Mar Behnam Monastery

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Saint Behnam Monastery
Entrance to the monastery

Entrance to the monastery

Construction year: oldest documented building structure 1164
Location: 36 ° 8 '16 "  N , 43 ° 24' 23"  E Coordinates: 36 ° 8 '16 "  N , 43 ° 24' 23"  E
Location: Baghdida
Ninawa , Iraq
Purpose: Syrian Catholic Monastery

The monastery of the martyr St. Behnam and his sister Sarah ( Aramaic ܕܝܪܐ ܪܡܪܝ ܒܗܢܡ ܘܡܪܬ ܣܪܐ, Arabic دير مار بهنام) is a Syrian-Catholic monastery from the 12th century near the village of Chidr-Elias near Baghdida , 36 kilometers southeast of Mosul in northern Iraq . It consists of a walled area with the church and a mausoleum outside. The monastery, also known as Chidr-Elias among the local population, was occupied by Islamists in 2014-2017, who severely damaged the monastery and blew up the mausoleum on March 19, 2015. It was rebuilt by December 2018.

Legend

According to legend, the monastery was founded in the 4th century by an Assyrian king named Sinharib (also: Sanharib ). According to legend, the king had his son Behnam and daughter Sarah murdered after they had professed to Christianity , converted by Mattai , a hermit , faith healer and later namesake of a monastery . As a penance for his deed, the king had the monastery built.

The first written source of the legend of the martyr Behnam can be found in a Syriac Orthodox manuscript from the early 13th century. The data handed down based on this are viewed as anachronistic . For example, the mentioned King Sinharib, Sîn-aḫḫe-eriba , can be assigned to the 8th century BC.

Building system

Plan of the monastery without a mausoleum by Conrad Preusser, 1911
The Behnam mausoleum, venerated as the Chidr sanctuary, around 1911.

The monastery complex, laid out on an oval hill, consists of several buildings with the monastery church and the octagonal mausoleum of Saint Behnams as main buildings. High monastery walls give the complex a fortress-like impression. While the monastery church is inside the walls, the mausoleum was outside, about 60 meters from the church in a depression. It enclosed the alleged tomb of Behnam, which was covered by an elaborately decorated stone slab.

The Behnam mausoleum is considered a shrine to al-Chidr by the Muslim population of the surrounding village . Above the door of the mausoleum there was a Uighur inscription from around 1300 AD, in which the blessing of Chidr-Elias is invoked on the Ilkhan ruler, his court and his wives.

history

The founding of the monastery and the building cannot be dated precisely. Since the 10th century, many churches had been named after the martyr Saint Behnam. The oldest documented building structure of the monastery complex, the choir of the church, dates back to 1164. It is assumed that a pilgrims' hospice may have already existed on the site, set up by a Persian believer mentioned in the legend.

Building inscriptions in Syrian , Arabic , Aramaic and Uighur languages ​​refer to the activities of builders and patrons. A Syrian inscription, which is placed inside the monastery church, tells of the sacking of the monastery by the troops of the Ilkhan Baidu and the subsequent reparation by the ruler. A. Harrak and N. Riju suspect that the Uighur inscription with the blessings for the Ilkhan and his court comes from this time, i.e. from 1295, and that the building complex was also rebuilt at that time. The Archeology holds the mausoleum for older than the church, but they can not make a more accurate dating.

The monks of the monastery made contact with the Roman Catholic Church in the 18th century , which led to the gradual conversion of the residents of Baghdida to the Syrian Catholic Church united with Rome . Between 1767 and 1839 the monastery came under the supervision of the Syrian Catholic Church, under which it remained until the occupation in 2014. Recently it was no longer populated by monks, at least for a time . At the time of the occupation in 2014, three monks lived in the monastery, along with some families living there.

According to press reports, representatives of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant seized the monastery in July 2014 and evicted the people living there. In the period that followed, crosses on and in the monastery were removed and manuscripts were burned. According to local news on social media, the mausoleum was blown up by the terrorist organization Islamic State on March 19, 2015.

