Embedded Files
Syriac People Archives
The Syriac People Archive Project catalogs thousands of historical documents for publication on the Syriac Heritage Project website. Spanning the 19th century through 1923, when Patriarch Ignatius Elias III was exiled from Turkey, the collection features correspondence between Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs, clergy, individuals, and Ottoman officials. Key holdings include documentation on the 1894–1896 Hamidian Massacres and the 1915 Sayfo, written in Syriac, Garshuny (Arabic in Syriac script), Ottoman Turkish, and Arabic.
Because these vast archives derive from numerous ecclesiastical and community sources, publication will begin with indexes of names, villages, churches, monasteries, and properties, combining previously published records with newly uncovered material.
Principal Researcher: Fr. Dr. Iskandar Bcheiry
Shelfmark: CFMM LIST 01
Title: Survey Report of Syriac Christian Villages, Churches, and Monasteries in Ṭūr-ʿAbdīn at the end of the 19th century
Description: Survey report written by various people in different years that lists the names and location of various villages, churches, monasteries, and sacred places in the Tur-'Abdin area.
Author(s): Unknown
Date: 1882 - 1890
Language: Syriac with minimal Garshuni (Arabic written in Syriac script)
Leaves: Seven
Measurements:
Material: Paper
Link: Click Here
Depository: Mardin Archive
Origin: Syriac Orthodox Church of the Forty Martyrs, Mardin, Turkey
Other Collections: HMML Manuscripts
Published: Bcheiry, Iskandar. A Late Nineteenth-Century Survey Report of Christian Religious Sites in Ṭūrʿabdīn. Oriens Christianus 105 (2022), pp. 36-61.
Shelfmark: CFMM List 02
Title: Directory for the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Syriac Orthodox Church in the Province of Diyarbakir, Ottoman Empire
Description: A directory from the late nineteenth century that documents the ecclesiastical structure of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Diyarbakir Province. This source is important for understanding the Church’s administrative organization and demographic distribution after the Diyarbakir massacres of 1895-1896. In addition to outlining dioceses and vicariates, it lists the Abbots of seventeen monasteries in Diyarbakir Province, details that remain otherwise scarce.
Author(s): Unknown
Date: 1895-1896
Language: Ottoman Turkish (written in Arabic script)
Leaves: One
Measurements: 30x25 cm
Material: Paper
Link: Click Here
Depository: Mardin Archive
Origin: Syriac Orthodox Church of the Forty Martyrs, Mardin, Turkey
Other Collections: HMML Manuscripts
Published: Bcheiry, Iskandar. Syriac Orthodox in Diyarbakir Vilayet, 1890s: Church Leadership Structure in an Ottoman Turkish Document,” The International Journal of Levant Studies 6 (2024), pp. 73-88.
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