The Jacobites
The rugged limestone district around Midyad is the home of another mountain people known as the Jacobites. Banded together by the ties of religion they form a community of husbandmen living aloof from their neighbors of divergent religious views. They are described as of warlike nature and independent spirit. Language also differentiates them from other Ottoman groups, a Syriac dialect differing considerably from Nestorian being in use among them.[258] In Turabdin they speak an Aramaic dialect known as Turani. The Jacobites are noted for their aptitude for business. The important colony of traders founded in the eighteenth century in the vicinity of Bagdad owes its origin to the desert traffic and the Indian trade by way of Basra.
This people traces its religious origin to the teachings of Jacobus Baradeus,[259] who, in the middle of the sixth century, traveled through Asia Minor and consolidated scattered groups of Monophysite recusants into a single body. They constituted a large sect during the Middle Ages, but defections, notably in favor of the Roman Church, have thinned their numbers considerably since then. At present they muster hardly more than 15,000 individuals.