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ASSYRIANS, KURDS,
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ASSYRIANS, KURDS,
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Intercornmunal Relations
on the Periphery of the Ottornan Ernpire
Hirmis Aboona
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AMHERST, NEW YORK
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Copyright 2008 Hinnis Aboona
All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into

a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any fonn, or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior pennis-
sion of the publisher. In fond memory
of my son Rafid
Requests for pennission should be directed to:
[email protected], or mailed to:
Cambria Press
20 Northpointe Parkway, Suite 188
Amherst, NY 14228 ,'~
Aboona, Hinnis.
Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans : intercommunal relations on the periphery
of the Ottoman Empire / by HinnisAboona.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60497-583-3 (alk. paper)
1. Assyrians-Middle East-History. 2. Syriac Christians-Middle East-
History. 3. Kurds-Middle East-History. 4. Middle East-Ethnic relations.
5. Islam-Relations-Christianity. 6. Christianity and other religions-Islam.
i. Tit1e.
DS59.A 75A28 2008

305.6'756-dc22
2008047956
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xv
Chapter 1: The Homeland and Origin

of the Independent Assyrian
Tribes of Tiyari and Hakkari 1
Chapter 2: Church, State, and Social Life 33
Chapter 3: The History of the Church

of the East Down to the Arrival
of the Roman Catholic Missionaries 49
Chapter 4: The Roman Catholic Missionaries

and Their Impact on the Assyrians 71
Chapter 5: The Kurdish Settlement

in Ancient Assyria 89
Chapter6: The Ottoman Reforms 113
Chapter 7: The Reforms and the People of the Book 135
Chapter8: The Beginnings of Centralisation 155
Chapter9: Beirakdar and the Achievement

of Centralisation 169
viii ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS
Chapter 10: The Subjection of the Assyrian

Tribes in 1843 195
Chapter 11: Great Britain, the Ottomans,

and the Assyrian Tragedy 215
Chapter 12: Tekboma: The Last Assyrian

Independent Province 239
Chapter 13: The End of the Kurdish Wars 257
Chapter 14: Conclusion 279 FOREWORD
Appendices 287
Appendix A: The Line of Mar Shimun 287
Appendix B: Assyrian Dioeeses by Area/Region 290
Bibliography 299 Hirmis Aboona's Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans: Intercommunal

Relations on the Periphery o/the Ottoman Empire is a work that will be
Index 317 of great interest and use to seholars of history, Middle East studies, inter-
national relations, and anthropology. It presents eompelling researeh into
numerous primary sourees in English, Arabie, and Syriae on the ancient
origins, modem struggles, and distinetive eulture of the Assyrian tribes
living in northem Mesopotamia, from the plains of Nineveh north and
east, to southeastem Anatolia and the Lake Urmia region. Among other
findings, the work debunks the tendeney of modem seholars to question
the eontinuity of the Assyrian identity to the modem day by eonfirming
that the Assyrians of northem Mesopotamia told some of the earliest
English and American visitors to the region that they deseended from the
ancient Assyrians and that their ehurehes and identity predated the Arab
eonquest. ı lt details how the Assyrian tribes of the mountain dioceses
of the 'Nestorian' Church of the East maintained a surprising degree of
independenee until the Ottoman govemor of Mosul authorised Kurdish
militia to attack and subjugate or evict them.
x ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Foreword xi
Many scholars, in the U.S. and elsewhere, have decried the racism of the Assyrians). No other work, however, provides an equally detailed
and 'Orientalism' that characterises much western writing on the Middle and ambitious depiction of Assyrian-Kurdish relations in northem Mes-
East. Such writings conflate different peoples and nations, and move- opotamia from the Seljuk Turkish invasions up to the mid-nineteenth
ments within such peoples and nations, into unitary and malevolent century. Furthermore, Aboona's attention to the various ecc\esiastical
hordes, uncivilised reservoirs of danger,ı while ignoring or downplaying sects within the Assyrian community and their history during the period
analogous tendencies towards conformity or barbarism in other regions, in question is of vital importance, as these religious denominations are
inc\uding the West. 3 Assyrians in particular suffer from Old Testament rarely discussed in reference to each other, but rather solely in reference
and pop-culture references to their barbarity and cruelty, which ignore or to the Ottoman State. The work also details geographically the largely
downplay massacres or torture by the Judeans, Greeks, and Romans who overlooked Assyrian tribal homeland in the nineteenth century.
are celebrated by history as ancestors of the West. 4 This work, through The chapters, in roughly chronological fashion, discuss the process
its rich depictions oftribal and religious diversity within Mesopotamia, by which formerly autonomous Assyrian tribes came to be brought
may help serve as a corrective to this tendency of contemporary writ- under more direct Ottoman rule, and suffered cultural and ethnic
ing on the Middle East and the Assyrians in particular. Furthermore, devastation and the loss of many of their ancestral villages along
Aboona's work also steps away from the age-old, oversimplified rubric the way. Chapter i sets the geographic and sociocu1tural stage quite
of an 'Arab Muslim' Middle East, and into the cultural mosaic that is concisely and usefully, and describes, among other things, the differ-
more representative of the region. 5 en ce between the independent Assyrian tribes under the temporal as
Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans: Intercommunal Relations on the well as the spiritual leadership of the patriarch of the Church of the
Periphery of the Ottoman Empire will stand as a lasting contribution to East (with the descendible title Mar Shimun), and the dependent and
the history of Christianity in Asia, of the Ottoman Empire, and of one of semi-independent tribes, which tended to live in the plains rather than
the Middle East's largest ethnic and religious minorities. As an account in the mountains. Chapter 2 explains the temporal leadership of the
of the Assyrians' nineteenth-century struggle for independence from Assyrian patriarch, who administered laws from the mountain seat
Ottoman rule, it has no peer. Other works are strong on Assyrian his- of his church in Qudshanis, in the Hakkari mountains, and enjoyed
tory and Ottoman-Christian relations in Mesopotamia during other peri- the loyalty ofthousands of Assyrian musketeers. Chapter 3 details the
ods, particularly in the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries (e.g., original division of the Assyrian and Babylonian Christians into tradi-
David Wilmshurst's The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of tionalİst (Church of the East), Catholic (Chaldean), and Monophysite
the East, 1318-1913 and Christoph Baumer's The Church of the East: (Jabobite 'Syrian') denominations. Chapter 4 recounts the competi-
An fllustrated History ofAssyrian Christianity); the Hamidiye massacres tion of European powers for m issionary inroads into the Assyrian fold.
of the 1890s (e.g., Sebastien de Courtois' The Forgotten Genocide: The Chapter 5 describes the origin of the Kurds in Persia and Azerbaijan,
Eastern Christians, the Last Arameans); and World War i and its after- and their migration into Mesopotamia beginning in the ninth century
math in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Persia (e.g, Abraham Yohannan's and accelerating with the Seljuk Turkish and later the Mongol con-
The Death of aNation, or, The Ever Persecuted Nestorians or Assyr- quests, reaching a mini climax after the Ottoman settlement of Kurds
ian Christians, Joseph Naayem's Shall This Nation Die?, David Gaunt's on the Persian border as a sort of defensiye barrier. Chapters 6 through
Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in East- 8 deal with the tentatively modernizing reforms of an era in which the
ern Anatolia During World War I, and Ronald S. Stafford's The Tragedy Ottoman Empire encountered increasing instability in the eighteenth
xii ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Foreword xiii
and early nineteenth centuries, due largely to its conflicts with several ENDNOTES
European empires, Persia, and Arab, Kurdish, and various Orthodox
Christian rebels. Chapters 9 and 10 recount how the Ottomans deter-
mined to bring the independent Assyrians and nearby Kurds under 1. Such important references from Aboona will further aid in the correction of
central govemment control, leading to the deaths of thousands of the now disproved theorythat the opposite occurred (i.e., that westem trav-
Assyrians in campaigns by Kurdish tribes under Badr Khan Beg with eııers and missionaries named the Assyrians).
Ottoman acquiescence. Chapters 11 and 12 deseribe the final siege of 2. Scholars frequently cite films such as Aladdin (Disney 1991), True Lies
the independent Assyrian tribes and British efforts to urge the Otto- (20th Century Fox 1994), and 300 (Wamer Bros. 2007), which portray
westemers as heroic and virtuous and Middle Eastem people as evil, bar-
mans to put down the Kurdish tribes under Badr Khan Beg. Ultimately
baric, depraved, dictatorial, and violent. See Jack G. Shaheen, Reel Bad
the Ottomans and a rival Kurdish leader prevailed in 1847, ending the Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (New York: Olive Branch Press,
'Kurdish war'. 2001), and Kai Hafez, ed., Islam and the West in the Mass Media: Frag-
This work provokes new questions that may give rise to further mented Images in a Globalized World (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press,
research. How, for example, did the independent Assyrian tribes and the 2000).
Church of the East manage to carve out a zone of autonomy so close 3. Regarding the tendency to ignore atrocities by or in westem nations, geno-
cide scholar Adam Jones has written, 'For proponents and defenders of
to the Ottoman vilayet of Mosul, not to mention Persia? Why were
Westem states, for those who buttress the idea of the West's exceptional
the independent Assyrian tribes caught off guard and deported from role as a civilizing force, ... [d]emocratic states "wouldn't do" something
their lands so easily in the 1830s and 1840s, after resisting centuries atrocious; therefore they "don 't" '. Adam Jones, introduction to Genocide,
of such attaeks by their loeal rivals? How did the Jaeobite Assyrians of War Crimes, and the West: History and Complicity (London: Zed Books,
southeastem Anatolia and the Chaldean Assyrians of urban Mosul and 2004), 1ı.
its environs reaet to the devastation of the independent Assyrian tribal 4. Compare, for example, Chris Bergeron, 'At the MFA: Art and Archaeol-
ogy', Daily News Tribune (Waltham, MA), 21 September 2008, at http://
regions, as it oeeurred?
www.dailynewstribune.com/arts/x689528668/AT-THE- MFA-Art-and-
Aboona's book is an engaging first look at the tribal politics and eth- archaeology (noting the 'brutality' and 'murderous ferocity' ofancientAssyr-
noeultural and interreligious eonfliet and cooperation in northem Meso- ians); with H. W. F. Saggs, Everyday Life In Babylonia and Assyria (New
potamia and southeastem Anatolia during the Iate Ottoman period. He York: Dorset Press, 1987), 99, who wrote, 'The Assyrian Empire was effi-
has begun to earve out aniche for Assyrian studies within the field of cient and would not gladly bear those who wished to upset the civilised
modern Middle Eastem studies that speeifieally deals with this under- world order, but it was not exceptionaııy bloody or barbaric. The number
of people killed or mutilated in an average Assyrian campaign in the inter-
studied indigenous people, laying the groundwork for future research.
est of efficient administration was, even in proportion to the population,
probably no more than the number of dead and mangled humans that most
Hannibal Travis Westem countries offer annualIyas a sacrifice to the motor-car, in the sup-
Visiting Associate Professor of Law posed interest of efficient transport'; Magnus Magnusson, Archaeology of
Yillanova University School of Law the Bible (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), ı 78, who wrote, '[T]there
is no evidence that the Assyrians were more cmel in their methods of war-
Sargon George Donabed fare than any oftheir contemporaries were', and 'no mention of Assyrian
Adjunet Professor of Religious Studies "atrocities'" in some contemporary sources describing the fall of a city to
Stonehill College
xiv ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS
Assyria. The Macedonian Greeks, Judeans, Romans, and Persians would

crucify hundreds or thousands of individuals upon suppressing a rebelIion
or conquering a city. See K. C. Hanson and Douglas E. Oakman, Palestine
in the Time of Jesus: Social Structures and Social Conf/icts (Minneapolis,
MN: Fortress Press, 2002), 92 (Alexander the Great crucified two thousand
Phoenicians in Tyre in 332 BC, and the high priest of Judah crucified eight
hundred rebel Judean prisoners in 88 BC); John Pairman Brown, lsrael and
Hel/as, vol. 2, Sacred lnstitutions With Roman Counterparts (New York:
Walter de Gruyter, 2001), ıo7 (six thousand prisoners were crucified by
Romans after revolt led by Spartacus in about 70 BC, and three thousand
were crucified or impaled by Darius the Great after the conquest of Babylon
in 521 BC).
5. Such homogenisation tends to elide the differences between distinct ethnic
groups such as Assyrians, Kurds, and Arabs. See http://www.aaiusa.org/ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
page/file/6a268f886 i laOed6f23zemvy7hy.pdfINY demographics.pdf.
My work owes a great dea i to the Iate Sir Anthony Parsons; without
his encouragement and advice, this book would not have been written.
i would like to thank Dr. Ian Netton who spared no effort to assist me
in accomplishing my research. Dr. Youssef Choueiri also helped me
tremendously in the re search for this book. My thanks go to Professor
James Maurice for his kind help and understanding.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the Department of Arabic
and Islamic Studies, particularly Angela 801ton, as well as the libraıy
staff, especially Paul Auchterlonie, for helping me during the years of
my study.
Special thanks go to Professor Amir Harrak, University of Toronto,
with who m I had many and veıy fruitful discussions, and for encourag-
ing me to bring this to fruition.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my wife Nany for her care and
for my younger son Cal for his care of the whole family during the years
of my illness.
r
ASSYRIANS, KURDS,
AND ÜTTOMANS
CHAPTER 1
THE HOMELAND AND ORIGIN

OF THE INDEPENDENT ASSYRIAN
TRIBES OF TIYARI AND HAKKARI
ı. THE HOMELAND AND !Ts LOCATION

During the period under study, the country of the Assyrian tribes occupied
the central parts of ancient Assyria. J. W. Etheridge stated that
Adiabene, Ashur, or Atyria, Assyria were names for the same

region. In this region, lived from time immemorial, the Assyrians
as independent people, and during the first half of the nineteenth
century they were in constant contlict with the Kurds for pastoral
rights. Because they were independent therefore they were called
'Asherat' .1
According to Asaheel Grant,
Assyria was bounded according to Ptolemy on the north by part

of Armenia and mount Niphatis on the west by the Tigris; on the
2 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Homeland and Origin of the Independent Assyrian Tribes 3
south Susiana: on the east by Choatra and Zaggros. The country created the Sanjaq of Hakkari, which was later subject to further regula-
within these Iimits is caııed by some the ancient Adiabene (or tions and amendments. 9
rather Adiabene was included in Assyria) and by others Atiria or However, the territories of the independent Assyrian tribes bordered
Atyria-Assyria is now caııed Koordistan. 2
those of semi-independent Assyrian tribes. The viiiage of Mellawa marked
This definition seems to match with that given by the historians ofthe the border between the independent tribes and the semi-independent and
ancient world and by c1assical scholars, who define Assyria as the tri- Ra 'aya (which literally means "standard" or "flag" tribes; i.e., those sub-
angle between the two lakes of Van and Urınia and the city of Mosul. 3 dued by Turks or Kurds) towards the north and northeast. It was under
Earl Percy wrote that the country of the Assyrians, or Nestorians, the rule of the Turkish Pasha of Bash Qaııa. lo
extended from Bitlis to Mosul along the Tigris River, with the Persian
frontier forming its eastern \imit along the height of land running from Description of the Independent Assyrian Country
Lake Urmia to Karınanshah. 4 An Assyrian writer defined the country The beauty of the Assyrian tribes' country overwhelmed foreign visi-
between the mountains in the north, the Euphrates in the west, and tors who had access to visit it after 1839. Grant stood on the peak of
the Zagros in the east as the region where the Assyrians had lived in Mount Asheetha enjoying the impressive scene around him. He was
large numbers for ages. 5 Etheridge stated that "the region principaııy able to command a view of Asheetha to the south, Amadia further south,
inhabited by them has been the mountain country in the interior of Zakho to the west, and the Zab River descending in the distance to the
Assyria, adistrict they have possessed for ages as an independent peo- southwest. Ju/amergi was visible to the northeast. He could also see the
ple though subject to frequent collisions with the Nomadic tribes of Liehun River descending to join the other branch forıning the Zab River.
Koordistan".6 The villages of Hertush were visible to the northwest, while Chamba,
The country of the independent tribes occupied the upper vaııey of the capital of Upper Tiyari, lay at a distance to the northeast. From the
the Zab River. More accurately, the Zab with its tributaries runs through- same spot, the district of Tekhoma was c1early visible to the southeast.
out the country ofTiyari and Hakkari, dividing it into two halves. 7 Both Further northeast was the summer resort of King Ismael ofTiyari, while
Upper and Lower Tiyari lay on the western bank, while other provinces Jelu and the viiiage of Zawetha lay to the south-southeast. 11 This was the
known as Hakkari lay on the east side and contained the lands of the country described by manyas a Garden ofEden. lı
independent tribes ofTekhoma, Baz, Jelu, and Diz located near the bor- The British diplomat James Rich was the first European to give a
der of Persian Azerbaijan. The district of Julamerk-Kochanis, which detailed account of the independent tribes and their country and also the
was the centre of these provinces, was a short way northwest of Zab. first to venture to send an envoy with a post to Constantinople through
The mountain ranges of Jabal Tur Abdin overlooked the western bor- their country. Speaking about his desire to sen d the post, he wrote,
der, while Persian Azerbaijan adjoined the eastern border. To the north,
the country reached as far as the immediate district south of Lake Van. To reach Asia Minor by this route, he [the envoy] would have to
Ainsworth mentioned that the Tura (mountain) of Matineh defined the pass through the wild and inaccessible country of the Chaldean
Christian Tribes who, I believe, are the only Christians in the East
country on the west. 8
who have maintained their independence against the Moham-
During the first part ofthe nineteenth century, this country was known etans, to whom they have rendered themselves very forınidable ...
as Tiyari and Hakkari. After Turkish authority was estab\ished over the The men are aıı remarkable for strength, size, and bravery, and
whole region (1831-1847), a new administrative regulation of 1868 it is said to be less safe to pass among them than through the
4 ASSYRıANSı KURDSı AND OTTOMANS The Homeland and Origin of the Independent Assyrian Tribes 5
Mahometans tribes. They inhabit the country between Amadia and Iinguistic map as a result of invasions, massacres, and settlements of
Julamerk, in which tract there is onlyone Mahometan tribe. They alien people. 16
give something to the Prince of Hakkari, occasionally, when he
conciliates and entreats them, but never by compulsion. The terri-
Persian Azerbaijan
tory of Hakkari extends to within about two hours' journey from
Urmia.'3 Towards the east, the country of the Assyrian tribes was two hours' dis-
tance from Urm ia. i 7 The Assyrians of Persian Azerbaijan were concen-
Rich further spoke about the state of independence of the tribes and trated throughout the whole region of Lake Urmia, which measured fifty
their firm controlover the borders of their country. He described what miles long. Here were the fertile plains, which stretched westward to
his envoy encountered as the first stranger to approach their southem the border of Turkey. As Dr. Grant leamt from the local Muslims, the
border in 1820. His Turkish Tattar was stopped: Assyrians had been settled there before the advance of the Muslims and
They asked him what manner of man he was: he told them he was even in the pre-Christian era, white according to local Muslim scholars,
an Osmanli, but they did not understand what that meant; and, Afshars and other Muslim group s had settled there only in the elev-
to his great scandal, though he durst not express it, they neither enth and fifteenth centuries. The Assyrians had succeeded in tuming
knew nor cared about the Sultan. They comprehended, however, their land into a veritable paradise as westem visitors and observers
that he was a Mussulman, and told him they had been there long described it; however, massacres and persecution and ethnic cleansing
before his Mahommed. 14
had gradually thinned this dense population of Assyrians, until in the
Badger described the nature of the country and its inaccessibility, latter half of the nineteenth century, only 102 villages remained. 18 1t was
which he thought was a prime factor enabling the Assyrians to resist the among the Assyrians of Persian Azerbaijan that Rome enjoyed its great-
attacks of the Kurds and the aggression of their other powerful neigh- est successes in converting the followers of the Church of the East to
bours, as well as the incursions of the Catholic missionariesY Catholic doctrine. 19 Similar activities took place in the Ra 'aya districts
of Bash Qala, adjoining the Persian border, near the uppermost tributar-
ies of the Zab. 20
2. THE REGIONS SOUTH OF THE TRIBES' COUNTRY
The Plain of Nineveh Districts of Ra 'aya

The homeland of the Assyrian independent tribes was surrounded on There were many districts containing large numbers of Assyrian Ra 'aya.
the east, west, and south by Assyrian provinces whose inhabitants were They were subject to Kurdish and Afshar landlords, and according to west-
semi-independent or mostly Ra 'aya to the Kurdish and Afshar landem observers they suffered continual oppression, persecution, and exploi-
lords. To the south lay Amadia, which demographically formed a con- tation. Among these were the districts of Gawar or Gavar, Somai, Chara,
tinuation of the Assyrian population, who shared a common history, and Mamoodiah. 21 In the district of Berwar, located south of Tiyari, its
religion, tradition, language, and cu1ture with the rest oftheir commu- intense Assyrian concentration was reduced to seventeen villages, which
nity extending further south throughout the plain of Nineveh. Thus, were all that remained from the preceding changes: Bebal, Ankari, Mal-
as has been mentioned, geographically, the whole region from Lake kta, Halwa, Bismiyah, Duri, Iyat, Aina Nuni, Derishki, Mayah, Akushta,
Van to Mosul was from the earliest times to the period under study the Misekeh, Robarah, Dereghl, Tashish, Besh, and Hayis. 22 In 1846 Layard
homeland of the Assyrians, despite the drastic changes in the ethnic and visited Berwar and reported that the district contained villages belonging
i
,
to both Kurds and Nestorians. 23 Similar developments had affected the

Assyrian settlement in the upper regions of Persian Azerbaijan.
ii District of Gawer
As has been mentioned, all Assyrians, whether they were independent,
i
semi-independent, or Ra 'aya tribes, were in constant contact with their
District of Dilman, Persian Azerbaijan
i patriarch as their religious head, while he was the civil leader of the
i
The Assyrian presence in Persian Azerbaijan suffered a steady decline. i independent tribes as welL. All districts maintained their strong attach-
During the first half of the nineteenth century, their numbers fell sharply ment to the see oftheir church and remained loyal to its doctrine. People
throughout the regions where they had formerly formed the who le popu- from all districts were paying regular visits to the Patriarch, even ifthey
lation. By 1840, only sixty-three villages remained in the province of came from such distant provinces as Gawer. 29
Dilman northwest of Lake Urmia. That remnant came under intensive In the second decade of the nineteenth century, J. S. Buckingham
pressure from Catholic missionaries, and many of them were converted passed through ancient Assyria and was able to see the large numbers of
from their ancestral doctrine. 24 the Assyrians in their homeland, including the region of the upper Zab
River. He stated that the whole population was Christian Nestorians and
Bash Qala whole villages could not speak any language except their native Syriac. 30
Bash Qala is one mile north of the town of Albaq, near the ancient Assyr-
ian monastery of the 'Seven Churches'. The missionary Thomas Laurie
3. TRANSPORT AND COMMVNICATIONS
reported on 5 July 1841, that the Kurds had recently invaded the Assyr-
ian village of 'Seer' and taken away everything that the villagers had A country with such difficul! terrain as the homeland of the Assyrian
possessed. The inhabitants described to him the cruelty that their Kurd- independent tribes must have presented serious daily challenges to its
ish neighbours had practised against them and how sharply the continual inhabitants. The movement of the people was very restricted in all prov-
attacks and oppression had reduced their once substantial numbers. 25 inces ofTiyari and Hakkari, owing to the inaccessible nature of the terrain.
This was true during all seasons; however, in winter, the difficulties were
District of Albaq and Van compounded by snow, which usually blocked all the routes and access so
Assyrian villages were spread throughout this as well as the other adjoin- completely that hardly anyone ventured to take eve n a shortjoumey.
ing districts. A route from there led to Kochanis, the seat of the patriarch As the most populous place, and hence the most active economically,
Mar Shimun. 26 The road south from the city of Van led to Kochanis and Asheetha became a hub for business, commerce, and transport to other
ran through fertile orchards and fields in the midst of breathtaking scen- provinces; however, this applied only to the Upper Tiyari and the east-
ery. Many Assyrian villages were located along this four hours' route, em provinces of Hakkarİ. Lizan, which was also a large viiiage, had the
such as Sura d'Mmidayi (Baptised) and Hoze near Van. 27 advantage of its location on the Zab, with a very busy bridge across the
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Major-General Sir Charles river joining the two halves of the country. Mosul was the main source
Wilson followed the route from Van to Jezerah ıbn Omar in what is now of supply for the Assyrian tribes, and the most useable route to it passed
southeastem Turkey. He reported that many of the Assyrian Christian vil- through Chamba in the centre of Upper Tiyari to Asheetha Dory, Ama-
lages north of the Bohtan River had been completely deserted by their dia, and Dohuk. 31
inhabitants due to the attacks oftheir neighbours, but there were stili many The inaccessibility of the country was also noted by those who had
Assyrian villages on the south bank. He also noticed many Nestorian and an opportunity to visit it or became acquainted with its conditions. The
Chaldean villages along the route between Si 'arat and Mardin. 2S American missionaries were the earliest westemers to enter the Tiyari
!
and Hakkari and gaye details about its inaccessible nature. According use, but the Assyrians were accustomed to carrying the elderly and
to one,'[S]ome of the districts ... are so rough that no beast of burden personal loads with confidence. The patriarch Mar Shimun had a notable
can travel over them and even men find it difficult to climb about from experience with using one of these bridges when his carrier threatened _
cliff to cliff' .32 To move around, people had to wear special mountain to throw him into the river unless he let him smoke before mass. 42 Regu-
shoes called rashichi or, in winter, snowshoes made from thick leaves.J3 lar roads were unknown; the tracks of mules and other domestic animals
People of different villages were able to caıı to one another across the were all that marked the paths-which were rocky, treacherous, and
deep streams, but to reach each other required ajourney ofmany hours. 34 narrow-running along the mountain slopes or between the mountain
These difficulties were compounded during the winter, 'the road thither bases and the banks of the swiftly flowing rivers. 43 Hence people used
being impassable to mules or horses on account of the snows' .35 While to measure the distance between places by the time they took walking
heading to Asheetha, Layard noticed that wild goats might use the path, through.
but certainly not horses and mules; if they got through, it was surely a
miracle. 36 The passes were so difficult that in many places footholds were The Chamba Bridge and the Connection With Kochanis
cut into the rock to fit aman's foot to the cliffs on both sides. 37 Traveııers As has been mentioned, Chamba, the centre of the Upper Tiyari, stood
had to use their hands to keep their balance and cross by narrow tracks on the bank of the Zab River. Here the Assyrians built another bridge
on the edges of steep cliffs. 38 This might explain why crossing the district across the ri ver, which measured 150 feet in length and 3 feet wide, ri s-
of Jelu and Baz required two days' journey. To ascend the narrow gorge ing 20 feet above the water level. 44
leading to Tekhoma, one had to take a most difficult and inaccessible As the see of the patriarchate and residence of Mar Shimun, Kocha-
path, along which were located four villages of this district. The houses, nis was constantly visited by Assyrians from all districts. Many Kurdish
however, were nicely distributed through the vaııey for miles alongside aghas (landlords or chiefs) also attended his daily audiences to discuss
the streams. Except in the northwestern stretches, they were built on the issues between their peoples. Those who came from the Jelu district had
mountain slopes one above another, so that the flat roof of the lower to pass the highest mountain in the region called Tar d'Jelu, meaning the
house served as the forecourt of the upper one. 39 Unlike Tiyari, this dis- mountain of Jelu. They reported that the path was completely unmarked,
trict included no good farınland; the people had to carry soil from distant since it went over solid rock and was thirteen thousand feet above sea
places to fiıı the man-made terraces40 on the slopes of the mountains-an level; even the mules had to stop and carefully check the safety of the
achievement that astonished the visitor Ainsworth. These conditions ham- road before taking a step forward. 45
pered communications between various provinces and settlements-for
instance, to reach the district of Tekhoma from Baz entailed crossing the
4. THE INDEPENDENT TRIBES
high mountains and deep gorges, which took a long time. 41
Dr. Browne, who spent twenty-five years in the country, became inti- The independent Assyrian tribes were living side by side with their
mately acquainted with its conditions, carried on intensiye studies of Hakkari Kurd partners in the emirate of Hakkari. In the middle of the
the land and the people, and travelled widely. He noticed that crossing- nineteenth century, the western observers found the tribes living in
bridges were sometimes as narrow as one foot and onlyone foot above a compact body in their homeland. Among some prominent tribes
the water leveL. These crossingbridges were mostly used for driving mentioned by Ainsworth were the Upper and Lower Tiyari, the Tobi
sheep and were made oftree trunks. They were difficult for strangers to (Techoma-Tekhoma), the Jellawi (Jelu), the Piniyniski, the Al Toshi,
10 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS
i The Homeland and Origin of the Independent Assyrian Tribes 11
the Artoshi Bashi, the Bazi, the Sati, the Ormari, the Julamergi, the 5. VILLAGES OF THE INDEPENDENT ASSYRIAN TRIBES
Dez, the Siliyahi, and the Berwari.46 Each tribe had its own ruler or
Tiyari
chief, known as the malik, who was appointed by Mar Shimun, where
Before the various westerners began visiting the homel~nd of the
the office was not hereditary. Mar Shimun was the patriarch of all
Assyrian tribes after 1839, there was no detailed information or statis-
the Nestorians, whether they were independent, semi-independent, or
tics regarding the conditions in their country. Until Dr. Grant arrived in
Ra 'aya. He was the temporal and spiritual head of his nation, and they
November of 1839, and then Dr. William Ainsworth in June 1840, the
recognised no leader but him. Mrs. Bishop closely examined his status
tribes' country was completely unknown to the outside world. Along-
and authority:
side his deep involvement in the political affairs of the tribes and the
Mar Shimun is not only a spiritual prince but the temporal ruler region at large, Grant observed the related issues conceming the general
of the Syrians [Nestorians] of the plains and of the mountains of conditions of the people and their country, and he was the first to reveal
Central Kurdistan, as weıı as ajudge ... He appoints the Maleks or them to the outside world in much details. The next year, Ainsworth, the
lay rulers for each district, where the office is not hereditary, and
envoy of the archbishop of Canterbury, produced additional information,
possesses ecclesiastical patronage. For four centuries the Patri-
arch has been of the family of Mar Shimun, which is regarded as in particular a survey of the provinces and villages. His mission opened
the royal family; and he is assisted in managing affairs by a 'fam- the first chapter in British-Assyrian relations, which led eventuaııy to the
ily council' .47 establishment of a permanent British vice-consulate at Mosul.
Christian Rassam, who accompanied Ainsworth on this visit to the
Maclean and Browne found that 'Mar Shimun exercises temporal as
homeland of the independent tribes, was shortly after appointed as Brit-
weıı as spiritual jurisdiction, especiaııy over the tribes of independent
ish vice-consul at Mosul. An Assyrian native of the Chaldean Church
Syrians [Nestorians] of Tiyari and Hakkari',48 while Dr. Grant's assess-
who came from a prominent Christian family in Mosul, he served as a
ment was that 'he is in an important sen se the temporal as well as the
link between Great Britain and his nation.
spiritual head of his people'.49 Wigram put the political status of the
To understand the extent and nature ofthe tribes and their country, as
patriarch above his ecclesiastical authority, stating that 'Mar Shimun
well as the rest of Mar Shimun 's foııowers, it is important to examine
is accustomed to think of himself rather as a chief of his nation than
Ainsworth's account and compare it with those written by others. The
as Patriarch of his Church (or to be accurate not to separate the se two
region that came under the direct focus of various interested westem
offices in his mind)' .50 As has been noted, it should be remembered that
powers was dotted with towns, villages, and pre-Islamic monuments that
the civil authority of the patriarch was limited to the independent tribes,
showed that it had been inhabited by the Assyrian people from the dawn
while the rest ofhis followers recognised only his religious authority, as
of history. The settlements formed a largely homogenous ethnic, linguis-
they had done since their split from the Church of the East in 1580.
tic, and religious extension to those of Tiyari and Hakkari. The Syriac-
Rich also described the political conditions in great detail and referred
speaking people who inhabited the territory of ancient Assyria were the
to the tribes' state of independence. He affirmed that they were the only
only survivors of Assyria and Babylonia. s2 Speaking about the district of
Christian body in the East who maintained their independence by force
Amadia, Layard stated,
of arms, acknowledging their bravery and ability to defend their free-
dom, as did many other Europeans who got to know the same region The plains of Amadia contain many Chaldean villages, which were
afterwards. S1 formerly very f1ourishing. Most of them have now been deserted,
and the inhabitants have taken refuge in the higher mountains from Chiri, Suwa, Golosel, Mar Kiriyakos, Akoshi, Chalchan, Gorsi, Savarins,
the violence and tyranny of Kurds and Turkish governors, and and Chemmasha.
from the no less galling oppression ofproselytizing bishops.53 The following villages belonged to other districts: Walto, Neivdi,
Gesnak, Paprashin, Burun, Bijani, Gawar, Albak, Shams-ud din, Shapat,
The surviving remains ofNineveh and the Babylonians were mainly to
Brasinnai, Dirakan, and Narwa in Amediaya, or Bahdinan.
be found in the so-called Assyrian triangle between Mosul, Lake Urmia,
and Lake Van.
7. THE SEMI-INDEPENDENT AND RA 'AYA
6. THE DISTRICTS OF THE INDEPENDENT TRIBES The semi-independent tribes enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy in
controlling their own affairs and usually recognised Mar Shimun as their
In addition to the Upper and Lower Tiyari country, the following are
religious leader, while at the same time, they paid an agreed tribute to
some of the districts of the Assyrian country in Hakkari district east of
their Kurdish landlord. In the Ra 'aya provinces, the Assyrians Iived
the Great Zab, mainly those of the independent tribes.
under the direct control of the Kurds and Afshars in both the Ottoman
Empire and Persia, and there were no independent centres. This was due
District of Jelu
to the drastic changes in the demography of the land and the success of
Alson, Jelu, Zirinik, Mar Zya, Thilana, Ummut, Zir, Sirpil, Bobawa,
both the Kurds and Afshars in subduing various Assyrian settlements,
Shemsiki, and Murtoriya.
which, in the words of W. Wigram, had turned the original inhabitants
into serfs tilling their own ancestral lands under their new masters. 55
District of Julamergi Many western traveliers observed the harsh conditions in which these
Julamerk, Kochanis, Burjullah, Espin, Gavanis, Kotranis, Euranis, Syri- people were !iving. During her travels in Persia and Turkey, Mrs. Bishop
ani, Daizi, Shamasha, Mar Dadishu, Madis, Merzin, Zerwa, Deriki, Kermi, was able to see at first hand the persecution and exploitation that the
Gesna, Kalanis, Khazakiyin, Kewuli, Meilawa, Pisa, and Alonzo. Assyrians were suffering. Among other districts, she reported the dete-
riorated conditions in the region of Van, where the Assyrians formed a
District ofTekhoma (Tobi) continuation of those in Tiyari and Hakkari. She attested to the degra-
Kunduktha, Muzra, Tomago, Berjai, and Jissah. dation of the people in the villages of Katranis, a typical example for
the living conditions of all the eighty thousand Assyrian Christians who
District of Baz inhabited the region. 56
Orwantiz, Shoawootha, Argub, and Kojijah.
8. ORIGIN OF THE TRIBES

District of Diz
The smail town of Diz occupied a strategic location on the route between Badger's Theory of Refugees Moving
the country of the independent tribes and the Assyrian and Kurdish dis- From the South to the North
tricts in Persian Azerbaijan such as Bash Qala, Albaq, and Salamis, and Beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, the history and ori-
Van in Turkey.54 The villages of Diz were Rabban Dadishuh, Maddis, gin of the people was much debated. The majority of western visitors
14 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Homeland and Origin ofthe Independent Assyrian Tribes 15
agreed on the antiquity of the people in their homeland, and that they embracing also a part of Armenia and ancient Media' .58 According to
were the lineal descendants of the people of Nineveh. Badger, how- Chesney, Joseph Bonomi stated that the German archaeologist Dr. Shultz
ever, advanced the theory that the people were refugees from the had discovered the city of the Assyrian queen Semiramis along the south
south, driven northward by the Mongol invasions and massacres, par- shore of Lake Van and had copied forty-two cuneiform inscriptions. 59
ticularly the horrible slaughter of Timur Lang (1393-1401), which During his residence at Mosul, Fletcher found that '[t]he Chaldeans
had forced the people to take refuge in the mountainous regions of and Nestorians are the only surviving human memorial of Assyria and
Assyria. The contemporary western scholars and missionaries who Babylonia' .60 Archaeological evidence showed that Nineveh was thinly
observed the conditions and investigated the history of the people in populated after it fell to the anti-Assyria alliance known as 'uman-
question rebutted this theory and affirmed the antiquity of the peo- manda' in 612 BC, and an Assyrian population survived there under the
ple in their homeland, providing concrete evidence to support their rule of successive dynasties:'On the conquest ofNineveh by Nabopol-
convictions. 57 assar, the city was by no means destroyed. It probably shared, with the
rising Babylon, the favour of the sovereign, who was still sometimes
Refutation of Badger's Theory styled the king of Assyria' .61 Ainsworth referred to Tavernier and his
Badger's theory ofrefugees from the south does not stand on any solid description to the city with reference to earlier writers who had writ-
historical foundation and betrays a lack of insight into the history of ten about it. 62 Even their Turkish oppressor, Beirakdar Pasha of Mosul,
the region and its people. At first acquaintance, one might be led to acknowledged that the Assyrians had lived in their country since time
believe that there are some facts to support it, since it was connected immemorial. 63
to a period that witnessed bloodshed, general disorder, and insecurity. Records of succeeding period s show that the people did not move
The region that came under Timur Lang's attacks might have offered in droves from one region to another, but remained strong enough to
some of the victims many alternatives to escape the pressing danger. influence their successive rulers in the fields of culture, religion, and
Normally when people are faced with immediate danger, they attempt language. Wigram's statement might be considered typicaL. He wrote,
to flee to safer places; and in this case, the Mongols under Timur Leng
dominated the plains of Mesopotamia, which could not provide the lt is sometimes said that the Assyrian or Nestorian Christians
have no connection with the Assyrians of antiquity, either by
same safety as the mountainous regions to the north. But a thorough
language or, so far as is known, by race. With all respect, the
inquiry must consider both the geography and the political and military present writer ventures to differ altogether from that conc\usion,
factors, notably, how Timur Lang and his huge armies were constantly and to assert his belief that the present Assyrian, Chaldean, or
scouring throughout Mesopotamia for eight years. This fact enables us Nestorian, do es represent the ancient Assyrian stock, the sub-
to account for the fate of the people who fell under the direct thrust of jects of Sargon and Sennacherib, so far as that very marked type
the invading armies and provides much evidence to disprove Badger's survives at alL. it is not amatter that is capable of documen-
tary or monumental proof, from the nature of things, but cer-
theory.
tain facts that can be quoted seem to speak at least as loudly
The scholars who intimately studied the Assyrians became convinced as do the word s of any historian. Here are a people who, in the
that they had survived and remained in their homeland ever since the time of the beginning of the Christian era, are found living in
fall ofNineveh. J. Perkins stated that 'Koordistan is the ancientAssyria, the lands where, in the year 600 B.C. the Assyrian stock had
been established since history began; nor is there any record the people on the ground affirmed that there are also monumental and
of any considerable immigration into, or emigration from, that architectural remains throughout the region, which suggest a longer
land, in the interval. Their own traditions affirm that theyare of residence of Nestorians in Kurdistan before the Mongol invasion
the old Assyrian blood, with a possible intermixture of certain
and pre-Islamic era. Maclean and Browne affirmed the existence of
Babylonian or Chaldean elements. 64
pre-Islamic monuments, among which were churches, monasteries,
Thus the tribes of Tiyari and Hakkari, who are the direct descendants and the geographical names for the mountains, rivers, valleys, and so
of those who survived the fall of the Assyrian Empire, had remained in forth. 69
their ancestral homeland, as is evidenced by numerous towns and vil- To begin criticizing the theory of refugees, we must understand that
lages that have continued to exist to the present time. Their settlement the topography of Mesopotamia and Assyria (approximately present-day
stretched from Mosul to the shores of Lake Van. 65 Iraq) falls into three different zones:
Many scholars and historians have affirmed that the majority of the
inhabitants of the rolling and mountainous regions of Mesopotamia and 1. Zone A: Mountainous, stretching from zone B to the Ararat
ancient Assyria before the Mongol invasion were Assyrian Christians. 66 Mountains on the north, and to the Zagros to the east, as shown in
Thomas Laurie believed that the Assyrians had been in their homeland the following sketch.
before Timur Lang's invasion. 67 The continuity of the Aramaic language, 2. Zone B: Rolling, stretching from zone A to a distance of about
which was the language of Assyria and has continued to be spoken in the thirty to fifty kilometres north of Mosul, Arbil, Kirkuk, and Kufri.
country of the independent tribes and the other regions of Assyria until 3. Zone C: A flat region, located to the south of the Hamrin
the present time, is further evidence of the persistence of the population. HiIIs.
Professor Jrgen Laessoe stated that 'in smail places in Iraq, Aramaic
dialects are stili spoken by smail groups of the population, a belated
survival of the last spoken language of Mesopotamia in ancient times of
Babylonia and Assyria' .68 Zone A: Mountainous Regions
Another indication of the weakness of Badger's theory of refugees
from the south is the large number of Assyrian monuments and historic From zone B to Van-Se·arat
architectural remains throughout the rolling and mountainous regions,
which attest to its Assyrian culture well before Islamic times, some of Zone B: Rolling Regions
them even going back to pre-Christian times. The evidence appears

An average approximately 50 km north/northeast of
not only from the ruins and the Syriac/Assyrian geographical names Mosul. .. Arbil. .. Kirkuk ... Kufri
of many towns and villages that are well attested from older sources,
but also from the political and religious history of the people during Zone c: Fiat Regions
and after the chaotic years, which is well preserved. Travellers and
historians, as well as the remnant ofthe monks throughout the region, From south of zone B to the Arab Gulf
continuously recorded the existing conditions. Scholars who examined

Before Timur's invasion, the Assyrian people were to be found in all untouched by Timur. What, then, about the fate of the population of the
three zones, as well as in Persian Azerbaijan. Adiabene, which included other two zones, A and B?
in its territory the homeland of the independent tribes, was mostly within Following the routes of Timur's invasion from i 393 to 1401,14 we
zones B and C. Speaking about ancient Adiabene, Grant wrote, find his advance covering both zones A and B. In practice, people who
face danger try to ftee for safety and escape the threat of massacre. Those
it is worth particular notice that the most central parts of this with the best chance to escape were the inhabitants of zone B, because
region are, and have been from time immemorial, entirely inhab- their homes were nearest to the place of refuge in the mountains (aver-
ited by the Nestorians, to the exclusion of every other class of
age thirty to fifty kilometres), while those who were living in the ftat
people. A great part of the Independent tribes ofTiari [Tiyari] and
the whole of the tribes of Tekhoma, Bass, Jelu and other smailer regions, zone A, had comparatively less chance to escape. The short-
tribes, are included in the boundaries of Adiabene. 70 est distance from central and southem Mesopotamia to places of safety
ranged between six hundred and twelve hundred kilometres. So it must
The majority was concentrated in zone B, as far as the region of Urhai be kept in mind that even if refugees from central and south Mesopota-
(Urfa-\.i')JI 'ilA.))), northwest of Mosul and the region of Adiabene, mia managed to leave their homes, they stiıı faced a journey of about
with Arbil as its centre. Christianity was introduced there in the first one month on foot across the country where Timur and his armies were
century and became well established in the second,11 and the Assyr- constantly scouring. Between i 393 and 1401, Baghdad was sacked in
ians people were among the earliest to embrace the new faith. Edessa three successive campaigns, each of which infticted severe destruction
(Urfa), Nisibis, Bald, Mosul, and Arbil (the old region of Adiabene), throughout Mesopotamia and Assyria. 75
which ftourished over centuries as Syriac/Assyrian centres of education Since ancient times and up to the present, when faced with imm i-
and theological leaming, could never have been established and main- nent danger, the people of Mesopotamia have taken refuge in the moun-
tained unless there had been a majority of Assyrian inhabitants in those tains for a time, and then when the danger seems over, retumed to their
parts. The European traveııers who passed through the region of ancient homes. A native historian of Mosul mentioned in the eighteenth cen-
Assyria many times during the thirteenth century explicitly noted that tury that Nineveh had been repopulated once again during the Muslim
the original inhabitants then still formed the majority of the population. 72 advance of the seventh century.76 Just so, during the horrible massacres
Church records attest to their large concentration from Lake Urmia to of Timur and his followers, the only survivors were the mountain people
Lake Van and on into the upper-central and southem regions of Mesopo- or others, mostly from zone B as seems likely, who managed to ftee their
tamia. 73 Those records belong to the period both before and after Timur homes and take refuge among their brethren in the high country.71 The
Lang's invasion, though giying different figures. non-Turkish ethnic and religious groups adopted the same survival strat-
If, as Badger supposed, people from the south took refuge in the egy during the Ottoman military campaigns of centralisation. 78
mountainous region (zone C), it foııows that the people aıready settled While it seems fair to assume that the invasion of Timur Lang brought
there, besides being safe themselves, were able to offer protection to destruction to many Assyrian provinces, common sen se and the anal-
their brethren from central Mesopotamia (zone A). If the local inhab- ogy ofwhat happened during later invasions support the Assyrians' own
itants had not themselves been Assyrians, they would have rebuffed tradition, which is that many people from the rolling regions that came
the refugees. Even if we accept Badger's theory in this modified form, within the reach of the invaders managed to ftee temporarily from their
we shaıı have to conclude that the inhabitants of zone C were largely homes. On this subject, the Assyrians told Dr. Grant,' [Olur fathers sought
an asylum among our fellow tribes in their mountains. [And] when the were depopulated and abandoned to the nomad, and many flourishing
country became quiet we gradually retumed to our present homes'. The towns were so completely destroyed that they have never recovered'.SI
refugees could not have got shelter and asylum in the mountain regions The Kurds, as we are told by their own historians, joined and partici-
if they had not been among their own people. 79 Horatio Southgate, dur- pated in Timur Lang's invasion, especially during his attack on Van and
ing his first visit to Mesopotamia in the Iate 1830s, advanced the same the district east of the country of the independent Assyrian tribes. Along
theory as Badger; however, during his next visit in 1844, when he more with the Turkomans, they filled most of the depopulated districts that
c10sely examined the conditions, he corrected his opinion and affirmed had been previously inhabited by millions of Syriac/Aramaic-speaking
that the people had been in their homeland since time immemorial: people and Armenians since time immemorial. It is well known that the
Kurds did not suffer from the Mongol invasion as much as the Assyr-
i was at first surprised to find so large population of Syrians so far ian inhabitants of the land, especially those dwelling in the open plains
separated from the mass oftheir community in Mesopotamia and of Assyria. This was because the vast majority of the Kurds were then
Syria .. .i saw that these of Kharpout were only a continuation of
nomads moving between Persian Azerbaijan and Assyria, and living
that population from the East, and not, as i had at first supposed,
emigrants from the south. 80 more in the high valleys than in the towns and villages, which were
chiefly populated by Armenians and Nestorians. 82
With the conversion of the Mongols to Islam under Ghazan Mahmud Thus the homeland of the Assyrians was subject to constant changes
(1295-1304) and his adoption of a policy of general persecution of the in its demography due to the continual waves of invaders and settlers
Christians in the I1khanid Empire, the patriarch ofthe Church ofthe East from Persia, a pattem that progressively thinned out the original inhab-
had to fiee from Baghdad and become a fugitive running from place itants. The demographic changes struck those European scholars and
to place. He settled for a while successively in Maraghah (~IY'), then traveııers who happened to visit Mesopotamia for the first time. Thus
Arbil, Karrniles, Mosul, Jezerah ıbn Omar, and Dair Rabban Hormizd Tavemier, during his Persian travels in the eighteenth century, wrote
near Alqush. Since the vast majority of the former inhabitants of the of 'the Arabians and Curds [Kurds], which are the inhabitants of the
rolling country retumed to their homes after the storm subsided, the ancientAssyria, now called Curdistan' and noted that he 'made choice of
surviving bi shop s also retumed to their fiocks, who mainly lived there. a Curd, or Assyrian, for our Caravan Bashi' .83
Among those who did so were the bishop and people of Arbil, as well
as the inhabitants of the towns and villages from Urfa to Sulaimaniyah Historical Monuments in the Assyrians' Homeland
through Mosul, Arbil, and Kirkuk. Evidence of this appears in the conti- As had been stated, it was during the early centuries of the Christian era
nuity of the ethnic and religious settlements there with their established that the Assyrians professed the Christian faith brought to them by the
Syriac tradition and culture. People retumed to their ancestral towns apost1es St. Bartholomew and St. Thomas, and by Addai and Mari, who,
even though the invaders had devastated many of them. The Yazidis of according to tradition, were two of the seventy-two disciples mentioned
the Sinjar and Shikhan districts also made their escape to safer places, as in Luke ı o: ı. Rich foııowed Tavemier in his reference to the Assyrian
their present-day settlement attest. Syriac-speaking followers of the Church of the East and their historic
What Timur's invasions did was to reduce the numbers of the Assyr- name. Speaking about the early spread ofChristianity among the people,
ian Syriac-speaking population in the rolling region (zone B) and to rav- he stated, 'The Chaldeans or Assyrians received Christianity in the time
age their country. In the words of Sir Charles Wilson, '[Llarge districts of the twelve apost1es' .84 Christianity was deeply rooted in Assyria, and
the structures of the Church of the East reveal the early establishment of The historical evidences supporting the long residence of the inde-
the churches and administratiye institutions. Southgate noted the exis- pendent tribes in Tiyari and Hakkari were also to be found in the sur-
tence of ancient traditions among the Assyrians that dated back centuries rounding Assyrian provinces. In the region of Urmia, many ancient
before the Christian era, such as the feast ofNineveh, and stated that the monuments confirm the antiquity of the Assyrians in the land before the
patriarch Mar Joshu Bar Nun had merged the sees of 'Adiabene' and advance of Islam:
'Ashur'(Assyria) under one metropolitan. 85
Maclean and Browne observed that The Church of Mart Mariam (St. Mary) in the town ofUrmia is
by far the most interesting building the Syrians possess in Persia.
lt is said to have been built by the Magi and contain the tomb of
there are Churehes, some said to be built by kings, which are one ofthem. 93
claimed to date from before Mohammed, as Mar Giwergis (George)
of Khananis, and two Churches in the district of Dizz or Dizan ... We can understand this if we realise that the country of the indepen-
A famous church in the valley of Zab, in Tiyari, is dedicated to dent tribes was part of the bishopric of Salakh, which until AD 700 was
Mar Saw, who is said to have been a descendant of the Magi. 86
part of the metropolitan district of Azerbaijan; it was then detached and
annexed to the territory of the metropolitan see of Adiabene-Arbil. 94
Wigram noted that '[t]he central shrine and Cathedral of the district of
Many ancient Arab historians confirmed the fact that the Nestorians/
Jelu ... is the ancient church of Mar Zeia, a building remarkable enough
Assyrians inhabited most of the regions of Assyria and up per Meso-
to merit a word of description to itself',87 and some scholars went fur-
potamia, in particular those surrounding the country of the independent
ther, even stating that there are monuments going back to the time of
tribes. The Arabic writer Mahfouth al Abbasi (..,....t.,ı...ll .l;,..,h.o) asserted
Mar Addai. 88 Sir Charles Wilson, in his survey of the Ottoman Asiatic
that they inhabited the country of Tiyari and Hakkari for twenty-five
region s, stated that there existed in Kurdistan historical monuments
centuries.95 Beside classical Arab historians and geographers, many
going back to the period of the Assyrian Empire. 89 Grant noted that '[t]he
Kurdish historians and writers also admitted this fact, among them
Nestorians have the history of churches now standing in Adiabene, or the
Mohmmed Ameen Zaki, and Ali Sidu al Qurani made asimilar state-
central parts of Assyria, that were built more than two centuries before
ment. 96 ıbn Hawkal, al Bayroni, Al Istarkhi (~.J-.ı\tı '~.J~I .J§yo. .:.HI)
the Mohammedan era'.9O
and others offered many pieces of historical evidence and referred to
These remains were closely examined not only as physical structures
monuments that had existed since the early centuries of the Christian
but also as monuments with a rich history. According to Badger, these
era. 97 Eshoo 'dnah of Basrah (ı.j~I ı::\..j..l ~!), a seventh-century his-
included 'Mar Gheorghes (St. George) of Leezan, ... tradition says that
torian, gaye many details on this subject, among which he referred to
Mar (Saint) Audishu was erected 366 years before Mohammed' .91 He
Mar Habib-who was a member of Dair Krdu, a monastery located in
also wrote,
Jezirah ıbn Omar, and a graduate of the school of Ctesiphon, the Par-
thian capital (south of Baghdad). He went to the mountain of Zinai with
There are in different parts of the mountains of Coordistan and
thirty Ninevite monks and built a monastery in the mountain of Zamik.
about Jezeerah [Jazirah], Nestorian Churches in which are buried
the bodies of hermits and other renowned for sanctity. The graves He also mentioned a bishop of' Ashur' (Assyria)98 and gaye a long list
of these reputed saints are held in high veneration .. .in former of ancient monasteries, such as Dair al Ghab (yWI .J:!..l) in Mosul and
times, they possessed many convents. 92 Dair Habisha (~ .J:!..l), which was built by Mar Yacub (y~ .)L..) near
the city of Sa 'aral. 99 A historian from Mosul mentioned the ancient ENDNOTES
monasteries of Mar Yonan (Jonah-(.)'Ü-':! ~i - 0\..j-,:! .;lA), stating that
Nineveh was one of the cities of Adiabene, surrounded by walls. He
quoted Amru of Tirhawi (~ ıJ.! J..)AC-) of the thirteenth century, who 1. J. W. Etheridge, The Syrian Churches: Their Early History, Liturgies and
cited the monastery ofYonan, located on the south side of the ruins of Literary (London: Longman, Green, and Longmans, 1846), 18, 128; Asa-
Nineveh. ıoo These neutral authorities serve to confirın the Assyrians' heel Grant, The Nestorians, or, The Losl Tribes (London: J. Murray, 1841),
own tradition that they have Iived in northeastem Mesopotamia from 123-124, 128, 132-134.
time immemorial. 2. Grant, The Nestorians, 121.
3. A. T. Olmstead, History of Assyria (1923; repr., Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1968), 13.
4. Earl Percy, The Highlands ofAsiatic Turkey (London: E. Amo1d, 1901), IL.
5. Rev. Joel E. Werda, The Flickering Light ofAsia, or, The Assyrian Nation
and Church, (n.p.: The Author, 1924; repr., Chicago: Assyrian Language
and Culture Classes, 1990), 205. Hakkari is 1700 metres above sea
level and 210 kilometres south of Lake Van. The Assyrian villages were
spread throughout the region stretching from the border of Persia to the
Tigris in the west, and from the south shores of Lake Van to Mosul. The
10cation could be defined rough1y as between latitudes 34° and 38°.
6. Etheridge, Syrian Churches, 128.
7. Arthur John Maclean and W. Henry Browne, The Catholicos of the East
and His People (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,
1892),29.
8. William F. Ainsworth, Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopota-
mia, Chaldea andArmenia (London: John W. Parker, 1842),2:209.
9. Maj.-Gen. Sir Charles Wilson, Handbook for Travellers in Asia Minor,
Transcaucasia, Persia, etc. (London: J. Murray, 1895),239.
10. Ainsworth, Travels, 2:292.
ll. Thomas Laurie, Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians (Boston: Gould
and Lincoln, 1853),257; Ainsworth, Travels,2:233.
12. Edwin M. Biiss, 'Kurdistan and the Kurds', Andover Review 4 (1885), as
cited in Cambridge Bibliographical Dictionary, new edition (Cambridge,
1936),20.
13. C. James Rich, Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan and on the Site of
Andent Nineveh with Journal of a Voyage Down the Tigris to Baghdad
(London: J. Duncan, 1836, repr., 1895-1896), 1:275-276, n. *. Rich used
the terms 'Assyrians' and 'Chaldeans' to refer to the same people.
14. Rich, Narrative, 1:279.
15. George Percy Badger, The Nestorians and Their Rituals with the Narra-
tive of a Mission to Mesopotamia and Koordistan in /842, and of a Late
26 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Homeland and Origin ofthe Independent Assyrian Tribes 27
Vısit to These Countries (London: Joseph Masters, 1852) 1:212; cp. M. Y. Through Asia Minor, and Into Georgia and Persia With aVisit to the
A. Lilian, Assyrians of the Van District During the Rule of the Ottoman Nestorian and Chaldean Christians of Oormiah and Salmas (London:
Turks, trans. Rabi Fransa Babilla (1914; repr., Tehran: Assyrian Youth George Wightman, 1834),2:375-376.
Cultural Society, 1968), 4. 34. Coan, Yesterday, 75; Biiss, 'Kurdistan', 20; Badger, The Nestorians,
16. W. A. Wigram, The CradIe ofMankind, 2nd ed. (London: Black, 1922), 311. 1:212.
17. Rich, Narrative (London, 1896), 1:276. 35. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:389.
i 8. Rev. E. L. Cutts, ,christians Under the Crescent in Asia (London: Society 36. Layard, A Popular Account, 121; Isabella Bird Bishop, Journeys in Persia
for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1877),24-25. and Kurdistan (London: John Murray, 189 I), 2:314.
19. Ainsworth, Travels, 2:299-301. 37. Rufus Anderson, History of the Missions of the American Board of Com-
20. Ainsworth, Travels, 2:288. missionfor Foreign Missions to the Oriental Churches (Boston: Congre-
21. Justin Perkins, A Residence of Eight Years in Persia Among the Nesto- gational Publishing Society, 1873), 1:193.
rian Christians: With Notices of the Muhammedans (New York: Alien, 38. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 241, 257; Ainsworth, Travels, 2:218, 233.
Morrill & Wardwell, 1843),6. 39. Lilian, Assyrians, 3.
22. Ainsworth, Travels, 2:285. 40. Coan, Yesterday, 140-143.
23. A. H. Layard, A Popular Account ofDiscoveries at Nineveh (London: John 41. Ibid., 78.
Murray, 1851), 1i 8.c 42. Maclean and Browne, The Catholicos, 33.
24. Horatio Southgate, Narrative ofa Tour Through Armenia, Kurdistan, Per- 43. Lilian, Assyrians, 4.
sia and Mesopotamia, With Observations on the Conditions of Moham- 44. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 253.
medanism and Christianity in Those Countries (London: Tilt and Bogue, 45. Coan, Yesterday, 79-80.
1840), i :29 ı. 46. Ainsworth, Travels, 2:284.
25. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 177-178. 47. Bishop, Journeys, 2:288.
26. Ibid., 237. 48. Maclean and Browne, The Catholicos, 188. See also Lilian, Assyrians, 7.
27. Cutts, Christians Under the Creseent, 189. 49. Grant, The Nestorians, 75.
28. Wilson, Handbook, 240-241. 50. Wigram, The CradIe, 273.
29. Frederick G. Coan, Yesterday in Persia and Kurdistan (Claremont, CA: 51. Rich, Narrative, 1:175. Henry Ross referred in detail to the power of the
Saunders Studio Press, 1939), 156. tribes and their ability to maintain their independence; see Letters From
30. J. S. Buckingham, Travels in Mesopotamia (1827; repr., Farnborough, the East, ed. J. Ross (London: J. M. Dent & Co., 1902),51-69.
England: Gregg International Publishing, 1971),320. 52. Layard, A Popular Account, 38.
3 ı. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:214. 53. A. H. Layard, Nineveh and Its Remains, (New York: George P. Putnam,
32. Perkins, AResidence, 5; American Sunday-School Union, Committee of 1850), 142.
Publication, The Nestorians ofPersia: A History of the Origin and Prog- 54. Coan, Dr. Grant, 71.
ress of the People, and of Missionary Labours Amongst Them, With an 55. Wigram wrote, '[Tlhere are plenty of Christian villages, almost entirely of
Account of the Nestorian Massacres by the Koords (Philadelphia: Ameri- the Nestorian church, though at the western end of it some belong to the
can Sunday-School Union, 1848), 13. "Jacobite" today. All ofthese, however, are rayat or feudally subordinate,
33. Ainsworth, Travels, 2:233; Lilian, Assyrians, 4. Ainsworth described the to the Kurdish chiefs among whom they Iive, and are Iittle better in fact
ruggedness of the mountains by saying that to descend from a mountain than serfs'. The CradIe of Mankind, 3 12.
was much harder than climbing up. For the difficulties and inaccessibility 56. Bishop, Journeys, 2:323.
of the country, see also Laurie, Dr. Grant, 64, 70; Rev. Eli Smith and Rev. 57. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:78.
H. G. Dwight, Missionary Researches in Armenia: Including A Journey 58. Perkins, Residence, 6.
59. Joseph Bonomi, Nineveh and Its Palaces: The Discoveries of Bolta 68. Jrgen Laessoe, People of Ancient Assyria: Their Inscriptions and Corre-
and Layard (London: Office of the IIIustrated London Iibrary, 1852) spondence, trans. F. S. Leigh-Browne (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
124-125. Mrs. Bishop, who toured throughout the region Iate in the 1963),36.
nineteenth century, stated, 'The founding of Van is ascribed to Semira- 69. Maclean and Browne, The Catholicos, 11-2,44,295-299,301-302, n. 1.
mis, who, according to Armenian history, named is Shemiramagerd, and See also Surma D'Bait Mar Shimun, Assyrian Church Customs and the
was accustomed to resort to its gardens, which she had herself planted Murder of Mar Shimun (London: Faith Press, 1920), 4, 8.
and watered, to escape from the fierce heat of the summer at Nineveh'. 70. Grant, The Nestorians, 129.
Journeys, 2:338. 71. E. T. Wittsch, Handbook of the Geography and Statistics of the Church,
60. J. P. Fletcher, Notes From Nineveh, and Travels in Mesopotamia, Assyria, trans. John Leitch (London: Bosworth & Harrison, i 859, i 868), 1:22-58.
and Syria (London: Lea & Branchard, i 850), i :347. Mentioning the per- 72. Badger, The Nestorians, 1: 176; Carsten Niebuhr, originally published
secution and massacres of Shahpur II (339-379) against the Assyrian under the tit1e Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und anderen Umliegen-
Christians, Fletcher stated that Assyria 'was govemed by a satrap, whose den Landem, 2 vols (Copenhagen 1774-1778); translated into English by
name Sennacherib recalls the old days of the Assyrian monarchy'. Notes Robert Heron, Travels through Arabia and Other Countries in the East,
From Nineveh, 2: 134. January 1761,2 vols. (Edinburgh: R. Morison and Son, 1792).
61. Bonomi, Nineveh, 70. 73. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 330; Rev. Joseph Naayem, Shal/ This Nation Die?
62. Ainsworth, Travels, 2: 138, 146, 141. He referred to the visit of Rabai Ben- (New York: Chaldean Rescue, 1921), xxxvii; Badger, The Nestorians,
jamin of Tudella in the second part of the twelfth century and remarked 1:373; Grant, The Nestorians, 121-122, 126-127; Werda, The Flickering
that a bridge was in existence joining the city of Nineveh with Mosul. Light ofAsia, 199, 270.
This statement was made by Abu al Fida of the fourteenth century. 74. Grant, The Nestorians, 313; Laurie, Dr. Grant, 54; Stephen Hemsley Lon-
Travels, 2:137; 'Alı Saydü al-GüranI, Min 'Ammiin il al-'Imiidfyah, aw grigg, Four Centuries of Modern Iraq (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925),
jawlahfi Kurdistiin al-janübfyah / ta'IIf; taqöım Sa'd AM DIyah, edition 144; Wilson, Handbook, 294, 305-306; Dwight and Smith, Armenia, 205;
al-Tab'ah 2 (1939, repr., 'Amman: Dar al-BashIr, 1996), 146. During his Ahmad ibn Yüsuf al-QaramanI, Akhb ar al-duwal wa-ath ar al-uwal fi
visit to Mosul he stated that it contains Islam and Christians descendants al-tarikh (Beirut: Alam al-Kutub, 1982), 288-290; Karl Broklman,
of Assyrians and Arameans. Tiirfkh al-shu 'üb al-isliimfyah, naqalahu il al-'arabIyah NabIh Amın
63. Grant, The Nestorians, 61. Faris, MunIr al-Ba'labakkI, edition al-Tab'ah 7 (Beirut : Dar al-'I1m 1iI-
64. W. Wigram, The Assyrians and Their Neighbours (London: G. Beli & Malayın, 1977), 420.
Sons, i 929), i 78-179. 75. Laurie stated that his pyramid of Baghdad in 1401 contained ninety thou-
65. Edgar Wigram, 'The Ashiret of Highlands of Hakkari', Journal ofthe Asi- sand heads. Dr. Grant, 54; Leenhert Rouwolf, Seer Aanmerkelyke Reysen
atic Society 2 (1916), 52. na En Door, Syrien,t Joodsche Land, Arabien, Mesopotamiaen, Babylo-
66. William of Rubruck, The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastem nien, Assyrien, Armenien & Jaar c. in t 1573, translated in English by
Parts of the World 1253-1255, trans. William W. Rockhill (London: Nicholas Staphorst as A Col/ection ofCurious Travels and Voyages (Lon-
Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1900; repr., Nendeln, Liechtenstein: don: Printed for S. Smith and B. Walford to the Royal Society, 1693);
Kraus Reprint, i 967), xxvi. Arabic translation by Selim Taha al Tikriti, 'Rihlat al Mashrik ela al Iraq
67. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 102. See also Badger, The Nestorians, 1:224. Southgate wa Suriya wa Libnan wa Falastine (Baghdad: Wazlirat al-Thaqafah wa-
mentioned that many Muslims acknowledge their Assyrian origin, white al-Funün, 1978), 204-205; Petros Nasri, Historie des eglises chaldeenne
Layard explicitly stated that the Chaldean/Assyrians and Syrian Jacobites et syrienne (Mosul, i 9 i 3) 2: 190; translated into Arabic as Tha 'kherat al
are the only remaining survival of the ancient Ninevites, and the others Ath 'hanfi Tarikh al Masharika wa al Maghariba al Suryan (Mosul,I 905);
were aliens to the land who settled during the series of invasions. South- Rouwolf, Travels and Voyages (Arabic translation), 204-205; Moham-
gate, Narrative, 3 I; Layard, A Popular Account, 24. med Amin Zaki, Kholasat Tarikh al Kurd wa Kurdistan min Akdam al
Osur al Tarikhiya hata aran, translated into Arabic by Mohammed Ali (130), while Yusuf al-Sayigh stated that Assyria consisted of three major
Awni (Cario, 1936), 150. provinces: Adiabene (the land between the two Zab rivers) with Arbil as
76. Mohammed Amin al Umari, Man 'hal al Aw 'liya wa Ma 'shrab al As 'ftya its capital; Bagirmi in the region of Kirkuk; and Halwan, which is the
min Sadat Mosul al Hadba, 2 vols, ed. Sa'ed al Diwachi (Mosul: Sa'ed al present-day Sulaimaniyah. Tarikh al-Musul, 3 vols. (Cairo: The Salafi-
Diwachi, 1967-1968), 1:56, n. 2. yya Press, 1923). Ainsworth confirmed that the present-day Kurdistan
77. Wilson, Handbook, 281; Forbes Beatrice Manz, The Rise and Rule of is Assyria, which corresponds with the definition of Ptolemy. Travels,
Tamerlane (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 72-73. 2:260.
78. Lawrence E. Browne, The Eclipse of Christianity in Asia (Cambridge: 84. Rich, Narrative, 2:120.
Cambridge University Press,I 933), 172. 85. Southgate, Narrative of aVisit, 155. See also Aubrey R. Yine, The Nesto-
79. Grant, The Nestorians, 160-161. rian Churches: A Concise History ofNestorian Christianity in Asia From
80. Horatio Southgate, Narrative of aVisit to the Syrian {Jacobite} Church the Persian Schism to the Modern Assyrians (London: Independent Press,
of Mesopotamia (New York: D. Appleton, 1844), 81. Many historians [1937]), II 5.
referred to the continuity of the Assyrians since the fall of Nineveh. 86. MacIean and Browne, The Catholicos, 298-299, 301.
Herodotus, in his History, clearly described the people as he saw them 87. Wigram, The Cradıe,I 71.
in their homeland; Xenophon in 401 did the same in his Anabasis. The 88. Etheridge, The Syrian Churches, 110.
successive Iranian dynasties mentioned the Assyrians and their homeland 89. Wilson, Handbook, 246-248.
in their monuments, such as Darius (512-486 BC) in the famed 'Nakshi 90. Grant, The Nestorians, 224.
Behistun', and in the Sassanian rule, Mesopotamia was known as 'Aso- 91. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:253.
restan', or Assyria. Shahpur 1(241-272) accounted Asorestan as part of 92. Ibid., 137.
his empire. See The Greek Historians: The Complete and Unabridged 93. MacIean and Browne, The Catholicos, 298-301.
Historical Work of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and Arian in Two 94. Wiltsch, Handbook, 1:495.
Volumes, ed. Francis R. B. Godolphin. (Random House, New York. 1942), 95. Mah'futh al Abbasi, Emarat Bahdinan al Abbasiya (Mosul, 1969),
623-628. Moreover, count1ess historians and cIergymen from the Church 209-210.
of the East have provided detailed accounts of the establishment of the 96. Ali Gurani, Min Amman Ila al Amadiya, (Cairo, 1939; 2nd printing
church in Assyria. Badger stated that '[i]n many Syriac manuscripts, Amman, 1996), 153-155; Zaki, Kurdwa Kurdistan, 130.
Mosul is styled as Athur and it is no uncommon practice with ecclesiasti- 97. Abi al Hassan ıbn Hawqal, Kitab Surat-a/-Arth (Leiden, the Netherlands:
cal writers of the present day to use the same phraseology'. The Nestori- J. de Goeje, 1967),205-206; ıbrahIm ibn Muhammad al-lstakhrI, Masalik
ans,I:78. al-mamalik. 'Kitab al-aqalfm ' / e codice Gothano, edited by J. H. Moeller
81. Wilson, Handbook, 54; al Umari, Man 'hal al Aw'liya, 1:130; Abbas al (1839; repr., Baghdad : Maktabat al-Muthanna, [c. 1964]), 40. AI Bayroni
Azzawi, Tarikh alIrak ben Ihtilalen (Baghdad, 1939),2:122. was quoted by Abraham Yohannan, The Death of aNation, or, The Ever
82. AI Bidlisi spoke highly of Timur Lang's award for the Kurds for their sup- Persecuted Nestorians or Assyrian Christians (New York: G. P. Putnam's
port. Sharafnama, trans. Mohammed Awni (Cairo: Dar Ihya'a al Kutub al Sons, 1916), 102-106.
Arabiya, 1958) 1:88, while Mohammed Zaki stated that al Bidlisi headed 98. Eshu D' Nah al Basri, al Diyorafi Mammlakati al Furs wa al Arab, trans.
for Timur Lang camp to submit his loyalty and was well received and Polus Shieko (Detroit, n.d.), 48-49.
rewarded by Timur. Kholasa Tarikh al Kurd, 171-172. 99. Ibid., 35-36.
83. Jean-Baptiste Tavemier, Les Six Voyages en Turquie, en Perse et Aux 100. AI Saigh, Tarikh al Mosul, i. 38-39; Rev. Polus Bijan noted that Mar
Indes (Amsterdam: Johannes van Someren, 1678) Turky [sic], 2:71-72. Kirdagh, who ruled Assyria during the reign of Shahpur II (339-379), was
Mohammed Amin Zaki acknowledged the antiquity of the Assyrian a convert to Christianity and a descendant of the Assyrian royal family, and
tribes in their homeland in Tiyari and Hakkari before the Christian era his mother cIaimed descent from Nimrod, who is credited in Genesis 10: 11
32 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND üTTOMANS
with founding Nineveh. See Kitab Sera! Ash 'har Shuhada al Masriq al
Qidisen, translated intoArabic by Mar Addi Sheer, (Mosul, 1900) 311-345;
Mari bn Sulaiman, the historian of the thirteenth century, referred to the
persecution of the Christians of Mesopotamia by Shahpur II, which lasted
forty years; see Akhbar Patarikat Kursi al Mashriq (Rome, 1899), 21.
CHAPTER 2
CHURCH, STATE,
AND SOCIAL LIFE
ı. THE PEOPLE AND THEIR P ATRIARCH
The Assyrian followers of the Church of the East who inhabited the
regions of Tiyari and Hakkari fonned a compact body of independent
tribes paying tribute and allegiance to none other than their patriarch and
maliks. The civil and ecclesiastical head of the people was their patri-
arch, known by the title of Mar Shimun. Before the advance ofthe Cath-
olic missionaries and their labours in various parts of ancient Assyria, all
Syriac-speaking Christians were followers of either the Church of the
East or the Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) Church. The geographical dis-
tribution, doctrines, and ecclesiastical affiHations were therefore quite
different from what emerged following the activities of the missionaries,
especially from the middle ofthe eighteenth century onwards.
However, throughout most of their modern history, the people remained
loyal to their ancestral church, despite the harsh times they had been
34 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Church, State, and Social Life 35
through and the Roman Catholic missionaries' offers of protection from The c1ergy played an important role in the administration, along with the
oppression. As Iate as the middle of the nineteenth century, even out- maliks and ra 'eses, as a reflection of the people's attachment to their
side the country of the independent tribes, Nestorians stilI far outnum- church. This long-existing system had been bom of necessity, having
bered those who had joined the Church of Rome.' Rome only succeeded evolved among the tribes over a long period of time as the only way to
in converting most of the followers of the Church of the East after the survive. There were also severalother bishops in Jazirah, Azerbaijan, and
wholesale massacres and destruction that the independent tribes suffered various districts in Mosul vilayet who accounted directly to the patriarch
in the 1840s. These massacres led to the political subjection of the tribes, Mar Shimun. 4 Col. Sheil, who toured the region in 1836, reported that
and, with their collapse, the Syriac-speaking followers of the Church intensive Assyrian settlements existed in the region of Khabour and that
of the East lost their defence line. Those who were Iiving in the roll- three bishops from that district were then on avisit to Mar Shimun in
ing and fiat regions could no longer withstand the inducements of the Tiyari. 5
Roman Catholic missionaries, who were staunchly supported by French For their part, as Fraser stated, the followers of Mar Shimun acknowl-
diplomats and Ottoman authority. edged their loyalty to their only temporal and spiritua) leader, paying
However, for a century and half during which those missionaries
worked among them, the independent tribes managed to resist and rebuff neither obedience nor tribute to any foreign authority .. .in realty
subject to none but their own chiefs. The principal ofthese chiefs,
all efforts to induce them to leave the doctrine of their forefathers and
who is patriarch ... exercises a perfect authority over his subjects
adopt a newone. This stand, as has been stated, was maintained by the both in spiritual and temporal affairs. 6
force and power that the tribes possessed before 1843, while the follow-
ers of the Church of the East, living in less-defensible places, inclined Maclean and Brown too were very precise in stating the extent of Mar
to withstand the propaganda and influence of the Roman Catholic Shimun's authority: 'Mar Shimun exercises temporal as well as spiritual
missionaries. jurisdiction especially over the tribes of independent Syrians [Nestorians/
Assyrians] of Tiyari, Tekhoma, Jelu, Baz, Diz, and the other valley of
Central Kurdistan'.7 Rev. Joseph Naayem, referring to the nature of the
2. THE ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM
goveming system among the independent tribes, stated, 'They Iived under
AND THE AUTHORITY OF MAR SHIMUN
the administration of their chiefs who were known as Maliks, and whose
The independent tribes were living in a compact body, comprising form of govemment was extremely primitive. Over all was a supreme
many large and smail tribes. All were ruled by their patriarch Mar Shimun, chief called Mar Shimun'.8 However, as we shall see, a dissident faction
who, as we have seen, possessed both temporal and ecclesiastical author- eventually found its opportunity in the presence of the Catholic mission-
ity over his people. Each tribe had its own chief known as the malik aries in the region and in their hostility to the original patriarchal line of
(~), which Iiterally means king; this term was in wide use in Meso- the Church of the East, which c1aimed descent from the disciples Mar
potamia during antiquity.2 Each tribe contained many subtribes or c1ans, Addai and Marİ.
forming a sort of pyramid structure, and was ruled by a ra 'es or chieftain
(~.J), which is originally a Syriac administrative term. The council of Kochanis, the Seat of the Patriarch
ra'eses assisted the malik in administering the affairs of the tribe, while Kochanis is located on a mountain seven thousand feet above sea level.9
all the maliks formed a supreme ruling council headed by the patriarch. 3 it served as the seat for the patriarchate of Mar Shimun's line, situated
a short distance from Julamerk, the administrative centre of Hakkari neither knew, nor cared about the Sultan-they comprehended
district and the official headquarters of the Hakkari Kurdish chief of Mr. Rich's envoy as a Mussulman, and told him that they had
the emirate. Two deep valleys, which join together south of the yillage, be en there long before his Mohammed. 12
define it; the Zab River, as it is called by the Assyrians, flows through As Southgate wrote, '[T]he Nestorians of the mountains have been
both. The northem side of the mountain forms a sharp, rocky, precipi- independent of all foreign rules' .13 Ainsworth, while touring the country
tous slope, white another mountain looms from the south. Here, above a ofthe independent tribes in the summer of 1840, noted that 'Kurdish vil-
rock, stands the patriarchal church of Mar Sheleta (~ .JLA ~), lages located in the midst ofthese tribes were ruled by Nestorians'.14 In
which was also the burial place of the patriarchs for many generations. 1840 Brant, the British consul at Erzeroom, reported on the conditions
The church of Mar Mosa is located in the valieya short distance from of the independent Assyrian tribes, mentioning that
Kochanis, about a mite distant from the plateau. lo Here the successive
patriarchs ran the affairs of their people, as well as administered jointly [t]he Christian population is a bol d and hardy race; keeps itself
the affairs of the emirate of Hakkari, and it was usual for Mar Shimun to from the Mohamedan, and maintains its territory, its property and
act as chief executiye in the absence of the Kurdish emir. its rights by force of arms ... the Christians as well as the Kurdish
portion, arejealous oftheir liberty.15
The System of Natir Kursi (Office Guardian- "",..ıS .)lU) During his mission on the border dispute between the Ottomans
A word must be said about the Natir Kursi, which means the guardian and Persians, Fraser observed the existing conditions and the primitive
and designated successor to the office of patriarch. This system was intro- administrative structure of the Nestorians' govemment, stating that they
duced by the patriarch Mar Shimun al Basidi (1437-1497).11 it remained
as canon law of the church in the original line at the monastery of Rab- constitute a sort of commonwealth of their own, separate from
ban Hormizd near Alqush until 1838. The same system was also adopted the rest ofthe world, and who yield neither obedience nor tribute
to any foreign authority ... Theyare particularly jealous of their
by the line of Mar Shimun in Kochanis after 1580 and came to an end in
freedom and very able to defend it, for theyare very brave and
1975 with the assassination of the patriarch Mar Shimun Eshai. Under resolute have 20,OOO ... musketeers (~.ll,ıll J,..L:.. - ~). This is
the Natir Kursi system, the office passed from a deceased patriarch to the country which, it is said, no power has ever succeeded in
his designated successor, who was usually his nephew. This system reducing to subjection. 16
addressed the critical situation that the Church of the East faced after the
devastating invasions of Timur Lang (1393-1401) and his successors. As has been stated, the Turkish operations in the region opened cen-
tral Kurdistan to the labours of western Protestant missionaries. Among
The Nature of the Tribes' Independence the earliest to attempt to visit the country of the independent tribes was
Rich was the first westernerto discuss the tribes' political system, report- the American Dr. Asaheel Grant, who applied to Beirakdar, the pasha of
ing in his narrative on Mosul, for protection. Beirakdar's response clearly illustrates the power
of the tribes, which enabled them to maintain their independence in the
[t]he wild and inaccessible country of the Chaldean Christian midst of the powerful enemies:
tribes, who i believe are the only Christians in the East who
[have] maintained their independence among the Mohammetans, 'To the borders oftheir county' said the vigorous Pasha of Mosul
to whom they have rendered themselves very formidable ... they 'I will be responsible for your safety; you may put gold up on
your head, and you will have nothing to fear; but: i wam you that present an abnormal state of affairs. A Christian minority living in the
i can protect you no farther. Those mountain infidels (Christians) midst of powerful and hostile majoritİes of Kurds, Turks, Afshars, and
acknowledge neither Pasha nor Kings, but from time immemorial Persians was able to maintain its ho Id and keep its borders safe.
every man has been his own King' .17
While the independent tribes had the advantage of an inaccessible
Grant advanced his own theory of how the Assyrians were able to country, the main factor in preserving their existence and identity was
maintain their independence, affirming, their warlike habits and courage. The Assyrians were famous as horse-
men and lancers, and used to show off their skill with swords and spears
Not onlyare the principal part of the Nestorians shut out by phys- even when they visited their patriarch. 21 Boys were taught how to use
ical barriers from the people around them, but their civil condi- bows and edged weapons from the age of nine or ten, and at puberty,
tion required them to remain peculiarly distinct. it is, perhaps,
each received a dagger, which he carried for the rest of his life. As Iate
to this as much as to the nature of their country, that they owe
their present independence, in the midst of numerous and power- as 1914, M. Y. A. Lilian noted that '[tlhere is no house in which you will
ful enemies. 18 not find alatest rifle, daggers and bandoleers hanging from the wooden
pillars or walls', and both youths and men carried their rifles to church
Meanwhile J. Perkins believed that and after mass showed off their skill in shooting. 22 Many times down to
the term independent applied to them in an unqualified manner, 1843, they vindicated their right to remain distinct from the surrounding
may be as deceptive as it is grateful. What then is the real import ethnic and religious elements as a state. But from the n on, various fac-
oftheir independence? Why, that by the aid of the rocky ramparts tors contributed to dramatİc changes in the status and life of the Nesto-
that surround them, their muskets and spears which they always rian tribes.
keep near them, and their corresponding habits of fierce, des per-
ate daring. 19 The Patriarch and His Authority
And Ross found that As we have seen, the independent Assyrian tribes succeeded in main-
taining their independence and goveming themselves under their suc-
the Nestorians were always prepared for raids; their rooms were cessive patriarchs, but they could never have done so without a mature,
hung with arms, and a shot echoing in the narrow valiey s called capable administrative body that was able to lead and defend their coun-
out every male above fifteen to the strife--even children of ten or try. Clearly the pyramid system described earlier was able to address the
twelve frequently handled their rifles with effect. . .In the time of
war they were led by their own Maliks or hereditary chiefs. 20 pressing issues and conditions and to function successfully. But it was
chiefly thanks to the unquestioning obedience of all the followers of Mar
Thus, as we have seen from various authorities, the Assyrian tribes Shimun and to his capable leadership that the tribes managed by force of
maintained their independence from any foreign influence by force of arms to resist all foreign attempts at their subjection from time immemo-
arms, resisting any foreign attempt for their subjection as they had done rial until 1843. Many had the opportunity to examine the resources and
since time immemorial. They continued to do so up to the period when power of the tribes and the qualifications of their leadership, especially
the Ottomans began implementing the policy of centralisation to bring when the country became a no man's land for several centuries during the
all autonomous centres into subjection. As we have seen, many authors era of Ottoman-Persian conflict, in which the Kurds became an additional
wrote about the nature of the tribes' independence, which appeared to factor after the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. Meanwhile the Afshars in
40 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS ehurch, State, and Social Life 41
Persian Azerbaijan were draining the resources of the Assyrians, whom famous for its fields and the tobacco that grew there. The Assyrians
they exploited and looted as Ra 'aya. This reveals the reluctance of the made up for the shortage of agricultural land in creative ways-in the
regional Muslim majorities to accept coexistence with the native Chris- viiiage of Lizan, for instance, the people turned the slopes of the high
tian minorities. The conditions of the independent tribes were quite dif- mountains into fertile fields by bringing soil from a distance to fill the
ferent from those of their co-religionists elsewhere, since they enjoyed twenty-five terraces that they had constructed on the rocky surface. Ain-
different geopolitical conditions. From a legal point of view, they con- sworth was astonished at the architectural skill and the achievement.
stituted an ethnic and religious group whose status was later regulated in These man-made terraces were irrigated by a highly advanced system,
the Hatti Sheif of Gulhan of ı 839. by which the water was distributed to the high level at the same time
After their subjection in ı 843, however, the tribes' historical isolation as to the lower parts. 25 Channels of aqueducts, which were remarkably
came to an end. The rugged mountains could no longer keep the people well built, irrigated the beautiful orchards around Chamba, the capital of
detached from surrounding developments, particularly the determination Upper Tiyari. These aqueducts, which resembled the old Jirwana aque-
of the Turks to reestablish their authority in the region. Thus the tribes duct in the plains ofNineveh during antiquity, transferred water across
were dragged into the arena of events without being equipped to dea i the channels, which were built from stones, while, as elsewhere, the ter-
with the new concepts represented by the modern thinking of the west- races were filled with soil brought from distant places. In Asheetha, the
erners, Turks, Persians, and others. few fertile spots were carefully exploited and cultivated. Some wheat
was grown, but mainly rice, and also millet, potatoes, and hemp for
rope and cloth. Most vegetables were also widely grown. Lizan and
3. ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL CONDlTIONS
Minayanish were famous for their watermelons and cucumbers, while
The western visitors who spent a considerable time with Mar Shimun most fruits were available, especially grapes. Many villages were sur-
and his people learned at first hand the position of the familyamong rounded by yineyards, from which the people used to produce a good
its followers and how he was considered the supreme civil as well as quality ofwine.
ecclesiastical authority. The American missionaries reported the pres- Raising Iivestock, in particular sheep, was common among the people
tigious status of the patriarchal familyamong their followers, who and formed the prime resource for their Iiving. Dairy products and wool
regarded them as princes. 23 They Iived in an exceptionally large house were sold in the chief surrounding cities, mainly Amadia, Mosul, and
with an antechamber, a large 'saloon' or reception room, and six other Julamerk. In return, they satisfied their annual needs for clothes, food-
rooms. The antechamber was hung with the horns of mountain deer that stuffs such as sugar, soap, and other essential needs. The women worked
the patriarch himself had hunted. In the saloon, he received his guests very hard knitting the wool to make cloth for their family members. The
sitting on a settee covered with rugs, and they were expected to kneel viiiage of Garamoon was famous for coloured stocks, sheets, and other
before him. 24 textiles. To supplement their diet, the people gathered honey, hunted
deer, and shot birds with their bows and rifles. 26
Economic Conditions The tribes were often confronted with the consequences of the devas-
As we have seen, the country of the Assyrian tribes was known for its tating floods of the Zab River, when they had to suffer the loss of their
mountainous terrain. Many districts had no land for cultivating barley crops. These floods were frequent in Tiyari and Tekhoma districts, as
or other crops. The exception was the district of Tekhoma, which was well as in the Salabikan basinY
Cultural and Educational Conditions good reputation for smelting iron and making the large picks and goads,
For centuries, the tribes were cut off from the outside world and unac- which were needed by the farmers and muleteers. The viiiage of Sur-
quainted with its progress. Illiteracy prevailed, especially among the spedoo was famous for its production of lead. There were many mineral
independent and semi-independent tribes. During the period under study, pits, among which a famous one was in the yillage of Duri, on the south-
Qasha (priest) Orahma of the Asheetha, who was considered the most em border of Tiyari. Phosphates abounded in many places throughout
leamed person among the Assyrian tribes, explained the leaming situ- the tribes' country, and people used to collect them to make their own
ation and why his people remained mostly illiterate by telling Badger, ammunition; every man was responsible for making his own, with the
'What do you expect? People are very poor, and they hardly see any- help ofhis wife. 31
thing except the sky up above and the earth down below' .28 Ordinary people's houses mostly consisted of only two or three rooms.
Learning on modern lines was unknown among the Assyrians through- The ground fioor was used as the living quarters in winter, and the upper
out the period oftheir decline. The situation changed only with the arrival one in summer, but in hot weather, the people had to build themselves
of the westem missionaries, who provided several levels of education, outdoor sleeping booths from tree branches to escape from the heat and
notably theAmerican mission after Dr. Justin Perkins arrived at Urmia to insects. In the upper room of each house was a smail earth oven in which
head it in i 834. English missionaries also took a role in education, begin- the family baked its bread and cooked its meals. Most had no fumiture;
ning towards the end of the nineteenth century. American missionaries the family members squatted on their knees round an open fire, and if a
first were involved in education programs among the Assyrians of Azer- guest came, they provided him with a carpet. Food was brought from the
baijan, in particular in the city of Urmia and its immediate surrounding oven on a large earthenware platter and served in earthenware or copper
villages, and this movement also had its effect on those in Tiyari and dishes, or, in the poorest households, on goatskins. There were no metal
Hakkari. In 1835 Bishop Mar Yohannan, with the priest Oraham, paid spoons or forks; instead, people used wooden ones, and some ate with
avisit to Dr. Perkins, and right after their return, the priest opened a their fingers. Apart from weapons, as was previously mentİoned, most
school and began teaching English. 29 However, the majority of the peo- houses had no omaments except a simple wooden cross on a pillar in
ple still remained cut off from modern knowledge because they knew the front room, before which, every moming and evening, the elders of
no language but their own, which they were only able to speak; during the family would stand and pray. Maliks usually had somewhat larger
the troubled centuries through which they had passed, the knowledge of houses with a third story from which they could shoot down at their
writing and reading had become almost entirely confined to the priests enemies. 32
and bishops.30 ViIlage churches were mostly smail, narrow, and dark because they
had no windows. After the establishment of the central Turkish authority
Social Conditions Iate in 1847, the churches were built with fiat roofs and even narrower
Thus it is safe to say that the tribes' society was quite primitive. Their doorways, to prevent the Turks or Kurds from desecrating them by driv-
continual state of isolation had shaped their lifestyle, which remained ing in sheep, goats, or cattle. The apsidal sanctuary was separated by a
much the same as in the pre-Christian era. For generations, the people curtain and contained the altar with the cross at the east end, and on the
had met their own needs from within. They had leamt how to make basic right side, a tub by way of a font. All churches had bells, but none had
primitive tools; each man had to make his own, collecting raw iron from towers or beli cotes; instead, the beıı was hung from the trunk of a tree
open mines. The people of Asheetha, for instance, had a particularly adjoining the church. Beside the main church, there was often an even
smailer one serving as a chapel, where in summer, the people might pray except for adultery by the woman and severely discouraged concubinage
every moming and evening. Neither churches nor chapels had crosses by excommunicating both parties and refusing them Christian burial if
on their roofs, lest they attracted the attention of the Muslims. Inside, they died unrepentant. But as might have been expected in a smail nation
apart from the cross in the apse, the only usual omaments were c10ths anxious to keep up its numbers, public opinion refused to condemn a
hung up as thank offerings by people cured of sickness. 33 man who took another woman ifhis wife had proved barren. 36
Men and boys wore embroidered shirts, sleeveless embroidered vests, A typical family in Tiyari and Tekhoma consisted ofthree generations
baggy trousers, stockings, soft woolen shoes that would not slip on the and about forty members: patriarch and matriarch, son s and their wives,
mountain paths, conical white hats resembling those of the ancient Assyr- unmarried daughters, and grandchildren. When the patriarch died, his
ians, and, in cooler weather, long-sleeved c10th robes fastened with strings younger brother or eldest son stepped into his place. In domestic life,
or buttons. Most carried the curved daggers that they had received at the matriarch ruled supreme, assigning their tasks to her daughters and
puberty stuck in their girdIes. They seldom cut their hair, wearing it in daughters-in-Iaw. The women fetched grass, firewood, and water, and
two or three plaits hanging behind the head. All but priests and old men did all the baking and cooking and, when their men were away, all the
shaved their beards. Deacons wore ankle-Iength albs with red girdIes, and fieldwork, too. They ate together, apart from the men, and after the latter
the higher c1ergy wore similar robes, but only when officiating in church; had finished their meal. As with the Arınenians, a married woman had
at other times, the c1ergy dressed Iike the laity.34 Women and girls wore no right to speak to her in-Iaws; she communicated with them through
three or more embroidered shirts, one over another, under long-sleeved, her husband. 37
ankle-Iength dresses of embroidered cotton or silk; on their heads, they
wore the Turkish fez, wrapped with a strip of coloured or embroidered
4. THE POPULATION OF THE INDEPENDENT ASSYRIAN TRIBES,
muslin or other fine fabric, and decorated their foreheads with gold coins.
WITH REFERENCES TO THE SURROUNDING REGIONS
They braided their hair and hung it behind their heads. In Kochanis, how-
OF MAR SHlMUN'S FOLLOWERS
ever, women wore a simpler, originally monastic, robe called the dera,
with a plain Turkish fez. 3S Until the establishment of direct Ottoman rule in the summer of 1847,
Assyrian girls enjoyed much greater freedom than their Muslim coun- there is no official census available for the independent Assyrian tribes.
terparts, in that they regularIy met and worked with boys and their fami- However, with the arrival of the westem envoys and missionaries,
Iies in the fields or on the mountains. Youths norınally married at between attempts were made to give estimates. The earliest westemer to provide
fifteen and twenty years of age, maidens at between twelve and fourteen. one was Dr. Walsh, who put their total number in Turkeyand Iran at five
Weddings were occasions for feasts and dancing for the whole com mu- hundred thousand. 38
nity, lasting at least three days and sometimes as long as a week. Church Smith and Dwight were the first westemers to introduce the people
lawand social custom enforced exogamy, and Assyrians were allowed to to the outside world in 1831; they stated that the Nestorians counted
marry Christians of other nationalities, though never Muslims. The two fifty thousand families. 39 A Chaldean priest gaye seventy thousand as
families norınally arranged marriages, but lovers whose families did not the total number, which the British consul in Tabreez rejected as much
wish them to marry not infrequently eloped. When they returned, their too IOW,40 while Wigram estimated the Independent Tribes alone at
families were usually reconciled with them, but the girl forfeited her one hundred thousand. 41 For the number of the Assyrians in Azerbai-
inheritance. Family life was strong, because the church forbade divorce jan, we also have different figures, ranging from Perkins' thirty to forty
thousand, to Smith and Dwight, who stated that the Assyrian population ENDNOTES
of Azerbaijan amounted to one quarter of the total number. 42 Maclean
and Browne gaye the same percentage,43 white Edward Cutts gaye a fig-
ure of twenty-five thousand for the Assyrians of Urmia alone. 44 Rufus 1. Charles A. Frazee, Catholics and Sultans: The Church and the Ottoman
Anderson put the total number of the Nestorians at one hundred and Empire 1453-1923 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1983),209.
fifty thousand, including forty thousand in Persian Azerbaijan. 45 Grant, 2. Torna al Margi, The Book ofGovernors ': The Historia Monastica of Thomas
who studied the people more intimately, put the total number of the Bishop of Marga, A.D. 840, ed. E. A.Wallis Budge, vol. 1, the Syriac text
Nestorians followers of Mar Shimun at two hundred thousand, which (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1893); Arabic translation by
Rev. Albert Abouna, Kitab al Ru 'asa (Mosul, 1966),284.
included the independent, semi-independent, and Ra 'aya. Etheridge,
Coan, and Maclean and Brown gaye the same number. 46 As the tables 4. Perkins, Residence, 324.
in appendix B show, there are great differences between the totals given 5. Grant, The Nestorians, 128; Ainsworth, Travels, 2:277.
by Badger and Ainsworth and the figure of one hundred thousand for 6. J. Baillie Fraser, Travels in Koordistan, Mesopotamia, &c. (London: R. Bent-
the independent tribes stated by Dr. Grant. ley, 1840),59.
Asheetha, the capital of Lower Tiyari, affords an example to test Bad- 7. MacIean and Brown, The Catholicos, 188.
8. Naayern, Sha/l This Nation Die?, 261. On the authority of Mar Shimun,
ger's estimates. He put the total number of its houses at four hundred,
see also F.0.78/2699, Tabreez, Septernber 5, 1846, Abbott to Palrnerston;
white Ainsworth stated that Asheetha could provide one thousand fight- Niebuhr, Travels Through Arabia, 76; Badger, The Nestorians, 259; F. N.
ers out of its five thousand inhabitants. 47 Badger also provided a table HeazeIl, The Woes of aDistressed Nation: Being an Account of the Assyr-
giying statistics for many Assyrian villages (see appendix B). However, ian People From 1914 to 1934 (London: Faith Press, 1934), 12.
the issue of the tribal structure and the difference between the indepen- 9. Cutts, Christians Vnder the Creseent, 178. For the Assyrian custorns in the
dent and nonindependent will be addressed in the following chapters. viiiage, see 20.
10. Maclean and Brown, The Catholicos, 11-12.
11. Cardinal Eugime Tisserant, secretaire de la s. Congregation oriental, L 'Eglise
nestorienne (Paris: Letouzey et Ane, 1931), Arabic translation Kholasa
Tarikhiya /il Kanisa al Kildanyiya, by Suleiman Saigh (Mosul, 1939), 147.
13. Southgate, Narrative ofa Visit, 158.
15. F.O. 78/2698 Erzeroom, July 2, 1840, Brant to Palrnerston.
16. Fraser, Travels, 59.
17. Grant, The Nestorians, 46.
18. Ibid., 188.
19. Perkins, Residence, 501.
20. Ross, Letters From the East, 61-62.
21. Maclean and Brown, The Catholicos, 18; Cutts, Christians Vnder the Cres-
cent, 189.
22. Lilian, Assyrians, 14, 19.
48 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND üTTOMANS
23. American Sunday-School Union, The Nestorians, 280.

