Gabriel of Baṣra (fl. late 9th cent.) [Ch. of E.]

Metropolitan of Baṣra; author of a collection of juridical texts.

Metropolitan of Baṣra; author of a collection of juridical texts. Next to nothing is known about Gabriel’s life, except that he was metropolitan in 884 and in 893. In the last quarter of the 9th cent., he compiled a collection of civil and ecclesiastical laws in two parts, for which he primarily drew on materials from existing law books of E.-Syr. authors: Shemʿon of Rev Ardashir , Ishoʿbokht , Timotheos I , Ishoʿ bar Nun , ʿAbdishoʿ bar Bahrīz , and from the so-called Syro-Roman Law Book, the 73 pseudo-Nicene canons attributed to Marutha of Maypherqaṭ , and the canons of the E.-Syr. synods (Synodicon Orientale). Gabriel did not reproduce these sources literally, but abbreviated and reworked them. The first part of the collection deals with matrimonial law, hereditary law, and other secular matters; the second part contains ecclesiastical rules concerning church hierarchy, hospitals, poorhouses, schools, and monasteries. While the entire collection is structured in the form of questions and answers as a technical device allowing the incorporation of long quotations, it is only in the substantial section devoted to liturgical issues that real questions are asked and answers provided (Second part, B, 1–70). A particularly interesting and, as far as Syriac is concerned, unique text provides a blueprint for the regulations for an association of artisans (First part, 48). Only fragments of Gabriel’s collection have been preserved, but the work can largely be reconstructed with the help of the Syriac Nomocanon of ʿAbdishoʿ bar Brikha (d. 1318) and of the second part of the Arabic collection Fiqh al-Naṣrāniyya by Ibn al-Ṭayyib (1st half of 11th cent.), two works that are largely dependent on Gabriel’s collection.