Kusīk; Kūsīk; Kusik; Koussika Complete

Description

An abandoned desolate monastery (?) in Jabal Bārīšā registered in TIB 15 on p. 1411 as Kusīk. Also spelt: Kūsīk, Kusik, and Koussika. Our map gives an approximate location. Klaus Peter Todt and Bernard Andreas Vest in TIB 15 list only buildings which can be associated with a monastery or a hermitage: a chapel/small church with a tower/hermitage, a five-room building, a ruined wall, two oil presses, and four cisterns. However, since the site was subject to a very limited survey, and further finds may come up in the future. Importantly, this very minor establishment produced at least two Syriac inscriptions alongside carvings of crosses and graffiti. The presence of Syriac inscriptions points to a rather late foundation of the complex. Literature (after TIB 15): TIB 15 – Todt, K.P., Vest, B.A., Tabula Imperii Byzantini, vol. 15 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2014), p. 1411; Peña, I., Castellana, P., Fernandez, R., Les Reclus Syriens (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1980), p. 81; Peña, I., Castellana, P., Fernandez, R., Les cénobites syriens (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1983), 38, 46, 55, 80, 186–189, 255–258, 269; Inscriptions: Jarry, J., ‘Inscriptions arabes, syriaques et grecques du massif du Bélus en Syrie du nord [avec 42 planches]’, Annales Islamologiques 7 (1967), 154, nos. 25–26 (two Syriac inscriptions).