Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Godwin, R. Todd, author.

Title Persian Christians at the Chinese court : the Xi'an Stele and the Early Medieval Church of the East / R. Todd Godwin
Published London : I.B. Tauris, 2018
©2018

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xii, 306 pages) : maps
Series Library of medieval studies ; 4
Library of medieval studies ; 4.
Contents The late Sasanian Court and divine economy -- 'Repairing the imperial net' before the An Lushan Rebellion -- The habitus of Patriarch Timothy I -- The court of Emperor Tang Dezong as 'imperial net', and the Church of the East's Persian Longue Durée
Summary "The Xi'an Stele, erected in Tang China's capital in 781, describes in both Syriac and Chinese the existence of Christian communities in northern China. While scholars have so far considered the Stele exclusively in relation to the Chinese cultural and historical context, Todd Godwin here demonstrates that it can only be fully understood by reconstructing the complex connections that existed between the Church of the East, Sasanian aristocratic culture and the Tang Empire (617-907) between the fall of the Sasanian Persian Empire (225-651) and the birth of the Abbasid Caliphate (762-1258). Through close textual re-analysis of the Stele and by drawing on ancient sources in Syriac, Greek, Arabic and Chinese, Godwin demonstrates that Tang China (617-907) was a cosmopolitan milieu where multiple religious traditions, namely Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Christianity, formed zones of élite culture. Syriac Christianity in fact remained powerful in Persia throughout the period, and Christianity - not Zoroastrianism - was officially regarded by the Tang government as 'The Persian Religion'. Persian Christians at the Chinese Court uncovers the role played by Syriac Christianity in the economic and cultural integration of late Sasanian Iran and China, and is important reading for all scholars of the Church of the East, China and the Middle East in the medieval period."-- Provided by publisher
Notes From the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2015
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-301) and index
Notes Includes the Xi'an Stele in Chinese characters in Appendix B
Print version record
Subject Church of the East -- History -- To 1500
SUBJECT Church of the East fast
Subject Stele (Archaeology) -- China -- Xi'an (Shaanxi Sheng)
RELIGION -- Christianity -- History.
Religion
Stele (Archaeology)
Tang Dynasty (China)
SUBJECT China -- Church history. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85023990
China -- Religion -- History -- To 1500
China -- History -- Tang dynasty, 618-907. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85024059
Subject China
Genre/Form Church history
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781786723161
1786723166
9781786733160
1786733161