ARAM, 21 (2009) 49-59. doi: 10.2143/ARAM.21.0.

2047085

RELIGIOUS POETRY FROM ALQOSH AND TELKEPE (NORTH IRAQ):

CONTACTS BETWEEN SURETH-SPEAKING COMMUNITIES
AND EUROPE IN THE 19TH CENTURY

Dr. ALESSANDRO MENGOZZI

(University of Bergamo)

In the present paper, firstly, I intend to survey the history of Modern Syriac
religious literature from North Iraq – more precisely from Alqosh and Telkepe
– and its reception in its homeland as well as in Europe.
The term ‘Modern Syriac’ indicates a Christian variety of North-Eastern
Neo-Aramaic, which has been called Sureth, FelliÌî, Vernacular Syriac and
used for literary purposes in North Iraq since the last decade of the 16th cen-
tury. This kind of Neo-Aramaic literature has been preserved throughout the
centuries in manuscript form, with the remarkable exception of a couple of
publications by the Dominican press in Mosul.1
Secondly, I will focus on the religious poetry of the 19th century and show
how 19th-century texts bear witness to the contacts that were established
between Sureth-speaking communities and Europe. Literary and scholarly
exchanges moved in both directions: Sureth poets drew inspiration from Euro-
pean authors and European scholars – especially in the last decades of the 19th
and at the turn of the 20th century – became acquainted with Sureth literature.

1. RELIGIOUS POETRY IN MODERN SYRIAC FROM NORTH IRAQ

The earliest attested texts in Sureth are religious poems belonging to the
dorek†a genre. Probably deriving from the Semitic root *drk ‘to tread, step
on’, the term dorek†a (pl. dorekya†a) seems to be related to the Mesopotamian
Aramaic word ’drkt’ ‘song, hymn’. The spelling dureg (from Classical Syriac
*drg ‘to step forward’) is common in Urmi Neo-Aramaic.2

1
The term ‘Sureth’ probably derives from sura}i† ‘in Syriac’ and refers to a number of North-
Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialects spoken by East Syrians in North Iraq, especially in the villages
of the Mosul plain (see Guidi 1883, Sachau 1895, Rhétoré 1912, Jastrow 1997, Coghill 2004,
Mengozzi 2004). The manuscript transmission of Sureth texts is characterized by phonetic spelling,
unlike the rather historico-etymological standard in use for Urmi Neo-Aramaic (Assyrian; see,
e.g., Macuch 1976: 79 and Mengozzi 2002: vol. 590, 22-24).
2
In the mss. dorek†a is used as an equivalent of Classical Syriac mêmra, sogi†a or {oni†a.
Kurdish etimologies have also been proposed: du- ‘two’ + rêk ‘in good order > ‘couplet’?; Arabic

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 50 RELIGIOUS POETRY FROM ALQOSH AND TELKEPE (NORTH IRAQ)

There has been little improvement in our knowledge of Sureth religious

poetry since the last decades of the 19th century.3 A few dorekya†a have been
published: a collection of poems by Israel of Alqosh and Joseph of Telkepe
(Mengozzi 2002) gives us an insight into the Sureth literature of the 17th cen-
tury; Poizat (1990 and 1993) published the 18th century poem Sur la peste de
Pioz by Somo and Sur la répentance by Hnanisho of Rustaqa (Poizat 2002);
Pennacchietti (1990a, 1993b, 1996) published two shorter poems On Arsanis
Jimjimma and three Neo-Aramaic versions of the sogi†a of the Cherub and the
Thief (Pennacchietti 1993a).
In 2003 Poizat presented the manuscript of an unpublished – and uncom-
pleted – work by Father Jaques Rhéthoré: La versification en Soureth, 1913
(Poizat 2005), which – besides the technical description of Sureth metrics,
with commented samples – surveys genres and authors of Sureth literature.
This document certainly deserves to be published in the near future, while
Rhéthoré’s grammar of the Sureth language (Mosul 1912) should be reprinted
or, even better, updated.

1.1. Israel of Alqosh and Joseph of Telkepe

The 17th-century authors Israel of Alqosh4 and Joseph of Telkepe5 appear to

remain faithful to the East-Syrian tradition. They seem to be conscious of their
indebtedness towards Syriac sources, although motifs and themes drawn from
the classical tradition are often barely recognizable in their modern, Sureth,
adaptation (Mengozzi 2002: vol. 590, 107).
The process of translation of the cultural heritage is not purely linguistic, from
Classical Syriac into the Vernacular, but it also affects the literary form and
content of the poems. The form of Sureth verses suits the requirements of an oral
transmission perfectly: rhythmical figures and repetition (rhyme, complemen-
tary distribution of anadiplosis (concatenatio) and anaphora in connecting the
stanzas, and formulae) create texts which are at the same time easy to memorize
and listener-friendly (Mengozzi 2002: vol. 590, 75-79, 83-84, 96-104).

