Beth Garmaï (East Syriac ecclesiastical province)
The region of Beth Garmai (Syriac: ܒܝܬܓܪܡܝ) is situated in northern Iraq, bounded by the Little Zab and Diyala Rivers and centered on the town of Karka d'Beth Slokh (Syriac: ܟܪܟܐ ܕܒܝܬ ܣܠܘܟ, modern Kirkuk).
Several bishops and metropolitans of Beth Garmaï are mentioned between the fourth and fourteenth centuries, residing first at Shahrgard, then at Karka d'Beth Slokh, later at Shahrzur and finally at Daquqa.
The known suffragan dioceses of the metropolitan province of Beth Garmaï included Shahrgard, Lashom (ܠܫܘܡ), Khanijar, Mahoze d'Arewan (ܡܚܘܙܐ ܕܐܪܝܘܢ), Radani, Hrbath Glal (ܚܪܒܬܓܠܠ), Tahal and Shahrzur.
It is not clear when the province ceased to exist, but the campaigns of Timur Leng between 1390 and 1405 offer a reasonable context.
He ranked sixth in precedence (after the metropolitan bishops of Seleucia, Beth Lapat, Nisibis, Prath d'Maishan and Erbil), and was responsible for the suffragan dioceses of Shahrgard, Lashom, Arewan, Radani and Hrbath Glal.
Within Beth Garmaï itself (the region between the Lesser Zab and Diyala rivers) there were dioceses for Radani, Shahrgard, Lashom, Shahrzur and Tirhan.
The dioceses of Hrbath Glal and Mahoze d’Arewan in the Lesser Zab valley were geographically in the Erbil region but seem to have been included in the metropolitan province of Beth Garmaï.
The last-known bishop of Tirhan, Shemʿon, was present at the consecration of Timothy II in 1318, and the diocese may have met its end during Timur's campaigns in the 1390s.
Eliya of Damascus listed five suffragan dioceses in the 'eparchy of Bajarmi' in 893, in the following order: Shahrqadat (Shahrgard); Daquqa; al-Bawazikh (Beth Waziq); Darabad; and Khanijar and Lashom.
[5] The bishop ʿAqballaha, 'bishop of Karka and metropolitan of Beth Garmaï', was present at the synod of Isaac in 410 and subscribed to its acts.
[7] The bishop Yohannan, 'bishop of Karka d'Beth Slokh, metropolitan of Beth Garmaï', was among the signatories of the acts of the synod of Acacius in 486.
[8] The deacon and secretary Hormizd was among the signatories of the acts of the synod of Babaï in 497, on behalf of the metropolitan Bokhtishoʿ of Beth Garmaï.
[9] The bishop Dairaya of Karka d'Beth Slokh, 'metropolitan of this town and of all the country of Beth Garmaï', was among the signatories of the acts of the synod of Mar Aba I in 544.
[16] The metropolitan Ishoʿzkha of Beth Garmaï was one of three bishops who went into hiding in 961 in protest against the election of the patriarch Israel.
[27] The metropolitan Eliya of Beth Garmaï, possibly the same man, was present at the consecration of the patriarch Yahballaha III in 1281.
[33] The bishop Surin of Shahrgard was among the signatories of the agreement of Bar Qaiti in March 598 and the acts of the synod of Gregory in 605.
Wallis Budge has identified Lashom with the village of Lasim, three-quarters of a mile to the southwest of Daquqa.
[40] He was among the many Persian bishops educated at the School of Edessa before its closure in 489, and is said to have written a commentary on I and II Kings, a discourse on his predecessor Sabrishoʿ, another on a person named Kantropos, and a tract explaining the division of the Nestorian psalter into three sections.
[44] The bishop (and future patriarch) Sabrishoʿ of Lashom adhered by letter to the acts of the synod of Ishoʿyahb I in 585.
[82] The bishop Hakima of Gawkaï was a contemporary of Thomas of Marga and flourished around the middle of the ninth century.
These sources mention the districts of Beth Mshaynane, Beth Gawaya, Hasa and Resha; the towns of Karka d'Beth Slokh (Kirkuk), Daquqa, Lashom (modern Lashin), Khanijar (all at one time or another the seats of East Syriac bishops) and Karkh Guddan; the monasteries of Mar Shubhalmaran and Mar Ezekiel near Daquqa; and the villages of Kafra, Luz, Shabrug (or Shaqrug) and Zark.
For much of the nineteenth century the East Syriac communities of Sehna and Baghdad were included in the Chaldean diocese of Kirkuk.
