Note 155 — Chapter VII · MÔṢUL TO ZÂKHÔ April 28—May 10

An account of Mâr Behnâm has been published by Pognon: Inscriptions de la Mésopotamie, p. 132. He believes that the existing church is due to a reconstruction that took place in the twelfth century, but its original form seems to him to be the same as that of Mâr Gabriel of Kartmîn in the Ṭûr ’Abdîn, a church which I should date not later than the sixth century. The history of Mâr Behnâm would therefore offer an exact analogy to that of the churches of Môṣul, according to my theory; it is a mediæval building following the lines of a very early structure. Pognon gives a good illustration of the altar niche in the tomb (Pl. VIII), which is dated the year of the Seleucid era corresponding to 1306 A.D. The superstructure he takes to have been a baptistery.