Tur Abdin

Coordinates: 37°24′N 41°29′E / 37.400°N 41.483°E / 37.400; 41.483
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Map of Tur Abdin showing Assyrian villages and monasteries. Extant monasteries are indicated by red crosses; abandoned monasteries, by orange ones.
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Tur Abdin (

monasteries on the border of the Roman Empire and the Sasanian Empire. The area is a low plateau in the Anti-Taurus Mountains stretching from Mardin in the west to the Tigris in the east and delimited by the Mesopotamian plains to the south. The Tur Abdin is populated by more than 80 villages and nearly 70 monastery buildings and was mostly Syriac Orthodox until the early 20th century.[3] The earliest surviving Christian buildings date from the 6th century.[3]

The name "Tur Abdin" is

Turoyo.[6][7]

Geography

Settlements

The town of

Kafro, Arkah (Harabale, with Dayro Mor Malke), Beth Sbirino, Miden (Middo), Kerburan, Binkelbe with Mor Samun Zayte and Beth Zabday
(Azech) were all important Syriac Orthodox settlements among with countless other villages. Hah, today called Anıtlı, has the ancient 'Idto d'Yoldath-Aloho, the Church of the Mother of God.

History

Antiquity

Portal of the Mor Gabriel Monastery
Syriac Orthodox Church in Midyat

The Assyrian king Adad-nirari II, who came to throne in the late 10th century BCE, removed the Arameans from political power in the Kashiari mountains (Tur Abdin).[8] In the 9th century BCE the Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II described crossing the plateau of Tur Abdin (which he calls "Kashyari") on his way to attack the region of Nairi, more than once.[9][10] He erected a monument in Matiate, modern-day Midyat in Tur Abdin, which remains to be found.[11] His successor, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III, also crossed Tur Abdin.[12]

Most ancient monuments in Tur Abdin are

Ancient Assyro-Babylonian religion is believed to have survived in the region until as late as the 18th century.[15]

In 586 B.C. the prophet Ezekiel mentions the famed wine of Izlo, on the southern edge of the plateau of Tur Abdin, in his prophecy against Tyre.[citation needed]

The Mor Gabriel Monastery, the oldest Syriac Orthodox church in the world, was founded in 397 by the ascetic Mor Shmu'el (Samuel) and his student Mor Shem'un (Simon). According to tradition, Shem'un had a dream in which an Angel commanded him to build a House of Prayer in a location marked with three large stone blocks. When Shem'un awoke, he took his teacher to the place and found the stone the angel had placed. At this spot Mor Gabriel Monastery was built.[16][citation needed]

In

state church of the Roman Empire and during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, the monasteries of the Tur Abdin enjoyed a particular prosperity under Arab rule in the latter 7th century.[17]

The fortress of Rhabdion was mentioned by the 6th-century Greek historian Procopius, while the 6th-century Notitia Antiochena and the work of the 7th-century Greek geographer George of Cyprus both attest that Turabdium was an episcopal see.[3] The bishop of Turabdium's seat was probably the village of Hah, in which were, besides the functioning 6th-century monastery, several ruined churches including the cathedral.[3] The Tur Abdin became part of the Rashidun Caliphate in 640, during the Muslim conquest of the Levant.[3] The Syriac Orthodox communities flourished under early Islamic rule; nearly 30 structures are known to have been wholly built or rebuilt in the following 150 years, during which most of the villages' churches were built.[3]

After the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, the Syriac Orthodox Church split from the Greek-speaking Byzantine mainstream. They were then "severely persecuted as heretical

William Dalrymple, which led the Syrian Orthodox Church hierarchy to retreat to the "inaccessible shelter of the barren hills of the Tur Abdin."[18]

Modern

Gaunt has estimated the Assyrian population at between 500,000 and 600,000 just before the outbreak of World War I, significantly higher than reported on Ottoman census figures.

Adiyaman[22] as well as villages. Unlike the Syriac population of Tur Abdin, many of these Syriacs spoke other languages.[23]

View of the Syriac Christian quarter in Midyat

During

Kurds, and Kurdish resistance, many Assyrians/Syriacs have fled the region or been killed. Today there are only 5,000, a quarter of the Christian population thirty years ago. Most have fled to Syria (where the city of Qamishli was built by them), Europe (particularly Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands), Australia and the United States. In the past few years, a few families have returned to Tur Abdin.[24]

Due to migration, the Syriacs' main residential area in Turkey today is Istanbul, where between 12,000 to 18,000 lives there.[25] As of 2019, an estimated between 2,000 to 3,000 of the country's 25,000 Assyrians live in Tur Abdin,[25] and they are spread among 30 villages, hamlets, and towns.[25] Some of these locations are dominated by Syriacs while others are dominated by the Kurds.[25] As part of a return movement, some Syriac Orthodox Christians returned to Tur Abdin villages from Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.[26][27][25]

Christian resistance in Tur Abdin during WW1

Main articles: Defence of Iwardo and Defense of Azakh

The Syriacs of

Azakh, Iwardo, and Basibrin. For months, Kurdish tribes and Turkish soldiers commanded by Ömer Naci Bey were unable to subdue the mostly Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic villagers who were joined by Armenian and other refugees from surrounding villages. The leaders of the Azakh fedayeen swore

We all have to die sometime, do not die in shame and humiliation

and lived up to their fighting words.[28][29]

Recent conflicts

On 10 February 2006 and the following day, large demonstrations took place in the city of

Muslims angry about the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons gathered in Estel, the new part of the city, and started to march towards the old part of Midyat (6 kilometers away), where the Assyrians/Syriacs live. The mob was stopped by the police before reaching old Midyat
.