24. Lilian, Assyrians, 14.
26. Badger, The Nestorians, 1;214-216; Lilian, Assyrians, 9, 19.
27. Maclean and Brown, The Catholieos, 35.
28. Badger, The Nestorians, 2:219.
30. Lilian, Assyrians, 5.
3 ı. Badger, The Nestorians, 1;214.
32. Lilian, Assyrians, 14. CHAPTER 3
33. Ibid., 14-15.
34. Ibid., 15-16.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid., 17-19. THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
37. Ibid., 19.
38. Ainsworth, Travels, 2:287. OF THE EAST DOWN TO THE
39. Smith and Dwight, Researehes, 2:218.
40. Lt. Col. Ralph Carr, 'The Kurdish Mountain Range', JNL Royal United ARRIVAL OF THE ROMAN
Service 22 (1878-1879), 182.
41. W. Wigram, The Doetrinal Posifion of the Assyrian or East Syrian Chureh
(London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1908), 12.
CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES
42. Smith and Dwight, Researehes, 2:246.
43. Maclean and Browne, The Catholieos, 148, n. 1.
44. Cutts, Christians Under the Creseent, 80, 175.
45. Anderson, History, 2:208.
46. Grant, The Nestorians, 49, 127-128; Adrian Fortescue, The Lesser Eastem
Churehes (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1913), 109; American Sunday- ı. EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN ASSYRIA AND MESOPOTAMIA
School, The Nestorians, 61; Etheridge, The Syrian Churehes, 128; Coan,
Yesterday, 153; Maclean and Browne, The Catholieos, 4. As we have seen, Christianity was introduced intoAssyria and Mesopotamia
47. Ainsworth, Travels, 2:359, 218, 226. during the first century AD and became weıı established in the second.
The inhabitants of the kingdom ofUrhai (Edessa) were the first to receive
the message during the reign of King Abgar Okama V, followed by the
kingdom of Adiabene. ı The diseiples St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew
were said to have preached among the independent tribes; the traditions
in that region continuously commemorate St. Bartholomew's mission and
the existence of a monastery bearing his name that he built in Albaq.2
Scholars have observed that 'Christianity had its roots among Ara-
maic Syriac-speaking people in Mesopotamia and Assyria: this was the
50 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND üTTOMANS The History of the Church of the East 51
preaching-Ianguage of the diseiples' as well as that of Jesus Christ. 3 the state was less interested in having a council arriye at the truth than in
Despite Persian and Roman persecutions, the followers of the Church having it produce a formula that would secure peace and harmony. Once
of the East were later able to spread their faith into Persia, Arabia, and a council did produce such a formula, all loyal subjects of the emperor
the central and remotest parts of Asia. 4 The Assyrian and Babylonian were expected to accept it, and so it became a test of loyalty as well as
Christians continued to foster their faith zealously, supporting it by mul- orthodoxy.IO
tiplying the numbers of metropolitans, bishops, churches, monasteries, During the period und er study, the councils nearly always reached
schools, colleges, and universities. Thus Urhai served as a cradIe and decisions that agreed with the opinion of the popes. 11 The reason for
a centre for Christianity in the East much as did Rome, Constantino- this, however, was not theological as much as political: the pope was the
ple, Antioch, and Alexandria within the Roman Empire. 5 Leaming was eastem emperor's most effective remaining agent and representative in
widespread, as could be seen from the schools adjoining the churches the lands that had been the westem half of the empire. Until 476 there
and monasteries. 6 After adopting Christianity, some Assyrians and Bab- was stili a titular westem emperor, but after about 450, he was a puppet
ylonians even declined to use the ancient ethnic personal names because in the hands of his barbarian army commander, and his authority was
ofwhat were considered their pagan associations. 7 scarcely recognised even in theory outside Italy. If the real emperors
who stili reigned in Constantinople wished to retain any influence in the
West, let alone recover the power that their predecessors had exercised
2. THE 'ECUMENICAL' COUNCILS
there, they could not afford to alienate the popes for very long.
The first four 'ecumenical' councils of the Christian Church-those While the eastem Roman emperors were obliged to conciliate the
of Nicea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431), and Chalcedon views of the popes and were unwilling to challenge the ir influence, the
(451 }-represented successive efforts to resolve a single controversy, case was quite different with the church in the Sassanian Empire, which
namely, how Jesus Christ could be said to be both God and man. g it is was in constant hostility with Byzantium. Accordingly the successive
important, however, to understand that these were controversies within councils gaye very little consideration, if any, to whether the doctrines
the Church in the Roman Empire; indeed, they were largely confined to the they procıaimed were acceptable to the Church of the East.
eastem territories that became known as the Byzantine Empire. There The endemic hostility between the Roman and Sassanian empires
theological disputes often led to riots and even bloodshed. The Roman also meant that the followers of the Church of the East were largely
emperors, as the supreme authority, convened councils to deal with these cut off from their co-religionists in the West. Their main contact was
issues with a view to securing peace and tranquillity between the various through the theological college of Urhai (Edessa), located in Roman
churches and factions within the empire. Churches beyond its limits were territory near the border between the two historic foes. The importance
not directly involved in these disputes and so were not expected to send of this college can be assessed from its role as a major centre for theo-
delegations. Church historians have termed these councils 'ecumenical'; logical leaming; many famous fathers of the Church of the East were
but we must keep in mind that the Roman authorities habitually used oik- its graduates. But the role of this college came to an end when the doc-
oumene, of which 'ecumenical' is the adjective, to mean not the whole trine of the Church of the East was officially banned within the Roman
known world but the empire-as if it were the only part of the world Empire. As is explained in greater detaillater, the emperor Zeno closed
that mattered. 9 Moreover, except when the emperor (or the empress as the the college in 489 and ordered its Nestorian teachers persecuted. This
power behind the throne) had definite views of hislher own on the issues, obliged many of them to take refuge among their Nestorian brethren
52 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The History of the Church of the East S3
in the territory und er Persian rule. There they were welcomed by the In 431 the emperor summoned a council to meet at Ephesus and decide
Persian rulers as Christians having serious differences with their Roman this dispute, as well as the controversy over the teaching of Pelagius,
enemy. which was also dividing the church. The emperor had wished for a bal-
anced representation of all regions among the bishops, but he did not get
his wish. Cyril brought about fifty bishops with him and an imposing
3. NESTORIUS AND THE COUNCILS
number of important c1erics and monks. When the Egyptians arrived in
OF EPHESUS AND CHALCEDON
Ephesus some days before Pentecost, Nestorius was aıready there with
The roots of the disputes that led up to the Council of Ephesus lay in the his entourage, including the influential Count Irenaeus. On June 12,
rivalry between the patriarchates of Alexandria and Antioch with their Bishop Juvenal of Jerusalem arrived with fifteen bishops from Pales-
respective theological schools. The school of Alexandria tended to exalt tine. While the primatial authority of Ephesus was not effectiye over
Christ's divinity to the exclusion of his humanity, while that of Antioch the whole civil diocese of Asia, the prestige of that apostolic see was
adopted a view that gaye at least an equal prominence-sometimes too incontestable, and the increasing intervention by the bishops of Con-
much prominence-to his manhood. 12 A second factor was the rivalry stantinople was greatIy resented there. So Memnon of Ephesus and the
between the sees of Alexandria and Constantinople and the personal one hundred other bishops from that diocese sided with Cyril. Mem-
jealousy that Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, felt for Nestorius, arch- non made his position quite c1ear by refusing to allow Nestorius and his
bishop of Constantinople, who had been trained at Antioch (which was adherents into the churches of the city.
a cradIe of the Syriac liturgy and literature) in the theology developed Patriarch John of Antioch had sent word ahead that he and his bishops
by Theodore, bishop of Mopsuestia, and Diodore, bishop of Tarsus. 13 would arrive Iate and asked for the opening of the council to be put off
Probably a deeper cause, however, was the growth in the first half of the until they came; but Cyril, supported by Juvenal and Memnon, decided
fifth century in the cult of the Virgin Mary. Cyril and his supporters were instead to speed things up. He c1early wished to take advantage of the
particularly zealous for these developments, which gaye the Egyptians situation, knowing that John and his bishops wanted to put him on trial
a Christianised substitute for the worship of Isis to which they had been for the anathemas he had hurled at Nestorius. The Roman delegates were
devoted before their conversion. In contrast, Nestorius had been bom and also Iate arriving, but that was no problem for Cyril, because he regarded
trained up in an environment influenced by Syriac culture and Iiterature. himself as having received a commission from Pope Celestine the year
This stressed the uniqueness of God and the unlawfulness of worship- before. So Cyril convoked the council for 22 June; however, he seems
ping any other being, and Nestorius seems to have see n in the develop- to have made this decision only the day before, and on the evening of
ing cult of Mary a dangerous tendeney to pay her honours that belonged 21 June, he received protest from eight bishops, including twenty-one
to God alone. His background, influenced by Syriac theology, led him metropolitans. Whether it was too Iate to postpone the meeting or Cyril
to develop a theory of Christ's nature and personhood that stressed that thought that would be undignified, the decision stood, and on Monday,
he was only the son of Mary as a man, and that it was therefore wrong 22 June, nearly 160 bishops gathered in the cathedral of Ephesus, which
to call Mary Theotokos (which is often rendered 'Mother of God' but incidentally was dedicated to Mary.
properIy means 'the one who gaye birth to God'). This beliefled Cyril to The proceedings began immediately, despite the protest of the
denounce Nestorius, claiming that his teaching implied that Christ was emperor's representative, Count Candidian. Cyril, Memnon, and Juve-
two persons, not one, which was clearly heretical. 14 nal seem to have taken a decisive role. IS Nestorius was absent, since he
54 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The History of the Church of the East 55
did not consider the summons sent out by Cyril and his followers to be The pope was informed that the council had confirmed his condem-
valid. He was summoned a second and a third time, but to no effect. nation of the Pelagian leaders, and aletter addressed to the emperor put
Meanwhile the council began to examine the points at issue and adopted great stress on the ecumenicity of the councilY He accepted its decision
Juvenal's proposal to judge the contradictory doctrines by the standard and banished Nestorius to a monastery in the Sahara Desert, where Cyril
of the creed of Nicaea, which was then read. Cyril's second letter to could keep him isolated and powerless. Cyril then drew up an explana-
Nestorius was then declared to conform with the faith ofNicaea, while tion ofhis teaching that John of Antioch agreed to accept, but only under
Nestorius' answering letter was condemned. Nestorius was deposed great pressure from the emperor. LS The dispute between Alexandria and
from his see and degraded from his priesthood, and the custom of calling Antioch had only been papered over, not resolved.
the Virgin Mary Theotokos was confirmed. 16 By 448 both Cyril and Pope Celestine were dead. In that year, a local
Then on 26 June, John of Antioch and the Syrian bishops at last synod in Constantinople condemned the teaching of the abbot Eutyches,
arrived in Ephesus. Count Irenaeus, being a friend of Nestorius, went who said that Christ's manhood was swallowed up in his godhead like
to John and his entourage to teli them what had happened. Cyril sent a a drop of vinegar in the ocean. Dioscorus, Cyril's successor as patriarch
delegation, who officially informed the Antiochians that Nestorius had of Alexandria, persuaded the emperor to summon a council to review
been condemned and deposed, and required them to have nothing to do the decision, which met at Ephesus in 449 with Diosorus presiding. Bul-
with him. Immediately, with Count Candidian's support, John and his Iied and intimidated by both the emperor's troops and a mob of sup-
group held a meeting, which those bishops who had not wanted to go to porters whom Dioscorus had brought with him, the council vindicated
Cyril's meeting of 22 June also attended. One motion was adopted that Eutyches and deposed both the archbishop of Constantinople and the
summed up the complaints of the opponents: Cyril and Memnon were patriarch of Antioch. The archbishop was so badly treated that he died
held mainly responsible for the happenings of 22 June, and they were soon afterwards. 19
deposed and excommunicated until theyand their followers came back An incidental resuIt of this council's decision was that all teachers and
to their senses. students at the Syriac college of Edessa were expelled. These ineluded
On 9 July, the pope's delegates arrived and, following his instruc- the revered theologian Ibas and his pupil Bar Soma, the future arch-
tions, contacted Cyri\. On LO July, a new session of the council was held bishop ofNisibis. ıo
in Bishop Memnon's residence. All who had attended the first session Pope Leo the Great, who is considered a much better theologian and
were there, and they read aletter from Celestine, which the Roman del- a much more judicious statesman than his predecessor, Celestine, was
egates were carrying. Then on 1ı July, the Romans endorsed what had appalled by these proceedings. He refused to approve the council's deci-
been done before their arrival and ratified Nestorius' deposition. John sion and wrote to the emperor demanding a fresh one. The emperor
of Antioch's countercouncil was condemned as 'a conventiele of apos- refused, but in 450 he fell off his horse and died. His sister Pulcheria
tasy'; the number of bishops with him was minimised, and several of then married a senator named Marcian, who became the new emperor
them were deelared irregular. and agreed to a new council, which met at Chalcedon in 45 ı .ıı This was
On ı 6 July, the council sent John two summonses ordering him to more balanced in its representation of the e1ergy and more fairly con-
appear, without result. it then passed a series of decrees against anyone ducted than either of the councils hel d at Ephesus. lt condemned the
who held any shade of opinion similar to what was labelled as the errors council of 449 and the teaching of Eutyches, but it also condemned
ofNestorius and the Pelagian Celestius. Nestorius' alleged doctrine that Christ was two persons and affirmed the
view of Leo as expressed in his 'Tome', that Christ was one person in emperor Zeno apparently decided that it was now more important to
whom two natures, divine and human, existed together without either secure religious harmony within his own dominions than to conciliate
one swallowing up the other. 22 This council also promoted both the the pope, who was now effectively the subject of a barbarian king. 26 This
archbishop of Constantinople and the bishop of Jerusalem to the rank time the emperor did not choose to summon a council, probably because
ofpatriarch, establishing the classic Orthodox system offive patriarchs, he thought that it would only stir up fresh controversy. Instead, in 482 he
with the pope as the senior patriarch, but only in the sense of being first issued a new confession of faith on his own authority, called the Henoti-
among equals. 23 con or 'Formula ofUnity'. This condemned both Nestorius and Eutyches
Nestorius was still in exile in Egypt and was not allowed to attend and declared that Christ was one person but did not explicitly add 'in two
the new counciL. However, a treatise known as The Bazaar ofHeraelides, natures' or approve the decrees ofChalcedon. The pope therefore rejected
which was only rediscovered at the beginning of the twentieth century, it, and so did most or all of the teachers at the school of Edessa. In retali-
is ascribed to him by most scholars-and if he did write it, it shows that ation, Zeno closed the school for good in 489. Most of the remaining
he was satisfied with the doctrine of Leo and the Council of Chalcedon teachers then took refuge with the Church of the East in Nisibis, where
and believed that it embodied the essence ofthe views that he had sought Bar Soma founded his own theological school, with the refugees making
to defend against Cyril. If so, then one can conclude that Nestorius, at up much of its staff. 27
least at the end ofhis life, was no Nestorian. 24 This seems to have been the time when the Church of the East first
formally declared itself separate and detached from the church in the
Roman Empire. Bar Soma held a synod at Bait Lapat in 484 that organised
4. THE THREE-WAV SCHlSM BETWEEN THE CATHOLICS,
the Church of the East as an independent church and affirmed the right
THE JACOBITES, AND THE CHVRCH OF THE EAST
of higher clergy, as well as priests, to marry.28 Under his influence and
The controversy did not end there. Many clergy and laity in Egypt and that of the other refugees from Edessa, the Church of the East endorsed
in the westem provinces of Syria continued to support the views of Cyril the theological traditions supported by Theodore, Diodore, Nestorius,
and Dioscorus, and refused to accept the decision of Chalcedon. Then and Ibas-which they seem to have judged as agreeing with the ones
when Ibas, the head of the college at Edessa, died in 457, his pupil Bar that they had received from their own apostles, Addai and Mari-and
Soma was expelled from the college for the second time by the Roman Bar Soma persuaded King Piruz to expel from his dominions all Chris-
authority. He retumed to his own country and-as has been mentioned- tians who disagreed with those teachings, arguing that their loyalties lay
found a warm welcome in the territories of Mesopotamia under Persian not with him but with the Roman emperor. 29
rule. He became metropolitan in his natiye city of Nisibis and the Even at this point, however, the Church of the East does not seem to
second-ranking prelate in the Church of the East. Very exceptionally, his have made any decisive breach with the Catholic Church of the Roman
abilities also led the Persian king to appoint him warden of the marches Empire. After Bar Soma refused to attend a church council summoned by
and commander of the troops on the frontier-a post hardiyever given his superior, the patriarch of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, that council annulled
to a Christian in the Persİan Empire. 25 all the decisions of his synod except the one allowing higher clergy to
In 476 the last westem Roman emperor abdicated, and the lands of the marry. When Justin became Roman emperor in 5 ı 8, he recognised the
former westem empire fell completely under the rule of the Germanic decrees of Chalcedon. The pope then cam e back into communion with
barbarian invaders, who were mostly either pagans or Arians. The eastem the church in the Eastem Roman Empire-and so, apparently, did the
Church of the East, since the Catholicos Mar Aba visited Constantinople Chalcedon in its synodicon, or official collection of approved conciliar
in about 530. When war broke out again between the Empire and Persia decrees. 36
in 540, the Persian King Chosroes persecuted the Church of the East, From then until the nineteenth century, the Church of the East
which suggests that he regarded its members as on ce again in sympathy remained largely cut off from the rest of Christendom. In modern times,
with the Christians in the Roman Empire. 30 however, the leaders and theologians of the worldwide Anglican Com-
The council that really created a definite schism between the Catholic munion have extended it the hand of fellowship, because they have come
Church and the Church of the East was the Second Council of Constan- to believe that the whole difference between the Church of the East and
tinople, which was convoked by Justin's son and successor, Justinian, in the western churches that accepted the decrees ofChalcedon was a mat-
553. Since his general Belisarius was reconquering Italy for him, Justin- ter of words, not beliefs. The Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Anglican
ian on ce again wished to have the support of the pope, so his council churches all teach that Christ is one person with two natures. The Church
obligingly reaffirmed the teaching of Pope Leo as endorsed at Chalce- of the East teaches that Christ has one persopa but two qiani and two
don. The Monophysites of Syria refused to accept this decision and set qnumi. Anglican theologians have concluded that the whole disagree-
up their own church under Jacob Baradaeus. 31 Over time, this religious ment arose because older western doctors misconstrued qnuma as mean-
difference became a focus for the growing resentment that the Aramaic- ing what they understood by 'person', when in fact it means 'essence'.37
speaking Syrians felt at the way they were governed by the emperor's That Jesus Christ the God-man is one person (parsopa) in whom are
Greek-speaking officials from Constantinople. 32 After the Arab conquest conjoined both a human and a divine nature (kiana) and essence (qnuma)
ofSyria, the Syrians, Iike the adherents of the Church of the East, found is precisely the doctrine of Leo and the Council of Chalcedon and also,
that they got better treatment from their new masters because their own if he indeed wrote The Bazaar of Heraclides, what Nestorius himself
brand ofChristianity was not the same as that of the Melkites (emperor's came to believe, at least by the end of his life. The Church of the East
men), as they called the Orthodox.J3 Their church has endured as the styles Mary 'Mother ofGod the Word', which is also in accord with the
Syrian Orthodox or Jacobite Church ever since. decrees of Chalcedon. Apparently, then, the action of the Orthodox and
However, Justinian's council went beyond the decisions ofChalcedon Roman Catholic churches in labelling the Church of the East heretical
when it passed the 'Three Chapters', which condemned the teachings of has been nothing but a tragic mistake that caused an unnecessary divi-
Theodore, Theodoret, and Ibas, all ofthem long since dead. 34 The theo- sion in Christendom.
logians of the Church of the East could not accept this condemnation Thus the Christological controversies of the fifth and sixth centuries
of Bar Soma's revered master, Ibas, and the earlier leaders of the same split the Syriac-speaking people into two distinct Christian sects, match-
schooL. Accordingly in 585 the patriarch Ishuyahb held his own synod, ing the political division that set apart the Romans from the Persians and
which condemned the Three Chapters but passed a confession that was also dived both groups from the main body ofwestern Christendom. The
completely in accord with Leo's Tome and the decrees of Chalcedon. 35 zeal of both communities made them exert their energies in missionary
Thus it was their refusal to accept the Three Chapters of the Second activities in Asia, reaching as far as Ch ina and Japan. They established
Council ofConstantinople, rather than their supposed failure formally to learning institutions with the Syriac language common to both, making
endorse Ephesus and Chalcedon, that led the Catholic Church to regard valuable contributions to knowledge, such as translating Greek learning
the Church of the East as heretical and schismatic. The Church of the into Syriac and Arabic, which later was passed to Europe by the Arabs
East in fact included both the Tome ofLeo and the acts of the Council of through Spain. Having freed itself from any connection with the western
60 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND ÜTTOMANS The History of the Church of the East 61
churches and reaching a good understanding with its Persian rulers for was compounded by continual persecution and ethnic cleansing by
most of the time, the Church of the East embarked on a huge missionary uninterrupted waves of alien invaders and settlers who headed to Assyria
enterprise, which reached its peak under Abbasid rule. All the eastem to fill the vacuum left by Timur's devastation and the elimination of
parts of the world, as far as China and even Japan, became a field for the vast majority of the indigenous inhabitants. The conditions existing
missionary labour-a task that the church fulfilled by converting many among the people during the period of Ottoman decline added another
pagan ethnic groups to Christianity.38 factor, which further accelerated the decline of their church. Rome then
These missionary successes, however, served to mask the dan ger- exploited the Christian minority's situation to absorb the greater part of
ously exposed situation in which the Syriac-speaking peoples found their church and bring the people under its sway.
themselves. As long as they remained under the rule of the Zoroastian
Sassanids and the Ummayad and Abbasid caliphs who succeeded them,
5. THE SCHISM BETWEEN THE
the Nestorians' isolation from the rest of Christendom actually worked
ORTHODOX AND LATIN CHURCHES
in their favour, because all those dynasties were willing to tolerate
Christians who behaved Iike peaceable and obedient subjects and gaye The later relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the separated
no loyalty to any foreign power. The same attitude actually secured bet- churches of the Near and Middle East-the Jacobites and the Church
ter conditions for the Jacobites, after the Arab conquest of Syria, than of the East-were also profoundly affected by the schism between the
they had experienced under the rule of Byzantine emperors who were Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. Like the earlier schisms, this
zealously orthodox as defined in Constantinople. However, once they was at least as much amatter of politics and cultural difference as theol-
came under the rule of Muslim dynasties such as the SeIjuk Turks and ogy. Indeed it seems fair to say that the two bodies first quarrelled about
the Mongol I1khans, their religious divisfon hampered the members of questions of power and authority and then found a doctrinal excuse for
both Syriac-speaking churches from mounting any concerted resistance condemning each other. 39
to pressure and persecution by their Muslim, non-Arab neighbours and As early as the fourth century, the popes had c1aimed to be the unique
rulers, while their perceived status as 'heretics' made first the Byzan- successors of St. Peter and the sole heirs of Christ's promise to him,
tines and then the crusaders less concemed to rescue them from oppres- 'Thou art Peter, and on this rock i will build my church' (Matthew i 6: i 8),
sion than they might have been if they had acknowledged the Syriac and therefore supreme over all other prelates.40 The patriarchs in the
Christians as full brothers and sisters in Christ. As we shall see, these Eastem Roman Empire had always politely ignored this claim, and their
factors were to influence the fate of the Assyrian Nestorians and the Syr- theologians interpreted the text differently.41 But by the end of the elev-
ian Jacobites right down to the period that forms the focus of the this enth century, all the churches ofwestem Europe had admitted the c1aim
study. and the popes were seeking to enforce it on all Christendom. 42 Pope
After 1295 the Church of the East gradually dwindled into a shadow Urban II, in launching the First Crusade, aimed to extend his authority
of its glorious past. Its sharp decline could be seen by the beginning over the Christians in the Near East, and he also hoped that by freeing
of the fifteenth century, when it was unable to call a church council the Byzantines from the Turkish menace, he would eam their gratitude
to elect a new patriarch because it had onlyone metropolitan serv- and induce them, too, to admit his c1aim to supremacy over the whole
ing a few communities in their original homeland who had survived the church. Doubtless, Urban sincerely wished to help the eastem Christians
catastrophic events especial the slaughters of Timur Lang. The decline and to rescue them from aggression and persecution by the Turks, but his
notion of how to do that involved bringing them under his own rule and game, the 'Separated Eastern Churches' were to be Iittle more than
control. 43 pawns.
The real causes of the schism were the cultural cIeavage between
western and eastern Europe and the rivalry between the western and
6. THE CRUSADERS, THE EARLY PHASE
eastern empires and their chief see s of Rome and Constantinople. 44
OF THE MISSIONARIES
The chief doctrinal excuse was the issue of the Filioque, the Latin
word for 'and the Son', which the churches under the pope's author- The dramatic developments of the eleventh century in Mesopotamia,
ity came to insert in the Nicene Creed. 45 The pope and the patriarch which brought the Seljukid occupation to Baghdad in 1055, were only
of Constantinople traded anathemas over that issue in 1054, but even the beginning of the geopolitical, demographic, and religious changes
that act did not create a complete schism between the Roman Catho- that came as the direct result of the successive waves of invaders from
Iic and Orthodox churches. 46 What made the schism definite was the the west and from Central Asia. The decline of the Abbasid Caliphate
action of the crusader Prince Bohemond of Antioch in 1100, when had created a military and political vacuum throughout the region. This
he deposed the Orthodox patriarch of that city and appointed a Latin was shown as soon as the Seljuks occupied Baghdad, but its worst effects
patriarch, obedient to the pope, in his place. The other Orthodox patri- only appeared when the Mongols followed then in 1258.
archs all refused to recognise the deposition, and from then on the These developments were cIosely watched by the Catholic European
eastern emperors and the popes began to appoint rival patriarchs of states, which responded by organizing a series of crusades during 1097-
both Antioch and JerusalemY After that, both sides began to act as if 1291. The presence of crusaders in the lands that had given birth to
there were two rival churches, not a single Catholic Church with some the separated churches prompted Rome to reassert its historic cIaim to
internal disputes. supremacy over all Christian churches. 48
From that time on, the papacy cam e to regard the Orthodox Church Thus, beginning in 1097, Pope Urban II and his successors promoted
as its main rival and consistently followed a policy of trying to win a series of campaigns to occupy the region that lasted two centuries. At
over all the natiye Christians in the Near and Middle East who were in the outset, the objectives were to recover the Christian holy places from
schism with Constantinople. The ultimate objective of the strategy was, the Muslims, deliver the native Christians of the Near East from per-
as it were, to outflank the Orthodox Church by planting Latin Christi- secution, and protect Armenia and the Byzantine Empire from Turkish
anity on its eastern as well as its western doorstep, and to encourage attacks. 49 But the military commanders were mostIyat least as interested
the Orthodox, too, to acknowledge the cIaim of Rome to be the hub in acquiring wealth by plunder and carving out kingdoms and principali-
of all Christendom. Then as now, the popes sincerely desired to unite ties for themselves, and so the waves of invaders brought destruction to
Christendom; but then as now, they were unable to imagine how Chris- the regions inhabited by the followers of the national churches. 50 Thus
tendom could be united without themselves as supreme heads. The we find a contemporary historian, a natiye of the city of Urhay (Urfa,
division of western Christendom prevented it from presenting a united known in the West as Edessa), recounting the early crusader campaigns
front against Muslim pressure on it eastern f1ank and diverted effort and and describing in detail the destruction wrought by their occupation to
resources that would better have gone to resisting that pressure into an the ancient emirate ofUrhay and their illtreatment of the intensiye natiye
internal quarrel, as appeared most tragically when the Fourth Crusade Christian population. 5' Another contemporary historian, the famed ıbn
was divided into an attack on Constantinople. In this complex chess al Ibri ('-i~\ ~\), painfully described the tragedy of the sack of
Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade (1204), to whieh many clergy and ENDNOTES
laity of the eity fell vietims, and whieh put an end to the Byzantine Empire
as a great power and a bulwark ofChristendom against its foes. s2
The attitudes of some crusaders towards the native Christians could ı. Etheridge, The Syrian Churehes, 15-16; Rich, Narrative, 2:120; Laurie,
be seen from aletter that the leaders of the Second Crusade sent to Pope Dr. Grant, 47; Sam Parhad, Beyond the Ca/l of Duty: The Biography of
Eugenius III (1145-1153): 'We defeated the atheist Turks, but we are Malik Kambur of Jeelu (Chicago: Metropolitan Press, 1986); Adam Mez,
unable to use violence against the infidel Rums [Orthodox], Armenians Al Hathara AIIslamiyaji al Qarn al Rabi al Hijri, trans. Mohammed Abdul
and Syrian Jaeobites. Come and destroy with your might, which has no Hadi (1902; repr., Beirut, 1967), 1:25.
Aziz Atiya, History of Eastern Christianity (London: Methuen, 1968),
parallel, all the infidelity' .S3 According to Cardinal Ogen Tsran, Pope
242-259; Rev De Lacy ü'Leary, The Syriae Chureh and Fathers (London:
John XXii (13 ı 6-1343) wrote on 2 November 1326 to the commander Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1909), 23-33; Badger, The
of alater campaign, urging him to uproot both the Nestorians and the Nestorians, 1:36; Werda, The Fliekering Light ofAsia, 226-227; Fortescue,
Jacobites from Cyprus, 'Ieaving the necessary measures to his wise judg- The Lesser Eastern Churehes, 40; 'AI i ibn al-Husayn al-Mas' ud i, Mur uj
ment' .54 The people had to adjust to the new conditions, ineluding the al-dhahab (Beirut, 1986), 339. Mez mentioned that the 'mandilion', which
creation of a Catholic body in Lebanon in 1204.55 The crusaders exerted tradition says has the image of Jesus Christ printed on it, was kept in the
Grand Church of Urhai and was handed over to the Byzantines in return for
themselves to convert the non-Catholic native Christians in all the ter-
Iifting the siege of the city and Iiberating the Muslim captives. Ai Kirmani,
ritories that came under their rule, and they left a trace of that endeavour while speaking about the existence of more than three hundred churches in
in the Maronites of Lebanon, whom Rome suceeeded in eonverting dur- Urhai (al Ruha), refers to its great ehurch, which contained the cloth. See
ing the Fourth Crusade. 56 al-Qaram ani i, Akhb ar al-duwal wa-ath ar al-uwal f i al-t ar ikh (Bayr-ut:
Both the crusaders' ineursions into the Holy Land and their ultimate '-Alamal-Kutub, 1982),351; Cutts, Christians Under the Creseent, 169;
withdrawal from the region had far-reaehing consequenees for the loeal Lt. Col. R. S. Stafford, The Tragedy of the Assyrians (London: G. Aııen &
Unwin, Ltd., 1935),20, n. 1.
Christians. After the Muslims' victory over the Mongols at Ain Jalut in
2. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 132; Edward Gibbon, The Dec/ine and F all ofthe Roman
1260, and their conversion to Islam at the end of the thirteenth century, Empire: An Abridgement, by M. Low (New York: Hareourt, Brace, 1960),
a general anti-Christian feeling developed and led to massacres through- 186; Wiltsch, Handbook, 1:22; Rufael Babo Ishaq, Tarikh Nasara al Iraq
out the territories under Ilkhanid rule. 57 The reaction to the crusaders' monthu Intishar al Nisraniyaji al Aktar allraqiya ela Ayamina (Baghdad,
behaviour took the form of general massacres to force Islam on the 1948), 8-9; Albert Abouna, Tarikh al Kanisa al Sharkiya, L. min Intishar
native Christians, especially after 1295.58 al Masihiya hatta Maji al Islam (Mosul, 1973),21. E. Crawford Burkitt,
Early Eastern Christianity (London: John Murray, 1904), 9; Mary Lewis
Thus the early forcible attempt by Rome to 'reclaim' the so-called
Shedd, The Measure of a Man: The Life of William Ambros Shedd, Mis-
'heretical churches' had evi! consequenees for both its own followers sionary to Persia (New York: George H. Duran Co., 1922),33; Philip Hitti,
and for the loeal Christian churches. For the former, the lesson was to Lebanon in History (London: MaeMilIan, 1957),252; American Sunday-
rest in the repository of history until a new opportunity presented itself. School Union, The Nestorians, 11.
The latter were obliged to live with their wounds after having been sub- 3. Rev. John Stewart, Nestorian Missionary Enterprise: The Story ofa Chureh
jeeted to two waves of invaders. 59 on Fire (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1928), xxx. F. C. Burkitt, mentioning
Urhai as the first Christian centre of the Syriac-speaking world, argued
that while Christianity was introduced first among the Heııenic-speaking
66 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND üTTOMANS The History of the Church of the East 67
people, the language of the majority of the disciples was Aramaic. See 12. Moss, The Christian Faith, 57-58; Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, The True
M. L. Shedd, The Measure, 53; Waltsch, Handbook, i: 1-19,21,25; George Image: The Origin and Destiny ofMan in Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd-
David Malech, History of the Syrian Nation and the Old Evangelical- mans, 1989),294-297.
Apostolic Church ofthe East (Minneapolis, MN, 1910),75-77. 13. Ibid.
4. Fortescue, The Lesser Eastern Churches, 59. Mohammed Kamil and 14. Ibid., 197-198.
Mohammad al Bakri affirmed the influence of Syriac in spreading the 15. Ibid., 146-147.
Christian faith. They contended that the original version ofthe New Testa- 16. Ibid., 146-149.
ment was in Syriac, not in Greek: see Kamil Murad and Mohammed al 17. Ibid., 150-151.
Bakri, Tarikh al Adab al Siryan (Cairo, 1949), 10-15. 18. Moss, The Christian Faith, 68.
5. Rev. B. 1. Kidd, The Churches ofEastern Christendom From A.D. 451 to the 19. Ibid., 80.
Present Time (London: Faith Press, Ltd., 1927),418; Atiya, A History, 249. 20. Wigram, The Doctrinal Posifion, 38-39.
6. Grant, The Nestorians, 39; Stewart, Nestorian Missionary Enterprise, 40; 21. Moss, The Christian Faith, 81.
Fletcher, Notes From Nineveh, 1:250. 22. Ibid., 81-82.
7. Herodotus wrote on the subject of the Assyrians during his visit to 23. Runciman, The Eastern Schism, 14-15.
Assyria, stating that '[t]he Assyrians are equipped with bronze helmets 24. Moss, The Christian Faith, 68; Hughes, The True Image, 305-306.
made in a complicated outlandish way, which is hard to deseribe, shields, 25. Wigram, The Doctrinal Posifion, 38-39.
spears, aggers (like the Egyptian ones), wooden c1ubs studded with iron, and 26. Moss, The Christian Faith, 84.
linen corsets. Those people used to be called Syrians by the Greeks, 27. Moss, Christian Faith, 84; Wigram, The Doctrinal Posifion, 40-41.
Assyrians be ing the name for them elsewhere'; see book 7 of his Histories 28. Wigram, The Doctrinal Posifion, 39.
in Herodotus: Literally Translated From the Text of Baehr, trans. Henry 29. Ibid., 40.
Cary (London: G. Routledge, 1891),466-467. There are different opin- 30. Ibid., 40-44.
ions regarding the adoption of the name Syrians; some suggest that since 31. Moss, The Christian Faifh, 84-85.
Christianity was introduced and brought from Syria, the term Syrian took 32. Wigram, The Doctrinal Position, 37.
its origin from the religion's birthplace, but the witness of Herodotus in 33. Sir Stephen Runciman, A History ofthe Crusades (Cambridge: Cambridge
the fifth century BC refutes this theory. More likely the reverse is true: University Press, 1951-1954), 1:9.
Syria and Syrian are aphetic derivatives of Assyria and Assyrian, which 34. Moss, The Christian Faith, 85.
came to be used for all Aramaic-speaking peoples after they were subju- 35. Wigram, The Doctrinal Posifion, 43-44.
gated by the Assyrians. 36. Ibid., 46.
8. See the table in C. B. Moss, The Christian Faith: An Introduction to Dog- 37. Ibid., 49-55.
matic Theology (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 38. Vine, The Nestorian Churches, 50-54; Stewart, The Nestorians, 202.
1954),67. 39. Runciman, The Eastern Schism, 5-15, 58; Jenkins, Byzanfium, 7, 70-71,
9. Sir Steven Runciman, The Eastern Schism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 105-115,176-177,353-354.
1955), 18; Romilly Jenkins, Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries, AD 40. Moss, The Christian Faifh, 307-308.
610-1011 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1966),4-7,107. 41. Runciman, The Eastern Schism, 66; Jenkins, Byzantium, 351-353.
10. Moss, The Christian Faith, 59; Wigram, The Doctrinal Position, 32. 42. Runciman, The Eastern Schism, 57-58.
11. The 'Robber Synod' of Ephesus in 449 is an exception that proves the rule: 43. Ibid., 78.
because Rome would not accept its outcome, the emperor had to assemble 44. Jenkins, Byzantium, 348-360.
a new council at Chalcedon in 451, which condemned the previous one and 45. Runciman, The Eastern Schism, 30; Jenkins, Byzantium, 355-356.
declared that it had not been a true ecumenical counciL. 46. Runciman, The Eastern Schism, 44-50; Jenkins, Byzantium, 356-360.
47. Runeiman, The Eastern Schism, 90-92; idern., History of the Crusades, Wiltsch mentioned that this campaign led to the disappearance of the Ortho-
1:320-321. dox patriarch from his seat for some time. Handbook 2: 147-149.
48. Fortescue, The Lesser Eastern Churches, 115. 56. George Kirk, A Short History of the Middle East: From the Rise of Islam
49. J. H. Kurtz, Church History, trans. Rev. John MacPherson, Foreign Bibli- to Modern Times, 6th ed. (London: Methuen, 1961),46; Paul W. Cope-
cal Library, ed. Rev. W. Robertson Nicoll (New York: Funk & Wagnails, land, The Land and People ofSyria, rev. ed. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott,
1889-1890),2:13; Runciman, History of the Crusades, 1:103-108. See 1972),40.
also Hugh Thomas, An Unjinished History of the World (London: H. Ham- 57. Ghrigorios ıbn 'abri, Tarikh Mokhtasar al-Dowal (Beirut : Matba'at al-
ilton, 1979), 66, 70, 90. katholikiyah, 1981), 286; Nasri, Tha 'khera t, 2:8-14.
50. Runciman, History of the Crusades, 1:142-147, 157-160, 197-212,233- 58. Werda, The Flickering Light ofAsia, 271.
235, 285-288. 59. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:257,263.
51. The History of the Unknown Edessan, trans. Fr. Albert Abouna (Baghdad,
1980),2:77.
52. Abu al Faraj Jamal al-Din ıbn al-Ibri, Mokhtasar Tarikh al Dowal (repr.,
Qoum, n.d.), 228. He also mentioned that in 1129 Joscelin, Count of
Edessa, one of the Crusade leaders, reachedAmid (Diyarbakir) and harried
and looted the Turkomans and Kurds in the surrounding villages; see ıbn al
Ibri, Tarikh al Zaman, trans. Rev. Ishaq Armala (Beirut, 1986), 142. Edward
Gibbon gave precise details of the tragic events, which shook to its roots
the Orthodox Byzantine Empire; see The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire: An Abridgement, 771-775; Runciman, History of the Crusades,
3:123-124. For the contemporary Arab historian's account see al Hafith
al Thahabi, Allbar ji Khabar ma 'n ghabar (Beirut: Dar al Kutub, 1985),
3: 13 1; Ahmad ibn 'Ali al-Makrizi, Kitab Al Suluk Li-Ma 'Rifat Duwal Al-
Muluk, ed. M. Mustafa Ziada (Cairo, 1942) 1.2:351, and for the beginning
of the Crusades, see 558; Karl Broklman, Tarikh al Shu 'ub al lslamiya
(Beirut, 1977),245,257.
53. Jack Tajir, Aqbat wa Moslimoon mintho al Fatih al Arabi ela 'am 1922
(Jersey City, NJ: Coptic Assoeiations, 1984), 161. J. Wiltsch stated that
following the occupation of Antioch, a commander of the campaign wrote
to Pope Urban II informing him that' Jesus gave all Antioch as a posses-
sion of the Roman belief and its doctrine', Handbook 2: 130; while Hugh
Thomas stated that 'the Crusaders undoubtedly offered ... great opportuni-
ties to merchants' , An Unjinished History, 185. See also Runciman, History
ofthe Crusades, 3:351-358.
54. Tisserant, Kholasa Tarikhiya, 106.
55. AI Thahabi, Allbar ji khabar ma'n Ohabar, 2:385; Runeiman, History
of the Crusades, 2:322. P. M. Holt, The Age of the Crusades: The Near
East From the Eleventh Century to 1517 (New York: Longman, 1986),7.
CHAPTER 4
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC

MISSIONARIES AND THEIR IMPACT
ON THE ASSYRIANS
ı. THE IMPACT OF
THE OTTOMAN CONCESSIONS TO FRANCE
Rome's interest in converting the separated eastem Christians revived in

