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History of Zakho


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The Jews of Zakho

Zakho was formerly known for its synagogues and large, ancient Jewish community and was known as "The Jerusalem of Assyria". The Jews spoke the Aramaic of their ancestors. The banks of the nearby Khabur River are mentioned in the Bible as one of the places to which the Israelites were exiled (1 Chronicles, 5:26, 2 Kings 17:6, 2 Kings 18:11). There were serious attacks on the Jews in 1891, when one of the synagogues was burnt down. The troubles intensified in 1892, with heavy taxes being imposed, outbreaks of looting and Jews being arrested, tortured and ransomed. Jews from Zakho were among the first to emigrate to Palestine after 1920. Most of the others relocated to Israel in the 1950s.   

While the Jews of Zakhu were among the least literate in the Jewish diaspora, they had a unique and rich oral tradition, known for its legends, epics and ballads, whose heroes came from both Jewish and Muslim traditions.

The Assyrians of Zakho

Zakho is the seat of a diocese of the Chaldean Catholic Church.  It corresponds to the ancient Diocese of Malta, formerly a suffragan of Adiabene or Arbela. Some Nestorian bishops are mentioned from the fifth to the seventh century (Chabot, "Synodicon orientale", 676). It was reunited with the dioceses of Akra and Amadia until the middle of the nineteenth century, when the province was divided into three dioceses: Amadia, Zakho, and Akra-Zehbar. The diocese comprises 3500 Catholics, ten resident priests, five religious of the Congregation of St. Hormisdas, fifteen parishes or stations, twenty churches and chapels, and one primary school.

Recent history

Zakho has served as a checkpoint for many decades. It is a major market place with its goods and merchandise serving not only the Kurdish controlled area, but most of north and middle Iraq. Writing in 1818, Campanile described the town as a great trading centre, famous for its gallnuts as
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