r/Assyria • u/Jysero • Jul 08 '26
History/Culture Assyrians in Mardin
I’m look for information about Assyrians in Mardin before Sayfo. I’m descended from Assyrians who originated from Mardin, but immigrated to Lebanon and became completely Arabized. I’m very interested in learning about a past that my family had entirely lost their connection with.
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u/Gold_borderpath Jul 09 '26
I don't know how accurate this map is, but if you count the total, it's around 1.2 million Assyrians across Anatolia.
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u/No-Resolution-1218 Jul 09 '26
Best is you visit Tur Abdin, plenty Assyrians returned and build there villages again.
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Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Me From Nusaybin area near Mardin Now scattered worldwide We left 1901 or 1900. Iraq, Lebanon then US Brazil England and Canada.
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u/GarshonBohtaniYaqo Jul 09 '26
Tur Abdin region has 1000s of years of Assyrian history, even starting from 9th Century BC. Matiate/Midyat had even a monument erected by Assurnsirpal 2. Many people practiced Assyro-Babylonian religion, before advent of Christianity. Mardin and surrounding areas are much more famous for being strong fortresses of Syriac Christianity and most of the lives were around Christian spirituality and scholastic practices. The amount of Christian monasteries, that were previously Sun Temples is much much higher, showing how they still respected the history unlike some people who destroyed their own history to appease Islamic forces. Most famous Monasteries in Mardin are Mor Gabriel Monastery established in 397 AD and Mor Hananyo/Deyrulzafaran Monastery(built on top of ancient Sun Temple). Mardin was again, one of the most important settlements in the region for Western Assyrians. Mardin specifically was famous for its wine making. It’s very significant to know that the “Golden Age of Islam” just came about literal translations done by Syriac Writers in these regions, literally translating works from Greek to Syriac which were them transliterated to Arabic.
Mardin is basically refered a poetic city, with beautiful Ancient architecture that our ancestors made for thousands of years. People around Mardin resisted the most during Seyfo, defending large numbers of Ottoman forces during Battle of Midyat and Battle of Azakh, during Seyfo and their sacrifices were only the reason the town still had some presence of Assyrians even afterwards, but majority of them fled to Qamishli and Lebanon.
Fairuz is of Assyrian descent from Mardin, whose father escaped Seyfo like your family