Sayfo; Village of Arbo

Village of Arbo

Arbo is one of the best known villages of Tur Abdin. This village provided famous bishops, priests and scholars in addition to a number of secular leaders. At the time of the persecutions, there were about 70 Syriac families living there but it used to be bigger. The village priest was Father Aphrem, the father of Chorepiscopus Malke, from Qamishli. He was an active and diligent priest. It was said that God performed miracles through him. The civil leaders of the village were Shemun Atti, a family that produced many village leaders, and Habsuno Aho Arsan, who also descended from a family that had lived there for generations.

When the reports of the massacre started to reach the village, the leaders discussed what to do since the village did not have any defense turrets or ramparts from which people might have defended themselves against the enemy, or where they might have fought him. Neither did they want to get too far away from their brothers in the villages of Beth Rishe, but they wanted to stand at their side, for that was much better for them, and thus they might help each other. So they decided to leave their village. Many of them went to the Mor Malke Monastery, others to Mor Eliyo Monastery near Hbob (Ehwo), to the north of the village. And there they stayed until the end of the persecutions.