After the end of the occupation by ISIS (2017), the mausoleum and the monastery were rebuilt until December 2018 with donations from the French organization Fraternité en Irak, which was founded in 2011 . The manuscript collection of the monastery was brought to safety before the occupation and is now in Ankawa .

literature

  • Amir Harrak and Niu Ruji: “The Uighur Inscription at the Mausoleum of Mar Behnam, Iraq,” in Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 4 (2004) 66-72.
  • Mirko Novák / Helen Younansardaroud: Mar Behnam, son of Sennacherib of Nimrod. Tradition and reception of an Assyrian figure in Iranian Christianity and the question of the survival of the Assyrians . In: Altorientalische Forschungen 29/1 (2002), 166–194.
  • Ethel Sara Wolper: Khidr and the Politics of Translation in Mosul. Mar Behnam, St George and Khidr Ilyas . In: Mohammed Garipour (ed.): Sacred Precincts. The Religious Architecture of Non-muslim Communities Across the Islamic World . Leiden 2015; Pp. 379–392 in Google Book Search
  • Helen Younansardaroud: The Legend of Mar Behnam . In: Martin Tamcke (Ed.): Syriaca . Hamburg 2002; Pp. 185–195 in Google Book Search

Web links

Commons : Mar Behnam Monastery  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karen Radner: Ancient Assyria. A very short introduction . Oxford University Press 2015; P. 7
  2. Ethel Sara Wolper: Khidr and the Politics of Translation in Mosul. Mar Behnam, St George and Khidr Ilyas . In: Mohammed Garipour (ed.): Sacred Precincts. The Religious Architecture of Non-muslim Communities Across the Islamic World . Leiden 2015; 385 in Google Book Search
  3. Helen Younansardaroud: The Legend of Mar Behnam . In: Martin Tamcke (Ed.): Syriaca . Hamburg 2002; Pp. 185–195 in Google Book Search
  4. Ethel Sara Wolper: Khidr and the Politics of Translation in Mosul. Mar Behnam, St George and Khidr Ilyas. In: Mohammed Garipour (ed.): Sacred Precincts. The Religious Architecture of Non-muslim Communities Across the Islamic World. Leiden 2015; Pp. 379–392 here p. 381
  5. ^ Bas Snelders: Identity and Christian-Muslim interaction: medieval art of the Syrian orthodox from the Mosul area . Peeters, Löwen, 2010. pp. 97, 570.
  6. Helen Younansardaroud: The Legend of Mar Behnam . In: Martin Tamcke (Ed.): Syriaca . Hamburg 2002; P. 194
  7. Ethel Sara Wolper: Khidr and the Politics of Translation in Mosul. Mar Behnam, St George and Khidr Ilyas . In: Mohammed Garipour (ed.): Sacred Precincts. The Religious Architecture of Non-muslim Communities Across the Islamic World . Leiden 2015; P. 384 in Google Book search
  8. Harrak / Ruji: The Uighur Inscription at the Mausoleum of Mar Behnam . 2004, p. 69.
  9. Wolper: Khidr and the Politics of Translation in Mosul. 2015, p. 381.
  10. Wolfgang Hage: The oriental Christianity. (Religions of Mankind) Munich: Kohlhammer 2007 ISBN 9783170176683 , p. 411 with additional references
  11. ^ The Monastery of Mar Behnam profaned by the militiamen of the Islamic State , message from the Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies from October 15, 2014, accessed on March 21, 2015
  12. Isis militants 'seize Iraq monastery and expel monks'. BBC News Online, July 21, 2014, accessed July 21, 2014 .
  13. Iraq: Syrian Mar Bahnam Monastery captured . ead.de, July 21, 2014, accessed on March 21, 2015
  14. ^ The Monastery of Mar Behnam profaned by the militiamen of the Islamic State , message from the Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies from October 15, 2014, accessed on March 21, 2015
  15. ^ Isis militants blow up 4th-century Christian Mar Behnam monastery in Iraq. The Independent, March 20, 2015, accessed March 21, 2015 .
  16. ^ Les travaux à Mar Behnam bientôt terminés. Fraternity in Iraq, December 7, 2018.
  17. ^ The Revival of Mar Behnam Monastery. Mosul Eye, July 20, 2019.