Beth Huzaye (East Syrian Ecclesiastical Province)

Beth Huzaye (ʿIlam or Elam) ܒܝܬ ܗܘܙܝܐ was a metropolitan province of the Church of the East between the fifth and fourteenth centuries. The metropolitans of Beth Huzaye sat at Beth Lapat (Jundishapur). The province of Beth Huzaye had a number of suffragan dioceses at different periods in its history, including Karka d’Ledan, Hormizd Ardashir, Shushter, Susa, Ispahan, Mihraganqadaq and Ram Hormizd. The diocese of Shahpur Khwast may also have been a suffragan diocese of the province of Beth Huzaye.

The bishop of Beth Lapat was recognised as metropolitan of Beth Huzaye in Canon XXI of the synod of Isaac in 410. The metropolitan of Beth Huzaye ranked above the metropolitans of the other four metropolitan provinces established in 410 (Nisibis, Maishan, Adiabene and Beth Garmaï), and was responsible for the suffragan dioceses of Karka d’Ledan, Hormizd Ardashir, Shushter and Susa.

The metropolitan of Beth Huzaye (ʿIlam or Elam), who resided in the town of Beth Lapat (Veh az Andiokh Shapur), enjoyed the right of consecrating a new patriarch. In 410 it was not possible to appoint a metropolitan for Beth Huzaye, as several bishops of Beth Lapat were competing for precedence and the synod declined to choose between them. Instead, it merely laid down that once it became possible to appoint a metropolitan, he would have jurisdiction over the dioceses of Karka d'Ledan, Hormizd Ardashir, Shushter and Susa. These dioceses were all founded at least a century earlier, and their bishops were present at most of the synods of the fifth and sixth centuries. A bishop of Ispahan was present at the synod of Dadishoʿ in 424, and by 576 there were also dioceses for Mihraganqadaq (probably the 'Beth Mihraqaye' included in the title of the diocese of Ispahan in 497) and Ram Hormizd (Ramiz).

Only four of these seven dioceses were still in existence at the end of the ninth century. The diocese of Ram Hormizd seems to have lapsed, and the dioceses of Karka d'Ledan and Mihrganqadaq had been combined with the dioceses of Susa and Ispahan respectively. In 893 Eliya of Damascus listed four suffragan dioceses in the 'eparchy of Jundishapur', in the following order: Karkh Ladan and al-Sus (Susa and Karka d'Ledan), al-Ahwaz (Hormizd Ardashir), Tesr (Shushter) and Mihrganqadaq (Ispahan and Mihraganqadaq). Shahpur Khwast may also have briefly been a diocese in the province of Beth Huzaye. It is doubtful whether any of these dioceses survived into the fourteenth century. The diocese of Shushter is last mentioned in 1007/8, Hormizd Ardashir in 1012, Ispahan in 1111 and Susa in 1281. Only the metropolitan diocese of Jundishapur certainly survived into the fourteenth century, and with additional prestige. ʿIlam had for centuries ranked first among the metropolitan provinces of the Church of the East, and its metropolitan enjoyed the privilege of consecrating a new patriarch and sitting on his right hand at synods. By 1222, in consequence of the demise of the diocese of Kashkar in the province of the patriarch, he had also acquired the privilege of guarding the vacant patriarchal throne.

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Wikipedia