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'''Alqōsh''' , ({{lang-syr|ܐܠܩܘܫ}}, {{lang-ar|ألقوش}}) is an Assyrian a Chaldean town in northern [[Iraq]]. It is located (50 km) north of [[Mosul]].
Alqush has adorned the Bayhidhra mountains for more than twenty five centuries. The town glowingly reigns over [[Nineveh]]'s northern plateau known for its fertile soil and extends southward across the other Assyrian Chaldean towns, such as, Telassqopa ([[Tel Skuf]]), [[Baqofah]], [[Sharafiya]], [[Batnaya]], and [[Tel Keppe]].
Alqush traces its history back into the ancient [[Chaldean and Assyrian empireempires]] and perhaps even further. The earliest mentioning of Alqosh appears in [[Sennacherib]]'s era 750 BC as evidenced by the mural inside Sennacherib's palace that was discovered in Tel Kuyunjik/Qüyüjik (Sheep Hill in Turkoman) in [[Mosul]]. Behind this mural, the phrase "This rock was brought from Alqosh’s Mountain" is carved.
Alqosh is divided into four quarters: Sainna quarter to the west, Qasha quarter to the east, O’do quarter to the north, and Khatetha quarter to the south.
The name "Alqosh" could also have originated from the Aramaic "Eil Qushti", which means "The God of the Bow". Here, an association could be drawn in conjunction with the winged disk symbol of God Ashur holding a bow. Meanwhile, in Aramaic language, rainbow is referred to as "Qeshta d' Maran", therefore, the meaning of the "Bow of Our Lord", is possible as well. Alqosh is known also as Yimma d' Mathwatha (Mother of all Villages).
A number of sites within Alqosh still carry ancient Assyrian Chaldean names, for example, ''Sainna'' Neighborhood means the [[Moon]] Neighborhood and ''Bee Sinnat'' is a plain area south of Alqosh. Within approximately 2 miles (3 km), to the west of Alqosh, lies the well known ruin of Shayro Meliktha which is marked in the Iraqi ruins Map as a [[temple]] carrying a carving of [[Sennacherib]] aiming an arrow from his [[bow (weapon)|bow]].
==Sites in Alqosh==
[[File:Iraqvillagealqosh6.JPG|thumb|250px]]
Since its establishment, Alqush was a place for worshiping weather for the Assyrian local god El-Qustu or [[Judaism]] when various Hebrew peoples were brought by the Assyrian Chaldean army during the eighth and ninth century BC.
==Christianity and Alqosh==
Since its establishment, Alqush was a place for worship. either for the [[Sumer]]ian god [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]], who was also worshiped at [[Ur]] as the Sumerian equivalent ''Nanna'', or for the god El-Qustu. Alqosh was also a site of worship for the Hebrew peoples when they were brought by the Assyrian army during the eighth and ninth century BC{{Citation needed|date=June 2007}}.
Alqush became an important town for Eastern Christianity after the coming of the [[Assyrian Chaldean people|AssyrianChaldean]] monk Hirmiz who carved out a monastery out of the mountains of Alqosh. This abbey is called "[[Rabban Hormizd Monastery]]" and which was crafted in 640 AD at the outskirts of the Mountains of Alqosh. It was used as the Seat for many [[patriarchs]] of the [[Assyrian Church of the East]]. From this monastery came [[Yohannan Sulaqa]], who decided to unite with the [[Catholic Church]] in 1553 and established the [[Chaldean Church]].
Before that, all of the inhabitants of Alqosh, like their brothers in other Assyrian Chaldean towns, followed the [[Nestorian Church|Nestorian]] faith and were part of the [[Assyrian Church of the East]]. From 1610 to 1617, the Patriarchate of Alqosh, under Mar Eliyya VIII, entered in [[Full Communion]] with [[Rome]]. After this short-time union, from about the 1700 on, also Alqosh had a [[Chaldean Catholic Church|Catholic]] minority,<ref name="Frazee">{{cite book |last=Frazee|first=Charles A.|title=Catholics and Sultans: The Church and the Ottoman Empire 1453–1923 |year=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-02700-7|page=210}}</ref> and in 1771, the patriarch Eliya Denkha signed a Catholic confession of faith, but no formal union resulted till the reign of patriarch [[Yohannan Hormizd|Yohannan VIII (Eliya) Hormizd]] (1760–1838).
