Aphrahat

Aphrahat (c. 280–c. 345; Syriac: ܐܦܪܗܛ‎ — Ap̄rahaṭ, Persian: فرهاد‎, Greek Ἀφραάτης, and Latin Aphraates) was a Syriac-Christian author of the third century from the Adiabene region of Assyria (then Sassanid ruled Assuristan), which was within the Persian Empire, who composed a series of twenty-three expositions or homilies on points of Christian doctrine and practice. All his known works, the Demonstrations, come from later on in his life. He was an ascetic and celibate, and was almost definitely a son of the covenant (an early Syriac form of communal monasticism). He may have been a bishop, and later Syriac tradition places him at the head of Mar Matti monastery near Mosul, in what is now northern Iraq. He was a near contemporary to the slightly younger Ephrem the Syrian, but the latter lived within the sphere of the Roman Empire. Called the Persian Sage (Syriac: ܚܟܝܡܐ ܦܪܣܝܐ‎, Ḥakkîmâ Pārsāyā), Aphrahat witnesses to the concerns of the early church beyond the eastern boundaries of the Roman Empire. 2Life, history and identity Aphrahat was born in Assuristan (Assyria) on the Sassanid Empire border with Roman Syria around 280. His name, Aphrahat, is the Syriac version of the Persian name Frahāt, which is the modern Persian Farhād (فرهاد