The Monk Aziz of Midyat
(1510)
Monk Aziz is son of the monk Saliba, son of Basus. He was born at Midyat and later joined the staff of Patriarch Masud by whom he was trained for the ascetic life, and whom he served for forty-five years at the Cross Monastery and at Salh after he had become a monk in 1465 and a priest. In a polished style he wrote the biography of his instructor, Patriarch Masud, after he became a metropolitan. This biography consists of six pages. He compiled the ascetic treatises of Patriarch Masud in a book entitled The Spiritual Ship,593 which otherwise would have been lost. He also recorded the calamities which befell the Middle East in general and Tur Abdin in particular, together with political and ecclesiastical events from 1501 to 1510, in four tracts, which we copied from his manuscripts in Amid, Edessa and Tur Abdin.594 He died shortly after 1510.