 Mor Mattai Monastery | |
  Location within Iraq  Mor Mattai Monastery (Near East) | |
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Dayro d-Mor Mattai |
| Order | Syriac Orthodox Church |
| Established | 363 A.D. |
| Dedicated to | Mor Mattai |
| Site | |
| Location | near Bartella, Nineveh |
| Country | Iraq |
| Coordinates | 36°29′24″N 43°26′34″E / 36.49°N 43.442778°E |
Dayro d-Mor Mattai (Syriac: ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܡܬܝ; Arabic: دير مار متى; The Monastery of St. Matthew)[1] is a Syriac Orthodox Church monastery on Mount Alfaf in northern Iraq, 20 kilometers northeast of the city of Mosul. It is recognized as one of the oldest Christian monasteries in existence and the oldest Syriac Orthodox monastery in the world.
The monastery was famous for the number of monks and scholars it housed, and for its large library and considerable collection of Syriac Christian manuscripts.[2] Today, it is an archbishopric; the current archbishop is Mor Timothius Mousa Alshamany.
- ^ Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Mor Matay — ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܡܬܝ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified June 30, 2014, http://syriaca.org/place/227.
- ^ Michael Goldfarb, Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005).