Tur Abdin

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View from Tur Abdin to the southwest over the Mesopotamian plain

The limestone mountains Ṭūr ʿAbdīn ( Aramaic ܛܘܪ ܥܒܕܝܢ'Mountain of Servants [of God]') is located in northern Mesopotamia on the upper reaches of the Tigris in southeastern Turkey .

location

In the south, near Mardin , the mountain range drops steeply to the Mesopotamian plain. The Tigris breakthrough forms the eastern border, and in the north the Tur Abdin borders the Diyarbakır plain . The western border is poorly defined and is roughly formed by the Karacadağ volcanic massif .

The Tur Abdin is mostly hilly rather than an actual mountain range and looks more like a plateau. The steep drop at Mardin is an exception. It is crossed by several fertile valleys, such as the Gercüş valley . The mountains used to be densely forested. Soils containing karst form the predominant nature of the soil. They ensure that the heavy rainfall that occurs in winter and spring seeps through and that the soil has to be artificially irrigated in a dry place in summer.

Surname

The Akkadian name of Tur Abdin was probably Nawar . In Assyrian times it was called Ka (š) šiari ( KUR ka-ši-a-ri, ḪUR.SAG ka-ši-ya-ra, ḪUR.SAG ga-ši-ya-ar-ri) and formed its own province . Attempts to trace the name back to the Kaška tribe are generally rejected. The name Kaschiari also seems to have included the area west of the actual mountains, i.e. the area of Harran , at least at the time of Adad-nirari II. The area around Mardin was also called Iṣalla , but the term probably mainly referred to the Karaça Dağ. Under Assurnasirpal, part of the mountain range was known as KUR Nerebu, but its exact location is disputed.

The Greek name was Masios oros ( Strabo , Geographika 16,1,23), some suspect a derivation from the Aramaic Masch . A derivation from the Akkadian / Sumerian Mush / Mash ("snake") is more likely . In the creation myth Enūma eliš , Assyrians and Babylonians viewed the mountains between Zagros and Taurus as a manifestation of Tiamat , who was slain and split in revolt against the gods of Marduk, after which he threw her body on the ground. This is how the mountains were created. Presumably, all mountains were originally named that way before they gradually got new names. The area belonged to Mygdonia . Strabo lists the following cities that were at the foot of the Masios: Tigranocerta , Carrhae , Nikephorum , Chordiraza and Sinnaka . The area around Mardin was also called Izalla in Roman and Byzantine times , probably derived from the Assyrian landscape of Iṣalla, the center of which, however, was further to the west.

history

Akkadians, Assyrians and Persians

Presumably the Akkadian ruler Naram-Sin already crossed the mountains. It is also believed that the ancient Assyrian trade routes to Anatolia led through the mountains.

The earliest mention of Tur Abdin can be found in a cuneiform document from Boğazköy , which deals with the loss of a silver vessel ( a-ga-nu KÙ.Babbar ) in the Kaschiari Mountains. The treaty between the Hittite great king Šuppiluliuma I and Tette von Nuḫašše mentions the mountains (KBo I 4). As residents of Tur Abdin since the 14th century BC The Arameans mentioned (Assyrian cuneiform texts). The mountains were first conquered by Adad-nirari I and Salmānu-ašarēd I. The mountains were of military importance for the Assyrians, as their control ensured access to the copper deposits of Ergani and the fertile plain of Diyarbakır .

Campaign reports by Tukulti-Ninurta I , Tiglat-Pilešar I , Aššur-bel-kala , Tukulti-Ninurta II , Adad-nirari II , Aššurnâṣirpal II and Salmānu-ašarēd II mention a transgression. Information on the exact route is usually missing. Tiglat-Pilesar I. reports from his 3rd palu : “I prayed to Assyria and the great gods, my lords. I climbed Mount Kašiari. " Aššurnâṣirpal I describes on side D of the white obelisk how he punishes a revolt:" I raised a torch, I marched quickly into the Kašiari Mountains and marched against those cities. During the night I surrounded them and at sunrise I fought numerous chariots and foot troops, inflicting heavy losses on them… I captured the city of Amlattu , the city of Saburam , the city of Ruzidak , the city of Bugu , the city of Ustu , rebellious cities in the land of the Dannuna , I lit it ... "

In the time of Aššurbānipal there was viticulture in Tur Abdin, wine was part of the tribute to Assyria and was still grown here in the 19th century.

