Faysh Khabur

Faysh Khabur (Arabic: فيشخابور,^[1] Kurdish: پێشابوور, romanized: Pêşabûr^[2][3] Syriac: ܦܝܫ ܚܒܘܪ^[4]) is a town on the northwestern edge of the Kurdistan Region in the Zakho District of Duhok Governorate of Iraq. It is named after the Khabur River on which the town is built, and lies on the confluence of the Tigris and Khabur river. The town is in a very strategic location, as it lies just 4 km south from the Semalka Border Crossing with Syria as well as being close to the border with Turkey.

Faysh Khabur
Town
Coordinates: 37°4′5″N 42°22′39″E
Country	Iraq
Region	Kurdistan Region
Governorate	Dohuk

The town is populated by Assyrians^[5][6] and Yazidis.^[7]

History

The town has been connected with the Sasanian city "Peroz-Shapur", and the modern name is thought to be influenced by the Persian one. The first mention of the settlement is attested as far as the 4th century AD, when it was recognized as a Christian village. Its Assyrian population joined the Chaldean Catholic Church in the 1830s.^[8] During the Assyrian genocide, the town was attacked by Kurdish irregulars allied with the Ottomans, which left hundreds dead and forced the rest to flee to Mosul and Alqosh. Most of its inhabitants returned to their village during the Mandate for Mesopotamia.^[8] In 1913 there were approximately 1,300 Chaldean Catholics living in Faysh Khabur.^[6]

The village was subsequently attacked on three occasions.^[9] The first was during the Simele massacre in August 1933, when hundreds of its Assyrian inhabitants were attacked by the Iraqi Army. The second time the village was targeted was during the first Kurdish rebellion in 1961 by the Sindi Kurdish tribe, which forced the inhabitants to seek refuge in Khanik, the sister village of Faysh Khabur across the border in Syria, until 1975 when they returned. Only a year after returning, Faysh Khabur was attacked the third time when its population was forcibly evicted when the Ba’athist government of Iraq settled Arabs in the town as part of their Arabization campaigns.^[10] It was not until the 1991 uprisings that the Arabs left.^[10]

See also

• Iraq portal

• Assyrians in Iraq
• Yazidis in Iraq
• Semalka Border Crossing
• Dayrabun
• Khanik

References

1. "معبر فيشخابور يحدد 50 كغ كأقصى وزن لبضائع المسافرين | ARTA FM". www.artafm.com (in Arabic). Retrieved 24 December 2019.
2. "Rêveberê deriyê Pêşabûr: Deriyê Sêmalka vekiriye!" (in Kurdish). 29 October 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
3. "لە دەروازەی پێشابوور ئاسانکاری بۆ گەڕانەوەی کوردانی رۆژئاوا دەکرێت". Hawler.in (in Kurdish). 19 July 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
4. Travis, Hannibal Herausgeber. (9 May 2019). The Assyrian genocide : cultural and political legacies. ISBN 978-0-367-34864-9. OCLC 1119072702.
5. United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on Arms Control, International Security, and Science. (1991). The Persian Gulf crisis : joint hearings before the Subcommittees on Arms Control, International Security, and Science, Europe and the Middle East, and on International Operations of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Joint Economic Committee, One Hundred First Congress, second session, August 8, September 18, September 25, October 17, November 28, and December 11, 1990. U.S. G.P.O. p. 509. OCLC 23948615.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
6. Donabed, Sargon (2015-03-01). Reforging a Forgotten History. Edinburgh University Press. p. 307. doi:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748686025.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-7486-8602-5.
7. Christina Allison (2001). The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan. pp. 42 & 296.
8. بيداويد, يوحنا. بمناسبة اعتراف برلمان السويدي بمذابح سيفو، ماذا حصل في فيشخابور وسهل نافرويي سنة 1915 (in Arabic). الحوار المتمدن. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
9. "The Church of Our Lady of the Seeds in Faysh Khabur (Mariam Adra Hafita Al Zorova)". www.mesopotamiaheritage.org. 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
10. مبروك فيشخابور (in Arabic). Zowaa.org. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2019.