Christians in Iraq

Juan Cole is posting about Iraqi Christians, one of my minor academic interests. The article he links to unfortunately skimps over the Middle Ages, though. Most Christians in Iraq belong to churches stemming from the Nestorian branch of the faith, which began a separate evolution due to Christological controversies in the late Roman centuries. During the Middle Ages they were perhaps the greatest missionaries in Christianity, and expanded throughout Central Asia and into India. The Nestorian Patriarchate grew close to the Muslim authorities, and at least some of the Abbasids sought to appoint the Patriarch of Baghdad over all the other Christians, though this doesn't appear to have had much impact. (This is the same period when due to Abbasid influence the Babylonian Talmud came to supercede the Palestinian within Judaism.)

The most magnificient Nestorian Patriarch was probably Timothy I, a contemporary of Charlemagne and Harun ar-Rashid. I'm working from memory here, but I have to try to tell a story about him. When his predecessor died and the bishops were selecting the new Patriarch, he had some sacks filled with rocks and promised that the bishops would receive their contents if he became Patriarch. He was then duly elected, and proceeded to reveal the contents of the sacks: rocks. He then proclaimed that the highest religious office could not be purchased. Several of the bishops were offended enough by this unholy deception that they converted to Islam and were replaced. (I think there was also an aborted attempt to replace him...sorry, but I don't have good sources around me.)

For the best book on medieval Asian Christianity in general, read this one.