ABSTRACT
Now the blessed brethren of the monastery of Bêth ‘Âbhê have completely set aside and made to slip from out of the fingers of our history the account of the holy Mâr Mâran-ammeh,1 the Metropolitan Bishop of Adiabene, and it hath not been embodied2 in our feeble lines because they exhorted me to crown with my dis course only such holy men as have lived in that holy monastery, and to omit [all] others. But this is not pleasing in thy sight, and by thy divine command thou hast required of me that I should also compose a history of that blessed man, and set down in writing an account of him based upon that which is handed down by word of mouth, that it may be joined to the equipage3 of the histories of the governors who lived
1 See infra, p. 304 ff. 2 ;sso2o>x\ embodiment, Cf. jüLo iso4o**\ and Payne Smith, The s., col. 794.
