Dioceses of the Church of the East after 1552

According to the report from 1610, Eliya VII had six metropolitans (Eliya of Amid, Gabriel of Hesna d'Kifa, Yaʿqob of Nisibis, Joseph of Gazarta, Hnanishoʿ of Mosul and the natar kursya Shemʿon), and nine bishops (Denha of Gwerkel, Yohannan of Abnaye, Ephrem of the Atel diocese of 'Ungi', Ishoʿyahb of Seert, Yohannan of Atel, ʿAbdishoʿ of Salmas, Joseph of Shemsdin, Abraham of Raikan and Abraham of 'the mountains').

Rome was told that the prime movers in the rebellion in 1552 against the patriarch Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb were unnamed bishops of Erbil, Salmas and Adarbaigan, who were supported by many priests and monks from Baghdad, Kirkuk, Gazarta, Nisibis, Mardin, Amid, Hesna d'Kifa 'and many other nearby places'; while according to Leonard Abel, writing in 1587, Yohannan Sulaqa's support came primarily from the towns of Amid and Seert and the neighbouring country districts.

According to Leonard Abel, ʿAbdishoʿ IV Maron 'created many priests, bishops and archbishops, and many towns of Nestorian Chaldeans previously loyal to his rival placed themselves under his authority'.

This letter, which survives in three slightly different Latin translations of a lost Syriac original, purports to contain a list of thirty-eight metropolitans and bishops who recognised his authority: I, ʿAbdishoʿ, son of Yohannan, of the house of Mari of the city of Gazarta on the Tigris river, was once a monk of the monastery of Saint Anthony and of the brothers Mar Ahha and Mar Yohannan, but am now, thanks to God and to the Apostolic See, Primate or Patriarch of the eastern city of Mosul in Athor, under whose jurisdiction are many metropolitans and bishops.

[3] The status of this letter has long been recognised as problematical, as the fourth Catholic patriarch Shemʿon IX Denha had only fourteen bishops in 1580, and it is unlikely that ʿAbdishoʿ had a far larger hierarchy several years earlier.

It is possible that ʿAbdishoʿ merely claimed to have fourteen dioceses (the same number as his successor), whose metropolitans or bishops were responsible for the various localities listed under each metropolis, and that the translator misunderstood his meaning.

In either case, while perhaps confirming the existence of East Syriac communities in certain districts and villages at this period and indicating the areas where ʿAbdishoʿ claimed support, the letter cannot be trusted as evidence for the number of bishops in his hierarchy.

The fourth Catholic patriarch Shemʿon IX Denha (1581–1600), under pressure from his Nestorian rival Eliya VII, abandoned the western centres of Amid and Mardin which had supported the union with Rome, and governed his church from the remote monastery of Mar Yohannan in the Salmas district.

According to the report from 1610, Shemʿon X had only five metropolitans (Hnanishoʿ of Shemsdin, Sargis of Jilu, Ishoʿyahb of 'the Persian borders', Sabrishoʿ of Berwari and the natar kursya Addaï), and three bishops (Joseph of Urmi, Giwargis of Sat and ʿAbdishoʿ of Atel).

[2] The extent of jurisdiction of the Shimun line patriarchs during the tenures of Shemon XI (1638–1656), Shemon XII (1656–1662) and Shemon XIII (1662–1700) is known from fragmentary evidence, including the letter of 29 June 1653 from the patriarch Shemʿon XI to pope Innocent X: Many indeed are the Chaldean Christians under Mar Shemʿon, in the following regions: Julmar (Julamerk), Barur (Barwar d'Qudshanis), Gur (Gawar), Galu (Jilu), Baz, Dasen, Tachuma (Tkhuma), Jatira (Tiyari), Valta (Walto), Talig (Tal), Batnura (Beth Tannura, i.e. Berwari), Luun (Lewun), Nudis (Norduz), Salmes (Salmas), Albac (Albaq), Hasaph (Hoshab), Van (Van), Vasgan (Wastan), Arne (Neri), Suphtan (Shapatan), Targur (Tergawar), Urmi, Anzel, Saldus (Sulduz), Asnock (Eshnuq), Margo (Mergawar), Amid and 'Gulnca'.

In 1796 Fulgence de Sainte Marie, apostolic vicar of Baghdad, visited Amid and Mosul and recorded the following statistics in respect of the two patriarchates.

By the beginning of the 18th century the Mosul patriarchate had lost its influence in the Catholic strongholds of Amid and Mardin, but still retained the loyalty of a considerable section of the Church of the East which wished to remain Nestorian.

Khidr of Mosul mentioned a number of bishops from the Urmi district in 1734, also with names which are paralleled in the 19th century: Gabriel, Yohannan, ʿAbdishoʿ, Joseph, Abraham and Ishaʿya.

