Persian Christians at the Chinese Court: The Xi'an Stele and the Early Medieval Church of the East

Cover
Title
Copyright
Contents
A Note on Sources and their Usages
A Note on the Romanisation of Chinese Characters
Map 1
Map 2
Introduction
	Between Dhimmitude and Emperor Worship: East Syrian Agency and its Historiography
	The Xi’an Stele’s Sasanian Persian Longue Durée
	Chapter Summaries
Part I: ‘What’s in a Name?’
	1. The Late Sasanian Court and Divine Economy
		Introduction
		Tabari’s Account of the Death of Yazdegird III and East Syrian Involvement
		Cosmas the India Traveller and Divine Economy
		Zachariah of Mitylene, the Sasanian Comitatus, and Mdabranoutha
		Inter-courtly Physicians, Rhetors and Rome
		Mar Aba I, the Fall of Hephthalites and the Re-Opening of the Silk Road
		Patriarch Ishho’yahb III, Divine Economy, and the Sasanian Comitatus
		Isho\'yahb III and the ‘Rulers of this World’
		The Church of the East’s Divine Oἶκoς in the Early Arab-Ruled Persian Gulf
	2. ‘Repairing the Imperial Net’ before the An Lushan Rebellion
		Introduction
		The Empire Strikes Back: Persian Agency in the Early Tang Period Church of the East
		Prince Aluohan of Persia: ‘Nation Founding Duke’ and ‘Prominent Clansman’
		‘Mysterious Items of Foreign Cunning’: Imperial Buddhism, Worldly-Asceticism and Persian Agency During the Period of Wu Zetian and Xuanzong
Part II: ‘The Lord is King: He is Robed in Majesty’
	3. The Habitus of Patriarch Timothy I
		Introduction
		The Church of the East’s Noblesse de Robe and Emergent Central Asian Kingship
		Persian Knowledge-Holders in the Long Orbit of the Abbasid Court
		Cosmopolitan families on the Abbasid Silk Roads
		Empire, Court and Worldly Asceticism in the Writings of TimothyI
	4. The Court of Emperor Tang Dezong as ‘Imperial Net’, and the Church of the East’s Persian Longue Durée
		Introduction
		The Translation Incident of 787, the ‘Imperial Net’ and Agency
		Late Tang Eunuchs, the Buddhist Cosmopolis, Dezong’s Court, and Agency
		Dezong’s Court and Chancellor Li Mi
		Li Mi, the Uighur Empire and the Church of the East’s Persian Longue Durée
		Li Mi, Tibet and Dezong’s Imperial Net
		Divine Economy and the Late Tang Empire’s Non-Han, Scientific Families
Conclusion
Appendix A: Persian, Arab, Chinese and Church of the East Leaders, c.400–c.850
Appendix B: The Xi’an Stele in Chinese Characters
Appendix C: The Pillar for the Propagation of the Luminous Religion in China
Appendix D: Theoretical Concepts Used in the Study and Their Definitions
Notes
Bibliography
Index