Syriac Heritage in Mardin & Midyat

Introduction

The cities of Mardin and Midyat near the Syrian border in Southeast Turkey are the major urban centres in the Syriac Christian heartland, known as Tur Abdin (‘mountain of the servants of God’). Syriacs speak Syriac language, a dialect of Aramaic language closely related to the Jewish Palestinian Aramaic spoken by Jesus Christ. Syriac Christianity is generally defined by the use of Syriac language in its formative theological writings and liturgy.

The amount of Syriacs living in Tur Abdin decreased significantly in the 20th century, first during the Assyrian Genocide after 1914, and then, in the later decades, as a consequence of the waves of emigration to countries such as the United States, Germany and Sweden. The number of Syriacs living in Turkey today is estimated to be between 25,000 and 50,000, most of whom reside in Istanbul. In Tur Abdin, there are just a few thousand of them left.

In November 2018, when I visited Tur Abdin, I met several Assyrians who have moved back from the West, citing a bigger religious tolerance in Turkey in the recent years (something that one is not inclined to believe when one reads the mainstream media) as well as a sense of obligation to better learn and preserve their own culture. This seems to be in correlation with the relatively good condition of the many churches in the region, at least in the bigger cities.

In Tur Abdin, we can find a large number of Syriac churches and monasteries, several dating to as early as the 4th and 5th centuries, and many operating until this day. Most of them are Syriac Orthodox, but a smaller amount of Syriac Catholic, Chaldean Catholic and even Assyrian Protestant churches can be found as well.

Sites

My collection begins with the most important of Syriac Orthodox monasteries in the world: Mor Hananyo and Mor Gabriel. The rest of the list consists of the churches and monasteries in the cities of Mardin and Midyat.

Mor Hananyo Monastery (Deyrulzafaran Monastery) | 5 km southeast of Mardin | 493
Mor Gabriel Monastery | 23 km southeast of Midyat | 397
Mor Mikhayel Monastery | 740. Sokak, south of Mardin | 495
Mor Benham and Mort Saro Church (Church of the Forty Martyrs, Kırklar Church) | between 1. Cadde, 239. Sokak, Karadana (216.) Sokak, and Durum (218.) Sokak, Mardin | 569
Mort Shmuni Church | Gazali (54.) Sokak 8, Mardin | 6th century
Mar Hormizd Church | 1. Cadde, west of Kaya Pasaji, Mardin | 397 or the 6th century
Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary | Cumhuriyet Meydanı, entrance from 239. Sokak, Mardin | 1860
Former Syriac Catholic Patriarchate | Cumhuriyet Meydanı, Mardin Museum | 1895
Mor Ephrem Monastery | at the junction of Çağatay Caddesi & Erdes (241.) Sokak, Mardin | 1884
Mardin Protestant Church | 152. Sokak 16, Mardin | 1860
Mor Aksnoyo Church | 222. Sokak 1-5, Midyat | 4th century
Mor Barsaumo Church | Şen Caddesi 21, Midyat | 5th century
Mor Hobil and Mor Abrohom Monastery | Manastır Caddesi, about a kilometer east of the old town of Midyat | 481
Mor Sharbel Church | 115. Sokak, Midyat | 1955
Bethel Church | 100 m east of the Midyat Guest House | 1912
Unidentified church | 100 m southeast of the Mor Aksnoyo Church, Midyat

Notable omissions include the 9th-century Mort Shmuni Church in Midyat, of which I have no photos, and the 1914 Church of Mor Petrus and Mor Pavlus in Mardin, which I was not able to find. The important early-4th-century Church of Saint Jacob in Nisibis (Mor Yakup Church in Nusaybin) and the numerous churches and monasteries in the old Syriac villages, the most outstanding of them being the Church of Virgin Mary in Hah (Anıtlı), are also missing.

There is very little information available about these buildings, and very often the found information is contradictory. The visible remains of this unique and fragile culture need to be scientifically researched as soon as possible.