Dioceses of the Church of the East, 1552–1913

After the 1552 schism in the Church of the East, the Nestorian and Chaldean sections of the church each had, by the end of the nineteenth century, around twelve dioceses each.
== Background ==
In 1552 a section of the Church of the East rebelled against the patriarch Shemon VII Ishoyahb (1539–58) and elected a rival patriarch, Yohannan Sulaqa (1553–5). The rebellion created a permanent schism in the Church of the East.
== The patriarchal succession, sixteenth to eighteenth centuries ==
The patriarchal succession after the schism of 1552 is certain in the case of the Mosul patriarchate, because up to the beginning of the nineteenth century all but one of its patriarchs were buried in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd and their epitaphs, which give the date of their deaths, have survived. Shemon VII's successor Eliya VII died on 26 May 1591, after having been a metropolitan for 15 years and patriarch for 32 years; Eliya VIII on 26 May 1617; Eliya IX on 18 June 1660; Eliya X Yohannan Marogin on 17 May 1700; Eliya XI Marogin on 14 December 1722; and Eliya XIII Ishoyahb in 1804. Eliya XII Denha died of plague in Alqosh on 29 April 1778, and was exceptionally buried in the town rather than the monastery, which had been abandoned and locked up following a Persian attack in 1743. 
The information available on Sulaqa and his successors is much less exact. The date of Sulaqa's election in 1552 is not known, but he was confirmed as 'patriarch of Mosul' by the Vatican on 28 April 1553, and was martyred at the beginning of 1555, probably (according to a contemporary poem of Abdisho IV) on 12 January. The date of Abdisho IV's succession in 1555 is not known, but a colophon mentions that he died on 11 September 1570. The dates of Shemon VIII Yahballaha's succession and death (presumably in 1570 and 1580 respectively) are not known. Shemon IX Denha was elected patriarch in 1580 and (according to Assemani) died in 1600. Shemon X, elected in 1600, is said to have died in 1638, according to a letter of Eliya XIII cited by Tisserant. 
Information on the patriarchal succession in the Qudshanis patriarchate for the remainder of the seventeenth and the whole of the eighteenth century is equally scanty. Several of the Qudshanis patriarchs who succeeded Shemon X corresponded with the Vatican, but the surviving correspondence does not enable individual patriarchs to be distinguished. The following list of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Qudshanis patriarchs has conventionally been adopted, most recently by Fiey and (provisionally) by Wilmshurst: Shemon XI (1638–56), Shemon XII (1656–62), Shemon XIII Denha (1662–1700), Shemon XIV Shlemun (1700–40), Shemon XVI Mikhail Mukhtas (1740–80), and Shemon XVI Yohannan (1780–1820).Fiey, POCN, 37; Wilmshurst, EOCE, 356–7 
These names and reign-dates were first given towards the end of the nineteenth century by the Anglican missionary William Ainger Wigram. A recently discovered list of Qudshanis patriarchs compiled after the First World War by the bishop Eliya of Alqosh, however, gives a completely different set of dates: Shemon X (1600–39); Shemon XI (1639–53); Shemon XII (1653–92); Shemon XIII Denha (1692–1700); and Shemon XIV Shlemun (1700–17). It is not yet clear whether either list is based on a reliable source, and the patriarchal succession must for the time being remain uncertain.
== Dioceses of the Church of the East, 1552–1681 ==
=== The hierarchy of Yohannan Sulaqa (1552–4) ===
The Vatican was told that the prime movers in the rebellion in 1552 against the patriarch Shemon VII Ishoyahb were unnamed bishops of Erbil, Salmas and Adarbaigan, who were supported by many priests and monks from Baghdad, Kirkuk, Gazarta, Nisibis, Mardin, Amid, Hesna d'Kifa 'and many other nearby places'; while according to Leonard Abel, writing in 1587, Yohannan Sulaqa's support came primarily from the towns of Amid and Seert and the neighbouring country districts. Sulaqa is said to have consecrated five metropolitans and bishops during his brief patriarchate. They were almost certainly the metropolitans Eliya Asmar and Abdisho Maron, consecrated by Sulaqa for Amid and Gazarta respectively in 1554, Sulaqa's brother Joseph, consecrated for Seert but soon afterwards sent to India, and the metropolitans Gabriel of Hesna d’Kifa and Hnanisho of Mardin. 
=== The hierarchy of Abdisho IV Maron (1555–67) ===
According to Leonard Abel, Abdisho IV Maron 'created many priests, bishops and archbishops, and many towns of Nestorian Chaldeans previously loyal to his rival placed themselves under his authority'. Abel may have gained this impression from a notorious letter which accompanied a Catholic profession of faith sent by Abdisho to pope Pius IV in 1562. This letter, which survives in three slightly different Latin translations of a lost Syriac original, purports to contain a list of thirty-eight metropolitans and bishops who recognised his authority:
I, Abdisho, son of Yohannan, of the house of Mari of the city of Gazarta on the Tigris river, was once a monk of the monastery of Saint Anthony and of the brothers Mar Ahha and Mar Yohannan, but am now, thanks to God and to the Apostolic See, Primate or Patriarch of the eastern city of Mosul in Athor, under whose jurisdiction are many metropolitans and bishops. These include the metropolis of Arbel [Erbil], and the dioceses of Sirava [Shirawa] and Hancava [Aïnqawa]; the metropolis of Cheptian [Telkepe] and the dioceses of Charamleys [Karamlish] and Achusch [Alqosh]; the metropolis of Nassibin [Nisibis], and the dioceses of Macchazin, Tallescani and Mardin; the metropolis of Seert and the diocese of Azzen [Hesna d'Kifa]; the metropolis of Elchessen [Gazarta] and the dioceses of Zuch [Zakho] and Mesciara [Mansuriya]; the metropolis of Gurgel [Gwerkel] and the diocese of Esci [Shakh]; and the metropolis of Amed [Amid] and the dioceses of Chiaruchia [Sharukhiya], Hain and Tannur [Aïn Tannur]. All these regions are under Turkish rule.
