NISIBIS (NUSAYBIN), SCHOOL OF. — A city in the Mesopotamian plain, it was the seat, around the mid-4th century, of a school where St. Ephrem also taught. Edessa (v.), taking the title "School of the Persians," when these occupied N. in 363. At the school in Edessa, after the Council of Ephesus (431) and under the direction of Hibā, later the local bishop, a marked tendency toward Nestorianism developed. Narsai was appointed head of the school in Edessa in 437 and remained there for 20 years. Expelled because of his Nestorianism, he returned to Persia. However, while passing through N., he was invited by the local bishop Barṣawmâ to reestablish the ancient school there. Soon almost all of Narsai’s former Edessene disciples flocked to N. The school at N. became of great importance as the most vital center of Nestorianism, from which it spread throughout Persia. Among its notable disciples were Mār Ābā, Abraham of Kaškar, ʿIšoʿjahb I, and Sabrišoʿ. During the time of Mār Ābā, the school had 800 students.
The *Statutes* of the Nisibene school have been preserved (ed. I. Guidi, in *Giorn. della Soc. asiat. italiana*, 4 [1890], pp. 165-95; cf. J.-B. Chabot in *Journal de la Soc. asiatique*, 8 [1896], p. 43). From them, it appears that the school closely resembled modern "seminaries." There was a common life under the headmaster (*rabbān*). Two teachers were appointed, one as interpreter and the other as "lecturer." The interpreter expounded the works of Theodore of Mopsuestia. Studies lasted three years. The school enjoyed a certain exemption from the bishop regarding internal discipline.