ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the available evidence for the coming of Christianity to Mesopotamia, the frontier provinces of the Roman and Iranian empires, in the first five centuries of the Common Era. The Christianisation of urban centres in Syria and Asia Minor is poorly documented, but was well advanced by the early fourth century, when missionaries turned their attention to the countryside. A similar pattern can be seen in Roman and Iranian Mesopotamia from archaeological and documentary evidence. But local foundation legends claim that king Abgar of Edessa and his nobles, and many in Iranian Mesopotamia, were converted by Christian apostles in the first century. In reality, on both sides of the frontier, the true missionaries appear to have been anonymous lay people, deacons, priests, and ascetics.
