Edessa Sentence Examples

After the capture of Jerusalem he served for a time with Bohemund at Antioch; but when Baldwin of Edessa became king of Jerusalem, he summoned Baldwin de Burg, and left him as count in Edessa.

From Edessa Baldwin conducted continual forays against the Mahommedan princes; and in the great foray of 1104, in which he was joined by Bohemund, he was defeated and captured at Balich.

Tancred became guardian of Edessa during Baldwin's captivity, and did not trouble himself greatly to procure his release.

At the same time, if Matthew of Edessa may be trusted, he also carried his arms against the Armenians, and plundered in his avarice every Armenian of wealth and position.

In 1123 he was captured by Balak of Mardin, and confined in Kharput with Joscelin, his successor in the county of Edessa, who had been captured in the previous year.

Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the expedition and the first king of Jerusalem, was duke of Lower Lorraine, and the names of his brothers Baldwin of Edessa and Eustace of Boulogne, and of Count Robert II.

After some trouble with Joscelin of Edessa, and after joining with Baldwin II.

Here the Belikh (Bilechas) joins the Euphrates, flowing southward through the biblical Aram Naharaim from Urfa (Edessa) and Harran (Carrhae); and from this point to el-IKaim four days' below Deir, the course of the river is south-easterly.

Its main centres were at Edessa and Nisibis, but it was the literary language of practically all the Christian writers in the region east of Antioch, as well as of the Christian subjects of the Persian empire.

Their opportunity came with the disaster which befell the Roman army under Valerian (q.v.) at Edessa, a disaster, says ' The full text, both Greek and Palmyrene, with an English translation, is given in NSI, pp. 313-340.

Bohemund's policy seems to have inspired Baldwin, the brother of Godfrey of Bouillon to emulation; on the one hand he strove to thwart the endeavours of Tancred, the nephew of Bohemund, to begin the foundation of the Eastern principality for his uncle by conquering Cilicia, and, on the other, he founded a principality for himself in Edessa.

Always hostile to the principality, which Bohemund established in spite of his oath, they helped by their hostility to cause the loss of Edessa in 1144, and thus to hasten the disintegration of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem.

At Marash, half way between Caesarea and Antioch, Baldwin, who had meanwhile wrested Tarsus from Tancred, rejoined the ranks; but he soon left the main body again, and struck eastward towards Edessa, to found a principality there.

At the end of the year came Bohemund and Godfrey's brother Baldwin (now count of Edessa) on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Godfrey had died without direct heirs; but in far Edessa there was his brother Baldwin, ready to take his place.

Baldwin was summoned from Edessa; and when he arrived, towards the end of the year, he was crowned king by Dagobert himself.

Of the three Frankish principalities, Edessa, founded in 1098 by Baldwin I.

Baldwin de Burgh, the future Baldwin II., ruled in Edessa as the vassal of Baldwin I.

Lying to the east of the Euphrates, at once in close contact with the Armenians, and in near proximity to the great route of trade which came up the Euphrates to Rakka, and thence diverged to Antioch and Damascus, the county of Edessa had an eventful if brief life.

Meanwhile the principality of Antioch, ruled by Tancred, after the departure of Bohemund (1104-1112), and then by Roger his kinsman (1112-1119), was, during the reign of Baldwin I., busily engaged in disputes both with its Christian neighbours at Edessa and Tripoli, and with the Mahommedan princes of Mardin and Mosul.

The constant pressure of Tancred of Antioch and Baldwin de Burgh of Edessa led to a series of retaliations between 11 io and 1115; Edessa was attacked in 1110, 1111, 1112 and 1114; and in 1113 Maudud of Mosul had even penetrated as far as the vicinity of Acre and Jerusalem.

On the whole, the interference of the Comneni, if it checked Zengi for the moment in 1138, may be said to have ultimately weakened and distracted the Franks, and to have helped to cause the loss of Edessa (1144), which marks the turning-point in the history of the kingdom of Jerusalem.

