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Alqosh (,Thomas A. Carlson, “Alqosh – ܐܠܩܘܫ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified June 7, 2014, http://syriaca.org/place/19. , , alternatively spelled Alkosh, Alqoš, or Alqush) is a town in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq, a sub-district of the Tel Kaif District situated 45 km north of the city of Mosul.
The inhabitants of Alqosh are Assyrian people who since the 18th century now mostly adhere to the Chaldean Catholic Church. James F. Coakley, "Assyrians" in Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition, edited by Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz and Lucas Van Rompay quote: Among Chaldean Catholics, the ethnic term ‘Assyrian’ now has had to compete with the theological term ‘Chaldean’ as the preferred ethnic name. Some have adopted ‘Assyro-Chaldean’ as a compromise. During the Iron Age, the Alqosh plain appears to have been home to the small regional kingdom of Qumāne, but was subsequently annexed by Assyria.K. Radner, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Muṣaṣir, Kumme, Ukku and Šubria – the Buffer States between Assyria and Urarṭu," in: S. Kroll et al. (eds.), Biainili-Urartu. The Proceedings of the Symposium held in Munich 12-14 October 2007, Peeters 2012: 243-264: 245.
Behind the mountain there is also the site of Bezqin, known in Syriac language sources as ܒܙܩܝܢ bizqīn and pronounced by modern Alqosh as bisqin, containing the remains of an orchard and a Syriac Orthodox monastery, which may have originally been part of the Church of the East, and containing springs. After the Simele massacre this was left and came to be ruined by vandals, and most of the ancient trees cut down or burnt.
The monastery, built on the mountain slope, was originally built to defend the Assyrians against Muslim armies, and largely fortified over time. It became a centre of learning for the Church of the East not far from another centre but of the Syriac Orthodox Church. It was the burial place of the patriarchs of the Church of the East from the late fifteenth century and was their seat from the time of Shimun VI (1503–1538) until the end of the series of patriarchs known as the Eliya line.List of Patriarchs of the Church of the East#Patriarchal lines from the schism of 1552 until 1830 Isolated and cut off by snow from Alqosh in winter, it never became their permanent residence, and its line of patriarchs is commonly described as the Mosul line or as resident in Alqosh. F. Kristian Girling, "The Chaldean Catholic Church: A study in modern history, ecclesiology and church-state relations (2003–2013)" (Department of Theology, Heythrop College, University of London), p. 43 Today, the monastery continues to be venerated as a symbol of Assyrian and Christian resistance against those who have tried to attack it, especially following the Fall of Mosul and the War in Iraq (2013–2017).
In the schism of 1552, the abbot of the monastery, Yohannan Sulaqa, was elected irregularly to the post of patriarch by several bishops who were dissatisfied with the restriction of patriarchal succession to members of a single family. By tradition, a patriarch could be ordained only by someone of archiepiscopal (metropolitan) rank, a rank to which only members of that one family were promoted. For that reason, Sulaqa travelled to Rome, where, presented as the new patriarch-elect, he entered communion with the Catholic Church, was ordained by the Pope, and recognized as patriarch of the "Church of Mosul and Athura". He and his successors (who eventually formally broke communion with Rome) took up residence further east. This schism gave rise to the Chaldean Catholic Church, in opposition to what historians call the traditionalist wing of the Church of the East, that which officially adopted the name Assyrian Church of the East. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the "legitimist" Alqosh patriarchal line from which Sulaqa broke away in 1552, drew closer to Rome, especially during the 58-year reign of Eliya XI/XII Denkha (1722−1778), who sent several letters to Rome, some with professions of faith in line with Catholic teaching, but no formal papal recognition followed.Heleen Murre-van den Berg, "The Patriarchs of the Church of the East from the Fifteenth to Eighteenth Centuries" in Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies Volume 2 (1999 [2010), p. 247, However, it was a member of the family from whom the "legitimate" traditionalist patriarchs were chosen, Yohannan Hormizd (1760–1838) who, having considered himself a Catholic since 1778, was chosen as patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in 1830.
In March 2020, Shlama Foundation reported that the town had a population of 4,567: 1,015 families of Chaldean Catholic denomination, the remainder being Assyrian Church of the East and Syriac Orthodox.
According to the Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization, most of the inhabitants are Assyrian people, with a smaller percentage of Yazidis. In 1913, the town of Alqosh, was according to Joseph Tfinkdji inhabited by 7,000 Chaldean Catholics.Joseph Tfinkdji, "L'Église Chaldéenne Catholique autrefois et aujourd'hui", in Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 17 (1914). pp. 449–525. Many have emigrated since the 1970s. It is estimated that at least 40,000 "Alqushnaye" immigrants and their 2nd and 3rd generation descendants now live in the cities of Detroit, Michigan, the western suburb of Fairfield in Sydney, Australia and San Diego, California.
In February 2010, the attacks against Assyrian people in northern Iraq forced 4,300 to flee from Mosul to the Nineveh Plains. A report by the United Nations stated that 504 Assyrians at once migrated to Alqosh. Many Assyrians of all denominations from Mosul and Baghdad since the post-2003 Iraq war have fled to Alqosh for safety. The town's population in 2020 is estimated to be roughly 4,600.
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