Mount Judi (; ; ; ) is a mountain in Turkey. It was considered in antiquity to be

Noah Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...

's or "Place of Descent", the location where the Ark came to rest after the

Great Flood A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primeva ...

, according to very early Christian and

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

traditions (the latter based on the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

, 11:44). The Quranic tradition is part of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic belief. The identification of biblical Ararat with Mount Judi as the landing site of the ark persisted in Syriac and

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

tradition throughout

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

. Only during the Middle Ages was this identification abandoned in favour of another mountain, which had not until then been referred to by any of the native peoples as

Mount Ararat Mount Ararat, also known as Masis or Mount Ağrı, is a snow-capped and dormant compound volcano in Eastern Turkey, easternmost Turkey. It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat and Little Ararat. Greater Ararat is the highest p ...

(a double-peaked massif, today the highest mountain in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and now generally known by that name).

Location

Mount Judi is situated in Turkey's

Şırnak Province Şırnak Province (, ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province in Turkey in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. Şırnak Province was created in 1990, with areas that were formerly part of the Siirt Province, Siirt, Hakkâri Province, Hakkâri and Mardin ...

, near the villages of Derebaşı and Boyunyaka, at latitude: 37°22'28.21" and longitude: 42°28'16.03". It is a peak northeast of the town of

Cizre Cizre () is a city in the Cizre District of Şırnak Province in Turkey. It is located on the river Tigris by the Syria–Turkey border and close to the Iraq–Turkey border. Cizre is in the historical region of Upper Mesopotamia and the cultura ...

in south-east Turkey, at the headwaters of the

Tigris The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...

River, near the modern border with

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

and

that ''That'' is an English language word used for several grammar, grammatical purposes. These include use as an adjective, conjunction (grammar), conjunction, pronoun, adverb and intensifier; it has distance from the speaker, as opposed to words li ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. A 10th-century historian placed it c. ) from the Tigris.

Etymology and historical discussion

The mountainous area that Mount Judi is part of, was known as ''Qardū'' () in Syriac texts, ''Gordyene'' by Greek and Roman writers, and ''Kordukh'' in Armenian. Syriac, Islamic, and early Christian traditions identify Mount Judi or ''Qardu'' as a peak near or northeast of the town of Jazirat ibn 'Umar in (modern

)

Upper Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia constitutes the Upland and lowland, uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, the regio ...

, at the headwaters of the

River.

Arab historian Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

Al-Masudi al-Masʿūdī (full name , ), –956, was a historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus of the Arabs". A polymath and prolific author of over twenty works on theology, history (Islamic and universal), geo ...

(d. 956), reported that the spot where the ark came to rest could be seen in his time, and that it was located at 80

parasang The parasang, also known as a farsakh (from Arabic), is a historical Iranian peoples, Iranian unit of Walking distance measure, walking distance, the length of which varied according to terrain and speed of travel. The European equivalent is the ...

s (approximately ) from the Tigris. The mountain was historically located in the province of

Corduene Gordyene or Corduene (; ; ) was an ancient historical region, located south of Lake Van, present-day eastern Turkey. According to the ''1911 Encyclopædia Britannica'', Gordyene is the ancient name of the region of ''Bohtan'', now Şırnak Prov ...

, south of

Lake Van Lake Van (; ; ) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey in the provinces of Van Province, Van and Bitlis Province, Bitlis, in the Armenian highlands. It is a Salt lake, saline Soda lake, soda lake, receiv ...

. The Arabic word ''al-Jūdiyy'' (), originates from the Syriac word ''Gudo'' () meaning "Mounds" or "Elevations". The relation of some of the spellings is clear. The origin of ''Judi'' is less clear. It is usually interpreted as a corrupted version of the same name, via ''Al-Gurdi'' (Reynolds 2004). Since at least 697 BC, it was often held that after the ark came to rest on the mountain, Noah and the survivors of the flood (who were thought to have numbered 80) came down from it, and built this town to the south of the mountain, hence the name of ''Thamānīn'' (). The proposal that the two names are ultimately the same was first advanced by the English Orientalist

George Sale George Sale (1697–1736) was a British Orientalist scholar and practising solicitor, best known for his 1734 translation of the Quran into English. In 1748, after having read Sale's translation, Voltaire wrote his own essay "De l'Alcoran et ...

