Daniel bar Maryam (7th cent.) [Ch. of E.]
Author of an ‘Ecclesiastical history’. He was a contemporary of Ishoʿyahb III (d. 659). His work does not survive, but various authors refer to it, in particular Timotheos I, Pseudo-Gewargis of Arbela, and Ishoʿdad of Merv (in his commentary on John). In addition, it is explicitly quoted 5 times in the Arabic Chronicle of Siirt, which has led scholars to suggest that it was used as a direct source by the chronicler (along with two other 7th-cent. historians whose works have not been preserved, Eliya of Merv and Bar Sahde). Daniel’s Ecclesiastical History is mentioned by ʿAbdishoʿ bar Brikha, along with a work dealing with chronology (which is not otherwise known). Perhaps Daniel bar Maryam is the same person as Daniel bar Ṭubanitha.
Sources
- E. Degen, ‘Daniel bar Maryam. Ein nestorianischer Kirchenhistoriker’, OC 52 (1968), 45–80.
- eadem, ‘Die Kirchengeschichte des Daniel bar Maryam — eine Quelle der Chronik von Seʿert?’ in XVII. Deutscher Orientalistentag 1968, ed. W. Voigt (ZDMG Suppl. 1.2; 1969), 511–6.
- Hoyland, Seeing Islam, 392 and 444.
- Wright, Short history of Syriac literature, 234–5.