Reports made in the 1830s and 1840s by a number of English and American visitors (particularly Perkins, Grant, Ainsworth and Badger) mention at least fourteen dioceses in the Qudshanis patriarchate.

By 1877 the mutran Hnanishoʿ had three suffragan bishops, probably all consecrated some years earlier, responsible for a number of villages in Shemsdin, Tergawar and elsewhere: Denha of Tis, Yohannan of Tuleki and Sabrishoʿ of Gawar.

This list (although cited in Fiey's Pour un Oriens Christianus Novus) cannot be regarded as genuine, as none of these bishops is mentioned by Tfinkdji or by the western missions in Kurdistan before 1914, or by any source thereafter.

In fact three members only of the Qudshanis hierarchy are known to have died during or immediately after the First World War (Denha of Tis in 1915, the patriarch Shemʿon XIX Benjamin in March 1918 and the mutran Isaac Hnanishoʿ in 1919), and the hierarchy of the patriarch Shemʿon XX Paul in 1919 consisted of four bishops: the mutran Joseph Hnanishoʿ, consecrated in April 1919, and the bishops Sargis of Jilu, Yahballaha of Berwari and Abimalek Timothy of Malabar, all consecrated before the First World War.

As with the Chaldean church, the population of the Qudshanis patriarchate (including the Urmi communities which temporarily converted to Russian Orthodoxy) seems to have risen appreciably in the decades before the First World War.

In 1830 the patriarchates were united, giving Yohannan Hormizd a hierarchy of eight dioceses with Catholic bishops: Amid, Mardin, Seert, Gazarta, Mosul, ʿAmadiya, Kirkuk and Salmas.

Despite the internal discords of the reigns of Yohannan Hormizd, Nicholas I Zayʿa and Joseph VI Audo, the second half of the 19th century was a period of considerable growth for the Chaldean church, in which its territorial jurisdiction was extended, its hierarchy strengthened and its membership nearly doubled.

[9] Paulin Martin's statistical survey in 1867, after the creation of the dioceses of ʿAqra, Zakho, Basra and Sehna by Joseph Audo, recorded a total church membership of 70,268, more than three times higher than Badger's estimate.

According to Chabot, there were mission stations in the town of Serai d'Mahmideh in Taimar and in the Hakkari villages of Mar Behıshoʿ, Sat, Zarne and 'Salamakka' (Ragula d'Salabakkan).

With around 100,000 believers in 1913, the membership of the Chaldean church was only slightly smaller than that of the Qudshanis patriarchate (probably 120,000 East Syriacs at most, including the population of the nominally Russian Orthodox villages in the Urmi district).

In 1913 the vicariates of Teheran and Kermanshah were vacant, but there were patriarchal vicars for the other eleven vicariates: Paul David, procurator-general of the Antonine order of Saint Hormisdas, for Rome; Isaac Yahballaha Khudabakhash, formerly bishop of Salmas, for Cairo and the small Chaldean community in Alexandria; Abraham Banna for Ahwaz; Thomas Bajari for Constantinople; Mansur Kajaji for Basra; Yohannan Nisan for Ashshar; Stephen Awgin for Deir al-Zor; Mikha'il Chaya for Aleppo; Joseph Tawil for Beirut; Marutha Sliba for Damascus; and Stephen Maksabo for Adana.

The Assyrian community, which numbered in total about 500,000 in 1980, still has many members living in Iraq and Iran, but their greatest concentration is in the United States, especially in Chicago, where Dinkha IV now resides.

Two other bishops, Nicholas Baso and Claudio Vettorazo, residing in Sicily and in Aquileia in northern Italy respectively, have also been connected with Mar Dinkha's group in the past, though their present status is uncertain.

In 1928, according to an official statistic prepared by the Sacred Congregation pro Ecclesia Orientali, the Chaldean church (excluding the vicariates) had fewer than 44,000 members, compared with over 101,000 in 1913.

At the start of the Second World War the Chaldean patriarch resided in Baghdad, and his episcopate consisted of four archdioceses (Kirkuk, Sehna, Basra, and Urmi-Salmas) and six dioceses (ʿAmadiya, ʿAqra, Mardin, Mosul, Syria and Lebanon, and Zakho).

This change of name reflected a decision taken three decades earlier by the archbishop Joseph Cheikho of Sehna, who moved his seat to Teheran in 1944 in recognition of the steady growth of the Chaldean population of the Iranian capital.

Archbishop Hanna Zora, who had taken up residence in Canada since 1991 was formally recognized as head of the newly created Eparchy of Mar Addai of Toronto in July 2011.