The Patriarchal Province of Seleucia-Ctesiphon was an ecclesiastical province of the patriarch of the Church of the East. Its metropolitan see was in Seleucia-Ctesiphon, near Al-Mada’in in modern Iraq. It existed from the fifth to the thirteenth centuries. The province consisted of a number of dioceses in the region of Asoristan between Basra and Kirkuk which were placed under the patriarch's direct supervision at the synod of Yahballaha I in 420.
Background According to Eliya of Damascus, there were thirteen dioceses in the province of the patriarch in 893:
Kashkar, al-Tirhan (Tirhan) Dair Hazql (an alternative name for al-Nuʿmaniya, the chief town in the diocese of Zabe) Al-Hira (Hirta) Al-Anbar (Piroz Shabur) Al-Sin (Shenna d'Beth Ramman) ʿUkbara A-Radhan Nifr Al-Qasra 'Ba Daraya Ba Kusaya' (Beth Daraye) ʿAbdasi (Nahargur) Al-Buwazikh (Konishabur or Beth Waziq) Eight of these dioceses already existed in the Sasanian period, but the diocese of Beth Waziq is first mentioned in the second half of the seventh century, and the dioceses of ʿUkbara, Radhan, Nifr and Qasr were probably founded in the ninth century. The diocese of Nahargur was in the province of Maishan during the Sassanian period, and it is not known when or why it was transferred to the diocese of the patriarch. The first bishop of ʿUkbara whose name has been recorded, Hakima, was consecrated by the patriarch Sargis around 870, and bishops of Qasr, Radhan and Nifr are first mentioned in the tenth century. A bishop of 'Qasr and Nahrawan' became patriarch in 963, and then consecrated bishops for Radhan and for 'Nifr and Nil'. Eliya's list helps to confirm the impression given by the literary sources, that the East Syrian communities in Beth Aramaye were at their most prosperous in the tenth century. A partial list of bishops present at the consecration of the patriarch Yohannan IV in 900 included several bishops from the province of the patriarch, including the bishops of Zabe and Beth Daraye and also the bishops Ishoʿzkha of 'the Gubeans', Hnanishoʿ of Delasar, Quriaqos of Meskene and Yohannan 'of the Jews'. The last four dioceses are not mentioned elsewhere and cannot be satisfactorily localised. In the eleventh century decline began to set in. The diocese of Hirta (al-Hira) came to an end, and four other dioceses were combined into two: Nifr and al-Nil with Zabe (al-Zawabi and al-Nuʿmaniya), and Beth Waziq (al-Buwazikh) with Shenna d'Beth Ramman (al-Sin). Three more dioceses ceased to exist in the twelfth century. The dioceses of Piroz Shabur (al-Anbar) and Qasr and Nahrawan are last mentioned in 1111, and the senior diocese of Kashkar in 1176. In 1139, at the consecration ceremony of the patriarch ʿAbdishoʿ III, a bishop from the province of Nisibis was required to proclaim the new patriarch's name, 'because all the bishops of the grand eparchy [Beth Aramaye] had died and their thrones were vacant; something which had never happened before'. The trend of decline continued in the thirteenth century. The diocese of Zabe and Nil is last mentioned during the reign of Yahballaha II (1190–1222), and the diocese of ʿUkbara in 1222. Only three dioceses are known to have been still in existence at the end of the thirteenth century: Beth Waziq and Shenna, Beth Daron and (perhaps due to its sheltered position between the Tigris and the Jabal Hamrin) Tirhan. However, East Syrian communities may also have persisted in districts which no longer had bishops: a manuscript of 1276 was copied by a monk named Giwargis at the monastery of Mar Yonan 'on the Euphrates, near Piroz Shabur which is Anbar', nearly a century and a half after the last mention of a bishop of Anbar.
Dioceses
Seleucia-Ctesiphon The first bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon whose historical existence is not in doubt was Papa bar Aggai, who was consecrated around 280. At a turbulent synod convened at Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 315, Papa secured grudging recognition from the other Persian bishops of the primacy of the diocese of Seleucia-Ctesiphon.
Kashkar
According to legend, the diocese of Kashkar was the oldest diocese in Persia. It was said to have been founded by the apostle Mari in the first century, several decades before the establishment of a diocese in the Persian capital Seleucia-Ctesiphon. Although a first-century foundation date is highly unlikely, the diocese of Kashkar was certainly one of the oldest dioceses of the Church of the East. The antiquity of the diocese and its claim to an apostolic foundation were recognised at the synod of Isaac in 410, when it was ranked second after the patriarchal diocese of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and its bishop was appointed guardian of the patriarchal throne (natar kursya). The earliest-known bishop of Kashkar was ʿAbdishoʿ, who was one of several Persian bishops who opposed the claim to precedence put forward by the bishop Papa of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 315. The last-known bishop of Kashkar was Sabrishoʿ, who was transferred from the diocese of Qaimar to Kashkar by the patriarch Eliya III (1176–90). By 1222 the guardianship of the vacant patriarchal throne, for centuries a privilege of the bishops of Kashkar, was in the hands of the metropolitans of Beth Huzaye.
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