. In his commentary about the

( 11:4; the verse that mentions the landing of Noah's ark upon ''Al-Judiy''), the English Orientalist

said: () was known to the

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

as ''Tumurri'' or ''Tumurru'', to the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

as ( or ), and to the

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

as (). Sale goes on to say that there was once a famous Christian

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

on the mountain, but that this was destroyed by lightning in the year 776 AD, following which: The Arabic name of the mountain, ''Judi,'' has also been proposed to be a corruption of the written in Arabic with the Arabic letters waw (و) and raa (ر) being confused in early Islamic manuscripts due to their early resemblance, and then making its way into the Qur’an and Islamic tradition. This is supported by the fact that only in the

Syriac Bible Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic. Portions of the Old Testament were written in Aramaic and there are Aramaic phrases in the New Testament. Syriac translations of the New Testament were among the first and date from the 2nd century. The whole Bible ...

is the mountain which Noah's ark rested on called ''Qardō,'' as opposed to Ararat in other Bibles.

Religious traditions

Christianity

The

east of the River Tigris had a legend of the ark resting on mount ''Djûdi'' in the land of Kard. This legend may in origin have been independent of the

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Religion * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...

account of

Noah's flood The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is a Hebrew flood myth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the microcosm of Noah's ark. The B ...

, rooted in the more general Near Eastern flood legends, but following the Christianization of the Syrians from about the second century AD, it became associated with the

Mountains of Ararat In the Book of Genesis, the mountains of Ararat (Biblical Hebrew , Tiberian ', Septuagint: ) is the term used to designate the region in which Noah's Ark comes to rest after the Great Flood. It corresponds to the ancient Assyrian term Urartu ...

, where Noah landed according to Genesis, and from

this legend also spread to the

. The Armenians did not traditionally associate Noah's landing site with

, known natively as ''Masis'', and continued to associate Noah's ark with Mount Judi, until the

11th century The 11th century is the period from 1001 (represented by the Roman numerals MI) through 1100 (MC) in accordance with the Julian calendar, and the 1st century of the 2nd millennium. In the history of Europe, this period is considered the early ...

. The biblical ''Ararat'' is thought to be a variation of ''

Urartu Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centered around the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia, and Lake Sevan. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia.Kleiss, Wo ...

'', an ancient term for the region north of ancient

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

, which encompasses the

Armenian plateau The Armenian highlands (; also known as the Armenian upland, Armenian plateau, or Armenian tableland) Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquit ...

. According to

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, the Armenians in the first century showed the remains of Noah's ark at a place called αποβατηριον "Place of Descent" (, ''Nakhichevan'',

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

's Ναξουανα), about southeast of the summit of

( ).Conybeare (1901) The "mountains of Ararat" in Genesis have become identified in later (medieval) Christian tradition with the peak now known as "Mount Ararat" itself, a volcanic massif now in modern Turkey and known in Turkish as "Agri Dagh" (Ağrı Dağı).

Islam

According to the Qur'an (11:44), the final resting place of the vessel was called "Judi", without the word "mountain". The ninth century

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

geographer

Ibn Khordadbeh Abu'l-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh (; 820/825–913), commonly known as Ibn Khordadbeh (also spelled Ibn Khurradadhbih; ), was a high-ranking bureaucrat and geographer of Persian descent in the Abbasid Caliphate. He is the aut ...

identified the location of mount Judi as being in the land of Kurds (''Al-Akrad''), and the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

historian

Al-Mas'udi al-Masʿūdī (full name , ), –956, was a historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus of the Arabs". A polymath and prolific author of over twenty works on theology, history (Islamic and universal), geo ...

(c. 896–956) recorded that the spot where it came to rest could be seen in his time. Al-Mas'udi also said that the Ark began its voyage at

Kufa Kufa ( ), also spelled Kufah, is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates, Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Along with Samarra, Karbala, Kadhimiya ...

in central Iraq, and sailed to

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

, where it circled the

Kaaba The Kaaba (), also spelled Kaba, Kabah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaba al-Musharrafa (), is a stone building at the center of Islam's most important mosque and Holiest sites in Islam, holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Sa ...

, before finally travelling to Judi.

Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography con ...

, also known as Al-Rumi, placed the mountain "above Jazirat ibn Umar, to the east of the Tigris," and mentioned a

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

built by Noah that could be seen in his day, and the traveller

Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn ...

passed by the mountain in the 14th century.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Judi Geography of Şırnak Province Mountains of the Armenian Highlands Mountains of Turkey Noah's Ark Sacred mountains of West Asia Taurus Mountains Zagros Mountains