Ömerli, Mardin

The Syriac name of the town is derived from "ma'ṣartā" ("wine-press" in Syriac).[4]

Maʿsarteh is identified as the town of Madaranzu in Bit-Zamani,[4] which was conquered by Ashurnasirpal II, King of Assyria, in 879 BC.[8] It is later mentioned by Theophylact Simocatta and George of Cyprus as Matzaron (Greek: Ματζάρων, Latin: Mazarorum).[4] The town was likely captured by a Sasanian army in 573 at the time of the siege of Dara,[9] during the Roman-Sasanian War of 572-591, but was retaken and the fort was restored by the Roman commanders Theodore and Andrew in 587.[10]

Maʿsarteh was part of the Syriac Orthodox diocese of the Monastery of Saint Abai (Classical Syriac: ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܐܒܝ‎, romanized: Dayro d-Mor Abay)[11] until the death of its last bishop Isḥoq Ṣaliba in 1730, upon which the diocese was subsumed into the diocese of Mardin.[12] German orientalist Eduard Sachau visited the town in 1880.[5] Until the Assyrian genocide, the town was exclusively populated by Assyrians of the Syriac Orthodox Church.[13] Survivors of the genocide fled to the Monastery of Saint Ananias.[14]

After the Assyrian genocide, Assyrians from Maʿsarteh emigrated to Bethlehem and Jerusalem.[15] In 1925, the town became the seat of a bucak (subdistrict) of Savur, and was elevated to district in 1953.[7] In 1960, Maʿsarteh was officially renamed Ömerli.[16] By 1989, all Assyrian families had fled the town,[17] however, some later returned and, as of 2013, three Assyrian families inhabit the town.[18] The district is also populated by Mhallami.[19]

• Ḥanna Salmān (1914-1981), Assyrian author[20]

Notes

Citations

• Atto, Naures (2011). Hostages in the Homeland, Orphans in the Diaspora: Identity Discourses Among the Assyrian/Syriac Elites in the European Diaspora (PDF). Leiden University Press. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
• Avcıkıran, Adem (2009). Kürtçe Anamnez Anamneza bi Kurmancî (PDF) (in Turkish and Kurdish). Retrieved 17 December 2019.
• Aydin, Julius Hanna (2018). Die Vita des Reklusen Mor Jakob von Salah (in German). LIT Verlag Münster.
• Brock, Sebastian (2017). "A Historical Note of October 1915 Written in Dayro D-Zafaran (Deyrulzafaran)". In David Gaunt; Naures Atto; Soner O. Barthoma (eds.). Let Them Not Return: Sayfo – The Genocide against the Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean Christians in the Ottoman Empire. pp. 148–157.
• Calder, Mark Daniel (2015). "We are the mother of the Arabs" : articulating Syriac Christian selfhood in Bethlehem. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
• Courtois, Sébastien de (2013). "Tur Abdin : Réflexions sur l'état présent descommunautés syriaques du Sud-Est de la Turquie,mémoire, exils, retours". Cahier du Gremmamo, vol. 21 (in French): 113–150.
• Ghadban, Ralph (2008). Die Libanon-Flüchtlinge in Berlin (PDF) (in German). Retrieved 30 December 2019.
• Jongerden, Joost; Verheij, Jelle (2012). Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1915. Brill.
• Kiraz, George A. (2011a). "Salmān, Ḥanna". Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition. Gorgias Press.
• Kiraz, George A. (2011b). "Isḥoq Ṣaliba". Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition. Gorgias Press.
• Lipiński, Edward (2000). The Aramaeans: Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion. Peeters Publishers.
• Palmer, Andrew (1990). Monk and Mason on the Tigris Frontier: The Early History of Tur Abdin. Cambridge University Press.
• Shahîd, Irfan (1995). Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, vol. 1, part 1: Political and Military History. Dumbarton Oaks.
• Wannes, Sűleyman (2006). Syrisk-ortodoxa kyrkan, en överblick över Institutioner, stiftelser och medlemmar, samt civila och profana organisationer i världen (PDF) (in Swedish). Retrieved 30 December 2019.
• Whitby, Michael; Whitby, Mary (1986). The History of Theophylact Simocatta. Claredon Press.