By 1780, most of the inhabitants Chaldeans of Alqush accepted the union with the Catholic Church. There are also people in Alqosh who adhere to their original [[Assyrian Church of the East]] faith.
==The monastery of Rabban Hormizd==
In 1743 Alqush became a victim to the destructive acts of their [[Iran|Persian]] overlord Nader Shah.<ref>[http://irane-man.tripod.com/NaderShah.html Nader Shah<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
According to the [[testimony]], written in a letter by the Qasha Habash Bin Jomaa from 1746, he describes; "... first they attacked [[Karamles]] and stole its Chaldean peoples valuables and kidnapped many of its children and women. They then did the same to the inhabitants of [[Bartella]] they killed many of her men, stole their valuables, and also kidnapped its children and women. They did the same to the people of Tel Keppe and Alqush, however, many of those two neighboring villages took refuge at the Monastery of Rabban Hirmizd. There they were surrounded by the soldiers of Nader Shah who attacked them and then massacred them. There they committed horrendous crimes that I just don't have the stomach to describe!"
In 1828, Alqush was attacked by the army of Mosa Pasha, the governor of Amadeya, who was instigated by some of his Muslim subjects to attack the Rabban Hirmizd Monastery which he did. His army arrested and imprisoned several monks and priests and caused tremendous damage to the monastery.
In 1832, Alqush was attacked by the Kurdish Governor of [[Rowanduz]], nicknamed "Merkor" whose hatred for Assyrians Chaldeans is well known. He killed over 400 of its Chaldean inhabitants. Merkor attacked Alqosh again on 15 March 1833 and killed another 172 of its men, not counting children, women, and strangers (according to church records).
In 1840, Alqush was attacked by the brother of Merkor, Rasoul Beg, who surrounded it for several months after which he set on fire the Rabban Hirmizd Monastery and stole over 500 of its valuable books.
* Between 1907 and 1908, alsouna appeared again to damage flour crops.
* Between 1917 and 1918, World War One caused extreme high prices.
* In 2014, the fighters associated with the [[Terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]] (ISIL) or [[Terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|Terrorist Islamic State]] (IS) came close to Alqosh. Almost all of the people fled Alqosh; however, many men and youths did not leave Alqosh due to a desire to protect their town. The Islamic state did not manage to take the town, and in return many people have came back, and with the Islamic states recent invasions, some Christian refugees from neighboring towns as well.
As a result of these painful incidents, many families left for [[Karamles]], [[Tel Keppe]], [[Bartella]], [[Mosul]], [[Baghdad]], and some left for [[Syria]], [[Jordan]], and [[Lebanon]] and established themselves in those regions.
In February 2010, The attacks against Assyrians in Mosul forced 4,300 Assyrians to flea from Mosul to the [[Nineveh plains]] where there is an Assyrian majority population. A report by the United Nations stated that 504 Assyrians at once migrated to Alqosh. Many Assyrians from Mosul and Baghdad since the post-2003 Iraq war have fled to Alqosh for safety. There is no actual official census for Alqosh, but many estimate the population between 2,500 and 20,180.<ref>[http://www.fredaprim.com/pdfs/2004/Alqosh.pdf]</ref>
"Alqoshniye" speak [[Syriac]], a dialect of [[Chaldean Neo-Aramaic]], the ancient language spoken by [[Jesus]] of [[Nazareth]].
The popular clothing for men is identical to that of the [[Kurdish people|Kurdish]] peoples. It is believed that the men of Alqush adopted this clothing at the end of the nineteenth century as they gradually abandoned their historic clothing which was long pants and "zaboon". Instead of the [[turban]], they would throw braids. Their features and clothing brings them close to their Assyrian practices.