*dwr ‘be circular’ + Kurdish -ek (in the Jewish Neo-Aramaic of Dehok, its equivalent means
‘round bread, khallah’) > ‘cyclic poem’? (Mengozzi 2002: vol. 590, 67-69).
3
Macuch (1976: 98-106) and Brock (1977); Pennacchietti (1976, 1990b); Habbi (1978a,
1979-1980); Poizat (1982, 1990, 2005); Mengozzi (1999, 2003).
4
Israel of Alqosh was a priest of the Church of the East, active around the end of the 16th
and the first decades of the 17th cent. A fine poet both in Classical Syriac and Sureth, scholar and
scribe, founder of the Sikwana (or Qasa) family of scribes, he is considered the leader and
inspirer of the so-called School of Alqosh (Murre-van den Berg 1998; Mengozzi 2002: vol. 590,
57-61).
5
Joseph (Yawsep) of Telkepe was a priest of the Church of the East, active in the 2nd half of
the 17th cent. A prolific poet in Sureth, he was born in Telkepe, son of the priest Jamal al-Din
and therefore also known as Yawsep Jemdani. He was married and had children, at least one of
whom, named Isho{, became a priest and died young. His poems have been preserved as a more

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 A. MENGOZZI 51

Being preserved by Chaldean communities, the earliest dated poems in

Sureth may lead one to think that they were composed in the vernacular under
the influence of Catholic missionary activities. As regards the content, however,
the poems of the 17th century do not contain signs of European influence, as
we can see, e.g., when we consider their free use of apocryphal sources: in his
poem On revealed Truth ({al srara galya), Joseph of Telkepe gives an account
of Adam’s fall as described in apocryphal sources such as the Cave of Treas-
ures (Mengozzi 2005) and almost literally quotes the Syriac Apocalypse of
Pseudo-Methodius (Mengozzi 2006b); Israel of Alqosh freely adapts the apoc-
ryphal Revelation of Paul, dealing with intriguing descriptions of the other
world (Mengozzi 2002: vol. 590, 107-110).
Therefore, the emergence of Sureth literature in the 17th century can be
connected with Western – i.e., Catholic – missionary activities in the region,
only in terms of polemical reaction, since one can hardly imagine Catholic
missionaries accepting texts of this kind, deeply rooted in the Eastern tradition.

2. SURETH RELIGIOUS POETRY IN THE 19TH CENTURY: SYRIAC

TRADITION AND EUROPEAN INFLUENCE

In the 19th century, on the contrary, the genre of the dorekya†a was cultivated
by Catholic, Chaldean authors, such as Thomas Tektek Sindjari, David Kora,
and Damyanos of Alqosh. Their poems generally deal with spiritual themes:
repentance, the Holy Virgin Mary, Hell and Paradise, the ascetic life, etc. Most
of them are hitherto unpublished.
Thomas Tektek Sindjari6 was born in Telkepe and died around the year
1860. During his youth, he was much feared as a bandit who pillaged caravans
in the Djebel Sindjar (hence his last name). He converted and went back to
Telkepe, where he worked as a weaver (hence the surname Tektek, that would
recall the sound of the weaving shuttle). From time to time he wandered
through the Christian villages, singing his dorekya†a, to collect alms and sup-
plement his rather scanty income.
David Kora of Nuhadra7 also supported his numerous family partly in this
way. He had lost his sight when he was nine years old (hence his surname

or less unified corpus in at least 9 mss. and seem to correspond to a conscious plan of re-telling
the Scriptures in the modern language. (Mengozzi 2002: vol. 590, 61-66, 121; Mengozzi 2006b).
6
Rhéthoré (1913: 55-56); Macuch (1976: 101-102). His dorek†a On Repentance was pub-
lished in Socin (1882) and Sachau (1895), On the Monastic Life in Habbi (1978b).
7
Rhétoré (1913: 62-64); Macuch (1976: 104-106); Mengozzi (2002: vol. 590, 85-88). A
number of metrical fables attributed to David Kora were printed by the Dominicains in Mosul
(Daoud l’Aveugle 1896). The famous dorek†a On the Holy Virgin Mary (b-semma d-baba w-brona),
attributed to David Kora or to the French Dominicain J. hétoré, has became a kind of national
hymn for the Chaldeans of the plain of Mosul and was included in the manuscript collection
Vatican Syr. 521 (120a-123b) and in the printed book Recueil (1896: 198-230; 1954: 214-247).