Before we turn to describe the Second Crusade, which the loss of Edessa provoked, and to trace the fall of the kingdom, which the Second Crusade rather hastened than hindered, we may pause at this point to consider the organization of the Frankish colonies in Syria.

The first question which arises is that of the relation of the kingdom of Jerusalem to the three counties or principalities of Antioch, Tripoli and Edessa, which acknowledged their dependence upon it.

It is his duty to act as regent; it is his duty to compose the dissensions in the principality of Antioch, and to repress the violences of the prince towards his patriarch (1154); it is his duty to reconcile Antioch with Edessa, when the two fall to fighting.

At the same date, however, the decline of the kingdom also begins; the fall of Edessa is the beginning of the end.

Two years later Zengi died; but he left an able successor in his son, Nureddin, and an attempt to recover Edessa was successfully repelled in November 1146.

Crusades appear to have been dignified by numbers when they followed some crushing disaster - the loss of Edessa in 1144, or the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 - and were led by kings and emperors; or when, like the Fourth and Fifth Crusades, they achieved some conspicuous success or failure.

The rest of the county of Edessa, including Tell-bashir on the west, was now conquered (1150); while Raymund of Antioch was defeated and killed (in 1149), and several towns in the east of his principality were captured.

For over a year he stayed in the Holy Land, making little sallies from Acre, and negotiating 2 Of the four Latin principalities of the East, Edessa was the first to fall, being extinguished between 1144 and 1150.

Fulcher of Chartres originally followed Robert of Normandy, but in October 1097 he joined Baldwin of Lorraine in his expedition to Edessa, and afterwards followed his fortunes.

His account of the First Crusade itself is poor (he was absent at Edessa during its course), but otherwise he is an excellent authority.

The Armenian view of the First Crusade and of Baldwin's principality of Edessa is presented in the Armenian Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa.

Justinian himself, with the aid of Leontius of Byzantium (c. 4 8 5-543), a monk with a decided turn for Aristotelian logic and metaphysics, had tried to reconcile the Cyrillian and Chalcedonian positions, but he inclined more and'more towards the monophysite view, and even went so far as to condemn by edict three teachers (Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, the opponent of Cyril, and Ibas of Edessa) who were offensive to the monophysites.

The total length, including branches to Adana, Orfa (the ancient Edessa) and other places was to exceed 1550 m.; the kilometric guarantee granted was 15,500 francs (f,;620).

So far we have spoken only of the Christian use of Syriac. Of the pagan Syriac literature which issued mainly from Harran, a city about one day's journey south of Edessa, not a single example appears to have survived.

All our historical sources support the view taken above that Edessa, the capital of the kingdom which the Greeks and Romans called Osrhoene, was the earliest seat of Christianity in Mesopotamia and the cradle of Syriac literature.

The well-known legend of the correspondence of Abgar Ukkama, king of Edessa, with Christ and the mission of Addai to Edessa immediately after the Ascension was accepted as true by the historian Eusebius (f340) on the faith of a Syriac document preserved in the official archives of the city.

This work was probably written at Edessa about the end of the 4th century.

But Christianity must have reached Edessa some thirty to fifty years earlier.

Our oldest native historical document in Syriac - the account of a severe flood which visited Edessa in Nov.

The form of this notice shows, as von Gutschmid and others have remarked, that Christianity was not yet the religion of the state; but it must for some time have had a home in Edessa.

Among such documents connected with the early history of Edessa we have, besides the Doctrine of Addai, certain martyrdoms, those of Sharbel and Barsamya assigned to the reign of Trajan, and those of Gurya and Shamona and of the Deacon Habbibh under Diocletian and Licinius.

All these documents, like Addai, belong probably to the 2nd half of the 4th century, and are quite unreliable in detail for the historian,' though they may throw some light on the conditions of life at Edessa under Roman government.