Also the metropolis of Ormi Superior [Upper Urmi], and the dioceses of Ulcismi and Chuchia; the metropolis of Ormi Inferior [Lower Urmi] and the dioceses of Dutra, Saldos [Sulduz] and Escinuc [Eshnuq]; the metropolis of Espurgan [Supurghan] and the dioceses of Nare [Neri] and Giennum [Gawilan?]; the metropolis of Salmas, and the dioceses of Baumar, Sciabathan [Shapatan] and Vasthan [Wastan]. All these regions are subject to the emperor (or Sophi, as he is usually known) of the Persians.
 
Furthermore in India, subject to the Portuguese, are the metropolitan dioceses of Cochin, Cranganore, and Goa; and the diocese of Calicut, which also includes the Coromandel region, still in the hands of heathen natives.Giamil, Genuinae Relationes, 64–5
The status of this letter has long been recognised as problematical, as the fourth Catholic patriarch Shemon IX Denha had only fourteen bishops in 1580, and it is unlikely that Abdisho had a far larger hierarchy several years earlier. The locations of the fourteen metropolitan sees listed (with the exception of Telkepe) have a certain plausibility, but several of the suffragan dioceses were little more than villages. None of them, as far as is known, had previously been the seat of a bishop, and the bishops they supposedly had in 1562 are not mentioned in any other source. It is possible that Abdisho merely claimed to have fourteen dioceses (the same number as his successor), whose metropolitans or bishops were responsible for the various localities listed under each metropolis, and that the translator misunderstood his meaning. Alternatively, he may have deliberately exaggerated the size of his hierarchy to impress the Vatican. In either case, while perhaps confirming the existence of East Syrian communities in certain districts and villages at this period and indicating the areas where Abdisho claimed support, the letter cannot be trusted as evidence for the number of bishops in his hierarchy. 
As a guide to Abdisho’s support the letter must be treated with caution. His claim to the western districts (Amid, Mardin and Seert had Catholic bishops, and he also controlled the monasteries of Mar Pethion in the Mardin district and Mar Yaqob the Recluse in the Seert district) was perfectly reasonable, and he certainly had two metropolitans in India. His claim to the Erbil, Urmi and Salmas districts may also have been justified, in view of the support for Sulaqa from their bishops. Alqosh, however, was the stronghold of his rival Shemon VII Ishoyahb, who also controlled Telkepe and Karamlish. Abdisho perhaps felt obliged, as 'patriarch of Mosul', to assert a claim to the Mosul district, and may have had a bishop nominally responsible for the villages of the Mosul plain. 
Several metropolitans and bishops mentioned in other sources can be plausibly assigned to Abdisho's hierarchy, and it is interesting to notice that their dioceses match many of the metropolitan dioceses listed by Abdisho in 1562: Sulaqa's brother Joseph, metropolitan of Seert, responsible also for India from 1555; Eliya Asmar, metropolitan of Amid from 1554 to 1582; Abraham, metropolitan of Angamale in India; Hnanisho, metropolitan of Nisibis and Mardin; the future patriarch Shemon VIII Yahballaha, metropolitan of Gazarta; Yohannan of Atel and Bohtan (Abdisho's 'Gwerkel'), martyred in 1572; the future patriarch Shemon IX Denha, metropolitan of Salmas, Seert and Jilu; and Gabriel (and perhaps his successor Sabrisho), bishop of Hesna d'Kifa. 
=== The hierarchy of Shemon VII Ishoyahb (1538–58) ===
The Nestorian patriarch Shemon VII Ishoyahb (1538–58), who continued to reside in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd, the traditional patriarchal seat, responded to Sulaqa's challenge by consecrating two metropolitans, Ishoyahb for Nisibis, nominally with jurisdiction also over Amid and Mardin, and Joseph for Gazarta. Ishoyahb was probably unable to exercise his authority in Amid and Mardin, both of which had Catholic metropolitans, but Joseph seems to have been accepted in Gazarta. Shemon's nephew Eliya remained metropolitan of Mosul and natar kursya, and the Mosul and Amadiya districts certainly remained loyal to Shemon VII. Several years later his successor Eliya VII (1558-91) had a hierarchy of at least six bishops: his brother Hnanisho, metropolitan of Mosul and natar kursya; Yahballaha, metropolitan of Berwari; Joseph and Gabriel, bishops of Gazarta; Ishoyahb, metropolitan of Nisibis, and Yohannan, metropolitan of Urmi. Mosul was the chief Nestorian citadel, and Leonard Abel remarked in 1587 that although Sulaqa and his three successors had all been consecrated patriarchs 'of Mosul', none had been able to wrest the city from their Nestorian rivals. It now became customary in the Mosul patriarchate for the patriarch's natar kursya to be also metropolitan of Mosul. 
=== The hierarchy of Shemon IX Denha (1581–1600) ===
The fourth Catholic patriarch Shemon IX Denha (1581–1600), under pressure from his Nestorian rival Eliya VII, abandoned the western centres of Amid and Mardin which had supported the union with Rome, and governed his church from the remote monastery of Mar Yohannan in the Salmas district. During his own lifetime he retained the loyalty of the western bishops, and strengthened the hierarchy he had inherited by creating several new dioceses beyond the western districts. His supporters, mentioned in a letter of 1580 to pope Gregory XIII shortly after his consecration, included not only the western bishops Eliya of Amid, Hnanisho of Mardin, Joseph of Seert, Yohannan of Atel and Joseph of Gazarta, (earlier loyal to Eliya VII), but also the metropolitans Joseph of Salmas, Sargis of Jilu, Hnanisho of Shemsdin, Abdisho of 'Koma', three men (two named Denha and one named Addaï) listed merely as metropolitans, and the bishop Yohannan of 'Chelhacke'. 'Koma' was probably the monastery of Mar Abdisho near the village of Komane in the Amadiya district, while 'Chelhacke' may be a deformation of Slokh (ܣܠܘܟ), the Syriac name for Kirkuk.Giamil, Genuinae Relationes, 90
=== The hierarchies of Eliya VIII (1591–1617) and Shemon X (1600–38) ===
The allegiance of several districts shifted dramatically on the accession of the traditionalist patriarch Shemon X in 1600, who divided his residence between Salmas and Qudshanis. Shemon's return to the old faith was welcomed in some districts, enabling him to consecrate bishops for the Atel and Berwari districts, previously dependent on the Mosul patriarchs. On the other hand, the western bishops transferred their loyalty to the Mosul patriarch Eliya VIII, mainly because he was felt to be more enthusiastic for the union with Rome than his rival, but perhaps also because they did not wish to be governed by a patriarch unable or unwilling to leave the remote Salmas district. These shifts gave the Mosul patriarchate control of a wide swathe of lowland territory stretching from Amid to Erbil, including the important towns of Amid, Seert, Gazarta, Amadiya, Mosul and Alqosh, while Shemon X was left with the mountain districts of Bohtan, Berwari and Hakkari, and the Urmi district. 