1535, when the Ottoman sultan Sulaiman the Magnificent (1520--1566)
annexed Mesopotamia and the surrounding Arab countries and awarded
King Francis i of France concessions, which included the freedom to
establish Catholic missions to labour in the Asiatic provinces of the
Ottoman Empire. France became the natural ally of the Ottomans, who
greatly appreciated their alliance against the Safavids, and accordingly,
Sultan Sulaiman awarded King Francis the important concessions of
i 535, granting French subjects religious freedom in the Ottoman Empire
and the right to establish missionary station s in his newly acquired ter-
ritories in the Middle East. Both France and the papacy moved promptly
to exploit these concessions. As early as 1536, Franciscan missionaries
72 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Roman Catholic Missionaries 73
found their way to Jerusalem and established themselves in the midst of favourable conditions. Thus in ı 622 Rome decided to reorganise its
the Nestorians and Jacobites. ı From then on, Catholic missionaries had missionary activities by establishing a central authority to direct them;
better scope to pursue their work with the full support of French govern- thus the College for the Propagation ofthe Faith was established to train
ment. Despite their occasionally strained relations in Europe, France and natiye candidates as missionaries. Henceforth many of the envoys of
the papacy had a common interest in penetrating the Levant, so France Rome were to be chosen from the followers of the 'national churches',
strongly aided and supported the activities of the Catholic missionaries inCıuding the Syriac-speaking churches. Rome's later success was
for mutual interest. It became normal to find French consuls acting as largely due to these changes, as well as to the effectiye and staunch sup-
missionaries, and vice versa. port of France, which could apply leverage to the local Ottoman authori-
Since Islamic law forbade Muslims to convert to other faiths, the Cath- ties. Catholic missionaries equipped under the new system appeared in
olic missionaries concentrated their efforts on the local Nestorian and Aleppo, Syria, in ı 627 and then in Mesopotamia in ı 750. Their ambition
Jacobite Christian inhabitants. 2 However, '[wlith respect to the Muslims was to bring all the Christian subjects of the sultan under obedience to
they philosophized that they might Christianize them by first westerniz- the pope, but the evidence suggests that they had no marked success
ing them'.3 But this missionary labour made the Muslim majority suspi- until the middle of the nineteenth century.
cious oftheir Christian fellow subjects who maintained relations with the Nevertheless, with the establishment of the College of Propaganda,
foreign Christians; they were viewed as having suspect ties with distant the seeds of Catholicism began to be more efficiently broadcast among
infidels. This also influenced 'the official Ottoman attitude toward the the Nestorians and Jacobites. The activities of Francois Picquet, the
transfer of loyalties by the dhmimmi population from patriarch to pope' .4 French consul at Aleppo (ı 652- ı 662), could be considered as a comer-
With the rapid decline of the Ottoman Empire, the sultans awarded stone for the success ofthe missionaries in sowing divisions within both
increasingly humiliating capitulations to the great European powers. national churches. He 'was the first to Iink French economic and politi-
Although France was the first to gain such further concessions, other cal interests in the Ottoman Empire directly to the Catholic cause'.7 He
powers soon secured similar privileges for themselves. These capitu- reported to his home govemment a remarkable success in his labours,
lations enabled many non-Muslim individual subjects of the sultan, as but one scholar doubted his report, and it is not at all c1ear that he was
well as Europeans, to enjoy a special status of protection and privileges, correct in his c1aims. 8
such as exemption from state dues and taxes. Eventually the capitula- Given their weakness, the Ottoman sultans as early as the seventeenth
tions came to undermine Ottoman sovereignty and to contribute to the century grew uneasy about the activities ofwestem missionaries among
empire's decline;5 they produced a class of proteges who were allowed their Christian subjects. These apprehensions led them 'in the eighteenth
to purchase property and underseli Muslim merchants. 6 century to side with the traditionalists '9 and to strengthen the national
churches. Partly reversing their previous policy, they revived their tra-
ditional strategy for dealing with subject population of 'divide and rule'
2. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PROPAGANDA IN 1622
and sought to detach the different religious bodies from each other, issu-
During the early stages of Rome's activities, various Catholic orders of ing bara 'ats 'for the office of patriarch and metropolitan to partisans of
missionaries laboured independently, and the papacy made no attempt to both the Orthodox and Catholic factions'.ıo
coordinate their efforts. But the conditions changed when the Ottoman The importance that Rome assigned to converting both the Nesto-
decline and the correspondingly enhanced role of France offered more rians and the Jacobites could be judged from the numbers of Catholİc
74 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Roman Catholie Missionaries 75
missionaries who were working among them. For example, in 1680 there both the ethnic and polİtical map of the region. New alliances emerged
were 'twenty-four Latin Catholİc priests and Friars in the city of [Aleppo] between its ethnic and reIİgious groups, based on doctrinal affiIİation,
but only fourteen resident French merchants ... the number of those which in tum were to influence the conditions in the region over the suc-
c1aiming to be chaplains must have raised more than a few eyebrows in ceeding centuries.
the governor's saray'.11 Although evidence does not support the claim, As we have seen, the concessions that the Ottoman sultan awarded
'by the end of the seventeenth century, one missionary source estimated to France in 1535 included permission for the Catholic missionaries to
that three-quarters of the community in Aleppo were Catholİc'.lz While estabIİsh themselves in the newly annexed territories. The Franciscans
the suItans were reviving the tradition of the millet through empower- lost no time starting to labour among the followers of the Church of the
ing the status of various patriarchs, the natives converted to Catholicism East; their eagerness could be seen from their haste in opening a mis-
were coming to be widely viewed as a potential fifth column that might sionary station in Jerusalem the next year. After fifteen years of labour,
be manipulated and assisted by the European powers. The MusIİm tra- they were presented with what seemed a decisive opportunity to reaIİse
ditional ruling class viewed the sultans' tolerance of the missionaries as their goal of 'reconciling' the ancient Church of the East into obedience
contrary to their interests and as subverting the Ottoman Empire. 13 This to Rome.
was an alarming signal for nationalİst Ottomans, especially when the The chance presented itself when the Patriarch Shimun Bar Mama
labours of the Catholİc missionaries were weaning the loyalty ofthe ahlu died in 1551, since his successor, as Natir Kursi (guardian of the office)
al-dhimma away from the sultan towards a foreign dignitary. was a child of eight or nine years old. A group of 'notables', among
whom were those with commercial ties with France, assembled in
Mosul to address the pressing dilernma, but this assembly lacked the
3. SULAQA AS THE FOUNDER OF
three metropolitans needed officially to consecrate a patriarch. So, at
THE CATHOLIC LINE IN THE CHURCH OF THE EAST
the urging of the Franciscans, they agreed to appeal to Pope JuIİus III
With the emergence of the Shi'a Safavid state at the beginning of the six- (1550-1555) for help. In their appeal, they stated that they were orphans
teenth century and its continual hostilities with the Sunni Ottomans, the with no head but with a child who came from the same family that had
regions of Mesopotamia and Assyria became once again a battleground monopolised the patriarchal see for the past hundred years. 14 The signa-
between two competing powers. The mutual hostility also brought the tories begged the pope to consecrate as the ir patriarch Yohannan Sulaqa,
European factor into the scene, as the French became an ally of the Otto- a monk from the monastery of Rabban Hormizd. The missionaries who
mans while the Iberian states of Spain and Portugal supported the Safa- had organised the meeting and its agenda provided Sulaqa with an escort
vids. These developments had far-reaching consequences for the Church to take him to Rome. According to Adrian Fortescue,
of the East. However, we have to keep in mind that, when the Ottomans
annexed most of ancient Assyria and the whole of Mesopotamia during In order to fortify himself against his rival he makes friends with
the Catholic Franciscan missionaries, who were aıready working
1514-1536, the Church of the East and its followers were aıready bleed-
among the Nestorians. They send him to Jerusalem, and there the
ing from the tumultuous preceding centuries, which had inflicted on them 'Custos S. sepulchri' gives him letters for the PopeY
a continual series of massacres, persecutions, and ethnic cleansing.
ısmail Shah 's invasion and occupation of Iraq during 1508-1514 Several historians teli us that on ce Sulaqa arrived at Rome, a spe-
sparked the conflict with the Ottomans. This in tum profoundly altered cial committee was set up to examine his beliefs. After it had done so,
the cardinal assigned for the mission reported that Sulaqa's belief and the mountainous regions of Assyria-mainly those of Jelu, Salamas,
doctrine were purely Nestorian. Therefore it was decided to instruct him and Si'arat20-revolted at the head of forty thousand Nestorian fami-
in Catholic teaching under the tutelage of a special cardinal, who took Iies against the patriarch Mar Elia, who had his seat at the monastery of
nearly two years to complete his task. 16 At last, in April 1553, Sulaqa Rabban Hormizd. 21 Bishop Dinkha took advantage of the contemporary
was consecrated patriarch as Shimun VIII and sent back to his native regional developments and circumstances, and the powerful independent
country to begin his new function as patriarch of a schismatic lineP But Assyrian tribes ofTiyari and Hakkari, along with other semi-independent
the Catholics' hopes were disappointed, since Sulaqa failed to win over and Ra 'aya tribes, supported his defiance. Apparently the Safavids also
the main body of the followers of the Church of the East. Instead, after encouraged the revolt as a way to establish a branch of the Church of
arriving at Diarbekir in November, he spent a year or so in the remote, the East that would adopt a more independent policy from the Ottoman
rugged, and isolated mountain of Se 'arat until he was arrested and put to authority.22
death by the Turkish government early in 1555. However, the power of Mar Elia obliged Bishop Dinkha to flee from
The tragedy ofYohannan Sulaqa could be see n in his sad end and in the his see and take up his residence in the monastery of Mar Yokhanan near
fate of the line that he initiated. He left behind no qualified bishop to suc- Salamas in Persian Azerbaijan, where the authorities welcomed him as
ceed him and no solid church structure to administer and organise the new aleader heading forty thousand warlike Assyrian families.23 The pope
schismatic body that he had founded. Hence the patriarchate remained quickly confirmed him as patriarch after accepting his Catholic confes-
vacant from early 1555 to 1563. Because the line started in isolation from sion and further boosted the movement and strengthened Dinka's posi-
the main body of the followers ofthe Church of the East, when put to test, tion by appealing to Shah Abbas ofPersia to support him. The combined
it failed the purpose for which it had been created. The interruptions and support of Persia and Rome helped to establish a new schismatic patri-
the short terms of office of this line can be see n from the following table: archal line in the mountains, which has ever since been known as 'the
Patriarchal Line of Mar Shimun' .24 Thus, from the very beginning, this
line owed its existence to Rome's support for Bishop Dinkha, who could
SUlaqa'8 1553 1555 16 months
Abdeshu'9 1563 1567 4 years never have secured his position without the support of an authority that
EthAllaha 1567 1575 8 years could give him a legitimate title. So a new line of patriarchs was estab-
Total 13 years and 4 months
lished, all ofwhom styled themselves Mar Shimun.
When put to the test, the sincerity and conviction of the patriarchs of
In 1575 there was no successor to Eth Allaha. The line of Catholic this line in their Catholic doctrine and acceptance of papal supremacy
Uniates was threatened with extinction and was only saved by a new proved to rest on shaky ground. This was partly because the new patri-
schism. archs failed to gain the acceptance and su pp ort of the followers of the
Church of the East on those issues. 25 As Fortescue correctly stated, the
patriarchs of this line gradually became hostile to Rome. This is clear
4. THE P ATRIARCHAL LINE OF MAR SHIMUN
from the fact that while some of them sent their Catholic confessions
The Background of Mar Shimun's Line to Rome, others neglected to do so. Mar Shimun IX and Mar Sh im un X
In 1580 Rome found a new opportunity to win over the Church of the and also Mar Shimun XII each sent confessions to Rome, but after 1670
East when Shimun Dinkha, the bishop of the important bishopric of no contacts were maintained. As Fortescue wrote,
78 ASSYRIANS, KUROS, AND OTTOMANS The Roman Catholic Missionaries 79
Patriarchs of this line occasionally sent catholic professions of The following patriarchs retumed to doctrine of the Church of the
faith and protestations of obedience to Rome, receiving in return East:
the pallium; others did not, and the mass of c1ergy and people
were probably but Iittle conscious of the difference .. .in 1670 Mar
Shimun xii sent the last ofthese professions. From that time rela- 5. Mar Shimun Dinkha 33 XV 1692-1700 Church of the East
tions with Rome dropped. 26 =
6. Mar Shimun Shlemoun 34 XVI 1700-1740
7. Mar = Shimun MichaeP5 XVII 1740-1741
8. Mar = Shimun Yonan 36 XVIII 1741-1820
Aubrey Vine, who wrote a detailed history of the Nestorian churches, 9. Mar = Shimun Oraham XIX 1820-1860
affirmed that the relations of the followers of this line with Rome became =
10. Mar Shimun Rouel XX 1860-1903
interrupted and hostile after AbdeshuY Thus, while Shimun Dinkha pro- =
11. Mar Shimun Benyamin XXI 1903-1918 assassinated by the Kurds
12. Mar = Shimun Polis XXII 1918-1920
duced a new Catholic patriarchal line in the Church of the East, his suc- =
13. Mar Shimun Eshap7 XXIII 1920-1975 assassinated in CA, USA
14. Mar = Khanninya Dinkha IV 1975-present resides in Chicago
cessors retumed to their ancestral doctrine, and both its c1ergy and laity
expressed their resentment at any connection with the see of Rome. 28
The patriarchs who maintained their submission to Rome and sent
Rome strove hard to establish a new Catholic line in Diarbekir to
their Catholic confessions until ı 670 are listed in the following table: 29
replace the renegade one, and eventually succeeded in creating a new
division in the Church of the East in ı 68 ı, when the French consul at
Uniate Patriarch 30 Period in Office Doctrine Aleppo, Francois Picquet, persuaded the Nestorian archbishop of that
1. Shimun Dinkha i 1580-1600 Catholic city to convert. From then on, the patriarchs of this line styled them-
2. Shimun ii 1600-1639 selves 'Mar Yousif', but they never gained any followers beyond Diar-
3. Shimun iii 1639-1653
4. Shimun LV 1653-1692
bekir and occasionally Mardin, and their line died out in 1828.
Thus in 1580 the Church of the East became divided between the fol-
lowers of the original line of Mar Elia, located mainly in the plains and
Petros Nasri claimed that the first four patriarchs were Catholics. Shi- rolling country, and those of the new line of Mar Shimun, mainly located
mun Dinkha was obliged to adjust to the circumstances of his time and in the mountains and in part of Persian Azerbaijan. For while Shimun
to submit his allegiance to Rome, but the motive of his successors is not XIII return ed to the doctrine and belief of the Church of the East, this
clear, since the circumstances had changed. Shimun IV was deposed by did not bring reconciliation with the mother church at the monastery of
his opponents after his submission to Rome. He then appealed to Pope Rabban Hormizd. Each line maintained its own structure and remained
Alexander VII, who appointed Bilajedis de Khanin in 1661 as assistant independent from the other, as indeed they still do, despite their common
to the Latin bishop of Babil and as a vicar to Isfahan. He wrote to Shah beliefs.
Abbas II, begging him to give help to the deposed Shimun and to rein- This state of affairs was only exacerbated when the new line of Mar
stall him in his seat. But he admitted that gradually the Catholics were Yousifemerged in Diarbekir in 1681. The backbone of the Mar Shimun
unable to maintain their hold over the Assyrians. 31 The behaviour of line and the main base for its strength remained the independent Assyr-
Shimun's successor shows that he and his followers had retumed to their ian tribes, but it also had a considerable following in the mountainous
ancestral doctrine, as Frazee and Southgate affirmed. 32 regions, and partly in Persian territories. 38 Then, beginning in i 750, the
80 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Roman Catholie Missionaries 81
followers of the Church of the East experienced a new severe contest it obtained similar concessions, which in due course were renewed and
with the Catholics, and Rome scored a great success in 1778 when it modified. 43 The Baptist Missionary Society, founded in London in 1792,
won over the bishop of Mosul, Yohannan Hormizd Aboona, from the was followed by the Church Missionary Society in 1799 and the London
patriarchal family of Mar Elia. His constant labours over the next fifty Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews in 1809. All three
years laid the cornerstone of the present-day Chaldean Church. bodies sent missionaries to the Ottoman Empire. 44
Nasri referred to the state of alert that the independent tribes main- The Catholic missionaries responded vigorously to this competition,
tained to secure the closure of their country and to keep out the Catho- establishing important institutions such as schools, hospitals, orphan-
lic missionaries. Missionaries who did get through were treated harshly, ages, and a printing press, and engaging in other essential activities.
and it was a risky mission for them to venture to the tribes, which might However, the missionaries' prime tool for establishing themselves was
end in their losing their lives. This state of affairs only changed after the medical services that they usually offered for local Turkish pashas. 45
their subjection and the massacres in 1843. 39 J. Fletcher, the contemporary Anglican missionary who reported on
the spot, stated that the Catholic mİssİonaries even employed bribes
to attain their goals. 46 These heightened activities naturally provoked
5. SULTAN MAHMUD II AND
resentment from the local Christians. Catholic natiye scholars have
THE NEW IMPULSE BEHIND THE MISSIONARIES
observed that all the Christian sects in Mesopotamia-Jacobites, Arme-
The reign of Sultan Mahmud II is considered the nadir of the Ottoman nians, and Syrian Orthodox-banded together to resist the activities of
Empire, which then suffered its most humiliating defeats and territo- the Catholics. 47 The Danish traveller Dr. Carsten Niebuhr observed, in
ri al losses. 4o it also witnessed the entrenchment of the Roman Catholic the second half ofthe eighteenth century, that the Catholic missionaries
missionaries, who succeeded in bringing new waves of Ottoman Chris- treated those who declined to follow them and resisted their activities
tian subjects under the sway of the pope. The impulse for this was the as enemies;48 he also noted the bitter feelings that they roused among
fact that various missionary orders obtained bara 'ats from the sultan, the local Christian inhabitants of Mosul vilayet. He reported the opin-
through the influence of the French ambassador. For instance, in Octo- ion of a natiye who mistook him for a missionary and painfully asked
ber 1821, the sultan recognised the 'Rum Catholics' as a legal religious him whether it was not better to leave them alone to maintain their
sect, representing the results of the missionary labours. 41 Fortified with ancestral beliefs and not to interfere in the affairs of their church. It
these privileges, various orders such as the Jesuits, Franciscans, and is easy to understand people's bitter attitude towards the missionar-
Capuchins then found ways to convert yet more followers of the local ies' labours, which put them under the spotlight, were viewed by the
national churches. 42 Muslim majority with much suspicion, and provoked much hatred and
hostility.
Cornpetition and Rivalry Among Missionaries The arrival of the second wave of missionaries after 1831 reflected
Missionary labour was a powerful tool that the various Western powers the political competition between the various European powers even
exploited to the full in their endeavours to promote the ir influence in the more strongly. Thereafter it was not unusual to find each mission acting
Ottornan Asiatic provinces. Accordingly, the various western churches vigorously to secure a foothold among the Christian natives as a way to
competed fiercely to gain controlover the Christians of the empire. further the interests of its own home govemment, or to find fierce com-
Great Britain did not leave the arena al one and, shortly after the French, petition and even hostility between the western missions themselves. 49
82 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Roman Catholk Missionaries 83
They were also keen to maintain the divisions between the followers of told how these same missionaries divided the Nestorians and spread
the national churches and employed every possible method to abort any bad feeling among them. 54
attempts at rapprochement and conciliation. 5o Thus, in the middle of the nineteenth century, we find that the Catho-
lic missionaries succeeded in converting the followers of the Church of
the East throughout the plain ofNineveh, al Jezirah, and the surrounding
6. THE LEGAL RELIGIOUS STATUS OF
regions. Southgate reported on the spot the iii treatment of the native
THE INDEPENDENT ASSYRIAN TRIBES
Christians, whether Nestorians or Jacobites, by the Catholic missionar-
Whereas Bruce Masters stated that the Nestorians under Ottoman rule ies with the full support of the French;55 while Dr. Justin Perkins, who
belonged to the Jacobite Tifa (sect) and that a Jacobite metropolitan had resided in the region since 1834 and had c10sely monitored develop-
complained that they had begun taking communion with the Maronites, ments, affirmed that the Catholic missionaries spared no efforts to win
Dr. John Joseph affirmed that Mar Elia, the original Nestorian patriarch over the Nestorians and even resorted to bribes, whether in Tiyari and
of the plains, was subject to the regulations of the millet system, und er Hakkari or in Urmia and elsewhere. 56 George Badger reported a Catholic
which the Church of the East belonged to the Armenian millet. 51 How- missionary's attempt to bribe Mar Shimun, the patriarch of the mountain
ever, their legal status was to experience a dramatic development, as branch ofthe Church of the East. He wrote,
those who had been won over to Rome were constituted as a new entity
known as Chaldean Catholics. This shattered the unity of the Assyrian Mar Shimoon was offered large sums ofmoney by the Romanists,
community. together with the Patriarchate over the Chaldeans, if he would
submit to the Pope; in fact every possible artifice was employed
Stili, the seeds of the missionaries' labours were not ripe for har- to support the tottering power of Rome among the Chaldeans of
ve st until the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Several Mosul. Fearing the defection ofsome of the Bishops of the Soci-
factors worked together during 1831 -1847, among wh ich were the ety of Lyons now consented to allow them a yearly salary to the
massacres infticted upon the followers of the Church of the East following amount:
and the iron fist that Bedr Khan Beg used against the Jacobites of The Patriarch, 20,000 piastres, or f200
Tur Abdin. The missionaries from various western churches began Bishop of Diarbekir, 8,000
to exert unprecedented pressure upon the aıready persecuted Chris- " Amedia, 5,000
tians of the Asiatic provinces of the Ottoman Empire. During this " Kerkook, 4,500
period, the Catholİc missionaries scored notable success when they " Sert, 4,500
" Mardeen, 4,500
succeeded in ending the old Nestorian patriarchalline of the plains at " Mutran Ella, 2,500
the monastery of Rabban Hormizd, descended from Mar Addai and (Badger, 170)
Mari of the seventy-two, which had headed the Church of the East
since 1318. 52 Thomas Laurie reported how the missionaries in Mosul Badger further explained that the Catholic missionary who offered
vilayet even employed violence to achieve this goal; among other the bribe was accompanied by Mar Vousif, Chaldean patriarch (1848-
measures, they persuaded the authorities to imprison all the males of 1878). Besides the offered bribe of ten thousand dollars, the missionaries
the old Nestorian patriarchal family for long times and put them to expressed their commitment to elevate Mar Shimun to the rank of 'head
forced labour on the basis of false accusations,53 while Percy Badger of all Christians in the East' .57 Despite these harsh circumstances, Mar
Shimun did not yield to the inducements. His reply echoes his strong ENDNOTES
attachment to the doctrine and traditions of the Church of the East:
'Teli your master' said the patriarch, 'that i shall never become a
ı. Frazee, Cathofics and Sultans, 67.
Catholic; and should you even induce my whole people, to the last 2. Bruce Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World (Cam-
man, to do so, i would sooner become aDervish, or a Koordish
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 70.
Moollah, than degrade myselfby and alliance with the people'.S8 3. S. N. Fisher, The Middle East: A History, 3rd ed. (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1979), 302-3 LO.
These events, however, only took place after his followers had suf- 4. Masters, Christians and Jews, 95.
fered the horrible massacres of i 843-1846. The victims who had fted 5. Donald Quataert, The Ottoman Empire 1700-1922 (Cambridge: Cambridge
their home country and had taken refuge in the concentrated settlements University Press, 2000), 78.
oftheir Chaldean brethren in the plain ofNineveh had to join the Catholic 6. Ibid., 139.
Church if they wanted to eat. S9 After that, all Nestorians in the plain and 7. Ibid., 82.
the majority of those in al Jezirah and the Khabour region converted to 8. Ibid., 81-82, 95.
9. Ibid., 89.
Catholicism. They became a distinct millet under the name 'Chaldeans' ıo. Ibid., 88.
and were officially recognised as a church and sect by the Ottoman sul- i i. Ibid., 82.
tan after the direct intervention of the French ambassador in 1844.6o 12. Ibid., 89.
Significantly, Rome made no attempt to unite the newly converted 13. Ibid., 99.
Nestorians and Jacobites into one body, even though they spoke the same 14. This charge was only partly true. The office of patriarch had been in one
family in since the time of the patriarch Mar Timothy II (I 3 i 8- i 332), who
language and Iived in the same villages. On the contrary, each group was
had been officially elected by a church counciL. During the next two cen-
kept apart from the other. 61 The papacy hadjustified its campaign against turies, which were dominated by anarchy and massacres, four more patri-
both churches on the grounds of their heretical doctrine and the heredi- archs were elected from the same family. By the time of patriarch Shimun
tary character of the office of the patriarch in the Church of the East; Basid (1437-1497), the church was merely a shadow of its glorious past
however, once it gained the upper hand, it tolerated the very hereditary and only possessed one metropolitan out of its former twenty-nine. Thus
system it had criticised.62 the existence of the church was threatened, and Basidi felt obliged to intro-
duce the Natir Kursi (Guardian of the Office) system, by which he com-
Although the patriarchal line of Mar Elia in Dair Rabban Hormizd
mitted his family to serve the church, with the office passing from uncle to
came to an end in 1842 and the missionaries scored another triumph nephew. See Heleen H. L. Murre-Vandenberg, 'The Patriarch of the Church
there, the case was quite different with the mountain branch of Mar Shi- of the East from the Fifteenth to Eighteenth Centuries', Hugoye 2,2 (July
mun, who continued to enjoy the support of his warlike followers. The 1999), and for further details see Nasri, Tha'kherat, 2:75-78.
inaccessible and rugged nature of the mountains of Tiyari and Hakkari 15. Fortescue, The Lesser Eastern Churches, ıo1.
helped the followers of his line to maintain their independence without 16. Kurtz, Church History, 2:444--445.
17. See Heleen Murre-Van den berg, 'The Patriarch of the Church'; Rev.
interference from either the Ottomans or the Persians, and the envoys of
Dr. Yousif Habbi, Le Couvent de Rabbann Hormizd (Baghdad, 1977), 27.
the pope were also kept away. Thus the Dinkha line established in 1580, 18. Frazee, Cathofics and Su/tans, 126; Fortescue, The Lesser Eastem Churches,
who had begun as Catholic Uniates but retumed to the old doctrine, con- 102; Laurie, Dr. Grant, 54-55.
tinued to represent the Church of the East after 1842, despite the tragic 19. Various sources give different dates for when the two successors of Sulaqa
events that overtook their followers in the succeeding years. 63 served, and the following note might elucidate this issue. Abdeshu, who
succeeded Sulaqa after eight years, was a monk at the monastery of Mar 33. He moved his seat to the village of Khasrawa in Persian Azerbaijan from
Ahi (~L .;L.) and Mar Yokhanan (w~~ .;L.) and was consecrated bishop 1672 to 1700. He had some correspondence with Rome after 1670. Eventu-
by Sulaqa. He travelled to Rome as Uniate patriarch elect in 1562 and ally the seat was moved to the village ofKochanis near Julamerk, where all
was confirmed in 1563 after the pope accepted his Catholic confession. relations were ended. See Dr. Helen artiele (n. 13).
According to some sources, he died in 1567, but others give II Septem- 34. His seat in Kochanis.
ber 1570. Fortescue, The Lesser Eastern Churches, 102; Laurie, Dr. Grant, 35. Ibid.
54-55. Some sources state that Eth Allaha was consecrated as patriarch in 36. lbid.
1572, but others, 1574. Murre-Vandenberg stated that due to his old age 37. Eshai Shimun XXIII was the last hereditary patriarch of the Church of the
he was unable to travel to Rome to receive confirmation. One manuscript, East (mountain branch). His successor was elected by a church synod.
written in the monastery of Mar Yacub al Habees in 1573, gives the name 38. The foııowing are some major centres of the followers of the Mar Shimun
of Shimun (line of Sulaqa) as patriarch during 1572-1576. He took the line:
monastery of Mar Khnanishu as his residence. Other sources again say that
1. Kochanis, the seat of the patriarch
he died in 1575.
2. Berwar-there are three districts with this name: the Berwar to the south
20. Nasri, Tha 'kherat, 2: 151. Smith and Dwight stated that the priest of Khas-
of the country of Tiyari, who were ra 'aya; the Berwar Sweni; and the
rawa told them during their visit to Azerbaijan in 1831 that the Nestori-
Berwar Shwawootha, located to the south of the lake of Van, who were
ans of Urmia had not joined Dinkha but had remained loyal to Mar Elia.
partly semi-independent and partly ra'aya.
Researches, 219.
3. Gawar, a district on the border of Persian Azerbaijan.
21. Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London:
4. Upper and Lower Tiyari, both were independent, located to the west of
George Beıı, 1901), 5 :26 1. Frazee mentioned that the pope ordered a prayer
Zab River, numerous in number and warlike tribe.
when Sultan Salem Idied. Catholics and Sultans, 24-27, 57-58.
5. Tkhoma, independent, located to the east of Zab River
22. Badger, The Nestorians, 1: 145. We believe that Fortescue was incorrect
6. Jeııo, independent, located to the east of the Zab River.
when he stated that Shimun Dinkha suffered from the war between Tur-
7. Baz, independent, located to the east of the Zab River.
key and Iran and was obliged to f1ee to Persia, where he died in 1593. The
8. Dasan.
Lesser Eastern Churches, 101-102. it was the other way round: his revolt
and his support gained him Persian appreciation for the political reasons 39. Petros Nasri, 'Ası al Nisatirat al-Haliyin', A/ Mashriq 60 (1913),501-502.
previously mentioned. 40. Stanford J. Shaw and Ezel Kural Shaw, A History of the Ottoman Empire
23. Tisserant, Kholasa Tarikhiya, 112-115; Gibbon, The Decline and Fall, and Modern Turkey, vol. 2, History of the Ottoman Empire and Mod-
5:261. ern Turkey, 1809-1975 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976);
24. Nasri, Tha'kherat, 2:147-148, 151; Etheridge, The Syrian Churches, 126; Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1280-
Perkins, Residence, 18; Laurie, Dr. Grant, 55. 1808 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977),83-84; F.O.78/21O
25. Southgate, Narrative of a Tour, 2: 182. Constantinople, May 17, 1832, Canning to Palmerston; Moshe Ma'oz,
26. Fortescue, The Lesser Eastern Churches, 101-103. Ottoman Reform in Syria and Pa/estine 1840-1861: The lmpact of the
27. Yine, The Nestorian Churches, 171-173. Tanzimat on Politics and Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), 48, 54,
28. Southgate, Narrative of a Vlsit, 2:182; Nasri, Tha'kherat, 2: 151; Smith and 72; Longrigg, Four Centuries, 265-267.
Dwight, Researches, 219. 41. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 107.
29. Yine, The Nestorian Churches, 171-173. 42. Ibid., 145.
30. Etheridge, The Syrian Churches, 166-167. 43. lbid., 147.
31. Petros Nasri, 'Ası al Nisatirat al-Haliyin', Al Mashriq 16 (1913), 491-504. 44. lbid., 145, 147.
32. Southgate, Narrative of a Tour, 2: 102. 45. Bishop, Journeys, 224; Nasri, Tha'kherat, 2:356.
46. Fletcher, Notes From Nineveh, 2:218-219.

47. Nasri, Tha 'kherat, 2:363.
48. Niebuhr, Travels Through Arabia, 85.
49. Perkins, Residence, 303; Coan, Yesterday, 98.
50. Coan, Yesterday, 149-151.
51. John Joseph, The Nestorians and Their Muslim Neighbours (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1961),33-34; Masters, Christians andJews, 63.
52. Southgate, Narrative of a Tour, 2:223.
53. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 54-55, 131.
54. Badger, The Nestorians, 1: 161.
55. Southgate, Narrative of aVisit, 237-238.
CHAPTER 5
56. Perkins wrote, '[T]he papists' ... first attempt-a daring one-was to bribe
the Nestorian Patriarch. He [Catholic missionary accompanied by the
bishop-patriarch Yousif Odu] went directly to his residence, in the Koord- THE KURDISH SETTLEMENT
ish mountains, and as a fully empowered legate, promised him, as 1 have
elsewhere stated, four thousand tomans ($ 10,000), on condition that he IN ANCIENT ASSYRIA
would declare himself and his people subject to the Pope'. Residence, 278.
57. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:170-171. For the opposition of Mar Yohannan,
bishop of Urmia, to these attempts, see 186, and American Sunday-School
Union, The Nestorians, 124-125.
59. Perkins, Residence, 22-30.
60. Grant, The Nestorians, 21, 25. ı. THE ORIGIN OF THE KURDS
61. Rt. Rev. John Wordsworth, in Wigram, The Doctrinal Posifion, 17.
62. Badger, The Nestorians, 1: 173, n. *. Many historians, oriental scholars, and traveliers refer to the obscure
63. lbid., 1: 145,257,263. history of the Kurds and the lack of clear and detailed sources for that
history. This has forced other interested scholars, mainly Kurds, to
look for what they wanted in other nations' sources, mainly the Assyrian
archives. In the middle of the nineteenth century, F. Fletcher, the envoy
of the archbishop of Canterbury to the Assyrians, quoted the Arab histori-
ans' assertions oftheir Arabic origin. 1 According to Dr. A. Ghassemlou,
historians and scientists affirmed that 'theyare from the stock of the
Zaggros tribes, Iike the Futi and Lollomi' . He added that some connected
the name of 'al Akrad and Kurds' with the tribal name Kardouchoi used
by Xenophon in his Anabasis for a warlike people living in the moun-
tainous country on the left bank of the upper Tigris, most probably in
the Zakho gorge. 2 (Modern studies refute this Cıaim.) But Ghassemlou
90 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Kurdish SettIement in Andent Assyria 91
concIuded that the most plausible theoıy oftheir origin was that they were that even there they displaced or absorbed an older population who
the descendants of the Medes who conquered Nineveh in 612 BC. 3 The had been largely Christian and so, presumably, Syriac speaking: at least
Medes were an Aıyan people cIosely related to the Persians, with whom J. Stewart cIaimed that during the reign of the Sassanian King Shapur II
they shared a largely common heritage and customs. 4 Xenophon called (339-379), most of the inhabitants ofwhat are now known as Kurdistan,
Assyria 'Media', which might suggest that Medes had settled there in Khuzistan, and Khorasan were Christians and were among those who
significant numbers by 400 BC, and so his Kardouchoi may have been fell victim to his massacres for forty years. 13 Indeed the Kurds them-
aMedian tribe. If so, the grain of truth in Ghassemlou's view may be selves may descend in part from Persians, as mentioned by the Kurdish
that these ancient Iranian settlers contributed their stock to the modem scholar Hassan Arafa mentioned earlier.
Kurdish nation; however, as we shall see, there is ample evidence that There is general consensus among scholars that the Kurds formed a
they were reinforced by later waves of Iranian settlers with whom they pastoral society. Georgi Zedan described them as people of the pasture-
presumably merged. lands, living in their tents, divided into tribes and subtribes. They were
Kathim Haydar stated that the Kurds' histoıy is the most obscure of less disposed to adopt civilisation than the Persians, Turks, and other
all nations',5 and he was obliged to seek the assistance ofhistorians and eastem nations that adopted Islam at its advance. 14
social scientists, admitting that libraries across the world lack detailed
books on the subject. V. Minorsky and B. Nikitin tried to use anthro-
2. THE KURDS AND THE ADVANCE OF ISLAM
pometric and anthropological studies to explain their true origin. 6 But
the racial variation that these writers detected merely suggests that, like In discussing the Muslim conquest of Persian Azerbaijan, the historian
almost any other group of warlike nomads who moved across vast ter- ıbn Khaldun stated that Utoba ibn Nafi 'a (~\.j ı.)! ~) conquered Shah-
ritories before eventually settling down, the Kurds absorbed elements of razur and Samghan after fighting and kilIing large numbers of Kurds,
the local populations as they migrated. and imposed on them both kharraj andjizya. Omar ıbn al Khatab then
The oldest Kurdish historian, Sharaf Khan al Bidlisi, wrote a detailed assigned Otba ıbn Farqad (J!..) l>! ~ ) as governor of Azerbaijan. 15 In the
histoıy of his people in the Persian language in 1596 and plainly stated year 22 AH (AD 643), al Mughera ıbn Sha'aban (ü4a-!ı ı.)! ö ..):!A.JI) was
that they came from Persia. 7 Another Kurdish historian, Mohammed appointed by Umar I as Wili (govemor) for Kufa. Om ar provided him
Amin Zaki, agreed and stated that Malik Shah, the Seljuk sultan, dur- with aletter of appointment to Hothefa bn al Yamman (üL..,ıl1 l>! ~:ı.:..) as
ing his fighting with his uncIe 'Qa'rut', used the Kurds to establish his governor for Azerbaijan. He marched as far as Ardabeel (J,ı.J)), which
rule and awarded him a huge land. While the sultan, Mohammed Malik is a city of Azerbaijan and was the seat of the Mazirban ruler, (ü~.)y.).
Shah, during his invasion of Syria, was accompanied by Ahamad ıbn In Azerbaijan, the Muslim forces met with fierce resistance until they
ıbrahim Abu al Hayja, the chief of the Rawadia tribes from Maragha in subdued the natives, who agreed to pay three hundred thousand dir-
Persia. 8 Dr. Shumaysani has also argued that the original homeland of hams on condition that none of them were kilIed or enslaved and that
the Kurds was Persia. 9 ,1O Moreover, modem philologists have proved that no fire temple would be demolished. 16 This suggests that the people of
the Kurdish language is of Iranian origin and is connected with the mod- the region were then largely Zoroastrians and so presumably of Iranian
em Persian language, as well as with Zend, which is the mother of the stock, whether Kurds or Persians. The ancient historians of the Arab
Persian language. i i Sir Charles Wilson referred to the Hassananli Kurds Muslim conquest agree that the conquerors met the Kurds in 'Bilad
as being originally from Khuzistan,12 but there is some reason to think al Dailam' (Azerbaijan Iran), in the eastem parts of Persia, and fought
92 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Kurdish Settlement in Ancient Assyria 93
them fiercely;17 ıbn Khaldun, for instance, attests that al Hajaj (~~1) as Iraq had been enjoying prosperity'.23 The state of the once famous
fought the Kurds in the Persian territories. LS Kurds c1early fought the region of Adiabene (the land between the two Zabs) was also mentioned
Muslim armies in the region of al Dailam, which became known later as by a nineteenth-century western resident, who described the sad state
Azerbaijan Iran. They showed great resistance, and several campaigns of the country and the damage that the Kurds had inflicted on it: '[T]he
were required to quell them, among which was one under the command plain of Hadyab was entirely inhabited by the Nestorians but the Kurds
of Amru ıbn Hani al Aesi (~1 ı;lA 0! J~) at the head oftwelve thou- have occupied it and depopulated it of its inhabitants' .24
sand fighters. 19
The Arab historians teli us that during the advance of Islam, the lead-
3. THE CENTURIES OF CHAOS AND DISTURBANCES
ers of the conquering armies reached a peace settlement (~) in many
(CA. 1055-1536)
provinces of Mesopotamia and Assyria with the church leaders, as, for
example, al Balathiri recounts in his al Fitohat (0 1 .ıl,ıll c..,:ii). The Monasticism, which had dominated the vast majority of the followers of
treaty with AI Ruha (Urfa), and Nisibis for instance, was taken as a the Syriac-speaking churches in Mesopotamia since pre-Islamic times,
model for peace settlements with many other important cities and towns. had a marked effect on the future of the country. Since their adoption
In the year 19 AH (AD 640), when the provinces of Qirdu and Beth of Christianity, the people had become devoted to their religious belief.
Zebdi (Jazirat ıbn Umar) were conquered, the patriarch of Zozan made Large numbers of men chose to live a monastic life, and thus numer-
peace on the same lines. The same was done in Üzon, which the Arab- ous monasteries housed increasingly large numbers of monks during
Muslim armies conquered on the same conditions as 'Su1uh' Nisibis. 20 each generation. Unfortunately, this otherwise commendable religious
When the Bowahis (0J:!f,!~1) secured their hold on Iraq, they made zeal tended to denude the country of the independent soldier-peasants
far-reaching changes in the structure of society by replacing the old sys- who had once formed the backbone of the population, and so the fer-
tem of land tenure that the Abbasids had instituted with a newone based tile and prosperous land was left with Iittle protection and was open to
on the feudal system. Accordingly, they settled their alien soldiers in the nomads' raids for looting and enslaving the defenceless people. Notable
agricu1tural lands that had been until then in the hands of their lawful examples were certain monks who came to be regarded as saints, such
owners. Thus Mesopotamia was to be governed by an administrative as Saint Eshu Useran of Delam and Mar Yohana of Delam in the region
system based on feudalism,21 under which the older populations were bordering al Dailam, who were captured by Kurdish raiders and kept as
subjected but not displaced. shepherds serving their kidnappers. 25
ıbn Khaldun confirmed that during the reign of Caliph al Muttaki Many worship centres throughout the districts in what was north-
(940-944), the Kurds were stili living mainly in Azerbaijan. 22 However, ern and northeastern ancient Assyria experienced raids and attacks by
as has been recorded, during the period from the advance of Islam until the Kurds of Dailam (Azerbaijan), who killed, looted, and enslaved the
the establishment of Abbasid rule in AD 750, anarchy prevailed through- indigenous population. Throughout these anarchic times, the Kurds were
out much ofupper Mesopotamia, and many pastoral Kurds took advan- moving into various inviting regions in and immediately east of ancient
tage ofthat situation to move in. ıbn Hawqal, the geographer ofthe tenth Assyria from their original homeland in Persia. This appears to have been
century, speaking about the miserable state to which the town and district the district that Le Strange named as 'Kushistan', which he explained as
of Shahrazoor had been reduced in his time, described it as 'a smail meaning the mountain land, and which was part ofKhorasan; ıbn Hawqal
town, which was overpowered by the Kurds, and whose environs as far referred to its inhabitants as Kurds, describing them as nomadic and
pastoral tribes who kept herds and camels. 26 The turmoil that dominated them huge lands in the district of Karman. During his invasion of Syria,
Mesopotamia and Assyria during the eleventh century witnessed a gen- he was accompanied by the head of the Rawadia tribe (the tribe of
eral influx of various alien races from distant places, and the competing Saladin) and Amir Abu al Hayja, the ruler of Arbil, with their private
groups of invaders in their wars and inroads always recruited the Kurds armies. 34 Another modern scholar has stated that during the Seljuk storm,
for their campaigns, just as they did the nomadic Arabs. 27 The Seljuks the Kurds were living in Persian Azerbaijan, and when they joined in the
were the first large wave to head to Mesopotamia and, while crossing invasion of Mesopotamia, they destroyed whatever they encountered,
Azerbaijan, they were joined by the Kurds, whom they used to the full whether plants or buildings. 3s
and amply rewarded for their services. 28 The competing invaders had all too many motives for sustaining their
chain ofinvasions throughout the northern districts of Mesopotamia and
ancient Assyria. Stripping the land from its owners, looting, and enslav-
4. THE KURDS AND THE SELJUKS
ing the women and young girls were common objectives that bound
The Seljuks' invasion and occupation of Mesopotamia in i 055 had far- them together. Nasir al Dawla Ahmad ıbn Marwan ıbn Dostic, a Kurd-
reaching consequences for the country and its indigenous inhabitants. ish chieftain who at the head of his supporters invaded part of northem
They were the first ruling dynasty to distribute agriculturalland to their Mesopotamia, collected for himself a harem of 360 women during the
Kurdish supporters, both to keep them loyal and to induce them to join fifty-one years of his control of one of the regions he occupied. 36
forces in subjecting the people. 29 Nonetheless the Seljuks, as the main Thus, during the Seljuk invasion, the Kurds received land for their
invading power, had recurring disputes with their Kurdish followers- services as an inducement to secure their support and loyalty to the
mostly, we might reasonably conjecture, about dividing the spoils, as Seljuks. Sinjur, the Seljuk sultan, divided the western part of the moun-
for instance during their joint attack on Azerbaijan and al Jazirah, which tain district, particularly the region called Kirmanshah in Persia; gaye it
was so fierce that the highways were c1osed. 30 the name of Kurdistan; and assigned it to his nephew, Sulaiman Shah.
The contemporary Syriac historian of Urhai who became known as The Persian historian al Mistawfi in his Nuzhat al Kolub (y..,lill ~j.l)
al Rahawi al Majhul (J~i 'iJ\A)I), in discussing the advance of the stated that Sulaiman Shah took the city of Bahar (.J~), which is eight
Turks in upper Mesopotamia, stated that in the eleventh century, they miles distant from Hamadan, as his capital.37 In ı 175 the Kurds' attack
began occupying the strategic locations after adopting Islam. Each against Assyria was stili at its height. It was during this period that Kurds
Turkoman centre occupied a fort and made that its headquarters for fur- occupied al Jazirah and upper Mesopotamia. 38 The Turkish incursion
ther campaigns. 31 Speaking of the events of 476 AH (AD 1083), ıbn into Mesopotamia was directly prompted by the power vacuum that
Khalikan stated that during the reign of Malik Shahi ıbn Arsilan, the dominated the Abbasid Empire during its decline and was a reaction
Seljukid Amir Artaq ıbn Aksab of Halwan marched to Diarbekir at the to the crusaders' campaigns, which lasted for two centuries. Thus the
head of an army comprising both Turkomans and Kurds. The city surren- weakness of the Arab caliphate was a factor behind the caliphs' appeal
dered to the attackers after a fierce assault and a long siege, while Artaq's to the Turks for assistance to counter the Christian crusaders; gradually,
father, Fakhir ul Dawla, conquered Miyafarqin after three months. 32 however, the Turks replaced the Arabs in authority, until after ı 30 years,
The Kurdish historian Mohammed Zaki Amen recorded that Kurds their influence prevailed over that of the Arabs. 39
had joined the Turkoman forces during their advance towards Meso- ıbn al Ibri ('i~1 (1 1), a contemporary historian of the thirteenth
potamia, including Mohammed Malik Shah, the Rawadia, and other century, reported the sad fate of forty villages in the plains ofNineveh,
tribesY He mentioned that 'Qaroot' had fought his uncle and had given and how Jazirah ıbn Umar had been attacked and how the monastery
96 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND üTTOMANS The Kurdish Settlement in Andent Assyria 97
of the Jacobites in that city had been seized and occupied.4D The historian as commander of their army. Thereafter the balance of power in the
ıbn al Atheer (d. 1209) teııs us that the Kurds had advanced during the region graduaııy tilted towards the Kurds, and they continued consolidat-
last fifty years from the 'Dinor, Hamadan, Nahawand and Samghan and ing themselves until they attained a permanent stronghold in Mesopo-
some regions of Azerbaijan to the region of Shahrazur located in the tamia and ancient Assyria. 48 One historian spoke about the coordination
north-east ofpresent-day Iraq'.41 In 1260, during hisjourney to China, between the Mongols under Ghazan Mahmud and the Kurds in their
Marco Polo reckoned the nations inhabiting Persia as eight, among combined campaigns against the Assyrian settlements in northem Meso-
which were the Kurds in the southwest. 42 potamia, and detailed the consequences for the indigenous people. 49 As
Thus during these anarchic centuries, the natives of the land-whether the author of Shara.fnama noted, this cooperation was based on mutual
foııowers of the Church of the East, Syrian orthodox, or Yazidis-were interest. 5D The pattern of aiding Turco-Mongol invaders was anormal
continuously subjected to raids and attacks by the alien peoples who rode practice for the Kurdish leaders.
the waves of invaders. Mosul, which was historicaııy a major Christian Al Makrezi (ı;j,ı..).JI), speaking about the conditions that emerged
centre in Mesopotamia, was repeatedly sacked. 43 ıbn Khaldun referred after the Kurdish settlement in al Jazirah in 740 AH (AD ı 339), stated that
to its tragic fate after the Kurdish attacks, stating that 'the Kurds spoiled they were able to establish Kurdish centres as their shares for helping the
and spread horror everywhere'.44 Dr. Faisal al Samir also mentioned the Turkish race in their conquest. 51 A scholar described the historic changes
severe attack that the city suffered, stating that people were killed and in the demogtaphy of the region in simple terms: formerly, the Arme-
pillaged everywhere, and the only one s who managed to escape disaster nians had inhabited Armenia, the Assyrians had peopled Assyria. The
were those who accepted Islam. The Kurds and al Malik al Salih had Kurds fiııed the vacuum left by the depopulation of the land during the
organised this attackY centuries of chaos. Thus Armenia and Assyria became "Kurdistan".52
Still, as foııowers of the Turks, the Kurds remained second-class The author further stated that the Kurds' infiltration later extended even
players on the scene. The famed Salah al Din, known in the West as into the plains and described their role in bringing down various dynas-
Saladin, is a clear example, in that, like his father and uncle, he began ties. 53 Many aııuded to the expansion of the Kurds in the plains as weıı
his career serving the Turkoman centre of Imad ul Din Zanki, the Atta- as their occupation of Armenia, which also suffered Turkoman raids.
bik of Mosul, and Aleppo. AI Tha'habi (~~i) stated that in 581 AH This took place afterwards in the time of Timur Lang, whom the Kurds
(AD 1185), Salah al Din first unsuccessfuııy attacked Mosul, then turned loyaııy foııowed and who enabled them to occupy the land ofthe Arme-
his army to attack Miyafarqin to the north of Diarbekir (a region largely nians, who were forcibly expeııed. Many Kurdish scholars admit their
inhabited by the foııowers of the Church of the East and the Jacobites), people's cooperation with Timur Lang during his storm over the land that
but then returned once again to Mosul and put it under siege.46 Many con- is considered the cradIe of civilisation. 54 He expressed his gratitude and
temporary Arab historians teıı us that he led wars and raids throughout appreciation for their help in his invasions and rewarded them by set-
northern Mesopotamia, attacking, looting, and enslaving the native inhab- tling them in the devastated regions, which until then had been inhabited
itants. Among his targets were the famous city of Urhai (Urfa), the capi- by the foııowers of the Church of the East. 55
tal ofthe ancient kingdom of the same name (Edessa, 127 BC-AD 226),
and other major centres in northern MesopotamiaY On the Eve of Chaldiran
The Kurdish role in the region was further enhanced during the Shi'ism was strengthened in the Middle East with Timur Lang's support
rule of the Mongols, especiaııy after the I1khanids converted to Islam and the encouragement of his successors during the period ı 379- ı 508. 56
in 1295, and aıı the more so once the Kurdish leader Nawruz emerged The movement was opposed by the emerging power of the Sunni state
98 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Kurdish Settlement in Andent Assyria 99
of the Ottomans, who were trying to expand their territories as far as the persecuted Kurds as his most powerful and effective allies in his
possible. The seed of Shi'ism that Timur Lang had sowed produced its upcoming confrontation with the Persians. 63
fruit with the emergence of the Safavid movement. Thus, for several Among the centres of power that had established themselves in vari-
centuries, the history of the region was marked by the sectarian religious ous parts of Mesopotamia and Assyria and had gradually extended their
differences that the two conflicting states exploited to the full for their role in the military and political affairs of the region were the emirs of
political interests. 57 This religious competition and the triumph ofShi'ism Bitlis, who, according to Basil Nikitin, were known by the nickname
under the Safavids put an end to the rule of the Turkoman dynasty of 'Sarsbix' and were dominating the city with a force oftwenty to twenty-
Ak Koyinlu (the White Sheep) at the beginning of the sixteenth century five thousand fighters. For obvious reasons, both the sultans and the
and opened the region for dramatic changes. From then on, Persia was shahs tried to gain their friendship and support. Their special position
no longer ruled by a Sunni dynasty like that of the Turks. 58 seems to have prompted Sultan Selim i to take advantage of the new
anti-Sunni cJimate that the Safavids had created, inducing the emir to
Ismael Shah Persecuted the Kurds join forces with him against the Persian rulers. 64
Ismael Shah, the grandson of Shaikh Safi al Ardabili, gaye his name to The family of Shaikh Safi al Ardabili was so powerful that even Timur
the dynasty that affected the region until its fall in 1736. While stili a Lang had given them special attention and awarded them prisoners of
young lad of sixteen, Ismael assumed power in Persia in 1499 with the war as slaves.65 Sharaf Khan al Bidlisi went to Timur's camp, at a loca-
title of shah and immediately implemented a vigorous policy of carry- tion between Mush and Diarbekir, where Timur welcomed him and gaye
ing his doctrine as far as he could-ifnecessary, by force. 59 The Kurdish him gifts.66 According to Longrigg, Shaikh Safi cJaimed that his ances-
Sunnis were one of the most targeted groups, but they fiercely resisted tors went back to the twelfth Shi'a imam, and his son was a favourite of
all attempts to convert them. So Ismael Shah adopted a policy of per- Timur. 67 Basil Nikitin stated that the emirs ofBidlis cJaimed a Persian ori-
secution: the Sunni Kurdish tribal leaders were imprisoned, even when gin, that is, that they were descended from the Persian Sassanians and that
they were trying to demonstrate their loyalty. Thus the Ottomans gained their tribe was called 'Rosaki' .68 Among many other moves, Sultan Selim
a powerful ally.60 i succeeded in directing Idris al Bidlisi to rouse the religious feeling of
For fifteen years, the Ottomans suffered from the agitation, hostilities, the Sunni Kurds against the Safavid Shi'a. Idris was proud ofhis Persian
and raids of the Safavids in Anatolia, as well as from the enmity of the origin and probably also alarmed at the threat po sed to his fellow Sunni
Mamelukes of Egypt. Thus war with Persia became inevitable once the Kurds by ısmail Shah's policy, which, as has been mentioned, had led him
Ottomans had consolidated their internal front with the Sunni Kurds. to occupy Iraq and northem Mesopotamia as far as Diarbekir in ı 508; so
The hostile intentions of the Safavids became cJear after Ismael Shah Idris responded to the sultan's call and rallied the Kurds behind him. 69
took Tabriz and forcibly converted two thirds of its three hundred thou-
sand Sunni inhabitants to Shi'ism. 61 Another factor, which speeded the
5. CHALDlRAN: THE KURDlSH GATEWAY
conflict between the two states, was his agitation among the Sunni Mus-
TO NORTHERN MESOPOTAMIA
lims in Anatolia. This, com po und ed with the occupation of Baghdad,
Mosul, Kharbut, and Diarbekir in 1508, sparked the fire at Chaldiran Thus war became inevitable, and the Ottomans, along with their Kurdish
in 23 August 1514.62 To defend himself and survive the growing threat, allies, set out to settle their account with the Persians. Twenty-five Kurd-
the Ottoman sultan Selim i was obliged to act, and he correctly assessed ish leaders and their followers participated in the Battle of Chaldiran
100 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Kurdish Settlement in Andent Assyria 101
on 23 August 1514, and the sultan rewarded them by allowing them to Kurdistan. 74 Almost immediately after the Ottoman victory, the Kalhur
occupy the newly gained territories along the western Persian border tribe made an inroad into Baghdad, which was stili under Persian occupa-
of what is now northeastern Iraq, where the majority of the Assyrians tion. 75 In 1537, after the sultan's renewed attaek, the pro-Persian Kurdish
lived. 70 Malik Shah ofHusun Keef occupied Si'arat, Ahamad Beg occu- leader Ma'mun Beg was subdued to Ottoman rule. In 1541 the Ottoman
pied Miyafarqin, Mohammed Beg took Sasoom, and the other Kurdish sultan sought the assistance of the emir of Hakkari and Bahdinan to sub-
leaders were each required to occupy a certaİn location. The outcome of due the Mirkuri, who were another tribe with dual loyalty.76 At length,
the alliance secured the persecuted Sunni Kurds a safe haven in the newly in 1554 Sultan Sulaiman the Magnificent signed a peace treaty with
annexed eastem territories of the Ottoman Empire. The alliance between Persia in Baghdad, making Mosul and Mardin the permanent boundary
the Ottoman sultan and the Kurdish leaders shows that for the next between the two states. 77
150 years, the Kurds kept their commitment towards the Ottomans. 7I As Kurdish historians have stated, after Chaldiran, the Ottomans
continued to reinforce their eastem frontier with what they considered
a loyal Sunni Kurd element.18 Thus Gibb and Bowen affirmed that from
6. THE KURDS AFTER CHALDIRAN
the time of Selim I, the Ottomans endeavoured to dear the land of its
Following the Battle ofChaldiran, Sultan Selim I issued orders to Idris to lawful owners and settle the Kurds in return for their help in their wars
form feudal centres of Kurds. Together they established the neweastem against the Persians. 79 For instance, in 1583 Sultan Murad IV gaye huge
border where Idris started settling them, exempting them from all normal provinces to the Kurdish tribe of Mokri under its leader Amiri Beg, who
taxes and other commitments in return for their providing a permanent daimed to be descended from Saif ul Din. These awarded provinces
militia to guard the border and to make themselves available whenever stretched from Mosul to Shahrazur, Arbil, and other towns, extending
the Ottomans needed them. 72 to 'Farghana' east of Lake Urmia. 80 Kinnoull stated that the Ottomans
Thus the official organised Kurdish settlement in Assyria started after 'dared not to bring them out of their own country in a body, lest they
Chaldiran in the newly occupied territories of what is today northern should make great demands upon them, which if the Turks did not grant,
Iraq. The Kurdish historian Ali Sidu Qurani gaye details of the many the Kurds would certainly join with the Persians against them' .81
Kurdish tribes settled there after Chaldiran. Other historians confirmed This tribe showed their wavering loyalties during the rules of Shah
that Sultan Selim's reign witnessed the eviction from the land of its Abbas, Nadir Shah, and Fatih Ali Shahh, who all depended on the
indigenous inhabitants and its resettIement by the Kurds in return for Kurds for their military campaigns. Without their help, Shah Abbas
their help in the wars against Persia. 73 Scholars agreed that the major could not have accomplished any of his military victories. The Kurds
factor in the Kurdish-Turkish alliance was a common religious doctrine, formed a large part of the army with which he defeated the Ottomans in
but, doubtless, the new fertile land offered a further inducement. the battle of Kery in 1624 and reoccupied Baghdad until 1638.82
The nomadic Kurds, who were wandering between Persia and present-
day northem Iraq, in particular those of Bahdinan, were observing the
7. THE KURDISH SETTLEMENT IN ASSYRIA
contest between the two foes (Turks and Persians) and intended to side
with the victors. Only when he was convinced the Turks would win did The Background
their leader 'Hassan' give his loyalty to the Ottoman sultan, who in Throughout the period of Ottoman might, the Kurds had remained loyal
return awarded him the title of sultan and appointed him head of to the Ottomans and honoured their commitment under their agreement
102 ASSYRıANSı KURDSı AND OTTOMANS The Kurdish SettIement in Ancient Assyria 103
after Chaldiran. However, the Ottomans made their last show of strength been forced to leave. Mush was another example given by this westem
in 1638, when Sultan Murad LV succeeded in recovering Baghdad from observer, who stated that it contained six hundred viııages and that the
the Persians, who had occupied it since 28 November 1623.83 The situ- total number of the Kurds did not exceed five hundred souls, who lived
ation was quickly reversed when the decline of Ottoman power became as nomads moving from place to place between Urmia and Hadyab. 87
elear. The emergence of Nadir Shah, with the aid of the Kurds, opened a His contemporary, the Russian historian Minorsky, confirmed the pro-
new chapter in the history of the region. cess and further stated that the Kurds had occupied parts of Armenia
The Kurds played a decisive role once more when they helped to permanently and were no longer living on their original land. 88
bring down the Safavid dynasty, joining forces with the Afshar tribes Thus examining the history of the region elearly shows the changes
of Turkomans und er Nadir Shah. 84 Like Sultan Selim I, Nadir Shah referred to previously, by which many regions with numerous Assyrian
rewarded them for their support both in bringing down the Safavid and Armenian monuments and monasteries became completely popu-
dynasty and in invading Iraq in 1743. But unlike the Ottomans, who had lated by the Kurds after Chaldiran. 89 Even the Kurdish historians admit-
maintained the Kurds' nomadic social structure, Nadir Shah organised ted that the land was eleared at this time, its indigenous inhabitants
them into emirates and appointed a pro-Persian Kurd from the Baban driven out by force. Speaking about Sarsink on the highway between
tribe as chief of Kurdistan. In the absence of a real central Ottoman gov- Dohuk and Amadia, the Kurdish historian Ali al Qurani affirmed that it
emment able to defend its territories and their inhabitants, Nadir Shah had been an Assyrian town and that the Kurds who settled there were
was unchallenged in invading Iraq and settling and empowering vari- immigrants from Persian Azerbaijan. 90 Many local and foreign observ-
ous pro-Persian Kurdish groups. Many local Mamluk historians reported ers and historians attested to and described the process by which the
that the Kurds whom he settled served as an advance post for the Persian racial, religious, and linguistic map of ancient Assyria was changed.
interest in Iraq.85 Phebe Marr noted that 'in the north too, many of the Kurdish tribes
Nadir Shah's policy produced further drastic changes in the demog- of Persia migrated to Iraq, ineluding the large powerful nomadic tribe
raphy of both southeastem Anatolia and northem Iraq. Monsieur Tav- of the Jaf, who made their home at Halabjah'.91 During his two years'
emier, the traveller of the seventeenth century who toured Armenia, residence in northem Iraq, Rich also observed the rapid influx of Kurds
ancient Assyria, Persia, and Mesopotamia, mentioned in his Persian from Persia, ineluding the Jaj, and that their advance never ceased. 92
Travels the density of the Armenians in their towns. In the year 1662, Southgate also observed the rapid advance and settlement of the Kurds
he noted that Van and Urmia were purely Armenian; however, a century from Persia into northem Iraq.93
later, Carsten Niebuhr, during his stay in northem Mesopotamia, noticed
that both Turkomans and Kurds were involved in spreading disturbances The Emirate of Baban
on the highways.86 By 1840, when Horatio Southgate visited these same On the eve of Nadir Shah's invasion of Iraq in 1743, the Ottoman
regions, the case was very different. He was astonished by the dramatic Empire was suffering general weakness, which was elosely watched
change that had befaııen that country and by the decline in the number and observed by the Persians and particularly the Kurdish groups on the
of the Armenians compared with the number of the new Kurdish settlers border. Meanwhile the Baban Kurds were consolidating their position
who then were still in the process of moving in. Southgate ascribed these and, according to Sulaiman Beg, a Turkish historian of Baghdad, they
dramatic changes to the Kurdish persecution of the indigenous people succeeded in gaining control of the district that later became known
and provided Salamis as an example, stating that its inhabitants had as the emirate of Baban. According to Longrigg, the Baban first came
104 ASSYRIANS, KUROS, AND OTTOMANS The Kurdish Settlement in Ancient Assyria 105
to prominence in ı 72 ı, when they settled in Qara Cholan. Al Azzawi of Kowaysinjaq and Harir in northem Iraq in open rebellion against the
also wrote that the emirate began as a very smaIl border protege state pasha of Baghdad. Meanwhile Persia and Baban acted jointly to occupy
and at first had Iittle effect in the region. 94 Hadi Rashid al Chawooshly, Baghdad. This iIIustrates how Persia was able to intervene in the affairs
a Kurdish author, wrote that the emirate lasted for one century and that of northem Iraq and Baghdad, us ing Baban as a cat's paw. 1OO Another
its population consisted of Kirmanj (~L.. fi) Kurds, although others Turkish historian during the Mamluk dynasty of Baghdad reported that
believed that they stemmed from the Makry Kurds. While speaking the Mamluks were constantly at war with the Baban for being allies of
about the Jaf tribes, he affirmed that they had moved from Iran to the Persia:o ı Carsten Niebuhr, who closely observed the existing conditions
region of Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk, and that they were strongly sup- and the hostilities against the authorities, found that there was chronic
ported by Persia. 95 hostility between the Baban and the pashalic of Baghdad. 102
Under the leadership of Khalid Pasha and his son Sulaiman Pasha, A few decades later, Rich wrote about conditions in the region of
and in the absence of effective Ottoman govemment, the Baban rapidly Sulaimaniyah in 1820-1821 and mentioned that its Kurds had been
expanded westwards, bringing both the districts of Kwesinjaq and Harrir chiefly pastoral nomads, and he was informed that four out offive were
(.J:l~ .J ~fi) in northem Iraq under their control. It was during stillliving as such. He also noted that some ten thousand families, com-
their lifetimes that Nadir Shah invaded Iraq, and according to Sulaiman prising seventy thousand souls, were constantly moving across the bor-
Beg, it was in return for their support that Nadir Shah appointed Khalid der. Those Kirmanj tribes, which had settled in northem Iraq, were the
Pasha as the leader of Baban and later elevated him to leader of all Kurd- Nooreddin and Shinkees. 103 Rich also observed that the tents of the Jaf
istan. This, however, was done on condition that the Baban Kurds give tribes were pitched near the town of Penjaween, which was a halting
their allegiance to the Persian state: 96 place for those Kurds who were constantly crossing the border from Per-
sia into Iraq before they resumed their journey west towards Shahrazur,
[T]he birth of a pro-Persian party with their own family, the shah and that the men were well armed. 104 Speaking of Shahrazur, Rich was
and his frontier vassals became the refuge and hope pretenders astonished to find that even Afghanis were settling there. This took place
to the Baban govemment ... Nadir Shah received Selim Pasha of
Baban and appointed him for Qara Cholan in 1743, and for some after the killing of Azad Khan, and they were maintaining their own lan-
time it was a Persian district.97 guage. There were also Afthars of Persia, who were from the same tribe
as Nadir Shah, among the waves of constant migrants, and Rich met their
An Iraqi historian observed that, right from its establishment, the leader Essa Agha. I05 This movement was also observed and reported by
Baban emirate served as an advance post for Persia on the Iraqi border. 98 the missionary Southgate, who wrote,
Selim Pasha, whom Nadir Shah appointed as its ruler after his father
Khalid, was always following the footsteps of the Persians and was keen A more unusual encounter was with a party of emigrating Kurds.
They have with them aıı their possessions, and the ease with
to join with them in treaties and agreements. He continually rebelled
which they carried them showed how weıı adapted to each other
against Ottoman rule and refused to give his allegiance to the pasha of are their domestic and their wandering habits. 106
Baghdad. He even concocted with the governor of Ko is injaq a scheme for
declaring their independence, and to that end, each endeavoured to annex The Hirkiya were another nomadic tribe that was moving to Iraq, as
as much as he could from the surrounding territories. 99 Sulaiman Fa'eq Wigram reported. I07 Longrigg went further, stating that the nomad Kurds
(.:;:ıl! wL..,ıl...ı) tells how Sulaiman Beg of Baban attacked the districts kept crossing the Persian border westward, among them the Jaf tribe and
the Pushdor, white the Hamawand tribes were continuously raiding the ENDNOTES
region between Kirkuk and Hamadan. 108
This state of affairs continued with Baban, whose rulers were devoted
supporters and followers of Persia and who maintained their alliance 1. Fletcher, Notes From Nineveh, 1: 169.
against Iraq.l09 For their part, the Mamluk dynasty of Baghdad continued 2. Xenophon, Anabasis, Book III, 5.15 and Book IV, 1.4.8.3.1 24, and 4.1;
their campaign of countering Persian designs towards the territories of translated by W. H. D. Rouse as The March Up Counlry (London: Nelson,
Iraq and tried to use of Baban to support this policy. However, Baban, 1947),94,96-97, 103, 107, and 109.
ever since its creation, had been considered a hostile Persian outpost, i LO 3. Many historians' researches have provided detailed infonnation on the
continuity of the Assyrians in their homeland after the fall of Nineveh.
and the extent of the Persian protection for it appears from the fact that
Beside the authorities cited in chapter 1, see Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou,
untit1834 there was a mititary Persian unit stationed in Sulaimaniyah. 111 Kurdistan and the Kurds (Prague: Publishing House of the Czechoslovak
The Persian sympathies of the emirate were attested not only by its alli- Academy of Sciences, 1965), 39-40; Edwyn Bevan, Ancient Mesopota-
ance but also by the fact that its official language was Persian, as Rich mia: The Land of the Two Rivers (London: E. Amold, 1918),55; Olmstead,
noted. 112 During their domination, the Persians were always ready to History of Assyria, 243; Herodotus, The Histaries, trans. Aubrey de Selin-
offer mititary protection to the Baban. 1I3 court (New York: Penguin Books, 1972), 84; D. J. Wiseman, Chronicles
of the Chaldean Kings 626-556 (London: British Museum, 1956), 13-17;
However, the emirate did not enjoy its status as a pro-Persian buffer
Badger The Nestorians, 1:78; Seton Lloyd, The Archaeology of Mesopota-
state for long. The comprehensive Ottoman policy of centralisation that mia, rev. ed. (London: Thames and Hudson, 1987), 191; Esmond Wright,
was initiated in 183 i, combined with internal rivalries and deeply rooted ed., The Ancient World: A History ofCivilizalion From Pre-history to the
customs and traditions, prevented Baban from dominating the other Fal! of Rame, rev. ed. (London: Hamlyn, 1979),47; E. A. Speiser, Ancient
Kurdish centres, and, as we sh all see, it was brought to its end in 1850. Mesopotamia; A Light That Did Not Fail (Washington, DC, 1951),49;
G. G. Cameron, History of Early Iran (1936; repr., New York: Greenwood
Press, 1968), 2 ı 9; H. W. F. Saggs, The Greatness That Was Babylon, 3rd
impression (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, i 969), 140, 136-139; Ain-
sworth, Travels, 2:276-277; George Roux, Ancient Iraq. second edition
(Penguin Books, 1980), 346-347; Esmond Wright, The Ancienı World,49;
Sir J. Hammerton, The Dutline History of the World, (London, n.d.), 82;
Georges Roux, Ancient Iraq, 2nd ed. (New York: Penguin Books, 1980),
348; Fletcher, Notes From Nineveh, 2: 102; T. R. Glover, The Ancienı World
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1935), 77, 80, 82.
4. Fouad Hama Khorshid, Al Akrad, Dirasa Ilmiya Mojazaji Ası al Sha'ab al
Kurdi (Baghdad, 1971),48-49, believes that 'the Medes are the ancestors
of present day Kurds' and quotes Professor Sayis, who affinned that '[t]he
Medes people were Kurdish tribes lived in eastem Assyria'; Vladimir Minor-
sky, Al-Akrad (The Kurds: Notes and Impressions), translated into Arabic
from Russian by Dr. Maruf Khaznadar (Baghdad, 1970); Hassan Arafa, The
Kurds: A Histarical and Political Study (Oxford: Clarendon Press,I 966), 1.
5. Kazim Haydar, Al-Akrad: man hum wa-ilJayn? Mansh ur at al-Fikr al-Hurr
(Beirut, ı 959),9.
108 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND ÜTTOMANS The Kurdish Settlement in Ancient Assyria 109
6. Basil Nikitin, Al Akrad, Asluhum, Tarikhahum, Motinahum, Aka 'edahum, 3 i. Al Rahawi Al Majhul, Tarikh al Rahawi al Majhul, translated from Syriac
etc. (Beirut, 1967),3-22; Minorsky, Al-Akrad, 35. into Arabic by Fr. Albert Abouna (Baghdad, 1986), 39--45; S. H. Longrigg
7. Sh araf Khan al Bidlisi in his Sharafnama, translated from the Persian into and F. Stokes, Iraq, Nations of the World (London: Emest Benn, 1958),63.
Arabic by Mohammed Awni (Cairo: Dar Ihya'a al Kutub al Arabiya, 32. ıbn Khalikan, Wa.fiyat al Aayan, 127-128.
1958) 4, 21; Hassan Shumays an i, Madinat Sinjar min al-fath al- 'Arabi 33. Zaki, Kholasa Tarikh al Kurd, i 5 i.
al-Islami hatta al-fath al-Uthmani, (Dar al-Afiiq al-Jadidah, 1983), 248; 34. Ibid.
Abdul Aziz Nawwar, Tarikh al- 'Iraq al al-Hadith min Nihayat Hukm 35. Mohammed Al Khithari Beg, AL Dawla Al Abbasiya, (Beirut, 1986),465.
Da'ud Pasha il Nihayat Hukm Midhat Pasha (Cairo: Dar al-Kitab al- 36. AI Thahabi, Allbar, 2:300.
'Arabi, 1968) 1:99, 196. 37. Le Strange, The Land of the Eastern Caliphate, 192-193; Nikitin, Al
8. Zaki, Kholas Tarikh al Kurd, 151. Akrad,25.
9. Hasan Shumaysani, Madinat Si/yar: Min al-Fath al- 'Arabi al-Islami hatta 38. Longrigg and Stoakes, Iraq, 63.
al-Fath al- 'Uthmani (Beirut: Manshurat Dar al-Afaq al-Jadida, 1983). 39. AI Rahawi al Majhul, Tarikh,201.
ıo. Kazim Haydar, al-Akrad, 12-13. 40. Nasri, Tha 'kherat, 1:570--571.
11. Kazim Haydar, al-Akrad, 12-13. 4 i. ıbn al Atheer, Al Kamil, 5:388.
12. Wilson, Handbook, introduction, 63. 42. Marco Polo, The Book of Marea Polo, trans. and ed. Colonel Henry Yule,
13. Stewart, Nestorian Missionary Enterprise, 24. 2nd rev. ed. (London: John Murray, i 875), 1:34-35.
14. Jurji Zaidan, al Aamal al Kamila Vol. 12 (Beirut: 1982),469. 43. After the Mongol invasion of Iraq in 1258, Mosul, like other f10urishing
15. Abdul Rahman ıbn Khaldun, Tarikh, Dewan al Ebar wa Dewan al Mubtada centres, was subject to an uninterrupted series of massacres which started
wa al Khabar (Beirut: n.d.), 2: II 9. in 1260 and escalated after the Mongols adopted Islam in 1295. See Wil-
16. Abi al Hassan al Balathiri, Fituh al Buldan (Beirut, 1978), 32 i . son, Handbook, 294; ıbn al Ibri, Tarikh Mokhtasar, 283; Mohammed Amin
17. ıbn al Atheer, Al Kamil fi al Tarikh (Beirut, 1987), 2 :446. al Umari, Manhal al-awliyad wa mashrab al-asjiya min sada! al- Mosul
i 8. Abi al Abbas ıbn Khalikan, Wafiyat al Aayan wa Anba 'a Al Zaman (Beirut, al-hadbda, ed. Said al Dewachi (Mosul, 1967- i 968), 1:6, 72; al Thahabi,
n.d.), 5:291, quoting al Tabari. Allbar, 3:297; al-Makrizi, Kitab Al Suluk, 1,2:475; ıbn Khaldun, Tarikh,
19. Al Balathiri, Fituh, 319. IV,259.
20. Ibid., 180. 44. ıbn Khaldun, Tarikh,3:500--501.
2 i. Richard Coke, Baghdad, The Cily of Peaee (London: T. Butterworth, Ltd., 45. Faisal al Samir, Al Dawla al Hamdaniya fi Mosul wa Halab (Baghdad,
1927), Baghdad Madinat al Salam, translated into Arabic by Fuad Jameel 1970), 1:283.
and Dr. Mustafa Jawad (Baghdad, i 962), i: 147. 46. AI Thahabi, Allbar, 3:80--86.
22. ıbn Khaldun, Tarikh, 3:413--414, 433, 452--454. 47. ıbn Khalikan stated that the Rawadiya Kurds are branch of the
23. Abi al Hassan ıbn Hawqal, Surat al Arth (Beirut, 1979), 314. Hath'baniya Kurds. Wafiyat, 7: 139, 1:255-256. On the birthplace of
24. American Sunday-School Union, The Nestorians, 59. Saladin's family in Daween, Persian Azerbaijan. see ıbn Khalikan, Wafi-
25. Eshu Dnah al Basri, Al Diyurafi Mammlakatay al Furs wa al Arab, trans. yat. 255-256; on the geographical location ofDaween, Yakut al Hamawi,
Polus Shaiko (Mosul, n.d.), 98. Ma 'ajam al Buldan (Beirut, 1990), 2:558; on the origin of the family,
26. G. Le Strange, The Land of the Eastern Caliphate, 3rd impression (Lon- ıbn al Atheer, Al Kamil, 17. On Bahruz, the govemor of Baghdad, and
don: Cass, 1966), 352. his invitation to the family to join him in Baghdad, see Abu al Fida al
27. Zaidan, Al A 'mal al Kamila, 469. Hafith ıbn Katheer, Al Bidayah Wa'al Nihaya (Beirut, 1987), 12:291;
28. Zaki, Kholasa Tarikh al Kurd, 150. ıbn Khalikan, Wafiya!, 1:256. On the family collaboration with Imad ul
29. Nikitin, Al Akrad, 133-134. Din Zanki, the enemy of Bohruz, see Zaidan, Al A 'amal al Kamila, 412-
30. AI Thahabi, Allbar, 3:80--81. 415,464--467; ıbn Katheer, Al Bidayah, 12:291; ıbn Khalikan, Wajiya!,
7: 143. On the expulsion of the family from Tikrit, see ıbn Khalikan, Ihtilalen, appendices i and 2, 1:286-287; 3:325; Nikitine, Al Akrad,
Wajiyat, 1:257. On the birth of Saladin, see ıbn Katheer, Al Bidayah, 168-169, 144-145; ; Beg, Mothakirat, 6-7; Cooke, Baghdad Madinat al
12:291. Salam, 1:314-315, n. 23.
48. Bega Beg, Mothakirat Ma'amun Beg bn Bega Beg, trans. Mohammad 70. Arafa, The Kurds, 15-16.
Jamil al Ruzbiyani wa Shakkoor Mustafa (Baghdad, 1982),8-9. 71. Nikitine, al Akrad, 149; Wilson, Handbook, 63.
49. Karl Broklman, Tiirikh al-shu'üb al-isliimiyah, naqalahu ii al-'arabiyah 72. Ghassemlou, Kurdistan, 44.
Nabih Amin Hiris, Munir al-Ba'labakki (7th ed. Beirut: Dar al-'Ilm lil- 73. Gibb and Bowen, Islamic Society, 2:227.
Malayin, 1977),391-92. 74. Mahfuth al Abbasi, Emarat Bahdinan al Abbasia (Mosul, 1969),53-53.
50. Nikitine, al Akrad, 168. 75. Ai Aa'dami, Tarikh al Duwal, 103-104.
51. Al Makrizi, Kitab al Soluk, 2:2, 471. 76. Ai Abbasi, Emarat Bahdinan, 52-53, 56.
52. BIiss, 'Kurdistan', 18. 77. Ainsworth, Travels, 2:12.
53. Ibid., 32. 78. Qurani, Min Amman, 243.
54. H. A. R. Gibb and H. Bowen, Islamic Society and the West: A Study of 79. Gibb and Browne, Islamic Society, 2:227.
the Impact of Western Civilisation on Muslim Culture in the East (Lon- 80. BasH Nikitin stated that' Amri Beg' was a descendant of Saİf ul Din, the
don: Oxford University Press, 1957), 2:227; Martin van Bruinessen, Agha, chief of the 'Mokri' tribes, which appeared in the region of 'Soja Bolaq'
Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structures ofKurdistan, rev. ed. after it migrated from south of Lake Urmia during the fifteenth century, fol-
(London: Zed Books, 1992), 175. lowing the irruption of Timur Lang. Al Akrad, 144-146.
55. Bidlisi, Sharafnama, 1:88. 81. Quoted by Olson, The Siege ofMosul, 154-155.
56. Robert Olson, The Siege of Mosul and Ottoman-Persian Relations, 82. Nikitin, Al Akrad, 145-146.
1718-1743: A Study ofRebel/ion in the Capital and War in the Provinces 83. Longrigg, Four Centuries, 18, 170-174.
of the Ottoman Empire (B1oomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 84. Ai Qurani stated that a force composed five thousand fighters from the
1975), 1-2. Kurds and Afshars brought Nadir Shah to power in Persia in 1727. Min
57. Cooke, Baghdad Madinat al Salam, 1:3 14. Amman, 71.
58. Donald E. Pitcher, An Historical Geography ofthe Ottoman Empire: From 85. Sulaiman Fa' eq Beg, Tarikh Baghdad aw Mir' at al Zawra', translated into
Earliest Times to the End of the Sixteenth Century (Leiden: Brill, 1972), Arabic from Turkish by Musa Kadhim Nawras (Baghdad, 1962), 30-32,
100. 69-72; AI Shikh Rasul al Kirkukly, Dawhat al Zawra,ji Tarikh Waka 'I' al
59. Ali Tharif al Aa'dami, Tarikh al Duwal al Farisiyaji al Iraq (Baghdad, Zawra' (Beirut, n.d.), 51, 65-66, 93-94, 144.
1927), 100. 86. Niebuhr, Travels Through Arabia, 2: 175.
60. Nikitin, Al Akrad, 168-169. 87. Southgate, Narrative of Tour, 1:146,232,262-289, and 2: 199,317-318.
6 i. Brukilman, Tarik al shu ub al-islamiyah, 497. 88. Minorsky, Al Akrad, 25.
62. Pitcher, An Historical Geography, 10 1-1 02. 89. BIiss, The Nestorians, 4, 32, 101.
63. Andrew Wheatcroft, The Ottomans (London: Yiking, 1993),51. 90. Quarani, Min Amman, 155.
64. Nikitin, Al Akrad, 138. 91. Phebe Marr, The Modern History of Iraq (London: Longman, 1985), 20.
65. Brukilman, Tarik al shu ub al-islamiyah, 493-494. 92. Rich,Narrative, 1:112,271.
66. Zakki, Kholasa Tarikh al Kurd, 171-172. 93. Southgate, Narrative of a Tour, 2: 146.
67. Longrigg, Four Centuries, 16. 94. AI Azzawi, Al Iraq, appendix to vol. 1,2:253.
68. Nikitin, Al Akrad, 138. 95. Hadi Rashid al Chawishli, Al-Qawmiyah al-Kurdiyah wa Turathiha al
69. Pitcher, Historical Geography, 101-102; Gibb and Browen, Islamic Tarikhi (Baghdad, 1967), 82-84.
Society, 2:227; Arafa, The Kurds, 15-16; Abbas al Azzawi, Al Iraq bena 96. Fa'eq Beg, Tarikh Baghdad, 137-138.
112 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND ÜTTOMANS
97. Longrigg, Four Centuries, 129.

