Monastery of Mor Augin ( syr, ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܐܘܓܝܢ, The Monastery of St. Augin, ar, دير مار أوجين) is a Christian monastery located in southeastern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and is 40 kilometers from

Nusaybin Nusaybin (; '; ar, نُصَيْبِيْن, translit=Nuṣaybīn; syr, ܢܨܝܒܝܢ, translit=Nṣībīn), historically known as Nisibis () or Nesbin, is a city in Mardin Province, Turkey. The population of the city is 83,832 as of 2009 and is ...

History

The monastery was founded in the first half of the fourth century AD by

Saint Awgin Mar Awgin or Awgen (died 363 AD), also known as Awgin of Clysma or Saint Eugenios, was an Egyptian monk who, according to traditional accounts, introduced Christian monasticism to Syriac Christianity. These accounts, however, are all of late o ...

, a monk from

El Kulzom El Kulzom or Al Qelzam ( ar, القلزم, from ) is a village in the Qalyubia Governorate, Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and so ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. Mor Augin came with seventy of his disciples to preach

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

Mardin Province Mardin Province ( tr, Mardin ili; ku, Parêzgeha Mêrdînê; ar, محافظة ماردين) is a province of Turkey with a population of 809,719 in 2017, slightly down from the population of 835,173 in 2000. Kurds form the majority of the popu ...

which was controlled by the

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

. In 1915

Sayfo The Sayfo or the Seyfo (; see below), also known as the Assyrian genocide, was the mass slaughter and deportation of Assyrian / Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province by Ottoman forces and some Kurdish tr ...

the monks witnessed the destruction of Syriac villages in the plains below. The monastery was also affected by violence.

References

Christian monasteries in Turkey Christian monasteries established in the 4th century Syriac Orthodox monasteries in Turkey Tur Abdin {{christian-monastery-stub