Türkiye | Tur Abdin | Mor Gabriel Monastery

After visiting Midyat we wandered down to Mor Gabriel Monastery, twelve miles southeast of Midyat and fifteen miles north of the Syrian border. Here, at least, Syriac Christianity appears to be surviving. This is one of the oldest monasteries in the world. It was founded in 397 by Mor (saint) Samuel (d. 433) and Mor Simon (d. 409). Originally it was called the Monastery of Mor Samuel and Mor Simon, but in the seventh century it was renamed Mor Gabriel Monastery after Mor Gabriel (634-668), the bishop of the Tur Abdin Region. Except for brief periods during wars and civil disorders the monastery has operated continuously since the year 397. Visitors are not allowed to wander around the grounds by themselves (although you can stay overnight if you make previous arrangements), but a guide is provided to give you a tour. Our guide, a young Syriac Christian, spoke perfect, unaccented English. 

Entrance to the monastery (click on photos for enlargements)

Entrance to the courtyard

Inner courtyard of the monastery

Monastery grounds

Steeples

This circular room, a later addition to the original monastery, was built in the sixth century with funds provided by the notorious Empress Theodora, the wife of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. 

Circular Room. The small windows on the dome open on monks’ cells. 

Our guide related that Theodora was born near here, in what is now Syria, and that her father was a Syriac priest. It was this connection with the area and the Syriac Church that motivated her to make a sizable donation to the monastery for the purpose of building this room. This is the sanitized version of Theodora’s background. Most sources do agree that she was born in Syria, but many maintain that Theodora was the daughter of a bear trainer and a professional dancer and actress. They began pimping out Theodora and her sister Komito when they were both pre-adolescents. Theodora quickly began one of Constantinople’s most notorious prostitutes. If we are to believe the Byzantine historian Procopius (c. AD 500 – c. AD 565), who probably knew her personally, Theodora engaged in behaviour which would make even Kim Kardashian blush.

None of this mattered to Emperor Justinian, who became besotted with Theodora and eventually married her. As the wife of a Byzantine emperor Theodora might well have wanted to upgrade her image by donating money to religious institutions. Thus she has been memorialized here at Mor Gabriel Monastery. Justinian himself initiated the construction of Aya Sofia in Istanbul, to this day one of the most magnificent religious structures in the world. Maybe he was feeling guilty about marrying a nymphomaniacal prostitute and wanted to do something to atone for it?

Theodora (c. 500 – 28 June 548) portrayed on a mosaic in a church in Ravenna, Italy (not my photo)

This was probably the dining hall in the monastery

A book, I believe a Bible, but I am not sure, in Syriac Script. The Syriac Language is closely related to Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus of Nazareth, leader of the Galileans.

The Syriac Script was based on the ancient Aramaic Script. The Sogdians of Inner Asia adapted the Syriac Script into their own Sogdian Script; the Uighurs in what is now Xinjiang Province in China adapted the Sogdian Script into their own Uighur Script; and later the Uighur Script was used as the basis for the Traditional Mongolian Script. Thus the Mongolian Vertical Script, which is experiencing somewhat of a revival in Mongolia, can be traced back to the ancient Aramaic Script, a variation of which is still used by Syriac Christians in Turkey today. 

Closer view of Syriac Script. 

A Syriac inscription on a wall in the monastery

New addition to the monastery. Local stone carvers and masons have lost none of their traditional skills.

Good example of local stonework

Turkey | Nusaybin | White Water | Beyazsu | Fish Restuarant

After visiting Nusaybin and the Church of St. Jacob on the Turkish-Syrian border we stopped at one of the famous fish restaurants on the Beyazsu (White Water) River north of  the city.

Most of the restaurants on the Beyazu grow their own trout in water tanks fed by the Beyazsu River (click on image for enlargements).

Trout in the tanks. After you order they are netted and prepared for the table.

Most of the restaurants feature river-side dining.

River-side tables

River-side tables

River-side table where we dined

You might think this place was just for show and that the food would be an afterthought, but not so. This was one of the better restaurant meals I have had in years. Actually we ordered the Kurdish equivalent of Surf-n-Turf. The lamb kabobs are not shown here.

USA | Allegheny Mountains | Spring Ephemerals

Foraging season for Spring Ephemerals in the Allegheny Mountains is reaching its peak. Ramps are looking great. Traditionally they are said to peak on Mother’s Day, which this year is on May 10,  but in recent years plants have been up to two weeks ahead of schedule due to our changing climate.

Ramps

A nice Spring dish of Garlic Mustard, Dandelion, Ground Ivy, and Ramps

The corm of Spring Beauties. Resembling a tiny potatoes, they are known in some circles as Fairy Spuds. A tasty little treat.

