Merv

The Metropolitanate of Merv was an East Syriac metropolitan province of the Church of the East, between the fifth and eleventh centuries, with several known suffragan dioceses. Background At least one East Syriac diocese in Khorasan existed by the beginning of the fifth century, though it was not assigned to a metropolitan province in 410. After establishing five metropolitan provinces in Mesopotamia, Canon XXI of the synod of Isaac provided that 'the bishops of the more remote dioceses of Fars, of the Islands, of Beth Madaye, of Beth Raziqaye and of the country of Abrashahr must accept the definition established in this council at a later date'. By implication, Abrashahr (Nishapur) already had a bishop at this period. Four East Syriac dioceses in Khorasan and Segestan are attested a few years later. The bishops Bar Shaba of Merv, David of Abrashahr, Yazdoï of Herat and Aphrid of Segestan were present at the synod of Dadisho in 424. The uncommon name of the bishop of Merv, Bar Shaba, means 'son of the deportation', suggesting that Merv's Christian community may have been deported from Roman territory. The diocese of Segestan, whose bishop probably sat at Zarang, was disputed during the schism of Narsaï and Elisha in the 520s. The patriarch Aba I resolved the dispute in 544 by temporarily dividing the diocese, assigning Zarang, Farah and Qash to the bishop Yazdaphrid and Bist and Rukut to the bishop Sargis. He ordered that the diocese should be reunited as soon as one of these bishops died.