Ignatius Niʿmatallah was the Patriarch of Antioch and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1557 until his resignation in 1576.
Biography Early life Niʿmatallah was born at Mardin in and was the son of Maqdisi Yūḥannā (John) and Hissin. He had brothers named David Shah, Thomas, Mina, and Constantine. His father Yūḥannā was the son of Muglah and Nūr al-Dīn, brother of Patriarch Ignatius John XIV (). Through Nūr al-Dīn, Niʿmatallah was the great-grandson of Šay Allāh, son of Sa‘d al-Dīn; his paternal ancestors had moved from Bartella, near Mosul, to Mardin in the mid-14th century, and were descended from the priest Abū al-Karam, who lived in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. At Mardin, Niʿmatallah was educated in theology, history, logic, astronomy, medicine, philosophy, and geodesy, and he also studied painting and Syriac literature.
He became a monk at the nearby Mor Hananyo Monastery in 1535, and was ordained as a priest. At this time, Niʿmatallah collaborated with Abdisho, Chaldean bishop of Gazarta, on the latter's copy of Bar Hebraeus' Metrical Grammar, completed 18 August 1552. He was later appointed as Maphrian of the East in 1555, upon which he assumed the name Basil. In 1557, after the death of Patriarch Ignatius Abdullah I, Niʿmatallah was elected as his successor, probably at a synod held at the Mor Hananyo Monastery. He was thus consecrated as patriarch of Antioch, upon which he assumed the name Ignatius and made his residence at Amida (modern Diyarbakır), but also administered the dioceses of Edessa and Damascus. Niʿmatallah's brother Thomas, who had ascended as bishop of Mardin with the name Timothy in 1556, would go on to fulfil the role of his deputy.
Patriarch of Antioch As patriarch, Niʿmatallah actively pursued communion with the Roman Catholic Church, as first shown by the dispatch of the bishop John Cassa Qasha and monk Abdel to Rome in 1560 or 1561–1562 with a letter expressing his desire to establish communion between the two churches. This was met with success in that the embassy returned to Niʿmatallah with letters that welcomed him and the church into communion with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1562, Niʿmatallah underwent a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with his brother Thomas, and whilst en route they visited the monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian near Al-Nabek in Syria.
Niʿmatallah maintained contact with the papacy in subsequent years and sent messengers to Pope Pius IV in 1562–1565, but this was met by demands for the patriarch to make an explicit declaration of faith. Further efforts at strengthening the union between the patriarch and pope was frayed by issues in communication as four messengers sent by Niʿmatallah to Rome failed to reach their destination. In a letter dated 28 February 1565, Pope Pius IV informed Niʿmatallah of the decrees of the Council of Trent and also of the appointment of Giovanni Battista Abissino as bishop of the Ethiopians in Cyprus, who was to act as intermediary between Rome and the eastern churches. He enjoyed greater success in internal affairs, as he restored unity within the church amidst the ongoing schism between the rival patriarchates of Antioch and Tur Abdin in 1572 after he had brought the latter under his authority. Niʿmatallah served as patriarch of Antioch until 1576, in which year he abdicated or was forced to abdicate under controversial circumstances. Whilst in office, he consecrated nineteen bishops.
On the one hand, it is argued that Niʿmatallah was forced to resign as patriarch and convert to Islam on threat of death by the Ottoman authorities as a consequence of his contacts with the Roman Catholic Church. Whereas others assert that, whilst at Amida, Niʿmatallah had gained the favour of the city's governor, and was appointed as his private physician, ostensibly on account of his expertise in Islamic medicine. This earned him the enmity of local Muslims, who resented a Christian holding such a position of power at the governor's court, and a number of Muslim notables wished to have the patriarch executed. As a result, on 10 March 1576, the governor placed his own turban atop Niʿmatallah's head, and announced that this act signified his conversion to Islam, to the delight of his Muslim courtiers.
In order to save himself from the Muslims' wrath, Niʿmatallah opted not to deny the governor's announcement of his conversion, but in doing so traded enemies as he then became the object of his former co-religionists' fury. Fearing for his life, Niʿmatallah abdicated on 28 March 1576, arranged for his brother David to succeed him as patriarch, and fled in secret with a large collection of Arabic manuscripts in his possession to a monastery near Sivas. Niʿmatallah thus entered into exile with his companions, fleeing to Venice, likely via Cyprus or Rhodes, during which he noted in an elementary mathematical text:
Exile to Italy Niʿmatallah's arrival at Venice is placed in October or November 1576. Here, Niʿmatallah, with no knowledge of Italian or Latin, made the acquaintance of Paolo Orsini, a former Turkish soldier and convert to Christianity, who then acted as his interpreter. As attested in Niʿmatallah's letter to his former co-religionists (MS Orientali 458), he and his party were joined by a former Syriac Orthodox clergyman named Moses, identified as Moses of Mardin, who had been excommunicated and fled from Egypt to Venice, but was acquitted by the former patriarch. They were forced to remain at Venice for eleven months due to plague until their eventual departure on 3 December 1577, prior to which Niʿmatallah received a letter of recommendation from Giovanni Grimani, patriarch of Aquileia, dated 7 November 1577, addressed to Cardinal Gugliemo Sirleto. The letter, in which he was praised for his piety and wisdom, has been interpreted to suggest Niʿmatallah had fled to the west with no documents nor letters of recommendation from European consuls in the east.
