The patriarchate in the 15th century was at Al Qush, not far from Mosul, but persecution growing more persistent, and many being forced into the Catholic ranks, the existing patriarch Mar Elias was ignored by the orthodox Chaldeans farther east, and the patriarch Mar Shimun at Julamark was elected, whose descendants, always bearing the name Shimun, are still the leaders of the now almost extinct old Chaldean Church.
In the 16th century the Roman Catholics having by the means employed sufficiently subdued the Chaldeans nominally Catholic, nominated a patriarch, and founded thus a patriarchal line in the name of Yusif, whom they established at Diarbekr, placing him over the Catholic Chaldeans without in any way consulting their wishes.
While this Catholic Chaldean section continued, by the exertions of missionaries, to enlist more recruits from the Chaldeans of the plains, the orthodox party in the mountains was gaining strength and confidence. Among the rough and fierce Kurds they became, too, warlike. Adopting Kurdish dress and habits it was almost impossible to tell them from the hereditary mountaineers, with whom they lived upon the best of terms. Inaccessible as were their villages and castles, the Turks were forced to leave them independent, though they nominally admitted the Sultan as lord of the soil they inhabited. It was not till 1839 that the Turkish Government officials encouraged the revengeful spirit of Nurullah Bey, a Hakkiari Kurd, who was at blood-feud with some Chaldeans, and Badar Khan Bey, who was better remembered than the greater man.
A very significant fact in support of the assertion that the Kurds were incited to rise, is the treatment of Badar Khan Bey, when, after the repeated protests and considerable pressure from Europe, the Sultan was forced to capture him. The officer deputed to this task, one Osman Pasha, made such lenient terms with the Kurdish chief as made it practically certain that he had not been acting without the acquiescence of the Turks. Nor was any part of the Kurdish territory invaded, except in the expedition against Badar Khan Bey, after which the troops were withdrawn. The opinions of contemporary Chaldeans, as expressed in some old letters I saw at Mosul, confirm these views, and state that the Kurds, although ever alive to the supposed wealth of the Chaldeans, had been always on fairly good terms with them; indeed, as we have seen, for over four hundred years they had lived side by side without any disturbances occurring.
The Mar Shimun of the period fled, during the massacres, to Urumiah, where were settled a number of Chaldeans, but returned later to Julamark, and was pensioned by the Turkish Government, thereby giving up the last remnants of any pretensions to independence that his people might have preserved. His successors have further weakened their positions by giving way to an overwhelming passion for intrigue, and, occupied with these discreditable operations, in which they try to involve American and Protestant missionaries, they have lost most of their hold over the Church, leaving the field open to the energetic assaults of the Catholics.
MASSACRE OF CHALDEANS
In January this year (1909) a new massacre of old Chaldeans occurred in the neighbourhood of S’airt, near Bitlis, a district where the Chaldeans have sunk into such a position of degradation, physical and moral, as to leave them little more than savages. Their priests are in some cases not sufficiently instructed to say the ordinary services, and the people are reported as complaining bitterly that they do not know whom they are supposed to worship, nor what is the significance of the word “Christian.” This condition of affairs has obtained for a long time now. For many years, under the vitiated governmental system of Turkey, the Kurds have been allowed to do as they please with the possessions of the Chaldean peasants, no steps ever being taken against them by the Turks, at once complaisant and afraid. It is a noteworthy fact that under the Shi’a rule of Persia the Chaldeans have prospered, and the miserable creatures they call “Gavarnai,” who come, naked and hungry, fleeing down the mountain slopes from Turkish territory, are almost a different race from the educated and progressive Chaldeans of Urumia and Salmas in Persia.
The Roman Catholic Chaldeans in Turkish territory have increased in numbers since the split in 1550, all those about Mosul and in Diarbekr being of that persuasion. However, Roman Catholicism received a shock in 1869, when the Bull of Papal Infallibility was issued, and a section was led by Thomas Ronkus, the Mutran Mallus, and Kas Jacob Naaman, afterwards Archbishop of Bagdad—which was called the New Chaldeans, that split from the Roman Catholics.
The clauses of the Bull to which these objected were:—
1. That a bishop cannot be made without Papal sanction.