In 2008 a series of legal challenges were made against the monastery of Mor Gabriel. Some local Kurdish villages sought to claim land on which the monastery had paid taxes since the 1930s as belonging to the villages, and made other accusations against the monastery. This led to considerable diplomatic and human rights action throughout Europe and within Turkey.[30]

Monasteries

Mor Hananyo Monastery, or The Saffron Monastery in English
Mor Gabriel Monastery
Mor Yakup Monastery in Saleh, Tur Abdin

The most important Syriac Orthodox centre in Tur Abdin is the monastery of

Syriac Orthodox Patriarch from 1160 to 1932. Although the patriarch now lives in Damascus
the monastery still contains the patriarchal throne and tombs of seven patriarchs and metropolitans. Today the monastery is led by a bishop and a monk and some lay assistants, and is a school for orphans. The bishop of Mor Hananyo is also the patriarchal vicar of Mardin. His goal is to rebuild the monastery and to preserve the history of the Syriac Orthodox church. The Dayro d-Mor Hananyo is part of the UNESCO world cultural heritage and was visited by numerous celebrities e.g. like Prince Charles.

In the centre of the Tur Abdin region, a few miles south of

Syriac Orthodox monastery on earth. It is the residence of the Metropolitan Bishop of Tur Abdin, seven nuns, four monks and a host of guests, assistants and students. The monastery is charged with keeping the flame of Syriac Orthodox faith alive in Tur Abdin, for which it is as much a fortress as a church.[31]

The Saffron and Mor Gabriel monasteries are the most important of the region, existing along with six or seven other active monasteries:

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ^ Aras, Ramazan (2020). The Wall: The Making and Unmaking of the Turkish-Syrian Border. Springer Nature. p. 16.
  2. ^ Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Ṭur ʿAbdin — ܛܘܪܥܒܕܝܢ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified December 9, 2016, http://syriaca.org/place/221.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8
    , retrieved 2020-11-28
  4. ISBN 9781444320022
    .
  5. ISBN 978-1-59333-715-5
    .
  6. ^ The Middle East, abstracts and index, Part 1. Library Information and Research Service. Northumberland Press, 2002. Page 491.
  7. ^ Central Asia and the Caucasus: transnationalism and diaspora. Touraj Atabaki, Sanjyot Mehendale. Routledge, 2005. Page 228.
  8. ISBN 9780140125238
    .
  9. ^ From Kibaki I set out and approached Matiate (Midyat). Matiate and its villages I overcame . . . For six days in the midst of the mighty mountain of Kashyari (Tur Abdin) - a difficult country . . . I worked that mountain with iron axes . . . Then I caused my chariots . . . to pass over it . . . I passed mount Kashyari and came a second time to the lands of Nairi.
  10. ^ Radner (2006), pp. 287–299.
  11. ^ Radner (2006), pp. 299.
  12. ^ Radner (2006), pp. 288.
  13. ^ Palmer (1990), pp. 28–29.
  14. ^ Palmer (1990), pp. 29–30.
  15. ^ Parpola 2004, p. 21.
  16. ^ "turabdin.info". ww38.turabdin.info. Archived from the original on Apr 19, 2015. Retrieved Jan 30, 2023.
  17. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
    , retrieved 2020-12-15
  18. OCLC 43137270.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  19. ^ a b Gaunt 2015, p. 87.
  20. ^ Üngör 2011, p. 13.
  21. ^ Üngör 2011, p. 15.
  22. ^ Gaunt et al. 2017, p. 19.
  23. ^ Gaunt 2020, p. 57.
  24. ^ "Assyrians who fled to Europe return to homes in Turkey's Mardin". Daily Sabah. 13 July 2017.
  25. ^
    ISBN 9781137270269
    .
  26. ^ Çaglar (2013), p. 122
  27. ^ Güsten (2016), p. 11
  28. ISBN 9780674916456
    .
  29. ISBN 978-1-59333-301-0
    .
  30. ^ "The Case of the St. Gabriel Assyrian Monastery in Midyat, Turkey". www.aina.org. Retrieved Jan 30, 2023.
  31. ^ Delcogliano, Mark. "Syriac Monasticism in Tur Abdin: A Present-Day Account". Academia.edu.
  32. ^ "Kirche unterwegs – Reiseblogs aus der Evangelischen Kirche von Westfalen".
  33. ^ "Tur Abdin". Archived from the original on 2016-08-05. Retrieved 2016-06-12.
  34. ^ "Aina website". Archived from the original on 2016-04-22. Retrieved 2016-08-24.

Sources

External links

Media related to Tur Abdin at Wikimedia Commons

37°24′N 41°29′E / 37.400°N 41.483°E / 37.400; 41.483

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