98. Shaikh Rasul al Kirkukly, Dawhat al Zawra, 94-95; Fa'eq Beg, Tarikh
Baghdad,IO-12.
99. Al Kirkukly, Dawhat al Zawra 'a, II 6- 17.
100. Fa'eq, Tarikh Baghdad, 30-34,44-8.
101. Al Kirkukly, Dawhat al Zawra, 135.
102. Niebuhr, Travels Through Arabia, Arabic translation, 6 ı.
104. Ibid., 180-181.
105. Ibid., 107.
106. Southgate, Narrative of a Tour Through Armenia, 2: 146.
CHAPTER 6
107. Wigram, The Cradie ofMankind, 127.
108. Longrigg, Four Centuries, 278.
109. Fa'eq Beg, Tarikh Baghdad, 30-31, 43; al Kirkukly, Dawhat al Zawra, THE ÜTTOMAN REFORMS
52,149.
i LO. M. E. Yapp, The Making of the Modern Near East 1792-1923 (London:
Longman, 1987), 126; al Kirkukly, Dawhat, 135.
i i 1. Longrigg, Four Centuries, 287.
i 12. Rich, Narrative, 1:300-2.
i 13. AI Kirkukly, Dawhat al Zawra, 149, 151-155.
ı. THE OTTOMAN DECLINE AND !Ts EFFECTS
The Ottoman Response to

External and Internal Developments
For five centuries, the history of Europe was bound up with that of the
Ottoman Empire, whether during its might and expansion or during its
decline and humiliating defeats. Both period s affected the social, eco-
nomic, and cultural life of Ottoman subjects and in particular the non-
Muslims. During the second period, conditions were deteriorating and
gradually turning the whole structure ofthe state towards corruption. The
rise of the Western powers paved the way to direct intercourse between
the two parties, which gaye the European powers a steadily enhanced
role in Ottoman affairs. Consequently, Ottoman reformers sought to
reverse the decline and restore past glory, but they could not escape the
fact that existing conditions by themselves presented a fierce challenge.
A vast empire in times ofpoor communications had meant accepting

much local control. A system of powerful provincial governments,
114 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Ottornan Reforrns 115
aııowed to function as long they se nt in taxes, provided soldiers in the world, surpassed perhaps only by China, but by the eighteenth
when needed and did not revalt, was an effective response to the century, it had become the 'sick man' of Europe. This decline was
Otlarnan provinces. i reflected in its population, which, during this period, slipped from being
one-sixth that of western Europe to only one-tenth, and from about one-
As the Ottoman Empire steadily dec1ined, its basic duties towards its
eighth that ofChina to one-twelfth.6
citizens-such as protectian of life, hanour, property, and land-were
In Europe, the empire suffered huge territorial losses, beginning with
put in ever-greater jeopardy, especially for the non-Muslim minarities.
the treaty of Carlowitz on 26 January i 694 and peaking with the treaty of
The reformers throughout the period in question were confronted with
Kuchuk Kaynarji on 21 July 1774. These turned it into a puppet for one or
this reality and made repeated efforts to address the problem. 2
more of the European powers, which in exchange undertook to fight for
or protect it. The loss of the Crimea, which, unlike the territories lost ear-
How Did the Ottomans Rule
lier, was inhabited mainly by Muslims and had secured the Ottoman con-
Their Subjects During Their Deciine?
trol of the Black Sea, was an alarming signal of the scale of the dec1ine.
To maintain their rule, the Ottomans, during their decline, depended on
The decay of the Ottoman Empire was also attested in the Asiatic
force and the use ofhired troops. Soldiers had to pay their own expenses,
provinces, inc1uding Mesopotamia and Syria. As has been mentioned,
which led to corruption, tyranny, and oppression throughout the empire. 3
many strong dynasties-notably the Mamluks of Baghdad, the Abdul
Consequently the fate of the Ra 'aya (subject non-Muslim s) came to rest in
al Jaleel of the Mosul pashalic, various Kurdish emirates, and the Syr-
the hands of powerful, corrupt rulers, whether in the central government
ian Orthodox tribes of Tur Abdin-took advantage of this and emerged
or in the provinces. Putrus Abu Manneh cited a vivid example of this state
as autonomous centres, distancing themselves from the central govern-
of affairs: '[O]ne moming a vali put to death a most trusted person', and
ment. The decline of the empire meant that a local pasha 'no longer
when the kadi (judge) asked why, the pasha answered, 'I had a dream last
needed money to buy his appointment from Istanbul...[although] he had
night in which he frightened me. i don't trust him any longer'.4
sometimes to bribe certain officials in the Porte' in return for the title.?
When a state acts as a tyrant against its own subjects, then it is no
These centres consolidated their ho Id and managed to survive and fur-
wonder if that state begins to decay. The government's need for money
ther enhance their power after Nadir Shah's invasion oflraq in i 743. For
led the rulers to adopt harsh measures to secure it, such as seizing the
more than a century, they enjoyed complete autonomy, until they were
possessions of its wealthiest subjects:
subdued during the reform campaigns of Sultan Mahmud II and his son
[When the] ... Government and muteslims [a local governor- Sultan Abdulmecid between 1831 and 1847.
- ~] in towns and cities happened to recognise a rich man
they, because of a minor offence, or merely through unbased fab~ The Desire to Bridge the Gap With Europe
rication (iftira), would threaten him with severe punishment, such As early as 1630, Sultan Murad VI entertained hopes for reforms and
as death or exile, and exact a fine on him or confiscate his wealth
issued a memorandum containing various recommendations and propos-
and property. 5
als; however, half a century Iater, the Ottoman defeat on the walls ofVienna
The Deciine Turned the Empire Into a Second-Class Power in 1683 signaııed an urgent need to reform the military structure. 8 At this
The Ottoman Empire feıı from be ing a great power into a condition of stage, the Ottomans were confident that their past could provide them with
decline and weakness. In the 1500s, it was one of the most powerful a solution to their dilemma9-namely, to strengthen their fighting machine
116 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Ottoman Reforms 117
and to reform their arrny, whether by introducing new equipment or by 1793, he published a wide range of new instructions and regulations that
education and training and replacing its non-Muslim elements. LO became known as the Nizam-I Cedid. 14 The post of Sar Askar (commander-
It has been observed that the Ottoman rulers usually tried to adjust to in-chief) was created, and the name of the army was changed from Man-
the changes in the tactics of the European military powers; for instance, sure to Askiri Muntazama ('the ordered troop'-"",\.l;.lll ~I)Y The new
they equipped their forces with muskets almost as soon as their Euro- army was in bad need of financial resources, training, and equipment, so
pean enemies. 11 But concerned Ottomans were watching with much instructors were brought in from France to train the soldiers. The navy
apprehension the rapid advance of European technology beginning in was also targeted for reform and remained under a distinct command,
the sixteenth century, as well as the growth of the European economy white the imperial treasury was abolished. 16 Thus the first reforms were
and military capability beginning with the Renaissance, which sparked to create the new army corps and a new treasury called Land-I Cedid (the
changes at allıevels, all ofwhich contributed to Europe's power. In con- New Fund Treasury) to finance it.
trast to this, the Ottoman Empire was experiencing retreat and tangible These measures, however, proved quite inadequate to deal with the
decline in its military and administrative system s and even in manpower. accumulated burden of so long adeeline or to em power the empire
The standing army, which consisted mainly of Janissaries, helped to per- to withstand the advance of Russia and its other enemies. n The new
petuate this situation and to entrench the status quo, serving as a formi- military units followed the historic pattern of all earlier challenges to
dable obstacle to any change. Janissary power. The opponents of the reforms initiated a counterat-
Selim III (1789-1807) was the first sultan to make effective reforms taek directed against the sultan personaııy, who proved unable to use
to the army, which was followed by more active and fruitful measures his new army at his time of need and especially to deal with the revolt
under Mahmud II (1808-1839).12 However, the conservative elements, in of the Janissaries. LS They were quick to resist and were encouraged by
particular the ulema religious class and the Janissary corps who formed the widespread dissatisfaction among the masses, which were agitated
the military establishment, opposed all reforms as Iikely to undermine by the Ulema class. The antireform elements proved so powerful that
their privileges and their special position. They represented a serious the sultan's reforming Grand Vezir was thrown to the mob and tom to
obstacle and challenge to the reformist programs of the eighteenth and pieces; the Nizam-I Cedid was repealed, and attempts were made to
early nineteenth century. 13 eliminate aıı those who had tried to reform the old order. 19 Thus Selim's
efforts proved premature, and consequentIy he paid for his dream with
his Iife. 20 In May 1807, armed with afetwa (ıSfo) from the chiefmufti,
2. SULTAN SELIM III, CREATOR OF REFORMS
his opponents managed to depose and then kill the reformer sultan, who
History gives credit to Sultan Selim III as the first initiator of serious was replaced by his cousin, Mustafa IV (1807-1808). The Janissaries
reforms who sought to copy European examples as a way to reviye the easily crushed a countercoup headed by Bayrakdar Mustafa, who sup-
ailing health ofhis empire. However, he and his entourage were not con- ported the reforms and desired to reviye what Selim had begun. 21 A wide-
sidered radical reformers, since they were all raised in the traditional spread disturbance broke out at the heart of the empire on 14 November
system. For them, the reform was to be limited to the army, without 1808, when the traditionalist mobs revolted against Bayrakdar. Once
attempting to change the structure of society. again, the spearhead of the reaction was the Janissaries, who were so
The humiliating defeat at the hands of Austria and Russia in 1792 con- outraged 'that they came to their barracks and raised the entire corps İn
vinced the sultan to hasten his army reform, and accordingly, in 1792 and rebellion' .22
Thus the Janissaries regained complete control of the Porte. 23 For the measure was to impose recruiting quotas on the provinces to supply
reformers, the lesson of Selim's abortive reform was that the power of their share of soldiers; every province was required to provide three
the traditional elements must be destroyed before reform could be intro- battalions instead of one, bringing the total force to one hundred thou-
duced. Clearly this required an army and reformers who had the courage san d men divided into 120 battalions. 29 Both the Saraskar and the new
and determination to challenge the traditional e1ements. 24 minister of war were usually appointed from palace circles. 30 The new
force was known as Asakir-I Mansure-I Muhammediye (the Victorİ
ous Muhammadan Soldiers-ö.)."..wı ~~i ..fiL...ı..l1).3 The sultan
3. SULTAN MAHMUD II, THE CAUTIOUS REFORMER
also reinvigorated the Army Engineering School and the other military
Bayrakdar Pasha, who had failed to save Selim 11l,25 succeeded with schools (Mekteb-I Ulum-u Harbiye~~I ~..,ı..ıı ı..,.ı:&) to provide mod-
his cousin, Sultan Mahmud II, who shared the same vision of reform, em training. 32 A.firman fixed the length of service at five years in the
when he defeated the rebels and overthrew Mustafa LV in a coup d'etat regulars (Nizam) and seven more in the reserves (Radif).33 Even the
originally intended to restore Selim. 26 Selim's reforms served as pattern seminomad tribes provided another source of recruits, which the gov-
for Mahmud, and the latter's success can be attributed to his cautious emment exploited, white the minority groups, which had long been
approach to his aims, his long reign, his strong personality and determina- exempted from serving in the army, no longer enjoyed that privilege.
tion, and his realisation that any attempt to address the problem must fit Thus the sultan concentrated on organizing various new military units
within the framework of the Muslim pasİ. To avoid direct friction with and modernizing existing ones with foreign aid. 34 At the end ofhis reign,
his opponents, he 'reached a rapprochement with his leading provincial provincial cavalry amounted to six thousand officers and men. 35
magnates and state officials, allowing them to preserve their privileged As has been stated, the prime objective of the reform was to establish
positions in the restored financial order' .27 His calm and steady policy an army capable and strong enough to defend the empire against its many
took him more than eighteen years until he was ready and able to assault foreign enemies. However, another primary task for the newly estab-
his enemies and their bulwark, the Janissaries, who were supported by a lished Nizam-I Cedid would be to eliminate the autonomy of the many
religious group of the Baktashi Order and the khalidi sheikhs. In the end, centres of power spread all over the various Asiatic provinces inhabited
he succeeded so well that the Turks called his reign vakyi hayriye (Happy by non-Turkish ethnic and religious group s, which were seen as a threat
Occurrences----"-:!...;.:>JI t-ili..,ıı). He concealed his intention to introduce to the authority of the central govemment. We might add to these motives
other reforms until the critical army reforms were accomplished and he the resolve of the sultan and the majority of his subjects to oppose the
had stealthily filled all high positions, particularly in the army, with his power of the infidels who were humiliating the guardian of the Muslim
supporters. Then, on 4 June i 826, he was at last able to crush the Janissar- world. 36
ies: on 16 June, he issued a decree that abolished the Janissary corps and Nevertheless the reforms once again proved inadequate. The total
laid the foundation for new army units to be called Ordu under the com- military force stili amounted to only twenty-four thousand in i 837. The
mand of the revived post of Saraskar. 28 term of service was very long; for example, during most of the nine-
teenth century, conscripts served for twenty years. 37 This had dire conse-
Reforming the Army quences for society and led to widespread evasion ofmilitary service. In
Once he had established a firm hold on power, the sultan began to intro- his Hatt-I Serif of Gulhane, Sultan Abdulmecid (1839- ı 862) criticised
duce his vision for reform, with the army as the main priority. The first the unjust conscription system, describing it as harmful and ruinous, and
120 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Ottornan Reforms 121
laid down the rule of recruiting for five years only.38 Thus the reform of the potential revenue for his treasury, he ordered a general census of the
the army failed to meet the hopes and expectations of the reformers: whole empire.46 In 1838 he established the 'High Council of Judicial
ürdinance' (4..,ıl.l...!II'I.S..:ı..~I~) under the direct supervision ofreformer
[D]espite Mahmud's great efforts to build up his new force, the M. Husrev Pasha, who, in January 1837, had been dismissed from his
army remained largely deficient and in fact suffered some deci-
post as Saraskar. The council was to meet with other government offi-
sive defeats on the battlefield. It was badly defeated by the Rus-
sians and in the Greek war of Independence in 1828-9, and over cials to draft laws to ensure the security of life and fortune and to assess
the issue of Mohammed Ali of Egypt. 39 taxes. 47 In the same direction, the sultan neutralised the arbitrary praetice
of masadera (iyt..-, confiscated), the confiscation of the property of a
üttoman reformers observed that Muhammad Ali had successfully deceased high functionary.48
reformed his army and managed to defeat theirs at Nazeb in 1839. The Among other measures to reform and improve government function
officials then sought to copy their foe's experiment by adopting western was the appointment of mukhtars (mayors) in every quarter, whether
methods and styles of formation and training army units. 40 inhabited by Muslims or Christians. This was done under the author-
ity of ihtisap in Istanbul, which aimed at counting the population and
Attempts at Centralisation also enforcing the sumptuary laws, and formed the foundation for the
Mahmud Ilaıso sought to establish a strong centralised administrative real municipalities created during the Tanzimat era after 1839.49 A new
system throughout his empire. He saw himself as merely reviving what Ministry of Religious Foundations, Nezaret-I Evkaf(u\j.J~1 i.J\Aj), was
he held to be the source of every kind of authority.41 Hence the reform- also established, which aimed at 'turning all surplus fund s over to the
ers were keen to appear as acting in their new program with faimess in treasury for general purposes'. so
running government affairs as well as commerce. 42 In 1834 he modified, According to üttoman historians, the Tanzimat era was signalled by
and later eliminated entirely, the traditional system by which the high the promulgation of the Gulhane Reseript, which Mustafa Rashid Pasha
administrative and scribal official posts were distributed in response to drafted. S1 The policy of reform was in harmony with aims eontained in
political and social pressure. He went on to establish a regular system the rescript and was intended to deal with all elements of society. The
in place of the conventional one. 43 Although his reign witnessed a long non-Muslim Ra 'aya were theoretically raised to equality when all the
list of military defeats, he began the imposition of centralisation on all subjects of the sultan were declared equal before the law:
autonomous Asiatic provinces that was achieved over the years follow-
ing 1826. This he achieved despite the challenges he faced, among which The Muslim and other peoples [ah li-I islam ve milel- saire] who
was Mohammed Ali Pasha of Egypt, whose army advanced to the very are among the subjects of our imperial sultanate, shall be the sub-
ject of our imperial favours without exception. This proCıamation,
walls of the capital. 44
which indicated a radical break with Islamic tradition, reflected
perhaps the most acute problem ofüttoman reform. 52
Administrative Reform
The sultan and his reformers realised that reforming the military machine Dina Khoury believed that 'the sense of regional identity refleeted in the
required huge financial resources. This in turn demanded a 'rationalized administrative, economic, and political development of the eighteenth
system oftaxation and reformed provincial administration to collect rev- century la id the groundwork for the geographic and administrative read-
enues' .4S To identify the manpower at his disposal and to assess correctly justment of the reform period' .S3 But while they had correctly diagnosed
their weakness and its source, in attempting to cure it, the Ottoman landiords, who under the old system had made up the great majority of
reformers created an additional problem when they pressed their sub- the tax farmers, were directly affected. Most of the Ottoman population
jects to meet their needs for money. By doing so, they neglected the lived in rural areas and, as peasantry, were directly affected by the new
needs of the people in general. laws, since they were the main taxpayers and providers of soldiers. These
considerations basically determined relations between the state and the
Fiscal and Land Reform rural population. The government on its part introdueed a series of land
Reforming the tax system was an essential step to financing the reforms, laws to meet its needs for revenue, but these refleeted continuing vaeilla-
since the state could collect more money only by imposing new taxes on tion about the right policy to follow and so tended to cancelone another
its subjects. S4 Accordingly a new tax system was developed during the out. Some reformers were troubled about conceding additional 'propri-
Tanzimat period to exploit the wealth of the empire. In fact, though, the etary rights to land renters at the same time that they were expressing
roots of this system went back to the sixteenth century and indeed to opposition to the permanent alienation of the peasantry from rights of
Islamic fiscal traditions of the seventh century.ss usufruct' .60 Others argued for maintaining the government's grip on the
Ever since the ri se of the Ottoman state, both the land and the peas- land through the existing law, in order to seeure the definite revenue that
ants had been considered as property belonging to the sultan. S6 In the the state badly needed. This, however, could only be done at the expense
sixteenth century, under pressure of the inereasing needs of the state for of the peasants' rights to their products. Moreover, these measures cre-
cash, the Timar system gaye way to tax farming: 'The state bureaucracy ated a new challenge when they spawned a newclass of corrupt officials
was becoming steadily larger ... because the empire itselfwas bigger and whose interest lay in obstructing any genuine land reform. 61
also because of changes in the nature of the state'. S7 In 1685 the sultan Recalling the era of Caliph Omar I, who, in his sawad al Kufa, had
had issued a decree establishing 'lifetime tax farm (malikame), a grant ordered a land survey to assess the total taxes, known asjizya,62 and had
of the right to collect the taxes of an area in exchange for cash payments imposed kharaj on the 'People of the Book', Mustafa Rashid Pasha, on
to the treasury'; however, as might have been expected, this system had 8 August ı 838, did the same. He ordered a survey of property values
severely limited the revenue fIow to the central government, while it dis- aimed at matching taxes to taxpayers' income. Various new taxes were
couraged the primary producers, the peasants, from making any efforts introduced, among them one on shops and markets to support the new
to increase their production, since any enhanced profit went straight to army. All traditional taxes imposed according to Islamie shari'a were
the tax farmers. s8 The reformers were quick to address this all-important abandoned except for the sheep tax (aghnam rasmi-i"Lıc. \II f""'.J) and the
issue, which demanded action to reviye the productivity of the land and jizya (cizye-~fi.). A tithe called oshur (one-tenth of the value of the
generate badly needed revenues: 'The Tanzimat involved efforts to sup- product fo) was imposed as the only tax on the produce of the land.63
plant the indirect type oftax collection through tax farmers and fiefhold- However, this, like other aspects of the reforms, was to suffer from the
ers with direct collection by salaried state agents so that all the revenue corruption of the collectors, who were basically businessmen who had a
would go to the treasury' .59 monopoly on collecting tax for profit.
Throughout the period, Ottoman society was taking sides for or Since the structure of tax collection was carried over from the tradi-
against the reforms, and the struggle lay especially between the reformers tional past, the tithe revenue failed to meet expectations; indeed, it fell so
and the conservative, traditional urban centres in the provinces. There, seriously sh ort that by the end of ı 840, the treasury was obliged to restore
land was the most sensitiye issue, since the powerful classes of feudal the tax-farm system, although on a shorter-term basis: 'In auctions held
in the provincial and sancak capitals, two years' rights to collect taxes in special position in society. Thus all attempts to introduce westem-style
specific mukata were given to those tax farmers who promised the high- reforms provoked reaction and serious challenges from all segments of
est return to the treasury' .64 Real new sources of revenue for the treasury the powerful traditional class.71
only emerged after the rising commercialisation of agriculture began to
generate an economic surplus, which was provided by the production of Evaiuation of Mahmud II's Reforms
goods for sale. 65 Even then, the land revenue remained the main source Mahmud II's reforms were Cıearly directed towards the element that could
of income, and in 1840 the tax collection was greatly simplified, with the change the old system, and the same reforming cadre that had shaped the
tithe being imposed on Muslims and the jizya retained as a poll tax on earlier reforms assisted him. 72 His goals and aspirations in fact exceeded
non-Muslims. 66 what was contained in the Gulhane Rescript and reflected his determi-
nation to exercise the power of an absolute monarch throughout the
The Religious Class and the Reform Process whole empire. 73 But he also had to execute and supervise these ambitious
Nonetheless the reforms known as Tanzimat lacked popular support. reforms, and his officials, whom had been trained up under the old sys-
Reformers formed a smail portion even among the elite of principal tem, mostly had no idea what the reforms meant. In the end, the reformers
officials, while the conservative elements, Ulema, and religious class proved unable even to maintain their own position, let alone see through
represented a spearhead of fierce opposition. They constituted the most the dramatic and essential changes that the structure oftheir ailing society
powerful section in society, since they occupied high offices of truSt. 67 required. it should be remembered that they were themselves products
While the Ottomans were suffering military defeats and getting quickly of their society, which had inherited all the traditions that they sought to
weaker, these groups were growing ever more apprehensive and tighten- reform. They were also keenly aware of the power ofthe provincial nota-
ing their grip on the various institutions. Their influence was entrenched bles, which they could not ignore. 74 Moreover, as Stanford and Ezel Shaw
at all levels of society. They were particularly keen to guard the classic pointed out, 'The men of the Tanzimat were not particularly good econo-
Muslim teaching and concept of education, which was hardly calculated mists or financial leaders' .75 The Tanzimat reforms were well calculated
to produce graduates who could challenge their European enemies. 68 to reach only two targets: first, to gain the acceptance and support ofthe
Moreover, faced with continual 'defeats ... in wars with non-Muslim European powers to strengthen the position of the reformers and weaken
powers, many Ottoman Muslims began to emphasize the needs for the their opponents' leaders, and second, to enhance the general development
Islamic character of the empire' .69 In tandem with the general decline of the empire's fighting machine. 76
of the Ottoman Empire and society, many heretical sects emerged, and
Sultan Mahmud found himself obliged to eliminate their growing influ-
4. WESTERN PRESSURE FOR
en ce among the masses. Thus we find him issuing a flrman that por-
FURTHER REFORM AND !Ts MOTIVE
trayed the Bektashi order as 'atheists' and 'hereties' and suppressed their
Tokkes, the houses where they met to consolidate themselves and propa- Once the balance of power between Europe and the Ottomans began
gate their heresy.7o This action roused Muslim religious scholars who to tilt towards the West, the European powers spared no opportunity to
aıready disagreed with the introduced reforms to voice their disapproval. keep their once powerful foe weak. While they might and often did quar-
Even the religious leaders of the Christian and Jewish communities grew rel among themselves, on this one policy they achieved a consensus. But
concerned about the changes, which they saw as threatening their own given their complex rivalries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
126 ASSYRIANS, KUROS, AND OTTOMANS The Ottornan Reforrns 127
one need hardly be surprised to find certain European powers fighting to custom s dues averaging 5 percent. This was often less than the taxes
the Ottomans at the same time as others were giying them the support paid by Ottoman merchants'.8o
they needed to survive. Apart from Russia, no European power that took The plight of the sultan's Christian subjects served as alever that the
an active interest in the Middle East wished to see the ailing empire dis- powers could use to secure their increased demands. Beginning with
appear completely, and it was the other powers' support that enabled the Kuchuk Kanarchi, the concessions were embedded in state treaties.
empire to maintain itself as it did against such powerful challengers as Thereafter many natiye Christians, especiaııy merchants, became more
Russia and Muhammad Ali Pasha. 17 commerciaııy involved with western business partners than their feııow
But the European powers that demanded reforms from the Ottomans Muslim merchants. The Ottoman Christian business class gained power-
were by no means altruistic in their demands and pressure. They con- ful tax exemptions in the form of barats, which allowed them to underseıı
tinued to keep the Ottomans in check and were keen not to see them their Muslim competitors-in stark contrast to the situation before the
adopt any measures that would effectively reform the military and that reforms, when the authorities had discriminated against the Christians,
might give them the upper hand again. 78 The last thing the Western pow- whether in the field of employment, occupying high offices of trust, or
ers wished to see was Muhammad Ali seated on the Ottomans' throne the military and other functions of the state. 81 In the eyes of the rulers
in Constantinople and reviving the power and glories of the Turkish and the Muslim majority, these newand fast-growing relations turned the
Empire. Still, as Shaw and Shaw noted, Christian merchants into proteges of the Europeans.
Beginning in 1839, the victorious European powers once again pressed
[As] the Sultan had hoped, the other powers, for fear of being Sultan Abdulmecid, the successor of Mahmud II, to carry out the reforms
left out responded with their own offers of help. In 1835 Britain that they deemed necessary. The sultan and his supporters were them-
began to supply industrial and military equipment, including blast
selves convinced of the need for further reform and had no way to refuse
furnaces and steam drills ... British officers arrived in 1836 to
redesign and rebuild fortifications, though Mahmut's suspicious the demands of their protectors. Thus a series of further measures were
limited their contribution. He still was seeking help from a state initiated, which went through two stages:
having no previous interest in the Middle East. .. From 1835 to
1839 several Prussian missions advised the Ottomans providing A: The reforms were applied on the technicallevel while empha-
them with far superior and receiving therefore much more respect sising the supremacy of the sharia and the Islamic fundamental of
and attention than had ever been the case ... By far the most skill- the state.
ful of the Prussians helping the Porte at this time was a young
lieutenant, Helmuth Von Moltke, who later in his career was to B: In the second stage western political and legal measures were
become one of the most prominent military men in Europe. 79 adopted and applied despite the fact that they contradicted the sharia
and were inconsistent with the Islamic basis of the state. The second
stage took place following the Crimean war and not without pres-
Concessions to Europeans
sure from the western powers, the allies of the Porte İn that war. 82
As we have seen, the Europeans' continual victories in their wars with the
Ottoman Empire were rewarded with concessions, mainly in the rich prov-
5. THE REFORMS OF SULTAN ABDULMECID
inces of Asia. These privileges included the right to protect natiye Chris-
AND THEIR OBJECTIVES
tians and the right of foreigners to be tried in their own courts, although
the ultimate legal authority remained with the Ottomans. Moreover, 'the When power passed to Sultan Abdulmecid in i 839, the Ottoman sultan-
capitulations of the nineteenth century awarded the Europeans the right ate had come a long way in restoring its authority over the autonomous
regions and had managed to impose centralisation on most of the Asiatic shari 'a (Muslim law) or the kanun, which had suffered a long neglect
provinces. Like Mahmud II, he embraced the concepts of justice and in the preceding centuries. On this subject, Lutfi wrote to justify the dis-
equality before the law between Muslims and non-Muslims alike. missal of Husrev Pasha as Grand Vizier in 1840.86
On 17 July 1839, the sultan issued an irade (decree-öJ1 ..;!), which Although the demand for a strong military machine was the prime
he commanded to be read to the ministers who were meeting at the office motiye for introducing the reforms, the social and political conditions
of the Shaik ul-Islam. He urged them 'to follow the law of justice and contributed an additional pressing factor. Some scholars have gone so
equity in all matters' and to observe constantIy 'the application of hon- far as to state that it constituted aredistribution of power among the dif-
oured seri 'at in all the affairs of the exalted Sultanate'. He called upon ferent social groups that comprised the elites in various provinces of the
all officials to keep to the ways of uprightness and honesty and to avoid empire. 87 This had its effect on both the rulers and the Ra 'aya, because
'bribery ... and repugnant and oppressive acts ... and to be extremely care- 'each invested in their own interest and aspirations' .88
ful not to give room to the rise of unacceptable methods'. He further
stressed that 'all the inhabitants of our protected Iands, rich and poor ... Educational Reforms
should enjoy tranquillity and repose'. He dec1ared that 'in my exalted These fundamental reforms demanded for their implementation thorough
sultanate, property, soul, dwelling, and place should be secure and safe educational reforms, which in turn required state support. The Tanzimat
from ... offence and aggression'. 83 proposed three new types of schools. Qualified teachers were to transIate
The reforms have been divided into three categories, dealing with schoolbooks from French; science teachers were to be recruited from
administration and government, the welfare of the Ottoman subject abroad until natiye teachers were trained and ready. Church authorities
and the status of the non-Muslim citizens, and the legal basis of the were to draw up courses in religion, subject to state inspection. The new
empire. 84 primary and secondary schools were to be financed 25 percent by the
state and 75 percent by the local authorities. Pilot projects tried in Istan-
Hatt-I Sherif and Hatti-I of Gulhane bul were eventually to be extended nationwide.
Certain leading persons presented a petition to the sultan, who expressed As with other areas of reform, here, too, on paper, the reform created
his satisfaction with its contents and ordered it proc1aimed to the public a system intended to mirror that of Europe. In practice, however, only
as a hatt-i sherif. While the petition was not dated, it evidentIy preceded about 20 percent of the imperial schools came to follow the modern cur-
the first great reforming edict of the Tanzimat era, which was the Hatt-I riculum, while more than 70 percent were stili tied to the old teaching
Sherif of Gulhane (the Imperial or Noble Rescript of the Rose Cham- system of madrasa. it is also important to note that none of the levels of
ber), promulgated on 3 November 1839. education instituted during the reform period were introduced among the
The rescript was signed by the sultan and read by the great reformer independent Assyrian tribes, since the Ottoman authority was not estab-
Mustafa Rashid Pasha. Its chief aims were to guarantee subjects' secu- lished among them until Iate 1847.
rity of life, honour, and property; to establish a regular system to assess
and levy taxes; and to develop new methods to assure a fair system of
6. REFORMS IN IRAQ
conscripting, training, and maintaining the army.85
The Tanzimat reforms sought to bring to an end the absolute rule of The Mamluk dynasty of Baghdad, which had seized power in 1747 and
the sultan by arbitrary decrees and to enforce the rule of law, whether ruled Iraq completely detached from the central government, had to face
the new Ottoman plan of centralisation. As has been mentioned, Sultan the reforms, while their fellow tribesmen were reduced to poverty. The
Mahmud II was determined to restore his authority over the various ayan class resembled 'those of Syria in certain essentials ... ayan elite of
autonomous centres. The Mamluks at Baghdad had been able adminis- composite origin military, ulema, merchant controlled a large part of the
trators and had enjoyed almost a century of political stability supported surrounding countryside through various mechanisms'. 89
by a relatively successful economy, because they gaye Baghdad several As has been mentioned, the Ottoman reformers implemented mea-
great reformers, most notably Sulaiman Pasha II (I 780- i 802), who ini- sures by which they hoped to keep the empire intact. However, when
tiated an ambitious program of modernisation including remodelling and the theory was put into execution, contradictory factors came into play
Cıeaning out the canals, which were the nerves of the irrigation system that prevented the new policies from achieving their goals. This was to
that made the sawad a source of wealth and prosperity. He was also a be expected, since changing a whole society from well-rooted practices
pioneer in establishing industrial projects, training an army of twenty and convictions to modern, western-style ways was no easy task. 90 The
thousand, and introducing a printing press. Tanzimat reforms had no direct impact on the independent Assyrian
Mahmud II imposed his authority over Iraq in the summer of 1831, tribes during the period under study because, as we have seen, the tribes'
and thereafter a succession of capable pashas were appointed to Bagh- location in their remote and inaccessible country and their tradition of
dad. However, it was only in i 869, well after the period under study here, sturdy, armed independence both operated to keep the influence of aıı
that Iraq experienced the real thrust of reform under the great reformer outside forces at bay. Ultimately, however, both the impulse to irnpose
Midhat Pasha, who was determined to modernise the country on western the effective control of the central government on aıı parts ofthe empire
lines. His reforms echoed the Tanzimat and seriously improved the qual- that flowed from the Tanzimat and the modernisation and reinvigoration
ity of the provincial administration. He was also famous for his remark- of the army that emerged as its main achievement were to prove deci-
able plan for settling the nomad tribes, a step by which he extended the sive factors in deciding the fate of the independent tribes and the whole
rule of the Turkish central government over them for the first time. Assyrian nation, as the following chapters show.
Arguably the most effective reform introduced in Iraq during the Iate
Ottoman period was the tapu (\and law). This made a dramatic change
in the social structure of the countryside when the long-lasting feudal
system was reformed and replaced by one that responded to the spirit of
reform. As we have seen, tax farming had been introduced to the country
for the first time during Ottoman rule, and by this new law, the Ottoman
authority was able for the first time to collect taxes effectively. Conscrip-
tion was also imposed on the people, who had to register for it in each
community. However, as elsewhere in the empire, the old landlord class
known as shaikhs was able to get round the new laws and regulations
thanks to their accumulated influence over the peasants and the Ottoman
government's need for money. They continued to buy the right to hold
the land and control the peasants in return for fixed payments to the trea-
sury. Hence these tribal leaders were the class who benefited most from
ENDNOTES 29. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:44.