Their journey to Rome by way of Florence lasted nineteen days. Niʿmatallah's group also consisted of three deacons, including ‘Abdannur and the son of the brother of deacon Barsauma, and ‘Abd Alih son of Amir Aziz, whilst two companions, namely a certain Kaspar and Ne‘me remained at Venice, to sell their possessions and train as an apprentice craftsman, respectively. Issues arose amongst the group as ‘Abd Alih was caught stealing repeatedly, for which he was cast out and eventually executed at Rome for the murder of a Persian merchant, and similarly Moses was dismissed for his 'wickedness', to which he responded by slandering the group.
Soon after his arrival in Rome, Niʿmatallah seems to have met with Leonard Abel, whose work on the theological and ritual differences between the Syriac Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, named Opiniones et Articuli aliquot, quos revelavit R.mus Neemet Alla Jacobinor(um) Patriarcha, in quibus natio illa in p(raesentiar(um) versatur, was likely produced at this time. Niʿmatallah also caught the attention of Cardinal Giulio Antonio Santorio, and he attended an audience with Santorio on 20 January 1578. Niʿmatallah was interviewed about his intentions in Rome by Santorio with three other experts, including Leonard Abel, who subsequently entered into the former patriarch's service as his procurator. As protector of the College of the Neophytes, Santorio was concerned with the relationship between the papacy and the eastern churches, and after having deemed Niʿmatallah suitable, arranged financial support and lodgings for him. With Santorio's support, Niʿmatallah was received by Pope Gregory XIII on 30 January.
Eastern missions Gregory was initially reluctant to deal with Niʿmatallah as he preferred to continue negotiations on the establishment of a union between the Roman Catholic Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church with the latter's incumbent patriarch, Ignatius David II Shah, Niʿmatallah's brother and successor, with whom he had had some success in his correspondence.
Amidst Yeshaq's rebellion against the Ethiopian Emperor Sarsa Dengel, Niʿmatallah wrote to both rebel and emperor in an effort to achieve peace between the two and also to induce their submission to the Roman Catholic Church. In his letter to Sarsa Dengel, he mentioned that he had sent letters twice beforehand and also noted his unsuccessful attempt to arrange a meeting with Coptic Pope John XIV of Alexandria at Jerusalem in early 1575 to discuss the issue, but this had been prevented from taking place by 'men of the Devil'. Ultimately, nothing came of Niʿmatallah's efforts as Yeshaq was defeated and killed on 21 December 1578, and Sarsa Dengel showed little interest in conversion to Catholicism.
Niʿmatallah's presence in Rome encouraged Santorio to propose a mission to the eastern churches to the pope in April 1581, and Niʿmatallah also proposed the despatch of a bishop to Syria during an audience with Pope Gregory in May 1582. Leonard Abel was thus appointed titular bishop of Sidon on 19 August 1582 and nuncio in Syriae, Mesopotamiae, Assiriae, et Aegypti ac aliis Orientibus regionibus on 30 October 1582. Abel left for the east on 12 March 1583 and arrived at Aleppo by July, accompanied by the Jesuits Leonardo de Sant Angelo, Ignatius de las Casas, and Juan Francisco Lanci.
Confident in the success of the mission, a pallium was brought to be conferred on Ignatius David II Shah upon confirmation of union, however, the patriarch refused to meet with Abel as the monks of the monastery at which he resided, near Amida, opposed the meeting. Eventually, Abel met with a patriarchal delegate at the monastery of Mar 'Abiahi near Gargar, and Niʿmatallah's letter and several documents on the subject of the Council of Chalcedon were conveyed to the delegate. Negotiations went poorly as the delegate responded with outrage to the Catholic condemnation of Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria, the suggestion of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar was rejected, and the meeting was ended prematurely after rumours spread that Abel had brought weapons and funds to start an insurrection.
Concurrent with the Jesuit Giovanni Battista Eliano's mission to the Coptic church, which had left for Egypt in September 1582, Niʿmatallah was granted authority to organise a mission of his own to Pope John XIV of Alexandria to negotiate union, and thus the Ethiopian priest Giovanni Maria Abissino, also known as Kefla Maryam, and the Florentine merchant Giovanni Battista Vecchietti were sent to Alexandria with Giovanni Battista Britti and arrived in July 1584.
Calendar reform As a renowned scholar and theologian, Niʿmatallah was recruited by Pope Gregory XIII to join the papal commission on calendar reform, and he began work on 17 July 1579; his participation in the commission is also interpreted to reflect his perceived future usefulness in the promulgation of the new calendar amongst the eastern churches. The commission, formed with the purpose of the correction of the Julian calendar so to fulfil the demand for reform as implied by the last session of the Council of Trent on 4 December 1563, had operated since 1575 or as early as 1572, and had issued its proposals in the Compendium novae rationis restituendi Kalendarium (Compendium of a New Way of Restoring the Calendar) in 1577.
Niʿmatallah worked on his treatise in response to the commission's compendium, which was eventually completed at some point between the end of 1579 and the beginning of 1580. A Latin translation was prepared by Leonard Abel with a preface dedicated to Pope Gregory XIII, dated 12 March 1580. Niʿmatallah signed the commission's final report alongside his colleagues on 14 September 1580 in Syriac and Arabic with a Latin translation of his signature provided by Leonard Abel. The Gregorian calendar was decreed in the papal bull Inter gravissimas on 24 February 1582.
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