Ahatallah
Encyclopedia
Ahatallah was a Syria
n clergyman chiefly known for his trip to India
in 1652, on which he claimed to be the designated "Patriarch of the Whole of India and of China". Apparently, he had previously claimed to be the rightful Patriarch of Antioch
and to have received his commission from the Pope
; though these claims appear to be exaggerated, he was evidently at least a bishop
. His mysterious appearance in, and disappearance from, Portuguese India
caused a great uproar there, and resulted directly in a revolt by the Saint Thomas Christians
against Portuguese rule and the establishment of an independent Malankara Church
.
. However, later research by Joseph Thekedathu, relying on additional documents found in the archives in the Vatican and Goa, has established further details of his life. He was born in Aleppo
, Syria
, in 1590, and did enter the Syriac Orthodox Church, eventually being consecrated Bishop of Damascus
. While bishop he converted to the Catholic Church, and in 1632 he traveled to Rome
. He stayed there for over a year, and became fluent in Italian
. Eventually he requested to return to Syria, where he vowed he would bring the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Hidayat Allah, into communion with Rome. What happened thereafter is unclear.
Ahatallah was certainly unsuccessful in converting the Patriarch before his death in 1639. After that point, he apparently began claiming he was Hidayat Allah's rightful successor, and began styling himself "Ignatius", the name traditionally born by Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs. Whatever the base for this claim, opposition by the Ottoman Empire
precluded him from ever visiting the patriarchal see, and Ahatallah was sent instead to Persia, which had no Latin Rite bishop at the time. By 1646 he was in Cairo
, where he seems to have been known at the court of the Coptic Pope of Alexandria. That year he sent a correspondence to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide) in Rome, but received no response for several years. While Ahatallah was in Cairo, the Pope of Alexandria, Mark VI
, received a letter from Thomas
, Archdeacon
of the Saint Thomas Christian community in India
. Thomas was at loggerheads with the Portuguese administration in India
, and had begun appealing to various foreign patriarchs – the Patriarch of the Church of the East in Persia, the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch in Syria, and Pope Mark in Egypt – for assistance. Either unable or unwilling to send someone from his own church, Mark evidently suggested that Ahatallah might go to India instead. Having heard nothing from Propaganda Fide, Ahatallah seized the opportunity.
Ahatallah arrived in India in 1652, coming first to Surat
. There he made the acquaintance of the Capuchin
monks, but afraid of being taken by the authorities and subjected to the Inquisition
, he quietly boarded a Dutch
vessel bound for Mylapore
, which he reached most likely in August 1562. There, he began claiming that the Pope had commissioned him as "Patriarch of the Whole of India and of China", and that his patriarchal name was Ignatius. The Portuguese decided he was an impostor, and possibly a heretic
, and summarily arrested him and put him in the custody of the Jesuits. However, the Jesuits extended considerable kindness and freedom to him, and allowed him to meet with Zachariah Cherrian Unni and two other members of the Saint Thomas Christian clergy. Ahatallah greatly impressed the native clergymen, who returned to their home region of Kerala
with a letter from their community's new "Patriarch".
Historian Stephen Neill
notes the difficulty in determining what of Ahatallah's story can be accepted as true. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Roman pope had authorized him to go to India, let alone claim to be its Patriarch. Similarly, the Coptic pope could not have given him the commission, as he could assert no authority in India, which was under the jurisdiction of other patriarchs – historically the Patriarch of the Church of the East and now the Roman pope. However, Neill notes that however exaggerated these claims were, there is little reason to doubt that Ahatallah was at least a bishop, who had converted from the Syriac Orthodox Church to Catholicism.