After a training at Edessa, he lived for a long time at Mt Izla in Mesopotamia, whence he proceeded to Cyprus, but returned to Mt Izla shortly before his death.

At Edessa the result of the conflict between the Nestorians and their opponents was long doubtful.

But the feeling against the Nestorian party grew in strength, till on the death of Ibas in 457 the leading Nestorian teachers were driven out of Edessa.

Rabbula, the powerful and energetic bishop of Edessa who withstood the beginnings of Nestorianism, and who gave currency to the Peshitta text of the four Gospels, abolishing the use of the Diatessaron, is dealt with in a separate article.

As a teacher in the Persian school of Edessa he had translated, probably with the help of his pupils, certain works of " the Interpreter," i.e.

His death in 457 was followed by a strong anti-Nestorian reaction at Edessa, which led to the expulsion of many of the leading teachers.

Born probably between 415 and 420 he imbibed Nestorian doctrine from Ibas at the Persian school of Edessa, but was driven out in 457 on the death of his master, and went to be bishop of Nisibis.

His fellow-worker Narsai, whom the Jacobites called " the leper," but the Nestorians " the harp of the Holy Spirit," apparently accompanied Barsauma from Edessa to Nisibis, where according to Barhebraeus he lived for 50 years.

Like Ibas he had been employed at Edessa in translating the commentaries of Theodore.

At the request of the Arab king of Ghassan he was sent on a mission to the East after being consecrated bishop of Edessa; and the rest of his life was spent in organizing the Monophysite Church of eastern Syria.

Another translator from Greek was Paul, Monophysite bishop of Callinicus or ar-Rakkah, who, being expelled from his diocese in 519, retired to Edessa and there occupied himself in translating into Syriac the works of Severus, the Monophysite 1 So called " because his dress consisted of a barda`tha, or coarse horse-cloth, which he never changed till it became quite ragged " (Wright).

A valuable historical source, though of small dimensions, is the Chronicle of Edessa, which gives a record of events from 132-131 B.C. to A.D.

Apart from a few leading writers - such as Jacob of Edessa, the anonymous historian whose work has passed under the name of Dionysius of TellMahre, Thomas of Marga, Dionysius Bar *alibi, and Barhebraeus 3 - there are not enough names of interest to make it worth while to continue our chronological catalogue.

The more important, besides Jacob of Edessa and Barhebraeus, are `Ananisho` of Hedhaiyabh, Uonain ibn Ishak, his pupil Bar 'Ali, Bar Saroshwai (early 10th century), Bar Bahlul (middle of 10th century), Elias of Tirhan (t1049), Elias bar Shinaya (above), John Bar Zo'bi (beginning of 13th century) and Jacob bar Shakko.

In 435 he became bishop of Edessa and under his influence the Nestorian teaching made considerable progress.

And when the emperor suppressed the school of Edessa ("the Athens of Syria") in 4 89, and expelled its members, they travelled far afield as eager and successful missionaries of the Gospel.

In their new environment the Nestorians abandoned some of the rigour of Catholic asceticism, and at a synod held in 499 abolished clerical celibacy even for bishops and went so far as to permit repeated marriages, in striking contrast not only to orthodox custom but to the practice of Aphraates at Edessa who had advocated celibacy as a condition of baptism.

This evidence is confirmed by (a) the canon of Theodore of Edessa (800) allowing metropolitans of China, India and other distant lands to send their reports to the catholikos every six years; (b) the edict of Wu Tsung destroying Buddhist monasteries and ordering 300 foreign priests to return to the secular life that the customs of the empire might be uniform; (c) two 9th-century Arab travellers, one of whom, Ibn Wahhab, discussed the contents of the Bible with the emperor; (d) the discovery in 1725 of a Syrian MS. containing hymns and a portion of the Old Testament.

He was educated at Edessa, perhaps in the famous "school of the Persians," which was afterwards (in 489) expelled from Edessa 2 on account of its connexion with the Nestorian heresy.

