Shemʿon of Rev Ardashir, also anglicizedSimeon of Rewardashir, was the metropolitan bishop of Fars and a notable jurist of the Church of the East. His dates are uncertain. A metropolitan named Shemʿon, possibly but not certainly the same person as the jurist, was the recipient of two letters from the Catholicos Ishoʿyahb III. The metropolitan refused to recognize the authority of the catholicos, specifically the requirement that he and his suffragan bishops receive "perfection" from the catholicos. There were at that time twentybishops under Shemʿon who had not been perfected, as well as Shemʿon himself and his predecessor. After Ishoʿyahb paid a visit to Rev Ardashir, Shemʿon recognized his authority. Ishoʿyahb also wrote to Shemʿon with his concerns for the faith in Beth Qatraye, where the bishops had submitted to the Islamic authorities, and Beth Mazunaye, where Christians were converting to Islam to escape the jizya. Both provinces were under Shemʿon's jurisdiction. Ishoʿyahb also accused Shemʿon of refusing to appoint a bishop of Kalnah because the Indian Christians had offended him. Shemʿon wrote a treatise, the Law of Inheritance, on hereditary law and family law in Middle Persian. It is written in the form of questions and answers in 22 chapters. In his discussion of the principles of canon law, Shemʿon gives priority to the Church Fathers. His book was treated as authoritative by later generations and became an important source for the Synodicon Orientale. The Persian version is lost, but a Syriac translation survives, made by an anonymous monk of Beth Qatraye at the request of a priest named Shemʿon. This may be a contemporary translation. The monk notes that the work was difficult to translate. He calls the author a "priest and teacher" as well as metropolitan of Fars. A copy is found in the manuscript Alqosh Syr. 169, where it comes before the treatise of Ishoʿbokht. There is some dispute over which of these treatises was written first.
