Dayr Marsarjis
دير مرسرجس
The monastery three farsakhs above Balad on a high summit visible for leagues; at its gate grew an unnamed tree whose leaves never fell and whose fruit resembled the almond — perhaps the unique tree of the world that Ibn Wahshiyya recorded — while starlings held its mountain untrapped, guarded by night-snakes 1.
At a glance
- Region
- Levant & Iraq
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
Overview
The Monastery of Marsarjis stands above a town three farsakhs away, on the top of a high mountain that can be seen from several farsakhs off. 1
Al-Umari's description
At its gate is a tree whose kind no one knows. Its leaves never fall, and it bears a fruit like an almond. Al-Umari suggests that it is the tree that Ibn Wahshiyya said is the only one of its kind in the world. On its mountain are starlings that never leave it and are never hunted, and in its ravines are many snakes, which keep people from hunting them at night. 1
Sources
- Masalik al-absar fi mamalik al-amsar — al-Umari (1924 printing), p. 304
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Dayr Marsarjis”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/building/dayr-marsarjis/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-17.