'Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh; with Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an Account of a Visit to Shirauz and Persepolis.' [‎75] (102/450)

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CH. xv.]
abulfaraj.
75
is educating for the priesthood. According to the
abbot Matran Mousa, the convent was founded in
334 a. d . by Mar Mattei, a saint, and companion of
St. George, who fled from the persecution of Diocle
tian, and took refuge here. Having by his prayers
healed the daughter named Havla, of the King of
the Assyrians, he obtained permission to build this
convent. But this, to the best of my recollection, is
recorded in Asseinanni, in a much more authentic
manner.
The famous Gregory Bar Hebrseus, or Abulfaraj,
is buried here*.
* The following is taken from Assemanni:—
In the time of Shapour, King of Persia, two convents were
founded in Assyria, at or near Nineveh. First, St. Matthew, on
mount Elphaphius, also called Chuchta; the other, St. Jonah.
The first was occupied by the Jacobites, the other by the Nesto-
rians. The convent of Mar Mattei is also mentioned, under Bar-
ebrseus the bishop of Seleucia, who was put to death by Firouz, in
79T of the Greeks, or a.d . 486''. It is also called Chuchta, in
Mount Elpheph. Isaac of Nineveh was a monk in Mar Mattei,
about the year 590 a.d . In the year 1111, when Noureddin
Zenghi, Lord of Damascus, was at Mousul, the Koords broke into
R The era called Alexandrian is that of the Seleucidae, com
mencing with the entrance of Seleucus Nicator into Babylon,
three hundred and eleven years and four months before the com
mencement of our era. It was once much used, especially by the
eastern Greeks, and by the Jews, who call it the era of contracts,
from having been compelled by the Macedonian kings to adopt it
m civil processes. It is still used by some of the Arabs. The
Arabic name for it, Taarick-dheil-Karnain, the era of the two-
horned, seems to have given rise to the supposition that it began
with Alexander, whose well-known claims to descent from Jupiter
Ammon occasioned his being represented with horns, as was
^eleucus also, from some cause not so fully ascertained.— By a
Friend.
If