Mosul, Iraq is known for its several old churches, some of which originally date back to the early centuries of Christianity. The ancient churches of the city are often hidden through labyrinthine alleyways behind thick walls and are therefore not easy to find. Some of them have suffered from poor upkeep due to a lack of attendance, and some of them were entirely destroyed during the battle for Mosul and the 4 years of ISIS control the city suffered through.
The oldest church in Mosul, Shamoun Al-Safa (St. Peter), dates from the 9th century and is very difficult to find. It has a deep underground courtyard and a cemetery between high walls containing some ornate tombstones of Maslawi merchants. Previously, it bore the name of the two Apostles, Peter and Paul. It is considered a very important church due to its archeological value. It lies 5 m below street level. The church includes an epitaph of Shammas Raphael Mazagi who established a Chaldean printing press and a Patriarchal seminary next to the church. After the latter has been transferred to Baghdad in 1960, the building was inhabited by the nuns of the Sacred Heart.
The exact time of its foundation is unknown, but it can be assumed that the Syriac Orthodox Church of Saint Thomas dates prior to 770, since reference tell that Al-Mahdi, the Abbasid Caliph, listened to a grievance concerning this church on his trip to Mosul. Inside, dozens of bulbs produce a blaze of electric light. The altar-cross as well as the altar-steps are brightly lit. There is an old Bible in Syriac on a lectern and a lime-green one with dark blue borders. And, on one wall, a small illuminated and glass-fronted pigeon-hole in which are the relics of St. Thomas as well.
The Mar Petion Church is named after a martyr of the same name who was educated by his cousin in a monastery and died in 446. It is the first Chaldean Catholic church in Mosul, after the union of the Church of the East with Rome in the 16th century. It dates back prior to the 10th century and lies 3m below street level. This church suffered destruction and it has been reconstructed many times. A hall has been built on one of its three parts in 1942. As a result, most of its artistic features have been lost.
Near Bash Tapia is the Ancient Tahira Church (The Immaculate) which is considered one of the most ancient churches in Mosul. No evidence helps to determine its exact location. It could be either the remnants of the church of the Upper Monastery or the ruined Mar Zena Church. Al-Tahira Church dates back to the 7th century, and it lies 3m below street level. A last reconstruction took place in 1743.
Mar Ahudeni Church was named after Mar Ahudemmeh (Hudeni) Maphrian of Tikrit who martyred in 575. Mar Hudeni is an old church of the Tikritans in Mosul, dating back to the 10th century. It lies 7 m below street level. First reconstructed in 1970, people can now get mineral water from the well in its yard. The chain, fixed in the wall, is thought to cure epileptics.
Located in the north of Mosul, St. George's Monastery (Mar Gurguis) was named after St. George. Most probably it was built late in the 17th century. Pilgrims from different parts of the north visit it annually in spring, when many people travel to its surrounding areas on holiday. It is about 6 m below street level. When a modern church was built over the old one in 1931, much of its archeological significance was lost. The only monuments left are a marble door-frame decorated with a carved Estrangelo (Syriac) inscription and two niches which date back to the 13th or 14th century. The church was completely destroyed on 2014 by ISIS militants.
Mar Matti Monastery is a famous monastery situated about 20 km east of Mosul on the top of Mount Alfaf (Mount Maqloub). It was built by Mar Matte, a monk who fled with several other monks in 362 from the Monastery of Zuknin near the city of Amid (Diyar Bakir) in the southern part of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) and the north of Iraq during the reign of Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). It has a library containing Syriac scriptures.
The Monastery of Mar Behnam is also called Deir Al-Jubb (The Cistern Monastery). Situated in the Nineveh Plain near Nimrud about 32 km southwest of Mosul, it was built in the 4th century and expanded in the 12th or 13th century. The monastery is a great fort-like building rising next to the tomb of Mar Behnam. This was a prince who was killed by the Sassanians, perhaps during the 4th century. A legend made him a son of an Assyrian king.
Mart Meskinta Church is a historic Chaldean Catholic church located in Mosul. The church dates originally from the twelfth century but underwent a significant renovation in 1851. It takes its name from a martyred woman named Meskinta, who reportedly defied the shah of the Sassanian Empire, Yazdegerd II (ruled 438-457 CE). It is the only church in Iraq named after this saint. [1]
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Mosul is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second-largest city in Iraq in terms of population and area after the capital Baghdad. Mosul is approximately 400 km (250 mi) north of Baghdad on the Tigris river. The Mosul metropolitan area has grown from the old city on the western side to encompass substantial areas on both the "Left Bank" and the "Right Bank", as locals call the two riverbanks. Mosul encloses the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh – once the largest city in the world – on its east side.
Alqosh is a town in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq, a sub-district of the Tel Kaif District situated 45 km north of the city of Mosul.
