Tuer Abdin and Midyat

It was getting dark as we left Hasankeyf heading for the unofficial capital of the Tuer Abdin, Midyat. For centuries this high limestone plateau has functioned as the heartland of the Syrian Orthodox Church, which split with the Greek Orthodox church due to a theological dispute over the “nature” of Christ. They still use the ancient Syriac language in their literature. It is a form of Aramaic, which was the language Jesus spoke and itself a variety of Hebrew. In fact, many of the villagers still use an Aramaic dialect, Turoyo, in their daily lives.

The plateau is scattered with small villages, six of which are wholly Christian and two partly, but the center of religious life is the monastery Mor (St.) Gabriel. It was established in 397 and is still operating as a monastery. Records show that Christianity was preached as early as 120 AD in Tuer Abdin, but it was not until the establishment of Mor Gabriel that the new religion was truly established in the plateau. Then it really took off. Every village established its own monastery, which in turn nurtured a deep religiosity among the people.

The archbishop of Tuer Abdin has his seat in Midyat. Until the early 1990s, there was a vibrant Christian community in Midyat. However, the violence directed against the Christians during the Kurdish war caused many to flee – to the US and France, mostly. Many of the émigrés became quite successful and are now investing heavily in their home communities. It would appear that the out-migration has stemmed – at least for the time being.

It was after dark when we arrived in Midyat – about 5 PM. The bus parked just off a traffic circle in the middle of town. Looking back across the traffic circle you could see windows on two sides of a one-block area glowing. It lit up the whole night. It turns out those were the silver shops. The merchants display their wares in the window and shine bright lights on them. The town is famous for its filigree jewelry. I had seen a demonstration of how this jewelry is made at a museum in Gaziantep. It is amazing what they can make out of what is essentially silver wire.

Martha and Fatma Goecek, the woman who makes everything sold in the store

Frankly, I was overwhelmed with the offerings and decided to visit a textile shop I saw at the end of a passageway from the street. They specialized in items decorated with woodblock prints. The designs were all taken from the stone carvings in the facades of the old houses in the city. If you click on this link you can see some of the designs If you scroll about halfway down, you find a photo of a colleague and I with the woman who does the printing and embroidery sold in the shop. http://www.midyatsanat.com Quite soon after we appeared in the shop, the gentleman who appeared to be the proprietor fetched a young man from a small restaurant next door. He was born and raised in Midyat but now lives in Frankfurt, Germany. His German was amazing. It turns out he had come back to help his brother open up a restaurant in Midyat. He was the one who told us about the significance of the prints. We asked him how to get to the old city to see some of these houses. He then sent us off with his brother, who took us to the most famous of these houses, Konukevi. It sits on a hill above the town, and we found out taker that some Turkish TV show that everyone knew had been shot there. We wended our way through darken streets to get there, but there was an almost full moon that night so it had a mysterious, almost romantic feeling. I’d love to go back and see this little city in the daylight.