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Student Mobility in The Mesopotamian Area.

The document discusses student mobility in the Syro-Mesopotamian area between the 4th and 5th centuries. Factors like family, funds, events, and religion impacted student movement between cities and schools. Bishops also influenced student circulation and promotion through their networks, stimulating movement both within and outside the church.

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41 views2 pages

Student Mobility in The Mesopotamian Area.

The document discusses student mobility in the Syro-Mesopotamian area between the 4th and 5th centuries. Factors like family, funds, events, and religion impacted student movement between cities and schools. Bishops also influenced student circulation and promotion through their networks, stimulating movement both within and outside the church.

Uploaded by

Yarrick94
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Daniele Reano

[email protected]

Abstract for “Syriac Studies in the UK: Past, Present, Future”, Durham University, March 21–23,
2024

Student mobility in the Syro-Mesopotamian area between the 4th and the 5th centuries:
some preliminary reflections

Keywords: Syriac study, Syriac schools, Late antiquity, Episcopal networks

In the field of Syriac studies, several prominent scholars from the UK, or scholars that have
developed at least part of their research in the UK, have produced some contributions on prominent
intellectuals from the Syro-Mesopotamian area, whose names are more or less directly linked to
notable theological-episcopal schools such as Edessa and Nisibis.
The aim of this paper is to offer a preliminary overview of a single particular phenomenon related
to these schools: the mobility of students in the Syro-Mesopotamian regions, focusing on the period
between the 4th and 5th centuries.
Movement for study purposes was caused by a variety of factors. Choices forced by family
directives, availability of funds to invest in education, and individual decisions, together with
'geopolitical' events (e.g. Sasanian and Eastern Roman military campaigns), had a considerable
impact on the mobility of both students seeking a traditional education and Christians interested in
theological studies. For Christian students, religious affiliation and Christological diatribes were
equally important in the choice of more or less long periods of study away from their cities of
origin, sometimes driving them to move from large cities such as Antioch to more peripheral
locations.
This contribution intends also to reflect briefly on the disciples' movements within episcopal
networks. Bishops, as socio-political authorities, performed various forms of patronage functions
for their disciples, stimulating the circulation and promotion of young pupils and protégés both
within and outside the ecclesiastical sphere, not infrequently directing and controlling their
mobility. The episcopal networks in the Syro-Mesopotamian area, the first prodromes of which can
be traced back to the Councils of Ancyra (314) and Nicaea (315), grew in size in the following
decades, constituting part of the success of phenomena that we can, with some caution, define as
'proto-scholastic' (such as Ephrem the Syrian and his circle). In the course of the 5th century, links
between schools, teachers and networks of bishops were consolidated (as testify the letters of
Theodoret of Cyrrhus or Jacob of Serugh), but these links could degenerate and result in major
conflicts (as the case of Rabbula and Ibas of Edessa shows).
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