The hierarchies of the two patriarchs were given in the report of 1610. In 1610 Eliya VIII had six metropolitans (Eliya of Amid, Gabriel of Hesna d'Kifa, Yaqob of Nisibis, Joseph of Gazarta, Hnanisho of Mosul and the natar kursya Shemon), and nine bishops (Denha of Gwerkel, Yohannan of Abnaye, Ephrem of the Atel diocese of 'Ungi', Ishoyahb of Seert, Yohannan of Atel, Abdisho of Salmas, Joseph of Shemsdin, Abraham of Raikan and Abraham of 'the mountains'). This was a considerably larger hierarchy than his predecessors possessed, but all the metropolitans and several of the bishops are attested elsewhere, and there is no need to doubt its genuineness. Some of the dioceses are not mentioned again, and at least one bishop, Ishoyahb of Seert, was the nephew and natar kursya of a metropolitan, for whom an ad hoc diocese had to be created. Shemon X had only five metropolitans (Hnanisho of Shemsdin, Sargis of Jilu, Ishoyahb of 'the Persian borders', Sabrisho of Berwari and the natar kursya Addaï), and three bishops (Joseph of Urmi, Giwargis of Sat and Abdisho of Atel).Giamil, Genuinae Relationes, 114 
Other sources mention several other bishops at this period. Although the two reports largely overlap, the report of 1607 mentions several bishops omitted from the report of 1610, including the metropolitans 'Glanan Imech' of Sinjar, Shemon of Erbil, Denha of Lewun, Yahballaha of Van and Shemon of Albaq; and the bishops Joseph of Nahrawan, Yohannan of 'Vorce', Yahballaha of Berwari and Abraham of Tergawar. The report did not mention their allegiances, but Yahballaha of Berwari is known to have been dependent on Eliya VIII, and it is likely that the metropolitans of Sinjar and Erbil were also among his hierarchy. The metropolitans Hnanisho of Van and Abraham of the Persian district of 'Vehdonfores', probably the bishop of Tergawar mentioned in 1607, were present at Eliya VIII's synod of Amid in 1616.
=== Allegiance of East Syrian monasteries ===
thumb|right|250ppx|The monastery of Rabban Hormizd, Alqosh
The reports of 1607 and 1610 also mentioned that the Church of the East used to have more than a hundred 'monasteries', and listed more than forty separate buildings still in use at the beginning of the seventeenth century, most of which can be readily identified. The term 'monastery' seems to have been used by the Vatican scribes to translate the Syriac word umra, which could also mean a large church, and at least eleven of these 'monasteries' (particularly those in the mountainous Hakkari district), were merely churches (Mar Giwargis in Gazarta, Mar Pinhas in Hawsar, Mar Abdisho in Nerem, Mar Tahmasgard, Mar Pethion and Mar Thomas in Kirkuk, Mar Giwargis in Ashitha, Mar Shallita in Qudshanis, Mar Abdisho and Mar Qardagh in Beth Aziza, Mar Pethion in Mazraa, Mar Zaya in Matha d'Mar Zaya and perhaps others). Others, however, were genuine monasteries, and manuscript colophons confirm that many of them did indeed have monks at this period. 
The genuine monasteries in the two lists (the monasteries of Mar Awgin, Mar Abraham of Kashkar, Mar Yaqob the Recluse, Mar Yohannan the Egyptian, Mar Ahha, Rabban Bar Idta, Mar Yaqob of Beth Abe, Mar Mikha'il, Mar Eliya of Hirta, Rabban Hormizd the Persian and Mar Sabrisho of Beth Qoqa), all of which had long and proud histories, were all loyal to Eliya VIII at this period. The colophons of the surviving manuscripts confirm that monasticism was practised to a significant extent in the Mosul patriarchate up to the middle of the eighteenth century and that it hardly existed in the Qudshanis patriarchate. About 30 Nestorian monks are known from the monasteries of the Mosul patriarchate between 1552 and 1743 (when the monastery of Rabban Hormizd was temporarily abandoned), and about 150 Catholic monks in the Chaldean monasteries after 1808. Of the many scribes known from the Qudshanis patriarchate, only one, the nineteenth-century solitary Rabban Yonan, described himself as a monk. 
The possession of these important monasteries gave the Mosul patriarchate access to the talents of a literate and educated elite, and the treasures of East Syrian literature preserved in their libraries gave an impetus to the scribal profession and probably encouraged the growth of the great scribal families of Alqosh. There were, of course, literate scribes and priests and old manuscripts to be found in the Qudshanis patriarchate, but far fewer. The existence of an educated elite of scribes and monks, coupled with the descent of its patriarchs from the old patriarchal family, gave the Mosul patriarchs a prestige (fully appreciated by the Vatican) which its Qudshanis rivals could never hope to match.
=== The hierarchies of Eliya IX Shemon (1617–60) and Eliya X Yohannan Marogin (1660–1700) ===
Eliya IX (1617–60) did not consecrate bishops for the historic dioceses of Erbil, Nisibis, and Hesna d’Kifa, probably because their East Syrian communities were no longer large enough to need a bishop, and during his reign the Mosul patriarchate consisted of six metropolitan dioceses: Amid, Mardin, Gazarta, Seert, Mosul and Salmas. Although he corresponded cordially with the Vatican, he was not prepared to abandon the traditional Nestorian christological formula. As Shemon X had similar reservations, the Catholic communities in the Church of the East were left without Catholic bishops for several decades.
=== The hierarchies of Shemon XI (1638–56) and Shemon XII (1656–62) ===
The extent of the Qudshanis patriarchate in the middle of the seventeenth century is known from a letter of 29 June 1653 from the patriarch Shemon XI to pope Innocent X: 
Many indeed are the Chaldean Christians under Mar Shemon, in the following regions: Julmar [Julamerk], Barur [Barwar d’Qudshanis], Gur [Gawar], Galu [Jilu], Baz, Dasen, Tachuma [Tkhuma], Jatira [Tiyari], Valta [Walto], Talig [Tal], Batnura [Beth Tannura, i.e. Berwari], Luun [Lewun], Nudis [Norduz], Salmes [Salmas], Albac [Albaq], Hasaph [Hoshab], Van [Van], Vasgan [Wastan], Arne [Neri], Suphtan [Shapatan], Targur [Tergawar], Urmi, Anzel, Saldus [Sulduz], Asnock [Eshnuq], Margo [Mergawar], Amid and ‘Gulnca’. In these regions are 40,000 families, all children of the cell of Mar Shemon.Assemani, BO, iii. 622
 
As expected, most of the localities listed are in the Hakkari and Urmi districts, but Amid and Van are interesting inclusions. Both districts were dependent on the patriarch Eliya VIII earlier in the century, but their dependence around the middle of the seventeenth century on the Qudshanis patriarchate, probably because of Shemon XI's Catholic sympathies, is confirmed by several colophons. With these two exceptions, the Qudshanis patriarchate covered roughly the same area in 1653 as it had in 1610. The figure of 40,000 families seems far too high.
== Dioceses of the Qudshanis patriarchate, 1700–1830 ==
A number of bishops of the Qudshanis patriarchate are mentioned in the colophons to manuscripts, and their names and the names of their sees foreshadow the organisation described by western observers in the middle of the nineteenth century. There are frequent references throughout the eighteenth century to metropolitans named Hnanisho, who sat at the village of Mar Isho in the Shemsdin district, and whose jurisdiction covered both the Shemsdin and Tergawar districts. Colophons also refer to bishops of Berwari named Ishoyahb, a bishop of Gawar in 1743 named Sliba, and a bishop of Jilu in 1756 named Sargis. Khidr of Mosul mentioned a number of bishops from the Urmi district in 1734, also with names which are paralleled in the nineteenth century: Gabriel, Yohannan, Abdisho, Joseph, Abraham and Ishaya.
== Dioceses of the Mosul and Amid patriarchates, 1681–1830 ==
Given the resources it controlled, it is hardly surprising that the seventeenth century was a period of solid achievement for the Mosul patriarchate. The Catholic movement lost its vigour in both patriarchates and although the conversion of the Nestorian bishop Joseph in Amid in 1672 revived Catholic hopes, this unexpected development came after several decades in which the Mosul patriarchs had recovered their old authority in the western districts, consecrating Nestorian bishops for the Catholic dioceses founded by Sulaqa a century earlier. Scribal activity, previously concentrated in the Gazarta district, shifted to Mosul, to the nearby villages of Telkepe and Tel Isqof, and above all to Alqosh, whose Shikwana and Nasro families emerged in the second half of the century to establish a dominance which was not seriously challenged until the second half of the nineteenth century.
=== Dioceses of the Amid patriarchate ===
Nevertheless, the Catholic movement prospered in the western districts after the Ottoman authorities recognised Joseph of Amid as an independent patriarch in 1681. Between 1681 and 1830 there were three East Syrian patriarchates, two Nestorian and one Catholic. For the newly-created Amid patriarchate, the eighteenth century was one of almost unbroken success. At the beginning of the century it had only a single metropolitan, for Amid itself. Although rebuffed in an attempt to consecrate the Catholic priest Khidr metropolitan of Mosul in 1724, Joseph III consecrated metropolitans for Mardin and Seert before his departure for Rome in 1731, bringing over many East Syrian Christians in the Seert region from their previous dependence on the Eliya line, and also secured recognition for the Catholic minorities in Mosul and the villages of the Mosul plain. In 1757 Lazar Hindi, the Chaldean metropolitan of Amid, estimated that there were just under 20,000 Catholics in the Amid patriarchate, of whom about 8,000 lived in the Amid and Mardin regions, 5,000 in the Seert region, and 6,000 in Mosul and the Mosul plain.MS Vat Lat 8063, folio 345 As the East Syrian population of the Mosul patriarchate at this period is unlikely to have exceeded 50,000, of whom perhaps 10,000 lived in the Mosul region, the Catholics were by then probably in the majority in and around Mosul. The scale of the Catholic penetration doubtless encouraged Eliya XII to open negotiations with the Vatican in the 1770s, and Yohannan Hormizd to convert to Catholicism.
Table 1: Population of the Amid patriarchate, 1757
DioceseNo. of ChurchesNo. of BelieversDioceseNo. of ChurchesNo. of Believers
Baghdad1400Mardin</td>13,000 
Mosul6 or 76,000Seert</td>85,000
Amid35,000Total</td>19 or 2019,500
In 1796 Fulgence de Sainte Marie, apostolic vicar of Baghdad, visited Amid and Mosul and recorded the following statistics in respect of the two patriarchates.Bello, Congrégation de S. Hormisdas, 13
Table 2: Population of the Chaldean church, 1796
PatriarchateNo. of PriestsNo. of Deacons and SubdeaconsNo. of Families</td>
Patriarchate of Amid35601,061 
Patriarchate of Babylon64–2,962
Total99at least 604,033
=== The hierarchy of Eliya XII Denha (1722–78) ===
By the beginning of the eighteenth century the Mosul patriarchate had lost its influence in the Catholic strongholds of Amid and Mardin, but still retained the loyalty of a considerable section of the Church of the East which wished to remain Nestorian. It is clear from manuscript colophons that most of the numerous East Syrian villages in the Seert, Gazarta, Amadiya and Aqra districts were still Nestorian and loyal to the Eliya line at this period, as were the surviving East Syrian communities in the Erbil and Kirkuk districts. Mosul and several villages of the Mosul plain had important Catholic communities, but the Nestorians remained in the majority, and the monastery of Rabban Hormizd remained a Nestorian citadel until it was abandoned in the 1740s. Curiously, the Mosul patriarchate had very few bishops to administer these large territories. Apart from the patriarch himself and his natar kursya, responsible for the Mosul district, only Gazarta and Seert had bishops at the beginning of the century, and no effort appears to have been made to consolidate the loyalty of other districts by giving them bishops. The policy of Eliya XII seems to have been to preserve the status quo. He responded sharply to an attempt by Joseph III to consecrate a Catholic metropolitan for Mosul in 1724, and after the consecration of the Catholic bishop Shemon Kemo for Seert around 1730 sent a Nestorian bishop to the district during Joseph's absence in Rome. On both occasions, however, he was merely reacting to a Catholic challenge. This inertia was an important factor in the ultimate success of the Catholic movement.
