'''Gabriel of Sinjar''' ({{langx|syc|ܓܒܪܐܝܠ ܕܫܝܓܪ}}, ''{{Transliteration|syc|Gaḅriyel d'Šiggar}}'') was a court physician (''drustbed'') of the Sasanian shah Khosrow II ({{reign|590|628}}). He played a major role in inter-Christian rivalries in the Sasanian empire. == Biography == [[Image:KhosrauIIDinarHistoryofIran.jpg|thumb|Coin of Khosrow II ({{reign|590|628}})]] Gabriel was born in Sinjar to a Syrian Miaphysite family. According to one account he became a court physician (''drustbed'') after curing the sterility of the shah's favourite wife, Shirin, who eventually gave birth to a son named Mardanshah.{{sfn|Baum|2004|p=42}} Shirin later converted to the Syriac Orthodox Church under Gabriel's influence. Shirin also influenced by Gabriel, tried to replace Dyophysitism (Church of the East) with Miaphysitism as the official form of Christianity in the Iranian empire.{{sfn|Baum|2004|p=42}}
Gabriel convinced the shah to prohibit the Church of the East from appointing a new leader after the death of its ''Catholicos'', Gregory. He also tried to exploit the fragmentation of the Church of the East in order to weaken it: he convinced Khosrow II to convene a disputation at his court between Miaphysites and Dyophysites, knowing that the Church of the East would have to produce a formula of faith that would not be universally accepted by all its bishops.<ref name=Casiday239>{{Harvnb|Casiday|2012|p=239}}</ref><ref name=Romney247>{{Harvnb|Haar Romeny|2010|p=247}}</ref>
In the 612 disputation, Babai the Great presented the Sasanians' first clear and "official" Miaphysite christology which did as expected cause schisms amongst members of his church.<ref name=Morony351>{{Harvnb|Morony|2005|p=351}}</ref> During the disputation George of Izla, a Zoroastrian convert to the Church of the East, objected to Gabriel's expulsion of Dyophysite monks from their monasteries. Gabriel retaliated by accusing George of apostasy from the state religion, which caused the latter's execution by the Sasanian authorities in 615.<ref name=Casiday239/>{{sfn|Payne|2015|p=195}} The news of this event circulated widely across the elites of Ctesiphon, and demonstrated that the court was willing to exert violence in order to preserve the Zoroastrian religion.{{sfn|Payne|2015|p=195}}
Gabriel of Sinjar died not long after. Eventually, as the Sasanians suffered defeat at the hands of the Byzantines, the Miaphysites too fell out of favour and Christians of all sects were persecuted.<ref name=Morony351/>
== References == {{reflist|2}}
== Sources == *{{cite book|last=Baum|first=Wilhelm|author-link=Wilhelm Baum (historian)|title=Shirin: Christian Queen Myth of Love: A Woman Of Late Antiquity: Historical Reality And Literary Effect|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bgdRHNpHLeIC|year=2004|publisher=Gorgias Press LLC|isbn=978-1-59333-282-2}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} *{{cite book|last=Casiday|first=Augustine|title=The Orthodox Christian World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IcDeFiZgxK0C|year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-31484-1}} *{{cite book|last=Haar Romeny|first=R. B. ter|title=Religious Origins of Nations?: The Christian Communities of the Middle East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxDi924k4RIC|year=2010|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-17375-0}} *{{cite book|last=Morony|first=Michael G.|author-link=Michael Morony|title=Iraq After The Muslim Conquest|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uhjSiRAwGuEC|year=2005|orig-year=1984|publisher=Gorgias Press LLC|isbn=978-1-59333-315-7}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} * {{cite book | last = Payne | first = Richard E. | title = A State of Mixture: Christians, Zoroastrians, and Iranian Political Culture in Late Antiquity |publisher=Univ of California Press|year=2015|isbn=9780520961531|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rtjsCQAAQBAJ&q=false | pages = 1–320 }}
{{Portal|Christianity}}
Category:7th-century deaths Category:7th-century medical doctors Category:People from Sinjar Category:Year of birth unknown Category:7th-century Christians Category:Christians in the Sasanian Empire Category:People excommunicated by the Church of the East Category:Khosrow II Category:Court physicians Category:Medical doctors from the Sasanian Empire Category:Syriac Orthodox Christians