CHRISTIANSThe schools established by the monastic faction were strongholds
of diophysitism and by the middle of the seventh century the school
of Nasibin had been recaptured. At the time of the conquest, village
schools were spread throughout Adiabene and Beth Garme and new
schools were still being founded.^114 Apparently a school was founded
at Basra sometime in the later seventh century. A Persian called Bar
Sahde, who died in 745 at the age of ninety, is said to have migrated
from Istakhr to Basra, where he received instruction in the schools
and became a monk,115
THE FORMATION OF THE NESTORIAN COMMUNITY:
MONASTERIES
Reformed coenobitic monasticism was an equally powerful force in
forging a separate Nestorian identity since the monks were both dy-
namic and aggressive in their partisanship for Theodore of Mopsuestia
and in the expansion of their church through the conversion of Ma-
gians, pagans, and Monophysites. Eremitic and perhaps coenobitic
Christian asceticism was brought to Iraq by monastic refugees during
the reigns of Julian and Valens in the later fourth century,116 By the
last quarter of the sixth century, there were monasteries near Nasibin,
in Qardo, Margha, and Adiabene, and at Hira and Anbar.ll7
According to Nestorian tradition, the impetus for the reorganization
of monasticism in the later sixth century came from individual ascetics
such as Abraham of Kaskar (491/2-586/8) and his contemporary,
Abraham of Nethpar. They are said to have gone to Jerusalem and
Egypt and brought back Pachomian coenobitic monasticism to Iraq,118
the Scribe), returned to Kaskar and built a monastery with a school (Chabot, "Chastete,"
pp. 36, 42, 225, 260).
114 Chabot, "Chastete," pp. 39, 71,257,283; Labourt, Christianisme, p. 293; Scher,
"Histoire nestorienne," Il(2), 462; Thomas of Margha, Governors, I, 74-78; Il, 147-
53; V66bus, Syriac and Arabic Documents, pp. 185-86. In one account of the fall of
'Ayn Tamr to Khiilid, forty boys were learning the Gospels (Gk., In;fl) in a church in
the town (Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2064).
115 Chabot, "Chastete," pp. 230-31.
116 Assemani, BO, III(2), 860-74; Hoffmann, Persischer Miirtyrer, pp. 17-19; La-
bourt, Christianisme, pp. 302-5; Thomas of Margha, Governors, I, 330; Il, 577-78.
117 Assemani, BO III(2), 718; Budge, Rabban H6rmfzd, I, 134; Il, 199; Fiey, "Balad,"
p. 223; idem, Assyrie chretienne, Ill, 214-15, 224-25; Scher, "Histoire nestorienne,"
Il(1), 155, 170, 198; II(2), 474-77.
118 Labourt, Christianisme, p. 292; Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," Il(1), 172-73.
Abraham was joined by a certain Rabban l;Iiiyii, also from Kaskar, who made his own
pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Egypt during the reign of Hurmizd IV (579-90) (Scher,
"Histoire nestorienne," II[2], 453).