Tesqopa ( syr, ܬܠܐ ܙܩܝܦܐ, ar, تسقوبا) or Tel Skuf ( syr, ܬܠ ܣܩܘܦ, ar, تللسقف), also ''Tel Eskof'' or ''Tall Asqaf'' is a town in northern

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

located approximately 19

miles The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 Engli ...

(about 28

kilometre The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is now the measurement unit used for ...

s) north of

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...

. The town is populated by Assyrians and they are members of the

Chaldean Catholic Church , native_name_lang = syc , image = Assyrian Church.png , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows Baghdad, Iraq , abbreviation = , type ...

. The town was captured by

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

briefly in August 2014 but was recaptured by Kurdish

Peshmerga The Peshmerga ( ku, پێشمەرگه, Pêşmerge, lit=those who face death) is the Kurdish military forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, ...

in August 2016. Many of the residents of the town returned with aid from the

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

, while a large portion has migrated to Europe.

Early history

Tesqopa is not mentioned in

Thomas of Marga Thomas of Marga, ( syc, ܬܐܘܡܐ ܒܪ ܝܥܩܘܒ, ') was an East Syriac bishop and author of an important monastic history in Syriac, who flourished in the 9th century CE. He was born early in the century in the region of Salakh to the north-east ...

's ''Book of Governors'' (''c.'' 840) or any of the other early monastic histories of the Church of the East, and may well have been founded as late as the Seljuq period, perhaps in the eleventh century. It is first mentioned as a Christian village in a thirteenth-century poem by the Assyrian writer

Giwargis Warda Giwargis Warda ( syc, ܓܝܘܪܓܝܣ ܘܪܕܐ, ''Giwargis'' being the equivalent of "George" and ''warda'' meaning " rose") was a Syriac poet of the Church of the East who probably lived in the 13th century. He is named in several manuscripts as th ...

. This poem describes its sack by a raiding band of Mongols in November 1235 and the destruction of its church of Mar Yaqob the Recluse. Tesqopa was subject to many attacks by the Mongols, the worst among them was the massacre of 1436 when they attacked the town, killing thousands of its Assyrian inhabitants and burning its crops and churches, ultimately forcing the rest of the inhabitants to flee to the mountains. In 1508 Tesqopa was attacked again by the Mongols, just as they attacked

Tel Keppe Tel Keppe ( syr, ܬܸܠ ܟܹܐܦܹܐ ', ar, تل كيف ', alternatively spelled Tel Kaif or Telkef) is an Assyrian town in northern Iraq. It is located in the Nineveh Governorate, less than 8 mi (13 km) northeast of Mosul.Welcome to Te ...

Alqosh Alqosh ( syr, ܐܲܠܩܘܿܫ, Judeo-Aramaic: אלקוש, ar, ألقوش, alternatively spelled Alkosh or Alqush) is a town in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq, a sub-district of the Tel Kaif District and is situated 45 km north of the ...

and the Monastery of

Rabban Hormizd Rabban Mar Hormizd ( syc, ܕܪܒܢ ܗܘܪܡܙܕ ) was a monk who lived in the seventh century in modern northern Iraq. ''Rabban'' is the Syriac term for ''monk''. "Rabban" is also the Aramaic word for "teacher". He founded the Rabban Hormizd Mo ...

. Tesqopa was also attacked by the army of Nader Shah in 1743 during his march on

Modern history

The town received many Assyrian refugees from Baghdad and Mosul in the wake of the

sectarian violence Sectarian violence and/or sectarian strife is a form of communal violence which is inspired by sectarianism, that is, discrimination, hatred or prejudice between different sects of a particular mode of an ideology or different sects of a religion ...

in the 2000s. On 23 April 2007 a car bomb that targeted the village resulted in more than 25 deaths. In early August 2014,

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ' ...

(ISIS) entered Tesqopa. But on 17 August 2014 the Kurdish

retook Tesqopa. After this, the local Christian Assyrians were then able to restore the crosses atop their vandalized churches. ISIL militants overran the town during dawn on 3 May 2016 however they were driven out of the town by Peshmerga fighters later in the day. By 2017, several hundred families had returned to the town and the parish church was functioning again. The Hungarian government assisted in rebuilding the destroyed homes of 991 Christian families.

References

{{Nineveh Plains Populated places in Nineveh Governorate Assyrian communities in Iraq Nineveh Plains