In the 6th century BC The Tur Abdin fell together with the rest of Mesopotamia to the Persian Achaemenids , who had previously defeated the Medes and the New Babylonian Empire . They controlled the area until Alexander the Great took over their empire in 330 BC. Chr. Conquered. Then the Macedonian Seleucids ruled the region.

Roman Empire and Byzantium

Since the 2nd century BC Northern Mesopotamia was under the direct or indirect rule of the Iranian Parthians , who repeatedly waged wars against the Romans, who gained increasing influence here in the course of the 2nd century AD. Ever since Emperor Septimius Severus the Tur Abdin belonged as part of the Roman province of Mesopotamia to the Roman Empire .

In the Tur Abdin

According to later traditions, the inhabitants of Tur Abdin are said to have been converted to Christianity by the apostles Thomas and Thaddäus as early as the 1st century . However, Christianity can only be clearly demonstrated here in late antiquity . The area owes its current name to the numerous monasteries and churches founded at that time.

From the 4th to the 7th centuries, the Tur Abdin formed the border between Eastern Stream and the Persian Empire of the Sassanids , the successors of the Parthians; the mountains formed a kind of outpost of the Eastern Roman Empire. While the conquest by the Arabs after 640 initially meant the end of persecution by the Eastern Roman-Byzantine imperial church , the situation of the Aramaic Christians worsened after the victory of the Seljuks in the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The Tur Abdin became massive by Timur Lenk around 1400 looted, many monasteries and settlements were destroyed.

Modern times

The Tur Abdin belonged to the Ottoman Empire since the late Middle Ages. Especially in the 19th and 20th centuries there were massacres of Arameans by the Ottoman-Turkish army and Kurdish gangs, intensified in the year of the sword in 1915, when many Aramaic villages were depopulated through expulsion and murder of the inhabitants.

Nevertheless, numerous Aramaic Christians were still living in Tur Abdin around 1970 . During the last decades, however, there has been a massive exodus of Christians to Syria , Lebanon , Iraq , North America , Australia and especially Europe (Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland). Today, only about 4,000 Syrian Orthodox , i.e. Aramaic Christians live in Tur Abdin , many of whom belong to the social elite and work, for example, as silversmiths and doctors. Brothers in faith who have emigrated now support those who stayed at home financially, so that many churches and monasteries have been extensively restored in recent years.

present

The Arameans in Tur Abdin use the classical Syriac high-level language as the church language in worship, but speak a north- east Aramaic dialect called Turoyo (mountain language) as their mother tongue . Because most of the speakers have been expelled from the Tur Abdin region and modern Aramaic has a very low status in the countries of the Christian-Aramaic diaspora , which is why not all descendants of the emigrants teach the language to their children, and because Ṭuroyo, in contrast to the sacred language, is a language without writing and can therefore hardly be taught at school, its continued existence is threatened. The name of today's Arameans, "Syrians" (Syroi, Suryoye , Suryaye), comes from the time of Hellenism , when the Seleucids controlled the area, whose center of power was Syria .

The majority of the population in Tur Abdin is now made up of Kurds, plus Arabs and Turks. The following places are still (partially or fully) inhabited by Syrian Orthodox Christians:

Monasteries and places in Tur Abdin

Churches

Mor Hananyo Monastery

One of the oldest monasteries still in existence today is Mor Gabriel , founded in the late 4th century, and the Zafaran (Mor Hananyo) monastery from the 5th century, which was also the seat of the patriarch and counter-patriarch of the Jacobites for centuries . Both monasteries are still the bishopric of the Syrian Orthodox Church: Mor Timotheos Samuel Aktaş , the Metropolitan of the Syrian Orthodox Diocese of Tur Abdin, resides in Mor Gabriel Monastery, and Mor Filüksinos Saliba Özmen, the Bishop of Mardin, resides in Mor Hananyo . Other monasteries still in use are Mor Malke and the Mother of God Monastery in Hah. The Jacob Monastery (Mor Yakob) in Salah, which was the seat of the opposing patriarch in Tur Abdin from 1364 to 1839, is also important.

