (March 2010): 1-39.
Thomas, R.I. “Port Communities and the Erythraean Sea Trade”, British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan 18(2012): 169-199.
Trimingham, J.S. Christianity among the Arabs in Pre-Islamic Times, London, New York, 1979.
Vila, M. “Frumentius in the Ethiopic Sources: Mythopoeia and Text-Critical Considerations”, Rassegna di Studi Etiopici -3rd Serie 1 (2017): 87-111.
 
 

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics