Dawodiya
Reconstructed Dawodiya after 1991
Reconstructed Dawodiya after 1991
Dawodiya is located in Iraq
Dawodiya
Dawodiya
Location in Iraq
Coordinates: 37°05′21″N 43°13′13″E / 37.089151°N 43.220261°E / 37.089151; 43.220261
Country Iraq
Region Kurdistan Region
GovernorateDohuk Governorate
DistrictZakho District
Sub-districtDawodiya
Mar Yokhannan (St. John) Church in Dawodiya

Dawodiya (Syriac: ܕܘܝܕܝܐ, romanized: Daūdīyā,[1][2] Kurdish: Bîk Dawide)[3] is a village in Kurdistan Region, Iraq in the province of Dohuk. Gara Mount bounds the Sapna valley to south and Matean Mount to the north. The village lies a short distance southwest of Amadiya airport.[4] The village is populated by Assyrians.[5]

Etymology

The village is believed to be named after the Mar Daudo monastery which is located north of Dawodiya.[6]

History

In 1850 there were 30 - 45 Chaldean Catholic families living in Dawodiya. By 1913 the population of the village had grown to 300 individuals. In 1961 approximately 150 families lived in the village.[6]

Some references indicate that the village of Dawodiya existed in pre-Christian times while others suggest that it was built in the Middle Ages.[7] While residents of Dawodiya are not certain of the village's exact age, they assume it was several centuries ago when some Assyrian Christian families escaped the persecution of Ottoman authorities during their original occupation of Bohtan in southern Turkey.[7] The village was demolished in 1987 during the Anfal campaign by the regime of Saddam Hussein.[7] The church of the village was also destroyed along with the village during the Anfal campaign.[6]

The British scholar Austen Henry Layard visited the village in the 1840s, spending one night there. In his writings he mentions that there were 200 families living in the village, a police station and a church. Layard also notes that Catholicism replaced the original denomination of those people who were the followers of the Assyrian Church of the East.[8] The village has a church dedicated to St John the Baptist which was originally built in the seventeenth century but was later rebuilt due to its destruction in 1987.[1][6] The Anfal genocide also led to the damage of a shrine dedicated to Mart Shmuni.[6] In 2004 Kurds from neighbouring villages stole agricultural lands and pastures from the villagers of Dawodiya.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Mar Yukhana Almaemdan church – Dawudeya". ishtartv.com. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  2. ↑ A. Carlson, Thomas (2014). "Daūdīyā". The Syriac Gazetteer.
  3. ↑ Abduľlā Ghafur (2001). Pēřst-ī gundakānī Kurdıstān Index of Kurdistan villages / Abdulla Ghafor Barg-ī 2, Pēřst-ī gundakānī bāshūr-ī Kurdıstān lasar zhımēr-ī sāľ-ī 1957 dā (in Kurdish). ISBN 91-631-0828-3.
  4. ↑ "Dahok". Archived from the original on 2011-10-03. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
  5. 1 2 "The land grabbing on the Assyrian lands in Iraq". Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Donabed, Sargon (2015-03-01). Reforging a Forgotten History. Edinburgh University Press. p. 317. doi:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748686025.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-7486-8602-5.
  7. 1 2 3 "The book of Dawodiya is releaed [sic]". www.ishtartv.com. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  8. ↑ Cited in Nora Kubie, The Road to Nineveh: The Adventures and Excavations of Austen Henry Layard, Doubleday: 1964.
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