Abstracts
Bāzyān, located between the Mesopotamian plain and the Zagros mountains, provides valuable archaeological testimony for the Christianization of northern Iraq, at the turn of Islam. The main issue of the analysis is to understand the link between three elements: the fortification of the building complex, the insertion of a church within it and the understanding of the surrounding rooms. This article continues a series of studies on this site by focusing on the early phases of occupation. It first describes the discoveries made during the latest excavations inside and outside the fort, while the study of the site and its archaeological material is still in progress. The authors then discuss different hypotheses about the function of the remains: Bāzyān can be understood either as a monastic site or as a place of pilgrimage related to the veneration of a saint’s relics. Finally, the authors consider the site in a broader regional context. They suggest an identification of the site with a toponym mentioned in the ancient East Syrian literature.
Le fort et l’église de Bāzyān, dernières découvertes et nouvelles hypothèses
Situées à la limite entre la plaine mésopotamienne et les premiers contreforts du Zagros, les ruines de Bāzyān contribuent à l’étude de la christianisation du nord de l’Irak, au tournant de l’Islam. L’un des enjeux réside dans la compréhension de l’articulation de trois éléments : la fortification du complexe, l’insertion interne d’une église et l’identification de la fonction des pièces environnantes. Cet article complète une série d’études se concentrant sur les premières phases d’occupation du site. Il livre d’abord les résultats des dernières campagnes de fouilles à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur du complexe fortifié, alors que l’analyse du site et de son matériel archéologique est toujours en cours. Les auteurs discutent ensuite différentes hypothèses sur la fonction des vestiges identifiés : le fort de Bāzyān peut être compris soit comme un site monastique, soit comme un lieu de pèlerinage lié à la vénération des reliques d’un saint. Enfin, les auteurs considèrent le site dans son contexte régional plus large. Ils proposent de l’identifier en l’associant à un toponyme mentionné dans la littérature ancienne syro-orientale.
قلعة وكنيسة بازيان، آخر المكتشفات وفرضيات جديدة
بموقعها على التخوم بين سهل بلاد الرافدين وبدايات سلسلة جبال زاغروس، تساهم آثار بازيان في دراسة المسيحية في شمال العراق خلال الفتح الإسلامي. ولأجل هذا، نحتاج لفهم تموضع ثلاثة عناصر هي: تحصين المركب وإدخال كنيسة داخله وتحديد وظيفة الحجرات المحيطة به. والمقالة الحالية تتمة لسلسلة دراسات تركز على المراحل الأولى لاستغلال البشر للموقع. وسنكشف فيه عن نتائج آخر البعثات التنقيبية داخل وخارج المركب المحصن، فيما تستمر أعمال تحليل الموقع ومواده الآثارية حتى اللحظة. كما يناقش المؤلفون عدة فرضيات حول وظيفة المكان بوضعه في سياقه المحلي الأوسع، إذ يمكن لحصن بايزان أن يكون موقع دير أو أنه مكاناً للحج مرتبط بتبجيل رفات قديس ما. وأخيراً، يقترج المؤلفون دراسة الموقع من منظور الوصف الجغرافي له في المصادر الأدبية السوريانية الشرقية القديمة.
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Excerpt
Outline
Latest findings inside and outside the fort
A storage room inside the fort
The disturbed area in the southwest part of the fort
Exploration to the south of the fort
The nature of the site: an ascetic and pilgrimage site?
A typical monastery of North Mesopotamia?
Bāzyān as a pilgrimage church, around a local cult
Was it possible for a monastery to receive laypeople inside its precincts?
Who was the founder, or the ascetic honoured at Bāzyān? A proposal
Conclusion
First lines
Ancient remains of churches and monasteries are now quite numerous in the southern part of Mesopotamia and around the Arabian Gulf, but ancient testimonies are still rare to the north of Baghdad, in what was once the cradle of Persian monasticism. Therefore, Bāzyān offers an excellent case study to measure the spread of Christianity at the turn of the Sasanian and Islamic eras. Yet the site still raises many difficult questions because of its current physical condition and its recent excavation history.
The fort of Bāzyān is located near the modern town of Taqiyya, on the south side of a mountain pass that goes through the first western ridges of the Zagros. It is about fifty kilometres east of Kirkuk and forty kilometres northwest of Sulaymāniyya (fig. 1). From 2011, the Iraqi Kurdish and French archaeological mission of Bāzyān, led by Narmin A. Amin and Vincent Déroche, carried out successive excavations that helped to improve our knowledge of this site: firstly, the main phase of ...
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References
Bibliographical reference
Narmin A. Amin, Simon Brelaud, Vincent Déroche and Justine Gaborit, “The Fort and the Church of Bāzyān, Latest Discoveries and New Hypotheses”, Bulletin d’études orientales, LXVIII | 2023, 121-141.
Electronic reference
Narmin A. Amin, Simon Brelaud, Vincent Déroche and Justine Gaborit, “The Fort and the Church of Bāzyān, Latest Discoveries and New Hypotheses”, Bulletin d’études orientales [Online], LXVIII | 2023, Online since 01 January 2026, connection on 22 March 2025. URL: http://0-journals-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/beo/8501; DOI: https://0-doi-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/10.4000/beo.8501
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