=== The hierarchy of Eliya XIII Ishoyahb (1778–1804) ===
On 11 October 1779 the recently enthroned patriarch Eliya XIII Ishoyahb wrote to the Qudshanis patriarch Shemon XV seeking information for a report to the Vatican. In his letter he mentioned that a synod had recently been held at Alqosh under his presidency, at which the following seven bishops were present: the metropolitan and natar kursya Mar Ishoyahb; the 'elderly' Mar Hnanisho, metropolitan of Nuhadra [Amadiya]; Mar Shemon, bishop of Sinjar and Mosul; Mar Yahballaha, bishop of Gazarta; Mar Denha, bishop of Aqra; Mar Saba, bishop of 'Beth Zabe'; and Mar Ishosabran, bishop of Erbil. This is a puzzling list, as only the metropolitan Hnanisho is mentioned elsewhere, but it may be genuine and reflect a reaction by Eliya XIII Ishoyahb to the conservative policy of his uncle Eliya XII Denha. The diocese of Beth Zabe, not elsewhere attested, was probably the Tiyari district around the Great Zab, whose most famous church was dedicated to Mar Saba. Although the Tiyari district was under the control of the Shemon line by the middle of the nineteenth century, a number of manuscripts were copied at Alqosh for Tiyari villages in the second half of the eighteenth century, indicating that they looked towards Mosul at that time. Some of the bishops mentioned may have been young natar kursyas, for whom ad hoc dioceses had to be created until a vacancy in one of the traditional dioceses occurred.Babakhan, 'Deux lettres d'Élie XI', ROC, 5 (1900), 481–91
=== The hierarchy of Yohannan VIII Hormizd (1780–1837) ===
During the turbulent reign of Yohannan Hormizd (1780–1830 as patriarchal administrator, 1830–7 as patriarch) Catholic metropolitans were consecrated for Amadiya, Kirkuk and Salmas, and a Nestorian metropolitan of Gazarta consecrated by Eliya XII was supplanted by the Catholic metropolitan Giwargis Di Natale. From 1812 onwards, during Yohannan's suspension, the Amid and Mosul patriarchates were effectively governed as a single entity by the patriarchal administrator Augustine Hindi. In 1830 the patriarchates were united, giving Yohannan Hormizd a hierarchy of eight dioceses with Catholic bishops: Amid, Mardin, Seert, Gazarta, Mosul, Amadiya, Kirkuk and Salmas. The task for the Chaldean church thereafter was to consolidate its position in the border districts of (Gazarta, Amadiya and Aqra), many of whose villages were still Nestorian and wished to remain so. Around the middle of the nineteenth century several villages in the Gazarta and Aqra districts were willing to follow Nestorian bishops supported by the Qudshanis patriarch Shemon XVII Abraham, abandoning their traditional loyalty to the Mosul patriarchate.
== Dioceses of the Chaldean church, 1830–1914 ==
Despite the internal discords of the reigns of Yohannan Hormizd, Nicholas I Zaya and Joseph VI Audo, the second half of the nineteenth century was a period of considerable growth for the Chaldean church, in which its territorial jurisdiction was extended, its hierarchy strengthened and its membership nearly doubled. In 1850 the Anglican missionary George Percy Badger recorded the population of the Chaldean church as 2,743 Chaldean families, or just under 20,000 persons. Badger's figures cannot be squared with the figure of just over 4,000 Chaldean families recorded by Fulgence de Sainte Marie in 1796 nor with slightly later figures provided by Paulin Martin in 1867. Badger is known to have classified as Nestorian a considerable number of villages in the Aqra district which were Chaldean at this period, and he also failed to include several important Chaldean villages in other dioceses. His estimate is almost certainly far too low.Badger, Nestorians, i. 174–5
Table 3: Population of the Chaldean Church, 1850
DioceseNo. of VillagesNo. of ChurchesNo. of PriestsNo. of FamiliesDioceseNo. of VillagesNo. of ChurchesNo. of PriestsNo. of Families
Mosul915201,160Seert</td>11129300 
Baghdad11260Gazarta</td>765179
Amadiya16148466Kirkuk</td>789218
Amid224150Salmas</td>123150
Mardin11460Total</td>5561642,743
Paulin Martin's statistical survey in 1867, after the creation of the dioceses of Aqra, Zakho, Basra and Sehna by Joseph Audo, recorded a total church membership of 70,268, more than three times higher than Badger's estimate. Most of the population figures in these statistics have been rounded up to the nearest thousand, and they may also have been exaggerated slightly, but the membership of the Chaldean church at this period was certainly closer to 70,000 than to Badger's 20,000.Martin, La Chaldée, 205–12
Table 4: Population of the Chaldean Church, 1867
DioceseNo. of VillagesNo. of PriestsNo. of BelieversDioceseNo. of VillagesNo. of ChurchesNo. of Believers
Mosul94023,030Mardin</td>221,000 
Aqra19172,718Seert</td>352011,000
Amadiya26106,020Salmas</td>20108,000
Basra––1,500Sehna</td>2211,000
Amid262,000Zakho</td>15–3,000
Gazarta20157,000Kirkuk</td>10104,000
Total</td>16013170,268
A statistical survey of the Chaldean church made in 1896 by J. B. Chabot included, for the first time, details of several patriarchal vicariates established in the second half of the nineteenth century for the small Chaldean communities in Adana, Aleppo, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus, Edessa, Kermanshah and Teheran; for the mission stations established in the 1890s in several towns and villages in the Qudshanis patriarchate; and for the newly-created Chaldean diocese of Urmi. According to Chabot, there were mission stations in the town of Serai d’Mahmideh in Taimar and in the Hakkari villages of Mar Behısho, Sat, Zarne and 'Salamakka' (Ragula d'Salabakkan).Chabot, 'Patriarcat chaldéen de Babylone', ROC, 1 (1898), 433–53
