Prior to World War I, the Tkhuma (Syriac: ܬܚܘܡܐ, romanized: Tkhūmā "Borderland"[1]) were one of five principal and semi-independent[2] Assyrian tribes subject to the spiritual and temporal jurisdiction of the Assyrian Patriarch with the title Mar Shimun. The Assyrians claimed the status of a firman of protection from the Caliphate and of an Ottoman millet to preserve their customs and traditions along with the tribes of Jelu, Baz, Tyari, and Deez/Diz, "forming the highest authority under His Holiness Mar Shimun, the patriarch."[3] The Tkhuma Tribe is a tribe of Assyrians that lived in upper Mesopotamia until 1915, when they were dispersed into Persia, Iraq, and Syria during the Sayfo or Assyrian genocide. In 1915, the representative of the Assyrian Patriarch Shimun XX Paulos wrote that the Tkhuma of "many Christian villages" had "been entirely destroyed."[4]
In 1933, Malik Loco Badawi, the chief of the Tkhuma tribe, from the Royal House of Badawi, went with the chief of the Tyari and 700 armed Assyrians into Syria at the outset of the Simele massacre.[5] The League of Nations took responsibility for the resettlement of the Tkhuma Assyrians, reporting in 1937 that 2,350 Tkhuma had been settled in three villages in Syria.[6]
| Village | Population in 1994 |
|---|---|
| Lower Tell Ruman (Mazra'a) | 108 |
| Al-Kharitah (Gissa) | 254 |
| Tel Shameh (Gundiktha) | 213 |
| Tell Wardiyat (Mazra'a) | 108 |
| Al-Makhada (Berija) | 286 |
| Tel-Taal (Tal) | 468 |
| Tell Sakra (Gundiktha) | 564 |
| Tel-Breij (Chal) | 179 |
| Arbouche (Arbush) | 399 |
| Tell Hormiz (Tkhuma Gawaya) | 921 |
| Total: | 3,500 |
- ^ Travis, Hannibal (2017). The Assyrian Genocide: Cultural and Political Legacies. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-34864-9. OCLC 1119072702.
- ^ M. Fernandez, Alberto. "Dawn at Tell Tamir: The Assyrian Christian Survival on the Khabur River". Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies.
- ^ Dr. Khoshaba P. Jasim, The Assyrian Historiography and Linguistics, Presentation to 2nd World Assyrian Conference in Moscow, June 27–30, 2003, http://www.aina.org/articles/ahal.htm
- ^ Paul Shimmun, Urmia, Salmas, and Hakkiari, in Great Britain, House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers 584 (1916)
- ^ John Joseph, The Modern Assyrians 95 (2000)
- ^ League of Nations, Settlement of the Assyrians of Iraq 6 (1937)