30. Abu Manneh, Studies, 116.
31. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 3.
32. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:7, 48; McCarthy, The Ottoman Peoples,
1. Justin McCarthy, The Ottoman Peoples and the End ofEmpire (New York: 14-15.
Oxford University Press, 2001), 9. 33. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 48.
2. Putrus Abu Manneh, Studies on Islam and the Ottoman Empire in the 19th 34. Shaw and Shaw, History, 2:7.
Century, 1826-1876 (Istanbul: Isis Press, 2001),76. 35. Ibid.,2:43.
3. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 46. 36. Quataert and Inalcik, eds., An Economic and Social History, 766.
4. Abu Manneh, Studies, 76. 37. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 63.
5. Ibid. 38. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 47.
6. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 48, 73, 94. 39. lbid.
7. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 4, 6~5. 40. McCarthy, The Ottoman Peoples, 14-15.
8. Although the Ottomans' first serious defeat occurred in 1583, their siege of 41. Ibid., 15.
Vienna was their first disastrous failure. See Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 1. 42. Ibid., 16.
9. Donald Quataert and Halil Inalcik, eds., An Economic and Social History of 43. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:39.
the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 44. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 64.
1994),640. 45. Masters, Christians and Jews, 34.
10. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:29. 46. Howard, The History of Turkey, 59.
lL. McCarthy, The Ottoman Peoples, 9. 47. Shaw and Shaw, History, 2:61.
12. Maj. Maxwell O. Johnson, 'The Role of the Military in Turkish Politics', 48. Abu Manneh, Studies, 79.
Air University Review 33(2) (February 2001): 49-50. 49. Shaw and Shaw, History, 46--47.
13. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 1-2. 50. Ibid., 8.
14. Ibid., 2. 51. Abu Manneh, Studies, 73.
15. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:42. 52. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 22-23.
16. lbid. 53. Dina Rizk Khoury, State and Provincial Society in the Ottoman Empire,
17. Douglas A. Howard, The History of Turkey, The Greenwood Hİstories of Mosul, 1540-1834 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 14.
the Modem Nations (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001),56. 54. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:60.
18. McCarthy, The Ottoman Peoples, 11-13. 55. Ibid., 2:95.
19. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:1,6; Howard, The History of Turkey, 58. 56. Quataert and Inalcik, An Economic and Social History, 105.
20. McCarthy, The Ottoman Peoples, 10. 57. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 29.
21. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 2. 58. Ibid., 48.
22. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:4. 59. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:95.
23. Ibid., 2: 1. 60. Khoury, State and Provincial Society, 159.
24. McCarthy, The Ottoman Peoples, 13. 61. Ibid., 159.
25. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2: 1. 62. ıbn al Jawziya contended that thejizya had originally been imposed to humiI-
26. Howard, The History of Turkey, 57-58. iate the infidels. it could not be removed except by embracing Islam. See al
27. lbid., 58. Shaikh Shams ul Din ıbn al Kayim al Jawziya, Ah 'kam ahI u al Thimma,
28. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:1 and 22-23; Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 38. 4th impression (Beirut, 1994), 1:56-57. it should be remembered, however,
that the jizya was only imposed on adults, and children and women were
exempt. ıbn al Kayim al Jawziya, Ah 'kam, i :42. To ıbn al Kayim al Jaw-
ziya, al Kharaj isjizya on the land as thejizya is Kharaj on the dhmmi; both
were legitimate practices imposed upon the infidels and their land for the
benefit of the Muslims. Ah'kam, i: 100.
63. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:95-96, 46-47.
64. Ibid., 2:95-96.
65. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 129.
66. Howard, The History of Turkey, 61.
68. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:47.
CHAPTER 7
69. Howard, The History of Turkey, 64.
70. Abu Manneh, Studies, 68.
71. Howard, The History of Turkey, 57. THE REFORM S
72. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:36.
73. Abu Manneh, Studies, 79. AND THE PEOPLE
74. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2: 1.
75. Ibid., 2:154. OF THE BOOK
77. Masters, Christians and Jews, 146.
78. McCarthy, The Ottoman Peoples, 20.
79. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:45, 56.
80. McCarthy, The Ottoman Peoples, 21.
82. Abu Manneh, Studies, 73, 181. ı. THE TREATMENT OF THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
83. Ibid., 86.
84. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 21. The Ah!u! Dhimma (t..:lll JA,1) or 'People of the Book' had an integral
85. Ibid., 60. place in Ottoman history, since their status was a subject of concem to
86. Abu Manneh, Studies, 159. the rulers and foreign powers during both the heydayand the decline of
87. Maria Tsikaloudaki, The Ethnikoi Kanonisimoi 1860: The Ecumenical
the empire. ı This involvement did not emerge from a vacuurn, but had
Patriarchate ofConstantinople and the Tanzimat Reform: The National
Regulation of 1860,9, http://hcc.haifa.ac.il/0epartments/greece/events/ deep roots in the beliefs of Muslim society, since the status of Christian s
greek_ orthodox_ church/pdflTsikaloudaktCongrGreekChurch.pdf. and Jews was addressed in the Qur'an and, since the time of Caliph
88. Ibid., ıo. Ornar I, they had been subject to the jizya and kharraj taxes. They were
89. Quataert and Inalcik, An Economic and Social History, 674. socially segregated as being Ah!u! Dhimma in the eyes of Arabs and Kof-
90. McCarthy, The Ottoman People, 8. far ('infidels') for other non-Arab Muslims. Under Ottornan rule during
the period of decline, Muslims enjoyed by law a superior status to their
non-Muslims neighbours. Although some historians have denied this,
the history of the Ottoman Empire shows that Muslirns continuously
136 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Reforms and the People of the Book 137
maintained their superior status in the administrative establishment and especially the Jewish communities of the Ottoman Empire had
in their social privileges over Christian and Jewish subjects. 2 flourished during the period of greatest Ottoman power. 4
At the same time, the non-Muslim populations were separated from
Until well into the nineteenth century, the legal system rested on
the general structure of the state, especially the major establishments
differentiation between each se ct and religion. The various religious
such as the military services, the judicial system, and the administration.
communities maintained their own courts, judges, and legal systems:
Exceptions were made for some rare individuals who were taken into the
'Muslim courts thus held sway in cases between Muslims and non-
army for their high qualifications, which the authorities could not afford
Muslims'.5 This gaye the People of the Book rights that were not avail-
to ignore. On the other hand, and due to the general decline in the rules
able in their own courts, and so they usually appealed to Muslim courts
and principles governing the system, purchase of exemption was widely
'to gain access to the provisions of Islamic inheritance laws, which
practised and eventually became so recognised that it was institution-
absolutely guaranteed certain shares of estates to relatives'.6 However,
alised as a special tax. 3
being the weak groups among the population, the Christians and Jews
Since the advance ofisIam, the People of the Book had received vary-
were always eager to be seen as loyal Ra 'aya by their successive rul-
ing treatment from various Muslim dynasties. They enjoyed certain privi-
ers, from the advance of Islam to the Tanzimat. As was aıready noted,
leges and lenient treatment from many Caliphs and rulers who governed
many Arab and Ottoman rulers showed them tolerance and treated them
them as the Qur'an demanded. However, during the centuries of the Otto-
fairly,1 and during the period of Tanzimat, the political Ottoman elite
man domination (1514-1917), their treatment varied according to the
and the reformers sought to include them in an overriding citizenship.8
status of the empire. While they continued to enjoy a certain privileged
Thus it is safe to state that many attempts were made to seeure and
treatment under the great sultans, they experienced hard times during the
protect the rights of the sultan 's Christian and Jewish subjects, who
period of decline. According to one historian,
enjoyed
Non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire had always Iived under con-
ditions of simultaneous official state toleration and official state fuller rights and legal proteetion in the Ottoman lands than, for
discrimination, community life among Jews and Christians evolved example, subjeets of the French king or of the Hapsburg emperor.
into a symbiotic relationship between community religious and It is also true that Ottoman inter-communal relations worsened in
commercial leaders and Ottoman State officials much as it did the eighteenth and nineteenth century ... One's religion-as Mus-
among Muslim communities. Christian and Jewish Peoples lim, Christian, or Jew-was an important means of differentiation
related to the Ottoman state and its officials through the semiau- in the Ottoman world. 9
tonomous institutions oftheir millet, their religious-national com-
munities. There was freedom of worship, the sacred texts were However, the Ottomans, who were heavily engaged with wars on
copied, read, and studied, weddings, baptisms, and funerals were both external and internal fronts, were under great pressure for financial
condueted; and the like. Christian and Jewish communities in the resources. This situation forced the rulers to raise continual taxes on the
m~or cities operated their own school s and courts of law. These Ra 'aya, among which were the Christians and Jews-a treatment that
communities or millets were organized only very loosely at the played a crucial role in the history of the empire during the period of
empire-wide level, and Christian and Jewish communities in the
reforms. As long as the empire lasted, non-Muslim subjects were a major
far-flung corners of the empire evolved with a fair degree ofinde-
pendence, and some regional variety, establishing their own set source for cash to fund the military machine. Accordingly the Ottomans
oftraditional rulers and relationship with loeal Ottoman officials, revived the famed historic taxes al jizya and al kharraj, which had been
and Muslim eommunity leaders. In this way, the Christian and demanded from the People of the Book during the advance ofislam and
imposed on both Christians and Jews. IO Naturally the old justification up their subjects and treating both Christians and Jews as second-class
was also revived ofimposing the taxes in return for protection. 11 During citizens. 19 During the latter period, a call for prayers from Muslim mosques
the Ottoman period, the c1aim was represented as a return for allowing was normal daily practice in Ottoman society, while ringing the bells of
the Christians and Jews to exercise their religion. 12 the churches or chanting was forbidden because it was considered a dis-
turbance to the tranquillity of true believers. These discriminatory mea-
Variation in the Treatment of the Ahi al Kitab sures established the 'social inferiority of non-Muslims in the Muslim
Islam was founded on the concept ofholy war, which called on believers community. The non-Muslim were required to pay the humiliating tax of
to wage Jihad (holy war) for conquering the land ofnonbelievers (Fitoh- the Jizya' .20 During the period of decline, certain Ottoman Muslim schol-
Dar 'ul Har~.;:ıJI JI.I). This was the pattern for spreading the message ars in the region hurled many Jetwas, which denounced the Christians as
of Islam from the beginning. Conquest established the absolute control infidels who ought to be curbed even in neighbouring provinces. With
of the Muslim authority over the land and its inhabitants, who were offi- the introduction of the Tanzimat reforms, the social separation between
cially turned into serfs to cultivate their own land for their new mas- the various religious communities was theoretically abolished. Equal-
ters. 13 lt has been c1aimed that the' immam was free either to eliminate or ity of obligation was supposed to apply even to military services for all
enslave the defeated or to keep them as tenants on the land in exchange Ra 'aya. 2I But given the mounting opposition to such progressive mea-
for the regular payment of a fixed amount of ransom [jizya and kharraj- sures from conservative Muslims, true equality was stili a distant goal.
~I~ J ~"p'-]'I4; however, the consultations made by Omar ıbn al Khatab Indeed, non-Turkish ethnic and religious groups continued to suffer from
on the subject reveal the consent of all sahaba (~ı............ıı) to leave the discrimination right to the downfall of the empire. 22
land in the hands of the conquered and to impose on them the jizyd 5
and kharraj, because that was more beneficial for Muslims. Thereafter
2. THE WESTERN POWERS AND THE REFORMS
both types oflevy were imposed on the People of the Book, and this was
firmly regulated by direct instrnction of the caliph Om ar. 16 Arab Muslims As we have seen, foreign countries, especially the great powers of Europe,
invented many terms to describe the Ahi al Kitab. Fay al Mus/imeen was exerted strong efforts to reform Ottoman society, but only to an accept-
one, which made the conquered land the inalienable common property able degree. Increasing pressure was put on the sultan and his govern-
of the Muslim state and its Muslim subjects. These types of lands were ments with every war and defeat. The concept of millet was reintroduced
known also as 'baraci Iands, or those lands [subject to] taxes'. 17 as a response to that pressure, on the one hand, and on the other, to the
As was previously remarked, generally speaking, during their might, Ottoman rulers' conviction that without the modemisation of their state,
the Ottoman rulers treated their Christian subjects with leniency and even defeats and decline could not be halted. Thus the nineteenth century wit-
favourably, whereas during their decline, the Christians suffered oppres- nessed the wide use of the term 'reform' and the introduction of new for-
sion and discrimination. Under the early Ottoman rulers, the testimony mulas in international relations, as the great powers of Europe c1aimed
of a non-Muslim 'was accepted in the Muslim courts except in those for themselves the right to protect their co-religionists in the lands of the
cases where a ruling of guilt would result in the imposition of criminal Ottoman Empire. Many Ottoman Christian minorities sought the Europe-
sanctions against a Muslim'.18 During their decline, however, the Otto- ans' offered protection to escape the harsh treatment and discrimination
mans adopted a social and political policy of 'divide and rule' based on that they were suffering during the decline of the ailing empire, and they did
fomenting discord among the various ethnic and religious groups making so mainly by joining the Europeans' churches. This brought the Western
powers right to the doorstep of the sultan and his government. But this According to Donald Quataert,
development had a dire effect on the natiye Christians' relations with the
Muslim majority, who viewed such moves as acts of treason against the Stereotypes present distorted pictures ofOttomans subjects living
caliph. 23 The sultan and his government sought to place the non-Muslim apart, in sharply divided, mutually impenetrable religious com-
munities called millets that date back to the fifteenth century. In
minorities in a less priviteged position and saw the Tanzimat as a way to
this incorrect view, each community lived in isolation from one
neutralise their peculiar status and bring them into a national Ottoman another, adjacent but separate. And supposedly implacable hatreds
citizenship. But these measures failed to solve the problem, since it was prevailed: Muslims hated Christians, who hated Jews, who hated
deeply rooted in the consciousness of the Muslim society and its attitude Christians, who hated Muslims.
towards non-Muslim s, who were widely considered infidels (Kawir),
a concept that Tanzimat attempted to reverse and correct. Thus the second He further contended that 'the term millet as designator for Ottoman
half ofthe nineteenth century witnessed a counterattack by the traditional non-Muslim s in not ancient but dates from the reign of Sultan Mahmut
conservative Muslims against all forms of Tanzimat and its reforms.24 II, in the early nineteenth century. Before then, millet in fact meant Mus-
lims within the empire and Christians outside it' .28 In fact, however, the
term millet was not new but derived from the Qur'an, which recog-
3. THE REFORMS AND EQVALITY WITH NON-MvSLIMS
nised both Jews and Christians as distinct millets, continually referring
In theory, both the reforms of Sultan Mahmud ii beginning in 1826 and to them as «(,$..Jlı.....ilI.J .l.Jt:!l1 Uo).29 The Qur'an contains verses prescrib-
those of his successor Abdulmecid in 1839 aimed at bridging the differing the proper Muslim attitude towards non-Muslims, which guarantee
ences between their Muslim and non-Muslim subjects in matters ofprivi- them security of life and justice. This was embodied in the concept
leges and equality.25 All subjects were supposed to enjoy equal treatment of People of the Book, Ummatu al Nasara wal Yahud (,$..Jlı.....ill ~i
and rights. These proposed changes were radical, since they altered the (.l.Jt:!lI.J).30 Hence the concept of millet (nation--t.l) was defined with
very function of the state and society. The sultans' intention was to treat the advance of Islam.
all their subjects equally, whether in taxation, appearance, military service, The term was revived during the era of the Ottoman reforms,3! and the
or eligibility for the civil service. White it aimed at bringing Christians, reformers were keen to make it function within the framework of Islam.32
who were viewed as proteges of the foreign powers, back under the joint Gibb and Bowen saw it as a traditional mechanism for dealing with
dominion of the sultan's government and its legal system, this policy also the non-Muslim communitiesY Unlike the Qur'an, which labeııed all
sought to eliminate the embedded concept of Muslim legal superiority.26 Christians as millet al Nasara «(,$..Jlı.....ill uo 'the nation of the Christians'),
the Ottomans distinguished various millets or nations corresponding to
The Millet System the various Christian churches existing within their empire. During the
During the period of reform, the Ottomans organised various non-Muslim Iate Ottoman period, the number of recognised millets mounted to thir-
groups such as Armenians, Nestorians, Chaldeans, Syrians (Catholic and teen, each headed by its millet Bashi (UJI u4ı..J), who was accountable
Orthodox), Rum Orthodox, and a smail group of Protestants in the sys- directly to the sultan and was responsible for collecting the tax from his
tem of millets. 27 The largest millets were the Orthodox, who comprised followers. 34
the Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, Rumanians, Bosnian Serbs, and the Chris- Thus each millet was a hierarchically organised religious body with a
tians of southern Albania. decidedly political function. 35 The reforms gaye priority to those Christian
nations that were more influential and sought a greater role in the internal the governmenf ,43 in reality, the millet system failed to create a homoge-
affairs of the empire, such as the Armenians, Georgians, Greeks, Syr- neous population of loyal Ottoman citizens, since it only further institu-
ians, and Chaldeans.36 Thus many Christian minorities gained recognition tionalised the old social and ethnic structures. The various religious and
under the guidance of the Armenian patriarch, inc\uding the patriarchal ethnic groups remained detached from each other and isolated İn their
line of Mar Elia at the monastery of Rabban Hormizd near Alqush. 37 internal affairs. In fact, the Tanzimat only served to upset a social equİ
A.firman ofrecognition confirming a patriarch specified both the civil and librium that had lasted for centuries. The Muslim majority, who rejected
religious authority of the millet, which should be controlled by an e\ected the concept of equality, reacted with hostility, and so, during the period
council of laymen and a larger millet assembly.38 In 1860 a series of of reform, Christians and Jews were to experience cruelty over and above
Tanzimat known as Ethnikoi Kanonismoi (National Regulations) marked what they had ever experienced hefore. Many, particularly Chrİstians,
a further attempt by the reformers to integrate the churches into the Otto- were forced to embrace Islam, and 'onIyasmali proportion of these
man bureaucracy.39 retumed to their original faith after intervention by the Pasha' .44
The Jewish communities in the empire suffered from the same dis- Some historians have argued that the Christians and Jews were the
criminatory practices as the Christians, sometimes even more severely prime beneficiaries from the Tanzimat because of the role played by their
than other sects. 40 The Jews were at last recognised as a distinct millet financial houses and the interference of the Western powers. Clearly both
throughout the empire in 1835, and the office of Haham bashi (~41",~h) Jewish and Christian merchants living in the major cities did benefit finan-
or head of the Turkish Jews was established after the settlement with cially from the reforms; they invested in commercial relations with the
Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1840-1841, but there is little evidence to western countries and used their contacts, whether internalar external, to
show how the Jewish millet govemed themselves internally through- build up very profitable businesses. However, it should be remembered
out Syria and Iraq hefore the Tanzimat. Donald Quataert believed that that these people represented only a smail portion of their communities.
'Ottoman Jewish-Muslim relations' were better than those were between The Ottoman capitulatory regime was the prime factor facilitating this
Muslims and Christians. 41 Awakening national awareness could take process, in that it officially recognised the privileges, known as 'capitula-
advantage of the Tanzimat to improve the condition of various non- tions', that successive sultans had awarded to several European countries
Muslim minarities, including the Jews. A group of French Jews formed as far back as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As was explained
the famed Alliance Israelite Universelle to regenerate their inherited earlier, King Francis i of France, who sided with the Ottomans, exploited
traditions and cu1tural heritage. 42 The Ottoman government and the the inter-European rivalries and the enmity between the Persians and
religious leaders of the non-Muslim minorities tended to cooperate in Ottomans after the Battle ofChaldiran of i 514. In return, France received
various fields in which the Ottomans were keen to secure their support, a series of concessions, beginning with those of 1535, which were given
and this trend helped to crystallise the millet system. by Sultan Sulaiman the Magnificent. Louis XIVobtained further con-
cessions in 1668. England obtained similar concessions in 1578 from
Sultan Murad IV, who allawed English merchants to enter the Ottoman
4. Dm THE REFORMS PRODUCE EQUALITY
domain and to enjoy the same privileges as those of France. 45 During
BETWEEN MUSLIMS AND NON-MuSLIMS?
the nineteenth century, the connections established by the capitulations
Although one scholar has stated that 'differing religious groups had enabled the powerful home governments to exploit the old agreements
lived together in relative peace and had not threatened the stability of to the limit for their own interests and political advantage and to back
the merchants and their consuls. This further weakened the Ottomans, while others were modified in a way that was designed to benefit the
on the one hand, and, on the other, served to strengthen the influence of state, such as demanding a lump sum of money from the People of the
the European powers and their proteges, who remained almost detached Book in return for their exemption from conscription. 50
from the direct political control of the Ottomans. 46 Moreover, as was mentioned earlier, the reforms encountered severe
The Tanzimat reforms were supposed to secure the rights and reli- opposition from a society that had grown used to traditional practices
gious freedom of all sects of non-Muslim Ra 'aya subject to the sul- of discrimination. Even the non-Muslim leaders opposed changes İn the
tan, and all edicts dealing with this subject were carefully phrased to rules that ran counter to their personal interest: 'Non-Muslims in general
emphasise that freedomY Yet, like Caliph Omar i when he instructed were willing to accept the benefits of equality, they opposed its price' .51
his governor in Iraq in the early 640s regarding the issue of Ahlu al However, this situation had its exceptions; for instance, the Jewish mil-
Ki/ab, 'the People of the Book', and the term to be applied to them, the let during the nineteenth century was significantly divided between the
sultan too required all non-Muslim adult men to pay jizya. 48 Further- orthodox rabbis and the rest of the sect, who demanded a more secu-
more, we are told once again that the reason for imposing this addi- lar and progressive system on many levels, such as education. 52 Some
tional tax was in return for their protection, without specifying from Ra 'aya said that they were willing to pay jizya and maintain their free-
whom. This question became especially relevant after Muslim author- dom to develop their own careers rather than serve the empire, especially
ity was firmly established in Iraq and elsewhere. After some twelve as conscripts in an army that was fighting endless wars.
hundred years of Islamic advance, the Ottomans attempted, under the
slogan of reforms, to treat their Christian subjects on the same lines
5. ISLAMIC ATTlTVDES TOWARDS CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGES
as had Omar i. They were keen to represent these new/old measures
and ways of dealing with their non-Muslim subjects as a return for The more conservative school of Tanzimat reformers sought to build on
the privileges that they could enjoy, such as exercising their own laws what tradition had to offer, while the radical reformers viewed reform as
and customs and exemption from military services. Hence efforts were a concept that had 'nothing to do with Shari 'a' .53 These diverse views
exerted to supplement the rules and regulations that replaced the old were reflected in kanun (law), which embodied the classical Ottoman
system of collecting farm taxes. Those changes required a new method concept of the dual authority of the sultan as a head of both the state
of collection, but this only opened new opportunities for corruption and the church, who was looking somehow to integrate them in the pro-
when the task of collecting 'farm tax' fell on influential individuals cess of reform. This was evident from his continual orders to his grand
known as 'fief-holders', who exacted far more than the official rate vizier and ministers to abide by shari 'a rules as a way to attain justice
from their victims. 49 Hence, during the early period of Tanzimat, both and equality and to protect the state and society.54 This clearly appeared
Christians and Jews experienced no serious changes in their old status. in the meeting that Sultan Abdulmecid called in the summer of ı 839 at
They remained unequal before the Ottoman lawand state institutions. the Sublime Porte, where he sought to lay the foundation by which the
The payment of the humiliatingjizya was a clear practice of discrimi- shari 'a laws would be enacted and the government would act according
nation against the non-Muslims, who suffered from cruel methods of to the spirit of Islam. 55
collection. Eventually this harsh treatment was replaced by another set It is not possible to separate the impact of the Tanzimat reforms on
of regulations, doubtless under western pressure. On 7 May ı 855, the the People ofthe Book from the concept of Muslim majority. Insofar as
jizya system was abolished along with other discriminatory measures, the reforms addressed the status of the People of the Book, they were
bound to provoke a Muslim reaction. The belief in Muslim superiority embedded both vertically and horizontally in Ottoman society. That was
had been enforced ever since the advance of Islam; hence, in the minds one main reason why the nationalists who were spreading modem politi-
of ordinary Muslims, the Tanzimat and its equality slogans abandoned a cal thinking throughout the Ottoman Asiatic provinces in the nineteenth
pious tradition. In their view, the impulse for the reforms did not come century failed to push through their intended reforms. 59
from within Ottoman society but from foreign powers, which were con- One of the devices to which the Ottomans resorted during their long
sidered Kawir (infidels) who humiliated the Muslim state. Hence, when- involvement with the Westem powers was using the religious factor
ever the sultan committed himself to guaranteeing religious freedom to move the feelings of their Muslim subjects to withstand the threat
and protecting his non-Muslim subjects, the Muslim majority did not po sed by the infidel Christians. During the Greek War ofIndependence,
feel themselves bo und by such deerees. The overwhelming consensus for instance, the Ottomans 'made the liberal and tolerant attitude of
was that the Ra 'aya were entitled to protection in return for jizya, as the Bektashyya towards the non-Muslim s seem to be out of time and
originally established with the advance of Islam. 56 Thus it was no easy place'.60
task for the reformers to remove from the minds of local rulers and their Among otherthings, reform in the Western powers' style was intended
subjects the view that Christians and Jews were inferior to Muslims, and to give the AhI al Ki/ab the basic rights to enjoy and practise freely their
the attempt to raise their status to equality with Muslims proved to be religion and traditions. In fact, the measure only served to delude the
unacceptable. 57 Christian communities in the Asiatic Ottoman provinces, who seem to
A further complication was that western interference in the internal have thought that an edict on paper could remove practices accumulated
affairs of the empire reached the level of dictating to the sultan and over centuries that had reduced them to second-class citizens. Accord-
his government the terms on which they ought to deal with their non- ingly Christians who were deceived by the Ha1t-I Sharif of Gulhane
Muslim subjects. During the nineteenth century, the European powers' began to practise their religious custom s openly as a silent way of chal-
involvement in the affairs of the sultan's Christian subjects reached lenging the majority Muslim population, ringing church bells, carry-
its peak. It has been c1aimed that these minorities within the Islamic ing crosses in processions, opening alcohol shops in public places, and
state Iived more comfortably than the Muslim majority and were in less having
fear of persecution even than religious minorities in European states,
thanks to the protection offered by the concerned powers. 58 But in the corpses carried by men instead of animals. Such deeds strongly
irritated the Muslims almost everywhere, and in some places they
eyes of the majority Muslims, Tanzimat made Christian s and Jews pro-
provoked anti-Christian outbreaks ... many Christians were killed
teges ofthe Western powers, if not a fifth column, which only worsened and their houses and churches sacked and burnt. 61
their reputation. Thus the capitulatory regime became a benehmark of
the Iimits of European involvement and the Muslim reaction to such The reforms aimed at guaranteeing political and civil equality between
involvement, with the Christian subject population bearing its negative all subjects, whether Muslims or non-Muslims, but conservative Mus-
consequences. Iims viewed this as breaching the basis of shari 'a, which roused much
resentment throughout the Muslim communities. 62 The entrenched dis-
The Reforms and Ethnic Pride crimination could not be removed without resistance. The multinational
Before the introduction of western-style reforms and modem politi- pot of the Ottoman Empire was always ready to boil over, especially
cal theories, Asabiyya al kabaliya (ethnic pride-~\ ~\) was during periods of intense reform. Many Arab Muslims
felt disquiet at the direction and increased pace of change in the ENDNOTES
nineteenth century. But their unease was fuelled as much by fear
of European military expansion as it was by anger at the Tanzimat
reforms. 63
i. Quataert and Inalicik, An Economic and Social History, 605.
Sectarian violence erupted first in the Ottoman Arab provinces and then 2. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 141.
in other parts of the empire,64 until, 'on May 2, 1854, Mosul was the 3. Ibid., 175.
4. Howard, The History o/Turkey, 62-63.
scene of massiye rioting. The mob attacked the Christians and Jewish
communities in the streets and the bazaars, even breaking into houses 6. Ibid., 176.
and shops' .65 7. Youssef Courbage and Philippe Fargues, Chretiens et juifs dans I'islam
Although more than twenty years had etapsed since Sultan Abdulme- arabe et turc, translated into Arabic by as Ai Masihiyun wa al Yahudji al
cid's reforms had sought to bring equality and justice to his non-Muslim Tarikh al Islami, al Arabi wa al Turki (Cairo: Librairie Arqethrne Fayard,
subjects, further bloody massacres broke out in 1860 in Beirut, Damas- 1994), 136-137, 185.
8. Masters, Christians and Jews, 18.
cus, Aleppo, and elsewhere against Christians, who where hunted through
9. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, ı 73.
the streets and into their quarters. Their erime was to have believed in ıo. Theoretically, Islam did not permit discrimination between different races.
the edict of the sultan, which had given them, theoretically, the same Therefore,
rights as their Muslim countrymen. The massacres of 1860 were a c1ear [i]t consider both Jews and Christians as sharing many beliefs and val-
indication of how the mass Muslim population regarded any measures ues with Muslims, and that the Islamic term Ahi al-Kitab, (the People of
aimed at achieving such equality.66 In Bruce Masters' words, the Scripture or the Book) is a definition for those who were subject to
jizya and kharraj. The Qur'an warns against taking Jews and Christians
The ambition of the Ottoman sultans to reform their empire and as friends. Nonetheless, non-Muslim is guaranteed his freedom offaith,
to consolidate the concept of citizenship was reflected in the con- but in return he should pay the tribute to Muslims readily and submis-
stitution of 1876. However, despite the slogans of equality for aLi sively, surrender to Islamic laws, and should not practice his polytheistic
citizens, the constitution could not drive out the well-rooted urge rituals openly'.
of the Muslim society to establish the Islamic religion as the offi-
Muslim scholars justified the imposition ofbothjizya and kharraj as being
cial one. 67
tax which was '[k]nown by the Persians and Romans and it is imposed on
As we shall see, this same urge fumished a powerful impetus for the non-Muslims as substitute for military service. Islam confirmed this prac-
tice and exempted the Dhmmi who is subject to conscription'. ıbn al Qaim
treatment that the Assyrians endured at the hands of their neighbours,
al Chawziya, Ahkam Ahlu al Dhima, ı:9 ı. Ai Immam al Hafith ıbn al Han-
with the full connivance ofOttoman officials, in 1840. bali affirmed that al Kharraj is 'the sum that is imposed on the Dhmmi for
a limited time'. Kitab al Kharraj, AIIstikhraj Li Ahkam AI Kharrag (Bei-
rut, n.d), 4.
The jizya was a poll tax levied from those who did not accept Islam but
were w ili ing to liye under Muslim rule. The tax varied in amount, and there
were exemptions for the poor, females and children (according to Abu Han-
ifa), for slaves, and for monks and hermits. lt was in a sense a commutation
for military service. Jews and the Christian s were forced to pay jizya, and
it was justified as being a means to put an end to their independence and 15. 'Fight those who believe not in Aııah nor the Last Day, nor hold that
supremacy, so that they should not remain rulers and master of the land. forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor
These powers should be wrested from them by the followers of the true acknowledge the Religion of Truth, from among the People of the Book,
faith. Thus the People of the Book became dhmma ofisIam, payingjizya until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves sub-
to the Muslim state, and could not be allowed to remain supreme rulers. dued'. S. 9 A. 29-30. The derived meaning of jizya, which became the
Therefore it is the duty of the true believers to bring them under a righteous technical meaning, was a poıı tax levied from those who did not accept
order. Consequently, the non-Muslims became worse otf, since they were Islam but were willing to liye under its protection and were thus tacitly
not considered 'good, law-abiding citizens'. Unlike with Western taxpay- willing to submit to having its ideals enforced in the Muslims state.
ers, payment ofjizya did not grant equality and liberty to the payees, but 16. Abi al Hassan al Balathiri, Fituh al Buldan (Beirut, 1978), 279-1; Abu
rather merely permission to live for another tax period, while failure to pay Vousif, Kitab al Kharaj, 25-27. ıbn Ai Hanbili, however, affirmed that
it resulted in death. With the jizya, the tax itself was considered a punish- Omar did not divide al Sawad between the invaders because the land was
ment, and the payee lived in the permanent condition of be ing punished for not gained and seized by force. Kitab al Kharraj, 30.
his faith until he converted. 17. Quataert and Inalicik, An Economic and Social History, i 03. On the issue
11. ıbn al Qaim al Chawziya contended that 'the essen ce of the matter is that Al of the land after Muslim conquest, scholars, or AI Sahaba (~6...-l'),
Jizya is imposed as punishment, but it is limited to the People of the Book advocated dividing the conquered land into two categories: first, Sulh
and its not applicable on others, and that the Jizya is in return for permitting (peace), and second, inwatan (forcibly-oyc.). For the former, the tax
the dhmmis to reside in Dar [Dar ul Islam)'. Ahkam Ahi al Dhima, 1:17. was consideredjizya by the Sunni scholars and would drop with conver-
Yihya ıbn Adam claimed that 'al Ghanema (Loot) is subject to Khomis sion to Islam, while Abu Hanifa advocated the Kharaj of land which was
(1/5) for Allah'. KitabAI Kharaj (Beirut, n.d.), 1:17. gained forcibly, while ıbn Adam belived that the Kharaj on the dhmmis
12. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 130. in his land should be considered as rent tenancy. ıbn Hanbali, Kitab al
13. Abu Vousif, in his reply to the question of the Caliph Harun al Rashid Kharraj,39.
regarding the proper treatment of the People of the Book, advocated- i 8. Masters, Christians and Jews, 23.
among other things-that their necks must be stamped during the period 19. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 69; Masters, Christians andJews, 42.
of collecting al jizya .. . none of them should be permitted to behave like 20. Masters, Christians and Jews, 23.
Muslims in his dress and daily practices ... they must wear distinct clothes, 2 ı. Quataert and Inalicik, An Economic and Social History, 103-104, stated
and special girdles around in their waists, they were not to erect any new that '[under] The Islamic Law from the Prophet's time ... The Imam was
churches without explicit permission ... no crosses were to be displayed in free either to eliminate or enslave the defeated or to keep them as tenants
the cities. Abi Vousif, Kitab al Kharaj (Beirut, n.d), 127. on the land in exchange for the regular payment of a fixed amount of ran-
14. Quataert and Inalicik, An Economic and Social History, 103-104. Abu som (cizya Uizya] or harac [kharraj])'.
Yousif informs us that Omar i desired to distribute the al Sawad between 22. Masters, Christians and Jews, 42.
the Muslims and he ordered a census, where he found that the share of 23. In 15 17 when the Arab-Muslims of the Arabian Peninsula were experienc-
each Muslim fighter would be thirty-two local peasants. Asked by Omar ing the invasions of the Spaniards and Portuguese, the SharijofMecca sent
for his advice on the subject, Ali ıbn Abi Talib replied, '[L Jet them be a to Sultan Selim i the key of the Holy City of Mecca, recognising him as
source of profit for the Muslims'. Thus a certain sum was imposed on Ahi caliph. This gaye a boost to the Ottoman presence in the region, which led
u Dima according to their social class. The rich were to pay forty-eight, the to the occupation of Egypt, Syria, and Iraq.
middle class twenty-four, and the poor twelve dirhams. Abu Vousif, Kitab 24. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:128.
al Kharaj, 36. ıbn al Chawziya justified the motiye behind imposing these 25. Burchard Brentjes, The Armenians, Assyrians, and Kurds: Three Nations,
taxes as aiming at 'humiliation when they pay it as submissive people'. One Fate? (Comp beli Varanasi: Rishi Publications, 1997), 30.
Ahkam Ahi al Dhima, 1:23, 108. 26. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 65.
27. Sir Harry Luke, The Old Turkeyand the New: From Byzantium to Ankara, 42. Masters, Christian and Jews, 54; Yosif Rizqallah Ghanema stated that the
rev. ed. (London: Bles, ı 955), 9. Iraqi Jews established in 1865 'The Society of ısraili Union' as well as a
28. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 173. successful school in Baghdad. See Yousif Riziq Ghanema, Nozhat al Mus-
29. Ibid. taq fi Tarikh Yahud al Iraq fi al Qarin allshren, 2nd impression (London,
30. Masters, Christians and Jews, ı. For details, see also Gibb and Bowen, 1997),305-306.
Islamic Society, 1:ii, 208. 43. McCarthy, The Ottoman People, 9.
31. Luke stated that the millet system could be 'traced back to the practice of 44. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 189-190.
its Byzantine predecessors of guarantying autonomy to groups of people 45. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 79, 84. See also Sir Ryder Bolard, Britain
within the borders'. Old Turkey and the New, 9. and the Middle East, translated into Arabic by Hassan Ahmad al Salman as
32. Many verses in the Qur'an recognised the People of the Book and called Britania wa al Sharq al Awsat Minthu Akdam allsur hata 1952 (Baghdad,
on Muslims to treat them as such: '[W]as the story of Moses Reached 1956), 14.
thee' (S. 20 A. 7-10). [Allah] said, 'Granted is thy prayer, O Moses' (S. 20. 46. Howard, The History of Turkey, 63.
A. 36). S. 19. A 54-58 stressed that 'also mentioned in the Book (is the story 47. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 189.
of) Moses: For he was amessenger and a prophet'. As for Christians, many 48. Al Balathiri in his Fitooh al Boldan mentioned that Omar's instructions
verses mentioned them and the message of Jesus Christ: '[W]hen Jesus to Sa' ad were to put the tax on every male head of Ahi al Kitab whom he
came with cIear Signs, he said, "Now have i com e to you with Wisdom, nicknamed '~)c.', who were shaving their beards. Women, children, and
And in order to make clear to you some ofthe (points) on which ye dispute; the elderly were exempt. Fituh al Buldan.
therefore, fear Allah And obey me"'. (S. 43-63). 49. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:95.
33. Gibb and Bowen, Islamic Society, 2:ii, 220. 50. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 194-195.
34. Masters, Christians and Jews, 63; Gibb and Bowen, Is/amic Society, 51. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2: i 27-128.
1:ii, 234. The Greek Orthodox subjects of the Porte were recognised 52. Ibid., 2: 127.
as a millet as early as 1454, and the Armenians and Jews in 146 ı. See 53. Ibid.,2:62.
Nasim Sousa, The Capitulatory Regime of Turkey, The History, Origin 54. Abu Manneh, Studies, 90.
and Nature: A Survey From 1535-1923 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins 55. Ibid., 87.
Press, 1923), 90; Courbage and Fargues, Al Masihiyun wa al Yahud, 56. For the Muslim attitude, see ıbn al Chawziya, Ahkam Ahi al Dhima, i: 15.
185-188. 57. ıbn al Chawziya stated that the belief of the People of the Book became
35. Masters, Christians and Jews, 61. The Protestant millet was recognised on null and void with the coming of the Prophet. Ahkam Ahi al Dhima, 1:68.
15 November 1847, after the British ambassador succeeded in obtaining a 58. Daniel Goffman, The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (Cam-
firman ofrecognition from the sultan; see Rev. H. G. O. Dwight, Christian- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 1i I.
ity in Turkey: A Narrative of the Protestant Reformation in the Armenian 59. Masters, Christians and Jews, ll.
Church (London: J. Nisbet, 1854),291, 178. 60. Abu Manneh, Studies, 67.
36. Fortescue, The Lesser Eastern Churches, 20. See also Wigram, The CradIe 61. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 190.
of Mankind, 80. 62. Abu Manneh, Studies, 125.
37. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2: 125. 63. Ibid., 156.
38. Ibid., 2: i 55. Nevertheless many heads of millets were hierarchies, and the 64. Masters, Christians and Jews, 7.
patriarchs enjoyed civil and ecclesiastical authority over their followers. 65. Sarah D. Shields, Mosul Before Iraq: Like Bees Making Five-Sided Cells
39. Tsikaloudaki, The Ethnokoi, 1-2. (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000), 86.
40. Masters, Christians and Jews, 5. 66. Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 191.
41. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 177. 67. Masters, Christians and Jews, 140.
CHAPTER 8
THE BEGINNINGS
OF CENTRALISATION
ı. THE OTTOMANS AND THE FOREIGN POWERS
After the growing weakness of the empire was exposed in the Russo-
Turkish war that ended with the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji in 1774, the
Ottoman state, up to its downfall, came increasingly to depend on the
support of one or more ofthe European powers. The effect ofthis was to
secure it against final collapse from external as well as internal threats.
But those powers extended their interests to the internal affairs of the
now weak empire, particularly in the Asiatic provinces, where there
were many disaffected power centres. In doing so, the powers were very
anxious to preserve the Ottoman state from any developing new threats.
The affair of Mohammed Ali Pasha of Egypt in Syria and its outcome
gaye a clear indication of both the motiye and the effects of European
intervention. ı
The powers most concerned to safeguard the empire after 1831 were
Great Britain, Russia, and France. Colonel Taylor, the British resident at
156 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND ÜTTOMANS The Beginnings of Centralisation 157
Baghdad, reported that 'the Pasha and his adherents are delighted with the Westem powers to sow the seeds of westem influence there, taking
the interference of the European powers and look upon it as the saving advantage of the iii treatment by the Ottoman rulers and their supporters
of their empire'.2 The Ottoman officials were pleased with the Russian of non-Turkish people.
and British interference to protect their empire and to prevent its down- This policy of concession by the Turkish Ottoman rulers during the
fall. These powers exerted themselves to assist the Ottomans in their period of centralisation had far-reaching and lasting consequences for
task of re-establishing their hold over aıı the Asiatic provinces and facili- the region. It influenced events throughout the Asiatic provinces right
tated the plan by every means to ensure its success. 3 The obvious reason down to the downfall of the Ottomans, and their successor states in the
for this reversed attitude towards the weakened empire was to enable the Middle East have continued to bear the effects of this Ottoman-aided
Ottoman state to withstand any possible development that might coun- European intrusion ever since.
ter their own interests in the Asiatic provinces, which they continued to
pursue. 4
2. INTERRELATIONS BETWEEN THE NON-TuRKISH
The deteriorating conditions in the Ottoman Empire opened up the
SUBJECT PEOPLES AND THEIR EFFECT ON
whole oftheAsiatic territories to European activities. From ı 83 ı onwards,
THE OTTOMAN PLAN OF CENTRALlSATION
the region became open ground for the westemers, in which each indi-
vidual acted in accordance with the design s and interests of his home The people who bore the brunt of direct Ottoman efforts at subjuga-
country. Consuls were established in every important city alongside tion belonged to different categories; there were the non-Turkish Mus-
military attaches. A succession oftravellers, missionaries, and adventur- lim majorities, but there were also a wider ran ge of differing minorities
ers toured all over the region, observing every detail of the land and its belonging to many races and religions. There were Arabs and Kurds, the
inhabitants. 5 majority of both groups being Sunni Muslims. Then there were many
The Ottomans not only allowed the European powers to penetrate minority groups: Armenians, various sects of Syriac-speaking people
their Asiatic provinces but also even gaye them a free hand to do what (Assyrian 'Nestorians' and Chaldeans, Syrian Orthodox, and Catholics),
they were interested in. They also assisted those powers in their objec- Yazidis, Turcomans, and others. These minorities belonged to different
tives by every means at the disposal oftheir state. With regard to the mis- races and religions and had different beliefs and cultures; they had noth-
sionaries, for instance, the Ottomans assisted many mission bodies and ing in common to bring and bond them together. Even the Ottomanising
their agents in evangelizing their Christian Ra 'aya-sometimes even by identity, which was applied nominally to the m all, could not establish
force, as Patriarch Akhejan experienced during the establishment of the even aminimum sen se of citizenship. They were '[I]ess like a country
Catholic Church among the Orthodox Syrians. Thus they were subjected than a block offlats inhabited by a number offamilies which met on the
to cu1tural and political ideas and influences quite different from those to stairs'.7 But these inhabitants were not only stranger neighbours; hostili-
which the Muslim majorities, or even Christian s elsewhere in the Middle ties and rivalries dominated their relations during the long period oftheir
East, were accustomed. 6 Ottomanisation. The Ottoman design for subjugating the people of the
An immense body of evidence establishes that the Ottoman rulers, outlying regions was greatly aided by the se divisions, which served to
compelled by their general weakness, were primarily responsible for compensate for any weakness on the Ottoman side. The only factor help-
allowing the establishment of various forms of interested European ing to draw the non-Turkish people together was their common hatred of
presence in the region. They were also the fundamental factor enabling the Ottoman Turks. 8
158 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Beginnings of Centralisation 159
Over a long period of decline, intolerance and attitudes of dominance invasion in 1743. After 1747 these centres managed to consolidate their
also marked relations between majorities and minorities. The majorities, ho Id and found many emirates such as Baban, Soran, Bohtan, and Bah-
in particular the Kurds, rejected any form of coexistence with the non- dinan. Much the same happened among the Arab tribes. The hostilities
Muslim natives, who were gradually transformed into minorities, the between the Kurdish factions developed with the emergence of power
most affected groups being the Christian sects and the Yazidis. The result centres under ambitious leaders who showed a lack of national feeling
of this attitude was a gradual but dramatic change in the demographic towards their follow Kurds, each leader trying to enlarge his holding
map of the regions of ancient Assyria and upper Mesopotamia. For at the expense of the natives or the other Kurdish centres. This also
instance, the Yazidis, who had been numerous during the early Ottoman affected the existence of the Christians of the Church of the East. 14
occupation of the sixteenth century, were reduced to a minority during it is safe to state that intolerance and unwillingness to coexist among
the seventeenth century,9 and their numbers were sharply reduced again the various peoples characterised the region. This led to continual hos-
during the following century. Despite their warlike habits, they could tilities and enmity, rooted ev er more deeply in the consciousness of each
not withstand the constant pressure exerted by the annual campaigns of sect. The Ottomans exploited this situation all too cleverly to achieve
extermination of the advancing Turks, Kurds, and Arabs, as both Brit- their objectives during the period of centralisation.
ish diplomats in the region and the Turkish historians reported. 1o The
Christians, who were viewed as infidels, were even worse affected by 3. THE OTTOMANS' DETERMINATION TO ESTABLlSH
developments during the Ottoman decline, especially from the eigh- THEIR AUTHORITY OVER THE ASlATIC PROVINCES
teenth century to the eve of centralisation at the beginning of the fourth
decade of the nineteenth. 11 The members of the Church of the East suf- After the extensive losses of territory in Europe and Africa during the
fered a series of massacres and deportations from their ancestral home- first three decades of the nineteenth century, further losses were also
land. Their tragedy reached its peak during the camage inflicted by Bedr threatened in Asia. Sultan Mahmud II (1808-1839), shaken by his
Khan Beg on the Assyrian independent tribes in 1843-1846, by which earlier losses, took serious measures to restore his authority over the
they game to share the fate of those who had been turned into Ra 'aya remaining nominal Turkish dominions in Asia. ls These regions, which
during the preceding centuries. 12 now attracted the direct interest of the sultan and his officials, had hith-
On the other hand, over a long period, relations between the vari- erto been '[p]erfectly independent and were considered by the Porte as
ous non-Turkish peoples making up the Muslim majority were also enemies whom they attack whenever there is an opportunity' .16
strained and revealed an ingrained mutual disdain and antagonism Helmuth Von Moltke, a Prussian officer lent to Turkey to reorgan-
that spilled over on the members of the Church of the East and other ise its army during the period of centralisation, later to be famous as
minorities. This increased during the period of Ottoman decline and the chief of the Prussian general staff, wrote about his own experience
Persian invasions. Wars waged to gain power and expand their respec- while he was serving with the Ottoman army during the period of cen-
tive domination marked relations between the various ethnic majorities, tralisation in Asia, stating,
particularly the Kurds and the Arab tribes. 13 Among certain races, the
it was a well known fact that the Ottoman Empire comprised vast
rivalries went so far as to provoke wars and widespread destruction, regions in which the Porte exercised no real authority. it was
as they did, for instance, between the Kurdish centres of power that certain that the Padishah (Sultan) had to re-conquer widespread
had emerged between the Battle ofChaldiran in 1514 and Nadir Shah's regions within the territory of his own stateY
Mahmud II spent two thirds of his reign tied up with such serious various races and religious groups inhabiting the region. To restore their
issues as the Greek War of Independence, the Wahabi movement, and authority, the Ottomans exploited these mutual antagonisms to the Iimit.
the Turco-Russian war of 1828-1829. Immediately after concluding They did everything in their power and employed every available mea-
the Treaty of Adrianople with Russia, in i 829 he stepped up his drive sure to achieve their aims, regardless of the consequent destruction and
to restore his authority over all the disaffected centres in Asia. 18 Within human suffering.
two decades, he and his successor succeeded in putting an end to all the So, not surprisingly, the more the Ottomans sought to strengthen their
autonomous centres and replacing the local rulers with loyal Turks. 19 hold over these territories, the more they alienated their subjects. This
The main disaffected centres that the two sultans successfully sought treatment by the Turkish officials during the period oftheir decline directly
to subdue were as follows: assisted the growth of westem influence among the victims. The conse-
quence of this Turkish policy was to force the oppressed and persecuted
i. The Mamluk dynasty of Baghdad. people, especially the minorities, to turn to the Westem powers for protec-
2. The local ruling family of Abd-ul-Jalil of the pashalic of Mosu!. tion from their rulers, on the one hand, and to help those powers establish
3. Various Kurdish emirates spread over many regions of ancient their influence by imposing on various Christian sects their doctrines and
Assyria and upper Mesopotamia, notably forms of belief, on the other. They did so in response to the c\aims of
a. The emirate of Baban (region of Sulaimania), those powers to be able to protect them, in particular the Christians of the
b. The emirate of Soran (Rawanduz), Church of the East and the Syrian Orthodox Church.23
c. The emirate of Bahdinan (Amadia), it is important to focus on the interrelations between the non-Turkish
d. The emirate of Botan (Jazerah), peoples and on the political effects ofthe strained relations between them
e. The Kurdish section ofthe emirate of Hakkari and many other as major factors assisting the Ottomans in their policy. The Ottomans
centres in present-day southeastem Turkey. callously exploited the conflicts between the various races and continu-
4. Many powerful Arab tribes, in particular the Shammer Jarbah. ously encouraged the conflicting elements to carry through their policy.
5. The Yazidi tribes of Sinjar and Shaikhan. We have to examine how those conflicts helped to destroy the political
6. The independent Syrian Jacobite tribes of Tur Abdin. and administrative structure of the autonomous centres, among which were
7. The independent Assyrian (Nestorian) tribes of Tiyari and the independent Assyrian/Nestorian tribes of Tiyari and Hakkari and the
HakkarLlo Jacobites of Tur Abdin. The Ottoman plan eventually succeeded in restor-
ing the sultan 's rule and supplanting all non-Turkish hereditary rulers.
Despite their weakness in the whole region in terms of both military
capability and financial, political, and cultural presence, the Ottomans
4. KURDlSH-AsSYRIAN RELATIONS
did achieve many oftheir goals. Many centres that had long maintained
BEFORE THE ERA OF CENTRALISATION
their authority by force were subdued, and Turkish officials appointed
directly from Constantinople replaced their rulers. 21 Some of these ele- As Sharaf Khan al Badlisi (~.l,Il\ w'ı.i,.. ı....i~), the oldest Kurdish his-
ments had more military followers in theregion than the Turks. 22 torian, revealed, the Assyrians and the Kurds were two partners shar-
Apart from European support, the main factor that enabled the Otto- ing the privilege of the common emirate of Hakkari and enjoying equal
mans to achieve this goal was the conditions that circumscribed the tribal rights. This state of affairs went back to the Iate fifteenth century,
162 ASSYRIANS, KUROS, AND OTTOMANS The Beginnings of Centralisation 163
when eastem Anatolia was dominated by the Turkoman dynasty of the from their alliance with the Sunni Kurds during their struggle with their
White Sheep (Ak Qoinlu, 1469-1508). In his Sharafnamah (~\.j!y!i), archenemy, the Shi'a Safavids. By planting the persecuted Kurdish Sunni
AI Badlisi described in detaif the cooperation and the role of the Assyr- from Persian Azerbaijan as a loyal Sunni human barrier along the newly
ians in defending and determining the future ofthe emirate. He provided won eastem border, the sultan secured the eastem frontier ofthe Ottoman
a particularly interesting account of the role of the 'Assori' (Assyrians, Empire. This development produced dramatic changes in the ethnic and
as they had been referred to by the Kurds, Persians, and Armenians- religious map of ancient Assyria and northem Mesopotamia. By a well-
'':?.JY''I) tribes of Tiyari and Hakkari in installing the emir of Hakkari. documented agreement between Sultan Selim I (1512-1520) and Mulla
He tells us how, when the Ak Qoinlu occupied the town of Dizza near Idris al Badlisi, the newly settled Kurds in Assyria were freed from all
the Persian border, killed the resident emir, and overran the district, the commitments and were to enjoy autonomy in their administration on
Assyrian tribes were able to liberate the place, defeating the invaders and the condition that they acted as a guardian force for the eastem border.
installing Asad-ul Din Zen Jink (~ 0:ıj 0:ı.ll 1 .l...ıl), whom they brought The arrangement freed the Ottomans to pursue their design to expand
back from his place of exile in Egypt to Tiyari. This liberation of Dizz in Europe-a task that kept them busy for three successive centuries,
was documented poetically in the Persian language, which seemingiy advancing and retreating, without seeking an effective role in their Asi-
was the common lingua.franca among the Kurdish settlers in the district atic non-Turkish provinces.27
after Chaldiran 1514: 'On Saturday the deacon of the monastery pitched
his tent [i.e., reclaimed his people's Iand] ... '24 Assyrian-Kurdish Relations in the Emirate of Hakkari
Relations between the Hakkari Kurds and the Assyrian tribes contin- When the Ottomans annexed the new territories of Assyria after Chaldi-
ued to rest on mutual understanding and recognizing each other's rights. ran, relations between the two parties were stili based on mutual under-
Badger referred to the rights ofthe Assyrians in the emirate, inCıuding the standing ofthe need for cooperation and maintaining their freedom. This
right to participate in the election of its emir. On this subject he wrote, fostered workable relations between the Assyrian tribes and both the
old groups and the newly well-organised and settled Kurds. However,
The emeer of Hakkari granted to the Nestorians the right of cl an- after Chaldiran, the Kurdish presence in the region was continuously
ship, which freed them from tribute, and gaye them a voice in
increased and consolidated.
the election of the emeer, and in all the councils of the tribes on
condition that they supplied a certain contingent of armed men for As has been explained, after overthrowing the Safavid dynasty with
the common defense of the state. 2S effective help from the Kurds, Nadir Shah invaded Mesopotamia in
1743. He organised the Kurdish tribe of Baban on the border into an
These rights confirmed the Assyrians' rights in their ancestral homeland, emirate and appointed its leader as head of Kurdistan. In the absence
including freedom from paying tribute or taxes and the right to partici- of any form of Ottoman govemment in northem Iraq, the occupation
pate in the election of the emir of Hakkari. It seems that from Chaldiran forces set the course of events according their own interest. Thus further
untif the period under study, relations between the two parties rested on Kurdish autonomous centres emerged in the regions of ancient Assyria.
these principles, binding both parties together. 26 Unlike those that had emerged after 1514, these were more organised
When the territory surrounding the tribes' homeland came under Otto- and directly supported politically and mifitarily by Persia, which left
man occupation after Chaldiran, the Ottoman victory affected both the them alone as long as they served its interest. The senior centre was the
ethnic and the religious conditions in the region. The Ottomans benefited border emirate of Baban. By this time, the pro-Persian Kurdish centres
had become consolidated. This served to strengthen the presence of ENDNOTES

those who had settled in the region during the anarchic centuries follow-
ing Chaldiran, but these Kurdish settlements seem to have gained the
acceptance of the independent tribes, owing to the confused conditions 1. William Miller, The Ottoman Empire and /ts Successors, 1801-1922,2nd
that prevailed throughout the region. When Rich recorded his observa- ed. (Cambridge: University Press, 1923), 146-149; Bemard Lewis, The
tions in 1821, the Assyrians were stiıı an important element in the affairs Emergence of Modern Turkey, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press,
of the emirate. This was the status of the tribes until the Hakkari Kurds 1968) 24-39; Fisher, The Middle East, 297-298; Luke, The Old Turkey and
began to reverse it after 1831. the New, 25; British Naval Intelligence Division, Geographical Handbook
(London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1942), 1:294; Sousa, The Capitulatory
In 1840 Ainsworth reported during his visit that Patriarch Mar Sh i- Regime, 97-99; David and Joan Oates, The Rise of Civilization (Oxford:
mun was acting as deputy for the emir during his absence. Ross informs E1sevier Phaidon, 1976), 27; J. Carlile McCoan, Our New Protectorale:
us of similar practices, which were based on a mature understanding of Turkey in Asia (London: Chapman and Hall, 1879),2:116-117; Niebuhr,
the rights ofboth partners. He wrote, Travels Through Arabia, 1:167, 234, 332; Bruklman, Tarikh al Shub al
Islamiya, 547-548, 558-560.
Mar Shimun, the Nestorians' Patriarch, lived at Kochanes in Hak- 2. F.O. 95/1 13 Baghdad, May 1, 1833. Taylor to Canning; F.O. 195/113 Bagh-
kary territory, and had always seemed on good terms with the dad, July 29, 1833, Extract of aLetter to the Chief Secretary of the Govem-
Meer of Julemerik, Noor Allah Bey. So much so that on one occa- ment of Bombay.
sion, when Noor Allah went to Arzeroom to tender his allegiance 3. F.O. 195/1l3,BaghdadFeb. 15, 1833, Taylor to the ChiefSecretary of the
to Hafiz Pasha, he delegated his authority to the Patriarch who Govemment of Bombay. On ıst May the resident reported that Ali Ridha
administered the district until his return. 2S Pasha had expressed his friendship and requested the Porte to offer Great
Britain navigation concessions in the Euphrates River; see F.O. 1951 II 3,
In fact, the relations between the patriarch and the leaders of the Baghdad May 1, 1833, Taylor to the Chief of Secretary of the Govem-
Hakkari Kurds continued on a solid basis so long as the traditional ment of Bombay; Ainsworth, Travels, 2:294, 299-301; Fisher, The Middle
accord remained in force. But this essential factor in maintaining good East, 298.
4. Henry Layard gaye an account of the reaction of the local people and their
relations was completely reversed by Emir Noor Allah Beg, a change
views on European penetration. In his Popular Account of Discoveries at
that coincided with the rapid Ottoman advance in eliminating the inde- Nineveh, he stated that 'the opinion of the Qadi [Judge] of Mosul is that the
pendent and autonomous centres surrounding Hakkari and their deter- Frank had formed a design ofbuying up the whole of Turkey', 13.
mined policy of imposing centralisation. There is no record to show that 5. Longrigg, Four Centuries, 255; Ghassemlou, Kurdistan and the Kurds, 42.
some Kurdish chieftains attempted to replace their friendly relations 6. Pitcher, An Historical Geography, 101-141; J. Joseph, The Nestorians, 37;
with the independent Assyrian tribes before Noor Allah Beg took the Longrigg, Four Centuries, 3-4; Abdul Aziz al Shannawi, al Dawla alOıh
maniya Dawlatun Muftra Aleha, (Cairo, n.d.), 96-98.
office of the joined emirate of Hakkari.
7. Luke, The Old Turkeyand the New, 8; Sir Wallis Budge, By Ni/e and Tigris:
A Narrative of Journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on Behalf of the Brit-
ish Museum Between the Years 1886 and 1913 (London: J. Murray), 1920),
2:47; Cutts, Christianity Under the Creseent, 80.
8. EO. 19511 13, Baghdad July 24, 1833, Colonel Taylor to Chief Political to the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. See Tarikh Baghdad, 16; Longrigg
Secretary, Government of Bombay; Budge, By Ni/e and Tigris, 2:47; Con- and Stoakes, Iraq, 71; Southgate, Narrative of aVisit, 170; al Azzawi, Al
stance M. Alexander, Baghdad in Bygone Days, From the Journa/s and Iraq, 6:308-3 i i; Nawwar, Tarikh, 1:22-23.
Correspondence of Claudius Rich, Traveller, Artist, Linguist, Antiquary, 17. Helmuth von Moltke, Briefe über Zustiinde und Begebenheiten in der Türkei
and British Resident at Baghdad 1808-1821 (London: J. Murray, 1928), aus den Jahren 1835 bis 1839, 3rd ed. (Berlin: E. S. Mittler und Sohn,
72, 77, 137,226,243-244; Philips P. Graves, Britain and Turkey (London: i 877), as quoted by Arshak Safrastian, Kurds and Kurdistan (London: Har-
Hutchinson & Vo. Ltd., 1941), 146. viii Press, 1948),49-50.
9. Dr. Nawwar stated that the persecution and massacres of the Yazidis started 18. Longrigg and Stoakes wrote that his 'first goals were to restore the author-
in the reign of Sultan Sulaiman (1520-1560). Tarikh al Iraq al Siyasi al ity of the central government in the virtually autonomous provinces of the
Hadith (Cairo, 1968), i: LO 1. During the seventeenth century, they were Empire and to re-establish his hegemony over the machinery of adminis-
subject to widespread massacres; see Hassan Shumaysani, Madinat Sinjar: tration'. Iraq, 2. See also Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 31; Nawwar, Tarikh
Madinat Sinjar min al-Fth al-Arabi al-Islami Hatta al-Fath al-Uthmani al Iraq, 1:20; H. M. Stationery Office, Geographical Handbook, 1:294;
(Beirut, Dar al-Afaq al-Jadidah, 1983),266--269. Further massacres were Fisher, The Middle East, 276.
committed against them during 1749- i 762; see al Karkukli, Dawhat al 19. Yapp, The Making of the Modern Middle East, 125-130.
Zawra, 225-256; al Saigh, Tarikh al Mosul, 1:294,307; Sami Said Ahmed, 20. F.O.78/2698, Erzeroom July 2, 1840, Brant to Palmerston; Fraser, Trav-
al- Yazıaıyah, ahwaluhum wa-mu' -taqadatuhum, 1:44 (Baghdad, 1971). For els, 59; Smith and Dwight, Armenia, 218-219; American Sunday-School
the dramatic fall in the numbers of the Yazidi population in their homeland, Union, The Nestorians, 99-100; Maclean and Browne, The Catholicos
see Ma'amun Bega Beg, Mothakirat, 8-27; Nawwar, Tarikh al Iraq, 1:75; of the East, 10; Ainsworth, Travels, 2:209, 253; Rev. Pere R. Janin, The
Fa'eq Beg, Tarikh Baghdad, 39-40. Separated Eastem Churches, trans. C. P. Boylan (London: Sands & Co.,
10. Fa'eq Beg, Tarikh Baghdad, 38; al Karkukli, Dawhat al Zawra, 124--125, 1933),201.
245-246. 2 ı. F.O. 7812 10, Constantinople, May 17, 1832, Canning to Palmerston; F.O.
i i. Niebuhr, Travels Through Arabia, 2:243-244; Buckingham, Travels in 19511 13, Baghdad, November 26, 1834, Colonel Taylor to the Secret Corn-
Mesopotamia, 193,221; Ali Sultan, Tarikh Syria 1908-1918 (Damascus, mittee. Steven s, the British vice-consul at Samsoon, reported to Consul
1987),38. Suler that Ismael Pasha had lost Amadia for ever; see F.O. 78 1533, Sam-
12. Fletcher, Notes From Nineveh, 2:50-53. Hostility towards the Christian soon, March 15, 1843, Stevens to Suler. Ma'oz stated that the Ottoman
subjects was not limited to those in Mesopotamia and Assyria. In Syria military power in Syria amounted to fifteen to twenty thousand men and
and Lebanon, too, general massacres were also committed as part ofmajor- in Arabistan, another fifteen thousand. Ottoman Reform, 45, 48; see also
ity reaction and opposition to the reforms. See Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, Nawwar, Tarikh al Iraq, 75. The missionary Thomas Laurie wrote, 'Bagh-
i 03- i 07. He also stated that despite the reforms, the Christians 'had stili to dad was in commotion, so was Sulimanieh; and Turkish authority was very
pay the discriminatory poll-tax', 194. weak in the whole region'; see Grant, The Nestorians, 110-113; Longrigg,
13. Fa'eq Beg, Tarikh Baghdad, 55. Four Centuries, 265, 286; Safrastian, Kurds and Kurdistan, 57. Ainsworth,
14. Longrigg and Stoakes, Iraq, 7 i; Yapp, The Making of the Modern Near in June 1840, found Turkish rule well established in Amadia. Travels,
East, 125-127; al Azzawi, al Iraq Ben Ihtilalen, 6:302. 2:199. See also Layard, A Popular Account, 20; Fisher, The Middle East,
15. Fisher, The Middle East, 152; H. M. Stationery Office, Geographical Hand- 277-278; Wilson, Handbook, 298.
book, i: i 97; Ma' oz, Ottoman Reform, 3 i; al Azzawi, Iraq bena Ihti/aleen, 22. EO.195/113, Baghdad May 14, 1833, Taylor to Secret Committee; Taylor
6:323-328. to British Minister in Constantinople. Fraser mentioned that Mir Koor of
i 6. Wayne S. Vucinich, The Ottoman Empire: /ts Record and Legacy (Princ- Rawanduz possessed an army ofmore than fifty thousand fighters. Travels,
eton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1965), 153. Sulaiman Fa'eq Beg, a Turkish histo- 64--67. Badger stated that if the Kurds ever united, they would represent a
rian from Baghdad, refers to the threat po sed by the independent centres serious threat to Turkey. The Nestorians, 1:x.
23. F.O.195/113, Baghdad, November 26, 1834, Taylor to Canning; Graves,

Britain and Turkey, 146; Longrigg, Four Centuries, 200-208. A. Safras-
tian mentioned that many Kurdish leaders joined the Turkish campaign of
subjection of the Kurdish centres in return for receiving the titIe of pasha,
without mentioning that the hostilities among the leaders had been deeply
rooted over a long period; see Kurds and Kurdistan, 50; Yapp, The Making
of the Modern Near East, 126; Ma'oz, Ottoman Reform, 46-48; Alexan-
der, Baghdad in Bygone Days, 243; al Azzawi, Al Iraq, 6:311; Nawwar,
Tarikh al Iraq,I :75; Munthir al Musili, Al Hayat al Siyasiya wa al Hizbiya
.fi Kurdistan (London, 199 ı), 232. CHAPTER 9
24. AI Bidlisi, Sharafnama, 9 ı.
25. Badger, The Nestorians, ı :258-259.
26. Ibid.
27. Gibb and Bowen wrote, 'The Ottoman policy was to re-people the vacant BEIRAKDAR
lands with Kurds; ... This was to favour the Kurds, who had aided Selim
against ısmail'. See Islamic Society and the West, 2:227. AND THE ACHIEVEMENT
28. Ross, Letters From the East, 64-65; Rich, Narrative, ı :275-276.
OF CENTRALISATION
ı. How THE OTTOMANS CARRIED THROUGH

WITH ESTABLlSHING THEIR AUTHORITY
As has been noted, the Ottornan officials c1everly exploited the rival-
ries between the various independent centres of power during the period
when they were restoring and establishing their authority in Mesopota-
rnia. The Yazidis of the Sinjar and Shaikhan districts were among the first
to be subdued. During 1831 and 1833, they faced repeated fierce attacks
by cornbined forces of the Turks, the Arab tribes of Shammer, and the
Kurds under Moharnrned Pasha 'Mir Koor' of Rawanduz; when Hafiz
Pasha headed the northem carnpaign during 1834-1838, the people were
fierceJy attacked and slaughtered. Although all the non-Turkish population
of the region suffered under the Ottornan carnpaign for centralisation, the
170 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Beirakdar and the Achievement of Centralisation 171
centres that were considered disaffected were the most targeted. Under the property of his subjects'.5 The local mullah in the city of Mosul
these conditions, the minorities bore the brunt of the continual wars and expressed his opinion to J. Fletcher, saying that 'Mohammed Pasha is in
destruction. Ali Ridha Pasha of Baghdad, Mohammed Ince Beirakdar of one respect a just man; he robs Jews, Christians, and Moslems alike'.6
Mosul, and the former al Sadir al ahdam (Prime Grand Vizier-~ YI Yet, paradoxically, the foreign missionaries and other westerners in the
.,;.l....::JI) Rashid Pasha were particularly distinguished for their roles in region mostly viewed Beirakdar's appointment as completely satisfac-
restoring the sultan 's authority. Both the Kurds under Mir Koor and the tory, because his harsh rule produced a climate of 'lawand order' in
Arab tribes participated in the Ottoman campaign to eliminate the minor- which they could work more effectively. According to Badger, '[Wlhat
ities, particularly the Syrians of Tur Abdin and the independent Assyrian gradually opened Coordistan to the researches of the traveliers and to the
tribes. i The British resident at Baghdad reported on the subject, stating labours of the Christian missionaries was the appointment of Moham-
that '[t]he Jerbah Arabs under their Shaikh Safoog [the famed Safoog al med Pasha surnamed Inje [Ince] Beirakdar to the government of Mosul
Faris], and aided by Yahyah Pasha of Mosul, are progressively reducing Pashalic' .7
the Yazidi districts of Sinjar; the Rawandooz chief cooperates in these Beirakdar was in fact a perfect specimen of the corrupt Turkish offi-
affairs' .2 cial during the period of Ottoman decline, but in a sense, that made his
appointment to rule the pashalic of Mosul a perfect fit: '[T]he Osman-
The Rise of Beirakdar lis, fully bent upon establishing Turkish rule over the whole Coordistan,
Pursuing their policy of restoring the sultan's authority over the inde- found in Inje Beirakdar a fit instrument for effecting the object aimed
pendent and autonomous non-Turkish ethnic and religious centres, the at'.8 At the same, however, he ruthlessly pursued his own aspirations
Ottomans in 1835 appointed Mohammed Ince Beirakdar as pasha for the for wealth and power. His character also reveals his clear perception of
vast pashalic ofMosuL. the political situation existing among the people he would successfully
To appreciate the effects of the devastating policy that Beirakdar subdue. He was able to tum all the contradictory factors rooted among
inflicted on all the subjects placed under his rule, and in particular his the people themselves to advantage for imposing Turkish rule on the
ill intentions towards the followers of the Church of the East along with non-Turkish population in the Mosul vilayet.
other non-Muslim minorities, we need to understand his character and The city of Mosul, with its large Syriac-speaking Christian popula-
personality. Reliable contemporary sources provide us with precise infor- tion,9 was the first place to experience his qualities. He disarmed the city,
mation about him, including foreign diplomats, missionaries, travellers, punishing severelyall who refused to surrender their weapons. At the
and local inhabitants. Rassam, the British vice-consul at Mosul, wrote same time, he put hundreds of the leading men to death and confiscated
from his first-hand experience, 'I have no doubt from some experience their property. This policy enabled him quickly to crush the power of the
of Mohammed Pasha's character, that [his conduct] is intended as an various rival factions. As one foreign observer noted, '[T]he city is now
act of disrespect, ... and that it has an evasive style'.3 Badger, who had more completely under the authority of the Sultan than it has been for a
many channels to the sarai (government court) of the Mosul pashalic, century past' .Lo
described him as '[al man of cruel and grasping disposition and a per- Every field of economic life was heavily taxed and put under Beirak-
fect adept in intrigue and cunning'.4 Southgate, who toured the region dar's direct monopoly, which severely drained the livelihoods of the peo-
twice and resided in Mosul during Beirakdar's rule, wrote, 'The Pasha ple. Gradually he extended his policy to the surrounding regions of the
of Mosul is severe, but his rule is too exacting and oppressive upon pashalic where the intensive settlements of non-Muslim minorities were.
This policy ofpacification, however, brought no reliefto his subjects, 2. THE OTTOMANS' CONTINUED SUCCESS IN CARRYING
because Beirakdar exploited his office to the limit and soon began to THROUGH THEIR POLICY OF CENTRALlSATlON
milk the resources of the whole pashalic. Each viiiage and hamlet was
As has been mentioned, durİng the early decades of the nineteenth cen-
taxed to the uttermost, until it was rendered as desolate by the tax gath-
tury, various competing Kurdish centres had emerged in the region. The
erer as it ever had been by bandits. Whole villages fled from an unen-
competition between the Soran Kurds and Baban caused much internal
durable oppression, but eve n flight was punished so severely that the
feuding, which escalated into wars as each sought to impose its domi-
miserable victims quickly learned to flee singIy, and at night, as their
nation on the rest of the Kurdish tribes. Mohammed Beg of Rawanduz
only hope to escape. Everywhere in the plains round Mosul, in the val-
represents a typical example of the Kurdish leaders of this period: 6 He
leys of Kurdistan, or among the hills of Mesopotamia were roofless
succeeded in crushing most of the surrounding Kurdish centres, notably
houses and deserted fields. Beirakdar's campaigns made him notorious
Baban, Bahdinan, and Bohtan, as well as the Yazidis of Shaikhan and
for introducing new methods of killing his victims. He was
Sinjar and several Christian centres in the plain ofNineveh and Jazirah.
[f]amous for his vigorous effort to reduce to order the unruly tribes During his domination in 1826-1836, he was the unchaııenged leader
within the Iimits ofhis jurisdiction, as for his grasping ambitions, and no other centre in the region could stand up to his power. Thus, in
and the tyranny with which he oppresses all subjects of the Sultan the words of Longrigg, he established an empire extending from Mardin
placed under his immediate authority.11
to Persian Azerbaijan and was able to shake the power of many estab-
Beirakdar lost no time in crushİng the structure of the former national Iished dynasties, such as the Bahdinan Kurds, Bohtan, al Abdul Jaleel
admİnistratİon of AI Abdul Jaleel in Mosul and carefully followed his of Mosul (1727-1835), and, naturally, the Baban. The only regional
design to bring to order all semi-independent groups in the pashalic, centre to challenge his power successfully was that of the independent
including the Yazidis, the Arab tribes, the Kurds, and the independent Assyrian tribes of Tiyari and Hakkarİ. When in 1834 he tried to subdue
Assyrians ofTiyari and HakkariP His cruelty revealed itself particularly them, he was humiliated and defeated in the battle, which took place on
in his dealings with the Yazidis: 'Several hundreds were totally massa- the banks of the Zab River near the viiiage of Lezan, in the country of
cred and the ears of a large number were cut off, and hung up before the Lower Tiyari: 7
gates of Mosul'.13 Having thus strengthened his ho Id over the territories His defeat led the Ottomans to reconsider the ir assessment of his
west of the Tigris in the region ofSinjar, he next turned towards the east- exaggerated power and to form a plan for his immediate subjection.
em territory, where other Yazidi settlements and the Chaldean towns and A Iittle over a year Iater, Mohammed Rashid Pasha, the former al Sadr al
villages were spread over the fertile plains ofNİneveh. He summoned all Adam (~'ıll ~i) who had been actively and successfully involved
their leading figures to Mosul and executed them,14 ruling the inhabitants since 1834 in eliminating the autonomous centres in the upper regions of
with an iron fiSt. 15 Mesopotamia, headed southward to Sinjar, the stronghold ofthe Yazidis.
Then, in 1836 the Ottoman Turks scored further success when they After a fierce attaek, he took their stronghold and then headed to Rawa-
crushed the power ofMir Koor, the Soran chief of Rawanduz. This could nduz, where he was joined by other Ottoman forces under the pashas of
be considered as a turning point in the Ottoman plan for restoring the Baghdad, Mosul, and Erzeroom. Many loyal Kurdish tribes joined forces
sultan's authority over the dİsaffected centres, among which Mir Koor with him in laying siege to Rawanduz in the summer of 1836, which
was considered the most powerful chief. eventually left the Soran leader Mohammed Pasha no alternative but
to surrender on Rai ve' Aman (safety of life) after most of his Kurdish Both Imad ul Din Zanki in 1225 and Badr ul Din Lulu occupied Amadia,
supporters had abandoned him. He was sent to Constantinople, and on but in 1339 a leading individual of the competing groups prevailed under
his way back to his natiye town of Rawanduz, he was killed by poison. the name of Malik Khalil al Abbasi and established the Abbasid emir-
Thus the emirate came to an end in i 836, and from 1850 a Turkish pasha ate of Bahdinan. 22 Mahfuth al Abbasi (~4aJ\ .l:.~) affirmed that
appointed from Constantinople ruled the city ofSulaimaniyah as welı. 18 from 1339 until Beirakdar Pasha of Mosul occupied it in 1842, Amadia
The Kurds' tendency to fight among themselves had always helped remained under the unbroken rule of the Abbasid dynasty, which the
their enemies to subdue them, and now it played into the hands of the Assyrian tribe of Diz had assisted in installing as its emir. 23
Ottomans, who used the Khoshnaw tribe, which abutted on Rawanduz, As a response to the rapid developments in the region, Mar Shimun
in their campaign against Mir Koor, who during his domination had seems to have sought the friendship, or at least the satisfaction, of the
persecuted that tribe and killed its leader. Shaqlawa was one of their determined pasha of Mosul, while Beirakdar, in accordance with his
centres, where the Assyrian majority had given way to the Kurds; by general strategy, made several contacts with the patriarch to facilitate
then, however, only three hundred persons were living in the town. 19 his own plan. However, the British diplomats in the region who moni-
The Ottomans' success in subduing the powerful emirate of Rawa- tored these developments observed that they had dire consequences for
nduz was a decisive move for establishing their authority in northem relations between Mar Shimun and Noor Allah, the chief of the Hakkari
Mesopotamia and Assyria. After that, steps were taken to extend Turkish Kurds. 24 This development was only exacerbated by the activities of the
rule to the remaining disaffected centres, among which were the aıready American missionaries, who were supported in their labours among the
debilitated emirate of Bahdinan, whose power Mir Koor had been able tribes by Noor Allah Beg and the Ottoman officials. 25
to crush earlier. Still the most powerful centres were the Kurdish emir- When Beirakdar took over the pashalic of Mosul in 1835, the emirate
ate of Bohtan under the leadership of Mir Saif al Din with Bedr Khan ofBahdinan formed the weakest link in the chain ofcentres thatthe Turks
Beg as his assistant, the Kurdish (northeastem) section of the emirate sought to bring under their rule. It also occupied a strategic location in
of Hakkari under Noor Allah Beg, and the independent Assyrian tribes relation to the homeland ofthe Assyrian independent tribes ofTiyari and
of Tiyari and Hakkari. There were also other less significant centres in Hakkari; its northem border formed the southem border of the Tiyari
the region of the pashalic of Mosul, which the Turks had long sought to country, while its northwestem border marched with the southeastem
subdue. 20 The chief Turkish officials who carried out the campaign of border of the emirate of Bohtan, which shortly afterward emerged under
centralisation in Mesopotamia were Ali Ridha Pasha of Baghdad and Bedr Khan Beg as the most powerful Kurdish centre, succeeding Soran.
Beirakdar of Mosul, but Hafith Pasha of Erzeroom also assisted on sev- The emirate of Bahdinan contained many settlements of Assyrians, both
eral occasions. followers of the Church ofthe East and Catholics, particularly in the dis-
tricts of Zakho, Amadia (Sapna), Akra, Zebar, and Dohuk, where there
The Emİrate of Bahdİnan and the Assyrİan Trİbes were many pre-Islamic monasteries and monuments.
The Kurdish emirate of Bahdinan could be considered the oldest one to Bahdinan was ruled by hereditary families and was officially under the
last until 1842. During 1835-1842, Dr. Grant maintained close relations jurisdiction of the pasha of Baghdad. 26 It was still weak from the many
with its rulers, particularly Ismael Pasha of Amadia, and stated that they attacks of Mir Koor, of which the most devastating were those of 183 1
claimed to be the descendants of the Abbasid caliphs. 21 Some believe and 1833. The scale of the destruction that he had inflicted on this Kurd-
that Amadia is the ancient Amat mentioned in the Assyrian archives. ish emirate can be gauged from the ease with which Beirakdar occupied
its capital Amadia. As is explained in more detail subsequently, he led Khan of the Porte's ./irrnan (üt....)) annexing Bohtan to the pashalic of
the Turkish forces towards the town and easily neutralised Mar Shimun Mosul and demanded his submission to his authority.29 Thus Beirakdar
and his Assyrian troops, whom he had stationed along the approaching was very c10se to rallying more potential resources to deal with the war-
road. When Beirakdar found his way blocked by Assyrian fighters, he like 'infide!' Assyrian tribes. These independent Christian tribes were the
wamed Mar Shimun to withdraw from the contest, otherwise he would subject of discussion between Beirakdar and Dr. Grant, who requested
be considered as fighting the sultan. Mar Shimun expressed his loyalty protection from the pasha during his intended visit to Tiyari in the autumn
to the Porte and declared that he had no intention of fighting against the of 1839. Beirakdar addressed the American missionary by saying,
sultan. Accordingly, he withdrew his forees, who the next day retumed
to their homeland. Thus the Turkish forces easily occupied Amadia, 'To the borders oftheir eountry' said the vigorous Pasha of Mosul
which has ever since remained under Turkish rule, and its Kurdish ruler 'I will be responsible for your safety; you may put gold upon
your head, and you will have nothing to fear; but i wam you that
became a fugitive wandering among various Kurdish centres, hope-
1 can proteet you no farther. Those mountain infidels [Christians]
lessly struggling to regain his lost authority. The territory of the emirate aeknowledge neither Pashas nor Kings, but from time immemo-
became an integral part of the Ottoman Turks' Asiatic dominions ruled rial every man has been his own king' .30
by officials appointed from Constantinople. After finally settling its
account with Mohammed Ali Pasha of Egypt in 1840, the Sublime Porte
rewarded Beirakdar by placing the whole territory ofBahdinan under his 3. THE TURKISH DESIGN FOR SUBDUlNG
direct rule. 27 This added further strength to what the Turks had aıready THE INDEPENDENT ASSYRIAN TRIBES
possessed in the region after the occupation of Rawanduz and Amadia Having established their authority over the territories of Amadia, as well
and also further enhanced Beirakdar's power. Now the most powerful as many Arab tribes, and subduing the Yazidis, the Ottomans had com e
remaining centres for subjection were the independent Assyrian tribes of close to their final target of restoring their controlover most of Mesopo-
Tiyari and Hakkari and the Kurdish emirate of Botan under the leader- tamia and ancient Assyria. The Turks and Kurds promptly turned their
ship of Bedr Khan Beg. attention to the remaining independent Assyrians, and the Ra 'aya suf-
After several successful campaigns against the Yazidis and Arab fered further losses as the scene of warfare cam e closer to Tiyari. Dr.
tribes in the region, Beirakdar's next move was to concentrate his efforts Grant gaye an eyewitness aceount of the effect of these campaigns on
on dealing directly with the remaining two independent centres. Among the native Christian people:
other measures, he placed a Turkish garrison in Amadia and stationed
Turkish forces along the border between Tiyari and Berwar, bringing the Beth Garrnae (the region of Arbil-Kirkuk) appears to have onee
Turkish military presence to the doorsteps of the Assyrian independent eontained a large population ofNestorian Christians, as it is men-
tribes for the first time in Ottoman history.2s tioned by Amrus and Elias of Damascus. The Nestorians are now
As a further reward for his services, Beirakdar received the titular post redueed to a few seattered villages in the northem border of the
district, and this fertile plain is stili desolated by the savage war.
of ruler of the territory of the em irate of Bohtan. This placed one of the
Within the last six years the Koords of Ravandoos and Amadia
most powerful Kurdish centres officially under his administration, and have suceessively swept over it, and the present year the finishing
he was not slow to use his new authority to subdue the Assyrian tribes, stroke in its desolation has been given by the Turkish army under
who now were also encircled from the west. He officially informed Bedr the Pashas of Mosu! and Baghdad. 31
The continual wars and attacks against the settlements of the followers in failure, Beirakdar then turned his focus north towards the country of
of the Syriac-speaking churches had grave, far-reaching consequences, the independent Assyrian tribes. The fall of Amadia opened wide the
putting their very survival in jeopardy. As Dr. Grant continued, way to Tiyari,35 and to facilitate his plan, Beirakdar appointed the Kurd-
ish leader Abdul Samad as mutasalim of the district of Berwar, who was
The i11-fated inhabitants sought shelters in the adjacent moun- famous for his enmity to the Assyrians and notorious for his oppression
tains during each successive storm; and when i passed a miser- there. Rassam, the British diplomat at Mosul, reported on many occasions
able remnant of them had j ust retumed to repair their di lapidated
dwellings, and prepare for approaching winter. In answer to our about the actions of Abdul Samad; for instance, he reported the killing of
inquiries for food, some of them said they had not bread to eat twenty shepherds from Tiyari and the capture of others, who were then
themselves and begged us to supply their necessities. 32 sent to Mosul. Beirakdar ordered them imprisoned in a castle near Ama-
dia until they paid to be set free. 36 After several further hostile acts, the
Similar accounts were given by many other contemporary westerners enmity between the Kurds of Berwar and the Assyrians ofTiyari became
who witnessed the event ofthese years, such as theAnglican missionary so intense that Layard in ı 846 found his Kurdish companion refusing
G. Badger (1842- ı 844). He wrote on the fate of another region pre- to escort him any further towards Tiyari than Berwar. 37 Despite his pre-
dominantly inhabited by Assyrians: occupation with the affairs of Amadia, Beirakdar continued submitting
hostile reports to the Porte, portraying the Assyrians as the enemies of
There are many Christian villages stili remaining in the Supna, the sultan, a rebellious race who were acting against Ottoman interests.
the region of Amadia, but a great number have been destroyed
within the last few years. Half a century ago all these villages On the same lines, we are told by official sources that he asked Abdul
were inhabited by Nestorians. 33 Samad Beg to submit a detailed report about the building that Dr. Grant
was erecting in Asheetha, the capital of Tiyari. His instructions were to
Militarily, the independent Assyrian tribes formed the backbone of impress upon the concerned Turkish high officials that the building was
the Syriac-speaking Christians in the whole region. They acted as the more Iike a military barrack than the missionary station for which the
counter weight, both ethnically and religiously, to the Muslim majority. Assyrians were receiving financial aid from a 'European' .38 On receiv-
With the loss of their independence, the Christians in the surrounding ing the report, Beirakdar immediately sent it to the Porte.
regions would also lose the support for their own continued existence,34
and the last phase in the history of the relations between the Muslim The Political Role of the Missionaries
majorityand the Assyrian Christians in the region would take a different Meanwhile Dr. Grant, a member of the first American mission to Assyr-
course. The power of the tribes was crushed soo n after the subjection of ians, became the first westerner to enter the tribes' country in the autumn
Amadia, and they could no longer keep up their role of maintaining the of ı 839. He came to play an active role in the internal affairs of many
ethnic and religious balance. Asiatic regions, particularly the Ottoman Empire. He maintained strong
relations with leading and influential individuals both there and in Persia,
especially those who were c10sely connected with the Assyrian tribes,
4. THE TRIBES AFTER THE OTTOMAN
such as the Kurds and the Afshars. He was present at the controversial
OCCUPATION OF AMADıA
visit of Noor Allah to Persia and his meeting with twelve of the Kurd-
Having succeeded in eliminating the rule of Ismael Pasha, the Kurdish i ish leaders there in the presence of the Persian governor of Azerbaijan.
leader of Bahdinan, whose repeated attempts to regain his power ended i Noor Allah greeted Grant with respect as an old friend and reaffirmed to
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180 ASSYRIANS, KUROS, AND OTTOMANS Beirakdar and the Achievement of Centralisation 181
him his sincere friendship and his readiness to protect him, giying him western friends, the patriarch refused. This took place while Dr. Grant
permission to build his mission building in Tiyari. 39 was busy building his controversial 'eastle' at a commanding strate-
Grant became part of the modem histoıy of the Assyrian tribes, both gic location overlooking the vali ey of Asheetha, which was the largest
because his name was associated with the motives behind the Kurds' gen- viiiage of Tiyari, was considered the backbone of the Assyrian tribes'
eral massacres of 1843 and for his political role among both Assyrians strength, and served as a capital for the region. The pasha of Mosul,
and Kurds during his labours in the region from 1835 to 1844. Among on his part, had a stake in all that was going on, and among other mea-
the prime Kurdish and Turkish accusations against the tribes were that an sures, he was doing his best to stir up strife between the Assyrians and
'Englishman' was building a castle in their countıy, which represented a the Kurds by urging the patriarch not to yield to Noor Allah 's demands.
threat to the sultan and the Muslims in general. Before Noor Allah Beg At the same time, however, Beirakdar was reporting all developments
assumed the office of emir of Hakkari, there is no evidence to show the to the Porte, tıying to portray the Assyrian tribes as rebellious trouble-
existence of enmity between the Assyrian tribes ofTiyari and their Hak- makers who would not recognise the sultan 's authority. He reported that
kari Kurd partners in the emirate. On the contraıy, relations were based 'an Englishman' was building a large castle in their countıy using huge
on mutual understanding of the need to maintain the independence of stones, with openings along the walls like those used by musketeers and
the emirate and to respect it in running its affairs. These friendly rela- capable ofhousing five thousand fighters. To all these accusations, Grant
tion s, which lasted for centuries, were to start cracking with the advent replied that he had secured permission to build his station in Asheetha
of effective Ottoman authority in the surrounding regions and the cau- from Noor Allah Beg, who had also provided him with protection. 41
tious penetration of various western missionaries soon after 1831. Ross, As the atmosphere between the Kurds and the Assyrian tribes became
a former British vice-consul who continued to live in Mosul during the increasingly ten se after the Amadia affair, and the enmity of Mar Shimun
period under study as a partner merchant to Rassam, wrote that relations came to be openly discussed in the meetings among the concerned parties,
between the two peoples changed dramatically after Dr. Grant visited especially the Kurds, Grant acted as the most prominent representative
Noor Allah Beg in the fall of 1839. The enmity between Noor Allah and of the missionaries. He attended and actively participated in the general
the patriarch increased further when the issue of the independence of the meeting chaired by Bedr Khan to discuss the plan to attack the tribes,
emirate arose. 'An English individual' (actually the American mission- which took place at Bedr Khan's headquarters in Dair Quli ~ (..»l) on
aıy, Dr. Grant) compounded this, especially after avisit and private nego- the eve of the massacres. Noor Allah Beg took advantage of the situation
tiation with the patriarch. What further inflamed relations between the and applied to Bedr Khan Beg for militaıy assistance to subdue the Assyr-
Assyrian tribes and the Kurds was the competition and rivalıy between ian tribes. Meanwhile the pasha of Mosul repeatedly dec1ared his readi-
Noor Allah and his cousin Sulaiman Beg, who was c1aiming the leader- ness to join forces with the Kurds for the same purpose.42
ship of the emirate of Hakkari. Sulaiman Beg was openly supported by
Mar Shimun, who undertook to install him as emir ifhe would recognise
5. HOSTILITlES WITH THE HAKKARI KURDS
the independence of his people-a condition to which Sulaiman Beg
gladlyagreed. 40 In their efforts to subdue the Assyrian tribes, Noor Allah and his Hakkari
Noor Allah did not bend to his opponents, but instead sent a mes- Kurds employed eveıy means at their disposal, inc1uding breaking their
senger to Mar Sh im un, ordering him to pay the notorious dhimmi tax alliance with the sultan and giYing their allegiance to the shah ofPersia.43
of jizya. According to Ross, on the advice of the tribal leaders and his Noor Allah, however, then became alarmed by internal developments
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J
among his own Hakkari Kurds, especially his rivalry with his cousin ofMohammed Pasha Mir Koor, Ismael Pasha, and others in earlier years
Sulaiman Beg. As the Turks advanced their program to establish their had convinced him that he must strike first and avoid the fate of those
authority, Noor Allah found himself threatened, which obliged him to other Kurdish leaders.
take a sharp turn towards submission to the sultan and cooperation in
executing the plan of centralisation. Accordingly, when the heat of the The Political Conditions
Turkish operations reached Hakkari, he broke the historic coexistence As has been mentioned, relations between the emir of Hakkari and Mar
that bound the Kurds with the Assyrians when he surrendered the inde- Shimun had rested on the emir's acceptance of the patriarch 's de facto
pendence of the emirate without consulting with the Assyrians as his power. Like previous Kurdish rulers, Noor Allah was forced to accept
legitimate partner. Even Sulaiman Beg, who claimed to be a descendant the power of the Assyrians and to live with them, since he could not
of the caliph Omar, headed the opposition party of Hakkari Kurds, and change the status quo with his own resources. This situation changed
was supported by Mar Shimun, regarded Noor Allah's action as dishon- only when the Ottomans began to erode the independence of the ethnic
ourable. This development had grave consequences for the Assyrian and religious centres. The earliest sign ofNoor Allah's changed outlook
independent tribes, since their support of Sulaiman Beg only increased appeared when he felt the determination of the Turks to impose their
Noor Allah 's hostility towards them and accelerated his anti-Assyrian central authority. This factor, combined with his strained relations with
campaign. Meanwhile the Turkish pashas in the region were stirring up the Assyrians and their patriarch, led him to do everything in his power
trouble and even openly supporting Noor Allah. to subdue the Assyrians.
In the midst of these developments, certain maliks who were jeal- Meanwhile Beirakdar's policy was to exploit the differences and
ous of the patriarch's power turned against him and began to side with enmities between the various ethnic and religious groups and make
Noor Allah to counterbalance those Kurds who supported Sulaiman them serve the general Turkish plan to establish the sultan's rule. Badger
Beg against his rivat. Encouraged by the strife among the Assyrians, on wrote that
the one hand, and strengthened by active cooperation with the Turkish
authority, on the other, Noor Allah took an openly hostile stand against the Pasha [of Mosul] itched to have a finger in the affairs of
Mar Sh im un and his people. In this he was supported by the most pow- Coordistan, and intrigued to widen the breach between the two
erful Kurdish leaders, in particular the Bohtan, Khan Mahmud, Abd ul contending parties, in hope that he himself would eventually suc-
ceed to the government of the mountains. i have in my possession
Samad of the Berwar Kurds, and Ismael Pasha, the former leader of the
the copies of twenty letters which he sent to Mar Shimun about
Bahdinan Kurds. this time of which show the exquisite cunning of his deep-Iaid
This move was highly gratifying to the local Turkish authorities in schemes. 45
the pashlics of Mosul, Erzeroom, and Diarbekir. Noor Allah made it
to secure his own interests and privileges, hoping 'for an appointment Although Beirakdar's contacts with Mar Shimun and others were
under the Pasha of Erzeroom and to be officially recognised by the Sub- aimed at furthering the Ottoman plan of centralisation, they also had
lime Porte'.44 By doing so, he sought to destroy a powerful ethnic and side effects in more than one direction. The first reaction to his plot came
religious group that represented an obstacle to Kurdish domination of when Ismael Pasha of Amadia applied to Mar Shimun to support him
the region, as well as to serve the Ottomans' intention to end the auton- in regaining his lost offices. As Ainsworth reported in i 840, Beirakdar
omy of all non-Turkish centres in the Asiatic provinces. The experiences had occupied Amadia and stationed a garrison of three hundred soldiers
there. 46 Ismael Pasha managed to rally his supporters, who helped him warlike autonomous centres. Rassam, the British vice-consul at Mosul,
retake the castle, but his defiance only made Beirakdar more determined who was himself an ethnic Assyrian, further complicated the issue. Many
to expel him from office. Beirakdar's intentions were well known to the Assyrians were misled by this and could not transcend their inherited
Kurdish-Assyrian united front, which resolved to reinstall Ismael and tradition, which viewed all Christians as brothers; but, of course, most
not allow the Turks to establish their direct rule in Amadia. So Mar Sh i- westemers no longer shared that attitude. The Assyrians misjudged their
mun responded according to the tribal customs and traditions that had relations with the vice-consul and could not understand that he was rep-
prevailed among the Kurds and Assyrians alike: he led out three thou- resenting the superpower of the time, which had a stake in the outcome
sand Assyrian fighters and stationed them at Dawoodia, a strategic point of the Ottoman campaign of centralisation. Thus Mar Shimun was caught
between Dohuk and Amadia, to prevent the Turkish troops from advanc- up in events that apparently he could not understand. 49 Foreign residents
ing northeast to occupy Amadia and evict Ismael. who rushed to the region were c\osely observing developments and stated
Beirakdar's action was fraught with far-reaching consequences. He that Rassam had prompted Mar Shimun's decision to abandon Ismael
realised that he could not ch alien ge the power of the fighters of Tiyari Pasha. He withdrew from the battle, giying some weak excuses, first to
and Hakkari, who in ı 834 had inflicted a humiliating defeat upon Mir Dawoodiya and finally to Aradan, an Assyrian town which was a gate-
Koor of Rawanduz. Instead, Beirakdar resorted to political intrigue. He way to Tiyari.
sent a message to Mar Shimun informing him If the Assyrian fighters had kept their position in Dawoodiya,
Ismael Pasha might have kept his authority-and he understandably
that it was the intention of the Pasha of Mosul to take Amadia, felt betrayed, since the Assyrians' sudden retreat enabled Beirakdar to
and consequently, if the Nestorians followed up their design of
occupy Amadia permanently. Their withdrawal ended the good relations
re-installing Ismael Pas ha in the govemment of the Province, they
would be fighting against the Osmalis. 47 that they had enjoyed with the Kurdish chieftains, and from then on, the
Kurds reversed their policy of opposing the Ottomans to fight the Assyr-
Mar Shimun's position then became critical, since he was forced to ian tribes; after ı 842 the two peoples were swom enemies. 50
choose between the sultan's authority and his Kurdish neighbours. In his Inevitably, the winner was Beirakdar and his govemment; the los-
predicament, he decided to take the sultan's side and replied to the pasha ers were Mar Shimun and his independent people, and the Kurds,
of Mosul, assuring him that 'they never wished to oppose the Sultan's since both were targeted by the Turkish authority. Naturally enough,
authority and that as affairs had taken such a tum, he would contrive a the Kurds viewed the withdrawal of the Assyrian forces from the con-
scheme to withdraw from the contest' .48 test as a betrayal, which gaye their ambitious leaders the ammunition
These dramatic developments had far-reaching implications for the they needed to use against the Assyrian tribes. This merely sped up the
tribes' relations with both the Ottoman govemment and the Kurds, and pace of reshaping the ethnic map of emerging alliances, as the Kurds in
called for swift resolve and action. The situation demanded profound both Turkeyand Persia became eager to form a united front against the
knowledge of the realpolitik of the time, which the primitive Assyrian Assyrians.
leadership simply did not possess. Mar Shimun and his tribal council Ismael Pasha did not blame his fellow Kurds for the loss of Ama-
of advisers could not comprehend the larger picture of the region and dia; on the contrary, he put the blame squarely on the Assyrians, appar-
the pattem and scale of events, especially how the foreign powers were ently thinking that it was their responsibility to defend the emirate,
involved in helping the Ottomans to reestablish their authority over these not the Kurds'. Thus the issue of Amadia was added to his aıready
strained relations with the Hakkari Kurds under Noor Allah. This new Noor Allah's Weakness Exposed
development paved the way for all Kurdish elements in Turkeyand Per- Unlike his predecessors, Noor Allah showed consistent enmity towards the
sia to sink their differences and unite against the Assyrian tribes ofTiyari tribes. His attack on the patriarch's residence was one ofa chain ofmany
and Hakkari. hostile acts. But his own forces were insufficient to subdue the tribes, and
Noor Allah Beg of Hakkari also increased his hostility to Mar Shimun the deep division between his Hakkari Kurds and his cousin Sulaiman
and took advantage of the isolated location of his residence to attack Beg further weakened his position. Accordingly he sought other ways to
the viiiage of Kochanis and to bum the patriarch's house. 51 After that, it strengthen his position against Mar Shimun and his people, notably by
was decided to move the patriarch's seat to Diz, where the tribe could begging the sultan to appoint him as his official in return for surrendering
offer him better protection. 52 Laurie reported that his family was Iiving the independence of Hakkari. This move showed that he understood the
in poverty, as Dr. Grant also testified. 53 Badger wrote that if help were Ottomans' determination to crush the independence of all non-Turkish
not immediately given to the Assyrian tribes, 'the outIaw Kurds' would centres, but apparently at the time, his offer did not fit with the Ottoman
soon subdue them. After Mar Shimun 's house was burnt, the Anglican agenda. Hence in 1842 he turned for help to the Persians, proposing a
bishop Horatio Southgate mistakenly reported to Canning at Constan- united front against the Ottomans. The leaders of the new front met in
tinople that a Kurdish leader had subdued the Nestorian tribes and that Charreh near Sa/amas in the Persian territories, in the presence oftwelve
Mar Shimun had been detained. He added that the Catholie missionaries other Kurdish leaders; Dr. Grant was also among the participants. In this
were anxious to bring the Nestorians under their control and urged the gathering, Noor Allah swore allegiance to the shah. 59 Noor Allah con-
British government to oppose their attempts, because with Ottoman sup- cIuded that Bedr Khan, his brother-in-Iaw, was the onlyone who could
port, the Catholies would achieve that goal. 54 help him carry out his wishes.
The hostİIe attitude of Noor Allah Beg towards the Assyrian tribes
was all Mar Shimun could bear, and accordingly he appealed to the Mar Shimun and the Westerners
pasha of Mosul for protection. 55 However, the Hakkari Kurdish leader ApparentIy Mar Shimun's attitude towards the Hakkari Kurds was once
only escalated his attacks and oppression against the tribes and their again influenced by the recommendations of western advisors. As a
patriarch, among other acts, killing shepherds, taking away f10cks response to Noor Allah's hostile act, he ordered the demolition ofthe stra-
of sheep, and seizing a merchant caravan of the Jello tribe. 56 Badger tegie bridge ofLezan on the Zab River, whichjoined Tiyari with Hakkari.
reported that Noor Allah Beg was continuing his attacks against the Many regarded this action as a virtual deelaration of war on Noor Allah
tribes and by 1842 had inflieted so much damage on them that they were Beg.60 Mar Shimun onlyelimbed further into the trap when he chose to side
almost broken and subjugated. 57 The hostility against the independent with the Ottoman authorities in their scheme to eliminate the autonomous
tribes was not limited to Hakkari Kurds but seemed to pervade both the centres. To show his loyalty, he led his fighters into the district of Berwar,
Ottoman and the Persian Kurds throughout the region. On the border, to the south of Tiyari, and attacked Zaynal Beg, the Kurdish leader who
Kurds were raiding Assyrian vilIages, which could not defend them- shortly afterwards became commander-in-chief ofBedr Khan's army. Brit-
selves, and their herds and f10cks were being carried away, leaving only ish official records show that on 9 April1843, Mar Sh im un sent a message
a grim future for the people. The Assyrians of Tekhoma and Jello were to Beirakdar and Rassam, seemingIy as a gesture of goodwill and loyalty
also attacked. 58 to the sultan, informing them that Bedr Khan Beg was actively preparing
to attack his countıy and his people. Meanwhile, to show his allegiance to 6. THE KURDlSH MOTIVE FOR
the sultan, the patriarch affirmed that he and his people were not trouble- ELIMINATING ASSYRIAN INDEPENDENCE
makers as they had been portrayed by their enemies and assured the pasha
In the eyes of the Kurds, the presence of the homeland of the Assyrian
that he was keen to keep him informed of developments.
tribes in the midst oftheir own intensiye settlements represented a serious
On 9 May 1843, shortly before the massacre began, Mar Shimun sent a
challenge to their dominance of the region. Even those Kurds who were
further message to Beirakdar and Rassam, warning them of Bedr Khan 's
settled in northern Iraq after Chaldiran had failed to change the existing
activities and his militaıy preparations, in concert with Noor Allah Beg,
demographic distribution and the strategic location of the tribes of Tiyari
to attack his people. Beirakdar found in Mar Shimun's message a golden
and Hakkari, which blocked the Kurds on the border from expanding fur-
opportunity to deepen the enmity and to arouse the hostility. He sent the
ther and prevented their settlements from forming a cohesive, homoge-
patriarch 's message on to Bedr Khan Beg, which of course only strength-
nous ethnic bloek. The countıy ofTiyari and Hakkari formed an obstacle
ened his determination to attack the Assyrians. 61
preventing the Kurds in Persian Azerbaijan from communicating with
The Ottomans' success in occupying Amadia in 1842 brought them
their countıymen in the regions west of Tiyari and similarly blocked the
directly to their next target and enabled them to station their army along
Kurds of Bahdinan to the south from communicating with those in Van
the northern border of Berwar on the southern frontier of the countıy
and Erzeroom to the north. The Kurds' aspirations remained unfulfilled
of Tiyari, where Beirakdar's jurisdiction ended. At the same time, Bei-
over many centuries during which they could not challenge the power of
rakdar both openly and secretly sowed conflict and hostility between
the tribes. But the conditions changed dramatically once the Ottomans
the Assyrians and the Kurds, in particular those of Berwar and Bohtan,
initiated their policy of centralisation.
while he continued his agitation among the Hakkari Kurds.
Those conditions resulted from the deeply entrenched hostility and
Thus the Turkish authorities' attempt to impose centralisation on
conflict between the different races and religions. Mutual suspicion and
their Asiatic territories created many contradictoıy factors to influence
hostility between the more powerful majorities added to the regional dis-
events throughout the region. The Kurds also had their own calculations
order, and the conflict was not limited to the regions surrounding the
and designs regarding their future relations with their Syriac-speaking
homeland of the Assyrian tribes. The Mamluks of Baghdad, for most
neighbours, whether they were followers of the Church of the East or
of their histoıy, were waging wars against the Arab tribes, the Yazidis,
Syrian Orthodox. This became c1ear during the early months of 1843
and the Kurds. The Kurds, for their part, were in continual war with the
after the formation of the Kurdish confederation, with its aim of estab-
Mamluks of Baghdad, especially the Baban.63 At the same time, they
Iishing an independent Kurdish entity and overthrowing Turkish rule.
were at war with other Kurdish elements as they pressed for expansion.
The fall of Amadia reversed the Kurds' attitude from opposing Turkish
In the midst of such disorder, the minorities were to suffer greatly. Rich
rule to fighting the Assyrian tribes. Ross explained the outcome of these
observed the anarchic conditions throughout the region during his jour-
developments when he wrote,
ney from Baghdad to Constantinople and his return to his resideney:
Bedr Khan Beg has called a meeting of all the Koordish Chiefs, The plains from the mountains of Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf
but whatever he may consider will be useless, for if necessaıy a and from Syria to Persia were !ike an ocean, and even in its calm-
corps of 40,000 regular troops can be brought to bear against him ness, a continual scene of depredation and violence. Kurds, Yazi-
besides irregulars. 62 dis and Arabs all contributed their quota. 64
7. BEDR KHAN BEG AND THE EMERGENCE Bedr Khan maintained his enmity to the other disaffected centre of the
OF THE KURDlSH FEDERATION OF 1842 Assyrian independent tribes, whom they viewed as disloyal to the sultan
AND i TS GOALS and were anxious to subdue to their rule.
The Turkish officials had assessed the emerging power of this ambi-
For reasons that the following developments reveal, the Ottomans left
tious Kurdish leader quite correctly, for he showed an extraordinary
the emerging power of Bedr Khan Beg to gain momentum. The Kurdish
ambition to expand and enlarge his domain, particularly at the expense
leader received a free hand to consolidate his power and grasp over the
of the Christians. The Turks used the power of Bedr Khan and his Kurd-
region of Jazirah, including the district of Tur Abdin, the historic home-
ish federation for their own benefit, all the while meaning to eliminate it
land of the Syriac-speaking followers of the Syrian Orthodox Church as
once it had served their tum against the Assyrians. Beirakdar's success
well as the Chaldean sect. Following their successive defeats at the hands
in implementing the sultan's plan for restoring his authority eamed him
of Mir Koor and the former al Sadr al Adham (~l..JI ~ YI .)ı-ll),
credit and was highly rewarded.
Mohammed Rashid Pasha, Bedr Khan, and his supporters were forced to
take refuge in the rugged and inaccessible mountains. After the elimina-
tion of the hostile Kurdish centre of Rawanduz in i 836 and the death of
Mohammed Rashid Pasha in 1839, Bedr Khan retumed from the moun-
tains to Jazirah. He emerged as the most powerful leader to inherit the
role of Mohammed Pasha of Rawanduz, filling the vacuum in the midst
of the Kurdish movement in the region of ancient Assyria. The final
chapter in the history of the emirates of Soran and Bahdinan enabled
him to take advantage of the circumstances that were to emerge during
and after Beirakdar's occupation of Amadia in 1842. In the autumn of
ı 842, the Kurdish leaders formed a united federation, which was mainly
directed against the independent Assyrian tribes rather than their origi-
nal Turkish oppressor.
Thus the Turkish presence and operations in the region surrounding
the homeland of the independent Assyrian tribes produced a new alliance
among the Kurdish centres. On the other hand, the Kurds' alliance with
their Assyrian Christian neighbours, which had originally been fonned
to defend the autonomous status of the Kurds as well as the Assyrians
and to fight Turkish attempts to crush their independence, had collapsed.
Accordingly, the Turkish officials no longer treated Bedr Khan as a
rebellious chief, as they had in 1840; instead, he received a free hand
to consolidate his position in the neighbouring regions inhabited by the
various Syriac-speaking sects. The Turks adopted this policy because
192 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND ÜTTOMANS Beirakdar and the Achievement of Centralisation 193
ENDNOTES 23. Ibid., 25-26, 45. Abbas al Azzawi stated that the dynasty that ruled this
emirate had c1aimed descent from the Abbasids since 740 AH (AD 1339).
Nonetheless, Iike other historians, he affirmed its obscure history and
stated that it had only come into existence during the invasion of Timur
1. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 228. Lang (1393-1401) under the leadership of Amir Saif ul Din. They offered
2. F.O. 19511 13 Baghdad July 24,1833, Taylor to British Minister in Constan- valuable services to the Ottomans during the reign of Selim 1(1512-1520),
tinople. who awarded them emirate of Arbil. See Al Iraq Ben Ihtilalen, appendix to
3. F.O. 19/228 Mosul August 13, 1843, Rassam to Canning. vol. 1,2:64-65.
4. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:75-76. 24. F.O. 78/2699 Tabreez, September 5, 1846, Abbott to Palmerston.
5. Southgate, Narrative ola Visit, 169. 25. Anderson, 1:209-215.
6. Fletcher, Notes From Nineveh, 1:286-287. 26. The territories of the emirate ofBahdinan in the nineteenth century included
7. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:x-xii. the land of the ancient Assyrian principality of Adiabene. See Grant, The
8. Ibid., i :xi-xii. Nestorians, 126-127.
9. During the period under study, the Christian population of Mosul was esti- 27. F.O. 195/228 Mosul July 16, 1843, Rassam to Canning; Badger, The Nesto-
mated at 25-30 percent of the totaL. Badger, who resided in the city during rians, 1:xi-xii, 184.
the period, gaye the following figures: Muslims, 2,050 houses; Christians, 28. F.O. 195/204. Mosul November 21, 1842, precis of intelligence received
1,100; Jews, 100. The Nestorians, 1:82. from Mosul. No 1, Col. Taylor, 24 February 1843; Badger, The Nestorians,
10. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:74; Fletcher, Notes From Nineveh, 1:248-249. 1:182-183; al Saigh, Tarikh al Mosul, 1:32.
ll. Ainsworth, Travels, 2:126, 298; Fletcher, Notes From Nineveh, 1: 187-1 89; 29. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:183-186; Nawwar, Tarikh al Iraq, 1:266.
Badger, The Nestorians, 1:74-75. 30. Grant, The Nestorians, 46. Rich, the British resident at Baghdad, observed
12. Badger, The Nestorians, l:xii-xiii; Longrigg, Four Centuries, 282-283. the power of the Assyrian tribes during his residence at Mosul. He wrote on
13. Layard, Nineveh and lts Remains, 1,277-278; idern., Popular Account, the Kurdish attitude towards their power: 'The Pasha has a country-house [at
171-178,196-198,201-203. See also Badger, The Nestorians, 1:75; Laurie, Solav, 5 km southwest of Amadia]. .. a strong guard is obliged to be kept, for
Dr. Grant, 205; Rich, Narrative,I :124,129. fear of İncursion from the Tiyari, an independent Christian tribe of the Chal-
14. Layard, Popular Account, 171-203. Badger reported that Beirakdar had dean nation, who are dreaded by all the Mahometans'. Narrative, 1:154.
lent the Turkish govemment f 150,000. The Nestorians, 1:75. 31. Grant, The Nestorians, 35; Laurie, Dr. Grant, 292; Fa'eq, Tarikh Baghdad,
15. F.O. 195/175, Erzeroom February 10, 1842, Brant to Canning; F.O. 195/228, 14, 167-170.
Mosul, August 13, 1843, Rassam to Canning; F.O. 195/204, Mosul, Novem- 32. Grant, The Nestorians, 35; Laurie, Dr. Grant, 292.
ber 21, 1842, Rassam to Col. Taylor in Baghdad; Layard Popular Account, 33. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:200.
113. J. Fletcher, who was residing at Mosul on the death of Beirakdar, stated 34. Cooke, Baghdad Madinat a/ Sa/am, 1:246-247.
that the inhabitants celebrated the event. Notes From Nineveh, 1:339. 35. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:75.
16. Ali Ridha, the Turkish pasha of Baghdad, gaye him the tit1e of pasha in 36. F.O. 78/2698 Erzeroom, August 16, 1841, Rassam to Canning.
1831 as a reward for his participation along with the Arab Jarba tribe and 37. Layard, Popular Account, 120.
the Turkish army in subjecting the Yazidis of Sinjar. 38. In his report on Dr. Grant's building, Abdul ul Sm ed stated that 'an Eng-
17. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 262; Grant, The Nestorians, 46. Iishman' was erecting a building that was more Iike a Qal'a (Wi) than a
18. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:372. missionary building. lt measured 300 x 300 feet and contained 250 room s
19. Qurani, MinAmman, 123. able to house 5,000 fighters. Badger, The Nestorians, 1: 187.
20. F.O. 1951175, Erzeroom, June 14, 1840, James Brant to Viscount Ponsonby. 39. Anderson, History,I :207-208.
21. Grant, The Nestorians, 37. 40. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 203, 255; American Sunday-School Union, The Nestori-
22. AI Abbasi, Emarat Bahdinan, 16-17. ans, 206.
4 ı. Grant, The Nestorians, 228, 3 ı 4.

