From The Holy Mountain (75 page)

shalwar:
Baggy 'Turkish' trousers (or 'Allah catchers'),
simandron:
The wooden stick 'rung' in Eastern Christian monasteries to summon the faithful to prayer. Introduced after the advent of Islam, when Christians were forbidden from ringing bells,

skete:
A minor monastery or large hermitage.

stylite:
Byzantine monk or hermit who, following the example of St Symeon Stylites, chose to live on top of a pillar. St Symeon originally mounted his pillar to stop pilgrims attempting to pluck hairs from his cloak or person, but subsequent stylites chose to live up pillars as a specific form of rigorous asceticism which symbolised their attempt to come as close to God as was humanly possible. Stylitism spread as far north as Georgia and as far west as Trier, but it remained most popular in the vicinity of Antioch where, in the fifth and sixth centuries
a.d.,
pillars dotted most of the highest hilltops.

Suriani:
The name given to the Syrian Orthodox (q.v.) community in Turkey and Syria.

Syrian Orthodox:
At the Council of Chalcedon in
451
a . d
., the Church of Antioch was condemned for Monophysitism (q.v.). It broke from the orthodox mainstream and set up a new hierarchy of its own. Surviving persecution first by the Byzantine Emperors, then by a succession of Muslim rulers, the remnants of the Church still survive in eastern Turkey, Syria and parts of southern India. It is also known as the lacobite Church, while in Turkey and Syria its members are referred to as the Suriani (q.v.).

Tau cross:
T-shaped bishop's staff used in Eastern (and Celtic) Churches.

tell:
(Arabic) A mound or tumulus covering an archaeological site,
tetrapylon:
A ceremonial arch with openings on all four sides.
Theotokos:
(lit. 'The Mother of God' in Greek) A title of the Virgin Mary adopted at the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon
(431
and
451
a.d
. respectively) as an assertion of the doctrine of the divinity of Our Lord's person.

wadi:
Arabic for valley. A riverbed or gorge, usually dry except in the wet season.

wahde:
Arabic for 'gently'.

Yezidis:
A rare and esoteric religion, perhaps originally an offshoot of some Gnostic Christian or heretical Muslim sect. Yezidis believe that Lucifer, having extinguished the flames of hell with the tears of his penitence, has been forgiven by God and reinstated as the Chief Angel. Now known as Malik Tawus, the Peacock Angel, he superintends the daily running of the world. Abused as devil-worshippers by their enemies, the Yezidis get on surprisingly well with the Syrian Orthodox, in whose villages many of the Turkish Yezidis live, and whose saints the Yezidis also venerate. The Yezidis can also be found in Georgia, Armenia and Iraq.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PRINCIPAL SOURCES

general

A.J. Arberry,
Religion in the Middle East
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
1969)

Aziz S. Atiya,
A History of Eastern Christianity
(London, Methuen,
1968)
Norman H. Baynes, 'The "Pratum Spirituale" ', in
Orientalia Christiana

Periodicaxm
(1947),
pp.
404-14,
reprinted in Baynes,
Byzantine Studies

(1955).
PP-
261-70
Robert B. Betts,
Christians in the Arab East
(London, SPCK,
1979)
Peter Brown,
The World of Late Antiquity
(London, Thames & Hudson,

1971)

Peter Brown, 'A Dark Age Crisis: Aspects of the Iconoclast Controversy', in
English Historical Review
cccxlvi (January
1973),
pp.
1-34

Peter Brown,
The Making of Late Antiquity
(Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press,
1978)

Peter Brown, 'Late Antiquity', in Paul Veyne (trans. Arthur Gold-hammer),
A History of Private Life: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium
(Cambridge, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
1987)

Peter Brown,
Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian Empire
(Wisconsin, Wisconsin University Press,
1992)

Averil Cameron,
The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, A.D 395-600
(London, Routledge,
1993)

Henry Chadwick, 'John Moschos and his Friend Sophronius the Sophist', in
Journal of Theological Studies
xxv, pt
1
(April
1974)

Kenneth Cragg,
The Arab Christian: A History in the Middle East
(London, Mowbray,
1992)

E. Follieri, 'Dove e quando mori Giovanni Mosco?', in
Rivista di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici
25 (1988),
pp.
3-39

David Fromkin,
A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
(New York, Avon Books,
1989)

J.F. Haldon,
Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a

Culture
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
1990)
Judith Herrin,
The Formation of Christendom
(Oxford, Blackwell,
1987)
Albert Hourani,
Minorities in the Arab World
(Oxford, Oxford University Press,
1946)

Albert Hourani, A
History of the Arab Peoples
(London, Faber
8c
Faber,
1991)

Irmgard Flutter,
Early Christian and Byzantine
(London, Herbert Press,
1988)

A.M.H. Jones,
The Later Roman Empire
(Oxford, Blackwell,
1964, 2
vols) Walter E. Kaegi,
Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests
(Cambridge,

Cambridge University Press,
1992)
Ernst Kitzinger, 'The Cult of Images in the Age Before Iconoclasm', in

Dumbarton Oaks Papers
8 (1954)
Ernst Kitzinger, 'Byzantine Art in the Period Between Justinian and

Iconoclasm', in
Berichte Zum XI Internationalen Byzantinisten Kongress

(1960)

Ernst Kitzinger,
Byzantine Art in the Making
(London, Faber & Faber,
1977)

Jules Leroy,
Monks and Monasteries of the Middle East
(London, Harrap,
1963)

Cyril Mango,
Byzantium: The Empire of the New Rome
(London, Weiden-

feld & Nicolson,
1980)
Cyril Mango,
The Art of the Byzantine Empire 312-1453
(Toronto,

Toronto University Press,
1986)
Cyril Mango,
Byzantine Architecture
(London, Faber & Faber,
1986)
Peter Mansfield,
A History of the Middle East
(London, Viking,
1991)
John Moschos (trans. John Wortley),
The Spiritual Meadow
(Kalamazoo,