RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESAbraham of Kaskar organized the monks on Mt. Izla, above Nasibin,
into a new monastery in 571 for which he provided the first set of
rules in the East.119 Both Abrahams are credited with changing the
costumes and shoes of the monks and prescribing a tonsure for them
which would distinguish "Nestorian" from Monophysite monks.12°
The rules of Abraham of Kaskar were spread by his disciples to new
monasteries founded by them in Arzon, Qardo, and near Sinn. After
the death of Abraham, Babai of Nasibin built his own monastery on
Mt. Izla, where he established the rules.12l
At about the same time the disciple of Abraham of Nethpar, Job
(Ayyiib), a Persian from Revardashir in Fars, converted his master's
grotto in the mountains of Adiabene into a monastery. He was joined
there by his own disciples from Revardashir, for whom he translated
into Persian the rules of Abraham of Kaskar and the discourses of
Abraham of Nethpar. One of Job's disciples, Rabban Qiisra, a native
of Nineveh, returned to his hometown, where he converted numbers
of Monophysites.^122
Dadhisho', who followed Abraham of Kaskar as head of his mon-
astery on Mt. Izla from 588 to 604, promulgated a new set of rules
in 588, requiring the monks to be literate and to accept the teaching
of Theodore and Nestorius.^123 In 598 the catholicos Sabhrisho' I
established a separate set of monastic rules for the monastery called
Bar Qaiti on Mt. Sinjar.^124
Another flurry of monastic foundations in the first and second dec-
ades of the seventh century was associated with the great dispersion
of monks from Mt. Izla at the height of their conflict with the followers
of I:J"nana and the Monophysites. From 604 to 627/8, the monastery
of Abraham on Mt. Izla was directed by Babai the Great, a notable
of Beth Zabhde, who had studied in the school and hospital of Nasibin
before joining Abraham. Babai issued new rules for the monastery
which were also introduced into the monastery of Job in Adiabene.125
119 Labourt, Christianisme, pp. 225, 316-17; Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," lI(1),
135; V66bus, School of Nisibis, p. 206; idem, Syriac and Arabic Documents, pp. 150-
52.
120 Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," 1I(1), 135, 172; Thomas of Margha, Governors, I,
23; n, 39-41.
\2\ Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," II(2), 447-49, 452, 454-55, 457.
122 Ibid., lI(l), 173-74, 199-200.
123 V66bus, Syriac and Arabic Documents, pp. 163-65, 167-68, 170.
\24 Chabot, Synodicon, pp. 203,206, 465, 469, 667.
\25 Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," lI(1), 174; II(2), 531-32; Thomas of Margha, Gov-
ernors, I, 26; n, 46; V66bus, Syriac and Arabic Documents, pp. 176-77.