42. F.O. 78/533 Samsoon, March 5, ı 843, Steven s to Consul H. Suler; extract
from a private letter received from Dr. Grant.
43. Anderson, History,I :207-208.
44. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:xi-xii.
45. Ibid., 1:279.
46. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 298; Badger, The Nestorians, 1: 199, 211.
48. Ibid.
49. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 255. CHAPTER 10
50. Badger, The Nestorians, ı :265.
51. Ibid., 1:264; American Sunday-School Union, The Nestorians, 206; Laurie,
Dr. Grant, 263.
52. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 237. THE SUBJECTION
53. Ibid., 277.
54. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, January 27, 1842, Southgate to Canning. OF THE ASSYRIAN TRIBES
55. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:248, 264.
56. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 242.
57. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:xii.
IN 1843
58. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 146,230-231.
60. Ross, Letters From the East, 61-66.
6 ı. F.O. 195/204, Mosul, May 12, 1843, Rassam to Taylor the Political Resi-
dent at Baghdad.
62. Ross, Letters From the East, 46. ı. THE SUBJECTION OF THE INDEPENDENT TRIBES
63. Fa'eq, Tarikh Baghdad, 46-47; Qurani, Min Amman, 162-163. OF TIYARI AND HAKKARI
64. Constance, Baghdad in Bygone Days, 226, and on the general unsecured
conditions in the country, see 72, 137. In 1838 Beirakdar started moving steadily towards implementing the
sultan's plan to subdue the remaining disaffected elements İn the region.
He showed his intentions when he successfully quelled the rebellion of
Mardin in 1839, which the pasha of Diarbekir had failed to do. He then
quashed another rebellion in Si 'arat in 1841. But his greatest triumph
was yet to come. In that year, the Sublime Porte officially annexed the
whole ofthe emirate of Bahdinan to the pashalic ofMosul, whereas until
then it had had nominally belonged to the pashalic of Baghdad. As has
been mentioned, this change in the administrative map of the region
brought Beirakdar's jurisdiction directly to the southem border of the
independent tribe ofTiyari.
196 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Subjection of the Assyrian Tribes in 1843 197
The next year, another}irman from the Porte also assigned the territories this time, which was an early test for the quality of their internal front.
of the emirate of Bohtan (in the district of Jazirah) to the pashalic of Nevertheless they maintained their traditional pride and confidence in
Mosul. Now Beirakdar's jurisdiction extended to the westem as well as their ability to defend themselves and were quite sure of the ir ability to
the southem frontier of Tiyari. The importance of this second annexa- counter any real threat po sed by Bedr Khan and his Kurdish alliance.
tion could be see n in the existing conditions ofthis emirate. It had been This strong conviction was noted by westemers living in their midst.
among the first territories that the Ottomans had sought to subdue, it rested on their past experience s, in which they had always inflicted
and they had scored some success during the campaigns of af-Sadr-af crushing and humiliating defeats on the ir enemies, as they had done
Adham Mohammed Rashid Pasha in the upper and northem regions of most recently to the invading forces of Mir Koor in the summer of 1834.
Mesopotamia in 1834-1 838. Clearly the Porte's order meant that the The people were convinced that no enemy could penetrate their inacces-
vast majority of the Syriac-speaking people in the region, whether Syr- sible mountains.
ian Orthodox, Catholics, or followers of the Church of the East, came However, this inherited confidence and feeling of strength among the
directly under the rule of the pasha of Mosul. The only exception was Assyrian tribes failed when it was put to test during Bedr Khan 's cam-
the independent tribes ofTiyari and Hakkari, whom the ambitious pasha paign in i 843. The tribes failed to respond to the patriarch's call to resort
accordingly chose as his next target. to arms to defend their homeland; when the Kurds began the ir assault,
The earliest sign of the Turkish-Kurdish offensive against the tribes they met with no effective resistance. Consequently, the Kurdish attack
appeared in the cooperation between Beirakdar and his Mutasa/im of gathered momentum and gaye the Assyrian tribes no time even to assess
Berwar, Abdul Samad Beg. In a report regarding the district of Berwar, what was going on or to gauge the size of the threat and the danger
Brant, the British consul at Erzeroom, bore witness to the extent of the they were about to face. This situation obliged the patriarch to f1ee his
cruelty and oppression practised against the Assyrians of the district or country. In explaining the reasons for their defeat, they stated that they
those of Tiyari who were obliged to cross to other provinces. Among had not been defeated by man 's power but by the Divine Power, which
other things, he mentioned that had sought to punish them and made them unable to rally to the cause to
defend their homeland during the enemy attacks. 2
[t]he govemor appointed to Berwar is Kurdish and is depriving On i 5 July i 843, Dr. Grant reached Mosul from the country of the
the Tiyari tribe from pasturing in that district. He executed 20 Tiyari, the largest and strongest of the independent Assyrian tribes. He
of them and demanded payments from the others. The Pasha of
announced that the Kurdish federation under Bedr Khan had started
Mosul demanded their presence in his office and sent them to be
detained in the Castle of Amadia until they paid for their Iibera- its invasion and massacres against the Nestorian tribes and intended to
tion. This state of the affairs led the Tiyari tribes to take revenge devastate their homeland. The next day, Rassam hastily reported to Sir
on the Berwar Kurds. i Stratford Canning, the British ambassador to the Porte, bypassing his
immediate supervisor, the British resident at Baghdad, on the grounds of
2. BEOR KHAN BEG BEGINS THE MASSACRE the importance and urgency of the subject. According to the vice-consul,
In June 1843, Bedr Khan Beg began attacking Assyrian isolated villages
Dr. Grant arrived here yesterday from Tiyari, bringing with him
located on the road that led to the crossing of the Zab River, taking away intelligence that the united forces of Bedr Khan Beg and the
their f10cks and their household possessions. He succeeded in these raids Emeer of Hakkari had plundered the Nestorian Christians in the
because of the po or relations existing between the Assyrian tribes at province of Diz, killing a great number of individuals, including
198 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Subjectian of the Assyrian Tribes in 1843 199
two (some say five) brothers of Mar Shimon the Patriarch and not distinguished between the victims; all males had been slaughtered,
took captive one of his sisters. 3 while the women and young girls had been taken as captives to be saId
as slaves. 6
He added that the Tiyari were daily expecting an attack on their own
In his second report on 20 July, Rassam stated that the news arriv-
province, which, unless prevented, must inevitably lead to their com-
ing from the mountains confirmed his earlier report and that Tiyari was
plete overthrow and subjection.
expecting an attack similar to the one directed against Diz. 7
Rassam also mentioned the role of Beirakdar, stating that provisions
On 3 August, Rassam reported to Cal. Taylor, the British political
were continually being sent from Mosul
resident at Baghdad, that the Kurdish forces had succeeded in subduing
to the Pasha's soldiers in the Berwari. .. [and] messengers are the tribes. They had taken control of aıı remaining villages ofTiyari and
continually going and coming between Bedr Khan Beg and the 'stili the slaughter is not yet ended, and several who have attempted to
Kurdish Emeer ofSalamast included within the Persian Frontier ... ftee have been murdered in the Barwari province within the jurisdic-
i have received correct information to the etfect that the soldiers tion of Mohamed Pasha of Mosul'. 8 After devastating the district of Diz,
have left Amadiah and are at present on the confines of the bo und-
the invaders had turned against the district of Tiyari, where they had
ary between this Pashalic and the Tiyari occupying apositian
which commands the latter country. succeeded in occupying the villages and indulged in the crueııest acts
against its people. Even those who had not opposed the Kurdish inva-
The report stated that Mahmood Khan had visited Bedr Khan Beg to sion had been treated in the same way as the fighters. It was reported,
secure his assistance against the Ottoman authority of Van. At the same too, that four or five members of Mar Shimun's own family had been
time, intelligence from Persian Azerbaijan confirmed the ongoing contact slain, among them two of his brothers and his sister. The fate of the
and correspondence between the emir of Salamas and Bedr Khan Beg. 4 patriarch's mother, aged eighty-seven, was a horrifying one: her attacker
Moreover, Rassam alsa reported that Beirakdar was vigorously strength- abused her, and her body was then chopped into four pieces, put on a
ening his army on the southem border of Tiyari. This act seemed to be raft, and ftoated down the Zab, where it was intercepted at the v ili age of
intended to black the victims and prevent them from escaping from the Chamba, the centre of the district of the Upper Tiyari, with a note read-
Kurdish forces, which were attacking them from all directions. Mar Shi- ing, 'Your son will have the same fate'. Again many women and young
mun, with a few followers, had succeeded in escaping from the scene children were taken captive to be sold as slaves in Jazirah and elsewhere,
of the massacres and reached Mosul, where he had taken refuge at the and Rassam alsa reported the destruction and laating of churches, mon-
British vice-consulate. 5 asteries, and ritual books.
From the early reports, it seems that the first target for destruction Foııowing the subjection ofTiyari and the enslaving oflarge numbers
was the tribes in the district of Diz, where the patriarch resided after of women, young girls, and boys, Bedr Khan Beg demanded from the
Noor Allah Beg had bumt his house in Kochanis in ı 84 ı. The attacking survivors the foııowing:
forces had easily crushed the unorganised resistance of a smail force
of fighters, who could not withstand the thrust of the Kurdish army ı. Each house must pay ten golden Iiras of twenty-one or twenty-
and their modem weapons. Every structure on the surface of the earth three carats.
had been destroyed: churches, villages, farms, and irrigation channels. 2. Each male capable of carrying arifte should submit one (the usual
According to Rassam 's intelligence, Bedr Khan Beg and his troops had age for bearing arms was fifteen years).
3. Besides the captives sent to Jazirah, a demand was made for a Meanwhile Rassam wrote to Col. Taylor, informing him on several
further one hundred girls and one hundred boys. issues, among which were the plundering, the enslavement of captives,
and the attitude of the pasha of Mosul towards British efforts to liher-
When he had succeeded in subduing the Assyrian tribes, Bedr Khan left ate the captives. At Rassam 's suggestion, Taylor had asked the pasha
with the captives and the booty, leaving an occupation force at Asheetha of Baghdad to write to Beirakdar, requesting him to interfere with Bedr
und er the command of his lieutenant, Zenal Beg,9 along with four hun- Khan to free the Nestorian captives, including the immediate release of
dred fighters stationed at the controversial building that Dr. Grant had the patriarch's relatives. However, when the vice-consul had submitted
erected at Asheetha. Having crushed the society of the Assyrian tribes the pasha's letter to him, Beirakdar had refused to act, claiming,
and inflicted untold slaughter, Bedr Khan departed from the seene. Lo
The pasha of Baghdad has entire controlover Bedr Khan Beg.
He himself ought to have sent directly to that chief and moreover
3. THE KURDS' RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MASSACRE affirmed that Nejib Pasha was himself concerned in the attack
upon the Nestorians, and was aware of the proceedings of the Bey
The hostile intention of the Kurds towards the Assyrians was well known of Jazirah. LS
to British officials. On 27 January 1842, Canning wrote to the foreign
secretary, Lord Aberdeen, informing him that On 21 August 1843, Abbott, the British consul at Tabreez, reported
on the role of the Persian Kurds in the ongoing massacres. Among other
intelligence has been received from Mossoul that the independent things, he stated that the Kurds around Urmia were heading to the front
Nestorians of Kurdistan have been subdued by a Kurdish Bey of
to attack the Nestorian tribes and that the frontier military mission had
the vicinity acting in concert with the Turkish Pasha of Van and
doubtless with the approbation of the Turkish government. 1I informed him that Dr. Grant had arrived at Mosul announcing that a huge
army was assembling and preparing to attack the Nestorians. He also
Shortly after his report, he informed the Turkish minister about the mentioned that several Nestorian bishops had arrived recently at the place
attacks on the Assyrian Christian tribes and the damage inflicted on and informed him that the prime agitator for the attack from the Persian
them. ıı frontier was the 'Shaik'" of the Kurds of Bradost, a province west of
As early as January 1841, Canning had informed Aberdeen that a Urmia. The Kurdish tribes were marching in large numbers directly to
Kurdish leader living in the vicinity of Mosul had subdued the Chris- the Assyrian provinces of Kawar and Julamerk. 16 Canning assured Aber-
tian tribes. At that time, the report had turned out to be incorrect, but deen that the Turkish government had participated in the massacre. i7
this time it was true. On 17 August 1843, Canning wrote to Aberdeen The cruelty that the Kurdish forces practised during their occupation
again, informing him that the Kurdish chiefhad massacred the Nestorian against the Assyrian civilians and victims was the subject of a series of
tribes ofTiyari and Hakkari under orders from the Turkish authorities. 13 further reports from Mosul. Rassam reported to Canning that on 1 Sep-
He wrote, 'Bedr Khan Bey had destroyed and plundered Diz, the Kurds tember, he had received information that a group of Assyrian refugees
are in complete possession of the Tiarii district.. .And every species of who were fleeing their homes had been intercepted while crossing the
cruelty practised upon the unresisting inhabitants'. At the same time, district of Berwar. All were caught, and on the orders of Abdul Samad
Canning also reported that 'the Kurds are in complete possession of the Beg, they were slaughtered, and their possessions, chiefly their clothes,
Tiarii districts'. 14 were confiscated. LS
Although many concerned Ottoman officials in the region admitted On making inquiries of the Pasha as to the attack on the Nestorians,
Turkish complicity in the massacres of the Assyrians, many others were he informed me that it was not authorized by him, and that he
quick to deny any involvement, especially those in high positions at the had reproved Bedr Khan Bey for his conduct in attacking a dis-
trict belonging to his Pashalic without the Pasha's authority. The
capitaL. Canning was among many British diplomats in the Ottoman
Bey in excuse said that he did so at the instigation of Noor Allah
Empire to point to several pashas in Mosul, Erzeroom, and elsewhere Bey who represented to him that the Nestorians had committed a
whom he believed to have taken part in the slaughter, but the pashas great many depredations on his people; that they had desecrated
hastened to deny any involvement. several mosques, and were about converting one into a Christian
The strained and deteriorated situation in the country of the Assyrian Church, and begging him to lend his assistance to punish such
Christian tribes kept Rassam on constant watch informing his superiors bad people, adding that ifhe refused, he should not regard him as
a true Mussulman ... Relative to the people captured, Bedr Khan
about the situation. On 31 October, he reported that the latest new s from
Bey said that about two hundred were made prisoners, but that the
the mountain region had been brought by a fleeing fugitive from Tiyari, whole had been released except thirty, who were secreted; that
who had announced that the slaughter against the Christian Assyrians afterward, fifteen of them were found and restored to Iiberty, but
was continuing vigorously. Reports stated that Bedr Khan intended to the remainder were undiscovered. The Pasha sent a positive order
attack the province of Chal, on the ground that its Kurdish inhabitants that these also should be found, and sent to their homes. I may
had stirred up the Assyrians to revolt against Zenal Beg and his forces remark that all this information is from the principal aggressor,
Bedr Khan Bey, but the last order of the Pasha, he sent by a per-
stationed in the castle built by Dr. Grant. 19
son of his own who was to see it executed. 22
In alater dispatch, Abbott, the consul at Tabreez, also referred to the
tragic state of the Assyrian Christians and attached to his dispatch the Official Turkish participation with the Kurds in the massacres of the
report of two American missionaries whom Bedr Khan had invited to Assyrian tribes was attested throughout the region and also in westem
visit him at his stronghold at Dair Kulli. He mentioned that in 1843 this circies. it was reported that Bedr Khan had not initiated his massacres
Kurdish leader had invaded the country of the Christian tribes, bent on until he had got the green Iight from the Turkish authorities. According
destroying them through a campaign of terror, in which large numbers to well-informed British sources in Mosul,
had been killed and others taken captive to be sold as slaves. 20
The Anglican missionary J. Fletcher observed the conditions on the Bedr Khan sent to Mohammed Pasha, the Turkish Governor of the
eve of the general massacre and later its progress from his post at Pashalic of Mosul, and asked permission to punish the Christians.
This was at once granted, for their power and reputed wealth had
Mosul. He was well informed about the political conditions of his time long aroused the jealousy and the cupidity of the Turks. 23
and had ready access to both the British consulate and the sari of the
pasha of Mosul. They affirmed that Bedr Khan, with Noor Allah, the The pasha of Erzeroom stated that Bedr Khan put the number of the
leader of the Hakkari Kurds, and both the Turkish pashas of Mosul and Assyrian captives at two hundred, all of whom had been released except
Erzeroom, after they had finalised the last details oftheir plan to attack for thirty who were missing, and claimed that the search for their where-
the Assyrian tribes ofTiyari and Hakkari, had sought a pretext to begin abouts was underway. Afterwards fifteen ofthem were found, but the fate
their assault and had stirred up the fighting between the Assyrian and of the others remained unknown. The pasha had sent an order to the Kurd-
Kurdish villages as the required spark. 21 ish chief, urging him to find the rest and to return them to their homes.
Brant, the consul at Erzeroom, also made inquires about the massacres Brant noted to Canning that Bedr Khan, the aggressor, had himself pro-
and reported, vided the information he relayed. 24 Canning was clear in directing his
204 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND ÜTTOMANS The Subjection of the Assyrian Tribes in 1843 205
accusations: in a report to Aberdeen, he stated that the pashas of Erzeroom Mar Shimun and Beirakdar
and Mosul and the Porte were all implicated in the massacres. 2S When Mar Shimun reached Mosul on 27 July i 843 and sought British
Brant was closely monitoring the developments and wrote to the protection,29 Rassam accompanied him to meet with the pasha. In the
foreign secretary, forwarding the intelligence that he received, stating meeting, the patriarch was clear in his demands as well as his commit-
that messengers were continually going and coming between Beirakdar ments. He appealed to Beirakdar to use his authority to gain the release
and Bedr Khan. Indications pointed towards Beirakdar, who was try- of the captives, to restore his people to their homeland, and to provide
ing to deny the accusation and putting the blame on his fellow pasha of protection for them. In return, the patriarch and his people would sub-
Erzeroom. However, Brant believed that Bedr Khan could never have mit their allegiance and loyalty to the sultan and his government. Bei-
begun his invasion and massacres unless he had received the consent rakdar, however, had his own agenda: he made it clear to the patriarch
and approval of the sultan and his government. To support his opinion, that if he wanted him to interfere on his people's behalf, he should put
he informed Aberdeen that the pasha's share of the loot had recently himself under Beirakdar's authority. This demand was very sensitiye
arrived at Mosul and included 2,750 sheep and 50 bulls. According to for the relations of the Assyrian tribes with the Turkish officials in the
the list prepared by Steven s and Rassam, the total value of the Assyrian region, especially the pasha of Erzeroom, who had nominal jurisdiction
losses was estimated at more than eight million piastres. 26 over their country. Rassam correctly noted the serious consequences of
The immediate result of Bedr Khan's success in subjugating the agreeing to such a proposal, since the homeland of the Assyrian tribes
Nestorians would be to strengthen his position and enlarge his influence was nominally in the pashalic of Erzeroom. And if Beirakdar was right
and sway.27 Brant noted to Canning that the information that the pasha in identifying the pasha of Erzeroom as the one who had ordered Bedr
had provided had come from Bedr Khan himself and was probably incor- Khan to attack the Assyrian tribes, then under his rule, the situation of
rect, and went on to acquaint Canning with the Beg's character. Accord- Mar Shimun and his people would have become even more difficult and
ing to the pasha of Erzeroom, he was participating with other Kurdish complicated.
leaders İn a movement for independence, and when he had been under However, Beirakdar seemed to be aware of the issue of the massacres
the rule of the pasha of Mosul, he had resisted him and challenged his and the far-reaching consequences of the plan to crush the power of the
authority. Brant concluded, based on the evidence of Kamali Pasha, that Assyrian tribes. He told Rassam that the Nestorian issue was one that
Bedr Khan Beg would not have ventured to attack the Nestorians with- only the Sublime Porte could dea i with and that he personaııy could not
out orders from higher authority. Stili, Brant told Canning, 'I doubt that interfere.
Bedr Khan Bey is declaring his submission to the Turks. He will execute
no action which is not beneficial personally to him'. Brant believed that
4. THE ROLE OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARIES
Bedr Khan could not be subjugated except by a fierce military operation
IN THE MASSACRES
against his headquarters to subdue him completely to the rule of the
sultan. As for Noor Allah, Brant mentioned that he had visited Erzeroom The followers of the Church of the East had been among the first to
by invitation from Mohammed Rashid Pasha, where he had declared his experience the Roman Catholic missionary labours, and the Catholic
complete submission to the sultan and agreed to pay fixed annual taxes missionaries had succeeded in establishing themselves among the pe 0-
to the Porte. He had gone away loaded with gifts and courtesy but had ple almost a century earlier than the next wave of western Protestant
not kept his promise. 28 missionaries who rushed to labour among them after i 83 i. However,
as we have seen, after the arrival of the American missionaries in the 3. To allow them to return to their homeland
region in 1834, a dramatic change occurred in the relations of the tribes 4. The Patriarch is asking the Pasha of Erzeroom to appoint adeputy
with their Kurdish neighbours. Until then, the relations between the to rule their country instead of the Kurdish invaders.
two peoples had rested on mutual understanding of each party's rights,
and a line of demarcation had been practically set, which neither side The consul presented the message to the Pasha, who told him that:
attempted to cross. The Kurds coexisted with the Christians who shared
with them similar warlike habits; that was why the tribes had been able ı. it would be in the best interest of the Nestorians to declare their
to enjoy their freedom and their independence for so long. The moun- submission to the Sultan.
tain Assyrians were considered by western observers and diplomats as 2. The inaccessibility nature of their country, which was far away
a solid body that derived its strength from the internal unity between all from Erzeroom, as well as lack of information, prevented him
the tribes and their unconditional loyalty to the patriarch, whom they from appointing a deputy to govern them; taking into account
recognised as civil and religious head ofboth church and state, over and that such measure would displease the Kurds, who would disap-
above their loeal maliks and rais. prove of it.
These conditions were put to the test shortly after the arrival of the 3. Nevertheless, the Pasha expressed his willingness to meet with
western missionaries, in particular the Americans. According to Beirak- the Patriarch to obtain from him precise and detailed informa-
dar, Dr. Grant, ever since his first visit to the country in the fall of 1839, tion about his country and the necessary steps to be taken. Before
had stirred up and created much hostility between the different tribes, doing that, he could not give any definite answer. 30
on the one hand, and between the maliks and the patriarch, on the other.
That the Americans went well beyond the bo und s oftheir Christian mis- Brant added that he had informed Jackson of the situation, who in
sion was c1ear from the political activities that they were involved in tum had written to Dr. Grant. Furthermore, his own opinion was that
before the massacre. Dr. Grant, during his stay in the region 1835-1844, if the patriarch went to Erzeroom, it would be advisable for Dr. Grant
made contacts with the Assyrian and Kurdish leaders, as well as the to go with him, because assurances given in the presenee of a 'Euro-
Afshars and other ethnic and religious elements in the region, and his pean' would be more reliable than any that the patriarch could get
political views regarding the state of independence that the Christian alone. Brant added that he suspected the pasha was not authorised to
tribes enjoyed were well known to the concerned Kurdish leaders. These meet the patriarch's demands without referring them to the Porte. There-
activities had nothing to do with the religious message by which the fore it might be better for the patriarch to travel to meet the sultan in
Americans justified their presence and activities in the region. person, and he hoped that Canning would provide him with aletter of
Brant reported to Canning on Grant's political activities on 13 Novem- recommendation. 31
ber 1843, stating that Rev. C. Jackson had informed him of the contents
of a message that he had received from Grant, who was then residing at
5. THE MASSACRES CONTINUE
Mosul, acquainting him with the patriarch's position on the following
issues: Killing and destruction continued apace. Corpses lay everywhere. The
surviving men and women were forced to carry unbearable loads of
ı. His willingness to declare his submission to the Sultan booty for very long distances, while being lashed all along the way until
2. Theyare willing to pay taxes they fell from torture and exhaustion. Ross wrote, '[T]hey were tortured
208 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The Subjectian of the Assyrian Tribes in 1843 209
in an awful manner to force them to expose what they call hidden obliged Zenal Beg to bargain with them, offering to place himself in
treasures, while others were killing them just for entertainment and as their hands as their guarantor in return for the badly needed supplies.
sport and games' .32 The trick worked, for the inexperienced head of the revalt saw no reason
The tribes were all but encircled and left with no safe route to escape why they should not let the Kurds get their needed water. In return, Zenal
the slaughter, yet people did attempt to flee. The most promising route asked to have Deacan Manda put in his men's custody as a counter hos-
lay towards the Chaldean villages in the plain ofNineveh, but it passed tage. As soan as he arrived at the castle, the deacan was seized and put in
through the hostile Kurds of Berwar under their leader Abdul al Samad. chains and then killed once the Kurds and their leader had secured their
Under his iron fist, one group after another was caught on the border needed water, which they brought from the fountain outside the castle.
of Tiyari or while trying to escape under cover of darkness. Rassam Meanwhile Zenal Beg managed to smuggle one ofhis men out at night
reported that those who tried to flee that way were caught and slaugh- to carry word to Bedr Khan Beg ofwhat was takingplace and to ask him
tered. He further noted that this district was officially under Beirakdar's to hasten to their aid.
j urisd iction. 33 When the Kurdish forces arrived at Asheetha, they initiated a mass
indiscriminate slaughter of the inhabitants, males and females, old and
young alike. We can begin to estimate the total number of victims once
6. ARMED REVOLT AT ASHEETHA, NOVEMBER 1843
we appreciate that twenty-six thousand fighters with such orders carried
Zenal Beg with his Kurdish force turned the country of Tiyari and out their mission-so how many must have perished? Layard, who vis-
Asheetha, its capital, into a laboratory for torture and persecution. These ited the scene in 1846, gaye a detailed and horrible account of what had
methods were first employed in the territory under his authority. The occurred:
reaction ofthe people ofTiyari to his tyranny was inevitable after he and
lt was near Lezan that occurred one of the most terrible incidents
his troops had made the survivors' lives a living hell. The people found of the massacre; ... we found ourselves at the foot of an almost
no escape except by inviting the invading force to kill them all. Secretly, perpendicular detritus of loose stanes, terminated, about one
however, they devised a plan to fight back and then staged a revalt. Peo- thousand feet above us, by a wall of lofty rocks. Up this ascent
ple from surrounding villages managed to penetrate Asheetha, where the we toiled for above an hour, sometimes clinging to smail shrubs
Kurdish force under Zenal Beg had made its headquarters in the building whose roots scarcely reached the scanty soil be10w; at others
crawling on our hands and knees; crossing the gullies to secure
put up by Dr. Grant, without being noticed. Meanwhile, as Zenal Beg
a footing, or carried down by the stones which we put in motian
was Iying in the shade of a tree in front of the building, a thirteen-year- as we advanced. We soan saw evidences of the slaughter. At
old Assyrian boy approached and shot him, giying him a minor wound. first a solitary skull rolling down with the rubbish; then heaps
Zenal Beg, however, was able to stab the youth in his heart and hurried of blanched bones; further up fragrnents of rotten garments. As
to the castle, while other Assyrians shot at him in vain. He found refuge we advanced, these remains became more frequent-skeletons,
among his four-hundred-strong force, to which the desperate revolting almost entire, stili hung to the dwarf shrubs. i was soan compelled
Assyrians then laid siege. to renounce any attempt to count them. As we approached the wall
of rock, the declivity became covered with bones, mingled with
Despite their weakness from the first slaughter, the Assyrians man- the long platted tresses of the women, shreds of discoloured linen,
aged to keep the Kurdish force under cia se siege in Dr. Grant's castle and well-worn shoes. There were skulls of all ages, from the chil d
for nine days, depriving it of any supplies such as water and food. This unborn to the toothless old man. We could not avoid treading on
the bones as we advanced, and rolling them with the loose stones No one was able to examine the scene ofthe massacres and the scale of
into the vaııey below. 'This is nothing,' exclaimed my guide, who the destruction inflicted on the people and their country. The only excep-
observed me gazing with wonder on these miserable heaps; 'they tion was the visit of Thomas Laurie, an American missionary and close
are but the remains of those who were thrown from above, or
friend of Or. Grant, who, during his limited visit in 1844, enjoyed the pro-
sought to escape the sword by jumping from the rock. Foııow
me!' He sprang upon a ledge running along the precipice that rose tection of their friend, the Kurdish leader of Hakkari, Noor Aııah Beg.
before us, and clambered along the face of the mountain over- In i 846 and 1847, two British subjects with extensive experience and
hanging the Zab, now scarcely visible at our feet. 34 knowledge of the people and the region visited the scenes of the massa-
cres and reported on the subject as eyewitnesses. Sir Henry Layard and
Ismael Pasha and Abdul Samad of Berwar committed similar acts the former vice-consul Henry Ross had both lived in Mosul for many
throughout Berwar. Those who escaped the sword and managed to flee years. Layard visited intensively the scenes of the massacres throughout
the scene were obliged to cross the district of Berwar and feıı easy vic- the eastem provinces, while Ross visited the rest, mainly the Upper and
tims to Abdul Samad. Lower Tiyari. We have, therefore, eyewitness accounts of the devasta-
What had been reported through diplomatic channels sheds little light tion that the Assyrian tribes experienced, and they were still under the
on the scale of the cruelty and terror that had been practised against the iron fist of the Kurdish occupation force during Layard's visit.
inhabitants of Tiyari. Rassam was observing events from his near-by
location and keeping daily records. The detailed reports of other dip- it may be remembered that Bedr Khan Bey, in 1843, invaded the
lomats and missionaries in the region also attest to acts of terror and Tiyari districts, massacred in cold blood nearly 10,000 of their
sadism. In a report to Canning, Rassam mentioned the foııowing: inhabitants, and carried away as slaves a large number of women
and children. But it is, perhaps, not generaııy known, that the
release of the greater part of the captives was obtained through the
1. Five children were thrown into the air to faıı over the bayonet of
humane interference and generosity of Sir Stratford Canning, who
arifle. prevailed upon the Porte to send a commissioner into Kurdistan
2. Throwing people into the fire while they were alive. for the purpose of inducing Bedr Khan Beyand other Kurdish
3. Seven women threw themselves into ariver while crossing the chiefs to give up the slaves they had taken, and who advanced,
bridge with their young children tied to their backs to avoid the himself, a considerable sum toward their liberation. Mar Rassam
humiliation of slavery. also obtained the release of many slaves, and maintained and
clothed, at his own expense and for many months, not only the
4. Breaking the captives' bones.
Nestorian Patriarch, who had taken refuge in Mosul, but many
hundred Chaldeans who had escaped from the mountains. 36
A missionary at Mosul declared that Timur Lang had not practised as
much cruelty as Bedr Khan Beg and his foııowers. 35 This was the scene of one of the many massacres committed upon
the members of the Assyrian tribes. Layard's account could be used
to estimate the number of the victims. As he reported in the passage
7. THE EFFECTS OF THE MASSACRES
quoted earlier, the site of the Lizan massacre was directly above the Zab
For almost four years after the Kurdish invasion, none of the westem- River, and this explains how he could see the remains of the victims
ers in the region tried to visit the rayaged country of the Assyrian tribes. still roııing down to fall on the riverbank at the time ofhis visit in 1846.
212 ASSYRIANS, KUROS, AND OTTOMANS The Subjection of the Assyrian Tribes in 1843 213
Things had been in this state ever since July 1843, and the number of ENDNOTES
Assyrian fugitives killed could be reasonably assessed as a large one.
Layard himself could catch only a glimpse of the Great Zab from the
top of the overlooking mountain, but he could stili see the heap ofbones 1. F.O. 78/2698 Erzeroom, August 16, 1841, Brant to Palmerston.
and remnants of the victims spread along the shore of the river. 2. Ross, Let/ers From the East, 64-68.
The victims, as we are told by contemporary western eyewitnesses, 3. F.O. 195/204 Mosul July 20, 1843, Rassam to Taylor; F.O. 195/228 Mosul
were the inhabitants of Lizan and the surrounding villages, who had fled July 29, 1843, Rassam to Canning.
to this inaccessible mountain, taking refuge on the platform and on the 4. F.O. 195/228 Mosul, July 16, 1843, Rassam to Canning.
5. Ibid.
rock above. They had thus hoped to escape the notice of the Kurds, or to
6. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, July 29,1843, Rassam to Canning.
be able to defend, against any numbers, a place almost inaccessible. 7. F.O. 195/204, Mosul, July 20, 1843, Rassam to Taylor.
8. F.O. 195/204, Mosul, August 3, 1843, Rassam to Taylor.
Women and young children as well as men concealed themselves 9. Ibid.
in a c1iffwhich mountain goats could scarcely reach. Bedr Khan 10. Ibid.
Beg had not taken long to discover their retreat; but being unable ll. F.O. 78/2698 Constantinople, January 27, 1842, Canning to Aberdeen.
to force it, he had surrounded the place with his men and waited 12. F.O. 78/2698 Constantinople, August 1, 1843, Canning to Aberdeen.
until they should be compelled to yield for shortage of water and 13. F.O. 7812698 Constantinople, August 17, 1843, Canning to Aberdeen.
food. The weather was hot and su1try. The fugitives had brought 14. Ibid.
but smail supplies of water and provisions; after three days their 15. F.O. 194/204, Mosul, August 17, 1843, Rassam to Canning.
thirst began to fell on them and they offered to capitulate. The 16. F.O. 78/2698, Tabreez, August 21, 1843, Abbott to Lt. Col. Williams.
terms proposed by Bedr Khan Beg, and ratified by an oath on the 17. F.O. 78/1698, Constantinople, September 5, 1843, Canning to Aberdeen.
Koran, were their lives on the surrender of their arms and prop- 18. F.O. 78/2698, Mosul, September 10, 1843, Rassam to Canning.
erty. The Kurds were then admitted to the platform. After they 19. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, October 31,1843, Rassam to Canning.
had disarmed their prisoners, they commenced an indiscriminate 20. F.O. 78/2699, Tabreez, September 5, 1846, Abbott to Palmerston.
slaughter; when the became weary of using their weapons, they 21. Fletcher, Notes From Nineveh, 2:322-324, 328.
hurled the few survivors from the rocks into the Zab below ... 22. F.O. 78/2698, Erzeroom, October 31, 1843, Brant to Canning.
onlyone escaped. 37 23. Ross, Let/ers From the East, 33.
24. F.O. 195/227, Erzeroom, October 21, 1843, Brant to Canning.
According to contemporary sources, the victims of the assault of 1843 25. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinop!e, September 5, ! 843, Canning to Aberdeen.
numbered ten thousand. That figure, however, cannot represent the total 26. F.O. 195/204, Mosul, August 17, 1843, Rassam to Taylor.
victims of the attack, based on the details provided by eyewitnesses and 27. F.O. 195/227, Erzeroom, October 21, 1843, Brant to Aberdeen; Grant, The
those who carried statistics before and after the massacres. 38 Nestorians, 358; Badger, The Nestorians, 1:276-277.
28. F.O. 195/227, Erzeroom, December 1, 1843, Brant to Canning.
29. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, July 29, 1843, Rassam to Canning.
30. F.O.195/227, Erzeroom, November 13, 1843, Brant to Canning.
31. Ibid.
32. Ross, Let/ers From the East, 64-68.
33. F.O. 195/228, Mosu!, November 5, 1843, Rassam to Canning.
34. Layard, Nineveh and lts Remains, i: i 88-9.

35. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, October 3 i, 1843, Rassam to Canning; Fletcher,
Notes From Nineveh, i :325-326; American Sunday-School Union, The
Nestorians, 102-104; Laurie, Dr. Grant, 360-363; Badger, The Nestorians,
1:366-367.
36. Layard, Popular Account, 122, n. *; see also 134-135.
37. Ibid., 135.
38. Arafa, The Kurds, 23.
CHAPTER 11
GREAT BRITAIN, THE ÜTTOMANS,

AND THE ASSYRIAN TRAGEDY
ı. THE KURDlSH INVASION

AND THE ATTITUDE OF GREAT BRITAIN
Great Britain was alarmed by Napoleon's occupation of Egypt in ı 798,

