Kartminli Cebrail’in Hayatı (ö. 648)
Beyt Qustan (Konstantin'in Evi)'lı
Aziz Cebrail (Mor Gabriel), Qartminli Aziz Cebrail olarak da bilinir. 648'deki
ölümüne kadar Tur Abdin Piskoposu idi. Doğu'da bir aziz olarak saygı görmüştür. Beyt Qustan bugünkü Mardin Midyat’tır. Qartmin ise Midyat’ın Yayvantepe Köyüdür. Suryanca Qartmin
"orta kent" anlamına gelmektedir. Mor Gabrial manastırı onun adını
taşımaktadır. Cebrail, 573/574'te Beth Qustan köyünde doğdu ve 588 /589'da
Qartmin Manastırı'nda keşiş oldu. 593/594'te bir diyakoz olarak atandı ve
612/613'te Gabriel manastırdaki kardeşlerin başına seçildi. 618/619'da rahip
olarak atandı ve 1 Mayıs 634'te Qartmin Manastırı'nın Başrahibi ve Dara
Başpiskoposu oldu. 639'da Mezopotamya'nın Müslüman Fethini takiben, Gabriel
muhtemelen Tur Abdin'deki Süryani Ortodoks Kilisesi'nin hak ve yükümlülüklerini
Müslüman fatihlerle müzakere etmiştir. Halife Ömer ile de görüşmüş olabilir.
Suryanca 8.
yüzyıldan kalma bir el yazması
P. Y. Dolapönü, Maktab zabne d- ʿumro qadišo d-Qarṭmin
(Mardin, 1959); (in Syriac; Turkish edition in Mor Gabriel. Dayrul-umur tarihi
[Istanbul, 1971]); E. J. W. Hawkins and M. C. Mundell, ‘The mosaics of the
monastery of Mar Samuel, Mar Simeon and Mar Gabriel near Kartmin’, DOP
(1973), 279–96.); J. Leroy, ‘Deux baptistères paléochrétiens d’Orient
méconnus’, CahArch 25 (1976), 1–6.); Sebastian Paul Brock, “The Fenqitho of
the Monastery of Mor Gabriel in Tur ʿAbdin’”, OKS 28 (1979), 168–82.); A. N.
Palmer, Sources for the history of the Abbey of Qartmin in Tur ʿAbdin (Ph.D.
Diss., Oxford; 1982). A. N. Palmer, Tašʿyoto d-qadiše mor(y) šmuʾel w-mor(y)
šemʿun w-mor(y) gabriʾel d-Qarṭmin [The Lives of Saint Shmuel, Saint Shemʿun
and Saint Gabriel of Qarṭmin] (Glane/Losser, 1983). A. N. Palmer, Monk and
mason on the Tigris frontier: the early history of Ṭur ʿAbdin (University of
Cambridge Oriental Publications 39; 1990); Andrew N. Palmer “The Life of
Gabriel of Qartmīn”, in Christian-Muslim relations, ed. Thomas and Roggema,
892–7.); F. Briquel-Chatonnet, “Note sur l’histoire du monastère de
Saint-Gabriel de Qartamin”, LM 98 (1985), 95–102); Ugo Zanetti and Claude
Detienne, “Bibliotheca Hagiographica Syriaca” (1993); Jean Maurice Fiey,
Pour un Oriens christianus novus, (1993) 254–6); Robert G. Hoyland, “Seeing
Islam as others saw it” (1997); Enciclopedia dei santi: le chiese
orientali [= Bibliotheca sanctorum orientalium] (Roma: Città nuova, 1998),
I, 950-51.); Jean Maurice Fiey, Saints Syriaques (Princeton, N.J.: The
Darwin Press, Inc., 2004), Dale A.
Johnson “Tracts on the Mountain of the Servants” (2008); Eliyo Aydin, “Das
Leben des heiligen Gabriel. The Life of Saint Gabriel. Tašʿito d-qadišo
Mor Gabriʾel” (2009); Zeki Joseph, Mor Gabriel aus Beth Qusṭan: Leben
und Legende eines syrischen Abtbischofs aus dem 7. Jahrhundert (Hildesheim;
New York: G. Olms, 2010); Sergey Minov (ed.), A Comprehensive Bibliography
on Syriac Christianity (The Center for the Study of Christianity, The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2013).