The Mother of God Church in Hah

The bishopric of the first diocese of Tur Abdin was Hah , at that time the metropolis of Tur Abdin and allegedly also an old royal city. This is where the small but famous Mother of God Church is located, which, according to pious legends, was built by the three kings and is therefore considered the oldest church in the world by the Christians of the region (the building actually comes from the Late antiquity ).

In spite of all the massacres and destruction, some valuable manuscripts have been preserved, which were created in the monasteries of Tur Abdin and are now partly in Western and Central European libraries. The Mar Gabriel Association in Reinbek and the Christian Orient Initiative (ICO) strive to preserve the last Christian villages and monasteries in what is now Turkey.

See also

literature

  • Helga Anschütz : The Syrian Christians from TurʿAbdin. An early Christian population group between persistence, stagnation and dissolution (= The Eastern Christianity. NF. Volume 34). Augustinus-Verlag, Würzburg 1984, ISBN 3-7613-0128-6 .
  • Sébastien de Courtois: The forgotten Genocide. Eastern Christians. Gorgias Press, Piscataway NJ 2004, ISBN 1-59333-077-4 .
  • Sébastien de Courtois: Les derniers Araméens. Le peuple oublié de Jésus. Photographies de Douchan Novakovic. La Table ronde, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-7103-2717-1 .
  • Louis Dillemann: Haute Mésopotamie orientale et pays adjacents. Contribution à la geographie historique de la région, du Ve s. avant l'ère chrétienne au VIe s. de cette ére ( Bibliothèque Archéologique et Historique. Volume 72). Geuthner, Paris 1962, ISSN  0768-2506 .
  • Hans Hollerweger: Living cultural heritage, living cultural heritage, canlı kältür mirası - Turabdin. Where the language of Jesus is spoken. Friends of Tur Abdin, Linz 1999, ISBN 3-9501039-0-2 .
  • Karlheinz Kessler: Investigations into the historical topography of northern Mesopotamia based on cuneiform sources from the 1st millennium BC Chr. (= Supplements to the Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East. Series B Geisteswissenschaften. Volume 26). Reichert in Komm., Wiesbaden 1980, ISBN 3-88226-023-8 (also dissertation, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 1978).
  • Andrew Palmer: Monk and Mason on the Tigris Frontier. The Early History of Ṭur ʿAbdin (= University of Cambridge Oriental Publications. Volume 39). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge u. a. 1990, ISBN 0-521-36026-9 .

Web links

Commons : Tur Abdin  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Einar von Schuler : The Kaškäer. de Gruyter, Berlin 1965.
  2. ^ Karlheinz Kessler : Investigations into the historical topography of northern Mesopotamia. P. 23.
  3. ^ New Palace Inscription 1, ITN, no. 1, iii 37 – iv 24.
  4. ↑ Julian E. Reade: Assurnasirpal I and the White Obelisk. Iraq 37, 1975, pp. 129-150.
  5. ^ Karlheinz Kessler: Investigations into the historical topography of northern Mesopotamia. P. 24.
  6. ^ Assyrian Christians fear for their future in Turkey. June 5, 2020, accessed June 6, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Otto Jastrow : How can the modern Aramaic language (Turoyo) survive in Europe? In: Josef Bunyemen, Michel Yüksel, Simon Marogi (eds.): Kifå . No. 5 (December 2008 / January 2009), pp. 10-15 .
  8. ↑ Mor Filüksinos Saliba Özmen , accessed on September 28, 2019.

Coordinates: 37 ° 24 '  N , 41 ° 30'  E