Editing Tur Abdin (section)

{{Short description|Mountain range in Turkey}}
[[Image:Tur Abdin.svg|upright 1.2|thumb|Map of Tur Abdin showing [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] villages and monasteries. Extant monasteries are indicated by red crosses; abandoned monasteries, by orange ones.]]
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'''Tur Abdin''' ({{langx|ar|طور عبدين}}; {{langx|ku|Tor}};<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aras |first=Ramazan |title=The Wall: The Making and Unmaking of the Turkish-Syrian Border |publisher=Springer Nature |year=2020 |pages=16}}</ref> {{langx|la|Turabdium}}; {{langx|syr|ܛܽܘܪ ܥܰܒ݂ܕܺܝܢ}} or {{langx|syr|ܛܘܼܪ ܥܲܒ݂ܕܝܼܢ|Ṭūr ʿAḇdīn|label=none}}<ref>Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Ṭur ʿAbdin — ܛܘܪܥܒܕܝܢ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified December 9, 2016, http://syriaca.org/place/221.</ref>) 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 its Christian [[monasteries]] on the border of the [[Roman Empire]] and the [[Sasanian Empire]]. The area is a low plateau in the [[Anti-Taurus Mountains]] stretching from [[Mardin]] in the west to the Tigris in the east and delimited by the [[Mesopotamia|Mesopotamian]] plains to the south. The Tur Abdin is populated by more than 80 villages and nearly 70 monastery buildings and was mostly [[Syriac Orthodox Church|Syriac Orthodox]] until the early 20th century.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|last=Keser-Kayaalp|first=Elif|title=Tur 'Abdin|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-4874|work=The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity|volume=|pages=|year=2018|editor-last=Nicholson|editor-first=Oliver|edition=online|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-866277-8|access-date=2020-11-28}}</ref> The earliest surviving Christian buildings date from the 6th century.<ref name=":0" />

The name "Tur Abdin" is {{langx|syr|ܛܘܪ ܥܒܕܝܢ|lit=Mountain of the Servants [of God]}}.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d1Mt-t-bgzoC&dq=Tur+abdin+meaning&pg=PA212 | title=A Companion to Byzantium | isbn=9781444320022 | last1=James | first1=Liz | date=29 January 2010 | publisher=John Wiley & Sons }}</ref> Tur Abdin is of great importance to the [[Syriac Orthodox Church|Syriac Orthodox]], for whom the region used to be a monastic and cultural heartland.{{sfn|Barsoum|2008}} The [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] community of Tur Abdin call themselves ''Suryoye'', and traditionally speak a central [[Neo-Aramaic languages|Neo-Aramaic]] dialect called [[Turoyo]].<ref>The Middle East, abstracts and index, Part 1. Library Information and Research Service. Northumberland Press, 2002. Page 491.</ref><ref>Central Asia and the Caucasus: transnationalism and diaspora. Touraj Atabaki, Sanjyot Mehendale. Routledge, 2005. Page 228.</ref>