تاريج باطنايا انكليزي

Batnaya

The name Batnaya is or Aramaean origin derived from either "Beth Tnyay"

meaning "The House of Mud" or "Beth Tnaya" meaning "The House of

Assiduity". In the past Batnaya used to be famous for making matting from

the reeds its people used to cultivate in the valley of al-Khoser river.

Currently, some of its inhabitants are cultivating different kinds of crops

while others are involved in non-agricultural trades

Batnaya used to be called "Beth Madaye" meaning the "House of the

Medes" where it's believed that a group of the Medes who followed the

Median monk Oraham (Abraham) settled there around the seventh

century. It's also believed that Christianity reached Batnaya around that

time. As all the other currently Chaldean villages, Batnaya used to follow

the Church of the East rite, referred to as Nestorian by the Catholic

Church, till the sixteenth century when finally the efforts of the Catholic church gained fruit and the Eastern Church was divided. However, again

as is the case with all the other villages of the plain of Nineveh,

Catholicism did not gain ground till around mid 18th century. Batnaya was

attacked by the army of Nader Shah in 1743 who destroyed the village

extensively and is believed to have killed half of its inhabitants. In 1944

the Mar Qeryaqos Church was built on the ruins of a monastery by the

same name believed to have been built early 15th century. A second but

smaller church Mart Maryam was built in 1866, while the church of Mar

Gewargis was mentioned in an inscription dating 1745. In Batnaya are

several inscriptions, one dating to 1545 by Darweesh bin Yohanan from

the village of Aqreen is entitled "Prayers for the Dead", another one is a

complete bible inscribed in Syriac by the priest Ataya bin Faraj bin Marqos of Alqosh dating 1586.