Abstract
[...]SPOKE His Holiness Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East, on the significance of Tur Abdin for his church.1 In August 2005, I had the privilege of making such a pilgrimage there and experiencing firsthand the living tradition of Syriac Orthodox Christianity in the Tur Abdin region of southeastern Turkey.2 I traveled with a group of academics on a program organized by Beth Mardutho (The Syriac Institute) and Dorushe (Graduate Students in Syriac Studies). [...]the Syriac Orthodox Church traces its roots to the Church of Antioch, where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians (Ac 11:26). The heart of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Tur Abdin has continued to beat, however faintly at times, for over 1600 years, giving life always and even now to Syriac Orthodox Christians throughout the world. Since the arrest and imprisonment of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999, the situation of southeastern Turkey has improved dramatically. [...]Mor Philoxenus Yuhanon Dolabani (1885-1969), a monk of the Saffron Monastery from 1908 and Metropolitan Bishop of Mardin from 1947 to 1969, was the author of numerous important works in Syriac, Arabic, and Turkish, including translations of Syriac liturgical and religious texts into Turkish and Arabic, as well as histories and poetry.48 This tradition of intellectual excellence is continued by the present Metropolitan, Mor Filuksinos Saliba Ozman.