We know that in 498 he was staying at Edessa l; in or about 507, according to Theophanes, he was summoned by the emperor to Constantinople; and he finally presided at a synod at Sidon which was the means of procuring the replacement of Flavian by Severus.

Another invitation followed from Thoros of Edessa; and to Edessa Baldwin came, first as protector, and then, when Thoros was assassinated, as his successor (March 1098).

For two years he ruled in Edessa (1098 - I zoo), marrying an Armenian wife, and acting generally as the intermediary between the crusaders and the Armenians.

At the end of 1099 he visited Jerusalem along with Bohemund I.; but he returned to Edessa in January 110o.

In the north he had to compose the dissensions of the Christian princes in Tripoli, Antioch and Edessa (1109-1110), and to help them to maintain their ground against the Mahommedan princes of N.E.

Their school at Edessa was closed by Zeno in 489.

While Jacob of Edessa is said to have ordained some 100,000 priests and deacons for his fellow-believers, in the 16th century the Jacobites of Syria were estimated at only 50,000 families.

The exception is the Syriac-speaking Church of Edessa and Mesopotamia.

C. Burkitt that the portion contain ing the gospels was made by Rabbula, bishop of Edessa (411), to take the place of the Diatessaron, and was based on the Greek text which was at that time in current use at Antioch.

Eugenius had already, on hearing of the fall of Edessa, addressed a letter to Louis VII.

They consist of various distinct pieces, and originated in the beginning of the 4th century, probably at Edessa.

Though this disaster was retrieved by the successful defence of Edessa by George Maniakes and by the defeat of a Saracen 'fleet in the Adriatic, Romanus never recovered his popularity.

The plain extending from Urfa to a dozen miles below Harran has a rich red-brown humus derived from the Nimrud Dagh east of Edessa.

Von Oppenheim counted in the district west of Edessa and Harran, in a stretch of two days' march, 300 flourishing villages.

For the revolt that occurred while Trajan was on the Persian Gulf, in which the Jews had an important hand, Nisibis and Edessa suffered capture and destruction.

Then, when Vologaeses, yielding to his growing discontent, took advantage of the death of Antoninus to invade Armenia the Romans were victorious (164), and after the storming of places such as Nicephorium, Edessa, Nisibis, western Mesopotamia was once more Roman as far as the Khabur, Carrhae becoming a free city and Osroene a dependency.

A rest for Mesopotamia seems to have followed; but in 258 Shapur, tempted by the troubles in the Roman empire, overran the country taking Nisibis and Carrhae, and investing Edessa, and .vhen Valerian invaded Mesopotamia he was eventually made prisoner, by Edessa (260).

After Shapur's cruel victories in Syria, however, he was defeated by Odaenathus, who relieved Edessa, and Mesopotamia became for ten years practically part of an Arabian Empire (see Palmmyra), as it was to be four centuries later.

With the accession of Phocas (602) began the great war which shook the two kingdoms. The loss of Edessa, where Narses revolted, was temporary; but the Roman fortress of Dara fell after nine months' siege (c. 605); Harran, Ras al-`Ain and Edessa followed in 607, many of the Christian inhabitants being transported to the Far East, and Chosroes carried the victorious arms of Persia far into the Roman Empire.

The Arab tribes in Mesopotamia were Christian, and Heraclius at Edessa hoped for their support; but Karkisiya and Hit succumbed (636), and then Tekrit; and Heraclius retired to Samosata.

When in 638 he made another ca attempt, it is said at the entreaty of the Mesopotamian Christians, Arab forces appeared before Rakka, Edessa, Nasibin and other places, and all Mesopotamia was soon in the hands of the Arabs.

They arrived at Jerusalem in 1076, the first crusaders reached Asia in 1097, and Bit Adini became the countship of Edessa (q.v.).

The son of a slave of the third Seljuk sultan, Zangi, governor of `Irak, made himself gradually (Mosul, Sinjar, Jezira, Harran) master of Mesopotamia (1128), capturing Edessa in 1144.

