Shemon VII Ishoyahb

Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb (Syriac: ܫܡܥܘܢ ܫܒܝܥܝܐ ܝܫܘܥܝܗܒ‎) was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 1539 to 1558. His reign was widely unpopular, and discontent with his leadership led to the schism of 1552, in which his opponents rebelled and appointed the monk Shimun Yohannan Sulaqa as a rival patriarch. Sulaqa's subsequent consecration by Pope Julius III saw a permanent split in the Church of the East and the birth of the Chaldean Catholic Church. His body is buried in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd near Alqosh.

Shemʿon Ishoʿyahb was the younger brother of the patriarch Shemʿon VI (1504–38). Throughout his brother's reign Shemʿon was his designated successor or natar kursya ('guardian of the throne'). He is first mentioned as natar kursya in a manuscript colophon of 1504, at the very beginning of his brother's reign. In October 1538, two months after the death of Shemʿon VI on 5 August 1538, he is mentioned as metropolitan of Mosul. It is not clear whether he became metropolitan of Mosul before or after his brother's death.

Shemʿon Ishoʿyahb succeeded his brother as patriarch either at the end of 1538 or, more probably, early in 1539. He is first mentioned as patriarch in a manuscript colophon of 1539. He took the name Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb. At this period the patriarchal succession in the Church of the East was hereditary, normally from uncle to nephew or from brother to brother. This practice, which had been introduced in the middle of the fifteenth century by the patriarch Shemʿon IV Basidi (died 1497), eventually resulted in a shortage of eligible heirs and in 1552 provoked a schism in the Church. Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb caused great offence at the beginning of his reign by designating his twelve-year-old nephew Hnanishoʿ as his successor, presumably because no older relatives were available. Several years later, probably because Hnanishoʿ had died in the interim, he transferred the succession to his fifteen-year-old brother Eliya, the future patriarch Eliya VI (1558–91). His opponents further accused him of crimes such as selling ecclesiastical positions, allowing the practice of concubinage, and general intemperance.

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