Sayfo; Monastery of Mor Hobel and Mor Abraham

Monastery of Mor Hobel and Mor Abraham

The Monastery of Mor Hobel, recorded as Mor Habil, Abel, or the Stylite, is situated near Midyat and is identified in Turkish records as Mor Abrohom Kilisesi. Mor Hobel was a fifth-century stylite educated at the Monastery of Mor Gabriel (Qartmin).

The region faced increasing pressure from local Kurdish authorities and Ottoman administrative changes throughout the centuries, yet the spiritual and educational functions of these monasteries remained a focal point for the Syriac Orthodox community in Midyat. The Bedir Khan massacres between 1842 and 1846 brought direct violence to the settlement. In 1842, Badr Khan, the lord of the Jazira, led an attack on Midyat, breaching its defensive walls and taking the city's notables captive. This period of conflict involved widespread looting and the displacement of Syriac Christian families who relied on the local monasteries for physical sanctuary. After the end of the Bedir Khan campaigns, the monasteries continued to operate as centers of learning for the local population. A survey report from the late nineteenth century identifies Monk Khalaf as the resident superior, overseeing four pupils at the joint Monastery of Mor Habil and Mor Abrohom. This indicates a significant reduction in the population of clergy compared to the fifteenth century.

The Hamidian massacres from 1895 to 1897 targeted the Christian quarters of Midyat and its religious institutions. In 1895, thousands of Syriac Orthodox Christians were killed in the city and surrounding villages, and ecclesiastical properties were looted by Kurdish tribal forces and irregulars. Many families fled the initial carnage by taking refuge within the fortified monastic walls of the Monastery of Mor Habil and Mor Abrohom and other monasteries.

The Sayfo genocide between 1915 and 1924 resulted in extreme atrocities at these locations. In 1915, Midyat Christians used underground tunnels to reach the Mor Abrohom monastery to escape Kurdish and Ottoman units. Kurdish perpetrators surrounded the monastery, mocking the religious residents and forcing them to surrender. Some monks were crucified and killed in a manner intended to desecrate their faith. In the autumn of 1917, Kurdish forces of the Azzam clan, led by a commander named Shandi, attacked the monastery and massacred approximately seventy refugees from the village of Kafarbe who had sought asylum there. Only two children survived this specific event, fleeing to Basibrin and ‘Ayn-Wardo. Following the genocide, the Ottoman government confiscated the monastery and utilized it as a military base.

In the early twentieth century, additional relevant events occurred outside the primary genocide years. In 1926, during a Kurdish rebellion against the Turkish Republic, the Monastery of Mar Abraham was ravaged and suffered further property destruction. The specific fate of the clergy involved multiple instances of martyrdom and forced relocation to Sinjar or Mosul.