, which since the Synod of Diamper
in 1599 had formally controlled church life in India. Soon, however, the Jesuit Manoel de Leira secretly alerted the Portuguese authorities about Ahatallah's activities, and they put him on a ship headed for Cochin and Goa
. Hearing of this, Archdeacon Thomas
led his militia to Cochin and demanded to meet with Ahatallah and examine his credentials. The Portuguese officials refused. They noted that no Patriarch could be legally assigned to India without the dispensation of the Portuguese, and informed Thomas that Ahatallah had already been sent to Goa.
Ahatallah was never heard from again in India, and the Saint Thomas Christians soon suspected that the Portuguese had murdered him. Rumours spread that the Portuguese had drowned him in Cochin harbour before the ships even left for Goa, or even that they had tried him for heresy and burned him at the stake. In reality, it appears that Ahatallah did in fact reach Goa, and was then sent on to Lisbon
with the ultimate goal of having his case decided in Rome
. Evidently, however, he died in Paris
in 1655, before reaching Rome.
After Ahatallah's death representatives of the Thomas Christians came together at the Church of Our Lady in Mattancherry
and swore the Coonan Cross Oath
, in which they vowed they would never again submit to the Portuguese. By this action, an independent Thomas Christian church, known as the Malankara Church
, was formed, and its leaders soon decided that Archdeacon Thomas should be elevated to the episcopal position they had earlier hoped Ahatallah would fill. Supporting this, Anjilimoothil Ittithommen, one of the senior priests, produced two letters supposedly from Ahatallah that authorized the Archdeacon's consecration as bishop and detailed a ceremony facilitating it. According to these letters, if no bishop could be found to perform the consecration, twelve priests could lay their hands
on the candidate instead. According to Stephen Neill
, these letters were almost certainly not authentic, and were probably forged by Ittithommen himself. Some were skeptical of this atypical ceremony, but Ahatallah's reputation and the enthusiastic mood ensured that it went ahead as planned. Thomas was consecrated by twelve priests, who laid one of the letters attributed to Ahatallah on his head, and afterward he acted fully as the metropolitan of Malankara.
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n clergyman chiefly known for his trip to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in 1652, on which he claimed to be the designated "Patriarch of the Whole of India and of China". Apparently, he had previously claimed to be the rightful Patriarch of Antioch
Patriarch of Antioch
Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the Bishop of Antioch. As the traditional "overseer" of the first gentile Christian community, the position has been of prime importance in the church from its earliest period...
and to have received his commission from the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
; though these claims appear to be exaggerated, he was evidently at least a bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
. His mysterious appearance in, and disappearance from, Portuguese India
Portuguese India
The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...
caused a great uproar there, and resulted directly in a revolt by the Saint Thomas Christians
Saint Thomas Christians
The Saint Thomas Christians are an ancient body of Christians from Kerala, India, who trace their origins to the evangelical activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. They are also known as "Nasranis" because they are followers of "Jesus of Nazareth". The term "Nasrani" is still used by St...
against Portuguese rule and the establishment of an independent Malankara Church
Malankara Church
The Malankara Church is the church of the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala, India, with particular emphasis on the part of the community that joined Archdeacon Mar Thoma in swearing to resist the authority of the Portuguese Padroado in 1653...
.
Biography
Ahatallah's biography is obscure. Many earlier scholars, including the Lebanese Orientalist Joseph Simon Assemani and Edward René Hambye, believed he was a Jacobite; a member of the Syriac Orthodox ChurchSyriac Orthodox Church
The Syriac Orthodox Church; is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with members spread throughout the world. The Syriac Orthodox Church claims to derive its origin from one of the first Christian communities, established in Antioch by the Apostle St....
. However, later research by Joseph Thekedathu, relying on additional documents found in the archives in the Vatican and Goa, has established further details of his life. He was born in Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, in 1590, and did enter the Syriac Orthodox Church, eventually being consecrated Bishop of Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
. While bishop he converted to the Catholic Church, and in 1632 he traveled to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. He stayed there for over a year, and became fluent in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
. Eventually he requested to return to Syria, where he vowed he would bring the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Hidayat Allah, into communion with Rome. What happened thereafter is unclear.