Table 5: Population of the Chaldean Church, 1896
DioceseNo. of VillagesNo. of PriestsNo. of BelieversDioceseNo. of VillagesNo. of ChurchesNo. of Believers
Baghdad133,000Amadiya</td>16133,000 
Mosul317123,700Aqra</td>1281,000
Basra233,000Salmas</td>121010,000
Amid473,000Urmi</td>18406,000
Kirkuk16227,000Sehna</td>22700
Mardin13850Vicariates</td>362,060
Gazarta17145,200Missions</td>1141,780
Seert21175,000Zakho</td>20153,500
Total</td>17724878,790
The last pre-war survey of the Chaldean church was made in 1913 by the Chaldean priest Joseph Tfinkdji, after a period of steady growth since 1896. The Chaldean church on the eve of the First World War consisted of the patriarchal archdiocese of Mosul and Baghdad, four other archdioceses (Amid, Kirkuk, Seert and Urmi), and eight dioceses (Aqra, Amadiya, Gazarta, Mardin, Salmas, Sehna, Zakho and the newly-created diocese of Van). Five more patriarchal vicariates had been established since 1896 (Ahwaz, Constantinople, Basra, Ashshar and Deir al-Zor), giving a total of twelve vicariates.Tfinkdji, EC, 476–520; Wilmshurst, EOCE, 362 
Tfinkdji's grand total of 101,610 Catholics in 199 villages is slightly exaggerated, as his figures included 2,310 nominal Catholics in twenty-one 'newly-converted' or 'semi-Nestorian' villages in the dioceses of Amid, Seert and Aqra, but it is clear that the Chaldean church had grown significantly since 1896. With around 100,000 believers in 1913, the membership of the Chaldean church was only slightly smaller than that of the Qudshanis patriarchate (probably 120,000 East Syrians at most, including the population of the nominally Russian Orthodox villages in the Urmi district). Its congregations were concentrated in far fewer villages than those of the Qudshanis patriarchate, and with 296 priests, a ratio of roughly three priests for every thousand believers, it was rather more effectively served by its clergy. Only about a dozen Chaldean villages, mainly in the Seert and Aqra districts, did not have their own priests in 1913.
Table 6: Population of the Chaldean Church, 1913
DioceseNo. of VillagesNo. of ChurchesNo. of PriestsNo. of BelieversDioceseNo. of VillagesNo. of ChurchesNo. of PriestsNo. of Believers
Mosul13225639,460Amadiya</td>1710194,970 
Baghdad31117,260Gazarta</td>1711176,400
Vicariates134153,430Mardin</td>6161,670
Amid95124,180Salmas</td>12122410,460
Kirkuk99195,840Sehna</td>123900
Seert3731215,380Van</td>106323,850
Urmi2113437,800Zakho</td>1517134,880
Aqra1910162,390Total</td>199153296101,610
Tfinkdji's statistics also highlight the effect on the Chaldean church of the educational reforms of the patriarch Joseph VI Audo. The Chaldean church on the eve of the First World War was becoming less dependent on the monastery of Rabban Hormizd and the College of the Propaganda for the education of its bishops. Seventeen Chaldean bishops were consecrated between 1879 and 1913, of whom only one (Stephen Yohannan Qaynaya) was entirely educated in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd. Six bishops were educated at the College of the Propaganda (Joseph Gabriel Adamo, Thomas Audo, Jeremy Timothy Maqdasi, Isaac Khudabakhash, Theodore Msayeh and Peter Aziz), and the future patriarch Joseph Emmanuel Thomas was trained in the seminary of Ghazir near Beirut. Of the other nine bishops, two (Addaï Scher and Francis David) were trained in the Syro-Chaldean seminary in Mosul, and seven (Philip Yaqob Abraham, Yaqob Yohannan Sahhar, Eliya Joseph Khayyat, Shlemun Sabbagh, Yaqob Awgin Manna, Hormizd Stephen Jibri and Israel Audo) in the patriarchal seminary in Mosul.Wilmshurst, EOCE, 360–3
== Chaldean patriarchal vicariates, 1872–1913 ==
Mention has already been made of the patriarchal vicariates created by the Chaldean church for its diaspora in the eastern Mediterranean and elsewhere, details of which were given by Chabot in 1896 and by Tfinkdji in 1913. The first vicariate was established for Aleppo in 1872 by the patriarch Joseph VI Audo, and was followed by vicariates for Constantinople in 1885, Cairo in 1890, Adana in 1891, Basra in 1892, Damascus, Beirut, Teheran and Kermanshah in 1895, Deir al-Zor in 1906, Ashshar in 1907 and Ahwaz in 1909. In 1913 the vicariates of Teheran and Kermanshah were vacant, but there were patriarchal vicars for the other eleven vicariates: Paul David, procurator-general of the Antonine order of Saint Hormisdas, for Rome; Isaac Yahballaha Khudabakhash, formerly bishop of Salmas, for Cairo and the small Chaldean community in Alexandria; Abraham Banna for Ahwaz; Thomas Bajari for Constantinople; Mansur Kajaji for Basra; Yohannan Nisan for Ashshar; Stephen Awgin for Deir al-Zor; Mikha'il Chaya for Aleppo; Joseph Tawil for Beirut; Marutha Sliba for Damascus; and Stephen Maksabo for Adana.Wilmshurst, EOCE, 363–4
Most of the vicariates were small, with chapels instead of churches, but the Chaldean communities of Cairo, Basra and Aleppo were sufficiently wealthy to build substantial churches. The churches in Cairo and Basra were dedicated to Mar Antony and Mar Thomas respectively. The Chaldean community in Beirut, which had neither a church nor a chapel, worshipped in the city's Syrian Catholic church. The vicariate of Adana had a population of 600 Chaldeans in 1896, many of whom were killed during attacks on the city's Armenian Christians in 1909.