Palmer’in değerlendirmesi
“Monk and Mason on the Tigris Frontier: The Early History of Tur 'Abdin”
Cambridge University Press, (1990). (ilgili bölümler çevrilecek).
“He reigned as bishop from 1 May 634
to 23 December 648.
Gabriel was therefore 'metropolitan
of Dara' during the reign of c Umar ibn al- Khattab (634-44). Chronological
considerations allow that he might have met that caliph as is stated in section
12 of the Life (Lxxii.71). It is almost certain that he would have been
responsible for negotiating a treaty with the Arab conquerors in 639, by which
the rights and obligations of his Christian community would have been laid
down. However, the original account of this event has been overlaid in our text
with later additions.
Gabriel was therefore 'metropolitan of Dara' during the reign of c Umar ibn al- Khattab (634-44). Chronological considerations allow that he might have met that caliph as is stated in section 12 of the Life (Lxxii.71). It is almost certain that he would have been responsible for negotiating a treaty with the Arab conquerors in 639, by which the rights and obligations of his Christian community would have been laid down. However, the original account of this event has been overlaid in our text with later additions.
The course of the Arab conquest of Mesopotamia is described by several authorities. The first city to open its gates to the Muslims was Edessa. 75 There was no genuine resistance, in spite of the refusal of the patrikios of Mesopotamia to pay the tribute promised by his predecessor, which was the casus belli.76 The previous governor had been replaced because of this humiliating treaty and it was on the orders of Heraclius' nominee, Ptolemy, that the Edessenes shot at the Muslims for an hour before capitulating. 77 The Arab commander, Iyad İbn Ganem, granted them the following terms:
The inhabitants receive security for
their persons, their goods, their offspring, their spouses, their cities and
their mills. They shall pay for each man one dinar and two modii of wheat. They
shall maintain the bridges and roads, guide those who have strayed and keep
themselves in good behaviour towards the Muslims. As witness, God, his angels
and the Muslims. 78
That was in 639. 79 The other cities
of Mesopotamia followed the example of Edessa, sending away their Roman
garrisons crestfallen, except for Telia and Dara, which were taken by force
with much Roman blood shed. 80 According to Khwarizmi, Kallinikos, Amida, Telia
and Rish'ayno were 'opened' in 639; 8 1 Baladhuri (dating all the conquests
mistakenly to the following year) gives the series: Kallinikos, Circesium,
Amida, Mayperqat, Kfartutho, Nisibis, Tur Abdin, the castle of Mardin, Dara,
Corduene, Beth Zabday . 8 2 Khwarizmi placed the conquest of Nisibis, Tur Abdin
and Corduene in 640. 83 Only the treaty obtained by Kallinikos is recorded
besides that of Edessa; it contains the following provision: 'Their churches
shall not be destroyed nor be used as dwellings, if they pay the tax which has
been imposed on them, commit no murder and build no new church or temple, use
no gong in public and make no processions'. 84 The conditions under which Amida
was taken were like those of Kallinikos; Nisibis obtained a treaty similar to
that of Edessa, likewise after a brief spell of shooting, but without serious
resistance. 8 5 It is reasonable to assume that it was not otherwise for Tur
Abdin; 86 the terms recorded in the Life of Gabriel, insofar as they contradict
those of
75 Baladhuri, p. 174. 76 Agapius,
2.11, pp. 476-7; Chr. Michael 1195, xi.7a, pp. 420-1.
77 Baladhuri, loc. cit., with
Agapius, loe. cit. 78 Baladhuri, loc. cit.
79 This is the consensus of Agapius
and Michael against Baladhuri, locc. citt., and other sources confirm it (e.g.
Khwarizmi). 80 Agapius, loc. cit.; Chr. Michael 1 195, loc. cit.
81 Chr. Elijah 1018, p. 133, ah 18.
82 Baladhuri, p. 176. 83 Chr. Elijah 1018, p. 133, ah 19.
84 Baladhuri, p. 173. 85 Baladhuri,
p. 176; see p. 167.
