The Monastery of the Forty Martyrs

The Monastery of the Forty Martyrs

The origin of the monastery in Bartella dedicated to the Forty martyrs of Sebaste remains unknown. Its earliest recorded mention dates to 1269 AD, when the priest Joseph ibn Khamis al-Sinjari copied a liturgical text for the Ba'utha Nineveh (Rogation of Nineveh). This manuscript, originally belonging to the Church of Mor Georgis in Qaraqosh (Bakhdida) and now held in the town's Church of the Immaculate Conception, notes that the intruder Maphrian of the East, Jacob Bar Qinaya resided at the monastery in 1361 AD.

Regarding the monastery's later history, a manuscript from 1751 AD, a winter Fanqith liturgical volume copied by the priest Yaqub ibn Hanna al-Qaraqushi during the patriarchate of George III and the tenure of priests Danu, Abdullah, and Ibrahim, records that the text was restored through the financial support of Khoshaba ibn 'Ashur, his son Ibrahim, and his wife Jarkas, of the Ashur family of Qaraqosh, and was endowed to the church of the Monastery of Mor Youhannon the Carpenter.

No definitive records document the exact date of the Monastery of the Martyrs' destruction, though it appears to have fallen into ruin around the same time as the Monastery of Ahudammeh. Topographically, the monastery was situated southwest of Bartella near a natural water reservoir known as the Khabra, a crescent-shaped embankment built in a low-lying area to collect rainwater. The physical ruins lie roughly 200 meters from the new Church of Mor Georgis towards the area of "Bashbitha," though alternative accounts place its location to the north of Bartella. To this day, the local population of Bartella continues to make annual pilgrimages to the site for blessings on March 9th according to the Syriac Orthodox calendar.