Gabriel of Qartmin

Who is Gabriel of Qartmin?

Gabriel of Qartmin was a 7th-century abbot in the famous Syrian Orthodox Christian Qartmin monastery located in present day Turkey.

A medieval manuscript titled the Life of Gabriel of Qartmin provides a glimpse into the events in the Middle East during the 7th century.

The quote below provides an example of the Dhimmi agreements of Christians during the Arab conquests.

However, as Robert Hoyland has pointed out, the ostentatious worship described in the Life of Gabriel of Qartmin, including the use of the wooden gong and chanting before a bier, did not become a literary theme until the eighth century; this shows that this account is a later fabrication, and belongs to the genre of documents which sought to delineate the ideal Muslim-Christian treaty and endow it with authority by attributing it to famous Muslim figures. Rather than being representative of the Dhimmi agreements of Christians during the Arab conquests, it represents the type of agreement that eighth-century Christians sought to legitimise.