BAGHDAD

courtesy, TheOrthodoxChurch.info

Baghdad is the administrative “capital” of the Arab-occupied territory of Iraq. Recalling the stories of the Arabian Nights (many characters of which aren’t even Arabian), most of Baghdad’s people today (as back then) are Arab Muslim but that doesn’t mean that this city is an “Arab” city.

Conventional wisdom has it that Baghdad was founded in the 8^th century by the Arab Abbasid dynasty, but in point of fact, the site of present-day Baghdad was originally an Assyrian site with a Persian minority, occupied for thousands of years before its “founding”. Located deep in the Assyrian Empire, this site was composed of a group of settlements and hamlets, one of which was inhabited by Persians and actually called “Baghdad”, a Persian word of unknown origin. (In ancient times, Persia and Assyria were neighboring empires and the people of one empire would often settle in the territory of the other). When the present city was founded, Arab Muslim settlers began to populate the neighborhoods, along with Persians (most of whom had already adopted Islam), Jews, and the indigenous Assyrians and Syriacs (who had adopted Christianity centuries before). Shortly thereafter, Baghdad entered a Golden Age as the ruling Arabs actually showed respect and tolerance toward the other non-Arab and non-Muslim peoples and the city became a diocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church as well as the seat of the Assyrian Church.

Notable scholars based in Baghdad during this time include:

·         Jabir ibn Hayyan, Persian metallurgist known for his work with practical metallurgy

·         Hnanisho II, Assyrian patriarch who transferred the seat of the Assyrian Church from Seleucia-Ctesiphon to Baghdad in 775

·         Yahya Ibn al-Batriq, Syriac astronomer

·         Yuhanna ibn Masawayh, Assyrian physician

·         Al-Khwarizmi, Persian mathematician

·         Abu Maʿshar, leading Persian astrologist in the Abbasid court who translated the works of Aristotle

·         Banu Musa brothers, Persian engineers and mathematicians

·         Laʿzar bar Sabtha, Bishop of Baghdad, deposed by the patriarch Dionysius of Tel Mahre in 826

·         Bishop Youhanna, appointed to succeed La’zar bar Sabtha

·         Hunayn ibn Ishaq, translator, born an Arab Muslim but converted to Assyrian Christianity thus, joining that community

·         Al-Tabari, Persian scholar, historian, and exegete of the Koran

·         Yusuf Al-Khuri, Assyrian mathematician and astronomer who was hired as a translator by the Banu Musa brothers

·         Abu Bishr Matta ibn Yunus, Assyrian physician and scientist

·         Yahya ibn Adi, Syriac philosopher, theologian and translator

·         Avicenna, Persian philosopher and physician famous for writing The Canon of Medicine, the prevailing medical text in the Islamic World and Europe until the 19th century

·         Omar Khayyam, Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer most famous for his solution of cubic equations

·         Al-Ghazali, Persian theologian, author of The Incoherence of the Philosophers. His work challenged the philosophers who favored Aristotelianism

In 1258, Baghdad was captured by the Mongols led by Hulegu, a grandson of Genghis Khan. Many quarters were ruined by fire, siege, or looting and most of the city's inhabitants were slain. Afterwards, recovery was gradual. In 1336, Denha II was consecrated Assyrian patriarch in Baghdad thanks to the patronage of the Christian emir Haggi Togai. At the beginning of the 15^th century, the Mongols, once again, under the Emperor Tamerlane, ravaged Baghdad and had 90,000 Assyrians beheaded. Again, recovery was gradual. All communities, but especially the indigenous community, were left in a much weakened position, the Assyrians being subject to periodic persecutions by Arabs, the Mameluke rulers of Egypt, and the Ottoman Turks.

A year after the great schism in the Assyrian church in 1552, out of which, was formed the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Chaldean Archeparchy of Baghdad was established as the Metropolitan Archdiocese. Baghdad also became an archeparchy of the Syriac Catholic Church in 1862. In 1898, the Cathedral of Mary Mother of Sorrows was consecrated. It became one of the most important cathedrals of the Chaldean church. In 1918, many Assyrians settled in Baghdad fleeing massacres by the Kurds in the town of Salmas (today, located in the extreme northwestern part of Iran).  

Since 1950, the Chaldean Catholic Church has been headquartered in the Cathedral of Mary Mother of Sorrows. In 1964 the Assyrian patriarch Shimun XXI Eshai, in exile since 1933, decreed a number of changes to church practice including liturgical reform, the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, and the shortening of Lent. These changes, combined with his long absence from Iraq, caused a rift in the Assyrian church which led to schism. In 1968 traditionalists within the church elected Thoma Darmo as a rival patriarch to Shimun XXI Eshai, forming the independent Ancient Church of the East and based in Baghdad.

The neighborhood of Dora was largely uninhabited until the 1950s when Assyrians from Habbaniya started to settle there. Most houses and churches were built during the ‘60s and ‘70s while the booming neighborhood attracted more middle-class families. Prior to the Iraq War the area was home to the largest concentration of Assyrians who boasted a population of 150,000. But even then, they were subject to Arab discrimination and persecution and sometimes, murder. In 2002, a 71-year-old nun was savagely attacked and stabbed to death in a local monastery by extremists, who then beheaded her. Since the war, these incidents only intensified as Assyrians were subject to kidnappings, death threats, vandalism, and house burnings by Al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups, and most of Baghdad’s Assyrians were forced to flee as part of the ethnic cleansing process. Some of the most horrific terrorist incidents included: (2004) Arabs bombed five Chaldean churches, murdering nearly a dozen and injuring close to 100. (2005) Assyrians were thought to be among 14 bound corpses of torture victims found in a city garbage dump. (2006) Arabs bombed a Christian district, killing 16 and injuring many dozens more. (2010) 44 church members and two young priests were slaughtered at the Sayidat al-Nejat Cathedral Syriac Catholic Church when Islamic State of Iraq Fedayeen invaded the church, shooting members and tossing grenades into the congregation. Seven policemen were also killed. (2013) Over two dozen people outside a Chaldean church were massacred by Arab bombers. In a separate incident, an Assyrian market was targeted, killing at least eleven patrons in two blasts. 

Today, there are 1500 indigenous Assyrians of all denominations left in Baghdad who survive in spite of the intense Arab persecutions they have to endure.

Other indigenous sites that were either destroyed or just barely survived the Arab onslaughts include: Caliphs Street, Babel College, the Church of St. Paul and St. Peter, St. George Assyrian Church, Our Lady of Deliverance Syriac Catholic Cathedral, St. John Catholic Church, St. Maria Church, St. Joseph Kerk, St. Jacob Kerk, Church of the Sacred Heart, and the Church of St. James.