Beth Kustan, Mardin

Beth Kustan (Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܩܣܝܢܐ‎,[2][nb 1] Turkish: Alagöz) is a village in Mardin Province in southeastern Turkey. It is located in the district of Midyat and the historical region of Tur Abdin.

Beth Kustan
Beth Kustan
Location in Turkey
Coordinates: 37.495°N 41.626°E / 37.495; 41.626
Country Turkey
ProvinceMardin Province
DistrictMidyat
Population
 (2019)[1]
 • Total167
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)

In the village, there is a church of Mor Eliyo.[5]

Etymology

The Syriac name of the village is derived from "beth" ("house" in Syriac) and "Kustan" ("Constantine" in Syriac), thus Beth Kustan translates to "house of Constantine".[5]

History

The Church of Mor Eliyo was constructed in 343 AD.[6] It is suggested that the village was founded by a member of the Roman limitanei (frontier militia) named Constans in the 4th century AD.[7]

In 1900, Beth Kustan was inhabited by an estimated 200 Assyrian families.[8] At the onset of the Assyrian genocide, in 1915, Haco, agha (chief) of the Kurtak clan, warned the villagers of an impending attack by Turkish and Kurdish soldiers.[9] Despite initial hesitation, upon receiving news of the massacre of Assyrians at Zaz, all but two villagers fled to Hah.[9] Beth Kustan was subsequently ransacked by Kurdish soldiers, and the two remaining villagers were killed.[9] The villagers resisted Kurdish and Turkish attacks at Hah until a truce was negotiated by Haco, but were not able to leave until Çelebi, agha of the Heverkan clan, helped them to return to Beth Kustan in 1922.[3][9]

The village was officially named Alagöz in the 1930s as a result of the state's turkification policy.[8][10] In the 1960s,[10] most of the village's population emigrated abroad to the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland.[11] In 1993, it was alleged that seven villagers were detained and tortured by Turkish paramilitaries.[12] As of 2013, 15-23 Assyrian families inhabit Beth Kustan.[11] On 12 February 2015, Beth Kustan was restored as the official name of the village.[10] The inhabitants speak Turoyo, a dialect of Neo-Aramaic.[8]

Notable people
  • Saint Gabriel of Beth Qustan (573/574-648), Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Tur Abdin
  • Timotheos Samuel Aktaş (b. 1945), Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Tur Abdin
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References

Notes

  1. Alternatively transliterated as Beth Qustan,[2] Boqusyono,[3] or Bekusyone.[4]

Citations

  1. "BETHKUSTAN MAHALLESİ NÜFUSU MİDYAT MARDİN". Türkiye Nüfusu (in Turkish). Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  2. Carlson, Thomas A. (9 December 2016). "Beth Qustan". The Syriac Gazetteer. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  3. Gaunt (2012), p. 264.
  4. "Mor Timotheos Samuel Aktas". Malankara Syriac Christian Resources. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  5. Takahashi (2011), p. 163.
  6. Sofuoglu, Murat (5 September 2017). "Assyrians return to Turkey from Europe to save their culture". TRT World. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  7. Palmer (1990), p. 55.
  8. Oez, Mikael (2017). "Documentation of the Beth Qustan Dialect of the Central Neo-Aramaic language, Turoyo". SOAS, Endangered Languages Archive, ELAR. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  9. Gaunt (2006), p. 223.
  10. Vardar, Nilay (12 February 2015). "Assyrian Village Name Returned For 1st Time in Turkey". Bianet. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  11. Courtois (2013), p. 149.
  12. "U.S. Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices 1993 - Turkey". United States Department of State. 30 January 1994. Retrieved 11 January 2020.

Bibliography
  • 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.
  • Gaunt, Gaunt (2006). Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During World War I. Gorgias Press.
  • Gaunt, Gaunt (2012). "Relations between Kurds and Syriacs and Assyrians in Late Ottoman Diyarbekir". Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1915, ed. Joost Jongerden, Jelle Verheij. Brill. pp. 241–267.
  • Palmer, Andrew (1990). Monk and Mason on the Tigris Frontier: The Early History of Tur Abdin. Cambridge University Press.
  • Takahashi, Hidemi (2011). "Also via Istanbul to New Haven- Mss. Yale Syriac 7-12". Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honour of Dimitri Gutas, ed. Felicitas Opwis, David Reisman. Brill. pp. 157–179.
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