== Dioceses of the Qudshanis patriarchate, 1830–1913 ==
Reports made in the 1830s and 1840s by a number of English and American visitors (particularly Perkins, Grant, Ainsworth and Badger) mention at least fourteen dioceses in the Qudshanis patriarchate. Besides a large diocese in central Kurdistan under the direct control of the patriarch and the diocese of Shemsdin, under the mutran Hnanisho, there were dioceses for Berwari, Gawar and Jilu, whose bishops (Ishoyahb, Sliba and Sargis) sat in the villages of Dure, Gagoran and Matha d'Mar Zaya respectively. In the 1840s there was also a short-lived diocese of Aqra and Zibar, whose metropolitan Abraham resided in the village of Nerem. The Gazarta district had a metropolitan, Joseph, who had been obliged to withdraw to the monastery of Isaac of Nineveh near Shakh, where he died in 1846, and in 1850 there were two other Nestorian bishops in the Atel district, Shemon and Thomas. By 1877 the mutran Hnanisho had three suffragan bishops, probably all consecrated some years earlier, responsible for a number of villages in Shemsdin, Tergawar and elsewhere: Denha of Tis, Yohannan of Tuleki and Sabrisho of Gawar. 
There were also four dioceses in the Urmi region, whose bishops (Yohannan, Joseph, Gabriel and Eliya) resided at Gawilan and Ada in the Anzel district, and Ardishai and Gugtapah in the Baranduz district respectively. (A fifth bishop, Abraham, resided in the village of Armutaghaj and was responsible for a number of villages in the Tergawar district until his death in 1833.) While the dioceses of Mar Yohannan and Mar Gabriel each contained numerous villages and appear to have been traditional, the other two bishops were responsible only for the large villages where they sat, and their dioceses may also, like the mutran's suffragan dioceses, have been created ad personam. By this period the bishops of the historic dioceses regularly took a distinctive name associated with their dioceses (Hnanisho of Shemsdin, Ishoyahb or Yahballaha of Berwari, Sargis of Jilu, Sliba of Gawar, Yohannan of Anzel and Gabriel of Ardishai), and these dioceses were clearly felt to be different from the ad personam dioceses in the Shemsdin and Urmi districts which existed by their side. 
The Urmi dioceses of Ada and Gugtapah lapsed after the death of their bishops, while a new diocese was established for the large Anzel village of Supurghan in 1874, whose bishop, Yonan, joined the Russian Orthodox church in 1896. The elderly bishop Ishoyahb of Berwari died probably not long after 1850, and by 1868 the Berwari district had three bishops (his natar kursyas Ishoyahb and Yahballaha, and a third bishop, Yonan, who resided in the village of Aqri). Yahballaha died between 1877 and 1884, and the Qudshanis hierarchy at the end of the 1880s contained twelve bishops: the mutran Isaac Hnanisho (consecrated after the death of his predecessor Joseph in 1884) and the natar kursya Abraham (consecrated in 1883), five bishops in the Hakkari district (Sargis of Jilu, Sliba of Gawar and the mutran’s three suffragans, Yohannan of Tuleki, Denha of Tis and Sabrisho of Gawar), two bishops in the Berwari district (Ishoyahb of Dure and Yonan of Aqri), and three bishops in the Urmi district (Gabriel of Ardishai, Yohannan of Anzel and Yonan of Supurghan).
The diocese of Anzel effectively ceased to exist after its bishop Yohannan left for England in 1881, and the other historic Urmi diocese, Ardishai, came to an end with the murder of its bishop Gabriel in 1896. The (Russian Orthodox) bishop Yonan of Supurghan died in 1908, and in 1913 the Urmi district had three East Syrian bishops, one Russian Orthodox (Eliya of Tergawar) and two dependent on the Qudshanis patriarchate (Denha of Tis and Ephrem of Urmi). There were also several changes in the Hakkari district in the final decades before the outbreak of the First World War. The natar kursya Abraham Shemonaya converted to Catholicism in 1903 and shortly afterwards joined the Chaldean church as bishop for the ephemeral Chaldean diocese of Hakkari. The bishop Sliba of Gawar fled to Erivan shortly before 1892 and did not return to his diocese, and the bishop Yohannan of Tuleki died shortly before 1911. In the Berwari district Ishoyahb of Dure, after a brief flirtation with the Chaldean church, was replaced in 1907 by Yalda Yahballaha. The bishop Eliya Abuna was consecrated for Alqosh in 1908, and was soon afterwards sent to administer the villages of the Taimar district. Compared with the twelve bishops mentioned by Maclean, Browne and Riley in the 1880s, the Qudshanis hierarchy on the eve of the First World War seems to have consisted of at most eight bishops: the mutran Isaac Hnanisho of Shemsdin; the bishops Yalda Yahballaha of Berwari, Zaya Sargis of Jilu, Denha of Tis, Ephrem of Urmi and Abimalek Timothy (consecrated for Malabar in 1907); and, if they were still alive, the bishops Sabrisho of Gawar (last mentioned in 1901) and Yonan of Aqri (last mentioned in 1903). 
An article published in 1913 claimed that the Qudshanis hierarchy at that date also included a bishop of Gawar named Sliba and unnamed bishops of Ashitha, Mar Behisho, Walto, Tkhuma, Baz, Tal and Tiyari, and also mentioned that a bishop named Stephen, 'of Zirabad', an (otherwise unknown) village in the Gawar district, had died recently, and that his young natar kursya was then studying in the patriarchal residence in Qudshanis. This list (although cited in Fiey's Pour un Oriens Christianus Novus) cannot be regarded as genuine, as none of these bishops is mentioned by Tfinkdji or by the western missions in Kurdistan before 1914, or by any source thereafter. The course of the fighting in the Hakkari and Urmi districts during the First World War is well-documented, and is impossible to believe that nine Hakkari bishops disappeared without trace during this period. In fact three members only of the Qudshanis hierarchy are known to have died during or immediately after the First World War (Denha of Tis in 1915, the patriarch Shemon XIX Benjamin in March 1918 and the mutran Isaac Hnanisho in 1919), and the hierarchy of the patriarch Shemon XX Paul in 1919 consisted of four bishops: the mutran Joseph Hnanisho, consecrated in April 1919, and the bishops Sargis of Jilu, Yahballaha of Berwari and Abimalek Timothy of Malabar, all consecrated before the First World War. 