86 The dubious [Ps.-] Waqidi, p.
123, states that the inhabitants of Tur Abdin received a document from Khalid
(sic), confirming that the Muslims had accepted their surrender on condition
that those who remained Christian should pay the poll-tax Kallinikos, are
unlikely to be historical. But the principle that monks should be free of
tribute is attested for this early period. 8 7 1 leave it to the experts on
taxation under Islam to decide about the significance of the phrase 'priests
and deacons shall not give vertebrae' (lxxii.I2); perhaps, on the analogy of
the phrase 'tax on the neck', it means the poll-tax. 88 The personal connection
with c Umar is also suspect; he would hardly have been described as merely a
'governor' or 'prefect', since Syriac sources from the earliest times call the
caliph 'king'. In the eighth and ninth centuries the 'Treaty of c Umar' was at
the centre of a heated debate about the rights of the Christian dhimmls. 89 Our
'treaty' may have been 'developed' as a polemical counterpoise, to 'show' that
c Umar was not hostile to the liberties of dhimmls.
Little else in the Life of Gabriel
'need be retained as historical. He was thought to have been very strict about
community rules in the Refectory (sections 13 (Lxxn.iyf) and 14 (lxxiii. i 6f
)) and to have spent a part of his life in the abbey as a recluse (lxvii. 10).
These were probably genuine elements of the tradition. But the narrative is
fictional or borrowed. Section 1 1 (Lxxn.3f) looks historical, but the
appearance is deceptive. The date given there for Gabriel's episcopal
ordination is calculated, albeit incorrectly, from the corrupted date of
Gabriel's death in section 22 with the help of the curriculum vitae in section
23; the 'synchronisms', which cannot be reconciled with one another, are a
patchwork of reminiscences from the chronicles designed to evoke the
circumstances of the early seventh century and to give this date the semblance
of accuracy. 90 In the same way, the compiler of the Trilogy thought to make
the foundation date of the abbey more imposing by adding a 'synchronism' with
Cyril of Alexandria and Celestine of Rome (xx. 19-xxi. 1), oblivious to the
dissonance with the date and the emperors given and to the fact that the
patriarch of Antioch and the local bishop would have been named by preference
in a genuine record.
Gregory's brief summary of the
Qartmin Trilogy 91 was based on a hasty reading, during which sections n and
i2oftheLi/eo/Ga6r/e/particularly caught his eye. But he misrepresented the
treaty and clearly did not trouble to check the date. Gabriel was, for him,
just a footnote to the foundation of Qartmin. He did not try to work him into
his account of the seventh century.
87 Fattal, Statut, Ch. 7 on
taxation, esp. pp. 27of: 'L' exoneration de certaines categories de dhimmls';
cf. Tritton, Non-Muslims, Ch. 13.
88 cf. Dennett, Conversion, pp. 27,
32: 'levied [tax] on their necks', 'removed jizya from their necks'.
89 See Tritton, Non-Muslims;
Dennett, Conversion, pp. 62-3, concludes that the authentic kernel of the
'Covenant of c Umar' is in Tabari, 1, 2405-6.
90 ag 965 = ad 653/4; Heraclius
entered Edessa in 628; the patriarch Athanasius died in 631; c Umar's caliphate
is dated 634-44. 91 Chr. Gregory 11, cols. 119, 121.
https://archive.org/details/PalmerMonkAndMasonOnTheTigrisFrontier/page/n173/mode/2up (18.08.2022).
“This lord Gabriel went to the ruler
(ahid shultana) of the sons of Hagar, who was Umar bar Khattab, in the city of
Gezirta. He (Umar) received him with great joy, and after a few days the
blessed man petitioned this ruler and received his signature to the statutes
and laws, orders and prohibitions, judgements and precepts pertaining to the
Christians, to churches and monasteries, and to priests and deacons that they
do not give the poll tax, and to monks that they be freed from any tax
(madatta). Also that the wooden gong should not be banned and that they might
chant hymns before the bier when it comes out from the house to be buried,
together with many [other] customs. This governor (shallita) was pleased at the
coming to him of the blessed man and this holy one returned to the monastery
with great joy. (Gabriel of Qartmin, Life XII, 72 [p. 123])”
https://archive.org/details/LifeOfGabrielOfQartminEd.AndrewPalmer (18.08.2022).
