Mar Ishu

Rustaqa or Mar Isho (Syriac: ܡܪܝ ܝܫܘܥ Mar Isho, Kurdish: Dêra reş) was a historical Assyrian village in the Shamezdin region of Hakkari, and the traditional residence of the Matran family of Shamizdin. There are two theories about the origin of the Mar Ishu monastery. The first is that it was named after Mar Isso, a travelling Chinese monk who stayed there on his return from Kookheh where the seat of the Patriarch was around the 5th century. The second theory is that Mar Ishu was Mar Bishu’s brother who came to the area from Kamul, in the Jazira area in the 9th century. In any case, the monastery is very old, impressive and still intact, it is now known as Qara Eglise in Turkish which is the translation of what the Kurds used to call it...