The first reasonably scientific population estimates of the Qudshanis patriarchate were made in the nineteenth century, but because in most cases the data recorded not individuals but families (defined normally as six, but occasionally as few as five or as many as ten individuals), attempts to extrapolate a total in terms of individuals could vary markedly. In the 1830s Eli Smith estimated the Nestorian population of the Hakkari region (apparently excluding the Bohtan and Shemsdin districts) at 10,000 families (60,000 individuals), with a further 25,000 Nestorians and Chaldeans living in the Salmas and Urmi districts. In 1850 Badger calculated the population of the Qudshanis patriarchate at 11,378 families, or about 70,000 individuals, of whom 21,000 lived in the tribal territories.
Badger's figures, provided by the patriarch's archdeacon Abraham and reduced by a third as a result of his own observations, are more trustworthy than his low estimates for the Chaldean church. He was unable to supply detailed information on the Shemsdin and Urmi districts, but estimated that there were about 23 villages in the Bohtan district, and supplied the names of 222 villages in the other dioceses.
Table 7: Population of the Qudshanis Patriarchate, 1850
DioceseNo. of VillagesNo. of ChurchesNo. of PriestsNo. of FamiliesDioceseNo. of VillagesNo. of ChurchesNo. of PriestsNo. of Families
Aqra15139249Gawar</td>4534181,082 
Berwari272018348Shemsdin and Urmi</td>–38344,500
Gazarta232316220Lewun and Norduz</td>1597222
Patriarch's10075622,778Jilu</td>1814101,168
Total</td>–24918811,378
Badger's figures for 1850 are usefully complemented by the statistics provided by Edward Cutts in 1877.Cutts, Christians under the Crescent, 353–8 Cutts's statistics did not include the Nestorian villages in the Zibar, Berwari and Bohtan districts mentioned by Badger, but gave detailed figures for the villages of the Shemsdin, Tergawar and Urmi districts, for which Badger had no reliable information.
Table 8: Population of the Qudshanis Patriarchate, 1877
DioceseNo. of VillagesNo. of ChurchesNo. of PriestsNo. of FamiliesDioceseNo. of VillagesNo. of ChurchesNo. of PriestsNo. of Families
Patriarch's9688812,274Anzel</td>342322972 
Jilu2138371,650Supurghan</td>321290
Gawar7456431,497Ardishai</td>9040282,888
Shemsdin5743361,067Total</td>37529024810,638
These two statistics, although more than twenty years apart, broadly agree where they overlap, and the 1877 statistics are also in line with the statistics compiled in 1862 by Sophoniah for the Urmi district. Sophoniah's estimate of 4,050 Nestorian families in the Urmi district in 1862 is very close to Cutts's figure of 4,150 families in 1877. Given the broad agreement of these three separate sources, a rough estimate of the total population of the Qudshanis patriarchate in 1877 can be made by adding Badger's statistics for the dioceses of Berwari and Bohtan in 1842 to Cutts's figures for the other dioceses, giving a total of just over 11,000 families, or between 80,000 and 100,000 individuals, living in around 425 villages. With 248 priests, a ratio of roughly one priest for every 400 believers, the Qudshanis patriarchate could not serve its congregations as effectively as the Chaldean church, and nearly half its villages (admittedly the smaller ones) did not have priests of their own. 
As with the Chaldean church, the population of the Qudshanis patriarchate (including the Urmi communities which temporarily converted to Russian Orthodoxy) seems to have risen appreciably in the decades before the First World War. A number of contemporary estimates were made, ranging from as low as 18,000 to as high as 190,000, with the majority of estimates falling somewhere between 70,000 and 150,000, and informed opinion favouring a figure of about 100,000. In 1923 Tfinkdji estimated its population in 1914 at about 95,000 (60,000 in Turkey and 30,000 in Persia). The evidence of two surveys of 1900 and 1914 suggests that the true figure may have been between 100,000 and 120,000. The provincial government of Van estimated that there were 97,040 East Syrians in the sanjak of Hakkari in 1900, and the East Syrian priest Benjamin Kaldani estimated the East Syrian population of the Urmi district at 6,155 families (about 30,000 individuals) in 1914. The 1900 official statistics probably include several thousand Chaldeans, and Kaldani's figures include a number of Chaldean villages in the Salmas district. Allowing for the necessary deductions, the total population of the Qudshanis patriarchate on the eve of the First World War may have been between 100,000 and 120,000. If so, it was still slightly larger than the Chaldean church, but the gap was narrowing.Wilmshurst, EOCE, 364–70
==Notes==
==References==
* Assemani, J. A., De Catholicis seu Patriarchis Chaldaeorum et Nestorianorum (Rome, 1775)
* Assemani, J. S., Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana (4 vols, Rome, 1719–28)
* Babakhan, 'Deux lettres d'Élie XI, patriarche de Babylon’, Revue de l'Orient Chrétien, 5 (1900), 481–91
*
* Chabot, J. B., 'État religieux des diocèses formant le patriarcat chaldéen de Babylone au 1er janvier 1896', Revue de l'Orient Chrétien, 1 (1898), 433–53
* Fiey, J. M., Assyrie chrétienne (3 vols, Beirut, 1962)
* Fiey, J. M., Nisibe, métropole syriaque orientale et ses suffragants, des origines à nos jours (Louvain, 1977)
* Fiey, J. M., Pour un Oriens Christianus novus; répertoire des diocèses Syriaques orientaux et occidentaux (Beirut, 1993)
* Giamil, S., Genuinae Relationes inter Sedem Apostolicam et Assyriorum Orientalium seu Chaldaeorum Ecclesiam (Rome, 1902)
* Martin, P., La Chaldée, esquisse historique, suivie de quelques réflexions sur l'Orient (Rome, 1867)
* Tfinkdji, J., 'L’église chaldéenne catholique autrefois et aujourd’hui', Annuaire Pontifical Catholique, 17 (1914), 449–525
* Tisserant, E., 'Église nestorienne', Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique, 11, 157–323
* Wilmshurst, D. J., The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913 (Louvain, 2000)
Category:Assyrian geography
Category:Bishops of the Assyrian Church of the East
Category:Chaldean bishops
Category:Chaldean Catholic Church