Tamerlane: The Mongol Raider of Mor Gabriel Monastery

by Fr. Dale A. Johnson

In August of 1401, Tamer the Lame, called Tamerlane in the West, attacked the monks of Mor Gabriel in upper Mesopotamia. His reputation for cruelty preceeded him. About 400 monks including children knew there would be no mercy. When they recvieved the news of the approach of Tamerlane they devised a plan to protect themselves. They stockpiled a cave underneath the monastery with food and supplies. They hoped not only to escape detection but if detected they were determined to outlast the patience of Tamerlane.

The monastery of Mor Gabriel sits on a limestone massiff. The entire region sits on a foundation of limestone that is huindreds of feet deep. Wells drilled in recent years in nearby villages have demonstrated that the limestone layer is at least 200 feet deep

On the southside of the monastery, if one walks out the gate and down the side of the mountain about 800 yards, on the rim of a tiny agricultural valley there is an entrance to a cave. I was first introduced to this cave by Dayroyo Malke when he lived at Mor Gabriel. Together with a couple of boys from the monastery we crawled through the entrance of the cave into a small cave about 30 yards long and 20 yards wide. We could not stand up because it was only about five feet high. We brought flashlights and began to investigate the ground. Scattered around the entrance of the cave were animal bones and a few carcasses of rabbits, rats, snakes, and a few bats. Gabriel Ayden, one of the boys, led us to the right and through a tall narrow opening in the wall. We entered a large cavern. We stood on the rim of a cave and peered down about 20 feet and then about 30 feet up. The cave was maybe five stories in all. On the ceiling were thousands of bats chirping and crawling over each other for position. The lights of the flashlights caused a few of them to be disturbed or maybe it was our presence they detected.

We moved to the left and into a small chamber about the size of a closet. There on the ground we saw the bones of human fingers, a pelvis bone, and the leg bones of a man. At the time I was not sure of the identification of the bones and was not ever sure if they were human. It was a few days later when I returned to the cave with a forensic expert from Germany who was visiting the monastery that I had confimation of the human origin and identification of the bones.

One this first expedition, we were led by Dayroyo Melke further back into the cave into a network of tunnels. There we found human skulls. Melke told us the story about how Tamerlane discovered the monks and instead of sending in his soldiers, he ordered fires to be lit at the mouth of the cave. Smoke filled the caves and drove the monks and other people back into the recesses of the cave. They all died of afixiation. We sang a few prayers for the dead and left the cave.

Over the next few years I researched this story. I made numerous investigations of the cave and brought a variety of experts to help reconstruct the crime (a military war crime at the very least). What we were able to put together was a senario of the last few hours in the lives of these monks. Here is what we know so far:
1. Most of the monks died in upper areas of the caves, huddled together in small pockets. 
2. All died by affixiation. No charred bones have been found or any other evidence of death by weapons or fire. The monks made a classic mistake when faced with fire and smoke. Instead of going to lower levels and risking death by carbon monoxide, some would have had a chance of surviving if they had gone down instead of up. All forensic evidence is located in the upper areas of the caves. 
3. No bones have been found in the lower levels. Of course there was never a thorough and comprehensive investigation, so it is possible that some may have survived and escaped later if they had remained in the lowest areas.

Proposal

Also, because an exhaustive collection and count of the corpses has not been done we do not know exactly how many died. The historical memory suggests that 400 died but this is an honorary figure. It would be interesting to do a scientific archeological study similar to the one done at the Battle of Little Big Horn where Custer made his last stand in the American West during the 19th century.

Tamerlane

Who was Tamelane and why did he attack Christians? Tamerlane was a Shiite Moslem born in who claimed not only to be a descendant of Ghengis Khan but also of Ali, father of the Shiite line. Born in 1336 AD, he grew up in a city about 50 miles south of Samarkan. His folk religion was a mixture of shamanism, and Dirvish mysticism, and Shiitism. The exhumation of his corpse in the 1990´s revealed a mongolian man about 5´8’’ and fairly stocky. He was a brilliant military tactitian and is reputed to have developed an advanced game of chess involving hundreds of pieces and hundreds of squares.

In 1401 he marched on Syrian lands, which included the borderland region including Mor Gabriel Monastery. He conquered Amida prior to his attack on the monastery and put his grandfather inlaw in charge of the city. He renamed Amida as Tamerid. His hatred of Christianity was well known although his great grandmother on his father´s side was a famous Christian who produced four Christian kings. Although this later point is slightly legendary, it still has a kernal of truth. Tamerlane had access to a Christian heritage. His preference for the side of his family on the side of one of his wives, and the silence about the side of his family on his father´s side may hint as to the reason why he fought against Christians.

On coins minted in Amida, two years after its conquest by Tamerlane, we see that the symbol of Tamerlane is three circles in the form of a triangle. It suggests an astrological blessing on his life and perhaps a superstitious folk influence. It was an astrological term which meants 'Lord of the Fortunate Conjuncture'. It expressed his sense not just of balancing or juggling ruler, nomads and sedentarists, as his predecessors had done, but of integrating them into a dynamic institutional system. It suggests further evidence that Tamerlane believed in a blend of folk ideas that generally fell under the banner of Shiitism.

At least 10,000 soldiers were in the region during the attack on the monastery. This was his normal basic military battalian formation. Some records show that mongolian soldiers occupied two other nearby Syriac monasteries including Mor Malke. How many soldiers attacked Mor Gabriel directly, we do not know. Knowing that there were about 400 people at the monastery, and because Tamerlane was known to use overwhelming force, I suspect that a thousand or so soldiers directly attacked the monastery.. At the time, Tamerlane was sixty’five years old. He would be dead four years hence on his way to China. More than likely Tamerlane directed the attack on Mor Gabriel from his command center at Amida.

Little evidence remains of the attack on the monastery and its residents. Apparently they were content to kill its inhabitants. The mongols were replaced by other regimes of rule and the monastery survived. What remain are the memories of the faithful monks and support population who died during this holocost. Each Saturday night we would say special prayers for the departed after evening prayer. We would go down to the sepuchures under the main monastery and pray for the dead. It was always my favorite and most sacred time of the week. As I kissed each grave along with others on the way out of the house of the departed, I would silently say special prayers for the 400 faithful who lay deeper beneath the foundation of the monastery. 

May we remember the faithful martyrs who died because of the scourge of Tamerlane. May they breathe the fresh breezes of heaven on the Day of Resurrection.


Note: More information is available in the author´s biography of his years at Mor Gabriel and the exploration of the cave in the book Fire on the Mountain, www.lulu.com/barhanna