Dere () is a village in

Duhok Governorate Duhok Governorate (, , ) is a governorate in the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Its capital is the city of Duhok. It includes Zakho, near the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing with Şırnak Province, Turkey. It borders the Al-Hasakah Gove ...

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region (KRI) is a semi-autonomous Federal regions of Iraq, federal region of the Iraq, Republic of Iraq. It comprises four Kurds, Kurdish-majority governorates of Arabs, Arab-majority Iraq: Erbil Governorate, Sulaymaniyah Governorate ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. It is located in the

Sapna valley Sapna Valley () is a large valley in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border ...

Amedi District Amedi (or Amadiya) District (, ) is a district of Duhok Governorate in Kurdistan Region, Iraq. The administrative centre is Amedi. Subdistricts The district has the following sub-districts: * Amedi * Bamarni *Chamanke * Deraluk * Kani Masi *Sarsi ...

. Dere is the sister village of Komane. In the village, there is a church of Mar Abdisho.

Etymology

The name of the village (, "monasteries" or "dwellings") has been argued to refer to the presence of the monasteries of Mar

Abdisho Abdisho, ʾAbdisho, Abdishu, or ʿAbd Īshōʿ (, ) meaning 'servant of Jesus' in Syriac, is a masculine given name. The name is most predominantly used by Syriac Christians of West Asia, namely the Assyrians. The name is derived from the Syriac w ...

and of Mar Qardagh.

History

The

Church of the East The Church of the East ( ) or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church, the Chaldean Church or the Nestorian Church, is one of three major branches o ...

monastery of Mar Abdisho at Dere was founded in the 4th-century AD atop a hill above the village known as Bshīsh. At one point, it was served by 42 monks who resided in nearby caves. It has been suggested that the monastery was the seat of the

metropolitan bishop In Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), is held by the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a Metropolis (reli ...

Abdisho of Koma in 1580. A colophon of 1586 mentions that the monastery had been damaged by a recent earthquake and subsequently restored. It was the only monastery in the region mentioned in reports in 1607 and 1610 but had probably been abandoned by 1753, in which year it was granted to the Dominican

mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

under Francesco Turriani by the governor of

Amedi Amedi or Amadiye (; ; ) is a town in the Duhok Governorate of Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It is built on a mesa in the broader Great Zab river valley. Amedi is known for its celebrations of Newroz. Etymology According to ibn al-Athir, the Arabic ...

. The Dominicans subsequently restored the monastery in 1779. The English missionary George Percy Badger noted the monastery was partially ruined when he first visited in 1843 but had been restored before he returned in 1850, at which time he recorded the village was inhabited by 12–18 families that were served by one functioning church as part of the Church of the East archdiocese of Berwari. Badger also attested that the monastery was revered by both Christians and Muslims. By 1913, Dere was counted amongst the thirteen villages in the Sapna valley that had joined the

Chaldean Catholic Church The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites, particular church (''sui iuris'') in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church, and is ...

. The village was inhabited by 425

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

in 45 families in 1938 according to a report by the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

. The Iraqi census of 1957 recorded the population of Dere as 323 people. It was inhabited by 100 families in 60 households in 1961, however the population began to decline as the villagers took refuge elsewhere due to the

Iraqi–Kurdish conflict The Iraqi–Kurdish conflict consists of a series of wars, rebellions and disputes between the Kurds and the central authority of Iraq starting in the 20th century shortly after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. Some put the marki ...

. The monastery of Mar Abdisho, which had been destroyed by an Iraqi government airstrike amidst the

First Iraqi–Kurdish War The First Iraqi–Kurdish WarMichael G. Lortz. (Chapter 1, Introduction). ''The Kurdish Warrior Tradition and the Importance of the Peshmerga''. pp.39-42. (), also known as the September Revolution (), was an armed conflict and major event of th ...

in 1961 and rebuilt in 1984, was destroyed alongside the village in 1987 by the Iraqi government during the

Anfal campaign The Anfal campaign was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988 during the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted rural Kurds because its p ...

, forcing the remaining 70 families to flee. After the Assyrians had fled the village,

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

from Meristak and other neighbouring villages seized their land. The monastery of Mar Abdisho was rebuilt again in 1995. By 2011, the Supreme Committee of Christian Affairs had constructed 13 houses at Dere and provided an electrical generator. The village was inhabited by approximately 365 Assyrians in 2012, of whom 250 belonged to the

Assyrian Church of the East The Assyrian Church of the East (ACOE), sometimes called the Church of the East and officially known as the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, is an Eastern Christianity, Eastern Syriac Christianity, Syriac Christian denomin ...

and 115 were Chaldean Catholics. As of 2021, Dere is inhabited by 12 Assyrians in 3 families.

References

Notes Citations

Bibliography

* * * Populated places in Dohuk Province Assyrian communities in Iraq {{Iraq-geo-stub