The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic particular church in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church, and is headed by the Chaldean Patriarchate. Employing in its liturgy the East Syriac Rite in the Syriac dialect of the Aramaic language, it is part of Syriac Christianity. Headquartered in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows, Baghdad, Iraq, since 1950, it is headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako. In 2010, it had a membership of 490,371, of whom 310,235 (63.27%) lived in the Middle East.
The Maphrian, originally known as the Grand Metropolitan of the East and also known as the Catholicos, was the second-highest rank in the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Syriac Orthodox Church, right below that of patriarch. The office of a maphrian is an maphrianate. There have been three maphrianates in the history of the Syriac Orthodox Church and one, briefly, in the Syriac Catholic Church.
Dayro d-Mor Mattai is a Syriac Orthodox Church monastery on Mount Alfaf in northern Iraq, 20 kilometers northeast of the city of Mosul. It is recognized as one of the oldest Christian monasteries in existence.
Karamlesh is a town in northern Iraq located less than 18 miles (29 km) south east of Mosul.
Batnaya is a village in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. It is located in the Tel Kaif District in the Nineveh Plains.
Bartella is a town that is located in the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq, about 21 kilometres east of Mosul.
Qaraqosh, is an Assyrian city in the Nineveh Governorate, of Iraq located about 32 kilometres (20 mi) southeast of the city of Mosul and 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of Erbil amid agricultural lands, close to the ruins of the ancient Assyrian cities Kalhu and Nineveh.
The Assyrian homeland, Assyria, refers to the homeland of the Assyrian people within which Assyrian civilisation developed, located in their indigenous Upper Mesopotamia. The territory that forms the Assyrian homeland is, similarly to the rest of Mesopotamia, currently divided between present-day Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. In Iran, the Urmia Plain forms a thin margin of the ancestral Assyrian homeland in the north-west, and the only section of the Assyrian homeland beyond the Mesopotamian region. The majority of Assyrians in Iran currently reside in the capital city, Tehran.
Nineveh Plains is a region in Nineveh Governorate in Iraq, to the north and east of the city Mosul. Control over the region is contested between Iraqi security forces, KRG security forces, Assyrian security forces, Babylon Brigade and the Shabak Militia.
Dair Mar Elia, also known as Saint Elijah's Monastery, was a monastery located just south of Mosul, in the Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. It was established in the late 6th century and was one of the oldest monasteries in Iraq. It belonged to the Church of the East, an ancient branch of Eastern Christianity, and then to the Chaldean Catholic Church. The monastery closed in 1743, after its monks were massacred by Persian forces. Its ruins were damaged during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and was later destroyed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2014.
Baqofah is a village in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. It is located in the Tel Kaif District in the Nineveh Plains.
Dioceses of the Church of the East after 1552 were dioceses of the Church of the East and its subsequent branches, both traditionalist and pro-Catholic.
Saints Behnam, Sarah, and the Forty Martyrs were 4th-century Assyrian Christians who suffered martyrdom during the reign of Shapur II. They are venerated as saints in the Assyrian Church of the East and Oriental Orthodox Churches.
Mount Alfaf, also known as Mount Maqlub, is a mountain in the Nineveh Plains region in northern Iraq. The mountain lies 30 km to the northeast of Mosul and some 15 km from Bartella. The largest town on the mountain is Merki, which is inhabited by Assyrians of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Monastery of the Martyrs Mar Behnam and Marth Sarah, is a Syriac Catholic monastery in northern Iraq in the village Khidr Ilyas close to the town of Beth Khdeda. The tomb of Mar Benham was heavily damaged on March 19, 2015, by the Islamic State, and the exterior murals were desecrated in all of the monastery's buildings. Repair work restoring the monastery and the tomb of Mar Behnam to its pre-ISIS condition was completed by early December 2018.
Deliberate destruction and theft of cultural heritage have been conducted by the Islamic State (IS) since 2014 in Iraq, Syria, and to a lesser extent in Libya. The destruction targets various places of worship under IS control and ancient historical artifacts. In Iraq, between the fall of Mosul in June 2014 and February 2015, IS had plundered and destroyed at least 28 historical religious buildings. Valuable items from some buildings were looted in order to smuggle and sell them to foreigners to finance the running of the Islamic State.
Dayro d-Mor Georgese is located in the city of Mosul, Northern Iraq. The Monastery is named after St. George. It was most likely built in the late 17th century. Pilgrims from different parts of the north visit it annually in spring, when many people travel to its surrounding areas on holiday.
Mart Meskinta Church, also known as Mart Meskanta, Mart Miskinta, Mart Meskanta, and Saint Meskinta Chaldean Church, is a historic Chaldean Catholic church located in Mosul, Iraq. The church dates originally from the twelfth century but underwent a significant renovation in 1851. It experienced damage in 2008 due to the Iraq War and in 2014-2017 due to the war against the Islamic State (ISIS).