ISIS Destroys Iraqi 4th Century Christian Monastery
The beautiful, ancient Mar Behnam Monastery in northern Iraq, which was started in the 4th century and was one of the "most valuable" Syriac libraries that exist, was last week destroyed by the ISIS, according to rt.
The images that showed the destruction of a monastery tomb complex in Nineveh Province, were displayed on the Internet on Thursday.
When the site was destroyed was not clear, but a number of Shiite mosques and shrines in Hamdania disctrict, northern Iraq, seem to have been devastated.
Dr Nicholas al-Jeloo, an expert on Assyrian monasteries in Iraq, from the University of Melbourne, was shocked by the photographs. "I didn't want to see the pictures. This is terrible. I'm in shock," said al-Jeloo, who had visited the area in 2010. He explained that "It was one of the most richly carved monastery complexes in northern Mesopotamia up until today."
"IS is destroying the rich cultural fabric of the area, the multilayered, multilingual, multi-ethnic aspects of society. It's not just our heritage; it's the heritage of the world. It is part of our history, and now it's gone."
Ignatius Joseph III Yonan, patriarch of Antioch, believed that Christians and other minorities in Iraq are facing great crisis. "We call on the world that calls itself civilized to help us stay in our land, and defend our rights as citizens," he told the Guardian.
It was a site that was valuable not only to Christians, but also contained "precious and rich Syrian and Arabic manuscripts" and was captured by IS militants in 2014. The resident clergymen escaped to the nearby city of Qaraqoush.
The destruction followed other images released by the ISIS media regarding destruction of other Christian symbols.
Mar Behnam Monastery was founded in the 4th century in honor of Behnam and Sarah, children of Senchareb, who was an Assyrian king. The children were murdered after they became Christians, and in the 12th century, the Syriac Orthodox Church rejuvenated it.
Syriac calligraphy of the 17th century, that showed the genealogy of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew, was also part of the monastery.
Extremists had also destroyed the ancient city of Hatra in the north of Iraq, after "bulldozing" Nimrud, another ancient Assyrian city close to Mosul.
Nimrud was attacked one week after IS jihadists destroyed a museum in the Iraqi city of Mosul. It was found later that the ancient statues were replicas of valuable artifacts that had Iraqi heritage, most masterpieces sourced in Baghdad.
Last February, the jihadists bombed the Mosul Public Library with home-made devices. Earlier, they had taken the books from the Central Library of Mosul, and left only Islamic texts.
