The Last Days of Atla Kandi

By Eddie Davood

Nestled in the green meadows of the Plain of Urmia in Northwest Iran are located numerous Christian villages with a rich historical heritage.
Atla kandi, as it is known by Assyrians, is one of the oldest villages in Urmia. Its antiquity is attested by the historical buildings that are part of its landscape.
One of these buildings is the Church of Mar Gewargis. The tombstones in the adjacent cemetery attest to the antiquity of both the village and the Church. This monument is listed as a historical site by the Iranian Ministry of Art and Culture.
To the Church belongs the 300 year’s old handwritten book of Khudra (The Assyrian book of Civil and Canon Law). The codex dates back to 1719 A.D.
This book is a must-read for those who are interested in the history of antiquity and ancient village communities rooted in pre-historic times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669816119

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Copyright © 2022 by Assyrian American Association of San Jose & Eddie Davoud.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 05/04/2022

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgment

Foreword

Introduction

Atla Kandi

The Churches in the Village of Atla Kandi

The Book of Khudra in Mar Gewargis

The Catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal Churches at Atla Kandi

Mr. Paul Binyamin

George Shamun Nia

Youbert Lazar

Nanajan (Pauline) Bejan

Other Well-Known Persons

Senaey School

Khoudur

The Cemetery of Atla Kandi

Ayna-d-Miya (The Water Spring)

Abara: (The Brook)

Gobi (pool of standing water)

Aghour

The Polo Orchard

Lake Urmia

Shahra (Festival of Atla Kandi)

Atla Kandi and the Landlord

The Residents of Atla Kandi in Abadan

The People of Atla Kandi in USA

The Population of Atla Kandi in 1985

Epilogue

DEDICATION

T o the beloved friends who shared memories of the village of Atla Kandi with me.

[e-mail]

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

T he cost of the publication of The Last Days of Atla Kandi were covered by The Assyrian American Association of San Jose.

Many thanks are due to Nineva Ishaya for editing the manuscript, and to Rochelle Yousefian, the president of the AAA of San Jose, who not only did the formatting on the translated manuscript, but also adopted the design from the Assyrian Palace relief of King Tiglath Pileser as a border for the back page of the book.

FOREWORD

I t was in the cold and snow-filled winter of 1993 (1372 of Iranian calendar) that I was completing my survey of the Churches in Iran when one of my friends informed me that there was a church in the unknown village of Abdollah Kandi of which we have not known or visited. This came as a surprise. A name like Abdollah Kandi with an active church! We did not even know the location of the village and had to stop frequently to inquire about its whereabouts until we finally reached the small village in an old Model Peikan.

The village was located on the north end of the plain of Urmia. It had no more than a few households. The Church of Mar Gewargis was located on the corner of the village next to a refreshing spring of water (this Spring is now dry). After a preliminary visit we were informed that on the north end of the Church there was an old tombstone with undecipherable script. It was winter and snow had blanketed most of the region as well as the tombstone. So we waited until spring thaw and returned to the village to take a picture of the tombstone, which we did. This