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Credit score: Amjed Tareq Hano
Hidden Texts
A couple of weeks earlier than the Islamic State group (additionally referred to as ISIS) occupied the Mar Behnam monastery (the occupation began in June 2014), a younger priest named Yousif Sakat hid greater than 400 texts, courting between the 13th and 20th centuries, in metallic bins and put them in a storage space. He then constructed a wall in entrance of them in hopes of concealing them from ISIS forces.As seen on this photograph, the development made the storage space behind this door smaller, however blocked off the texts from the view of ISIS forces. [Read full story about the hidden texts]
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Credit score: Amjed Tareq Hano
Breaking down a wall
The wall fooled the occupying ISIS forces for greater than two years. Mar Behnam was recaptured in November 2016, by an Iraqi Christian unit that's serving to combat ISIS. With the location safe, the 400 texts may very well be taken out.This photograph reveals a member of the Iraqi Christian neighborhood serving to to interrupt down the wall.
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Credit score: Amjed Tareq Hano
Revealing historical past
The texts, which had been put in metallic bins earlier than being hidden behind the wall, had been taken out for the primary time in additional than two years. In that point ISIL had destroyed a part of the monastery, burnt what texts they might discover, defaced and destroyed the monastery's paintings and inscriptions.
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Credit score: Amjed Tareq Hano
Non secular texts
Greater than 400 texts, courting between the 13th and 20th centuries, had been saved. The texts embody many bibles and liturgical supplies in addition to some dictionaries. Every textual content accommodates notes by the scribes who copied them, describing historic, social and non secular occasions on the time they had been copied. The texts are written in quite a lot of languages together with Syriac (a language broadly utilized in Iraq in historical and medieval occasions), Arabic, Turkish and Neo-Aramaic.
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Credit score: Amjed Tareq Hano
Welcome information
Tens of hundreds of Iraqi Christians had been killed or pressured to flee when ISIS occupied the world across the Mar Behnam monastery. Many of those folks nonetheless stay as refugees. For Iraqi Christians, the profitable hiding and saving of the centuries-old texts was a small however welcome bit of fine information.
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Credit score: Amjed Tareq Hano
Iraqi Christians
At the moment, Iraqi Christians make up lower than 1 % of Iraq's inhabitants, however are happy with their historical past and religion.
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Credit score: Amjed Tareq Hano
Memre of Ascetics
This textual content, copied in A.D. 1231, is a liturgical textual content referred to as the "Memre of Ascetics." The textual content contains notes by the scribe, mentioning the historic, non secular and social occasions that came about in his lifetime. This photograph was taken by Amir Harrak, a professor on the College of Toronto, earlier than the texts had been hidden away.
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Credit score: Amir Harrak
Evaluating Gospels
This textual content, copied in A.D. 1653, reveals a comparability of the completely different gospels. The scribe illustrated the textual content fantastically. This photograph was additionally taken by Professor Amir Harrak earlier than the texts had been hidden away within the Mar Behnam monastery.
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Credit score: Amir Harrak
Family tree of Jesus Christ
This textual content, additionally copied in A.D. 1653, describes the family tree of Jesus Christ. This photograph was additionally taken earlier than the texts had been hidden away, simply weeks earlier than ISIS occupied the Mar Behnam monastery.
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Credit score: Amjed Tareq Hano
Safe location
The texts had been taken to an undisclosed however comparatively safe location. Professor Amir Harrak advised Reside Science that given the unrest in Iraq, it might be finest to carry the texts to a library in Europe, no less than briefly, for conservation and safekeeping.
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