The petty principalities were unable to unite to resist the terrible attack, and Jezira, Edessa, Nasibin, Maridin, &c., fell in 1259-60.

No trustworthy account exists of the evangelization of Armenia, for the legend of King Abgar's correspondence with Christ, even if it contained any historical truth, only relates to Edessa and Syriac Christianity.

That the Armenians appropriated from the Syrians this, as well as the stories of Bartholomew and Thaddeus (the Syriac Addai), was merely an avowal on their part that Edessa was the centre from which the faith radiated over their land.

All the Armenian bishops attended, as also the metropolitan of Urhha (Edessa), Jacobite bishops of Gartman, of Nfrkert, Amasia, by command of the archbishop of Antioch.

Out of the crusades, however, arose other efforts to develop the work which Nestorian missionaries from Bagdad, Edessa and Nisibis had already inaugurated along the Malabar coast, in the island of Ceylon, and in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea.

Moses took his journey by Edessa and the sacred places of Palestine.

The Monophysites sometimes alleged that they could not accept the decrees of the council of Chalcedon because that council had not condemned, but (as they argued) virtually approved, three writers tainted with Nestorian principles, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, and Ibas, bishop of Edessa.

The abortive Second Crusade (1147), led by the kings of France and Germany, came to aid the rapidly weakening Latin kingdom after their failure to hold Edessa against Nureddin, the ruler of northern Syria.

He came to the throne at a time when the attacks of the Greeks in Cilicia, and of Zengi on Edessa, were fatally weakening the position of the Franks in northern Syria; and from the beginning of his reign the power of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem may be said to be slowly declining, though as yet there is little outward trace of its decay to be seen.

He regulated affairs in Antioch, and tried to strengthen the north of Palestine generally against the arm of Zengi's successor, Nureddin, by renewing the old and politic alliance with Damascus interrupted since 1147, and by ceding Tellbashir, the one remnant of the county of Edessa, to Manuel of Constantinople.

Once ordained bishop of Edessa, with the connivance of Theodora, James, disguised as a ragged beggar (whence his name Baradaeus, Syriac Burdeana, Arabic alBar adia), traversed these regions preaching, teaching and ordaining new clergy to the number, it is said, of 80,000.

About the year 728 six Jacobite bishops present at the council of Manazgert established communion with the Armenians, who equally rejected Chalcedon; they were sent by the patriarch of Antioch, and among them were the metropolitan of Urha (Edessa) and the bishops of Qarha,n, Gardman, Nferkert and Amasia.

After visiting Amid (Diarbekr) he proceeded to Edessa, and there settled and spent the last ten years of his life.

The first 20 poems were written at Nisibis between 350 and 363 during the Persian invasions; the remaining 52 at Edessa between 363 and 373.

The emperor Valerian, who marched to encounter him, was overthrown at Edessa and taken prisoner (260).

In the west the old conflict for Osroene and northern Mesopotamia (now Roman provinces), with the fortresses of Edessa, Carrhae and Nisibis, still smouldered.

He also extended his power to the Black Sea and the Caucasus; on the other hand, a siege of Edessa failed (544).

It was one of the strong fortresses included in the county of Edessa (q.v.).

Neale makes three divisions - the liturgy of Jerusalem or of St James, that of Alexandria or of St Mark, and that of Edessa or of St Thaddaeus; and Daniel substantially agrees with him.

This development was hastened by the introduction of Christianity, which is said to have been brought here by the apostle Judas, the brother of James, whose tomb was shown in Edessa.

In 190 and 201 we hear of Christian churches in Edessa.

Edessa now became the principal seat of Aramaic-Christian (Syriac) language and literature; the literary dialect of Syriac is the dialect of Edessa.

Edessa remained Roman till it was taken by Chosroes II.

