volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Sketch of the Life of Rabban Hdrmizd. 245
monastery. The monks of Bazkin and of Mar Mattai
tried to kill him, but failed, and God destroyed the
Monastery of Bazkin. He healed Shaibin, the son of
the Governor of Mosul, and caused Ignatius, the Jacobite,
his opponent, to die of grief and shame. Fifty of the
disciples of Mar Ith-AUaha joined him and buUt a church,
and Khodhihwai of Beth Kopha, near Nineveh, contributed
seven talents of silver, and 'Ukba, the Governor
of Mosul, three talents. The monastery was buUt in
twenty months, and was consecrated by the Catholicus
Tumarsa^ the Second, who decreed it to be free from
the jurisdiction of any Metropolitan or Bishop. Whilst
the work was in progress Hormizd went to the Monastery
of Mar Mattai on Jabal Maklub, and managed to open
the grave of Mattai and take out from it a " little brass
idol with eyes of blue beryl," which he carried off to
his monastery and showed to his monks, iii in number.
In return for this a number of Jacobites set out to kill
him, but whilst they were crossing the Tigris the boat
capsized and they were all drowned. Hormizd went
again to the Monastery of Mar Mattai and destroyed all
the books in the library there. He died in his own
monastery aged eighty-seven years.
The manuscript which the Prior lent me contained a
very curious metrical life of the saint which was sung
in the church on the day of his commemoration, but
before I could read it the lamp went out for want of
oil. I then tried to sleep, but the " cell " was very
cold and I could not do so. But the view from the
opening which enabled me to look into the valley and
right away over the plain between Al-K6sh and Mosul
was wonderfully fine, and in the bright moonhght the
Tigris, thirty miles distant, was distinctly visible. Its
^ The correct form of the name is Taimarsau, and, according to
Hoffmann means {Attsziige, p. 21), " Servant of Rida." Bar Hebraeus
only mentions Tumarsi. I, who sat from a.d. 384 to 392.
^ See my Book of Governors, vol. i, p. clvii ff., and for the full
Syriac text and translation see my Life of Rabban HSrmizd, 3 vols.,
London, 1902. For the saint's life by ' Ammanuel, Bishop of Beth
Garmai, see Hoffmann, Ausziige, p. 19 f.