CHRISTIANSalso the monastery of Nardos with seventy monks and a library con-
taining books and rolls of parchment. A church with a school had
been founded next to the palace of the Sasanian monarch at Mada'in,
and the director of this school, Qamisho', was chosen to succeed
Al).udemmeh (579-609). The monastery of Mar Matta, for which
Qamisho' ordained a bishop, continued to be an important Mono-
physite center.^165
The effects and significance of this Monophysite entrenchment in
Beth Nuhadhra may best be seen in the career of Mariitha. He was a
native second-generation Monophysite, born before 565 to Jacobite
parents who were notables of the village of Shurzaq. The people of
the village are all said to have been Monophysites as a result of the
teaching of his parents. As a young man, Mariitha's parents sent him
to study at the monastery of Mar Samuel and later brought him back
to Shurzaq to continue his studies at the new school founded there
after the Nestorian example. He finished his early studies at the mon-
astery of Nardos, where he was ordained a priest and stayed for twenty
years. Then, in about 593, Mariitha went to Byzantine Mesopotamia
for further study. At the monastery of Mar Zaki near Callinicus, he
studied the works of the Greek fathers, especially those of Gregory
Nazianzus. He lived for a while in the cells around Edessa, where he
learned the art of calligraphy from a monastic scribe, and then returned
and settled at the monastery of Mar Matta between 603 and 605.^166
By the beginning of the seventh century, the conditions existed in
Iraq for an intense and bitter struggle between Nestorians and Mon-
ophysites. This had two important consequences. The first was a surge
of competitive missionary activity led by the monks on both sides,
aimed not only at proselytizing from each other but at enrolling as
much of the non-Christian population as possible in the conflict on
either side. In general, the Nestorians were successful among the pagan
Aramaeans and pagan and Magian Persians. Although the Mono-
physites were able to proselytize Aramaeans who were already Chris-
tian and made some converts among Magian Persians and pagan Kurds,
their greatest success was among the pastoral Arab population of
Sasanian Iraq.
The two sects clashed head-on over the sedentary Arab Christians
CIbad) at Hira and elsewhere. The Arab population of Hira had been
165 Fiey, Assyrie chretienne, Il, 331-33, 769; Nau, "Agoudemmeh," pp. 52, 64-67,
70.
166 Nau, "A{loudemmeh," pp. 53, 63, 65, 70-71.