Ahatallah was certainly unsuccessful in converting the Patriarch before his death in 1639. After that point, he apparently began claiming he was Hidayat Allah's rightful successor, and began styling himself "Ignatius", the name traditionally born by Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs. Whatever the base for this claim, opposition by the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
precluded him from ever visiting the patriarchal see, and Ahatallah was sent instead to Persia, which had no Latin Rite bishop at the time. By 1646 he was in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, where he seems to have been known at the court of the Coptic Pope of Alexandria. That year he sent a correspondence to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide) in Rome, but received no response for several years. While Ahatallah was in Cairo, the Pope of Alexandria, Mark VI
Pope Mark VI of Alexandria
Pope Mark VI of Alexandria was the Coptic Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark from 1645–1660.The seat of the Pope during his papacy remained in the Church of the Virgin Mary in Cairo....
, received a letter from Thomas
Mar Thoma I
-See also:*Indian Orthodox Church*Jacobite Syrian Church*Mar Thoma Church*Malankara Church*Dutch East India Company*Syrian Malabar Nasrani-Further reading:...
, Archdeacon
Archdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...
of the Saint Thomas Christian community in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Thomas was at loggerheads with the Portuguese administration in India
Portuguese India
The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...
, and had begun appealing to various foreign patriarchs – the Patriarch of the Church of the East in Persia, the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch in Syria, and Pope Mark in Egypt – for assistance. Either unable or unwilling to send someone from his own church, Mark evidently suggested that Ahatallah might go to India instead. Having heard nothing from Propaganda Fide, Ahatallah seized the opportunity.
Ahatallah arrived in India in 1652, coming first to Surat
Surat
Surat , also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat. Surat is India's Eighth most populous city and Ninth-most populous urban agglomeration. It is also administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India. The city proper...
. There he made the acquaintance of the Capuchin
Order of Friars Minor Capuchin
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is an Order of friars in the Catholic Church, among the chief offshoots of the Franciscans. The worldwide head of the Order, called the Minister General, is currently Father Mauro Jöhri.-Origins :...
monks, but afraid of being taken by the authorities and subjected to the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
, he quietly boarded a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
vessel bound for Mylapore
Mylapore
Mylapore is a cultural hub and neighborhood in the southern part of the city of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. Earlier, Mylapore used to be called Vedapuri....
, which he reached most likely in August 1562. There, he began claiming that the Pope had commissioned him as "Patriarch of the Whole of India and of China", and that his patriarchal name was Ignatius. The Portuguese decided he was an impostor, and possibly a heretic
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
, and summarily arrested him and put him in the custody of the Jesuits. However, the Jesuits extended considerable kindness and freedom to him, and allowed him to meet with Zachariah Cherrian Unni and two other members of the Saint Thomas Christian clergy. Ahatallah greatly impressed the native clergymen, who returned to their home region of Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
with a letter from their community's new "Patriarch".
Historian Stephen Neill
Stephen Neill
Stephen Charles Neill was a Anglican missionary, bishop, and scholar from Scotland. He was proficient in a number of languages including Greek, Latin and Tamil. He was educated and later worked in Trinity College, Cambridge...
notes the difficulty in determining what of Ahatallah's story can be accepted as true. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Roman pope had authorized him to go to India, let alone claim to be its Patriarch. Similarly, the Coptic pope could not have given him the commission, as he could assert no authority in India, which was under the jurisdiction of other patriarchs – historically the Patriarch of the Church of the East and now the Roman pope. However, Neill notes that however exaggerated these claims were, there is little reason to doubt that Ahatallah was at least a bishop, who had converted from the Syriac Orthodox Church to Catholicism.