He spent the winter at Edessa, and in 217, when he recommenced his campaign, he was murdered between Edessa and Carrhae on the 8th of April at the instigation of Opellius (Opilius) Macrinus, praefect of the praetorian guard, who succeeded him.

Up to the time when the religious zeal of the emperor Zeno put a stop to the Nestorian school at Edessa, this " Athens of Syria " was active in translating and popularizing the Aristotelian logic. Their banishment from Edessa in 489 drove the Nestorian scholars to Persia, where the Sassanid rulers gave them a welcome; and there they continued their labours on the Organon.

The Greek name Edessa appears in the Jerusalem Targum to Gen.

Although at Edessa itself no cuneiform documents have yet been found, a little more than four hours journey eastwards, at Anaz (= Gullab?) = Dar of Tiglath-pileser IV.

Sidetes, that Edessa became the seat of a dynasty of some thirty local kings, whose succession has been preserved in native sources.

Then, at the time of the expeditions of Lucullus, Pompey and Crassus, Edessa was an ally of Rome, though Abgar II.

Verus (163-165) recovered Mesopotamia from Parthia, it was not Edessa but Ilarran that was chosen as the site of a Roman colony, and made the metropolis by Marcus Aurelius (172).

It was at Edessa that Caracalla, who made it a military colony under the style of Colonia Marcia Edessenorum, spent the winter of 216-217, and near there that he was murdered.

In 226 the Parthian empire gave place to the new kingdom of the Sassanidae, whose claim to the ancient Achaemenian empire led to constant struggle with Rome in which Edessa naturally suffered.

Diocletian's persecution secured the martyr's crown for the Edessenes Shamona, Guria (297), and Ilabbib (309), and shortly thereafter Lucian " the martyr," who though born at Samosata received his training at Edessa; but the bishop Qona, who laid the foundations of " the great church " by the sacred pool, somehow escaped.

Edessa can claim no share in " the Persian Sage " Aphrahat or Afrahat (Aphraates); but Ephraem, after bewailing in Nisibis the sufferings of the great Persian war under Constantius and Julian, when Jovian in 363 ceded most of Mesopotamia to Shapur II., the persecutor of the Christians, settled in Edessa, which as the seat of his famous school (called " the Persian ") grew greatly in importance, and attracted scholars from all directions.

He taught and wrote vigorously against the Arians and other heretics, and although just after his death (373) the emperor Valens banished the orthodox from Edessa, they returned on the emperor's death in 378.

Rabbu1a perhaps owed his elevation to the see of Edessa (411-435), in the year which produced the oldest dated Syriac MS., to his asceticism, and it was to his time that the sojourn there of the " Man of God " (Alexis) was assigned; but he won from the Nestorians the title of the Tyrant of Edessa.

When the popular Nestorianism of the Syrians was condemned at Ephesus (431) it began to gravitate eastwards, Nisibis becoming its eventual headquarters; but Edessa and the western Syrians refused to bow to the Council of Chalcedon (45r) when it condemned Monophysitism.

In and around Edessa the theological strife raged hotly.'

When, however, Zeno's edict (489) ordered the closing of the school of the Persians at Edessa, East and West drifted apart more and more; the ecclesiastical writer Narsai, " the Harp of the Holy Spirit," fled to Nisibis about 489.

Whether Edessa received 7 Some one found time, however, to produce the oldest dated MS. of a portion of the Bible in any language.

Anushirwan succeeded in 540, according to the last entry in the Edessene Chronicle, in exacting a large tribute from Edessa; but in 544 he besieged it in vain.

A few years later Jacob Baradaeus, with Edessa as centre of his bishopric, was carrying on the propaganda of Monophysitism which won for the adherents of that creed the name of Jacobites.

In the first decade of the next century Edessa was taken by Chosroes II., and a large part of the population transported to eastern Persia.

