Abd al-Ghani al-Mansuri, maphrian of the East
(d. 1575)
Abd al-Ghani was born at the village Mansuriyya near Mardin. His father was the priest Istephan. He became a monk at the Monastery of Mar Hananya and studied Syriac grammar and etymology under some masters of his time. He devoted his time to the reading of religious sciences in which he became proficient and was made a priest. He was ordained a metropolitan and chosen as a deputy patriarch. At the beginning of 1557 he assumed the maphrianate of the East under the name Basilius. He died on June 19, 1575.
Maphrian Mansuri wrote a lengthy liturgy in seventy pages in which he used rhetorical ornamentation. It is a testimony of his profound knowledge in the Syriac language and composition. It is, indeed, unequalled among liturgies of the same kind. It begins thus, “Eternal intellect whose existence is imperative.”612