As for women, their clothing originality extends to the history of [[Mesopotamia]]. Some signs of the Hatra's kingdom clearly appear in the ''posheya'' (Assyrian Chaldean headscarf) that adorns the head and in the Mazer worn by the women. The Assyrian Chaldean signs in the Alqushian female would appear in the long braids made of wool that extend to her ankle after connecting it to the woman's original braids. The Alqushean women exaggerated wearing golden and silver ornaments around their neck and ear and in her Poosheya that used to cover her head, that was decorated with colorful beads. The forehead was surrounded with a golden belt that skirts this ''posheya'' front the front side whereas black strings dangle from both sides. The skirted part of various colors and decorations would cover the woman's body from the front after it hangs from the shoulder to extend to the two knees.
==Cultural and religious situation==
Though Roman Catholicism is usually assumed with the inhabitants of Alqush, there is a higher number of Atheists, most of them affiliated with the Iraqi Communist Party in the 1950s which grew as an opposition to the Ba'ath Party.
Alqush, like so many other [[Iraq]]i cities which depended on its own [[economy]] and resources, had a high percentage of illiteracy, but that does not prevent having a long standing educational movement represented by Mar Mikha Al Nuhedri School at the beginning of the fifth century. The efforts of priests and [[deacons]] who stressed teaching the Chaldean Neo-Aramaic language and its literature and many of them left their writings. Some of those names are:
* Qasha Attaya AlMeqdesi in 1517, a writer and a great calligrapher.
* Qasha Hermizd Alqushi, writer and poet in Aramaic, lived in mid-sixteenth century till the dawn of the seventeenth.
* Commerce Secondary School
The residents of Alqush are Assyrians Chaldeans belonging to the [[Chaldean Catholic Church]]. Alqosh of course also houses many individuals who adhere to their own philosophies.
[[Image:Iraqvillagealqosh13.JPG|thumb|250px|Rabban Hermizd Monastery]]
Alqush was a Patriarch center for this church for many centuries. A number of Alqusheans became Patriarchs themselves when it became hereditary in Abouna's family (Aamokka). Eleven Patriarchs consecutively were from this family to head the [[Church of East]]. Their tombs are still in Rabban Hermizd Monastery:
Most of Alqosh inhabitants practiced dry agriculture since ancient and rely on the fertile plains to the south, growing agricultural products like grain, wheat, beans and in the summer products such as cantaloupe and cucumber. Farmers followed old non-technological methods in their farming for several centuries, and their livelihood was always threatened due to nature's betrayal in situations of drought or plant epidemics such as [[soona]] and [[grasshopper]]s.
Towards the beginning of the sixties, Alqosh of Chaldeans was introduced to modern agricultural machinery such as tractors, harvester-threshers (reapers), along with new methods of treating and curing plant epidemics. However, irrigation are still a problem in the area, and farming still relies on rain. Currently, many farms now belong to the government and are deputized to their owners to use them, as most were taken during Saddams control.
Besides farmlands, other agriculture also occurs in grape vineyards. grapevines spread all over the village and produce various types of grapes, among which are the black grapes that are well known in northern Iraq. Many of those who know about Alqosh's history believe that there were over two hundred vineyards in the village. Below are names of some of these vineyards:
==Modern Services==
In 2009, the Assyrian Democratic Movement installed a new sewage system for the town. In late 2011 CSAPC supported an electricity tower for the town, which is now fully installed for the people. In 2012 September the KRG carried out large scale projects in the town worth 12.5 billion dinars. The length of the Hungarian-stretch of the mountainside go far north of Alqosh all the way to the south, into the street leading to the industrial district leading to 1500 meters of the stretch. The basic purpose of the projects is to maintain Alqosh of environmental pollution, which will collect water cleaning, washing, and rain in the winter in one channel to serve the latter outside Alqosh away from the population in addition to getting rid of the negative effects of heavy rains in the winter, which before washed away soil and rocks into the streets of Alqosh.
==See also==
{{Portal|Assyrians}}
*[[Tel Keppe]]
*[[Bakhdida]]
*[[Barwari]]—an Assyrian —a Chaldean tribe also situated in Northern Iraq*[[Tyari]]—an Assyrian —a Chaldean tribe in the [[Hakkari province]], Turkey, which borders the northern bounds of Iraq
==References==
{{Nineveh Plains}}
[[Category:Assyrian Chaldean geography]][[Category:Assyrian Chaldean settlements]]
[[Category:Populated places in Nineveh Governorate]]