The Mardin Kurkmo Letters

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During the final days of Beth Mardutho’s 2005 educational trip to Tur Abdin, George A. Kiraz came across the Patriarchal archive of Mardin — an important collection of petitions to the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch during the end of the Ottoman Empire (late-19th to early-20th century) that reveals valuable social history of the period. Over the course of a few years, Beth Mardutho digitized the archive for scholarly access.

The letters below are presented as facsimile images with transcriptions. Most are written in Garshuni (Arabic in Syriac script); where available, a parallel transcription in Arabic script is also given.