which brought Mesopotamia under its direct concem and led it to act to
secure its interests there. Accordingly Baghdad was chosen in ı 802 as a
centre for British diplomats in what was then known as Turkish Arabia.
From then on, a series of capable representatives served to promote Brit-
ish influence throughout the region. ı However, until the collapse of the
Mamluk dynasty in 1831, Great Britain's role and influence in the three
Iraqi vilayets of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra was very limited. It was
only after the Turks established their rule in Baghdad in ı 83 ı that Great
Britain began to play an active role in the affairs ofMesopotamia, which
lasted until 1876.
216 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Great Britain, the Ottomans, and the Assyrian Tragedy 217
As was explained earlier, in 1835 the Assyrian tribes of Tiyari and tribes. Badger was a particularly suitable choice, since he was Rassam's
Hakkari became known to the outside world after the publication of brother-in-law.
Captain Geseney's comprehensive survey of the Euphrates. 2 Thereafter Badger's assignment was carefully supervised and directed by the
Great Britain, moved by its own interest, on the one hand, and the wish Foreign Office. Instructions were sent to Canning to assist Badger in his
to compete with France, on the other, desired to secure its interests in mission to Assyrians, with a memorandum of instruction to Badger on
Mesopotamia and the route of navigation to India. Establishing solid his departure to Kurdistan mentioning:
relations with the tribes was seen as the key to British influence in the
who le region, since they served as a bridgehead into the Mesopotamian it appears from a communication which has just been made to
me by the Archbishop of Canterbury that Reverend George Percy
world. To that end, the Foreign Office dispatched Ainsworth and Ras-
Badger has been selected by the Society for the Propagation of the
sam to establish contacts and relations with the Church of the East and Gospel and by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
Mar Shimun the patriarch in the summer of 1840.3 This mission was fol- for the proposed mission to the Nestorian Christian Church ...
lowed in 1842 by that of George Badger and J. Fletcher. 4 Caution him as to his proceeding; and to warn Mr. Rassam not to
The earliest British report on the affairs of the tribes was se nt to the mix himselfin proselytism. 6
Foreign Office by Sir Stratford Canning, the ambassador in Constanti-
nople, immediately after Ainsworth's visit. There he informed his gov- 2. GREAT BRITAIN EXPRESSES !Ts CONCERN
ernment of the recent subjection of the Assyrian independent tribes by a ON THE ASSYRIAN QUESTION
Kurdish leader in the vicinity ofMosul:
While Badger was at Mosul, the Assyrian tribes that he had come to help
Intelligences have been received from Mossoul that the Inde- and to establish firm relations with were subject to the Kurdish invasion
pendent Nestorians of Kurdistan have been subdued by a Kurd- and massacre. Thus the newly established relations were overshadowed
ish Beg of the vicinity, acting in concert with the Turkish Pasha
by the tragedy, which, however, gaye Great Britain a further opportunity
of Van and doubtless with the approbation of the orders of the
government. 5 to establish its presence and influence among the tribes, which resulted
in rooting that influence. In doing so, Great Britain was assisted by its
However, as we have seen, this news proved to be premature. advanced position at the Porte and its influence over the sultan and his
Great Britain's special interest in the independent Assyrian tribes government as protector of the ailing empire. The Turkish government
was shown by the appointment of Rassam, the brother-in-Iaw of George took advantage of Great Britain's support, while at the same time, it tried
Badger, as vice-consul in Mosul. This appointment was designed to to justify Bedr Khan Beg's action against the Assyrian tribes.
fit the new British approach to the region, since Rassam was highly
qualified and was a native of the city who came from a prominent fam-
3. BRITISH EFFORTS TO FREE THE CAPTIVES
ily. From then on, the Assyrian tribes could no longer maintain their
old isolation. Europeans began to penetrate their homeland, parti cu- The new British-Assyrian friendship was put to the test for the first time
larly American and British missionaries. Thus in 1842, immediately during and after the massacres. The records of the events from the sum-
after Ainsworth's return, Badger was dispatched with his companion mer of 1843 to 1847 are full of British involvement in the affairs of
Fletcher as envoys of the archbishop of Canterbury to the Assyrian the victims. AIthough there were other outstanding issues related to the
Assyrian crisis, the issues of the captives and Iiberating their homeland Nestorians ... the Porte has promised to write in a suitable sense
were to remain pressing one s occupying much British diplomatic activ- to the Pas ha of Mosul. This promise I believe His Excelleney has
aıready executed and though his intended instructions should not
ity. Thus the events after July 1843 produced many issues, which badly
arrive at time to prevent the attaek, it is to be hoped that they will
required British assistance and support. Among the most pressing were have the etfect of giying a proper direction henceforward to the
the evacuation of the invading forces from Tiyari and Hakkari; the Pasha.
release of the captives, who were considered as slaves and were sold in
large numbers throughout the Middle East; and, last but not least, the However, the pasha of Mosul had categorically stated 'that he had
return of the loot, which represented all the people's possessions. received no order whatsoever from his government' regarding the Iibera-
Rassam was the first to initiate the process of demanding the release tion of the captives. 8
of the captives. He informed Canning that Bedr Khan and his supporters The Assyrian issue had become bound up with the Turkish attitude
were stili holding many of the victims. The British resident at Bagh- towards Bedr Khan Beg. Canning observed that his power must be elimi-
dad was also acquainted with the subject and had asked him to use his nated and that to secure peace and tranquillity for the Christians required
good offices with Najib Pasha of Baghdad to secure freedom for the an action against him that could reduce him to obedience to the Porte.
largest group of the captives, which included the immediate relatives of One of the channels through Rassam who sought help to free the
the patriarch. In his request, Rassam hoped that Najib Pasha would ask Assyrian captives was Ismael Pasha, the former chief of Amadia, who
Beirakdar to send an envoy to Bedr Khan Beg asking him to release the had himselfvigorously participated in the massacres. Ismael Pasha was
captives immediately and send them to MosuP in debt to the British consul, who had offered protection and refuge to
Najib Pasha responded positively to the request, and Colonel Tay- his family during his years of conflict with Beirakdar over the emirate
lor then wrote to Beirakdar, asking him to intervene. Beirakdar's reply of Amadia, and his amply rewarded efforts resuIted in freeing some of
was astonishing: on the one hand, he politely informed Rassam that the captives, including the patriarch's sister. Meanwhile Rassam's envoy
Najib Pasha ought to ask Bedr Khan Beg himselfto release the captives, to Jazirah reported to him that 125 captives had reached that town just
because he had a great influence on him; on the other, he declared that before his departure, comprising women and children who were about to
Najib Pasha had been deeply involved in the massacre of the tribes and be sold as slaves or given as presents to mullahs, Turkish officials, and
that he himself could not act unless he was authorised by Najib. Never- the c10se friends and allies of Bedr Khan Beg. The source further stated
theless Beirakdar made it c1ear that if any one wanted to facilitate this that among those who were aıready distributed was 1 child to the emir of
matter, then the pashas of Baghdad and Erzeroom were the Turkish offi- Sherwan, 4 others to Zandi Oghlu, and 8 ladies destined for the mullahs,
cials most directly concemed. the followers of Bedr Khan. 9 On his way to Mosul, the French consul
Canning wrote to Rassam, expressing to him the opinion of Her Maj- also saw the miserable state ofthese Christian captives. Meanwhile Bedr
esty's Government regarding the whole issue of the Assyrian tribes. He Khan Beg left the scene of the massacres and reached Jazirah with a large
also acquainted him with the contacts that he had made with the Turkish number of the captives. Rassam reported that Bedr Khan had ordered the
foreign minister to relieve the victims, stating that survivors to give up to him ı 00 young men and as many young women,
His Excelleney the minister for foreign affairs has Iistened with 'for what purpose does not appear', and had also demanded ten ghazis
interest to my suggestions respecting the precarious state of the (gold liras) oftwenty-one or twenty-three carats from every household as
a general fine upon the Christians, and a musket from every man capable issue of the tribes and the emerging power of Bedr Khan Beg. Canning
of bearing arms. Lo considered the affair an appropriate opportunity for Great Britain to get
an effective role in the region, white also using it to put pressure on the
4. MAR SHIMUN AS A REFUGEE AT MOSUL
sultan 's government that would serve the interest of his own homeland.
Naturally, Canning's conduct was areflection ofthe official policy of
At this early stage, Canning sympathised with Mar Shimun's desire to his government, and accordingly his actions were always approved by
return to his homeland enjoying limited priviteges under Turkish sov- the Foreign Office:
ereignty. i i When Bedr Khan Beg had attacked the district of Diz, Mar
Shimun, with a few of his followers, had succeeded in fleeing the scene HMG, share in the regret expressed by your Excelleney in your
dispatch 69 of 1st August.. .As to the attack on the Nestorian
of the massacre and headed to Mosul. On arriving on 29 July, he had
Christians near Mosul by some Kurdish tribes; and in which
taken refuge at the British vice-consulate. 12 After his arrival, he appealed I convey to your Excelleney the approval of your having called
to Canning at Constantinople, placing himself and his nation under the the attention of the Porte to the dangers by which the Christians
protection of Her Majesty's Government. In his appeal, he stressed the were menaced. I have to instruct your Excelleney to state to the
need for assistance for him and his people to return to their homeland Turkish ministers:
and the removal of the occupying Kurdish forees. He also asked Can- H.M.G. expect that the Porte will issue preceptory orders to the
ning to use his good offices to free the large number of captives and to Pasha of Mosul to use the most energetic measures for the pres-
get back the loot that Bedr Khan had carried away, which represented all ervation of the Christians within his district from a repetition of
the tribes' possessions. Iike outrages, which you will point out to the Porte cannot fait to
produce a most painful and unfavourable impression on all Chris-
Rassam repeatedly reminded Canning that Mar Shimun had thrown
tian Nations. 14
himself and his nation on the protection of Her Majesty's Government.
He begged Canning to provide him with instructions on how to secure Cunning's efforts convinced the Porte to send a delegation of inquiry
their right to return to their homeland. He further asserted that Mar Shi- to Mosul headed by Kemal Effendi. This move coincided with the
mun was willing to make his submission to the sultan and had shown appointment of a new pasha for Mosul to succeed the deceased Moham-
himselfwilling to go to Constantinople if the ambassador guaranteed his med Ince Beirakdar. Canning reported to Lord Aberdeen, stating,
safety. The patriarch was also begging him to advocate the ir case with
I have availed myself of the departure of the newly appointed
the Porte and urging him to interfere to free the captives and have them
Pasha for Moussoul to promote the interest of the Nestorian
retumed to their homes. 13 tribes by recommending their affairs to his special attention,
The British ambassador was the Assyrian tribes' only advocate in and engaging Rifaat Pasha to furnish him with instruction of a
their tragedy. He intervened on several levels, which eventually made corresponding tenor. i have particularly urged him to exert his
Great Britain a major party in the whole issue. Among other matters, authority for the more complete execution of the Firmans aıready
Canning was also pressing the sultan's government to take measures to sent down for the recovery of the Slaves and if possible of the
property destroyed or plundered in the Iate incursion. i have fur-
resolve the issue within the general framework of the Turkish policy of
ther solicited his good offices to deter Bedr Khan Bey from the
centralisation. Thus it was the ambassador's involvement that succeeded design imputed to him of attacking the district inhabited by the
in getting the Porte to dispatch a delegation to Mosul to inquire into the Jacobites ... in the spring. IS
222 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Great Britain, the Ottornans, and the Assyrian Tragedy 223
The efforts and intervention of the British ambassador appear to have Ali Pasha of Egypt, which had revealed the extent of the protection that
produced results. In a dispatch to the Foreign Office, he announced that Britain could offer the Ottoman Empire to avert its final collapse.
the Turkish Chamber of Ministers had decided to respond to his appeal
and sen d a delegation to Mosul headed by Kemal Effendi to investigate Canning's Instructions to Stevens
the Nestorian issue and to contact both Mar Shimun and Bedr Khan Beg. on His Mission to Mosul
He expressed his wishes to meet the sultan's envoy, and On 2 1 December l843, the first British action in the affair of the Assyr-
ian tribes was taken when Canning issued his instructions to Stevens to
[i]nsisting upon the restitution of the Nestorian prisoners, and
leave his post at Samsoon and go to Mosul. There he was to join Kemal
laying the foundation of friendly understanding with that chief
and the eventual withdrawal of his forces from the Nestorian Effendi, the sultan's envoy, and try to open a line of communications
country ... to affect the liberation of the Nestorians and the settle- with Bedr Khan Beg. The ambassador defined Stevens' new mission by
ment of their relations with the Porte. informing him that
The ambassador, however, reflected the policy of his government towards Kemal Effendi embarks tomorrow for Mossoul with the intention
the whole issue of the Assyrian tribes, which in part was to support the to going on to Diarbekir, and after staying there some weeks, to
Turkish government and to assist in establishing centralisation and the firm Mossoul. I have appraised him of your going to Moossul and of
the interest which you would be directed to take in the objects,
rule of the sultan, and also noted the limit of his influence with the Otto-
as far as theyare known to me, ofhis mission. The person whom
man government: I sent to him assures me that he expressed his satİsfaction at
the prospect of advantage to be derived from your society and
i do not despair of being able into the end to effect an arrange- assistance and proposed ofhis own accord that you should travel
ment between the Porte and the Patriarch, sufficient to establish with him to Diarbekir, and he is under an impression that you
the Sultan's authority and to secure an independent land adminis- have other motives for motives for your journey than what relate
tration for the Turkish Nestorians under the civil as well as spiri- to him.
tual guidance of Mar Shimon. 16
Canning was keen to have his vice-consul gain the confidence of the
The direct intervention of Canning in the Assyrian issue secured the
sultan's envoy without drawing his attention. He acquainted him with
participation of Steven s, the vice-consul at Samsoon, in any discussion
Porte's instructions. The prime purpose of Kemal Effendi's mission was
or meeting with the sultan's envoy to inquire into the affair of the Assyr-
ian tribes, which gaye Stevens effective access to Bedr Khan Beg and to obtain from Bedr Khan Beg, and perhaps from the chief of
Mar Shimun alike. In this way, Britain became a prime player in all the Hakkari Kurds, the restitution of all persons taken as slaves and
affairs of the region. This state of affairs continued until the final disaf- of all property plundered from the Nestorian Christians in the Iate
fected centre of the emirate of Bohtan under Bedr Khan Beg was subdued incursion on their country; to stop the effusion of blood; and to
feel the way toward effecting some permanent arrangement as
in July 1847. Throughout the who le operation and development, both
well with the chiefs as with the Nestorian Patriarch, Mar Shimun,
the Assyrians and the Kurds were convinced that Great Britain was the who on fleeing from his country sought refuge with Mr. Rassam
only great power able to influence the outcome of the issue. This convic- at Mosul. However, Her Majesty's government desire in particu-
tion rested on experience of the British role in the affair of Mohammed lar that nothing should be omitted to give the earliest and fullest
effect possible to the Porte's Instructions for accomplishing the On the tragedy of the Assyrian tribes and their patriarch, the ambassador
more immediate objects of the Sultan's envoy. stated,
Thus Canning hoped that by joining Stevens' efforts with those of i have reason to believe and i may so state it to you confidentially
Kemal Effendi, and by employing his advice and good offices to keep that Mar Shimon is disposed to consent, and i would willingly
him steady to that purpose, 'you may hasten the period ofreliefand effect afford him every assistance of a confidential character to obtain an
the termination of sufferings which have aıready lasted too long' .17 arrangement on these terms. But as the Porte has not yet evinced
more than a general indication to consider him with favour, and
Once Stevens was assigned to deal with the Assyrian issue, the role evidently seeks to treat with him directly.
of vice-consul Rassam was limited if not eliminated. The ambassador's
orders were as foııows: Although, after his arrival at Mosul, the patriarch had dedared that he
was putting himself and his people under the protection of Great Britain
By communicating with Mr. Rassam and possibly by taking part and hoped that that would release them from their tragedy, the ambas-
in the communications with Bedr Khan Bey you may find the
sador cautioned,
means of adyocating this benevolent work, through I must leave
the latter suggestions to your own judgment and the information i have thought it best to abstain from making any special offer on
to be acquired on the spot. the part of the Patriarch, and to leave him master ofhis own terms
and conduct, should Kemal Effendi be authorized, as i am assured
As for Bedr Khan Beg, Canning was keen to establish contacts with he is, to communicate with him on his arrival at Mossoul.1 8
him, even though, İn his view, the British diplomats could not to
His opinion was based on the situation that was rapidly developing in
any degree answer for the disposition of Bedr Khan Bey either the country of the Assyrian tribes and in other hot spots in the Ottoman
towards the Porte or towards Great Britain. The main object of Asiatic territories. He laid out the line of conduct that his envoy should
the Porte must naturaııy be to establish her own authority and we
foııow towards the concerned parti es in the whole matter of Assyrian-
cannot reckon on her being too scrupulous in the means employed
for that purpose. Kurdish relations by saying,
As for 'Mar Shimun and the Nestorians who look up to him as the spiri- Considerations of personal safety arising out of the state of the
country, or Bedr Khan's actual disposition, must be left to your
tual and i believe, theİr civil chief, the Porte advances a c\aim to their own discretion. Admitted to the person of that chief, you will be
aııegiance and consequently to the payment of tribute from thern'. careful not to encourage him in cherishing any pretensions incon-
As Cannİng stated, Great Britain's attitude was that it would be agree- sistent with his duty to the Sultan, or in forming any expectations
able to: which might terminate in disappointment to him, or in em bar-
rassment to us. i wish him to be convinced of our friendly dis-
Her Majesty's government to see tranquillity established among position toward him. He may find in that conviction a motive for
the Koordish Tribes by the intervention of a regular authority ... treating his Christian neighbours with humanity, and good will.
Nor can i doubt that the Nestorians would greatly improve their If you can prevail upon him, to give up the smail remnant of the
position by obtaining Turkish protection and the benefits of an slaves retained in his possession, you will complete the work of
acknowledged separate administration by the payment of a fixed Christian benevolence, which you have aıready prosecuted with
and moderate tribute. so much credit and success. 19
Thus Steven s headed to Mosul, joining Kamali Effendi en route, and [and others] ... Kemal Effendi had kept the chil d with him until
together they opened a new chapter in the affairs of the Assyrian tribes. further instruction reaches him from Constantinople. 22
Britain expressed to the Turkish government its concern about the well
The ambassador continued his efforts with the Turkish government,
being of its Assyrian fellow Christians, denounced their persecution, and
urging Rifaat Pasha to intervene to get the captives released as soon as
dem and ed their protection. The Porte's attention was called to Britain 's
possible and to remove the threat hanging over them. On ce again, he
humane treatment of the Muslims under her direct rule in India, which
informed the Foreign Office that there were reasons to believe that the
the Turks were urged to follow. The Foreign Office asked the ambassa-
dor to exert pressure on the sultan 's government and to make it clear that pashas of Erzeroom and Mosul had secretly encouraged Bedr Khan Beg
to attack the tribes. He reaffirmed that his interventions were secret and
the continuance of British support to the Turks depended on their good
treatment oftheir Christian subjects. 20 that Mar Shimun had authorised his proposal to Rifaat Pasha, which the
missionary Badger had communicated to him. 23
The Mission of Kemal Effendi and Stevens Turkish officials in the region were keen to deny any involvement
Steven s began his mission in Mosul by establishing early contacts with in the invasion and claimed that the Porte had not authorised it. Kemal
the patriarch Mar Shimun as well as with Bedr Khan Beg and other con- Pasha of Erzeroom was under suspicion of complicity, but he told Brant,
cerned parties. From his new location, he began to carry out his new the British consul in that city, that he denounced Bedr Khan 's action in the
duty of dealing with the Assyrian crisis and enabling Great Britain to region, which was officially under his jurisdiction, denied any involve-
play a major role in the general affairs of the region. Accordingly he ment, and asserted that Bedr Khan had acted without his approval. He
wrote to Canning informing him ofhis efforts to liberate the captives as added that Noor Allah Beg was the prime agitator and had told him that
being the most pressing issue. the Nestorians had committed many aggressions against his people. Thus
In his first report, Steven s wrote that Rassam had succeeded in liber- he admitted that the Hakkari Kurdish leader had asked for his help and
ating sixty of the captives and that there were some five hundred more support to deal with the Assyrian tribes. Noor Allah had been so insis-
in al Jazirah where Bedr Khan Beg lived. Those were over and above tent that he had warned Bedr Khan that 'ifhe does not respond, he would
the ones sold as slaves in distant places such as Baghdad, Diarbekir, and no longer consider him a pious Muslim'. Meanwhile the Turkish foreign
Aleppo. Kemal Effendi's efforts had helped to free some of the captives minister referred to the report that Beirakdar and Abdul Samid of Ber-
held in Bedr Khan's headquarters and surrounding locations, and he war had procured on the subject of Dr. Grant's 'castle', which was aimed
hoped that Kemal Effendi would manage to free some more who were at misleading the Porte by asserting that the 'castle' had been built for
held in regions under Bedr Khan's controJ.21 He further acquainted Can- well-calculated military purposes. 24 On the issue of the captives, Brant
ning with his activities, stating, reported the pasha as telling him that Bedr Khan Beg had said that they
numbered two hundred, but that all had been se nt back to their homes. 25
i had received no answer from Diarbekir to an application The Turkish involvement in imposing centralisation was evidenced
i addressed him regarding the Nestorian slaves in that town ... throughout the region. Canning informed the Turkish foreign minister
now ... that he has recently sent thirty, fifteen women and children
that Beirakdar Pasha of Mosul declined to implement his orders. He once
which he had got restored by persons who had purchased the~
from agents ofBedr Khan Bey, among them a 7 year old child who again called for the liberation of the captives, evacııation oftheir home-
forgot his Syriac mother tongue and declared himself as Muslim. land by the Kurdish occupation forces, and holding the participants with
He did so also in the presence of Kemal Effendi, Mar Shimun Bedr Khan Beg responsible for their actions. The request also contained
an appeal to assist the people in rebuilding their destroyed homes. To will be written to Mossul for further information, and that the
implement his proposals, the ambassador recommended stationing a Porte is not strong enough in that site to enter into a contest with
the powerful Kurdish chief, whose army has now so cruelly rav-
Turkish force in the tribes' country. At the same time, he wrote, a good
aged the Nestorian territory.
understanding must be established with Bedr Khan Beg. 26
Meanwhile Canning wrote to the Foreign Office, conveying his dis- He further explained the nature of his interference on behalf of the
satisfaction with Beirakdar's conduct. He affirmed that he 'had com- Assyrians, stressing, however, that his efforts were
plained to Rifaat Pasha of this provocation and delay requesting that
fresh and more stringent instructions might be sent down forthwith to not a very promising commencement and yet i knew that no more
the Pasha ofMosul'. He mentioned that the Turkish minister had asked was to be expected in the first instance. By direct of perseverance
i hope to be more successful at alater period; and i trust that
him to provide the terms, which he wanted him to convey to the pasha of
while my interference is so conducted as neither to displease the
Mosul, and went on to say that' [i]n making every practicable exertion Porte nor to commit Her Majesty's government, your Lordship
for the relief of the persecuted Nestorians i feel convinced that i shall will not disapprove of my endeavours to meet ... ofthe Nestorian
only fulfill the intentions of Her Majesty's government' .27 Patriarch to save him from the intrigues of the French and their
Thus the British diplomats became the advocates of the Assyrian Roman Catholic Coadjutors and to obtain some degree of relief
cause with the sultan's government. Canning's early intervention reveals for his suffering people. 28
the flexible response of the Turkish officials, who seem to have had the
The Foreign Office confirmed Canning's conduct, and Aberdeen wrote
good sense to realise their weakness. They were badly in need of time to
acknowledging and approving the course that he had taken in dealing
deal with the pressing issues of various centres and were in fact unable
with the crisis:
to offset their weakness. Canning wrote to the Foreign Office, stating
that Your ExceIleney will avail yourself of every suitable opportu-
nity to impress upon the Porte that Her Majesty's government
[b]y means ofa private and confidential communication to Rifaat feel a strong interest in the well-being of the Christian subjects
Pasha i have ... to obtain the Porte's assistance in favour of the of the Sultan, and would see with deepest concern not only the
unfortunate Nestorians and their Patriarch, Mar Shimon. The positive oppression of the Porte but even the indifference of the
object of my application on their behalf was two fold: First: to Turkish government to their being oppressed by any subordinate
obtain the release of the Captives, the recovery of the plundered authority ... Nothing indeed could be more ca\culated to indisposes
property, and the evacuation of the invaded district; Secondly: to the feeling of European nations towards the Porte. 29
effect an arrangement between Mar Shimon and the Porte, for-
warded on the principle ofhis administrative independence und er While praising the attitude of Foreign Office towards the Christian
Turkish protection on payment of an annual tribute, occasionally tribes, who had undergone such cruel persecution, Canning warned that
rendering military service to the Sultan.
they had
These proposals i was authorized by letters from Moossul to bring
forward on behalf of the Patriarch. They have been laid before the reasons to fear the intention of the Turkish government to estab-
Council by Rifaat Pasha, and His Excelleney has sent me word Iish the Porte's authority, which in fact was the main objective, of
that the Porte is disposed to treat with Mar Shimun, that letters the Porte authority, was Iikely to prove the main point of Kemal
Effendi's instruction and the restitution of the slaves and the make his submission to the sultan and to assure him that he and his
caption of bloodshed and in equitable arrangement with Mar Shi- people were faithful subjects. However, as civil and religious head of
mon only its secondary objects. 30 his people, who were enjoying complete independence, he was keen to
In aletter addressed to the sultan, Mar Shimun showed that he was preserve their longstanding historic privileges despite the rapid changes
anxious to express his submission and recognition of the sultan's author- in the political map of the region. Thus he harboured the hope that, given
ity over his country and people. Canning, however, withheld this letter the enhanced role of Great Britain and its great influence over the sultan
and declined to submit it to the sultan, wishing to obtain more informa- and his government, he might succeed. Accordingly he appealed to Brit-
tion about the intentions of the Porte towards the Assyrian tribes. 31 ish diplomats in the region, incIuding Canning, for a proper redress for
Alison had written to Canning, informing him that Rifaat Pasha, the the destruction and damages that Bedr Khan Beg had inflicted on his
minister of foreign affairs, had read to him extracts from aletter by the people and country. On this subject, the ambassador wrote to Foreign
grand vizier, stating that a horde ofNestorians had attacked a Turkish vil- Office that
lage, killed and wounded above forty of the inhabitants, and carried off a
[proposals] have been laid before Council by Rifaat Pasha, and
good deal of plunder. Bedr Khan Beg had assembled his men to avenge
His Excelleney sent me word that the Porte is disposed to treat
the injury, entered the Nestorian territory, rayaged three villages, and with Mar Shimun, that aletter will be written to Mosul for further
destroyed a missionary station that the Nestorians had erected under the information, and that Porte is not strong enough on that side to
superintendence of a missionary called Grant for the ostensible purpose enter into a contest with the powerful Kurdish chief, whose army
of a college for the propagation of Protestantism. The pasha of Mosul had has now so cruelly rayaged the Nestorian territory.33
se nt to inspect this bui Id ing and reported his opinion that it was well cal-
culated for a military station and capable of containing two Allays divi- Despite this, the Ottomans were determined to restore their authority
sions, or five thousand men. Alison went on to say that Grant had created over all provinces and districts inhabited by various ethnic and religious
a great deal oftrouble among the Nestorians by making proselytes. groups. This task was progressing: after the Assyrian independent tribes
Rafaat Pasha did not explain how the Assyrians could have managed were subdued in 1843, the one remaining powerful centre was that of
to attack a Turkish viiiage when the nearest one to their county was hun- Bedr Khan Beg, which the Turks could not rush immediately to elimi-
dreds of miles away (one can only assume that he might meant a Kurdish nate due to their general weakness, as has been mentioned. Accordingly
viiiage). Canning was well aware of Dr. Grant's activities in the country Canning informed the Foreign Office that the Porte was endeavouring
of Tiyari and that his presence there was approved by a jirman from the to form a front against the Kurdish chief. That aim, however, the Turks
sultan and protected by all the local officials. Besides, he was under Brit- could not achieve until 1847. 34
ish protection and was in constant contact with British officials through-
out the region. 32 The Tragedy of the Captives
and the Attitude of the Turkish Goverument
Mar Shimun's Appeal to Great Britain Rassam reported that Beirakdar refused to implement the Porte's orders
and the Ambassador's Response to he Ip free the captives and even denied receiving any such order. He
Mar Shimun had a direct line of communication with Canning at Con- did, however, admit to receiving orders to 'treat Bedr Khan Beg favour-
stantinople. Among other things, he made it cIear that he intended to ably and with leniency' .35
Nevertheless the heart of the problem remained unsolved, and the The Assyrian question was still in flux and occupying the attention
Assyrians continued to trust the Porte and Oreat Britain to solve their of many concerned parties. The Turkish government was keen to show
problems, whether they were returning the refugees to the homeland or its concem for the interventions of Oreat Britain. Nevertheless the ill
freeing the captives. Thus Kemali Effendi, during his mission, had man- intention of the Turkish officials further compIicated the situation and
aged to address part of the problem, but not its core. He had demanded the issue of the captives. Taylor, the British resident at Baghdad, sum-
from Bedr Khan Beg the release of all Assyrian captives/ 6 but Steven s marised the who le issue as follows:
had to report that the Assyrian question remained unresolved, because
the Beg's power lay beyond the Iimit of Ottoman reach. He questioned i had uniformly experienced at his hands the utmost readiness
the seriousness of the su!tan's envoy in his mission, declaring that he to promote inquiry regarding these unfortunate captives, and to
had neither the power nor the authority to solve the problem. In contrast, assist in their identification and delivery. I had thus been permit-
ted to examine a great number of slaves brought from MosuI and
Britain had taken a c1ear stand in calling for a Turkish military force to
Jazerah, and suspected ofbeing Nestorians, and i had been abIe to
occupy Tiyari: assure myseIfthat they were exclusively Yazidis.
I cannot state positively that what proceeds will be the course
which Kemal Effendy may recommend his government to pursue Meanwhile the real captives were kept in well-known places, which
regarding the Nestorians, but I shall be able to give your Excel- constantly were referred to by the British representatives in the region. 39
leney more certain information when the commission prepares his Stevens, however, reported that he had asked Kemal Effendi to send
report, which I hope he will do, by the next post. He has not been an urgent message to Bedr Khan Beg informing him that the Sublime
able to devote so much of his attention to these matters, as they Porte had sent another order demanding the reIease of all Christian cap-
require. He has been obliged to listen to hundreds of complaints
against the extortions of the Iate Pasha. tives who were still in captivity.40 He once again confirmed his intelli-
gence that some captives were still in the territories under Bedr Khan's
Stevens further reported on the issue of the Assyrian tribes: direct control and insisted that they must be collected and sent to Mosul.
On the other hand, he mentioned his personal efforts with the pasha of
Bedr Khan Bey sent the following message to Mar Shimon a few Diarbekir, explaining that the pasha had not yet responded to his appeal
days since he warned the Patriarch against listening to proposals to collect the Assyrian captives in that city and send them to MosuI,
made by 'Osmanlees' who he said were notorious for Iying, that
if Mar Shimon would put himself in Bedr Khan Bey's hands, he except for fifteen women and young children. Those captives Steven s
should be reinstalled in the mountains, and all his affairs settIed to had been able to redeem from a dealer who had bought them from an
his satisfaction. Mar Shimon replied that having thrown himself agent of Bedr Khan Beg. 4\
on the protection of the Sultan he would abide by whatever deci-
sion His Highness' government should com e to regarding him. 3?
Britain 's Direct Involvement in the Crisis of the Assyrian Tribes
On his part, Rassam once again urged Beirakdar to interfere and to Canning's instructions to Stevens reveal the officiaI policy ofOreat Brit-
sen d an envoy to Bedr Khan to release the captives. The envoy, however, ain on the Assyrian issue. As for the return of the patriarch Mar Shimun
reported that the response of the Kurdish chief was that 'the captives to his people after he took refuge in MosuI, it was c1ear that he would
became private property by purchase' .38 not be allowed to do so. On the subject of the Assyrian tribes, Canning
informed Rassam that he had not received any new information, even that he had distributed among them. He had also se nt one thousand guns
regarding the Turkish attitude towards the Nestorians. He told the consul and a number of mules to Kemal Pasha of Erzeroom. Despite all his
that Zenal Beg would be removed from Asheetha and that the Nestorians denials, he admitted that even before his invasion, the Assyrian Christian
would be allowed to return to their homeland, except the patriarch Mar tribes had been left destitute by the campaign of Mohammed Rashid
Shimun and his immediate assistants. This, however, would be done only Pasha. He expressed his gratitude to Almighty God for bestowing on
after a Turkish military force had occupied Asheetha to protect them. him His kindness once again. 44
Canning further mentioned that the Porte viewed Bedr Khan as a
powerful leader whom it could not subdue, due to its military and eco-
nomic weakness. It was simply not in the power of the Porte to punish
him and to subdue him to the authority of sultan. Thus the Porte was
c\earIy advancing cautiously in restoring its authority. The massacre of
the Nestorians had sprung from the hatred existing between the various
peoples, but the sudden appearance of the missionaries and the acute
competition among them had been a contributing factor. 42
Another example of the strong British presence and influence on the
Ottoman sultans could be found in the appointment of Rashid Pasha as
minister for foreign affairs with the assistance of the British ambassador
at Constantinople, Canning. 43
Bedr Khan 's Beg's Account of the Massacre and Slaves

Steven s' mission reached its peak when he successfully established con-
tacts and relations with Bedr Khan Beg, whom he interviewed inten-
sively from 29 June to ı July ı 844. Bedr Khan did his best to defend
himself and to justify his inroad on the Assyrian tribes. He was keen to
acquaint Steven s with his side of the story, representing the tribes as the
aggressors and affirming that, as a Turkish official with a duty to subdue
those who resisted the sultan's rule, he had been obliged to punish them.
However, he minimised the number of the victims and the amount of the
loot and remained defiant on the subject of the captives, insisting that
some had been freed, others had become private property by purchase,
many had converted to Islam, and neither of the latter two groups would
be restored. He maintained that there had been no plunder except some
sheep that his fighters had killed and eaten, and a smail sum of money
236 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Great Britain, the Ottamans, and the Assyrian Tragedy 237
ENDNOTES 20. F.O. 195/228, Foreign Office, January 16, 1844, Aberdeen to Canning.
21. F.O. 195/228 Mosul April 12, 1844, Stevens to Canning.
22. F.O. 78/2698, Mosul, May 18, 1844, Stevens to Canning.
23. F.O. 195/228, Constantinople, September 17, 1843, Canning to Aberdeen.
ı. Yine, The Nestorian Churches, 176-177; 1. T. Par/lt, Mesopotamia: The 24. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, September 8, 1843, Alison to Canning.
Key to the Future (London: Hodder& Stoughton, 1917),31. G. E. Hubbard, 25. F.O. 195/227, Erzeroom, Oct. 21, 1843, Brant to Canning.
From the Gu/ftoArrarat: An Expedition Through Mesopotamia and Kurdw 26. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, November 6, 1843, Confidential Memoran w
istan (London: W. Blackwood, 1916), 145-1 46, stated that after 1802 Britw dum sent to Rifaat Pasha through Mr. Pisari.
ish interests were consolidated and the post of Political Resident in Turkish 27. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, November 20, 1843, Canning to Aberdeen.
Arabia was created; H. M. Stationery Office, Geographical Handbook, 28. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, December I, 1843, Canning to Aberdeen.
1:294. Col. Taylor reported that Ali Ridha Pasha was very pleased with 29. F.O. i 95/228, London, December 16, 1844, Aberdeen to Canning.
the improved relations with Great Britain and recommended to the Porte 30. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, December 3 I, 1843, Canning to Aberdeen.
giying concessions for navigation in Tigris and Euphrates. F.O. 195/11 3, 31. Ibid.
Baghdad, February 15, 1833, Taylor to the Chief Secretary of the Gov w 32. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, September 8, 1843, Alison to Canning.
emment of Bombay. See also Longrigg, Four Centuries, 275-27; Graves, 33. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, September I, 1843, Canning to Aberdeen.
Britain and Turkey, i i; Cooke, Baghdad Madinat al Salam, 2: i 20-122. 34. F.O. 195/228, Constantinople, March 23, 1844, Canning to Aberdeen.
2. Badger, The Nestorians, I:xi-xii; Laurie, Dr. Grant, 127. 35. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, February 12, 1844, Steven s to Canning.
3. Ainsworth, Travels, 2:220-221, 245-253; Badger, The Nestorians, I:ix. 36. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, March 8, 1844, Steven s to Canning.
4. Badger, The Nestorians, i :xiv. American SundaywSchool Union, The Nesto w 37. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, March 23, 1844, Steven s to Canning.
rians, 8-9. 38. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, February i I, 1844, Rassam to Canning.
5. F.O. 78/2698: Constantinople, January 27, 1842, Canning to Aberdeen; 39. F.O. 195/227, Baghdad, April 3, 1844, Colonel Taylor to Canning.
also Tabreez, August 2 I, 1843, Abbott to Colonel Williams. 40. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, March 23,1844, Steven s to Canning.
6. F.O. 78/2698, London, March 24, 1842, memorandum of instruction to Rev. 4 I. F.O. 78/2698, Mosul, May 18, 1844, Stevens to Canning.
G. P. Badger on his departure to Kurdistan (included in Canning no 34; 42. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, June 20, 1844, Canning to Rassam.
includes February 1844). 43. Ma'oz, Gttoman Re/orms, 26.
7. F.O. 195/228, Mosul August i 7, 1843, Rassam to Canning. 44. F.O. 78/2698, Mosul July ıo, 1844, Steven s to Canning, Report on avisit
8. F.O. 19/204, Mosul August 17,1843, Rassam to Taylor. to Bedr Khan Beg.
9. F.O. 19/204, Mosul August 3, 1843, Rassam to Colonel Taylor.
LO. Ross reported that the age for bearing arms in Tiyari was fifteen and some w
times lower. Letters From the East, 61.
ll. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, June 17, 1843, Canning to Aberdeen.
12. Laurie, Dr. Grant, 356-357.
13. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, August 13, 1843, Rassam to Canning.
14. F.O. 78/2698, London, August 26, 1843, Aberdeen to Canning.
15. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, March 23, 1844, Canning to Aberdeen.
16. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, December 1, 1843, Canning to Aberdeen.
17. F.O. 78/2698, Constantinople, December 21, 1843, Canning to Stevens.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
CHAPTER 12
TEKROMA:
TRE LAST ASSYRIAN
INDEPENDENT PROVINCE
ı. ON THE EVE OF THE MASSACRES
Tekhoma, the second largest district ofthe Assyrian tribes, was not seriously
affected by the massacre of 1843. However, the conditions were changed
during the autumn of 1846, both intemally and regionally. Bedr Khan's
invasion of the other Assyrian provinces in 1843 had ended the indepen-
dence of their tribes. After the subjection of Tiyari, the Turks had nothing
to worry about in the region except the two remaining independent centres
of the Bohtan Kurds under the leadership of Bedr Khan Beg and the Assyr-
ian tribes of Tekhoma. The Turks were now poised to achieve their goal,
since Bedr Khan Beg was at their disposal to finish the job for them.
Until the fall of 1846, the inhabitants ofTekhoma were keen to main-
tain good relations with both Bedr Khan and Noor Allah Beg. Neverthe-
less a westem visitor in 1846 reported on the conditions of the inhabitants
and their readiness to defend their province. To create an excuse for his
240 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Tekhoma 241
attaek, Bedr Khan required them to meet certain requests that they were Kasha (Priest) Bdakha. The delegation's mission was to meet the pasha
in no position to fulfill, chiefly the payment of a large sum of money, and and to promise the submission of Tekhoma to the sultan and to him.
backed his demand up with a threat to invade and destroy their country They were also to declare that they were willing to acknowledge their
if they failed to comply. To make his threat sound serious, he ordered the loyalty to the sultan and his government, that they were his sincere sub-
inhabitants of Tiyari to collect and prepare provisions and other neces- jects who had committed no erime whatsoever, and that they were will-
sary supplies for the projected campaign. ing to pay taxes and do whatever else the government deemed necessary.
The date for starting the invasion was announced as immediately after However, the delegation never reached Mosul, and its members were
the end of the Muslim month of Ramazan. This gaye Layard, who had feared to have been killed while crossing the district of Berwar. 2
been planning to visit this district, time to do so just a few days before Meanwhile Rassam submitted a report to Ambassador Wellesley,
the invasion began. On his way, he observed a Kurdish group headed informing him about developments regarding Tekhoma, including Bedr
by the Mutasalim of Julamerk, who, as he noted, was notorious for his Khan Beg's intention to attack it. In his report, he expressed his sorrow
enmity to the Assyrians. The Mutasalim summoned Layard 's companion that the actions of the pasha of Mosul indicated that Bedr Khan either
Rais Yacob and, after threatening him, sent a similar message to Layard. had aıready entered Tekhoma or was about to do so. If the pasha inter-
Meanwhile amessenger was sent to Noor Allah Beg, informing him of vened, he would do so not to secure the safety of the tribe but to ensure
the presence of a 'Frank' in the mountains. The next day, amessenger that Bedr Khan acted in accordance with Ottoman Turkish plans and
arrived and informed Layard that this time 'Bedr Khan Beg intends to interests. The pasha had dispatched a Turkish officer to Bedr Khan, sup-
finish with the Christians, and will not make slaves for consuls and Turks posedly to persuade him not to attack Tekhoma, but in Rassam 's view,
to Iiberate'.1 the Porte really intended to put an end to the independent status of these
The threat of upcoming massacre hung over the daily lives of the centres. However, he declared with frustration that, as usual, the Kurd-
inhabitants. Even the women, along with the men, were participating ish leader had not obeyed the pasha's orders or even Iistened to them.
in discussing this nightmare and expressing their opinions on how to Bedr Khan's reply to the pasha's appeal had been that 'he will not allow
defend themselves and their country. any interference in the affairs of the mountain region'.3 This, along with
the escape of the patriarch Mar Shimun from the British vice-consulate
at Mosul, further compounded and complicated the situation and made
2. ApPEAL TO THE P ASHA OF MOSUL
conditions more even difficult. 4
Even while they were preparing for the attacks, the people were exercis- On the other hand, the cooperation between the Kurdish leaders was
ing every means to secure peace for themselves, including an appeal to unusually strongo Once again, the c10se and strong relations between
the government to provide them with protection. They understood that those leaders coincided with their intention of attacking the last indepen-
their own power was no longer enough to withstand a powerful attack dent Christian tribe and carrying out the massacre that Bedr Khan had
by the Kurds. The imbalance between their limited resources and those threatened to commit. Thus their attitude towards the inhabitants of the
of the Kurds in both Persia and Turkey, who were well armed and deter- district ofTekhoma reflected their real objective.
mined, left them no hope except the interference of the pasha of Mosu\. The black clouds that were gathering in the sky over Tekhoma in Octo-
Accordingly a meeting at the viiiage of Birjani resolved to sen d a del- ber 1846 were made even darker by Layard 's remarks about the prosper-
egation to the pasha made up of leading men and including the leamed ity and the military power ofthe district. During his tour throughout the
242 ASSYRIANS, KUROS, AND ÜTTOMANS Tekhoma 243
countıy of the tribes, including the district of Tekhoma, just a few days it was the envoy himselfwho wamed them not to respond because of his
before Bedr Khan began the slaughter, he found the district stili pros- leader's iii intentions towards them, and that if they obeyed, they would
perous compared with others;5 however, when he reached the villages all be put to death.
of Birigai and Ghissa, he noticed that their inhabitants were anxious to
hear the latest news about the anticipated invasion and Bedr Khan 's Beg
4. THE SCENE OF THE TEKHOMA MASSACRE
threat to massacre them. 6
AND THE F ATE OF THE CAPTIVES
Once again,just as during the massacre ofTiyari and Diz in 1843, the
Ottoman authorities gaye Bedr Khan a free hand to crush the power of In November 1846, while all the heads of the tribes were assembled at a
the Assyrian tribes. In the autumn of 1846, the tribes were stili suffering meeting with their followers, the news came that the Kurds were invad-
from the after effects of Bedr's first onslaught; their countıy was almost ing the district. Shortly after, amessenger from Bedr Khan arrived and
in ruin, and the people had not recovered from the general destruction. submitted his demands, with which the inhabitants would have to comply
Now Tekhoma's tum came to face asimilar fate. if they wished to avoid the massacre: eveıy person from the district-
male and female, adult and children-must pay twenty-five piastres; all
the inhabitants must surrender their weapons; and they must hand over
3. THE TURKS AND THE CONTINUE D
all their possessions and wealth.
MASSACRES OF ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS
The people's past experience had taught them to not trust Bedr Khan's
Bedr Khan's preparations for the attack on Tekhoma were well observed word-and anyhow, they could not afford these demands. Meanwhile the
and c10sely followed by the Ottoman Turks in Mosul. The inhabitants Kurdish agha of Chal sent amessenger to Tekhoma offering to protect
of the district, feeling their own weakness and inability to stand the the women and children, but he betrayed the Assyrians: he sent word to
thrust of the upcoming Kurdish invasion, applied on many occasions to Bedr Khan informing him of the route that the refugees would follow to
the pasha of Mosul, begging him for protection, but he seems to have get from Tekhoma to Chal. Bedr Khan's commander-in-chief, the noto-
put them off with evasive answers. The pasha's Turkish envoy to Bedr rious Zenal Beg, cut the refugees off and surrounded them; when they
Khan was well publicised and allegedly ordered to convey a message arrived at the spot where the Kurdish fighters were waiting, a who le-
that if the beg caused any harm to the Christians ofTekhoma, he would sale slaughter ensued. All the women and children were slain except two
pay with his own head. But Bedr Khan's reply to the pasha to mind his young girls who pretended to be dead and managed to escape at night to
own business, and that he would allow no interference in the affairs of teli the tale. 8
the mountains, shows that he quite correctly took the envoy's threat for
empty words. The different attitudes of the Turks and the Kurds were
5. TEKHOMA: THE LAST ASSYRIAN
made to represent a disagreement between them over Tekhoma, when in
INDEPENDENT PROVINCE
fact both had a common interest in subduing its inhabitants. 7
Before the attaek, the authorities tried to lull the victims into a false Bedr Khan Beg now issued orders not to spare any survivor or take any
sense of security and so lower their state of readiness. In the midst of all captives, whether men, women, children, or elderly. He had leamed
these rapid developments, Noor Allah Beg of Hakkari sent a message from his previous experience; this time, he decided not to take slaves
summoning all the maliks and ra 'eses of the Assyrian tribes. Surprisingly, whom foreign consuls would then require the govemment to liberate.
Accordingly, he treated every Christian in the province as a target to The tragedy ofTekhoma resembled what had befallen Tiyari, and the
be eliminated; the buildings were to be levelled to the ground, and the attackers practised extreme cruelty. Here Zenal Beg and other Kurdish
inhabitants slaughtered.9 leaders committed the most atrocities. Then as Zenal and Tahir Agha
The British ambassador sent a dispatch to the foreign secretary, Lord Mutasalim al Jazirah were sitting in front ofthe ruins ofthe church after
Palmerston, warning him of the projected massacre, based on the intelli- destroying the viiiage of Kordiktha, a group of captives was brought
gence that he had reeeived. Meanwhile the British high eommissioner to to them eomprising twenty males, thirty-five women, twenty-six young
Persia also received a report from Abbott, the consul at Tabreez, inform- girls, and twelve children under seven years of age. As soon as they were
ing him that Bedr Khan Beg had once again invaded the country of the assembled on the viiiage common, Tahir Agha cried, 'We don't want
Assyrians. This time, the thrust of the invasion was directed against slaves to be liberated by the consuls. KiII them all'. Immediately a gen-
the district of Tekhoma, which was the most populous one left after eral slaughter began, and all the captives were killed exeept three young
the destruction of Tiyari. According to the early reports, after a fierce girls, who were spared for their beauty.12
operation lasting four hours, the Kurdish forces had managed to disarm After the massacre, Bedr Khan Beg and his forces returned from the
the people and seize their arms and had driven away all their flocks. seene, and in due course, some of those who had eseaped to Persia returued
Once again, it was reported that the Hakkari leader Noor Allah Beg had to their ruined villages and homes. Noor Allah Beg promptly attacked
cooperated in the attaek; however, Abbott stated that he did not know them, enslaved most of them, and tortured some to make them reveal the
'the cause of renewed hostilities against the unfortunate mountaineers, location oftheir supposed buried treasure. The few who manage to escape
whose cruel fate seems to recruit the interference of civilized govern- once again erossed the border to Persia, leaving the whole district almost
ments in their behalf' .10 without inhabitants. This massacre was the subject of a detailed report in
a private letter from Urmia, which stated that two hundred women had
been slain besides the six hundred killed on their way to Chal, and another
6. THE F ATE OF THE CAPTIVES
three hundred had been killed trying to escape to Persia. Even that figure
After massacring the hundreds of women and children who were on overlooks those who were killed in the distriet of Berwar on their way to
their way to the province of Chal, relying on the offer of its Kurdish Mosul.1 3
agha, Zenal Beg then directed his attack against the district ofTekhoma, The severity of the massacre and the fanaticism of the Kurdish lead-
which is centred on one main valley containing all the villages of the ers were aseribed, among other factors, to the agitating role oftheir reIİ
district. Being outnumbered by the Kurds, who were well armed, the gious leaders, who had called for jihad against the Christians. Rassam
few fighters of Tekhoma could neither withstand the assault nor counter reported that every species of eruelty had been practised in the district
it; so after few hours, they were all rounded up. The Kurdish fighters of Tekhoma. Furthermore, the survivors were subjected to oppression
then began a general slaughter, following their new instructions not to and exploitation, and taxes were being collected from them three times a
take any captives. All able-bodied fighters were killed except for a few year-onee for Noor Allah Beg and twice for Bedr Khan Beg.
who managed to eseape to neighbouring Persia. The people's posses- The British consul at Baghdad expressed his firm opinion on the attitude
sions were thoroughly plundered, and then all houses were burnt, fields of the Turkish officials to this tragic occurrence. The pasha of Erzeroom
were destroyed, trees were chopped to smail pieces, and the irrigation eould have offered proteetion to the Christian tribes if he had wished to
system was completely destroyed. 11 do so; the Turkish government had taken the same stance. For some time,
Rassam kept arguing that the Kurdish leader's power was exaggerated if thus their homeland represented the heart of Kurdistan. 16 To achieve this
not iIIusoıy and that he had many enemies who were willing to fight him. 14 goal, certain Kurdish tribes who were under the influence of mullas and
Wellesley informed Palmerston about the massacre, which he described their aghas and chieftains were psychologically prepared for the campaign
as even more horrible than the one the Nestorians had suffered three years on religious grounds. In both massacres of 1843 and 1846, fanatics played
before. He also noted that he had brought it to the attention of Aali Pasha, a key role in agitating the invaders, and they continued to agitate the masses
the Turkish foreign minister. Aali Pasha had assured him that he had sent against the Assyrians as being infidels Iiving among the believers. Added to
instructions to the pasha of Mosul to protect the Nestorians and that a this was the thirst for loot and for women slaves. When the various Kurd-
new plan had been drawn up to crush Bedr Khan Beg, taking into consid- ish groups from Turkeyand Persia headed to the attack against the tribes,
eration all related issues: s These, however, were merely phrases that the they had in mind these three inducements: fighting the infidel, plundering
Turkish official used to evade his government's responsibility to protect loot, and enslaving the women. As the historian ıbn Khaldun remarked,
its citizens. these are common motives among invading nomads. 17
The number ofthe victims could not be accurately estimated, especially
since, when the people came under attack, they fell victim to the hysteria
7. GREAT BRITAIN'S REACTION
of the fanatics and were slaughtered in all directions. People were caught
TO THE TEKHOMA MASSACRE
on the fighting grounds, in their villages, along the escape routes to Chal,
and in other places. However, it is safe to say that huge numbers were The Nature of the British Intervention
killed as a direct result of the orders that the fighters received before The British government's reaction to the massacre was explained in
beginning their attacks, and consequently the figures that were provided the memorandum that Layard submitted to the ambassador, where he
for some locations must be considered a moderate estimate: out1ined his own views on the best method for ruling the region after
Bedr Khan was removed. He held that there had been no justification
for the massacres of 1843, which had led to the recent one in Tekhoma;
Location Victims Remarks he believed that the religious fanatics and the furious ambition of Bedr
Kizza 99 killed in the battle Khan lay behind this carnage. 18
Birjani 20 The response of the Foreign Office to the tragedy of Tekhoma was
Tekhoma Kawaya 260
Kurdiktha 88 killed outside the battle firmly expressed by Palmerston in his instructions to Wellesley. Refer-
Mizry Unknown among the victims, 3 priests ring to the dispatch that he had received from the consul at Tabreez,
In the Battle 200
Chal 600 he expressed his concem about the fate of the Nestorians. They were
Total 1057 oppressed and persecuted throughout the region. The plight of those who
were under the rule of the government ofUrmia was considerably aggra-
vated by the continued detention of their patriarch, who was considered
Conduct towards the Assyrian tribes stemmed from their desire to a prisoner at Mosul. Consequent1y the Foreign Office instructed Welles-
occupy their land and to consolidate their own presence in the regions sur- ley to intercede with the Porte in favour of the patriarch and to express the
rounding the homeland of the tribes. As Edward Robinson remarked, the pleasure that the British government would feel if he were set free from
Nestorians lived in the midst of the Kurds 'in their festinated mountains'; his detention: 9
248 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND ÜTTOMANS Tekhoma 249
These instructions reflected the bitterness that the Assyrian followers After the Massacre ofTekhoma
of Mar Shimun were feeling. Besides having been killed in large num- Rassam informed Wellesley that if the Porte wished to take any step
bers and having seen their country destroyed, they were suffering fur- against the Kurdish leader, then the Jacobites of Tur Abdin, who occu-
ther from being deprived oftheir spiritual and civil leader, who remained pied a district stretching between Mardin and al Jazirah, would be use-
captive in Mosu\. Palmerston's instructions marked a tuming point in ful, as they had been for the campaign of the former al Sadir al Ndham
the policy of Great Britain towards the Assyrian crisis. The decision was Mohammed Rashid Pasha in 1834-1 838 during the last Kurdish war.
motiyated, however, by many factors, among which was the active labour They were able to muster a large number of fighters, and fifteen thou-
of the Catholic missionaries among the Nestorians. There was concern san d ofthem wouldjoin in the final campaign against Bedr Khan.
lest the French would take advantage of the plight of the patriarch to con- Rassam also mentioned that those who had just arrived from Tiyari
vert his followers, who now had no one to guide them, to Catholicism, and Tekhoma had informed him that the massacre of the women and
which would represent a victory for French influence at the expense of children had been disgusting. In one of the villages, the scene in the
the British. 20 river was unspeakable: the bodies of the victims had been thrown into
The official attitude was conveyed to the sultan 's govemment, which the water, which consequently was no longer fit for use. In the same dis-
assured the ambassador that it intended to eliminate Bedr Khan and patch, he put the human loss at four thousand persons killed. Zenal Beg
had drawn up a comprehensive plan for doing so, which it would carry had stripped the people ofTiyari of all their possessions, including their
out as soon as the winter was over. 21 However, the foreign secretary stocks of food, and threatened them, saying he would 'starve them to
responded in strong terms, instructing the ambassador to impress upon death'. He had also issued orders to prevent them from going to Mosul
the Turkish officials the dangerous effects that a policy of persecuting and threatened any who defied them with execution. 23
the sultan 's Christian subjects for their religious beliefs would have
on public opinion all over Europe. The British minister warned the
8. THE SUFFERINGS OF MAR SHIMUN
Turks that if they were not moved by their own interest, they should be
moved by humane principles and ought to take proper measures to pre- As has been mentioned, Mar Shimun had fled from his homeland and
vent such barbarous crimes in the future. He told them that it was the taken refuge in the British consulate at Mosu\. His correspondence with
duty of any civilised government to punish the criminals and to secure the British authorities in Mosul and Constantinople shows him con-
protection for the Nestorians, and that the Ottomans would be held stantIy begging them to interfere on behalf ofhis people and to help them
responsible for any mistreatment of the Christians. The Turkish offi- to return to their homeland after their eviction by the invading Kurdish
cials, however, seem to have correctly assessed the threat and known troops. But the long years that he spent in Mosul appealing and begging
quite well that neither Britain nor any other western European nation produced no positive result. At first the patriarch seems to have been
was willing or indeed able to sen d an army into the country of the tribes convinced that Great Britain would help his people to return to their
for the sake of saving them, while they would all unite to prevent Rus- homes and that he would then be able to resume his civil and religious
sia from doing so, from fear that, on ce its forces had occupied that ter- authority. But political and military conditions in the region were mov-
ritory, they would proceed to conquer all Mesopotamia and probably ing steadily towards eliminating the leaders of the independent centres,
all Persia as wel\.22 and the patriarch 's tum was approaching.
Nevertheless the British officials kept feeding the patriarch with hopes were onlyone element. Thus the Assyrian tragedy fell in the middle of a
of returning to his homeland. Stevens reported to Canning that he had critical situation, which was marked by sharp changes in the political and
met with the patriarch and expressed to him the government's wishes to ethnic map. This explains the ineffective mission of Kemali Effendi, the
see him and his people return to their country under the rule of the sul- sultan's envoy, due to the two-pronged approach to the issue by which
tan. On ce again, Stevens said he had done his best to impress upon the the sultan 's government sought to undermine Bedr Khan Beg but was
patriarch the benefits that he and his people would reap from his contacts equally anxious to deprive the Assyrian tribes of their independence.
with Kemali Effendi. The patriarch, however, had had nothing to say Mar Shimun pinned too many hopes on British intervention, and they
except to thank him and to assure him that he put his fate and his nation's gradually faded as no improvement came, but, on the contrary, the condi-
in the hands of the British government. 24 tions ofhis nation only grew worse. He vented his frustration in a message
On his part, the patriarch submitted many appeals and messages to the to the ambassador dated ı 7 March ı 845, when he bitterly complained
British ambassador, all of which expressed his wish to put himself and about the fruitless efforts of Kemali and Steven s, which had been sup-
his people under the protection of Great Britain, and stated that he was posed to save his people from the crisis. He extended his frustration to
authorised to act on their behalU5 He said he was willing to submit to the second tier of the Assyrian leadership: many maliks and bishops had
the sultan 's authority under the terms of any settlement that the ambas- applied for passports to emigrate to Georgia, to escape the persecution
sador deemed likely to resolve their crisiS. 26 that they were living under. 30
While the Assyrian patriarch put all his hope in the assistance of Great
Britain, it seems that he could not comprehend that Britain had a differ-
9. MAR SHlMUN'S FIRST ATTEMPT
ent agenda from the one he was hoping to achieve. In a report to Can-
TO ESCAPE FROM MosuL
ning, Lt. Col. Farrant stated that the patriarch must remain in Mosul for
an unspecified period and that his stay would continue until his fate was The patriarch was frustrated by the fruitless intervention of Great Britain
decided. 27 in the affairs ofhis nation and gradually became convinced that he him-
When he first took refuge at the British vice-consulate, just a short self was also a target for elimination like other ethnic leaders. But his
time after Rassam and Ainsworth had visited him in Tiyari in June 1840, determination to rejoin his people and ho Id them together was an inspi-
Mar Shimun had been well aware that he and his nation had no one else ration to them, and his plight was the subject of intensive correspon-
to depend upon for support. The massacre had left him alone, and he was den ce by British diplomats. Consequently he la id plans to escape from
anxiously looking for a power that would provide them protection with- his detention and seek freedom wherever he could. He first applied to
out imposing its religious doctrine 28-that was why he had approached the pasha of Mosul to let him go to the district of Berwar for a change
the British. However, during the frustrating years at Mosul, the patriarch of scene and to recuperate; the pasha first approved his request but later
was living in constant anguish and constantly giying voice to his com- refused to let him leave.31 Then he tried to go to Tekhoma, but the pres-
plaints: '[M]y country and my people are gone! Nothing remains to me en ce of Bedr Khan's forces there prevented him from doing so, and he
but God' .29 He seems not to have appreciated that the issue of the Assyr- was obliged to head for Amadia instead. However, his first attempt to
ian tribes represented a confl ict of interest for Great Britain, since it was escape from his detention led the pasha of Mosul to order his mutasalim
seeking to establish its influence over the Asiatic Ottoman Empire and to capture him and sent him back to Mosul; as Rassam reported, Mar
among various ethnic and religious groups living there, and the Assyrians Shimun was captured near Amadia and brought back to Mosul under
heavy militaıy escort. The pasha received and treated him civiııy, but only made him more determined to seize any opportune moment. During
only to comply with the wishes of the British ambassador, which he had his forced exile of nearly four years, he had become well informed about
conveyed to Aali Pasha, the Turkish minister of foreign affairs. Thus the the role and attitude of all concerned parties towards the tragedy of his
patriarch's attempt to regain his freedom was foiled, and he was back to nation. News of his second escape came from Tabreez when Steven s
square one. 32 reported to Palmerston that Mar Shimun had arrived in Urmia, justify-
The patriarch's attempted escape alarmed aıı British diplomats and ing his action by saying that he feared for his life after he had received
Turkish officials in the region, especially in Mosul. The pas ha was notice from Ambassador Cowley requiring him to visit the capital in
informed immediately and so had ample time to send his orders to the offi- order to receive afirman from the sultan recognizing his authority. Ste-
cials in distant districts to chase the fugitive patriarch and capture him. 33 vens, who had considerable experience on the subject, reported that Mar
The escape was the subject of a report by the ambassador to the Foreign Shimun had expressed himself willing to take his advice, which, how-
Office, where he stated that Mar Shimun's attempt had been frustrating ever, he could not give without official instructions from his govern-
for the Turks, but the ambassador did not mention whether the patriarch ment. He also warned that the Porte might take umbrage at the escape,
had any serious differences with the sultan and his government. Badger since the patriarch had fled from the sultan's dominions to Persia, and
justified the patriarch's attempt to escape from Mosul to any place that advised the Foreign Office to seek assurance from the Turkish govern-
could offer him an opportunity to serve his people. 34 Many other British ment that the patriarch would be received in a satisfactoıy manner if he
diplomats shared the patriarch's beliefthat Great Britain could solve the returned. 37
crisis if it really wished to do so. Palmerston drew the ambassador's atten- The success of Mar Shimun's second escape created a renewed flurıy
tion to the reports of the consul at Tabreez, who expressed his opinion that in diplomatic circies, because it displayed the futility of British policy on
the unfortunate Nestorians were frustrated, angıy, and outraged at the con- the Assyrian crisis. On 3 August 1847, Ambassador Cowley wrote to the
tinuing detention that the patriarch was suffering as a prisoner in Mosul. 35 Foreign Office, noting the serious consequences of the patriarch's pro-
Ambassador Wellesley wrote to Palmerston, informing him that the longed absence from his people; among other considerations, it would
expedition against Bedr Khan Beg has been postponed because the Porte encourage the French to approach his followers, and they would then be
had too few troops at its disposal to insure the success of the campaign, able to convert them to their own doctrine, which would strengthen their
while the rebel chieftain was said to have sixty thousand men ready for political influence, especially when they were offering the people their
action. Wellesley drew attention to Bedr Khan's hostile intentions against protection if they joined their Catholic Church. To this end, the ambas-
the Assyrians and noted again that Mar Shimun's escape had caused much sador mentioned that he was contacting Aali Effendi on the subject and
embarrassment and fmstration to the Ottoman government. This was why moving with great caution. 38
he had asked Aali Pasha to treat him kindly if he was captured. 36 Mar Shimun's escape from Mosul to Urmia c1early provoked an angıy
reaction among British circles in the city. Ross, the former diplomat,
reported on the event to Layard, stating,
10. THE BRITISH INTERVENTION
TO RESTORE THE PATRIARCH
[T]hat old fool, Mar Shimon, is positively off to escape going to
Mar Shimun was convinced of the mounting threat to his life as long as Constantinople and being made an Ingleez [Englishman] of...
he remained in Mosul, and his failed attempt to escape in October 1846 i asked Habbuba [his housekeeper] ifshe knew why Mar Shimon
had run away; she said: because the Ba/ioz [the British consul] ENDNOTES
wanted to send him to Constantinople and that both he and all
Nestorians were afraid ifhe went there he would never return. 39
Mar Shimun's trip to the capital was an urgent aim of the Turks. Aali 1. Layard, Popular Account, 153.
Effendi had prevailed upon Cowley to convince the patriarch to under- 2. F.O. 7812699, Mosul, October 9, 1846, Rassam to Wellesley.
3. Ibid.
take the mission using various pretexts, such as to obtain information
4. Ibid. On the subject of the massacre, Mar Shimun told Badger in 1850 that
regarding Bedr Khan Beg and to explore the best ways to offer services the people of Tekhoma had applied to the pasha of Mosul for protection,
to his people, while Cowley had written to Rassam stating that the aim but the pasha's action had been limited to sending a message to Bedr Khan
of summoning the patriarch to Constantinople was to decorate him with Beg criticizing his action. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:270, 276.
the Nishan medal and to provide him with afirman confirming his right 5. Layard, Popular Account, 145.
to occupy his office. 40 6. Ibid., 123-124, 140-141.
7. F.O. 78/2699, Mosul, September 19, 1846, Rassam to Wellesley.
Rassam wrote back to Ambassador Cowley on the subject of Mar Sh i-
8. F.O. 78/2699, Mosul, October 17, 1846, Rassam to Wellesley; Badger, The
mun's escape and the reasons behind it. He affirmed that 'Mar Shimun Nestorians, 1:371.
thought it had been cruel to keep him in Mosul so long and that he had 9. Ross, Mosu1, November 19, 1847, Ross to Mary, 64~8.
spent too many years in exile there, unable to improve his conditions or ıo. F.O. 78/2699, Oala Koozeh, November 2, 1846, Abbott to CoI. Sheil; F.O.
look after the needs of his people'. The vice-consul acknowledged that 78/2699, Constantinople, October 17, 1846, Canning to Palmerston.
he was not encouraged to support the return of the patriarch to his home- 11. F.O. 78/2699, Mosul, October 9, 1846, Rassam to Wellesley.
12. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:370-371.
land as long as Bedr Khan Beg po sed a threat to his safety; however,
13. F.O. 78/2699, Mosul, Rassam to Wellesley; Statement made by a party of
once Bedr Khan Beg was eliminated, sending the patriarch home would Nestorians from Tekhoma regarding the Iate massacres; F.O. 78/2699, Oroo-
not pose any danger or threat that he would resume his independence miah, November 4, 1846, Extract from a private letter from Oroomiah.
and refuse his submission to the sultan. However, at present, the condi- 14. F.O. 7812699, Mosul, September 19, 1846, Rassam to Wellesley.
tions were not ripe. 41 15. F.O. 78/2699, Mosul, October 17, 1846, Canning to Palmerston.
16. Edward Robinson, 'The Nestorians of Persia', American Biblical Reposi-
tory 6 (1841): 465.
17. 'Abd al-Rahman ıbn Khaldun, Muqaddimah (Beirut: Dar al Awda, n.d.),
95, 109-11 1.
18. F.O. 78/2699, Constantinople, October 17, 1847, Layard's Memorandum
on Kurdistan.
19. F.O. 78/2699, Mosul, October 9, 1846, from Rassam to Wellesley.
20. F.O. 7812699, London, October 24, 1846, Palmerston to Wellesley.
21. F.O. 78/2699, Constantinople, November 17, 1846, Wellesley to Palmerston.
22. F.O. 78/2699, London, November 17, 1846, Palmerston to Wellesley.
23. F.O. 78/2699, Mosul, December 12, 1846, Rassam to Wellesley.
24. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, February 12, 1844, Stevens to Canning.
25. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:291,376-378.

27. F.O. 78/2699, Erzeroorn, May 28, 1844, Lt. Col. Farrant to Canning.
29. Anderson, History, 1:222.
30. F.O. 78/2699, Mosul, March i 7, i 845, Mar Shirnun to Canning.
3 i. F.O. 78/2699, Mosul, October 3, 1846, Rassarn to Wellesley.
32. F.O. 78/2699, Mosul, October i 9, 1846, Rassarn to Wellesley.
33. Ibid.
34. Badger, The Nestorians, 1:369-370.
35. F.O. 78/2699, London, October 24, 1846, Palrnerston to Wellesley.
36. F.O. 78/2699, Constantinople, October i 9, 1846, Wellesley to Viscount
CHAPTER 13
Palrnerston.
37. F.O. 78/2699, Tabreez, July 2, 1847, Stevens to Palrnerston.
38. F.O. 78/2699, Constantinople, August 3, 1847, Cowley to Palrnerston. THE END OF THE
39. Ross, Letters From the East, 52.
40. F.O. 78/2699, Constantinople, February i 7, 1847, Wellesley to Palrnerston;
F.O. 78/2699, Tabreez, July 2, 1837, Steven s to Palrnerston.
KURDISH WARS
41. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, Novernber26, 1847, Rassarn to Cowley.
ı. THE RISE AND F ALL OF BEOR KHAN BEG
After his attack on the Assyrian tribes and occupation of their country,
Bedr Khan Beg emerged as the only Kurdish leader affecting the lives
and fortunes of the non-Turkish people under his control. Being devoted
to the fanatical teachings of the extremist Muslim Darwish order, he
treated the non-Muslim inhabitants of al Jazirah with severe cruelty in
a vigorous atternpt to convert them to Islam. In January 1844, Rassam
reported a new general campaign against the Yazidi settlements through-
out the region. In it, Bedr Khan used every means to further his desire to
convert all the inhabitants of al Jazirah to Islam, in which he finally suc-
ceeded. 1 The Christians were treated in the same way, and this policy was
so violently practised that one of its victims was abishop of the Jacobite
Church in Tur Abdin. Kemal Effendi, the sultan's envoy, was convinced
that Bedr Khan had committed this atrocity. The governor of Diarbekir,
who had under his authority Midyat, one of the largest Syrian ürthodox
258 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS The End of the Kurdish Wars 259
towns in the region, summoned the head of the clergy there to obtain in the summer of 1847. As early as December 1843, Brant, the British
from him the necessary evi den ce to prove Bedr Khan's complicity.2 consul at Erzeroom, reporting to Canning on the subject of the attacks
Bedr Khan's attack on Tekhoma in the autumn of 1846 marked the on the Assyrian tribes, had urgent1y requested an immediate campaign
end of all the remaining disloyal centres that the Ottomans had sought to to subdue this rebellious leader: '[T]here is no alternatiye to the military
subdue except for his own emirate of Bohtan, where he had emerged as campaign to subdue the Kurdish leaders who live in the neighbourhood
the most powerful leader of the Kurds. After Tekhoma, the Turks were of the Nestorİans to the Sultan's authority'.5
very close to concluding the last chapter in the saga of subduing these Bedr Khan's policy towards both the Christian s and the Yazidis in
centres. Meanwhile it seems that the circumstances that had prompted Tur Abdin also drew much attention and observation from British diplo-
the Kurds to form a unified front against the independent Assyrian tribes mats. Rassam reported that the region was chiefly inhabited by Yazidis,
during 1843-1846 no longer applied, because they no longer viewed the Kurds, and Christian Jacobites, who had lived in virtual independence
Christians as a serious threat. Thus the equilibrium ofpolitical and racial until the campaign of the former al Sadr al Ahdam Mohammed Rashid
relations was changed Iate in 1846, and that change in turn affected the Pasha, who had subdued them. But after he came to dominate the
Kurds' relations with the sultan and his government. They no longer felt region in 1840, Bedr Khan had pursued his policy of imposing Islam
bound in a common national cause but reverted to their entrenched tribal on aıı the non-Muslim inhabitants. Accordingly Tur Abdin underwent
loyalties, functioning as competing centres with the stronger always demographic changes, as Bedr Khan encouraged the oppressed Kurds
seeking domination over the weaker. The power of various other Kurd- living under the rule of Beirakdar and other Turkish rulers to abandon
ish leaders had been strengthened after the massacre. Having managed their vilIages and to settle there, where the living conditions were much
to entrench their position through their loyalty to Bedr Khan, leaders better than und er direct Turkish rule. The newcomers, however, settled
such as Noor Aııah Beg, Ardasheer Beg, the elder son of the spiritual in depopulated vilIages that the Kurdish leader Mir Koor of Rawanduz
leader of the Bohtan Kurds, Bedr Khan's nephew, and others were now had devastated earlier. The improved conditions did not apply to the
to be involved in his downfalP So just when he had reached the peak of Christians or Yazidis of Tur Abdin but were limited to Muslims only.
his power and domination, Bedr Khan Beg found himself aleader with a Badger, who had passed through Tur Abdin and al Jazirah Iate in 1842,
cause but without supporters. 4 saw the tragic life of the Christian s, who were then so demoralised that
they were hardly able to open their mouths and could only whisper
when they wished to talk. 6 The policy of compulsory conversion was
2. THE FOREIGN POWERS' REACTION
attested throughout 360 Christian vilIages in Tur Abdin, which had
TO BEDR KHAN'S ATROCITY
belonged entirely to the Syrian Orthodox Church, as Rassam reported
The reaction of the foreign powers, especiaııy Great Britain, after the in 1844.
massacre of Tekhoma and the successful escape of Mar Shimun from Rassam also reported that a Syrian Orthodox bishop from Mosul was
his detention in Mosul put strong pressure on the sultan and his govern- on a pastoral visit to the region of Tur Abdin, where the people begged
ment to make an end of such attacks on his Assyrian Christian subjects. him to refer their suffering to the pasha of Mosul and appeal for his
The powers took the events at Tekhoma as an occasion to demand in intervention.? Their condition was also the subject of complaint by two
strong terms that the massacres should cease. The pressure that these Kurdish leaders who arrived at Mosul and submitted aletter to Kemal
great powers exerted upon the Ottoman government led it to speed up its Effendi (the sultan's envoy) describing the atrocities that Bedr Khan Beg
action against the Kurdish leader, which was at last officially undertaken and Noor Aııah Beg were committing against the Christians. 8
On the recommendation of Noor Allah Beg, two American missionaries and Yazidi populations of the provinces under his rule. Those who lived
visited Bedr Khan in May of 1847. They were obliged to take a long within his emirate of Bohtan were ruled with an iron fist. The religious
route to reach al Jazirah rather than the short route across the country of leaders, especially the mufti (~i) of al Jazirah, Abdul Qaddus
the Assyrian tribes. Having been treated courteously during the month of (U"J-lill ~), were constantly claiming that the Muslims were free to kill
their visit, they reported the bright side of the Kurdish leader and highly the Christians and that a Christian's blood was worth only 30 piastres,
praised the prosperity, peace, and tranquillity prevailing in the territories which was equal to 2.25 dinars. 12
under his rule. At the same time, however, they also mentioned his con-
tinued cruelty and oppression against the Christian s of Tiyari and Hak- 29 May 1847
kari, who had been the victims ofhis during 1843-1846.9 Both Mulla Abdul Qaddus and Shaikh Abdul Izrael (J.ı:ıI.Jy..\1 ~ ~IJ
u" J.illl ~ )L.) encouraged Bedr Khan to adopt the fanatical tenets of
the Darwishes (".Au.J.:ı) and to undertake mass slaughters of the Chris-
3. THE COUNTDOWN TO BEDR KHAN BEG'S DOWNFALL
tians of Tiyari and Hakkari, as well as the Yazidis and Syrian Ortho-
February 1847 dox of Tur Abdin. These extremist Muslim fanatics surrounding the
The first sign of the Ottoman govemment's resolve to eliminate Bedr Bohtan leader declared that 'the time of the Christians on earth is
Khan appeared with the appointment of Asaad Pasha (l.!.4 .la...ıl) as new over and killing them is thawab (YlY) a pious act'. Thus the Chris-
pasha for the pashalic of MosuL. According to established practice, the tians were forced to convert to Islam or flee to other districts. Sham-
newly appointed pasha took the desert route to reach MosuL. This route mas (Deacon) Anton Ghanemah~ w~l (U"W), whom Bedr Khan
lay to the southwest of the Jazirah ıbn Omar, where Bedr Khan was employed as an accountant, mentioned that he knew many terrible sto-
expected to greet the new pasha at the head of a large military force. ries but was afraid to com e forward and teli them until his master was
While Asaad Pasha was still in Mardin, Bedr Khan Beg asked him to eliminated. 13
change the traditional desert route and instead pass through the town of Rassam further reported that Bedr Khan had committed a new attack
Jazirah, where he could pay his respects without bringing along a large against the Christians under his rule. His envoys sent to inquire on the
military force. The pas ha replied firmly that he did not intend to change subject reported that Matran (Bishop) George, the Syrian Orthodox
the traditional route to meet the wishes of one of his underlings. If the Bishop of Tur Abdin, a ninety-three-year-old man, with twelve other
beg were eager to meet him in the desert, he could do so with a retinue leading Syrians there, had vanished after visiting Bedr Khan. They had
of his servants and staff. But if he did not trust himself in his pasha's gone to his headquarters to beg him for mercy and to ease the oppression
hand except in the presence of a large military force, then it would be of the Christians under his rule. Bedr Khan had replied to the appeal of
better for him to stay where he was. Lo This attitude marked the reversal the aged bishop, 'You are Ka.fir [..;i\S-infidels], how dare you complain
of the good relations that had existed between the Turks and Bedr Khan against Muslim believers?' and had had the bishop and his companions
Beg during the attacks on the Assyrians in 1843-1846. The new Otto- abused without mercy, and all were thrown in prison. After two days,
man attitude towards the Kurdish leader signalled the opening of a new Matran George's body was thrown to the Christians, white the consul
chapter in which his end was approaching. i i reported that there was so far no information about the others. The envoy,
These developments led Rassam to report again on the cruelty that however, had reported the painful treatment of the Christians, who were
Bedr Khan Beg was still practising against the indigenous Christian practically staves to the Kurdish aghas in at Jazirah and all surrounding
regions, living in constant terror ofbecoming the next victims. The people As early as the Asheetha revolt of October 1843, Rassam had reported
were even afraid to leave their villages. on the relations between the two leaders. He stated that the Asheetha affair
As for the conditions of the remaining Assyrian inhabitants of and the successful siege of the Kurdish forces in Dr. Grant's castle for nine
Asheetha, the vice-consul was informed that Bedr Khan had left them days had been carried out after agitation by Noor Allah Beg and some
destitute. However, the Turkish government was party to the oppression aghas of the region of the Zab River. In encouraging the Assyrians to fight
and had no intention of relieving the sufferers. Furthermore, the Turk- his supposedly staunch ally, Noor Allah was moved by his desire to mİni
ish envoys sent to inquire into Bedr Khan's conduct had been bribed: mise Bedr Khan's influence, on the one hand, and to annex the country of
'Nizam Effendi' had received fifty thousand piastres. The contemporary the Assyrian tribes to his own domİnions, on the other. Thus Noor Allah
westerners in the region reported that persecution of the Christians was had used the Assyrian victims for his own advantage and design s, and by
daily practice. 14 doing so, Rassam pointed out, he had brought further suffering on them. 16
What complicated the situation and compounded the miseries of
the people was Bedr Khan's growing fanaticism. Rassam reported that
5. THE OTTOMANS' DETERMINATION
under mounting influence from the extreme fanatical religious leaders
TO END BEOR KHAN BEG
around him, he had adopted the tenets of the order of Darwishes and had
started practising its rituals. This turn had affected all the non-Muslim 22 March 1847
indigenous inhabitants of the land, especially the Christians and the A few weeks after the appointment of Asaad Pasha (t..:.4 Ja.....ıl), Bedr
Yazidis, whom he was foreing to choose between Islam and the sword. Khan finally grasped the real intentions of the Ottoman government
Among other abuses, Rassam reported in January that the Christians of towards him. He realised both their determination to bring his role and
Tur Abdin were being forced to carry heavy stones up to the top of the rule to an end and the crucial part that Great Brİtain could play in decid-
mountain where the Kurdish leader was building a castle. IS ing his fate. Accordingly he got in touch with Rassam, who on 22 March
informed the ambassador of the sudden arrival of Shaikh Yousif, whom
Bedr Khan had authorised to lay before the ambassador his suggestions
4. OUTSTANDING DIFFERENCES BETwEEN BEOR KHAN
for settling his affairs with the Porte.
AND NOOR ALLAH BEG OF HAKKARI
Bedr Khan was ready to respond to the Turkish demands. The me s-
Noor Allah Beg of Hakkari, Bedr Khan's brother-in-Iaw, was presented sage that his secretary Osman Beg and Shaikh Yousif carried to the pasha
as a prime agitator encouraging him to attack the Christian Assyrian of Mosul and the British vice-consul there amounted to abject surrender.
tribes of Tiyari and Hakkari, but he was secretly among the earliest His envoys declared that he was willing to go to Constantinople to settle
Kurdish leaders to betray him. These early signs of differences, which his differences with the Porte ifRassam guaranteed his safety. He would
later turned to enmity, reflected deep-seated rivalries between the two spare all parti es further bloodshed, no longer interfere in the affairs of
leaders. One was their competition for the Kurdish leadership; another Hakkari and Bahdinan, and relinquish the administration of Tiyari and
was the control of the lands that had come under direct Kurdish rule, Tekhoma. He would restore all his Nestorian captives and recognise Mar
which included the homeland of the newly subdued Assyrian Christians. Shimun as the Nestorian patriarch. He would use the name of the sul-
Their country nominally lay within the authority ofNoor Allah Beg but tan in the Friday prayers instead of his own name, abandon the title of
was in fact occupied by Bedr Khan 's forees. immam (~L..!), hand over Zenal Beg to Mosul, pay the Porte the determined
indemnity, and meet the pasha of Mosul without the escort of a large Su} Bolaq (Mahabad) in July of 1843. But when the Turks decided to
force. He would in the future rule with justice without discrimination eliminate him, all those Kurds who had staunchly rallied around him
between Muslims and Christians, abolish capital punishment, and hand in his inroads against the Assyrians during ı 843- ı 846 deserted him.
over to Mosul for punishment all those who were requested. In sh ort, he Their motive then had been to fight the 'infidel' Assyrian tribes ofTiyari
was ready to do whatever the sultan wanted him to do. and Hakkari, who, as has been shown, occupied a strategic location in
Bedr Khan's proposal represented a complete surrender to the Otto- the midst of their settlements. In 1847 the situatİon was reversed, and
man authority and an abandonment of his iron ho Id over Tur Abdin and accordingly each Kurdish leader reverted to pursuing his personal inter-
the upper regions of Mesopotamia. His concessions would have reduced est. Thus the Ottomans' resolve to eliminate Bedr Khan arose from Kurd-
him to an ordinary official of the sultan. But when Shaikh Yousif finish internal politics. Many chiefs who had hesitated to announce theİr
ished the long list of Bedr Khan's undertakings, Rassam informed him disagreement with Bedr Khan during his might openly sided with the
that he could not give him any firm promise. 17 Turks against their fellow Kurd, who presumably was leading a national
The succeeding days showed the real intention of the Ottomans, movement, at the first sign of Turkish determination to deal with him.
which fell in line with the policy they had pursued since 183 ı. After Their desertion arose from the historic friction and even enmity between
two weeks, Rassam reported to Wellesley, informing him that military the various tribes and from their jealousy of Bedr Khan's position. The
preparations in Mosul were going vigorously forward and seemed to be Kurds had shown the same tendencies many times before when they
related to the rumours of a campaign against Bedr Khan Beg. Despite had helped the Turks to eliminate any emerging Kurdish centre, such as
the financial crisis that Mosul was going through, provisions were being Baban, Bahdinan, or Soran.
collected for a large military force, and all indications pointed towards
Zakho, located a short distance from al Jazirah, Bedr Khan's headquar- 5 April 1847
ters, as its destination. News was circulating about the advance of Omar Pasha (1...!i4 yar;.) from
Ross, the British former diplomat who stili resided at Mosul, wrote to Aleppo at the head of two corps to join the advancing force of the Sar
Layard about the pressing issue of Bedr Khan, stating that Askar (commander-in-chief). The immediate etfects of these prepara-
tions were to fall upon the Christian population of the region. Rassam
Mosul is Iikely soon to be the focus of great activity, and will observed that these unfortunate people would bear the burden of supply-
acquire considerable political interest in consequence of the now
ing provisions, among which was a large store of grain collected from
seemingIy serious intentions of the Porte against Bedr Khan Bey,
who I think has sealed his fate by the last slaughter of the Tek- Mosul and the villages throughout its plains. This was done despite the
homa Nestorians. impoverished state of the people, who were aıready oppressed by the
rulers and Muslim majority and exploited to the limit. Thus this policy
Ross believed that a force of forty thousand regular troops would be able only worsened conditions for the Christian population in all provinces
to subdue him. IS where the projected contest was to take place.
Bedr Khan's messages to Rassam revealed his awareness ofboth his
The Cracks in the Knrdish Front own weakness and the determination of the Ottoman government to
Bedr Khan had succeeded in forming an unprecedented alliance among end his role. This state of atfairs must have convinced the Porte that its
the Kurdish tribes of Diarbekir, Sevaik, Viranshahr, Sulaimaniyah, and previous estimate of the power of this Kurdish leader had been highly
266 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND üTTOMANS The End of the Kurdish Wars 267
exaggerated. Rumours were also circulating that he was selling his grain are well aware that you take great interest in our welfare, and do
stores, intending to escape to Persia. 19 all in your power to arrange matters with the Porte, and that you
have represented our case at Constantinople, by which you have
infinitely obliged us. But we beg you to adjust our affairs and
ıı April 1847 excuse our coming; for fear has penetrated· our heart, and you
As the affair of Bedr Khan Beg came to dominate the region, the Brit- are aware that the dread of death surpasses all other fear. Thus
ish became actively involved. Great Britain's policy reflected a desire to we entreat you, if it is in your power, to arrange matters without
our coming until this fear quits our heart ... we have entrusted
give the Ottomans all needed support to impose their central authority, on all our affairs into your hands, and you are our agent, with the
the one hand, while maintaining friendly relations with the Kurds, on the exception of life, which is not to be placed in comparison with
other. However, as has been mentioned, while Great Britain was eager to anything else.
fulfil its own desires, the Ottomans were pursuing their own scheme to (Signed) Bedr Khan Beg. 22
achieve their goal on their own terms by using force, not negotiation.
In the midst of all this, the British efforts to solve the crisis contin- The vice-consul replied by stating,
ued. Khawaja Anton (w.,hı14 1 p.), the brother of the British consulate's The cause of our writing to you is that we received your letter in
dragoman, was Bedr Khan's accountant, which made him a suitable a fortunate time, and have read it with great attention. It seems
intermediary between the British consulate at Mosul and the Kurdish that you excuse yourselffrom coming on aeeount of the fear from
leader at Dair Quli. To encourage Bedr Khan to surrender peacefully, your mind, and to calm your apprehension, if you will listen to
Rassam wamed him that the Ottomans were determined to destroy his the advice of His Excelleney the Ambassador, whieh we com mu-
nicated to you, no evil will befall you, for we all desire eamestly
power and eliminate his independence. On these lines, he wrote inform- to save both yourself from death, and your eountry from the ruin
ing him that 'the commander-in-chief of the Imperial camp, with numer- of war. You must be well aware that the forees of the Sublime
ous Nizarn [regular] troops, had entered Diarbekir'. He also wamed him Porte are so great that you cannot stand before them, and hostili-
that if he lost the present opportunity, he could not get the same favour- ties once commeneed, you will not be able to save your life by
able conditions later. 2D f1ying to other places ... and to take courage and go immediately to
On 27 Apriı, Bedr Khan wrote back to Rassam, asking him to look His Excelleney Osman Pasha the Mushir, whom i have addressed
on the subject, and His Excelleney will show you all due atten-
after his affairs with the pasha ofMosul and to send his secretary Osman tion and respect. The reason that i have sent Hojja Antoon (ü.,hıl
Beg for that purpose. The vice-consul answered on ı May ı 847, urging 41p.l1) to you is that his brother Hojja Torna (Lo"':; 4 1p.l1) is
him to go to Constantinople as the Porte required and telling him that too unwell to travel. i hope that you will not listen to the advice
he had no altemative. 21 However, the following exchange of messages of others, but trust in God and start immediately for Diarbekir,
shows Bedr Khan's tenacity and the British attitude towards both the where you will be convinced that our counsel was for your good.
Turks and the Kurds: May God preserve you.
(Signed) C. A. Rassam. 23
To our beloved friend the Consul Bey ... we commence by inquir-

