The early Middle Ages
AD 801–1300
Thomas of Marga
Bishop of Marga in northern Mesopotamia and secretary to the patriarch; he wrote the Book of Governors, a history of the monastery of Beth ʿAbhe and of the monks of the Church of the East.
1 workApocalypse of the Virgin
A Byzantine vision of the punishments of the damned shown to Mary.
1 workEarly papal decretals (Pseudo-Isidore)
Letters put under the names of the early popes of the third century.
7 worksPhotius of Constantinople
Patriarch of Constantinople whose Bibliotheca reviews hundreds of books.
1 workHunayn ibn Ishaq
Nestorian physician and translator of Greek works into Syriac and Arabic at Baghdad.
1 workAgapius of Hierapolis
Melkite bishop who wrote a universal history in Arabic.
1 workYahya ibn Adi
Syriac Orthodox philosopher and translator in Baghdad, who wrote in Arabic.
3 worksSeverus of al-Ashmunein
Coptic bishop whose History of the Patriarchs is the main source for the Coptic church.
2 worksAbu al-Khayr ibn al-Tayyib
Christian Arabic writer of Baghdad.
1 workAbdallah ibn al-Tayyib
Physician, philosopher and priest of the Church of the East in Baghdad.
1 workPeter the Deacon of Monte Cassino
Librarian of Monte Cassino who reworked earlier accounts of the Holy Land.
1 workDionysius bar Salibi
Syriac Orthodox bishop and commentator.
2 worksAbu al-Majdalus
Arabic Christian writer who commented on the Nicene Creed.
1 workGerasimos
Arabic Christian writer; an extract of his Apology is translated here.
1 workSolomon of Basra
Bishop of Basra (Pêrath-Maishân) in the Church of the East; his Book of the Bee is a collection of teachings on the creation, the patriarchs, the prophets, Christ, the apostles and the end of the world, ‘gleaned’ like honey from earlier writers.
1 workThomas Aquinas
Dominican friar and theologian. At the request of Pope Urban IV he gathered the Catena Aurea, the 'Golden Chain': a verse-by-verse commentary on the four Gospels made entirely of passages from the Greek and Latin Fathers, from Chrysostom and Augustine to Bede.
8 worksAbdisho bar Brikha
Metropolitan of Nisibis and Armenia; wrote a catalogue of Syriac writers and a summary of doctrine.
2 worksLate Syriac writers
Writers of the Church of the East in the thirteenth century.
2 works