USA | Allegheny Mountains | Spring Flora

See Spring Flora over at Don Croner’s Wanders on the Great Allegheny Passage Bike Trail (GAP).

USA | Allegheny Mountains | Trout Season | Ramps

Trout Season opened last Saturday. A local Waltonian stopped by my Retreat and dropped off two rainbow trout he had caught. True, they were hatchery-raised and stocked in a stream for sports fishermen, but who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

Rainbow trout and ramp leaves (click on photos for enlargements)

I also pickled the bulbs and the lower stems of some ramps in a brine of one-half water and one-half vinegar with one teaspoon of turbinado sugar, one teaspoon of Mongolian lake salt, and two sassafras leaves (used as a substitute for bay leaves; both sassafras and bay belong to the same botanical family). 

Pickled ramps

As a side dish to the trout I made some lentils and Basmati rice with steamed (not boiled) ramp leaves and pickled ramp stems and bulbs as a garnish. 

USA | Allegheny Mountains | Ramps

Ramps Season has begun! For many foragers ramps (Allium tricoccum) are the Holy Grail of edible plants. I located a dozen or more small colonies of ramps along a small tributary of the Casselman River.

Tributary of the Casselman River (click on photos for enlargements)

A nice colony of ramps next to a convenient brooklet for washing them.

A small colony of ramps

Another colony of ramps

Ramps

Ramps

Most ramp plants have two leaves. One leaf can be harvested from a plant without killing it.

The whole ramp plant. Authorities recommend harvesting no more than 10% of a colony to ensure its long-term health. I never harvest more than 5%. The leaves and bulbs can be used in any way you would use onions.

Iran | Yazd

Wandered by Yazd, a city of about one million people located near the middle of Iran. It is known as one of the hottest cities in the country. As with many cities in the desert water is held in high regard. 

 Main square of Yazd (click on photos for enlargements)

 Main square of Yazd

 Main square of Yazd

Kids playing in the main square of Yazd. The city’s famous wind-catchers, which catch cool breezes and funnel them down into the buildings below, can be seen in the background. The wind-catchers were an early form of air-conditioning. 

 Skyline of Yazd with more wind-catchers

Wind-Catchers

Streets of Yazd

 Mosque in Yazd

 Detail of mosque in Yazd

  Detail of mosque in Yazd

 Hotel where I stayed in Yazd

 Courtyard of hotel where I stayed in Yazd

  Courtyard of hotel where I stayed in Yazd

Courtyard of hotel where I stayed in Yazd. The perfect place for sipping a saffron tisane as the air cools off at twilight. 

Iran | Esfahan | Abbasi Hotel

Wandered down to Esfahan, south of Tehran. I was especially looking forward to visiting Esfahan since I had booked a room at the legendary Abassi Hotel, which if not the city’s best hotel is certainly the most historic and picturesque.

Location of Esfahan (click on photos for enlargements).

The Abbasi Hotel was originally a caravanserai built during the time the the Safavid Sultan Husayn (1668—1726). It was restored and remodeled in the 1950s into an upscale hotel. Film buffs may recognize the hotel as the set for the 1974 movie Ten Little Indians starring Oliver Reed and German bombshell Elke Sommer. I had read some on-line reviews that groused about the small size of some of the rooms at the hotel. This was certainly not the case with my first floor room, which opened directly onto the courtyard. A troop of dancers, had one been available, could have bivouacked in the room with space left over for a camel or two. 

This etching was made in 1840. 

The basic layout of the building itself has changed very little since 1840. The two-story arched alcove near the right edge of the etching now hosts a charming little snack shop. The dome and minaret of the mosque seen looming over the top of the building are unchanged. Oh how I would have loved to have been in that courtyard when it still hosted camels! Note that the camels shown are Two-Humped Bactrians, the most noble of the world’s four-legged creatures, and not one-humped dromedaries. I would have had second thoughts about staying at the caravanserai if they had allowed in dromedaries, unless, of course, dromedaries were restricted to their own watering troughs.

Camels (Bactrian). You can’t help but love them.

Lobby of hotel. I took this photo at five o’clock in the morning. During the day and evening the lobby was a madhouse of milling tourists from England, Germany, Italy, Spain, China, and elsewhere. As far as I could tell I was the only American. 

Courtyard of hotel

Courtyard of hotel

Courtyard of hotel

Courtyard of hotel

Courtyard of hotel

Courtyard of hotel

Courtyard of hotel

I spent my late afternoons in the courtyard enjoying glasses of refreshing hibiscus tisane with rock sugar. Clinically proven to lower your blood pressure!

Hotel lobby coffee shop where I got my morning caffeine fix. In the afternoons it was jammed with Chinese tour groups.