The prophet of Islam was now, however, building up his power in Arabia, and although Heraclius paid no heed to the letter demanding his adhesion which he received from Medina (628), and the deputation of fifteen Rahawiyin who paid homage in 630 were not Edessenes but South Arabians, a few years later (636 ?) Heraclius's attempts, from Edessa as a centre, to effect an organized opposition to the victorious Arabs were defeated by Sa`d, and he fell back on Samosata.

The terms on which Edessa definitely passed into the hands of the Moslems (638) under Riyad are not certain (Baladhuri).

To the latter part of the century belongs the activity of Edessa's bishop Jacob, whose chronicle is unfortunately lost.

When the Bagdad caliphs lost control of their dominions, Edessa shared the fortunes of western Mesopotamia, changing with the rise and fall of Egyptian dynasties and Arab chieftains.

In the 10th century al-D'las`udi, writing in the very year in which it happened, tells how the Mahommedan ruler of Edessa, with the permission of the caliph, purchased peace of the emperor Romanus Lecapenus by surrendering to him the napkin of Jesus of Nazareth, wherewith he had dried himself after his baptism.

In 1031 the emperor recovered Edessa; but in 1040 it fell into the hands of the Seljuks, whose progress had added a large element of Armenian refugees to the population of Osrhoene.

There is no reason, therefore, to discredit Magrizi's statement that it was three brother architects from Edessa that the Armenian minister Badr al-Gamali employed to build three of the fine city gates of Cairo (1087-1091).

The empire soon recovered Edessa, but the resident made himself independent.

With the campaign of Maudud in IIIo fortune began to favour the Moslems. Edessa had to endure siege after siege.

Edessa suffered still more in 1146 after an attempt to recover it.

The ferry over an unusually deep and narrow part of the Euphrates has been used from time immemorial in the passage from North Syria to Haran (Charrae), Edessa and North Mesopotamia, and was second in importance only to that at Thapsacus, by which crossed the route to Babylon and South Mesopotamia.

With Iran Antioch was connected most directly by the road which crossed the Euphrates at the Zeugma and went through Edessa and Antioch-Nisibis to the Tigris.

C. Burkitt has shown it to be probable that the preaching of Christianity at Edessa reaches back to the middle of the 2nd century or even to about the year 135.3 The Syriac versions of the Bible are treated elsewhere (see Bible) and may here be dismissed with a brief summary of facts and opinions.

The next bishop of Edessa, Ibas, who succeeded in 435 at the death of Rabbula, proved himself a follower of the Nestorian doctrine (see above).

Gradually settlements were made, the names of many of which are given by the various Assyrian kings who had at one time or another to assert or reassert supremacy over them - such as Chindanu, Laqe, Sulhi along the South Euphrates boundary of Mesopotamia, and various districts bearing names compounded with Bit = settlement (see above), such as Bit-Adini (nearly equal the later Osroene; see Edessa), or Bit-Zamani in the north near Diarbekr.

About this time they even founded a dynasty in Aramaean Osroene (see Edessa).

By this time Christianity had secured a foothold, perhaps first among the Jews (see Edessa), and we enter upon the earliest period from which documents in the Edessan dialect of Aramaic, known as Syriac, have been preserved.

The surrender of Nisibis, which had been in the possession of Rome for so many generations, caused consternation among the Christians, and Ephraem (q.v.) moved to Edessa, where his "school of the Persians" soon became famous (see Edessa).

In the beginning of the 6th century there was another severe struggle in Mesopotamia, which found an anonymous Syriac historian (see Edessa), and in infringement of agreement the Romans strongly fortified Dara against Nisibis.

An inevitable effect of the reign of Islam had been that the kindred language of the Arabs gradually killed the vernacular Syriac of Mesopotamia (see Edessa) as the alien Greek and Persian had shown no tendency to do, and the classical period (4th to 8th centuries) of the only Mesopotamian literature we know, such as it is, useful but uninviting, came to an end (see Syriac Literature).

Edessa was lost, however, in the year after Baldwin's accession, and the conquest by Zengi of this farthest and most important outpost in northern Syria was already a serious blow to the kingdom.