Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

part iii | cultural and spiritual development
Merv, he became the first Christian bishop. After his death and burial, Barshabba is said
to have risen miraculously and lived for another 15 years. A Sogdian version of a Syriac
text found near Turfan claims that Barshabba founded churches in an area stretching
from Fars to Gorgan, Tus, Abarshahr, Sarakhs, Merverud, Balkh, Herat and Sistan.
Al-Biruni’s celebrated work Vestiges of the Past notes that the liturgical calendar of
the Melchite Christians in Khorezm included on 21 June the commemoration of the
priest Barshabba, ‘who brought Christianity to Merv about 200 years after Christ’.
The Synodical lists of the Eastern Syriac Church mention a bishop of Merv
attending the Synod of Dadisho in 424 ad. This fact testifies to the existence of a
Christian parish here large enough to justify a bishop,
an important figure in the Church’s hierarchy. It is
also evidence that Christian ideals and their bearers
had penetrated Merv long before AD 424.
Thus, Christianity was already widespread in
Central Asia, especially in Merv and Bactria, in the
early centuries AD. However, it is equally clear
that its position was strengthened by the mass
influx of Nestorians. Before this event, we can
probably say that the spread of Christianity in this
region was more likely to have been spontaneous;
with the arrival of the Nestorians the process took on
a more deliberate character.
In the 6th–7th centuries AD, Nestorian
Christianity in Central Asia became so firmly
established, and Christian communities grew so
large, that metropolitans had to be established
in a number of cities. According to Syriac
chronicles, under Patriarch Isho‘yahb II (628–
643), metropolitans were established in Samarkand
and Herat, as well as in India and China. According to
other sources quoted by V. V. Bartold and E. Sachau,
Bodhisattva. Kampyrtepa.
1st century AD.
the metropolitan of Herat was created in the second half of the 6th century, and a
metropolitanate of Samarkand, allegedly, during the patriarchy of Ahai (410–416).
Apparently, a metropolitan was also founded in Merv in the 6th century and in the
7th century the metropolitans of Kashgar and Navekat were established. As is well
known, in AD 644, Elia, metropolitan bishop of Merv, converted Turks living beyond
the river Oxus (Amu Darya) to Christianity. Some Turkic tribes had probably
adopted Christianity even earlier. According to Theophylact Simocatta, in AD 591,
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