Beth Huzaye () or ʿIlam was an East Syriac metropolitan province of the Church of the East, between the fifth and fourteenth centuries. The metropolitan bishops of Beth Huzaye sat at Beth Lapat (Jundishapur). The metropolitan province of Beth Huzaye had a number of suffragan dioceses at different periods in its history, including Karka d'Ledan, Hormizd Ardashir, Shushter, Susa, Ispahan, Mihraganqadaq and Ram Hormizd. The diocese of Shahpur Khwast may also have been a suffragan diocese of the province of Beth Huzaye.
The names Beth Huzaye and ʿIlam refer to Khuzestan and Elam, respectively.
Background
The bishop of Beth Lapat was recognised as metropolitan of Beth Huzaye in Canon XXI of the synod of Isaac in 410. The metropolitan of Beth Huzaye ranked above the metropolitans of the other four metropolitan provinces established in 410 (Nisibis, Maishan, Adiabene and Beth Garmaï), and was responsible for the suffragan dioceses of Karka d'Ledan, Hormizd Ardashir, Shushter and Susa.
Ecclesiastical history
The metropolitan of Beth Huzaye (Ilam or Elam), who resided in the town of Beth Lapat (Veh az Andiokh Shapur), enjoyed the right of consecrating a new patriarch. In 410 it was not possible to appoint a metropolitan for Beth Huzaye, as several bishops of Beth Lapat were competing for precedence and the synod declined to choose between them. Instead, it merely laid down that once it became possible to appoint a metropolitan, he would have jurisdiction over the dioceses of Karka d'Ledan, Hormizd Ardashir, Shushter and Susa. These dioceses were all founded at least a century earlier, and their bishops were present at most of the synods of the fifth and sixth centuries. A bishop of Ispahan was present at the synod of Dadisho in 424, and by 576 there were also dioceses for Mihraganqadaq (probably the 'Beth Mihraqaye' included in the title of the diocese of Ispahan in 497) and Ram Hormizd (Ramiz).
Only four of these seven dioceses were still in existence at the end of the ninth century. The diocese of Ram Hormizd seems to have lapsed, and the dioceses of Karka d'Ledan and Mihrganqadaq had been combined with the dioceses of Susa and Ispahan respectively. In 893 Eliya of Damascus listed four suffragan dioceses in the 'eparchy of Jundishapur', in the following order: Karkh Ladan and al-Sus (Susa and Karka d'Ledan), al-Ahwaz (Hormizd Ardashir), Tesr (Shushter) and Mihrganqadaq (Ispahan and Mihraganqadaq). Shahpur Khwast may also have briefly been a diocese in the province of Beth Huzaye. It is doubtful whether any of these dioceses survived into the fourteenth century. The diocese of Shushter is last mentioned in 1007/8, Hormizd Ardashir in 1012, Ispahan in 1111 and Susa in 1281. Only the metropolitan diocese of Jundishapur certainly survived into the fourteenth century, and with additional prestige. Ilam had for centuries ranked first among the metropolitan provinces of the Church of the East, and its metropolitan enjoyed the privilege of consecrating a new patriarch and sitting on his right hand at synods. By 1222, in consequence of the demise of the diocese of Kashkar in the province of the patriarch, he had also acquired the privilege of guarding the vacant patriarchal throne.
The diocese of Beth Lapat (Jundishapur) The bishop Gadyahb (or Gadhimhab) of Beth Lapat was one of several East Syriac bishops who opposed the claim to precedence put forward by the bishop Papa of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 315.
In 410 there were several rival bishops of Beth Lapat, and Canon XXI of the synod of Isaac merely recorded that 'for the metropolis of Beth Lapat there is not yet a bishop whose name we can inscribe among his fellow-metropolitans, since the town has two or three bishops not recognised by the synod'. The bishops Yazdaidad, Agapit, Miles, Bar Shabtha, Mari and Shila were among the thirty-eight signatories of the synod's acts, and from their position in the list were probably the bishops concerned.
The bishop Agapit of Beth Lapat was among the signatories of the acts of the synods of Yahballaha I in 420 and Dadisho in 424.
The bishop Papa, 'bishop of Beth Lapat, metropolitan of Beth Huzaye', was among the signatories of the acts of the synod of Acacius in 486.
The deacon Pusaï was among the signatories of the acts of the synod of Babaï in 497, on behalf of the metropolitan Marwaï of Beth Huzaye.
The metropolitan Paul of Beth Huzaye, who had earlier been bishop of Hormizd Ardashir, was elected patriarch in 539.
The metropolitan Paul of Beth Huzaye was among the bishops who rallied to the patriarch Aba I in 540 and signed his Pragmatic.