Dadisho Qatraya or Dadisho of Qatar was a Nestorian monk and author whose works were read from Ethiopia to Central Asia. Originally from Beth Qatraye, he became attached first to the unidentified monastery of Rab-kennārē then later to those of Rabban Shabur and the Blessed Apostles. He flourished in the late 7th century. Nothing else about his life is known. Giuseppe Simone Assemaniidentified him with Dadisho of Mount Izla, who lived a century earlier. Addai Scher, however, demonstrated that there were two distinct individuals. He wrote extensively in Syriac. All of his writings are concerned with shelya. Among his surviving works are:
Treatise on Solitude, also called Seven Weeks of Solitude, which describes how a monk should retreat into complete solitude and prayer for seven weeks at a time
Letter to Mar Abkosh on Hesychia, also called On Stillness
Commentary on Abba Isaiah, which is a commentary on the Syriac version of the Asceticon of Isaiah of Scetis and describes shelya as the condition the soul must meet to reach God
Commentary on the Paradise of the Fathers, which is a commentary on the Paradise of the Fathers of Enanisho in the form of a series of questions posed by some monks to their superior concerning the issues raised by the sayings of the Desert Fathers collected by Enanisho
He also wrote a few short work on similar ascetic themes. Both of his commentaries were translated into Arabic and Sogdian. Although only fragments of the latter survive, the Arabic version survives both complete and abridged and in Arabic script and in Garshuni. The Commentary on the Paradise was also translated from Arabic into Ethiopic. The Arabic version of the Abba Isaiah commentary describes Dadisho as a disciple of Isaac of Nineveh. These translations assured him a wide diffusion among the Oriental Orthodox. Dadisho is the earliest writer to credit an Egyptian monk, Mar Awgin, with the introduction of monasticism to Mesopotamia in the 4th century.
