Ashitha Revolt of 1843

The Ashitha Revolt of 1843 was a revolt in Ashitha, Hakkari, in the summer and autumn of 1843 after the massacres of the Assyrians of Diz and Upper Tyari. Following the massacres, the Assyrians of Lower Tyari then decided to rise up against the oppressive rule of the emirs of Bohtan and Hakkari.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

In the summer of 1843, and continuing until October, both the Diz and Upper Tyari clans were destroyed during the campaigns led by Kurdish emir Bedir Khan Beg and his allies. Afterward, the focus shifted to the Lower Tyari clan, which began to face harassment from the three Kurdish princes. One of them, Zeynel Beg the emir of Barwar, was stationed in the village of Ashitha.^[6] He was temporarily housed in the school building constructed by the American missionary Dr. Grant, which had been repurposed for military use by Bedir Khan Beg. This marked the beginning of intensified pressure on the Lower Tyari clan, leading up to the events of the Ashitha Revolt.^[7]

The Assyrians of Lower Tyari revolted against the oppressive rule of the Kurdish Mir of Berwari, Zeynel Beg, after the Assyrian Patriarch called his people to arms in 1843 to defend against Kurdish and Ottoman forces.^[8] The Patriarch said: "you must assemble a military force of 300 fighters from the village (Ashitha) and you shall head to fight the Emir of the Bohtan emirate. Expel his followers from the Barwari region, and if it is possible to arrest him alive or dead" and in resistance to the massacres carried out by Bedir Khan Beg and Nurullah Beg. The revolt was driven by years of persecution, loss of tribal autonomy, and the growing threat of annihilation facing Assyrian villages in the Hakkari region.^[1] Zeynel Beg tried to collect taxes from the Lower Tyari clan through some Kurds whom he had appointed as his agents for this purpose. However, the sons of this clan killed these agents when they tried to carry out their mission, and they also tried to kill Zeynel Beg, but he escaped and entered a castle where there was a force assigned to protect him. After this incident, the leaders of the Lower Tyari clan met in the Margerwargis Monastery (Mar George Monastery) in Lizan and decided to defend their rights and dignity no matter the cost, and to inform the other clans of the situation and ask for their help. Accordingly, every individual capable of carrying a weapon was summoned, and their number was estimated at ten thousand fighters under the command of Malik Batu, his brother the deacon Neno, and Malik Jolo. The deacon Neno was sent with a force to besiege Zeynel Beg who was surrounded in the fortified castle of Ashitha. The Assyrians who surrounded the Kurdish forces cut off their access to water, food, and external aid for nine days.^[9] forcing him to surrender before he could call for help or threaten the rear of the forces of Malik Batu and Malik Jolo stationed north of Ashitha. Despite Zeynel Bey surrendering, they killed many of the men.^[10] Afterwards, Zeynel Bey reached the fortress and sent word requesting Bedir Khan’s assistance. Malik Batu, at the head of the main force of fighters from the Lower Tyari, confronted the Kurdish force that came to aid Zeynel Beg and his men, who numbered around 26,000^[11] to 27,000 under the command of Bedir khan Beg, in order to prevent their advance.^[10] He clashed with them in those deep valleys and towering mountains in a fierce battle unprecedented in the history of tribal battles, clashing with the enemy with knives, daggers and hands.^[7]

The Dr. Grant, who was present at that battle,^[7][5][12] says that no less than 10,000 Kurds and about 5,500 Assyrian fighters fell on the battlefield. When Malik Batu was seriously wounded in his right thigh, the Kurds were able to break through the ranks of his men, and the two sides clashed with daggers and swords. Malik Batu was able to escape with his fighting men by withdrawing to the village of Ashitha in the Lizan Valley and taking refuge with their families in the fortified caves.^[7][5]

All the villages of Lower Tyari were burned, and the Kurds laid siege to those caves. The fighters preferred death to surrender, even though their water had run out. But the Kurds who knew about this cried out, swearing by the honor of Bedirkhan Beg that no harm would come to them if they left their weapons in the caves and went out with their families to the Zab to drink water. When the besieged saw that they had no way to escape, either to die of hunger and thirst or to accept the Kurds' offer, they decided to leave their rifles in the caves and hid their daggers inside their clothes in order to defend themselves and at least take revenge if they were betrayed. Everyone came out of those caves in a large, long column of women and children, led by men. When the head of the column reached the bank of the Zab River, and before the fighters could quench their thirst, the Kurds began their treacherous attack on this captive, defeated column. Those brave men drew their hidden daggers and clashed with the Kurds in a dagger battle with hearts of steel. They began to quench their thirst with blood instead of water.

The screams of the women, the crying of the children, and the groans of the wounded rose to the heavens in that deep valley, drowning out the sound of the waves of the Zab waters crashing against the rocks and the horror of that fierce battle from which no old man without teeth or child without teeth (according to the description of the American Dr. Grant)^[5][7] escaped death, and the story of those who survived from death from among those who remained under the piles of corpses from the men of this Tribe. After Malik Batu was wounded and his fighting forces were torn apart, he withdrew across the mountains with the help of one of his heroic men who got him across to the left bank of the Zab River and took him to the Kurdish village of Badri, near the village of Jal, whose people were loyal to his family for the kindness, assistance, care and respect they had shown him over the centuries, despite being Kurds.

In those critical circumstances, the villagers proved their authenticity and ingratitude. They hid him and treated his wound for two weeks, during which he regained a little of his strength. He then moved to the Kurdish village of Sarzar, also loyal to Malik Batu's family, and located on the border between Tyari and Barwari Bala, which is currently located within the Iraqi borders because it is far from the enemy's sight. He remained for a short time under treatment by the Kurds of the villages of Dashtani and Sarzar in one of the caves of Mount Sarzar, but due to the arrival of autumn with its cold weather, he was transferred to the house of Sayyid Abdullah in the same village. Bedirkhan Beg's men were searching for him everywhere. When they reached the village and approached the house where Malek Batu was, the owner of the house shouted at them, "Aren't you Muslims? Why do you enter our houses by force?" Bedirkhan Beg's men left without finding Malik Batu, who remained in the village of Sarzar for two months.

After his wound healed, he traveled to Mosul where he met with Mar shimun Abraham.^{[7] [5]}

• 1843 and 1846 massacres in Hakkari
• Tyari
• Malik Ismail II
• Hakkari