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{{Expand Malayalam|date=January 2024}}
{{Short description|Syriac Orthodox bishop}}
'''Ahatallah''' (1590 – c. 1655) was a Syrian Orthodox Church metropolitan<ref name="frykenberg_onAhatallah">{{cite book |last= Frykenberg|first= Robert Erick |title=Christianity in India From Beginnings to the Present |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=367 |isbn= 978-0-19-154419-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sOrglHSX6rsC |language=en }}</ref> chiefly known for his trip to [[India]] in 1652. 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]].

{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific_prefix = Mor
| name = Cyril Ahatallah Ibn-Issa
| consecration = Moran Mor Ignatius Hidayat Aloho
| birth_date = 1590 (approx)
| birth_place = Aleppo
| death_date = 26 March 1654
| buried =
| other_post = Metropolitan of Damascus, Homs, Nicomedia
| profession =
| type = Metropolitan
| image = അഹത്തള്ള പാത്രിയർക്കീസ് ഭാവനയിൽ.jpg
| caption = Mor Ahatallah
}}

==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 Church]].<ref name=Vadakkekara>Vadakkekara, pp. 80–81 and note.</ref> 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.<ref name=Neill317>Neill, p. 317.</ref> 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 Aloho]], into communion with Rome. What happened thereafter is unclear.<ref name=Neill317/>

Ahatallah was certainly unsuccessful in converting Hidayat Aloho before the patriarch died in 1639.<ref name=Neill317/> Apparently, he was later elected Patriarch of Antioch under the name Ignatius by a group of Syrian Orthodox bishops.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Four apologetic church histories from India|last=Perczel|first=István|page=196 and note|author-link=István Perczel|journal=The Harp|volume=24|year=2011|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333954350}}</ref> After that point, Ahatallah apparently began claiming he was Hidayat Aloho's rightful successor, and began styling himself "Ignatius", the name traditionally borne by Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs. Since Turkish opposition made it impossible for him to take up this post, he had been despatched to Persia to care for the churches there.<ref name=Neill317/> By 1646 he was in [[Cairo]], where he seems to have been known at the court of the [[Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria|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, [[Pope Mark VI of Alexandria|Mark VI]], received a letter from [[Mar Thoma I|Thomas]], [[Archdeacon]] of the [[Saint Thomas Christian]] community in [[India]]. Thomas was at loggerheads with the [[Portuguese India|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. Since there was no one else to send, Mark suggested to Ahatallah to take up this important work. Having nothing else to do, Ahatallah accepted this commission.<ref name=Neill317/>

Ahatallah arrived in India in 1652, coming first to [[Surat]].<ref>Neill, p. 316.</ref> There he made the acquaintance of the [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|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.<ref>Neill, pp. 316–317.</ref> 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 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".<ref name=Neill317/>

Historian [[Stephen Neill]] notes the difficulty in determining what of Ahatallah's story can be accepted as true.<ref name=Neill317/> There is no evidence 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. 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.<ref name=Neill317/> But another historian Robert Erick Frykenberg states that he was a member of Syriac Orthodox Church when he came to India.<ref name="frykenberg_onAhatallah"/>

==Disappearance and aftermath==
{{More|Coonan Cross Oath}}
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 ''[[Padroado]]'', 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]].<ref>Frykenberg, p. 367.</ref> Hearing of this, [[Mar Thoma I|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.<ref>Frykenberg, p. 367–368.</ref>

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. Even the earlier historians have mentioned that Ahatallah was drowned by the Portuguese.<ref name="MarAprem"/> Some modern writers state that Ahatallah was not killed in 1653 but was sent as a prisoner to Lisbon, where he reportedly died a natural death in the prison.<ref name="MarAprem">{{cite book |last= Aprem |first= (Mar) |title=Mar Abdisho Thondanat-A Biography |date=1987 |publisher=Mar Narsai Press |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZxKAAAAMAAJ|language=en}}</ref> Based on the research of Joseph Thekedathu, it has been claimed 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]], but died in Paris in 1654 while on the way.<ref name=Neill319>Neill, p. 319.</ref><ref>Vadakkekara, p. 81.</ref>

After realizing that the Portuguese had taken Ahatallah, representatives of the Saint 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 that move, 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.<ref name="Neill320321">Neill, pp. 320–321.</ref> According to these letters, if no bishop could be found to perform the consecration, twelve priests could [[Laying on of hands|lay their hands]] on the candidate instead.<ref name="Vadakkekara" /><ref>Vadakkekara, p. 82.</ref> The authenticity of these letters is not clear. According to [[Stephen Neill]], these letters were almost certainly not authentic, and were probably forged by Ittithommen himself.<ref name="Vadakkekara" /><ref name="Neill320321" /> 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 [[Malankara Metropolitan|metropolitan of Malankara]].<ref name="Neill320321" />

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* Frykenberg, Eric (2008). [https://books.google.com/books?id=sOrglHSX6rsC&q=%22Malankara+Church%22 ''Christianity in India: from Beginnings to the Present'']. Oxford. {{ISBN|0-19-826377-5}}.
*{{cite book |title= A History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to AD 1707 |last= Neill|first= Stephen|author-link= Stephen Neill|year= 2004 |publisher= Cambridge University Press|isbn= 0-521-54885-3|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=RH4VPgB__GQC|access-date=April 20, 2010}}
*Vadakkekara, Benedict (2007). [https://books.google.com/books?id=pAncGlpGW8wC ''Origin of Christianity in India: a historiographical critique'']. Media House Delhi.
*Brakmann, Heinzgerd: ''Jean Morin, Honoré de Bonfils und Atallahs Pontifikale: eine Episode frühneuzeitlicher liturgischer Syrologie''. In: Oriens christianus vol. 96 (2012) p. 47-77.

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[[Category:Religious leaders from Aleppo]]
[[Category:Syrian bishops]]
[[Category:1590 births]]
[[Category:1650s deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Oriental Orthodox bishops]]
[[Category:Oriental Orthodoxy in India]]
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Oriental Orthodoxy]]

Ahatallah - Revision history

MerryGrubb79668 at 12:21, 22 February 2026