Arameans native to SE Turkey
In the early Byzantine period and the first centuries of Islam, Tūr ‘Abdīn was probably inhabited almost entirely by Christian Arameans. Later, more and more Muslims (mainly Kurds) settled there.
W.P. Heinrichs, “Tūr ‘Abdīn,” in P.J. Bearman et al. (eds.), in The Encyclopaedia of Islam Vol. X (Leiden: Brill, 2000), p. 666.
