GUIDI’S CHRONICLE

 

GUIDI’S CHRONICLE, an anonymous, 7th-century chronicle of Nestorian Christians, known also as “the Khuzistan Chronicle,” written in Syriac and covering the period from the reign of the Sasanian Hormizd/Hormoz IV (579-89) to the middle of the 7th century and the time of the early Arab conquests. It was discovered by Ignazio Guidi, who presented it at the Eighth International Congress of Orientalists in 1889 and published it with Latin translation in 1903. In view of the paucity of other sources for this period of late Sasanian history, the chronicle takes on a particular importance. The work consists of short narratives, arranged in rough chronological order, covering both secular and ecclesiastical matters. The title given to the text, “Episodes taken from Ecclesiastical and Secular Histories,” indicates that it is just an excerpt from a larger work that has been incorporated into a large collection of East Syriac Canon Law, preserved in a 14th-century manuscript (Baghdad, Chaldean Monastery 509; olim Alqosh ms 169), as well as in a number of modern apographs in European libraries, from one of which Guidi’s edition was made.

The author was clearly someone in high ecclesiastical office and generally well informed; he can hardly have been writing later than about 660 C.E. It has been suggested by Pierre Nautin that the author of much of the chronicle should be identified as Elias, the metropolitan of Marv, but this remains far from certain. Among the secular events covered in the chronicle are: the revolt of Bahrām Čōbin (sec. 1; q.v.); the flight of Ḵosrow II Parvēz and his return (secs. 2-3); the brothers Bendōy and Besṭām (sec. 4, see BESṬĀM o BENDŌY); the revolt of Nisibis (sec. 7); Khosrow and Noʿmān of Ḥira (sec. 9); Phocas’ revolt against the Byzantine emperor Maurice and the Persian capture of Dārā (q.v.) in upper Mesopotamia (sec. 10); Khosrow’s treasurer Yazdin (sec. 18); the Sasanian capture of Jerusalem and Alexandria (secs. 21-22); events during the Persian occupation of Palestine (secs. 23-25); Heraclius’ campaigns (sec. 26); the revolt of Šamṭā and Nēw Ormezd (sec. 27); the death of Khosrow II Parvēz (sec. 28); the reign of Šērōe and the fall of the Christian Šamṭā, son of Yazdin (secs. 29-30), a major conspirator for the fall of Ḵosrow II; the death of Šērōe and reigns of Ardašir III and Farroḵān Šahr Barāz (secs. 33-34); the reign of Bōrān and the embassy to Heraclius (sec. 35); the reign of Yazdegerd III (sec. 36); the early Arab conquests (sec. 37); the resistance to the Arabs put up by the Persian general Hormozān in Tostar, the old name of Šuštar, in Ḵuzestān, and its eventual fall (secs. 48-50); Ḵāled b. Walid’s campaigns in the west (sec. 51); the death of Heraclius (sec. 52); some information on the Kaʿba and certain Arab towns (secs. 54-55).

Bibliography:

Editions and translations: Ignazio Guidi, “Un nuovo testo siriaco sulla storia degli ultimi Sassanidi,” in Actes du Huitième Congrès International des Orientalistes, tenu en 1899 à Stockholm et à Christiana I: Section sémitique (B), Leiden, 1893, pp. 3-36; repr., with Latin translation, as “Chronicom anonymum” in Chronica Minora I, CSCO 1-2, Paris 1903 (Figure 1); repr. Louvain, 1955-60, pp. 15-39 (text), pp. 15-32 (translation).

P. Haddad, Sharbe medem men qlisiastiqe wad-qosmostiqe, Baghdad, 1976, with Arab. translation; Theodor Nöldeke, “Die von Guidi herausgegebene syrische Chronik, übersetzt und commentiert” in Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Kl. 128, 9, Vienna, 1893, pp. 1-48 (Ger. tr. with comm.); Nina Victorovna Pigulevskaya, “Anonimnaya Siriiskaya khronika vremeni Sasanidov,” Zapisk Istituta Vostokovedeniya 7 1939, pp. 55-78 (Russian tr. with comm.); Sebastian P. Brock, Lawrence I. Conrad and Michael Whitby, forthcoming (Eng. tr. with comm.; the section numbers given above follow this).

Studies: Robert Hoyland, “Seeing Islam as Others Saw it. A Survey and Evalutaion of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam,” Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam 13, Princeton, New Jersey, 1997, pp. 182-89.

Pierre Nautin, “L’auteur de la ‘Chronique Anonyme de Guidi’: Élie de Merw,” Revue de l’Histoire des Religions 199, 1982, pp. 303-14.

Chase Robinson, “The Conquest of Khūzistān: A Historiographical Reassessment,” BSOAS 67, 2004, pp. 14-39.

(Sebastian P. Brock)

Originally Published: December 15, 2002

Last Updated: February 23, 2012

This article is available in print.
Vol. XI, Fasc. 4, p. 383

Cite this entry:

Sebastian P. Brock, “GUIDI’S CHRONICLE,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, XI/4, p. 383, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/guidis-chronicle (accessed on 30 December 2012).