ABSTRACT
In these words the Chronicle of Zuqnin tersely reflects the legend that gave Edessa empire-wide fame before the end of the fourth century. According to the legend a King Abgar (supposedly Abgar V Ukkama, Jesus’s contemporary) wrote to Jesus in Jerusalem asking to be healed and inviting Jesus to visit Edessa. The text of that letter, and Jesus’s reply, exist in many versions in almost all the languages of the Roman Empire, in keeping with the belief that the texts themselves had a sanctifying and protective power. The importance of this legend for the reputation of the city illustrates the central fact of the post-monarchical period: regardless of preChristian Edessa’s primary cultural orientation – whether it was to the East or to the West – the crucial factor in its later identity was its prominence as a center of Mesopotamian Christianity – the ‘First Christian Kingdom’ or the ‘Blessed City’ – and it was this factor that preserved the name and status of Edessa through the Byzantine Empire and beyond.
