community
Socotra (Dioscoris)
Socotra, Yemen · India & Indian Ocean
12.510, 53.920
Attested. Attested by Cosmas in the 6th century and by later medieval reports.
Socotra (Dioscoris)
Socotra
Cosmas reports that the island he calls Dioscoris had Christians with clergy ordained in Persia. Socotra stayed partly Christian into the Portuguese era.
Added from later research
enrichment · 1281-1280s
Late survival of the Socotra bishopric
A bishop of Socotra attended the enthronement of Patriarch Yahballaha III in 1281, and Marco Polo claimed the island had an East Syriac archbishop in the 1280s. A church datable to the 7th-10th centuries has been found on the island.
attested. Patriarchal records; Marco Polo's title claim may be inflated.
Source stance: neutral. Traveler's report.
People and groups named here
- Cosmas Indicopleustes (witness)
- Patriarch Yahballaha III
- Marco Polo
Sources
- Cosmas Indicopleustes, Christian Topography, Book III (churches in Taprobane, Male, Kalliana, Dioscoris)
tr. J. W. McCrindle, Hakluyt Society (1897), public domain; tertullian.org. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Socotra (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Dioceses of the Church of the East to 1318 (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Christianity in pre-Islamic Arabia (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors. Accessed 2026-11-11.
Councils here
None in this list.