Sayfo; Village of Kafarbe

Village of Kafarbe

About 40 Syriac families lived in this village and had about 80 armed men. Their leaders were Behno Jaqub and Isa Joseph and it was about 4 miles away from Mor Gabriel Monastery.

Kurds from outside the village laid siege to the village and tried to recruit the Kurdish inhabitants of the village to work with them and kill all the Syriac families in the village but the village Kurds refused their offer and the Kurdish clans from outside the village left the village. Then the Syriac families in the village decided to go to Mor Gabriel Monastery for safety and the Kurdish people from the village accompanied them to the monastery. Other Kurdish clans from outside the village planned to attack  the Syriac people near the monastery.  On their way from the monastery after picking grapes from the vineyards, the Syriac people were attacked by the Kurds and a bloody battle started and ended up with fifteen Syriac people being killed but the rest managed to escape. However, the Kurds were also able to rob half their cattle but the Syriac people­ managed to get the other half back into the monastery. They stayed at the monastery until February 1916, when a decree was issued that everyone could return to their village and then the Ottoman government sent an officer with some soldiers to Kfarbe to protect the Syriac people against the Kurdish attacks. However, as the Kurdish clans were planning to attack again and kill all the Syriac people in the village and in the monastery,  they bribed the officer with bags of gold. The officer sent two soldiers to Beth Sbirino to bring the Syriac leader to him with a plan to kill him on the way but the leader refused to come and meet the officer and the two were killed on the way back. 

After certain events, the Salihee clan never attacked the village and the next morning, the Kurds of Kafarbe told the Syriac people in the village about the officer plan and it’s better if they leave the village for their safety. The Syriac people left their village and many moved to Beth Sbirino, others to the village of Beth Rishe. They remained away from Kafarbe for seven years. Then they re­turned to their village.