Pethion - ܦܬܝܘܢ
http://syriaca.org/person/996
Author of an ecclesiastical history whose accounts regarding Christian
physicians were cited by Elijah of Nisibis.
Names
Floruit
8th cent.-9th cent.?
Notes
Author of an ecclesiastical history whose accounts regarding Christian physicians were cited by Elijah of Nisibis. Whether this Pethion is to be identified with other Pethions of approximately the same period has been the subject of much discussion. He must have been active after 765-768, since Elijah of Nisibis cites him for events of this period, and before 1018, the likely date Elijah completed his work. Thus, as Wright recognized, he cannot be identified with the Catholicos Pethion, who died in 740 or 741. Berti suggests that he may be the same as Pethion of Elam, the addressee of Catholicos Timothy's letter 9 and the head of the School of Beth Lapaṭ (Gondeshapur). This would make sense, given the fact that Elijah's citations of Pethion's work have to do with the Christian physician George of the Bokhtishoʿ family connected with Beth Lapaṭ. The works of Ibn Sīnā (Canon of Medicine) and Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa (History of the Physicians), cite him as "Pethion the Translator" for events through the 850s. He thus seems to be identified with a Pethion appearing in Ibn al-Nadīm's Fihrist, who was apparently alive after the death of Ibn Kullāb in 854/855.Status: draft
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See Also
Works Cited
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- 1 Peter Van Nuffelen et al., eds., Clavis Historicorum Tardae Antiquitatis (Ghent, Belgium: Universiteit Gent, 2013), entry: Ecclesiastical historyPethyon