Deir al-Surian (officially Monastery of the Holy Virgin of the Syrians) is a Coptic monastery in what used to be the desert of Sketis (now Wadi al-Natrun, Egypt), but, as the name shows, has received its popular name from the fact that is was inhabited by a combined Syriac-Coptic community from the 9th till the 16th century.
It was founded at the end of the first quarter of the 6th century by monks from the neighbouring monastery Deir Anba Bishoi, who were in a theological conflict with their fellow-monks about the question of the corruptibility of the body of Christ. The region was raided by nomad tribes from time to time, and after a particularly destructive incursion at the beginning of the 9th century, Syriac monks helped the Copts in restoring and reviving the monastery.
Many of the monks, among whom the famous abbot Moses of Nisibis, originated from the region in Syria that is now northern Iraq/eastern Syria/south-eastern Turkey. From various texts we know that especially the towns of Mosul and Tikrit were places from where monks came to this monastery. The period of 9th to 13th century must have been particularly prosperous for the monastery. One of the largest Syriac libraries was collected here and the church of the monastery, dedicated to the Holy Virgin, was decorated with mural paintings, stucco, and decorated woodwork, for which the parallels are hard to find.
After the 13th century the monastery went into decline. In the 18th and 19th centuries most of the Syriac manuscripts were taken away by Europeans and are now in libraries in London, Vatican City and St. Petersburg. Most of the mural paintings were covered by plaster at the end of the 18th century and the monastery lost much of its glory.