Simandu (West Syriac diocese)

Simandu was an archdiocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Cappadocia, attested between the tenth and twelfth centuries. Thirteen of its bishops are mentioned in the lists of Michael the Syriac and other Jacobite sources.

Location
Simandu was a district near Melitene, known in Greek as Tzamendos. During the twelfth century it was included in the territories of the Frankish County of Edessa.

Bishops and metropolitans of Simandu
Eleven Jacobite metropolitans of Simandu are mentioned in the lists of Michael the Syrian.

Two twelfth-century bishops of Simandu omitted from the lists of Michael the Syrian are mentioned in the Chronicon Ecclesiasticum of Bar Hebraeus:


 * Yohannan, previously bishop of Segestan, was awarded the diocese of Simandu at the synod of Kaishum in 1129, at the request of the Frankish count Joscelin I of Edessa.
 * Bar Turkaya, bishop of Tel Bshir, was transferred to Simandu in or shortly after 1132, and after a short residence as bishop of Simandu was again transferred to Habora.

The diocese of Simandu seems to have lapsed around the end of the twelfth century, perhaps after the death of the bishop Basil (1139/1166).