Ṭūr ʿAbdīn, a limestone plateau to the east of Mardin in southeast Turkey, was a frontier region between the Byzantine and Sasanian empires. Since the Arab conquests of the region in 640, Ṭūr ʿAbdīn has been under the rule of Muslim states. It is a remarkable cultural landscape shaped by waves of building activities, and this multi-layered topography invites reading from varying angles. It is a holy region for the Syriac Orthodox whose memory and identity are bound up not only with its physical landscape but also with the local saints and their stories. Finding echoes of Byzantium in this landscape may be surprising as Late Antique Ṭūr ʿAbdīn was mainly a refuge for the miaphysite Syriac Church, which was not theologically in communion with Constantinople. The ethnic differences between Syriac and Greek-speaking peoples further complicate the connections of this region to Byzantium. Moreover, many churches and monasteries here were not even within the boundaries of the Roman Empire, since most of them were built or extensively rebuilt after the Arab conquests. However, while being a distinct and innovative region with its multiple real and imagined landscapes, Ṭūr ʿAbdīn also conformed to Byzantine settlement patterns, models of sanctity, and other cultural expressions. It is fruitful to discuss Romanitas beyond Byzantium for this region because of the persistence and reinterpretations of what would conventionally be identified as “Roman” ideas and practices. This Thematic Session will focus on the tangible and the intangible that constitute the Late Antique and Early Islamic Ṭūr ʿAbdīn.
This paper examines an underexplored character in Syriac hagiography, namely, the Roman soldier, with an eye to complicating our understanding of Syriac memories of Byzantium. In Late Antique Syriac hagiography, Roman soldiers appear mostly in two forms: as agents of the empire persecuting believers (like the soldiers oppressing the anti-Chalcedonian monks in the narratives of…
In the Life of Mor Gabriel of Qartmin, we are told that Anastasius, Emperor of Constantinople (491-518), sent many craftsmen to build the sanctuary of the church of the Monastery of Mar Gabriel. Among them were “men skilled in putting together mosaics”. This mosaic can still be seen today, especially since the restoration work carried…
This paper explores how doctrinal conflict and territorial control intertwined along the Byzantine frontier of Ṭūr ʿAbdīn between the fifth and sixth centuries AD. The Council of Chalcedon (AD 451) ignited theological dissent, fracturing the imperial pursuit of orthodoxy within the Byzantine Christian landscape. The highlands of Ṭūr ʿAbdīn provide an ideal vantage point to…
The Tektek plateau stretches between ancient Edessa, Harran and Tella. It has revealed numerous, often heavily eroded remains of Christian buildings dating from the Byzantine era to the early centuries of the Islamic Caliphate. As the villages were abandoned during the Islamic period, they resemble the ‘dead villages’ of Syria’s famous limestone massif west of…