George of Arbela
George of Arbela was an East Syriac churchman and author who served as the metropolitan of Mosul and Erbil from c. 960 until after 987.
George was relatively young man when he first put himself forward as a candidate for the patriarchate of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 960/961. Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn Ibrāhīm, the Christian treasurer of the Emir Muʿizz al-Dawla, used his influence to procure the election of Israel of Kashkar. Already ninety years old, Israel died in September. George stood for election again when the metropolitans gathered in 963, being passed over in favour of ʿAbdishoʿ I, the emir's preferred candidate. George stood down at the next patriarchal election in 987, since the Emir Sharaf al-Dawla, who had just taken Baghdad by force, recommended the bishops elect Mari bar Toba patriarch.
In the 18th century, Giuseppe Simone Assemani assigned the anonymous work known as the Expositio officiorum to George of Erbil. This book, divided into seven sections, describes the offices of the ecclesiastical calendar for a complete year in great detail. Modern scholars do not believe it was written by George and may refer to its author as Pseudo-George. George was the author of a treatise on hereditary law.
