BAR-SALIBI, JACOB or DIONYSIUS, the and most voluminous writer in the Syrian Jacobite church of the 12th century. (Jacob was his baptismal name; Dionysius he assumed when consecrated to the bishopric.) Like Bar-Hebraeus, he was a native of Malatia on the Upper Euphrates. In 1154 he was created bishop of Mar`ash by the patriarch Athanasius VIII.; a year later the diocese of Mabbog was added to his charge. In 1166 Michael I., the successor of Athanasius, transferred him to the metropolitan see of Amid in Mesopotamia, and there he remained till his death in 117r. A long account of his writings, with copious extracts from some of them, has been given by Assemani (Bibl. Orient. ii. pp. 156-211) ; see also W. Wright (Syriac Literature, pp. 246-5o). His commentaries on the Gospels were used by Dudley Loftus in the 17th century.