Zuptara (West Syriac diocese)

Zuptara (or Zupatra, Zubtara, Zupatra, Zipatra) was a Syriac Orthodox diocese in the Melitene region of eastern Turkey. The diocese of Zuptara is attested between the eighth and eleventh centuries, and twelve of its bishops are mentioned in the lists of Michael the Syrian. The diocese almost certainly lapsed during the twelfth century.

Sources

The main primary source for the West Syriac bishops of Zuptara is the record of episcopal consecrations appended to Volume III of the Chronicle of the Syriac patriarch Michael the Syrian (1166–99).[1] In this Appendix Michael listed most of the bishops consecrated by the Syriac patriarchs of Antioch between the ninth and twelfth centuries. Twenty-eight Syriac patriarchs sat during this period, and in many cases Michael was able to list the names of the bishops consecrated during their reigns, their monasteries of origin, and the place where they were consecrated.

Location

Zuptara was a small town to the southwest of Melitene (modern Malatya) in eastern Turkey. It lay close to the border between the Byzantine Empire and the ʿAbbasid Caliphate, and for much of the ninth and tenth centuries it was disputed between the Byzantines and the Muslims.[2]

Bishops of Zuptara

Twelve Syriac Orthodox bishops of Zuptara between the eighth and eleventh centuries are mentioned in the lists of Michael the Syrian.[3]

Name	From	Consecrated in the reign of	Place of consecration
Theophilus	Monastery of Elishaʿ	Quriaqos (793–817)	not known
Thomas	Monastery of the Easterners	Dionysius I of Tel Mahre (818–45)	not known
Shemʿon	Monastery of Mar Yaʿqob of Kaishum	Ignatius II (878–83)	not known
Yohannan	Monastery of Mar Shemʿon	Dionysius II (896–909)	not known
Theophilus	Monastery of Yohannan	Dionysius II (896–909)	not known
David	Monastery of Mar Shlemun of Dolikh	Yohannan IV (910–22)	not known
Theodosius	Monastery of Mar Atonos	Yohannan V (936–53)	not known
Stephen	not known	Yohannan V (936–53)	not known
Basil	not known	Iwanis II (954–7)	not known
Yohannan	Monastery of Nahra d'Qarire	Dionysius III (958–61)	not known
Quriaqos	Monastery of Nahra d'Qarire	Yohannan VI Sarigta (965–86)	Melitene
Yohannan	not known	Yohannan bar ʿAbdon (1042–57)	not known

The diocese of Zuptara almost certainly lapsed during the twelfth century.

Notes

1. Michael the Syrian, Chronicle (ed. Chabot), iii. 451–82
2. Fiey, POCN, 283
3. Michael the Syrian, Chronicle, iii. 451–82 and 504

References

• Abbeloos, Jean Baptiste; Lamy, Thomas Joseph, eds. (1877). Bar Hebraeus, Chronicon Ecclesiasticum (3 vols). Paris.
• Fiey, Jean Maurice (1993). Pour un Oriens Christianus Novus: Répertoire des diocèses syriaques orientaux et occidentaux. Beirut: Orient-Institut.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Jean-Baptiste Chabot, Chronique de Michel le Syrien, Patriarche Jacobite d'Antiche (1166-1199). Éditée pour la première fois et traduite en francais I-IV (1899;1901;1905;1910; a supplement to volume I containing an introduction to Michael and his work, corrections, and an index, was published in 1924. Reprinted in four volumes 1963, 2010).