Tkhuma

Prior to World War I, the Tkhuma (Syriac: ܬܚܘܡܐ, romanized: Tkhūmā "Borderland"[1]) were one of five principal and semi-independent[2] Assyrian tribes subject to the spiritual and temporal jurisdiction of the Assyrian Patriarch with the title Mar Shimun. The Assyrians claimed the status of a firman of protection from the Caliphate and of an Ottoman millet to preserve their customs and traditions along with the tribes of Jelu, Baz, Tyari, and Deez/Diz, "forming the highest authority under His Holiness Mar Shimun, the patriarch."[3] The Tkhuma Tribe is a tribe of Assyrians that lived in upper Mesopotamia until 1915, when they were dispersed into Persia, Iraq, and Syria during the Sayfo or Assyrian genocide. In 1915, the representative of the Assyrian Patriarch Shimun XX Paulos wrote that the Tkhuma of "many Christian villages" had "been entirely destroyed."[4]

Lower Tkhuma
Assyrian church of Saint Artemius (Shalliṭā) in Gawaya, Tkhuma

In 1933, Malik Loco Badawi, the chief of the Tkhuma tribe, from the Royal House of Badawi, went with the chief of the Tyari and 700 armed Assyrians into Syria at the outset of the Simele massacre.[5] The League of Nations took responsibility for the resettlement of the Tkhuma Assyrians, reporting in 1937 that 2,350 Tkhuma had been settled in three villages in Syria.[6]


Tkhuma villages in Khabour[2]
Village Population in 1994
Lower Tell Ruman 108
Al-Kharitah 254
Tell Chame 213
Tell Wardiyat 108
Al-Makhada 286
Taal 468
Tell Sakra 564
Al-Breij 179
Arbouche 399
Tell Hormiz 921
Total: 3,500

Military

It was said that they the Tkhuma Tribe were the best fighters in the West Asia along with the Assyrian tribe of Tyari. Their Muslim neighbors stated that in order to stand a chance they needed to outnumber the Assyrians of Tkhuma or Tyari five to one, and have superior modern weapons.[7]

A journalist of the Ottoman Empire wrote, "The people of Tkhuma put up a great defense on September 27th and 28th [1915]. But while they were building trenches for themselves the Kurds were destroying them with guns. The Turks destroyed... Inner Tkhuma and many other places.".[8]

In the early 1930s the Assyrians consisting mainly of Tkhoumnayeh and Tyarayeh successfully defeated the Iraqis in Dairabun killing 33 and wounding 40 including 3 officers while the Assyrians suffered significantly less losses. The Iraqis were armed with modern weapons and attack planes given to them by the British while the Assyrians were only equipped with old rifles.[9]


References
  1. Travis, Hannibal (2017). The Assyrian Genocide: Cultural and Political Legacies. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-34864-9. OCLC 1119072702.
  2. M. Fernandez, Alberto. "Dawn at Tell Tamir: The Assyrian Christian Survival on the Khabur River". Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies.
  3. Dr. Khoshaba P. Jasim, The Assyrian Historiography and Linguistics, Presentation to 2nd World Assyrian Conference in Moscow, June 27–30, 2003, http://www.aina.org/articles/ahal.htm
  4. Paul Shimmun, Urmia, Salmas, and Hakkiari, in Great Britain, House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers 584 (1916)
  5. John Joseph, The Modern Assyrians 95 (2000)
  6. League of Nations, Settlement of the Assyrians of Iraq 6 (1937)
  7. Wigram, William Ainger; Wigram, Sir Edgar Thomas Ainger (1914). The Cradle of Mankind: Life in Eastern Kurdistan. A. and C. Black. p. 293.
  8. William W. Rockwell, The Pitiful Plight of the Assyrian Christians in Persia and Kurdistan 38 (1916)
  9. Stafford, R. S. (2006). The Tragedy of the Assyrians. Gorgias Press, LLC. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-59333-413-0.
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