ing after your health and well being, and then inform you that we 3 May 1847
received your kind letter by the Tatar, and have read it attentively Rassam 's envoy to Bedr Khan retumed to Mosul and reported, among other
and understood its contents, with which were much pleased. We things, that the Kurdish leader Sa'adun Agha Khalgholi (w~~...,a..ıc. ti:.i)
268 ASSYRIANS, KUROS, AND OTTOMANS The End of the Kurdish Wars 269
and other leading supporters had been convinced by the ambassador's message to use all means of persuasion on Bedr Khan to make him agree
message to their chief and now believed that it was useless to resist the to go to Sar Askar Osman Pasha in Diarbekir, but without giying any
sultan and that there were two altematives: peace or war. The majority of commitment. This action was alsa kept secret from the pasha of Mosul,
the Kurdish leaders had urged Bedr Khan Beg to Iisten to their opinion who was convinced that the issue must be settled by force. 27
that there was no use in resisting the mighty army of the sultan. Saadun Bedr Khan 's reply to the letter and request, in which he asked for
Khalgholi had gone further, deCıaring that 'Bedr Khan Beg can always Rai ve Aman (pardon and security of life), was prompted by his own
depend on his support in fighting with the tribes, but he can't do so with fear. He was aware of all the dangers that he would face as arebel
the Sultan and his govemment'. Furthermore, Bedr Khan had ordered the and that he was considered disloyal to the sultan despite his contrary
inhabitants of the villages in the plains to leave for the Dair Quli in the protestations.
mountains with all their possessions, because he intended to desert al Jazi- After arriving in Zakho, Rassam 's envoy sent a message to Bedr Khan
rah. Meanwhile news had arrived in Mosul of fighting between Ottoman to teli him that he was carrying a message to him and would Iike his
forces and those of Khan Mahmud of Van, but the vice-consul said he permission to proceed, and when the request reached him, Bedr Khan
could not verifY it. At this stage, it seems the Ottomans were taking pre- immediately sent his secretary to escort the vice-consul's envoy to his
cautionary measures in the regions, notably by sending a military force headquarters.
to Amadia to prevent any foreseeable Kurdish disturbances. 24 The same Next day, Rassam reported the desertion of Ardasheer Beg, the elder
day, Wellesley wrote to Rassam that the Porte intended to end the issue son of Saif ul Din (cJ.ı.ll 1 ~) and his arrival at Mosul. Saif ul Din was
by force. Therefore he asked him to exert his utmost effort to induce Bedr the famous leader of Bohtan in whose name Bedr Khan Beg had carried
Khan to surrender with all his immediate supporters. 25 out all his actions until only a few years before. He occupied a promi-
nent place among all the Kurds, who looked on him as a holy man. The
16 May 1847 desertion of the twenty-year-old Ardasheer Beg, along with his younger
Bedr Khan's letters to Rassam were translated and submitted to the brother, to the Ottoman camp created a sharp division among the Kurds
ambassador at Constantinople. From them, it appears that he had received and shifted the balance of power towards the Ottomans. This was a seri-
assurance for his life and property if he headed to Constantinople, as ous blow to Bedr Khan Beg and a great boost to the Ottomans, which
the Porte demanded. However, Rassam told Canning that Bedr Khan strengthened their resolve to destroy their foe.
hesitated to go to Constantinople and that Asaad Pasha of Mosul believed Ardasheer, for his part, announced that he believed Noor Allah Beg
it was better to wait and give him an opportunity to make his next was leaning towards the Turks and against Bedr Khan. Consequently
move. 26 the pasha sent him an envoy with a private message. Both Ardasheer's
Rumours had begun to circulate a few days before that the Kurdish desertian and Noor Allah Beg's approach to the Ottomans weakened
leader had bumt the town of al Jazirah and the surrounding villages. Bedr Khan and forced him later to surrender himself to Sar Askar
At the same time, Zenal Beg, from his side, was threatening to attack Osman Pasha. According to Ardasheer Beg, all these developments were
the Assyrian tribes of Tiyari and Hakkari once again, as well as Mosul. a direct result of the message that the British ambassador had sent to
Rassam secretly dispatched Khawaja Anton to urge Bedr Khan not to Bedr Khan urging him to surrender peacefully to the Ottoman authority.
lose time but to go to Diarbekir and surrender himself to the Ottoman Thus the message had influenced his decision to join the Turks with his
Sar Askar. He gaye his envoy verbal instructions beyond his written two brothers, as had those of others. 28
270 ASSYRıANSı KURDSı AND ÜTTOMANS The End of the Kurdish Wars 271
Meanwhile Bedr Khan dispatched his secretary Osman Pasha and which forced Rassam's envoy to lodge with thirty ofthem, who treated
Shaikh Yousifto Mosul to offer the pasha conditions for solving the cri- him rudely, cursing him and accusing him of having brought about their
sis that practically amounted to surrender. The envoys were also anxious leader's downfan. He was even more alarmed for his safety when he
to know the real intentions of the Porte towards their master. Rassam discovered that the wooden bridge across the Tigris had been destroyed,
communicated to Asaad Pasha and both Kurdish envoys the ambassa- which obliged him to seek leave to visit a nearby viiiage, from which
dor's wish to settle the issue peacefully, which required Bedr Khan to he made his escape southward to Zakho. He was instructed, however,
surrender himself to the Turkish army with guarantees to save his life to write to Bedr Khan Beg informing him that if he wished to go with
and property. Rassam, however, believed that neither side would meet YousifEffendi and was anxious to have his companionship, he must set
the ambassador's request. The two Kurdish envoys were unwilling to out from Feash Kahabour (.J~~), a vili age west of Zakho. Bedr
convey the message to their master, and after discharging them, the Khan replied that he would not surrender unless the sultan issued afir-
pasha informed Rassam that he had no instructions from the Porte on the man freeing him from any blame for the affairs of the Nestorians and the
subject; all that he had received were orders to prepare a certain number Yazidis and offering him pardon.
of men and provisions to be ready at sh ort notice. Rassam's moves and contacts with Bedr Khan Beg annoyed the Pasha
Consequently Rassam wrote to Bedr Khan, informing him that the of Mosul, who viewed them as contradicting the policy of the sultan's
Porte intended to subdue him by force if he did not surrender. He urged govemment. Meanwhile Rassam 's envoy Khawaja Anton reported that
him to Iisten carefully to the ambassador's advice and not refuse the Ardasheer's supporters represented a formidable power and that his
Porte's offer of clemency. Furthermore, he advised him that he had no younger brother had barricaded himself in a castle which could be con-
hope of any resistance and would not be able to counter the huge army sidered a key to the district of Bohtan. 30
that would shortly advance against him. In conclusion, he wamed him
once again that if he lost this opportunity, he would not get the same
6. THE LAST KURDlSH BATTLE AND !Ts AFTERMATH
favourable conditions later. 29
14 JUDe 1847
19 May 1847 Rassam reported that after all attempts to convince Bedr Khan Beg to
Rassam 's envoy reported from al Jazirah that Bedr Khan was anxious to surrender had failed, a fight broke out between the Turkish army and his
know the intentions of the Turkish govemment. If he went to Constan- force. According to the details that his informant reported, the Sar Askar
tinople, he feared the British ambassador, who might raise the issue of was assembling his forces in large numbers for the upcoming contest.
the Nestorians with the sultan's government. Another deterrent was the Bedr Khan Beg was occupying the other bank of the Tigris River, where
continual arrival of messages from his supporters in Mosul and Diar- clashes between the two sides had broken out and two Turkish soldiers
bekir advising him not to listen to the British ambassador or his consul had been killed. The Kurds' losses were un known, despite the assistance
at Mosu\. He thought that if he surrendered himself, he would meet his sent by Khan Mahmud.
end, and ifhe were captured in the fight, he would have the same fate. As for the Assyrian tribes of Tiyari and Hakkari, Rassam informed
While the envoy was in Bedr Khan's quarters, information arrived that Wellesley that the news from their country indicated that Noor Allah Beg
the Turkish commander-in-chief with several of his military command- had released the detained Assyrian leaders. The country was now cau-
ers had arrived in Diarbekir. The place was filled with Kurdish leaders, tiously watching developments, and the people were keen not to disturb
their neighbours. The Kurds were involved in watching the Turks, and he leamed that Ressoul Pasha (I...!ı,-! J.,.....J) had gone with Stevens' man to
they were also keen for the moment not to disturb their neighbours. Baghdad, after he had lost any hope of Persian assistance. The Turkish
it is worth noting that the vast majority of the Muslim population con- forces were superior to his own, which left him unahle to defend either
sidered Bedr Khan as their protector and as a symbol of Islam against himself or his territory. When the Turkish army attacked his camp on
the infidels, and expressed their support for him. Those supporters were the mountain of Arak Kaleh, he could not withstand the pressure for
spreading rumours that the troops coming against him had been sent by more than a few days, especially after almost all the Kurds deserted him,
the Europeans, not the sultan. reducing his force to some three hundred fighters. His project for fleeing
By the end of June 1847, Bedr Khan's affairs had reached a crisis the country and taking asylum in Persia had also aborted, so he found no
under mounting British pressure to surrender and the Ottoman prepara- way to escape the circle tightening around him except through surrender.
tİons to crush his power. His only way out was to take refuge in Persia. That was what he did when he went for Rai ve Aman (,:}.A~IJ ,,1}I).32
White in Dair Quli, Khawaja Anton leamed that Bedr Khan had sent a On 12 July 1847, Rassam reported to Ambassador Wellesley the long-
messenger to the Persian shah asking for asylum. awaited news of the end of the siege of Bedr Khan:
However, Bedr Khan was defeated even before the Ottomans initi-
ated their campaign. He had miscalculated his alliance and misjudged The defection of Noor Allah Bey of Hakkary, who after tender-
ing his submission had exerted himself to cut off a retreat to Per-
his supporters, including Noor Allah, who conspired against him with
sia, and the impossibility of any longer maintaining his position,
the Ottomans. His attempt to counter the Turkish threat by forming a decided the Mir to sue for Ray ve Aman, and on receiving it he
united Kurdish front revealed that only Khan Mohammed had been hon- rode into camp with five or six attendants. 33
est with him and loyal to the common Kurdish cause to end the Turkish
occupation. Faced with the hitter reality of the desertion of most of his The fall of Bedr Khan Beg marked the end of the series of many
former Kurdish allies, Bedr Khan remembered his Assyrian victims of Kurdish leaders: Khan Mahmud of Van was so discouraged by the out-
Tiyari and Hakkari, hoping to gain their support and assistance in his com e of the battle of the Sa'arat River that in despair he gaye himself
upcoming conflict. Rassam leamt that he had asked Noor Allah Beg to up to the Erzeroom division, while Rassam reported that Zenal Beg had
arm the Assyrians and promised to sen d him the required arms if they either been captured by the Tiyari or else was Iying hadly wounded in
lacked any. Bedr Khan does not seem to have realised that, just as in the the castle of Berwar. Omar Pasha, with his division, was marching to
days of their weakness, the Turks would impose their authority using Mosul. This explains the message that Ross sent to Layard, in which he
the old weapon of enmity both between the various ethnic and religious stated, 'Thus we may say that the Koordish war has terminated' .34
groups and even within a single race, as they did with the Kurds. Thus After the elimination of Bedr Khan Beg, it was considered that the
the proposal to form an alliance came to nothing when all the leaders of region would be more under the authority of the sultan if all hereditary
the tribes refused Noor Allah's request. 3 ! rulers were eliminated, among whom were Zenal Beg, who had partici-
pated in the last slaughter of the Tekhoma and had persistently mistreated
the Christians in his district.
7. THE SURRENDER OF BEOR KHAN BEG
12 July 1847 26 July 1847

As the Turks' campaign to eliminate Bedr Khan reached its final stage Rassam communicated the result of the contest to subdue Bedr Khan
and their forces surrounded him from all sides to begin the final assault, to Cowley as he had received it from his informant in Bedr Khan's
headquarters at al Jazirah, Shammas Anton, the treasurer. The battle had Jazirah on 23 August. Khan Mahmud of Van and Mofti Muııa Abdu
not lasted more than two days. Bedr Khan himselfhad been sent to Diar- Qaddus (ı.>"..,.illl ~ )l..) were among the large number of prisoners, who
bekir under strong guard. Several of his immediate followers who had also ineluded other begs, aghas, mullas, and shaikhs who had been Bedr
taken part in the massacres against the Nestorians had been detained, Khan's senior supporters; they had been mounted and their legs chained
but many others were stili free, among them, Zenal Beg. Mulla Abdul to their horses. As for Noor Allah Beg, the news was that he had been sent
Qaddus was considered the prime agitator who had preached constantly to Hakkari escorted by a Turkish military force that would encamp there.
for eliminating the Assyrian males and enslaving the females, and his Some other Kurdish leaders were stili at large, such as Zenal Beg; Ras-
preaching had helped to support the Kurdish leader. Rassam urged that sam advised Wellesley ofhis hiding place in the viiiage of Hallamoon in
such individuals must not escape the punishment of the law. Now that the Lower Tiyari. He also reported on the campaign of the Sar Askar in the
region had entered a new chapter, it was for the Ottoman government, if region of Siarat (üY'-'"') against some local Kurdish leaders.
it had the will and determination, to impose lawand order and to keep According to the reports, the conditions of the Christians improved
peace and tranquillity there. Moreover, if it wished to protect the Chris- immediately after Bedr Khan's defeat, because his fate convinced the
tians, all those who had mistreated the non-Kurdish inhabitants must be other Kurdish leaders that they could no longer go on persecuting and
made to account for their actions and removed from the administration. exploiting them. The capture of their persecutor gaye the oppressed
This would also help the Ottomans to establish their authority firmly.35 Christians a chance to show their feelings, but they did not enjoy their
The vice-consul attached with his dispatch the report of Shammas release from oppression for long. The ninety-five-year-old bishop of
Anton, who described with many details the capture of Bedr Khan Berwar, pressed by the persecution against his followers, was obliged
Beg and his imprisonment. He mentioned that four days after his depar- to head to Mosul to present their sufferings to the pasha, while Abdul
ture from al Jazirah, he had reached the imperial camp at Avrak Kaleh Samad was continuing his oppression and confiscating their possessions.
(dj! ~i.)i), which belonged to Bedr Khan Beg. On Wednesday, the Rassam introduced the bishop to the pasha. Despite Abdul Samad Beg's
Ottoman army had assaulted Bedr Khan's entrenchment. Omar Pasha had persecution of his followers, he begged the pasha to keep the Kurdish
ordered the beginning of the attaek. The battle had lasted until the next leader in his post and not replace him, because at least he did not rob
day, and when it had been decided to ambush the place, the fighting had the Christians to the Iimit and the appointment of a new governor would
become so intense that Mustafa Pasha was killed. At i O a.m. on Sunday, cause much of suffering, since the new governor would exceed even
it was decided to start the final assault. Bedr Khan had then decided to Abdul Samad in fleecing the poor Christians. However, Rassam noted
surrender with his three hundred fighters, along with two cannon, asking that Beirakdar himselfhad ordered the Kurdish leader to treat the Chris-
for 'elemeney', and then the Turkish commander had arrested the Kurd- tians harshly. Therefore the pasha preferred to keep him in his post as
ish leader himself. 36 mutasalim ofBerwar, especially after he confessed that in his conduct he
was carrying out the orders of the former pasha of Mosul. 37
8. BEDR KHAN BEG IN CHAINS: 23 AUGUST 1847
Kurdish Desertion
Finally the mighty Kurdish leader had fallen from his glory, and a Brit- The final determination of the sultan's government to eliminate Bedr
ish informant at the scene of the operation reported that Bedr Khan Khan was ascribed to the pressure exerted by the British ambassador
Beg, along with his supporters, had been led through the bazaar of al along with other representatives of the great powers in Constantinople.
When the Kurdish leader failed to meet the sultan 's demand to surrender EN ONO TES
his independence, the Turkish army forced him to do so. The majority
of the Kurdish leaders deserted him, including Noor Allah Beg, who had
been the prim e mover of the Assyrian massacre; he had even conspired ı. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, January 13, 1844, Rassam to Canning.
against Bedr Khan before the Turks determined to attack him. He then 2. F.O. 78/2698, Erzeroom, May 28, 1844, Lt. Col. Farrant to Canning.
joined the Turks in their campaign to destroy Bedr Khan and employed 3. Wilson, Handbook, 232.
all his power to prevent him from escaping to Persia. Further blows were 4. F.O. 78/2699, Mosul, October 19, 1846, Rassam to Wellesley.
the desertion of his nephew and the refusal of Persia to offer him asy- 5. F.O. 195/227, Erzeroom, December 1,1843, Brant to Canning.
lum. 38 Ross wrote to Layard, 'Thus we may say that the Koordish war
7. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, January 13, 1844, Rassam to Canning.
has terminated' .39 8. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, April 6, 1844, Rassam to Canning.
10. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, March 6, 1847, Rassam to Wellesley.
1 ı. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, March 8, 1847, Rassam to Wellesley.
12. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, March 6,1847, Rassam to Wellesley.
13. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, May 29, 1847, Rassam to Wellesley.
14. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, March 6, 1847, Rassam to Wellesley; Southgate,
Narrative of aVisit, 246; Badger, The Nestorians, 1:57.
15. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, January i 3, 1844, Rassam to Canning; Laurie,
Dr. Grant, 329.
16. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, October 3,1843, Rassam to Canning.
17. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, March 27, 1847, Rassam to Wellesley.
19. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, April 5, 1847, Rassam to Wellesley; F.O. 78/2699,
Mosul, October 19, 1846, Rassam to Wellesley.
2 ı. F.O. 195/301, Mosul-Dair Quli, April27, 1847, Bedr Khan Beg to Rassam,
and F.O. 195/301, Mosul, May 1, 1847, Rassam to Bedr Khan Beg.
22. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, May 1, 1847, Rassam to Bedr Khan Beg.
23. Ibid.
24. Rassam stated that 'Khan Mahmoud of Van also was so disheartened by the
result of the battle of the Sert River, that in despair he gaye himself up to
the Erzeroom division'. See F.O. 195/301, Mosul, July 12, 1847, Rassam to
Cowley.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, July 3,1847, Rassam to Wellesley.

31. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, May 29,1847, Rassam to Wellesley.
33. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, July 12, 1847, Rassam to Wellesley.
34. Ibid.
35. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, July 26, 1847, Rassam to Cowley.
36. Ibid.
37. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, August 23, 1847, Rassam to Wellesley.
38. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, October31, 1847, Rassam toCanning; Nawwar, Tarikh CHAPTER 14
a/lraq, 1:312.
CONCLUSION
As their name implies, the Assyrians were the aboriginal inhabitants of

northem Mesopotamia, where they survived for over two millennia after
the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC, despite continual waves of foreign pil-
lage and conquest. Even after these misfortunes drastically reduced the
Assyrian population in the plains and the adjacent hill country, the inde-
pendent Christian Assyrian tribes ofTiyari and Hakkari, who were faith-
ful followers of the Church of the East, continued to live isolated in their
ancestral homeland in the rugged mountains of ancient Assyria, serving
as a unified ethnic and religious group who were able to maintain their
Christian faith and independent presence amid the various surrounding
Muslim groups.
One factor that may have contributed to the ultimate downfall of the
tribes and their church was the labours of the Roman Catholic missionar-
ies, who pursued their hostility to the doctrine of the Church of the East
because they considered it a 'Nestorian heresy'. As has been shown, the
isolation between the two churches was not the product of any truly seri-
ous doctrinal dispute, for contrary to what many writers have asserted,
280 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Conelusİon 281
the Church of the East accepted the decrees of the Council ofChalcedon between the two rivals, while the surrounding regions, in particular to the
regarding the nature and person of Christ-as, it appears, did Nestorius south, continued to serve as a battleground between them.
himself. The real cause of the schism between the Catholic Church and Historically, the Battle ofChaldiran led to profound military, political,
the Church of the East was the relatively minor issue (as appears later and ethnic changes. The Ottomans owed their victory to their alliance
in the declaration of the pope and the patriarch of the Church of the with their co-religionists the Sunni Kurds, mainly those of Azerbaijan,
East in their joint Christological declaration of ii November 1994) of who had been harshly persecuted by the Shi'a Safavids. The Kurds, for
the Three Chapters passed by the Second Council of Constantinople their part, found a safe and prosperous shelter from persecution after
in 553. This difference could probably have been resolved far sooner if Chaldiran. According to the agreement between the Ottoman sultan
both churches had only managed to maintain the good and close rela- Selim i and the Kurdish leader Idris al Bidlisi, they were to be settled
tions with the Orthodox Church of the Byzantine Empire that they had along the newly gained Ottoman eastem borders, which geographi-
enjoyed in the earlier decades ofthe sixth century. And so it seems fair to cally matched the northeastem frontier of the modern state of Iraq. For
say that the real cause of the permanent schism was the political hostility their part, the Ottomans also had an interest in the arrangement, since
between the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanids, on the one side, and it secured their eastem frontier, on the one hand, and so freed them to
the estrangement between the Orthodox Church and the papacy, on the pursue their design and desire for expansion in Europe, on the other.
other, rather than any really serious theological differences. As it was, Thus the settlement of the Persian Kurds along the eastem border was
however, the bad effects of this three-way cleavage appeared in the age the first powerful action in changing the demographics of the Assyrian
of the Crusades and later; for it is at least arguable that, if the papacy had homeland.
understood how c10se the doctrine of the Church of the East really was
to its own, the crusaders would have treated the Assyrian Christians at
THE ASSYRIANS AS ELEMENT OF BALANCE
least as well as they did the Armenians in the lands they conquered-and
BETWEEN ETHNIC GROUPS
better than they did the Jacobites-and might conceivably also have
done more to defend them against the inroads of the invaders from the A Ithough the Kurd ish settIement in Assyria after 1514 affected the
east, mainly the Turks and later the Kurds. Assyrians in the extreme eastem parts oftheir homeland, it did not seri-
However, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, several new fac- ously affect the independent tribes ofTiyari and Hakkari for several rea-
tors were introduced into the arena, both regional and extemal, which sons, most notably the martial culture of the tribes and the inaccessibility
seriously affected the existence of the tribes. The regional rivalry between of their country. While the new Kurdish settlements went some way to
the Ottoman and Persian empires became a decisive factor in shaping the strengthen the circle around the tribes, they continued to maintain their
course of events. This became obvious with the emergence of the two independence and give significant support to those semi-independent
powerful dynasties of the Sunni Ottomans and the Shi'a Persian Safavids. Assyrians who had to make some degree of forced submission to the
Those two dynasties and their successors have ever since written the his- Kurdish aghas. At the same time, however, the tribes maintained good
tory of the whole region. The drive for domination by each of these emerg- relations with their Kurdish partners in the emirate of Hakkari, who had
ing powers led eventually to the Battle of Chaldiran, where religious and settled in its eastem parts before the emergence of the Safavid state.
doctrinal factors influenced the outcome of the hostilities. The homeland On other fronts, the Assyrians were to face the impact of the con-
of the Assyrians was also to be affected by this development; it lay right temporary international development by which France introduced itself
282 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Conclusion 283
as an ally to the Ottomans. This brought the Catholic missionaries to Nadir Shah, who invaded the territory of ancient Assyria in 1743 with the
the region after Sultan Selim's award of concessions to France in 1535, full backing and support of the Kurds, whom he organised as apolitical
determined to resume the efforts to bring the Christians of the Near entity forming what become known as the emirates. This was a further
and Middle East into communion with Rome, which had begun dur- step to strengthening both the older Kurdish settlements, including those
ing the era of the Crusades. The missionaries entered the Ottoman Asi- made after Chaldiran, and the newer ones that followed Nadir Shah's
atİc domİnİons as early as 1536 and soon after were able to penetrate İnvasİon. Hence the Assyrians Iiving around the country of the indepen-
among the followers of the original patriarchal line of Rabban Hormuzd. dent tribes lost both land and numbers due to a continual series of inva-
The continual labours of the Catholics involved many attempts to sow sions, wars, and deportations that were inf) icted upon them during those
division among the Nestorian followers of the Church of the East, who turbulent times. After Nadir Shah's invasion, the independent tribes
were viewed by Rome as heretics. The first recorded attempt to 'recon- also faced further tightening of the Kurdish circle around their country,
cile' the Church ofthe East in 1551-1553 failed with the termination of which cut them off from other Assyrian settlements in the region to the
the first Catholic patriarchal line in 1575; however, a fresh opportunity north and northwest of Nineveh, as well as those Ra 'aya living in Per-
presented itself to Rome when a division in the patriarchal family led sian Azerbaijan.
the bishop of Salamas, Jelu, and Si'arat to defect from his church and Once the weakness of the Ottoman authority was widely exposed
join the Catholics, who encourage him by appointing him as patriarch again after Nadir Shah's invasion, a certain indifference to Ottoman
in 1580, thus creating a second riva i line to the mother church, which rule took root throughout Mesopotamia and Assyria, particularly among
has ever since been known as the line of Mar Shimun. This line drew its the non-Turkish population. ConsequentIy various ethnic and reli-
strength and support from the independent Assyrian tribes but did not gious centres emerged and acquired varying degrees of internal self-
maintain its allegiance to Rome for long, owing to opposition among government. These centres had no significant relations with the Ottoman
both the c1ergy and the laity. By the middle of the seventeenth century, central authority.
it had severed all its relations with Rome, and its followers had retumed Hence from 1747 until 1831, many ethnic and religious centresjoined
to the doctrine of the Church of the East. Among the Assyrian Ra 'aya the independent Assyrian tribes in acquiring a status of autonomy. Mean-
of both the Ottoman dominions and Persian Azerbaijan, however, the while the Ottomans, shaken by their defeats in Europe, took no military
Roman Catholic missionaries eventually enjoyed greater success, and or even financial interest in their Asiatic 'backyard'. This state of affairs,
the resulting religious divisions contributed to a political disunity among however, lasted only until reign of the reformer, Sultan Mahmud II (1808-
the Assyrians of which the Ottomans were to take full advantage in the 1839), which witnessed the loss of much of the Ottomans' remaining
era of centralisation. possessions in Europe and Africa. Thereafter the sultan seems to have
thought he had no alternative but to reconquer the Asiatic territories
that his ancestors had annexed to their empire in the sixteenth century.
THE TRIBES AND THE KURDS
In 1826 he began to implement reforms aimed at securing his grip on
The Kurds remained loyal to the accord of 15 14 as long as the Ottomans power and improving the effectiveness of his armed forces, and then
were enjoying power and greatness. But once the Ottomans' weakness in 1831 he was able to embark on his policy of centralisation. The Tanzi-
was exposed in Europe, the Persians seized the opportunity to resume mat reforms promulgated by Mahmud II and his successor Abdulmecid
the expansionist policy of Ismael Shah. This time, Persia emerged under had Iittle or no direct impact on the peoples of northem Mesopotamia as
284 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND ÜTTOMANS Conclusion 285
long as they maintained their autonomy; however, by strengthening both seene. Today the vast majority of the remnant of the Assyrian tribes and
the Ottoman administration and the army, they enabled the sultans at their brethren who once Iived throughout the adjoining regions are scat-
last to impose their effective authority on that part of their empire. This tered in diaspora communities throughout forty-two countries, among
effort lasted until ı 847 and turned the whole region into a battleground. different cultures.
For this, all the inhabitants of the non-Turkish autonomous regions paid The ethnic and religious balance that could have contributed to the
the price, inCıuding both the Kurdish emİrates and the Christians liv- well be ing of all the inhabitants of northem Mesopotamia was termi-
ing around the country of the independent tribes; at last, in 1847 Otto- nated because their Islamic neighbours lost the will to coexist with the
man rule was permanently established over the tribes themselves after Christian Assyrians. This development claimed the lives ofhundreds of
Bedr Khan Beg's occupation oftheir country, which lasted from ı 843 to thousands of innocent people and ultimately contributed to driving the
1847. The Assyrians, who had maintained their independence for ages remaining Assyrians from the land oftheir ancestorso Its after effects can
in Tiyari and Hakkari, were then subjected to a systematic campaign of stili be seen in the ethnic tensions disturbing modern states of Turkey
genocide and repression. and Iraq.
THE ASSYRIAN MASSACRE AND !Ts CONSEQUENCES
In the end, the independence of the Assyrian tribes was destroyed not
directly by the Turks but by theİr Kurdİsh neighbours under Turkish aus-
pices. This took place following the Ottoman success in undermining
the autonomy of the various Kurdish emirates, Yezidi centres, and Arab
dynasties by a policy of divide and rule. The Ottomans reaped the fruit
of the Kurds' internal dissensions and the actions of the Kurdish leader
Bedr Khan Beg against the independent Assyrian tribes, whom he first
fatally weakened and finally subdued during his invasions of ı 843-1846.
The tribes were forced by power of arms to join other Assyrian com-
munities in the plains of Nİneveh and Azerbaijan that had been turned
into Ra 'aya during the preceding centuries. Thus the massacres of ı 843-
ı 846 ended the long-Iasting existence of the Assyrian people as an inde-
pendent body, as attested by thousands of monuments, churches, towns,
and villages that had existed in their homeland from time immemorial.
Thus the preceding chapters recount a distressing narrative that
reveals how enmity between two different ethnic and religious peoples
replaced a willingness to Iive side by side in coexistence and to maintain
a positive relationship that could serve the best interests of both groups.
Inevitably this led in the end to the removal of the weaker group from the
ApPENDIX A: THE LINE OF MAR SHIMUN
THE LINE OF MAR SHIMVN
During the period under study, the patriarchate of Mar Shimun contained
the foııowing structure:
1. Mar Shimun, the patriarch.

2. Mar Khnanishu, the metropolitan who consecrated the patriarch.
3. The bishopric of Mar Yonan in the district of Urmia, Persian
Azerbaijan.
4. The bishopric of Mar Kebriel, Urmia.
5. The bishopric of Mar Yousif, Urmia.
6. The bishopric of Mar Elia, Urmia.
7. Metropolitan Mar Eshu.
8. The bishopric of Mar Dinkha.
9. Mar Youhanan, bishop of the district of D'rostaka.
10. Mar Silaiwa, bishop of the district of Gawir.
11. Mar Sarkees, bishop of the district of Jelu.
12. Mar Eshuyab, bishop of Berwar.
THE EXTENT OF THE FOLLOWERS

OF THE MAR SHlMUN LINE
The geographical extent of the foııowers of Mar Shimun could be

assessed from the foııowing document, which iIIustrated the expansion of
the church in the Ottoman Empire and Persia: 1
Urmia: twenty-five thousand families in the city and villages through-
out a district eighty miles along the westem shore of Lake Urmia. In
Urmia, there were sixteen hundred houses. They had five bishops.
1. Bishopric of Mar Gibrael Ardishi, a senior bishop

2." " "Isha'a - Nazlo
288 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Appendix A: The Line of Mar Shimun 289
3. " " " Elia - Gog Tapa ENDNOTE

4. " " " Yonan - Kwelan
5. " " " Elia - Annodagh
6. " " " Solduz ı. Taqwem Qadim Lil Kanisa al Kildaniya, published by Putrus Aziz (Beirut:
7. " " " Merga Wa'ir AI Mashriq, ı 909).
8. " " " Shamzdin-The seat ofthe metropolitan
who officially consecrated the patriarch
9. Bishopric of Mar Bishu. An ancient bishopric with monuments
dating back to the early centuries of the
Christian era.
ıo. " ofGawir: Seat oftwo bishops.
ıı. " of up per Dasan (The district of the
independent tribe of Jello)
Appendix B: Assyrian Dioceses by Area/Region 291
ApPENDIX B: ASSYRIAN DIOCESES BY (continued)

AREA/REGION Location Churches Priests Families Remarks
Bekolke O O 5 Berwar
Tootha Shamaya O O 10
Diocese of Mar Auraham of Gonduk (Iil.lifi - rA 1.J...ıl ).A ~y.l). Maya O O 15
Deriske O O 15
Location Churches Priests Families Remarks Aina d'Nooni 1 1 20
Iyyet 1 1 5
Shermen 2 30 Near Akra in the Zebar Bishmiyaye 1 1 6
region Doori 2 4 20
Shosh O O 3 Helwa 1 1 7
Goonduk 1 1 12
Malkhtha O O 5
Artun 1 1 15
Akri 1 1 20
Ba-Mishmish 1 O 15 Bebaluk 1 1 10
Erdel 1 14 In the Murzuiyeh region Hayyis 1 O 15
Bekole O 20 Total 20 18 348
Another ViIIage 1 16 Name unknown
Esyen 1 40 In the mountain district south
of Jabel Gara (I}S @)
Ergen 1 O 10 "
Diocese of Bohtan l (ü\:iı\J:' ~..>Il).
Talneetha 1 1 6
Mezi Location Churches Priests Families Remarks
1 1 30
Barmeen O O 8 District of Bohtan 23 16 220 District of Bedr Khan Beg
Adekh 1 O 15
Armashe 1 O 15
'Mar Vousif, the metropolitan of Bohtan, died in 1846, and no successor has been
Total 13 9 249
appointed by the Mar Shimun, who has never visited this province. There are stili two bish-
ops here, Mar Shimun, who resides in the Atel district, and exercises Episcopal jurisdiction
over twenty Nestorian villages in the mountains, and two or three in the valley of the Kha-
Diocese of Mar Yeshua-Yau of Berwari (.JJ">ı - YI.,ıc. y!y )..A ~..>Il). bour between Zakho and Jezerah, and to contain in all (see "Diocese of Bohtan").
Location Churches Priests Families Remarks
Amadia o 1 25 In the plain of Sapna Diocese of Mar Shimun the Patriarch (ü~.J1... 1il.J:!.):.,ıll ~\:j ü\,,;,!,y.l).
Deiri 1 O 12
Comane 1 O 13 Location Churches Priests Families Remarks
Dirgni 1 2 40
Bilejan O O 8 Garamoon 1 2 80 In the district of Asheetha
Bibedi 1 20 Halamoon 1 2 50 Lower Tiyari
Hamziyya O 6 Tcalluk 1 1 40
Dehe O 20 Arosh O O 17
Karoo 1 10 In the district of Naerwa Hor O O 15
Alih 1 O 2 Teire Rezen O O 14
Bash 1 1 12 Asheetha 1 4 4002
Welah 1 1 10 Zaweetha 1 1 90
Tashish 1 1 20 Berwar Minyanish 4 2 60
Jdeede O O 5 Merghe O 1 80
(continued on next page) (continued on next page)

292 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Appendix B: Assyrian Dioceses by Area/Region 293
(continued) (continued)
Location Churches Priests Families Remarks Location Churches Priests Families Remarks
Kurkhe O O 35 Malota O O 20
Leezan 1 2 80 Chamba Hadtha O O 20 District of
Oomra Tahtiya 1 O 00 n/a Waltoo
Zemi 1 1 16 Lower Tiyari Zorawa 1 6
Karukhta O O 6 Seerta 1 66
Chamba d'Beth 1 1 25 Shwawootha O 14
Soseena
Matha d'Mart Miriam 1 1 100
Matha d' Kasra 2 2 40 1 1 90
Khadiana
Be-Zeezo O O 6 Reshe d' Nahra 1 1 45
Lagippa 1 1 20 12 12 631
Total
Be-Alatha 1 3 40 1 25
Golozor 1 Province of Diz
Be-Rawole 1 2 30
Shoord
Rawola d'Salabeken
O
1
O
5
12
120
Soowwa O 6
(jl ~)
.
Koorsen O 20
Serspeedho 2 2 80 Upper Tiyari (t,ıiall <.j.#)
Chiri Chare 1 40
Siyadhor 1 1 20 18
Mades 1
Chamba d' Be Ellia O 1 6
Chamba d'Nene
Mar Kuriakos 1 5
O O 7
Akose 1 25
Chamba d' Coordhaye O O 5 Choolchan O 6
Mezzraa O O 4 Sub-District of the Church
32
Be-Shammasha O
of Mar Sawa
Saramos O 18
Mrateetha O 1 6 4
Rabban dad'Yeshua O
Be-Nahra O O 10 Makeeta O 6
Be-Zrako O O 10 Alogippa O 4
Roomta O 1 20
Jeiatha O O 10
Reshe d' Nahra O O 20 2This number does not match that given by other missionaries who resided among the
Aina d'Aleete O O 3 people for long time, in addition to the statement of diplomats and others.
DooraAllaya O O 6
Total 22 36 1,463
Distriet O Berwar d'Koehanis (~t.;..."s ~ JJ.>!).
Kalaytha 1 1 40
Mezraa d' Kalayatha O O 3 Location Churches Priests Families Remarks
Chamba d' Melek 1 O 60
Be-Dalyatha O O 12 Kochanes 2 3 35 Province of Diz
Dadosh 1 O 35 (jl~))
Mabbuaa 1 1 20 Be-Nano O 6
Ko 1 1 30 Nerwa O 10
Chamba d' Koodkhe O 1 10 Kerkones 4 O 20
Be-Meriggo 1 1 20 Keeger 1 O 12
Roma Smoka O O 5 Soreenes 1 O 10
Chamba d'Hasso O O 5 Tamel 1 O 16
Darawa 1 1 30 Be-Khajiji 1 O 6
Baros 1 O 12
(continued on next page) Total 59 56 2,496
(continued on next page)
294 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Appendix B: Assyrian Dioceses by Area/Region 295
Distriet of Berwer Siweene (~Y" .JJY. ~J). Location Churches Priests Families Remarks
Location Churches Priests Families Remarks Merzaa 1 1 130 The District of Jelu
Goondooktha 1 1 110
Khardalanes O 14 Province of AIsan 1 1 90
Diz (j.ı ,.fo!) Medhi O O 5
Kotranes O 25 Nahra 1 1 30
Akhwanes O 20 Zereni 1 1 110
Shmooneenes O 20 Matha D'Mar Zeyya 1 1 50
Siweene O 30 Ummod O O 25
Espin O 20 Talana 1 O 55
Sallen O 6 Be-Bokra O O 20
Goranes O 20 Nerik O O 28
Kerme O 20 Ori O O 5
Oret O 6 Zer 1 1 100
Serpel 1 O 105
Boo Bawa 1 O 35
Distriet of Berwer d'Shwawootha (~JJI~ .JJY. ~!). Samsikki 1 O 40
Matha d'Oriyaye 1 O 28
Location Churches Priests Families Remarks Musperan 1 O 22
Shwawootha 20 Province of Diz Argeb 1 O 99
(j.ı ,.fo!)
Sakerran 1 18 "
Derikki O 6 P '
rovınce '\..ı~\
ofB az-.J. _ .'
Location Churches Priests Families Remarks
Distriet of Billijnaye ((jY. ~!). Kojeeja 1 O 20 The District of Jelu

Matha Tahteitha 1 1 100
Location Churches Families Shwawootha 1 1 110
Priests Remarks
Orwantooz 1 1 80 The District of Baz
Derres O 15 Province of Diz Heesh O 1 10
(j.ı ,.fo!) Merkanish O O 8
Awert 1 O 16 Gebba O O 6
Daden 1 O 16 Erbeesh 4 1 20
Be-Respi-1 O O 14 Ba-Dare 1 1 35
Alas 1 O 20 Ba-Ikta 1 O 15
Nauberi O O 6 Be-Kooraye 1 1 52
Be-Respi-2 O 1 9 Be-Azeza 1 1 40 The District of Tchal
(..)4. ,.fo!)
Rabbat 1 1 70
Diocese of Mar Seghees of Jelu-k _~...>'-")..A ~y.l. Talana 1 O 22
Arewun O O 33
Location Churches Priests Families Remarks Ko 1 1 21
Gissa 50 The District of Jelu Irk 1 1 28
Be-Arijai 100 Be-Shooka 1 1 15
Tkhoma Gawaya 120
296 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Appendix B: Assyrian Dioceses by AreajRegion 297
Location Churches Priests Families Remarks Location Churches Priests Families Remarks
Shawreza O O 6 The District ofTehal Khaleela 22 The District of
(Jl;. ,.fo!) Khananes
Biyya 12 .. Hoze O O 25
Be-Lelha 28 E~i O O 20
Total Ates O O 30
MenjilAwa O O 12 The District of Albak
Khralun o o 10
(Diocese of Mar Sleewa of Gawar-~.JlA ~.Jh Shareenes O O 7
Ozan O O 12
Location Churches Priests Families Remarks Poosan 1 O 14
Be-Rberri O O 20 Province of Gawar Boorduk 1 O 18
Zirkanes 1 O 16 Alamiyyan 1 O 20
Ooreesha 1 1 20 Kalanes 1 1 24
Darawe 1 1 20 Gezna 1 O 90
Kiyyet 1 1 24 Parrashin 1 1 20
Manoonann O O 6 Kharaban O O 18
Kadeeyyan O 1 30
Memekhan 1 1 13
SeenAwa 1 O 16 Additional Distriet Dioeeses Belonging to the Patriareh See.
Khulkhus 1 O 16
Gebrel 1 1 20 Location Churehes Priests Families Remarks
Gagoran 1 O 15 Erki 1 23 The Dislrict of Albak
Ba-Jirga 1 O 22 Khergel 1 1 20
WezeerAwa 1 O 19 Malha d'Oomra 1 1 6
Maken d'Awa 1 O 20 Nevgweezan 1 1 24
Pir Zalan 1 1 28 Zaranes O O 10
Cher Diwer 1 1 30 Kanoonla O O 8
Zeezan 1 1 21 Bellekken O O 8
Pa Elan 1 1 20 Khandekki 1 1 20
Dara 1 O 13 Billi O 1 15
paghi 1 O 15 Deira Zengel 1 O 10
Serdeshl 1 O 19
Gohikki O O 6
Dizza 1 O 60
MarYawnan 1 1 24
Mar Be-Yeshu 1 1 100
Oolama 1 O 20
Iyyel 1 1 28
TeilGeri O 16
Be-Zekle 1 1 125
Tarkhilan
Basan 1 1 20 The Dislrict of
Derranye
Khananes Alleila 20 ..
Dioeese of Mar Hnan-Yeshua.
Khananes 25
Tehleitha No speeifie details were provided, however, Badger slated Ihat the number of the Assyrians
Khananes 38 in this large district: "There is another large district in central Koordistan, inhabited by Nesto-
Teheitha rians, called Be-Shems oad-Deen, under the Episcopal jurisdiction of Mar Hnan-Yesua,
Silmooan O 12 who resided at Rustaka. The Metropolitan of this province for the time being consecrates
the Patriareh. He has three suffragans, whose dioceses inelude the districts of Ter, Gawar,
(continued on next page) Mar Gawar, Somava, Bradostnai, and Mohmedayeh. In Oroomiah there are four Bishops
298 ASSYRIANS, KUROS, AND ÜTTOMANS
and many neighbouring Nestorian villages. Mar Shimoon estimates the population of these BIBLIOGRAPHY
dioceses at 4500 families." Badger, i. 399.
Badger summarised the total number of the bishops, priests, churches, and families as
follows:
Dioceses Metropolltans BIshops Priests Churches Families

ı. BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE DOCUMENTS,
MarAuraham 1 O 9 13 249
Mar Yesua-Yau 1 O 18 20
PUBLlC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
348
Buhtan O 2 16 23 220
MarShimoon O O 62 75 2778 F.O. 78/2 i O.
Mar Serghees 1 O 24 37 1979
MarSleewa 1 O 18 34 1082 F.O. 195/113.
Mar Hnan-Yeshua 3 5 34 38 45000
Districts of Lewun and O O 7 9 222
F.O.195/175.
Total 7 7 188 249 11378
F.O. 195/204.
F.O. 195/227.
F.O. i 951228.
F.O. 195/301.
F.O. 78/533.
F.O. 78/2698
F.O. 78/2699.
H. M. Stationeıy Office.
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1ated into Arabic by Mohammed Ali Awni. Cairo, 1939. 179,206 140, 142
aghas, Kurdish landIords, 9, 247, Annenians, 21, 45, 64, 81, 97, 102,
261,263,275,281 140, 150, 152, 157, 162,280
Ah/ul Dhimma, or, Ahi al Kitab Asia, x, 3, 50, 53, 59, 63, 123, 159,
('People of the Book'), 135, 138, 160,163,189
147,149,153 Asheetha, capital of Lower Tiyari,
al Jezirah (al Jazirah), 83, 84,94, 3,7-8,42,46,179,181,200,
95,97,226,245,249,257,259, 208-210,234,262-263,291
260-261,264,268,270,274 Ashur, 1, 22-23
al Rahawi al Majhul, historian Assyria, 1-2,7, ll, 14-19,21-23,
of Urhay, 94, 109 28,30-31,33,49,61,66,74,77,
Albaq,6, 12,49 90,92-97,902-103,107,158,
Alexandria, 50, 52, 55 160,163,166,174, 177,190,
Aleppo, 73-74, 79,96,148,226,265 279,281,283
Ali al Qurani, historian Assyrians, ancient, ix, 6, 15,44,193
of the Kurds, 103 Assyrian Christians, 13, 16,28,
Alqush (Alqosh), 20, 36, 142 178, 202, 242, 262, 280. See alsa
Amadia (Amedia), 3--4, 7, 11, 41, Churches, Assyrian.
103, 160,167, 174-179, 181, Azerbaijan, xi, 2, 5-6, 12, 18,21,
183-185, 188, 190, 193,196, 23,35,40,42,45--46,77,79,87,
198,219,251,268,290 91-96, 103, 163, 173, 179, 189,
Amid (Diyarbakir), 68 198,281-284,287
318 ASSYRIANS, KURDS, AND OTTOMANS Index 319
Baban tribe of Kurds, 102-106, Beirakdar, the pas ha (viceroy) Christians, 3, 13, 15,20,28,32-33, Diz district, 2, 12, 35, 175, 186,
159-160, 163, 173, 189,265 ofMosul, 15,37, 169-196, 198, 36-37,44,50,52,58,60-64, 197-200,242
Babylon, 15 201,204-205,208,218-219,221, 71,80,83,91, 135-139, 141, Dohuk,7, 103, 175, 184
Babylonians, ancient, 12, 15 227-228,231-232,259,275 143-144,146-149, 156, 159, 161, Dr. Asaheel Grant,I, 5, 10-1 I, 19,
Babylonian Christians, 60 Berwar district, 5, 87, 176, 179, 166, 178, 185, 197,202,206,219, 37,46,174,177-181,186-187,
Badger, George Perey, 4, i 3- i 4, 187-188,196,201,210,241, 221,223,242-243,257-262,273, 197,200-202,207-208,211,227,
16,18,20,22,42,46,82-83, 245,251,293 275,280,282,284 230,263
170-171, 178, 183, 186, Bishop Mar Yohannan, 42 Church of the East, 5, 10,20-22, Dr. Carsten Niebuhr, 29, 81,
216-217,227 Bishop of Amedia, 83 33-36,49-69,74-80,82-84,96, 102, 105
Baghdad, 19-20,29,63, 101-112, Bishop of Kirkuk (Kerkook), 83 97, 158-159, 161, 170, 175, 188, Dr. Justin Perkins, 14,38,42,45
115, 129-130, 153, 160,165-168, Bishop ofSe'ert (Sert), 83 96,205,216,279-280,282 Dr. William Ainsworth, 2, 8-9, 1I,
170,175,177,189,192-195,197, Bishop of Mardin (Mardeen), 83 Churches, Assyrian, 6-7, 17,22-23, 15,26,31,37,46, 164, 167, 183,
199,201,215,218,226,233, Bishop of Mutran Elia, 83 36,39,43-45,50,53,139,147, 216,250,300
236-237,245,273 Bitlis, 2 150, 153, 198,290-298. See also Duri, 5,43
Baghdad vilayet, 215 Bohtan, i 59, 173, 177, i 82, 188, Assyrian Christians
Bahdinan, emirate of, 13, 100-101, 196,222,258,261,271,291 Constantinople, 3, 50-52, 55-56, 58, Egyptians, 52-53
160, 173-176, 178, 190, 193, 195, Byzantine Empire, 50, 63-64, 60,62,64,126,160,174,176, emirate of Baban, 102-106,
263,265 68,280 189,220,227,234,249,253-254, 159-160, 163, 173, 189,265
Bait Lapat, 57 263,266,268,275,280 Erzerum (Erzeroom), 37, 173, 182,
Bar Soma, Archbishop ofNisibis, Caliph al Muttaki, 92 Council ofChalcedon, 451 AD, 50, 189,196,202-205,207,218,227,
55-58 Caliph Omar (Umar) I, 123, 144 56,59,280 235,245,259,273,277
Bash Qa1a, 5-6 Capuchins, missionaries in Middle Council ofConstantinople, 381 AD, Eth Allaha, Patriarch of Church of
Basil Nikitine, Russian diplomat East, 80 50,58,280 the East, 76, 86
and historian of the Middle East, Catholic Church, 57-59, 61-62, 156, Council of Ephesus, 431 AD, 50, 52 Europe, 59, 61-62, 113, 115, 125,
99, i II 253,280 Council ofNicea, 325 AD, 50 139, 153, 159,283
Basra vilayet, 2 i 5 Catholic Missionaries, 4, 6, 34-35, Count Irenaeus, 53-54 Europeans, 10, 72, 126-127, 139,
Battle ofChaldiran, 1514AD, 39, 49,71-75,77,79,81-83,85, Crusades, 58, 280, 282 216,272
97-103, 143, 158, 162-164, 189, 87-88,186,205,248,279,282 Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, Eutyches, 55, 57
280-283 Chaldeans 52-56 France, 71-73, 75,117,143,155,
Baz tribe of Assyrians, 2, i O, 35 Ancient, 16, 2 i 216,281-282
Baz district, 8, 12,87,295 Christians, xi-xii, 3, 6, ll, 15, Damascus, 177 Francis I, King of France, 71, 143
The Bazaar of Heraelides, work 21,25,28,36,45,80,82-84, dhmmi (dhmimmi) [Jewish Franciscans, Catholic missionaries
attributed to Nestorius, 56, 59 140,142, 157, 172, 190, 193, or Christian subjects of Muslim in medieval Middle East, 75, 80
Bedr Khan Beg (Bey), Kurdish 208,21 i rulers],72
chief,82, 158, 174-176, 181, 187, Chamba, capital of Upper Tiyari, Dinkha, Bishop ofChurch of the Garamoon, 41, 291
188,190-191, 196-205,210-212, 3,7,9,41,199 East, 76-79, 84, 86, 287 Gawar (Gavar) district, 5, 13,87,
117-228,230-234,237,239-249, Chosroes, Shah of Sassanian Diodore, Bishop of Tarsus, 52, 57 296-297
251-252,254-255,257-277, Persia,58 Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria, Great Britain, I 1,80, 155,215-236,
284,291 Christendom, 59-62, 64 55-56 247-252,258,263,266
Greek,58-59,66, 120, 134, 140, irrigation, 130, 198, 244 Kurd(s) (Coord[s], Curd) ix-xiv, Mar Aba, 58
142, 147, 152, 160 Ishuyahb, Patriarch of the Church of 1,3-4,6,9,12-13,21,30,39, Mar Addai, 22, 35, 82
Gulhane Rescript, 121, 125 the East, 58 43,68,79,89-107, 109, I ll, Mar Elia, Patriarch of Church of the
ısmail, Shah ofPersia, 74, 99, 168 157-159,161-162,164,167-170, East, 77, 79-80, 82, 84, 86,
Hakkari, Sanjaq of the Ottoman 172-177,179-212,222-223, 142,287
Empire, 1-30,33,36,42, 77, Jacob Baradaeus, founder of 239-240,242-247,257-276, Mar Giwergis (Giwargis) church, 22
83-84, 101, 160-162 "Jacobite" or "Syrian Orthodox" 280-284 Mar Khanninya Dinkha IV, Patriarch
Hamadan,95-96,106 Church,58 Kurdish (Koordish), ix, xi-xii, 4-6, of Church of the East, 79
Hamawand tribe of Kurds, 106 Jacobite Church, 58, n, 82, 160, 9,12,23,27,36-37,84,88,90, Mar Masa, 36
Hassananli Kurds, 90 257 93-106, 107, 115, 158-164, 168, Mar Sheleta, 36
Hatti Sheif, 40, 128 Jaftribe of Kurds, 103-105 173-19 I, 193, 196-204, 206-2 ll, Mar Shimun, Patriarch of Church
Henry John Temple, Viscount Janissary corps, 116-118 213,215-216,220-221,224,227, of the East, 33-47, 76-84, 87,
Palmerston, British foreign Jelu 229-231,240-249,257-276,281, 164, 175-176, 180-188, 198-199,
secretary, 244, 246-248, 252-253 tribe,2-3, 18,35 283-284 215-216,220-228,230-234,241,
Henry Richard Charles Wellesley, district,9, 12,22,287,294-295 Kurdistan (Coordistan), 10, 17,22, 248-256,258,263-264,282,
Earl of Cowley, British bishopric of Church of the East, 31,35,37,91,95,97,101-102, 287-288,291,298
ambassador to the Ottoman 22,77,287,294-295 104, 163, nı-ın, 183,200, 211, Mar Shimun II, Patriarch of Church
Empire, 241, 246-247, 249,252, Jesuits, missionaries in Middle 216-217,247 of the East, 78
255,264,268,271-278 East, 80 Mar Shimun III, Patriarch of Church
Lake Urmia, 2, 5-6, 12, 18, 101,
Hirkiya tribe of Kurds, 105 Jesus Christ, 50, 59,65, 152 of the East, 78
i i 1,287 Mar Shimun LV, Patriarch of Church
Horatio Southgate, 20, 22, 28, 37, Jews, 81, 135-139, 141-146,
Lake Van, 2, 4, 12, 15-16, 18,25
78,83,102-103,105,170,186 149, 171 of the East, 78
Lebanon,64,166 Mar Shimun al Basidi, Patriarch of
Hormuzd Rassam, British vice- jizya (cizye), 91, 123-124, 133-135,
consul at Mosul, 170, 179-180, Levant, n Church of the East, 36
137-139, 144-146, 149-151, 180
Lizan, 7,41,211-212 Mar Shimun Benyamin XXI,
185,187-188,197-199,201-202, John, Patriarch of Antioch, 53-55
Louis XLV, King of France, 143 Patriarch of Church ofthe East, 79
204-205,208,210-211,213-214, Julamerk, 2, 4, 12,36,41,87,
216-220,223-224,226,231-232, 201,240 Mahmud II, Sultan of the Ottoman Mar Shimun Dinkha I, Patriarch of
234,241,245-246,249-251,254, District, 2, 20 I, 240 Empire, 80, 115-116, 118, Church of the East, 78
257,259-275 Kochanis, district in Assyria, 2 120,125, 127-128, 130, 140, Mar Sh im un Dinkha XV, Patriarch
Justin, Roman emperor, 57-58 159-160,283 of Church of the East, 79
Ibas, head of the college at Edessa, Justinian, Roman Emperor, 58 maliks, 33-35, 38, 43, 182,206, Mar Shimun Eshai XXIII, Patriarch
55-58 Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, 53-54 242,251 ofChurch of the East, 79
ıbn al Atheer, historian of Mamelukes, 98 Mar Shimun Michael XVII,
Mesopotamia and Persia, 96 Kardouchoi, 89-90 Mamluk,102 Patriarch ofChurch of the East, 79
ıbn Khaldun, 91-92, 96, 247 Khabour, 35, 84 Mamluks, rulers of Baghdad, Mar Shimun Oraham XIX, Patriarch
I1khanid Mongol Empire, 20, 64, 96 Khorasan, 91, 93 105-106, 115,129-130,160, of Church of the East, 79
independent Assyrian tribes, 9, Khuzistan,90-91 189,215 Mar Shimun Polis XXII, Patriarch of
11-13,37,39,45,82-84, 129, Kirkuk (Kerkook) Marco Polo, 96 Church of the East, 79
164, 174, 176-179, 190, 197,216, Kochanis, 2, 6, 9, 12, 35-36,44, 87, Mardin (Mardeen), 6,79,83, 101, Mar Shimun Rouel XX, Patriarch of
258,282,283-284 i 86, 198, 293 173,195,249,260 Church of the East, 79
Mar Shimun Sulaqa, VIII Patriarch Mosul vilayet (pashalic) (continued) Ottoman Empire (continued) Safavid Persian Empire (Safavids),
ofChurch of the East, 76 177,181-184,195-196,199, 135-137,139, 147, 156, 159, 163, 71,74,77,98-100,102,163,
Mar Shimun Shlemoun XVI, 201,216 179,202,223,250,287 280-281
Patriarch of Church Mount Asheetha, 3 Salabikan, 41
of the East, 79 Murad IV, Sultan of the Ottoman Patriarch, passim Salah al Din (Saladin), 96, 109-110
Mar Shimun Yonan XVIII, Patriarch Empire, LO 1- 102, 143 Patriarchal Line of Mar Shimun, Salakh, bishopric ofChurch of the
ofChurch of the East, 79 Muhammad Ali, Ottoman pasha 76-80 East, 23
Mar Yokhanan monastery, 77, 86 (or viceroy) of Egypt, 120, 126, Pelagian, 55 Salamas (Salamast), bishopric of
Marcian, Roman Emperor, 55 142,155,176,222-223 Pelagius, 53 Church of the East, 77, 187,282
Mari, 21, 35, 57, 82 Muhammad Amin Zaki, historian Persia, 13,21,23,50,58,77,86, Sassanian Empire, 30,51,60,91,
Mari bn Sulaiman, 32 of the Kurds, 30,90 90-91,93,96,98, 100-101, 98,280
Maronites, 64, 82 Muhammad Malik Shah, Sultan 103-106, i i i, 179, 185, 189,240, Se'arat, mountain, 76
Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, of the Seljuk Empire, 90, 94 244-245,247-248,273,276,282 Se'ert (Seer, Seerta, Sert), 6,
Theotokos, 52, 54 mu/lah, 171,219 Persians, 37, 40, 59, 84,90-91, 83,293
Medes, 90, 107 Mush, 99, 103 99-106,143,162,187,282 Selim I, Sultan of the Ottoman
Memnon, Bishop of Ephesus, 53-54 Muslims (Mohammetans, Pope Alexander VII, 78 Empire, 98-102, 151,163, 193,
Mesopotamia, 14,16-21,24-26, Mohamedans, MusseImans), passim Pope Celestine, 53, 55 281
28-30,32,47,49,56,63,71, Pope Eugenius III, 64 Selim lll, Sultan of the Ottoman
Naayem, Rev. Joseph, 35
73-74,81,92-96,99,102,107, Pope John XXII, 64 Empire, II 6, II 8
Nadir, Shah of Persia, LO 1-105, lll, Selim Pasha, Emir of Baban, 104
115, 158, 160, 163, 165-166, Pope Julius III, 75
115, 158, 163,283
172-174,196,215-216,236,248, Pope Leo, 55, 58 Shaikhan, 160, 169, 173
Natir Kursi, guardian of the office of Shapur II, Sassanian Emperor, 91
264,279,283,285,302-303,305, Pope Urban II, 61, 63, 68
Patriarch ofChurch of the East, SharafKhan al Bidlisi, historian of
309,311-312,314 Portugal, 74
36, 75 the Kurds, 90, 99, 108
Middle East, 61-62, 71, 97, 126, Protestant missionaries, 37, 205
Nestorians, passim Si'arat, bishopric ofChurch of the
156-157,218,282 Pushdor tribe of Kurds, 106
Nestorius, Archbishop of East, 6, 77, 100, 195,282
millet system, 82, 140-143, 152
Constantinople, 52-59, 280 Sinjar,20, 160, 169-170, 172-173
Minayanish, 41 Qasha (priest), 42
Nicene Creed, 62 Second Council of Constantinople,
Mongols, 14, 16-17,21,63-64, Qur'an, 135-136, 141, 149, 152
Nineveh,4, 12, 14-15, 19,22,24, 58,280
96-97, 109
28,30,32,41,83-84,95,172-173, Seleucia-Ctesiphon, patriarchate of
Monophysites, 58 Rabban Hormizd monastery, 75, 77,
208,279,283-284 the Church of the East, 57
Mosul, ix-xii, 2, 4, 7, 11-12, 15-20, 79,82,142
Ninevites, 23, 28
24-25,28,30,37,41,75,80, ra 'es, 34 Seljuk Turks, 60
Nisibis, 18,55-57,92 Seljukids, 63, 94
82-83,93,96,98, 101, 148, 165, Ra'aya tribes of Assyrians, 3-7, 13,
Noor Allah Bey, Mir (Meer) shari'a (seri' at), 123, 129, 145, 147
170-173,179-180,185, 192-193, 77,114,121,137,145-146,158,
of Julamerk (Julemerik), 164, Shi'a (Shi'i), 74, 98-99, 163,
197-198,200-206,209-211, 177
203,273
216-228,230-231,233,240-246, Roman Empire, 50, 51, 57-58, 61 280-281
253,255,258-261,263-271,275 Ottomans, passim Rome, 5,34,50,61-64,66, 73, Shimun Bar Mama, Patriarch of
Mosul vilayet (pashalic), xii, 35, 81- Ottoman Empire, 13, 71-74, 80-82, 75-84,282 Church of the East, 75
82, 115, 160, 170-171, 174-175, 100, 103, 113-116, 124, 126, Rum (Orthodox Christians), 140 Sir Charles Wilson, 6, 20, 22, 90
Sir Stratford Canning, British Tiyari tribe of Assyrians, 1-24,30, Yohannan Hormizd Aboona, Bishop Zakho, 3, 89, 175,269,271,291
ambassador to the Ottoman 35,77,87,160-162,172-177, ofMosul,80 Zend, ancestor of the Persian
Empire, 197,21 1,216 179-180,184,186,189,193, language, 90
Society of Lyons, 83 195-212,216,236,239,240,242, Zab River, 2-3, 7, 9, 3 1,36,4 i, 87, Zeno, Roman Emperor, 51, 57
Spain, 59, 74 244-245,249-250,260-262,265, 173, 187, 196, 211, 263 Zoroastian, 60
Sı. Bartholomew, 2 i, 49 268,271-273,279,281,284
St. Peter, 61 Tiyari district, 1-24,33,35,41-43,
Sı. Thomas, 2 i, 49 45,83-84,87,177,179-181,185,
Sulaiman the Magnificent, Ottoman 187-189,195-212,218,230,232,
Sultan, 71, 101, 143 240,244-245,249-250,260,263,
Sultan, passim 272,275,284,29-292
Sunni Muslims, 98, 157 tobacco, 41
Sulaiman Beg, 103-104, 180, 182, 187 Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji in 1774,.
Sulaimaniyah, 20, 31, 104-106,174 115,127,155
Sultan Mahmud II, 80, i i 5, i 18, Tur Abdin, 82, 115, 160--162, 170,
130,140,159,283 190,249,257,259,261-262,264
Surspedoo, 43 Turkey, 5-6, 12-13,45, 185-186,
Syria, 20, 56, 58, 60, 66, 73, 90, 95, 240,247
115, 131, 142, 151, 155, 189 Turkish, passim
Syriac ll, 16, 18,20-21,30,33-34, Turks,3,26,39-40,43,60-61,64,
47,49,52,55,59-60,65-66,73, 91,94-96,98, 100--101, 118,
91-94,109, 157, 171, 178, 188, 157-158,160, 169, ın, 174-177,
190,196,226 182-184, 190--191,203
Syriac-speaking Christians, 33, 171,
178 ulema, 116-117, 124, 131
Syrian Orthodox Church, 33, 58, Ummayad Caliphate, 60
161,188, 190, 196 Urhai (Urhay, Edessa, Urfa), 18,
49-51,65,94,96
Tabriz (Tabreez), 45, 98, 201-202, Urmia (Urmiyah, Ooromiyah), 2,
244,247,252-253 4-5,23,42,46,83,86,102-103,
Tanzimat era of the Ottoman Empire, 201,245,247,253,287
121-131,137,139-148,283
tax farm (malikame), 122-124, 130 Wigram, Wiııiam, L0, 13, 15,22,27,
Tekhoma tribe of Assyrians, 2, 8-9, 45, 105
18,35,45,186,239-249,255,
258,264,273 Xenophon,30,89-90
Tekhoma district 3, 12,40-41, 186,
239-249,251,255,258,264,273 Yazidis, 20, 96, 157-158, 166, 169,
Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia, 52 1n-173, 176-177, 189, 192,233,
Timur Lang, 14, 16, 18-19,21,30, 259,261-262,271
60, 97-99, 2 Lo Yohannan Sulaqa, 74-76, 85

Assyrians Kurds, Al' O Ottomans: Asbona

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DS59.A 75A28 2008

Chapter 1: The Homeland and Origin

Chapter 2: Church, State, and Social Life 33

Chapter 3: The History of the Church

Chapter 4: The Roman Catholic Missionaries

Chapter 5: The Kurdish Settlement

Chapter6: The Ottoman Reforms 113

Chapter 7: The Reforms and the People of the Book 135

Chapter8: The Beginnings of Centralisation 155

Chapter9: Beirakdar and the Achievement

Chapter 10: The Subjection of the Assyrian

Chapter 11: Great Britain, the Ottomans,

Chapter 12: Tekboma: The Last Assyrian

Chapter 13: The End of the Kurdish Wars 257

Chapter 14: Conclusion 279 FOREWORD

Bibliography 299 Hirmis Aboona's Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans: Intercommunal

Assyria. The Macedonian Greeks, Judeans, Romans, and Persians would

THE HOMELAND AND ORIGIN

ı. THE HOMELAND AND !Ts LOCATION

Adiabene, Ashur, or Atyria, Assyria were names for the same

According to Asaheel Grant,

Assyria was bounded according to Ptolemy on the north by part

The Plain of Nineveh Districts of Ra 'aya

to both Kurds and Nestorians. 23 Similar developments had affected the

8. ORIGIN OF THE TRIBES

them even going back to pre-Christian times. The evidence appears

continuously recorded the existing conditions. Scholars who examined

ı. THE PEOPLE AND THEIR P ATRIARCH

23. American Sunday-School Union, The Nestorians, 280.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC

Rome's interest in converting the separated eastem Christians revived in

46. Fletcher, Notes From Nineveh, 2:218-219.

97. Longrigg, Four Centuries, 129.

The Ottoman Response to

A vast empire in times ofpoor communications had meant accepting

ENDNOTES 29. Shaw and Shaw, A History, 2:44.

ı. THE OTTOMANS AND THE FOREIGN POWERS

had become consolidated. This served to strengthen the presence of ENDNOTES

23. F.O.195/113, Baghdad, November 26, 1834, Taylor to Canning; Graves,

ı. How THE OTTOMANS CARRIED THROUGH

4 ı. Grant, The Nestorians, 228, 3 ı 4.

34. Layard, Nineveh and lts Remains, i: i 88-9.

GREAT BRITAIN, THE ÜTTOMANS,

ı. THE KURDlSH INVASION

Great Britain was alarmed by Napoleon's occupation of Egypt in ı 798,

Bedr Khan 's Beg's Account of the Massacre and Slaves

ı. ON THE EVE OF THE MASSACRES

26. F.O. 195/228, Mosul, February 12, 1844, Stevens to Canning.

ı. THE RISE AND F ALL OF BEOR KHAN BEG

To our beloved friend the Consul Bey ... we commence by inquir-

12 July 1847 26 July 1847

29. F.O. 195/301, Mosul, July 3,1847, Rassam to Wellesley.

As their name implies, the Assyrians were the aboriginal inhabitants of

THE ASSYRIAN MASSACRE AND !Ts CONSEQUENCES

THE LINE OF MAR SHIMVN

1. Mar Shimun, the patriarch.

THE EXTENT OF THE FOLLOWERS

The geographical extent of the foııowers of Mar Shimun could be

1. Bishopric of Mar Gibrael Ardishi, a senior bishop

3. " " " Elia - Gog Tapa ENDNOTE

ApPENDIX B: ASSYRIAN DIOCESES BY (continued)

(continued on next page) (continued on next page)

Location Churches Priests Families Remarks

Distriet of Billijnaye ((jY. ~!). Kojeeja 1 O 20 The District of Jelu

Dioceses Metropolltans BIshops Priests Churches Families

Abi Vousif. Kitab al Kharaj. Beirut, n.d.

Wiseman, D. J. Chronicles ofChaldean Kings 626-556. London: British INDEX

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