Karalar (; ; ) is a town (''

belde Belde (literally "town", also known as ''kasaba'') means "large village with a municipality" in Turkish language, Turkish. All Turkish province centers and district centers have municipalities, but the Villages of Turkey, villages are usually too ...

'') in the

İdil District İdil District is a district of the Şırnak Province of Turkey. The seat of the district is the town of İdil and the population was 77,105 in 2021. Its area is 1,148 km2. The district was formed in 1937. The western part of the district ...

Şırnak Province Şırnak Province (, ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province in Turkey in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. Şırnak Province was created in 1990, with areas that were formerly part of the Siirt Province, Siirt, Hakkâri Province, Hakkâri and Mardin ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. The settlement is populated by

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

of the Domanan tribe and had a population of 4,065 in 2021. It is located in the historic region of

Tur Abdin Tur Abdin (; ; ; or ) is a hilly region situated in southeast Turkey, including the eastern half of the Mardin Province, and Şırnak Province west of the Tigris, on the Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria and famed since Late Antiquity for ...

History

ʿArban (today called Karalar) was historically inhabited by

Syriac Orthodox Christians The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian denomination, denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The ch ...

. There was a church of the Virgin and Mar Barsoum. The monk-priest Yeshu’, son of the priest Barṣoum of Arban, was a renowned calligrapher (). The village was attacked by Bakhti Kurds in 1453 alongside the neighbouring villages of Beth Sbirino, Bēth Isḥaq, and Midun, as per the account of the priest Addai of Basibrina in appended to the ''Chronography'' of

Bar Hebraeus Gregory Bar Hebraeus (, b. 1226 - d. 30 July 1286), known by his Syriac ancestral surname as Barebraya or Barebroyo, in Arabic sources by his kunya Abu'l-Faraj, and his Latinized name Abulpharagius in the Latin West, was a Maphrian (region ...

. Bakhti Kurds attacked ʿArban, as well as the villages of Bēth Isḥaq and Midun, again in 1457, resulting in the death of the priests Behnam and Addai, the deacon Abu Nasr, and 40 men whilst the women and children were taken captive. In 1748, the episcopal residence of the Church of the Virgin and Mar Barsoum was renovated by Basil Denha Baltaji, the

Maphrian The Maphrian ( or ''maphryono''), is the second-highest rank in the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Syriac Orthodox Church, right below that of patriarch. The office of a maphrian is a maphrianate. There have been three maphrianates in the hist ...

of Tur Abdin, at which time the village was inhabited by 14 Syriac Orthodox families. In the Syriac Orthodox patriarchal register of dues of 1870, it was recorded that the village had 2 households, who paid 10 dues, and it did not have a church or a priest. ʿArban was later visited by Aphrem Barsoum in 1911 who noted only two Syriac Orthodox families and roughly 40 Muslim families resided there whilst the church lay in ruins. In 1914, the village was inhabited by 100 Syriacs, according to the list presented to the

Paris Peace Conference Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include: Listed by name Paris Accords may refer to: * Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germ ...

by the Assyro-Chaldean delegation. There were 100 Syriac families in 1915. It was located in the

kaza A kaza (, "judgment" or "jurisdiction") was an administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire, administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the names district, subdistrict, and juridical district. Kazas co ...

Midyat Midyat (, , , ) is a municipality and district of Mardin Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,241 km2, and its population is 120,069 (2022). In the modern era, the town is populated by Kurds, Mhallami Arabs and Assyrians. The old Estel neighborho ...

References

Notes Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{İdil District Populated places in İdil District Town municipalities in Turkey Kurdish settlements in Şırnak Province Tur Abdin Historic Assyrian communities in Şırnak Province