One of the most illustrious Apostolic learning communities in history, the Church of the East monastery called Beit Abe (or Beit Abhe), has also been one of the most elusive in knowing the actual location. Begun in 595 by Rabban Jacob, this monastery became perhaps the primary mission sending location for those going to places like China, India, and Central Asia. But the last reference in history to Beit Abe is in the 1320’s and ever since nothing has clearly been known. Though many monasteries of the Church only exist in ruins, others like Rabban Hormizd in Northern Iraq (which I have visited twice), and Mar Mattai, still remain largely intact. Beit Abe is the most major monastery about which relatively nothing is known of its existence or demise.

I have been interested in Beit Abe for almost twenty years, since I first started my PhD studies on the monastic mission of the Church of the East in Asia. It appears in all three of my books, and several of my articles. I have also written about it in several blog posts on this website, like Living Outside Imperial Power: The Celts and Church of the East, and Who was Timothy I of Baghdad and Why Does He Matter Today? Part 1. (For more background on the context of this monastery, please do read these posts.) In my own studies, I came across references that said Beit Abe only existed today in ruins (without clearly specifying where), and also that it no longer existed at all. Reasons for destruction included either a flood, or continued attacks from surrounding religious groups. But no evidence for any of these suppositions is given.

Ten years ago I made my first visit to Northern Iraq, once the heartland of the Church of the East with hundreds of monasteries dotting the countryside and stretching into what is now Turkey and also to Baghdad in the south. On that visit, I had a lunch with a senior academic from Baghdad, a Muslim who had done her PhD on the Christian monasteries in history. We talked about Beit Abhe and its location, and she had the most usual viewpoint, that it had been in the area of Al Qosh, a Christian village near the modern city of Duhok. But shortly before I left Iraq, I received an email from someone who had heard I was interested in the location of Beit Abe. He was an independent researcher from the North, and had another viewpoint, (held quite strongly), that actually the monastery has been closer to the capital of Kurdistan, Erbil, about two hours away from Duhok. Unfortunately due to my timing of departure we were not able to meet, and I have never again heard from him as I tried to make contact. But I did not forget!

Recently I was able to visit Northern Iraq again on a teaching trip, and during my ten days there an opportunity presented itself to do some exploring for Beit Abe. And I was able to take with me a whole van load of staff and students from the place I was teaching. We had actually intended an outing to another location, but I had persuaded the leaders to take this detour off the main road, which turned out to be about four hours out of our way! I had looked up the possible location of Beit Abe, which some researchers thought (including my correspondent by email in 2014) to be near a village named Kala Der. This was interesting as the word ‘Der’ could be a similar word to the Syriac for monastery. This village was located near to the bigger city of Akre in Nineveh district, and also near to the smaller localities of Rabana and Berdesimt.

The only problem with this location of Kala Der was that the road to it ended on the maps. We ended up wandering up and down pretty steep terrain, at times going through river beds trying to find an existing road. Fortunately our driver, and most of the staff and students, were more than game for the adventure! Finally we found Kala Der, and when we asked about monastery ruins, they said yes and pointed in the distance. The villagers offered a guide to go with us, and he climbed in the van. After about a five minute ride, we found a large grassy area with a clear rock perimeter. (pictured in the photo) Hardly anything remained except some piles of rocks, but the guide clearly said there had been a monastery there. When I asked the name, he did not know. But very interesting because he did answer to a question how many lived here at one time, with the number 300. That is the number sometimes cited in the primary sources in the 9th century about Beit Abe, also 300 monks lived there. Though the guide had said 300 families, it was still quite interesting to have the same number of 300.

The location was also quite plausible in natural features. Beit Abe means ‘House of the Forest’, and there were forests all around. A mountain or hill is also mentioned in the primary sources, and in front of the site is a small mountain. There is also a river nearby, and Beit Abe was said to be near a river. One of the most compelling possible evidences for a monastery being here long before, even if it was not Beit Abe, is that the local village still maintains this tradition. The guide said that the village elders had for a long time considered doing more in making it ‘official’ and having it be a tourist location like other heritage sites are. We were told that just the month before a Dutch group had come asking also about the possible monastery. Whether they also were looking for Beit Abe we do not know. It certainly was a thrill to think that this may have been the site of Beit Abe. I did let my imagination go standing there, considering the possibility that as far back as the late 6th and 7th century monks bound for China and India may have looked at the same mountain and walked the same ground. But alas, we do not have any strong evidence at this point, only possibility or maybe even plausibility. It would require an archaeological dig to find out more. Perhaps someday that may indeed be allowed?!

I hope to post updates on the search for Beit Abe as more information becomes available. A video was also done by my colleague that day, and I will perhaps be posting it on this site.

But for those of you that think history or historical research is boring, you couldn’t be more wrong!