Abstract
A major survival from the Roman Near East that endured within the caliphate was the episcopal and monastic networks making up the different Christian denominations. This article draws on the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian to illustrate how the caliphate became an increasingly hostile environment for Christian landed lay elites, incentivizing powerful families to take roles in the state’s administration or within the church. Using examples from the Jacobite church, I argue that the state became increasingly involved in church governance, by publicly endorsing the patriarch and his ability to raise revenues from Christians, and by supporting him with state troops against rival clerics.