Disappearance and aftermath
Ahatallah's appearance had joyed the Saint Thomas Christians, who had hoped for a new ecclesiastical leader to free them from the power of the Portuguese PadroadoPadroado
The Padroado , was an arrangement between the Holy See and the kingdom of Portugal, affirmed by a series of treaties, by which the Vatican delegated to the kings of Spain and Portugal the administration of the local Churches...
, which since the Synod of Diamper
Synod of Diamper
The Synod of Diamper, held at Udayamperoor/Diamper, is a diocesan synod by which Latin usages were formally adopted by the Christians of Saint Thomas. It was convened on June 20, 1599, under the leadership of Aleixo de Menezes, Archbishop of Goa. Archdeacon George was forced to comply with the...
in 1599 had formally controlled church life in India. Soon, however, the Jesuit Manoel de Leira secretly alerted the Portuguese authorities about Ahatallah's activities, and they put him on a ship headed for Cochin and Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
. Hearing of this, Archdeacon Thomas
Mar Thoma I
-See also:*Indian Orthodox Church*Jacobite Syrian Church*Mar Thoma Church*Malankara Church*Dutch East India Company*Syrian Malabar Nasrani-Further reading:...
led his militia to Cochin and demanded to meet with Ahatallah and examine his credentials. The Portuguese officials refused. They noted that no Patriarch could be legally assigned to India without the dispensation of the Portuguese, and informed Thomas that Ahatallah had already been sent to Goa.
Ahatallah was never heard from again in India, and the Saint Thomas Christians soon suspected that the Portuguese had murdered him. Rumours spread that the Portuguese had drowned him in Cochin harbour before the ships even left for Goa, or even that they had tried him for heresy and burned him at the stake. In reality, it appears that Ahatallah did in fact reach Goa, and was then sent on to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
with the ultimate goal of having his case decided in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. Evidently, however, he died in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1655, before reaching Rome.
After Ahatallah's death representatives of the Thomas Christians came together at the Church of Our Lady in Mattancherry
Mattancherry
Mattancherry is the western part of city of Kochi, India. It is said that the name Mattancherry is drawn from "Ancherry Mattam", a Namboodiri illam which then the foreign traders pronounced it as Matt-Ancherry, gradually became Mattancherry. It is about 9 km from Ernakulam town. There are...
and swore the Coonan Cross Oath
Coonan Cross Oath
The Coonan Cross Oath , taken on January 3, 1653, was a public avowal by members of the Saint Thomas Christian community of Kerala, India that they would not submit to Portuguese dominance in ecclesiastical and secular life...
, in which they vowed they would never again submit to the Portuguese. By this action, an independent Thomas Christian church, known as the Malankara Church
Malankara Church
The Malankara Church is the church of the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala, India, with particular emphasis on the part of the community that joined Archdeacon Mar Thoma in swearing to resist the authority of the Portuguese Padroado in 1653...
, was formed, and its leaders soon decided that Archdeacon Thomas should be elevated to the episcopal position they had earlier hoped Ahatallah would fill. Supporting this, Anjilimoothil Ittithommen, one of the senior priests, produced two letters supposedly from Ahatallah that authorized the Archdeacon's consecration as bishop and detailed a ceremony facilitating it. According to these letters, if no bishop could be found to perform the consecration, twelve priests could lay their hands
Laying on of hands
The laying on of hands is a religious ritual that accompanies certain religious practices, which are found throughout the world in varying forms....
on the candidate instead. According to Stephen Neill
Stephen Neill
Stephen Charles Neill was a Anglican missionary, bishop, and scholar from Scotland. He was proficient in a number of languages including Greek, Latin and Tamil. He was educated and later worked in Trinity College, Cambridge...
, these letters were almost certainly not authentic, and were probably forged by Ittithommen himself. Some were skeptical of this atypical ceremony, but Ahatallah's reputation and the enthusiastic mood ensured that it went ahead as planned. Thomas was consecrated by twelve priests, who laid one of the letters attributed to Ahatallah on his head, and afterward he acted fully as the metropolitan of Malankara.