ABSTRACT
The following list provides a convenient summary of the present state of knowledge of the patriarchal succession of the Church of the East. The list only contains the names of individuals who (a) actually existed and (b) are generally recognised as primates of the Church of the East. It does not include Saint Peter, who had no connection whatsoever with the Persian Church; nor the apostle Mar Addai, whose legend was invented between the third and sixth centuries; nor the second-century patriarchs Abris, Abraham, and Yaʿqob, who were invented in the ninth century; nor the third-century patriarchs Shahlufa and Aha d’Abuh, two historical bishops of Erbil who were retrospectively promoted. Neither does it include ‘Denḥa III (1359– 68)’, invented by the priest Joseph Qellaita in the 1920s; nor ‘Shemʿon VIII Denḥa (1551–8)’, invented by Yoḥannan Sulaqa’s supporters in 1552 to conceal the fact of their rebellion against the reigning patriarch Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb (1539–58); nor ‘Eliya VI (1558–76)’, whose existence is disproved by the epitaph of Eliya VII (1558– 91). Augustine Hindi, the self-styled patriarch ‘Joseph V’ who administered the Amid patriarchate between 1802 and his death in 1827, does not strictly speaking qualify, as he was recognised by the Vatican merely as administrator of the Amid patriarchate and was never formally accorded the title of patriarch; but he is conventionally listed as a patriarch, and I have observed this convention.
