Abrohom Gabriel Sowmy

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‘’’Abrohom Gabriel Sowmy’’’ born in 1913 in the city Midyat in Turkey was a praised Assyrian author and poet. He is known in the Assyrian community as a historian, poet and political idealizer in the 20th century. His writings created a base from which many Assyrian political and cultural movements in Europe emerged in the late 20th century. Sowmy’s literary works in Assyrian language included 3 original poems (“Tammuz and Ishtar”; “Shamiram” and “Leshono Oromoyo”), several re-creations of pré-Christian mythological poems (most famous is “Gilgamesh”), one theatre play (“Abgar Ukomo”) and a series about Assyrian Culture (“Mardutho dSuryoye”) in which he gives the reader scenes about the evolution of Assyrian Culture from Sumerian and Akkadian Period until the first half of the 20th century.

Early life and education

Born in 1913 to the Beth ‘Antar family that flew from the Ottoman persecution in Kfarze, Turkey, in 1870 for kidnapping one of the women of the family, they established in Midyat and remained there. During the Sayfo Genocide, he and one brother, Skandar, 2 years older, were sent away from Midyat but the donkey they were sitting in the saddlebags went astray, being found by an Armenian woman who had lost her son in the Armenian Genocide and went astray in the mountains. They remained hiding and moving until 1919 when she took them to Adana and there, priest Youhannon Dolabani took the children under his care. Afterwards they were raised among the orphans of the Assyrian Orphanage of Adana until it was closed in 1922 by the Turkish government. From Adana they immigrated to Syria and from there the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch, Elias III sent them together with Youhanon Dolabani to Jerusalem to re-open the school at St. Mark´s Monastery.

After graduation from St. Mark´s school he studied at British schools (St. George´s and British Institute of Technology) from where he came out as a Civil Engineer and Architecht. At St Mark´s he learnt Syriac, Arabic and English languages but as the monastery was a central point to piligrimage he learnt 1,500 Syriac Orthodox church melodies from people that were always going on piligrimage from India and Middle East and also from the “turoye” immigrants that flew from Sayfo (Jerusalem had many Assyrian refugees who came from Miden, Esfes, Azekh, Ainwardo). In the 1940´s until the end of British Mandate in Jerusalem, he taught these melodies to many children who were part of the choirs of the Syriac Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem and also of Bethlehem Afterwards he immigrated to Brazil.

He was perhaps the only Assyrian to spread the Assyrian Cuture in the Radio during the 1940´s. He had a program during WWII in Radio of Jerusalem; he would recount the story of Assyrian lyric authors then sing the same lyric he discussed in English or Arabic, in Assyrian language while being accompanied by a violinist. He had a very good voice and during one of his programmes the radio orchestra maestro heard him and asked him to sing with the radio choir (they were in all 180 musicians, jew and british singers, who studied western music). Abrohom did not study music and it was then that he discovered that his voice was classified as “tenor” regarding the height. Because of his love for sacred music and his participation in the radio choir he made his children study western music while he taught them oriental music (from “beth gazo” and “shehimo”). In Brazil he built the first Syriac Orthodox Church in Brazil, St. John Church (Igreja São João Batista) which Patriarch Yakoub III layed its Foundation Stone in April 1958 while visting Brazil and on his return from Argentine, he consecrated it in August 1958 (as same Patriarch declared: “a miracle from God, to build a church in 4 months”). Still, he taught and trained, in Assyrian language, his children and 18 other deacons, all the church mass and the deacon consacreation prayers for the day the Patriarch would consacrate the church (August, 10th, 1958). In the 1980’s he taught and trained more than 40 children Assyrian language and church musics to sing and serve the Church. In 1956 he began his monumentous work: Mardutho dSuryoye. He had a deal with his former teacher, Archbishop Youhannon Dolabani, that he would write the pre-christian history of the Assyrians and Dolabani would write the Christian history but Dolabani had begun to translate into Syriac “al-lul almanthur” (the scattered perals) of Patriarch Aphrem I which would have many points of coincidence with Abrohom´s intention and so declined from the work; but he wrote the preface of the 1st volume. In this way, Abrohom undertook the task of having to write the second part of Mardutho dSuryoye. The Christian part of the Assyrian history.

