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Denha I

Patriarch of the Church of the East (r. 1265–1281)

Field	Value
honorific-prefix	Mar
name	Denha I
church	Church of the East
see	Seleucia-Ctesiphon
patriarch_of	Patriarch of the Church of the East
title	Patriarch of All the East
residence	Baghdad, Urmia, Maragheh
enthroned	1265
ended	1281
predecessor	Makkikha II
successor	Yahballaha III
birth_date	13th century
death_date	1281

|honorific-prefix = Mar Mar Denha I (also written Dinkha I) was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 1265 to 1281. He was widely suspected of murdering Shem'on Bar Qaligh, bishop of Tus, and was remembered by later generations as Denha Qatola, 'Denha the Murderer'.

Patriarchate

In 1268 the Patriarch had moved from Baghdad, first to Oshnou in Azerbaijan and later to Urmia and Maragheh. He was forced to relocate to Erbil due to Mongol incrusions in Baghdad.

Denha I was patriarch when Rabban Bar Sauma and his companion Rabban Markos arrived in Persia, on their pilgrimage from China towards Jerusalem. Denha had his seat in Baghdad at that time, and requested the two monks to visit the court of Abaqa in order to obtain confirmation letters for Mar Denha's ordination as Patriarch. Intending to establish them as leaders of the Church of the East in China, Denha consecrated Markos as Mar Yahballaha, Bishop of Katai and Ong, and named Rabban Bar Sauma vicar general. Later, Denha charged the monks to return to China as his messengers. However, their departure was delayed due to armed conflict along the route. When Denha died, Markos was elected as his successor.

A modern assessment of Denha's reign can be found in David Wilmshurst's The Martyred Church.

Denha maintained a cordial relationship with the maphrian of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Gregory Barhebraeus. Upon his death, the disciple of Rabban Bar Sauma, Markos, was ordained patriarch, taking the name Yahballaha.

Notes

References

James A. Montgomery, History of Yaballaha III, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1927).
E. A. Wallis Budge, The Monks of Kublai Khan, (London: Religious Tract Society, 1928).
Paul Bedjan, Histoire de Mar Jab-Alaha, Patriarche, (1888, 2nd ed 1995; reprint Gorgias, 2007). Syriac text on which the translations of Montgomery and Budge are based.
Gregory Barhebraeus, Chronicon Ecclesiasticum, ed. J. B. Abbeloos and T. J. Lamy, (Paris: Maisonneuve, 1877), 3: II, cols.451ff.
Wilmshurst, David, The Martyred Church: A History of the Church of the East (London, 2011).

References

Wilmshurst, ''The Martyred Church'', 244–8

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