Siirt

A city in eastern Turkey, southwest of Lake Van.

A city in eastern Turkey, southwest of Lake Van. During the late Ottoman period, it was part of the Vilayet of Bitlis, adjacent to the Vilayet of Diar-Bakir (see Amid ) located to its northeast. Kurds made up more than half of the entire population, which also included a large portion of Christian families, namely Armenian, Syr. Orth., E. Syr., and Chald., in addition to small numbers of Syr. Catholics and Protestants. Siirt is made famous by the Chronicle of Siirt, an early 11th- cent. Christian Arabic source published by Addai Scher , bp. of the city. The anonymous Chronicle is missing its first folios, and in its actual condition, covers the ecclesiastical history from the middle of the 3rd cent., time of the Roman emperor Gallus, to the middle of the 7th cent., time of the monastic writer Sahdona . Siirt was the seat of a Chald. bp. from 1553, and the list of bishops from this time to 1915 can be reconstructed. The last bp. of Siirt was Addai Scher, a prolific writer and critical scholar who was murdered and mutilated near Siirt on 15 June 1915. All the Christians of the city and region without exception fell victim to the massacres that were perpetrated against them at the beginning of World War I, in such a way that Christianity was wiped out in the city after 1925. It is said that before Bp. Scher died, he hid his collection of books and mss. in a dry well, wrapped to be protected from humidity, but the well cannot be now located.