Publications

The first volume he sent to Argentine, to Farid Elias Nozha, an Assyrian of great knowledge of Assyrian language but seen as a rebel by Patriarch Aphrem II (Nozha took side with Assyrians of USA who did not want to change the church name from Assyrian Apostolic Church to Syriac Orthodox Church and was excommunicated by Patriarch Aphrem II and latter, reintegrated by Patriarch Yakoub III, during his visit to Argentine, who understood Nozha´s standpoint). Nozha had the only setting letters printer in Syriac (Assyrian) in South America at that time. He would print chapter by chapter of Abrohom´s book and send it for corrections, to Abrohom. This work went on from 1958 to 1967 when the first volume was distributed. Then it took many years to re-plan the following volumes and when the second volume was ready for printing, Nozha died and so Abrohom had to make and correct it by himself in hand writing and printed it in Brazil but now this was done using the off-set machines. Volumes 10 and 11 he used them to publish 400 melodies in western graphic musical symbols so that any western maestro who did not know Assyrian language could play the music. This was done together with his son Bassimo (born 1946, Jerusalem); he would record the musics (church songs) on magnetic tape and Bassimo would put them in music notation which he had already learnt (he was a piano virtuose). These two volumes are free to be downloaded from the Syriac Orthodox Church of Santa Maria in the web, in PDF format. Volume 12, also about music, was not published but was finished in 1991. Santa Maria Church is promising to have it also in the web. Abrohom and his brother Skandar (born in 1911, Midyat, died Jerusalem 1948) in 1947 and 1948 had a major role on disclosure of the history of discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls, and also launching the theory that the Dead Sea Rolls were from an Essene Monastrey. Author and historian John C. Trever had many contacts with Skandar (at that time: father Petros Sowmy) and Abrohom, since his thesis preparation in the American School of Oriental Research (ASOR) in Jerusalem and afterwards in the USA, only with Abrohom, in Brazil..

Work

Assyrian Language (Syriac Ktobonoyo) 1. Abgar Ukomo, 1942- Unpublished 2. Shamiram, 1942 (poem with editor, to be published in 2019) 3. Leshono Oromoio, 1942 (poem published by Assyria) 4. Mardutho dSuryoye, Argentine, 1967. 5. Mardutho dSuryoye- vols. II thru XI. Brazil. 1968 to 1990 6. Tammuz & Ishtar (poem in: Mardutho dSuryoye, vol.IV) 7. Gilgamesh (poem in: Mardutho dSuryoye, vol.IX) 8. Sharbo dTaufono Rabo (poem in: Mardutho dSuryoye, vol.IX) 9. Ktobo dmaktab zabne dSuryoye. Brazil, 1992 Arabic Language 10. Kitab al-maqalat fi al-umati as-Suryanyati, Brazil, 1979

References

Trever, John C. The Untold Story of Qumran. USA, 1965 To download volumes 10 and 11 use links: http://www.igrejasiriansantamaria.org.br/partituras/marduthodsuryoyevolx.pdf and: http://www.igrejasiriansantamaria.org.br/partituras/marduthodsuryoyevolxi.pdf Story of Discovery of Qumran first 4 Scrolls was retold inassyrian, portuguese and english languages at: www.syriac-br.org which was discontinued in 2004. to hear Abrohom Gabriel Sowmy´s voice in his magnetic recording converted to MP3 go to: http://www.igrejasiriansantamaria.org.br/musicadosecv.htm (access in 10/10/2018) Interview with Abrohom Gabriel Sowmy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzXz03fqA2g (access in 10/10/2018)

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