The Coat of Arms of Moses of Mardin

Abstract

Abstract The core of this paper is an edition of Moses of Mardin’s grant of arms, which, accompanied by relevant excerpts from his unpublished Syriac correspondence, provides new information on the life of this 16th-century Syrian Orthodox monk, who played an important role at the dawn of the European Syriac scholarship. He was not only granted with a coat of arms, but he was also received by Ferdinand I, which shows the importance of his major achievement, the edition of the Syriac New Testament. The paper points out that he lived in the Jesuit college in Vienna with the scions of the most influential noblemen, which illustrates his social milieu. It will be argued that he remained Syrian Orthodox despite his earlier Catholic profession of faith. It will also be argued that Moses acquired the right to bear the described coat of arms without ennoblement, and he probably did not use it.