August 2024 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Islamic State group’s genocide, by which 1000’s of individuals from Iraq’s marginalized communities, including Yazidis, Christians and Shiite Muslims, were killed in Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, and the encompassing areas.
The Yazidis, who follow a monotheistic religion, by which the Peacock Angel is chief amongst seven divine beings, and have been persecuted periodically previously, suffered gravely. From 2014 to 2017, not less than 5,000 were brutally killed, while 6,000 women and kids were enslaved; a whole lot of 1000’s were displaced from Sinjar and the Nineveh Plains, near Mosul.
Iraq’s Assyrian Christians, who belong to a native Mesopotamian community consisting of early converts to a Syriac type of Eastern Christianity, also suffered under IS. In Mosul, IS marked Christian homes and compelled them to either pay jizya, a tax historically levied upon non-Muslims, leave or be killed.
Even Muslims, particularly Shiites, whom IS deemed heretical for his or her adherence to types of Islam beyond the narrow version of Sunni Islam the group espoused, were killed. While Shiite Muslims are a majority in Iraq, they’re a minority in Mosul and the north, which is dominated by Sunni Muslims.
Iraq is the land where I used to be born. During a visit in the summertime of 2016, I used to be in a position to see IS men from an ancient monastery atop a mountain near Mosul, which was especially troubling. Although IS was mostly defeated by Iraqi forces, together with a broader international coalition led by the United States, the results of the genocidal violence it perpetrated are ongoing.
In particular, Yazidis and Christians proceed to suffer marginalization, the regions they inhabit remain unstable, and their heritage is subject to ongoing destruction. As a scholar of Iraq, I even have a selected concern in regards to the lack of intangible heritage comparable to prayers, songs and historic narratives – which I’m now working to preserve.
Since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, political parties in power have operated on a sectarian basis to marginalize minorities comparable to Christians and Yazidis.
The variety of Christians on this area has dwindled from 1.5 million in 2003 to a number of hundred thousand today. Other Islamic fundamentalist groups comparable to al-Qaida also targeted Christians, before IS did. The Alliance for Iraqi Minorities, a nonprofit based in Iraq, reported that 1,200 Christians were killed from 2003 to 2014.
Part of the explanation for his or her suffering is that the region they’ve historically occupied, especially the Nineveh Plains, is coveted for its resources. It is wealthy in oil and in addition holds among the most important heritage of Iraq’s early, pre-Islamic cultures.
Yet, it also holds special value for Iraq’s Assyrian Christians. Nineveh and surrounding areas comparable to Nimrud and Alqosh have vital artifacts, monasteries and church complexes, which date to Christianity’s earliest periods. These areas were once a part of Mesopotamia, a crucible of civilization, and contain a wealthy legacy of medieval literature, preserved in precious manuscripts dating way back to the fifth century.
Also adjoining to the Nineveh Plains is Lalish, the holiest sanctuary of the Yazidis. Within it lies the Twelfth-century shrine of Sheikh Adi, who’s revered as an influential holy figure within the Yazidi faith.
These communities draw their cultural identity from this history. For the Assyrians Christians, the traditional Mesopotamian inheritance, including Christianity, is intertwined with a singular oral heritage that features songs, folktales, recipes and tools for crafts preserved for hundreds of years by local villagers as a part of their now endangered Aramaic language and culture.
The language of farming utilized by these communities retains some influences from the Akkadian language utilized by the traditional Mesopotamian empires. For instance, within the dialect of the town of Baghdeda, within the Nineveh Plains, the word for storeroom of grains is “bakhshima” in Aramaic, which is a detailed descendant of the “bet hashiimi” in Akkadian for barn.
Preserving heritage
Even before the emergence of IS, rural and ethno-religious communities that didn’t occupy a central position of power were subject to the state’s neglect and inadequate preservation of their heritage. In particular, Arab nationalist governments comparable to the Ba’ath, which held power in Iraq from 1968 to 2003, destroyed the villages of Assyrian Christians, forcing their displacement to large urban majority centers in Iraq. The Yazidis were similarly targeted.
Throughout the twentieth century, Iraq’s national libraries and museums have shown scant interest in representing the heritage of provincial and rural communities.
IS brought more destruction. Churches and shrines, cultural institutions and ancient heritage – including town of Nimrod – were destroyed by IS. Those charged with preserving the heritage, together with other community members, were displaced from their towns and villages or killed. Some 400,000 Yazidis and about 200,000 Christians were expelled from the region between 2014 and 2017.
In the method, IS also erased memories of communities that may be passed to future generations. The damage was particularly severe for the Yazidi community, because it lacks textual scriptures; and for each communities, many traditions were passed down orally by men and ladies – often themselves illiterate – in the numerous languages of the region.
The aim of IS, as my colleagues and I discovered, was to erase not only these communities themselves but in addition the types of intercommunal coexistence that had characterised northern Iraq historically. Many of the religious sites IS targeted were revered by multiple religions. For instance, Mosul’s Mosque of Nabi Yunis was built on the positioning of a Christian church believed to be the shrine of the biblical Prophet Jonah. According to the Bible, Jonah was instructed by God to save lots of the Ninevites. IS’s destruction of this site revealed an Assyrian palace underneath the church-turned-mosque, which was dedicated to Jonah.
The path forward
Our current project documents the intangible and textual heritage of each Yazidis and Christians. The oral heritage often uses ancient languages and dialects – especially the endangered Near Eastern neo-Aramaic dialects spoken by Christians. We also document the Kurmanji version of Kurdish spoken by Yazidis.
The memories and narratives are significant not just for Yazidis and Christians but for the pluralistic history of the northern region and of Iraq as an entire. One example is “Dazike Batzmie,” or the “Blessing of the String” – a sacred white-and-red string spun from wool and worn by Yazidis for good luck.
Another is the pokhin – a combination comprised of seven grains plus salt, eaten through the conclusion of the “Rogation of Ninevites,” a quick by Assyrian Christians in remembrance of Jonah and their repentance before God. It is believed that those that fast can have prophetic dreams, and the salty pokhin mixture will help thirsty single people to dream of their future soulmates.
Alda Benjamen is Assistant Professor of Middle East History on the University of Dayton.
