Copyright ©2011 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
Distributed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.
Bp. of
Kitāb al-Majdal, ed. H. Gismondi) Eliya was ‘unique
in his time by knowledge and virtue’ and elected
Only the discourses survived, a voluminous collection of didactic
(heptasyllabic) poetry known as Ktābā d-Durrāšā ‘Book
of Exercise’ or by its popular name Ktābā d-Maʾwātā
‘Book of Centuries’. The book is divided into three parts with a total of
ten memre and 3,000 stanzas, organized in 30
centuries. It is a manual of ‘theoria’ based on scripture (typology),
tradition (doctrine, heresies), and nature (profane knowledge), directing
the reader to the Trinity, the world to come, and salvation history by
unfolding symbols (rāze, ṭupse) and their explanations (theoriai). The
elaborate structure of the book reflects the celestial hierarchy of Dionysius the Areopagite, enlarged by a tenth rank of
the human beings. Purification, illumination, and perfection by
participating in the knowledge of the angelic ranks is the mystical idea
behind this symbolism.
There was a second E.-Syr. bp. of al-Anbār by the name of Eliya during the reign of Patr. Mari bar Ṭobi (987–99).