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 52 RELIGIOUS POETRY FROM ALQOSH AND TELKEPE (NORTH IRAQ)

Kora ‘blind’), studied at the Dominican school in Alqosh, and was appreciated
as a talented poet, bard and story-teller. Every year, this ‘Chaldean Homer’, a
blind poet, went down from Alqosh to Mosul to receive a written authorization
from the Patriarch and start his summer tournée, wandering from village to
village telling stories and singing hymns. People gathered on the terraces
to listen to him and he was thus able to collect wheat, barley and raisins for
his children. In 1870 he met the German orientalist Albert Socin and dictated
to him the dorek†a On Repentance by Thomas Tektek Sindjari, which was the
first Sureth poem published in Europe (Socin 1882).

2.1. Continuing the Syriac tradition

The works of a number of other Sureth religious poets active in the 19th cen-
tury are more directly linked with the Syriac tradition. Neo-Aramaic versions
of Classical Syriac poems were circulating, such as the sogya†a of the Cherub
and the Thief (Pennacchietti 1993a) and the Sinful Woman and Satan (Zetter-
stéen 1906, Mengozzi 1999: 401, n. 104) or a famous Christmas hymn (Men-
gozzi 2006). Joseph {Azarya of Telkepe translated into the modern language
two classical Syriac poems on Joseph son of Jacob, traditionally attributed to
Narsai (Mengozzi 1999: 482, n. 117).8
Other poets followed the path of late East-Syrian masters such as Giwargis
Warda in writing on historical – mostly catastrophic – events. Beside the clas-
sical models, the 18th-century Sureth poem On the Pestilence in Pioz inspired
compositions on similar disasters (pestilence, famine, war) which befell Syrian
Christian communities. Israel of Alqosh Jr. (Rhétoré 1913: 61) wrote a poem
on a pestilence which struck Alqosh in 1828. Anne of Telkepe, who was still
alive when Father Rhétoré wrote his La versification en Soureth, is the only
Sureth poetess we know of (Rhétoré 1913: 72). She wrote a poem on the fam-
ine which happened in the Mosul region in 1898. Isaac of Alqosh (Fiey 1965:
474, n. 2) wrote on the famine of the year 1879, also described by Eduard
Sachau in his Reise in Syrien und Mesopotamien (1883: e.g., 358 and 380). As
Sarah Shields (1991: 22) writes in her excellent study on the economy of the
Mosul region in the 19th century, ‘Drought and pests were serious impediments
to production, as artificial irrigation and chemical pesticides were not used.
Even when water was adequate, locusts could severely damage the harvest.’
Stephen of Alqosh is probably the author of the dorek†a on the Russian-
Turkish war. We will shortly come back to this poem.

8
In the Iraqi ms. N.D. de Sem. 330.3: 47a-77a (Vosté 1929: 121), a Sureth poem (or the two
poems?) On Joseph Son of Jacob is attributed to a certain Stephen Rayes (ra} is; see Macuch
1976: 102). Unfortunately the ms. is currently unavailable.

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 A. MENGOZZI 53

2.2. Damyanos of Alqosh and the use of European sources

Damyanos of Alqosh, a monk of Rabban Hormizd, was involved in a con-

troversy for the appointment of the Chaldean Patriarch but died only a priest
in 1858.
Among the poets dealing with spiritual rather than historical themes, Damy-
anos is particularly sensitive to European influence. Rhétoré (1913: 57) says
that he translated the famous Latin hymn Stabat mater from Arabic to Sureth.
He is also the author of a Classical Syriac translation of the Mursid al-Kahanah,
an Arabic adaptation of a baroque handbook for preachers, originally written
by the Italian Jesuit Paolo Segneri (1624-1694; Macuch 1976: 103).
Investigation of the poem On the Torments of Hell (1855)9 has shown that
the poet from Alqosh used an Italian source in his description of Hell or at
least the Sureth and Italian texts have a source in common. The following lines
of the dorek†a by Damyanos seem indeed to be a free translation of passages
of L’Inferno aperto al Cristiano perché non v’entri ‘Hell disclosed to the
Christian so that he may not enter it’ by Giovan Pietro Pinamonti, a younger
follower of Paolo Segneri:
b-ratex muxa b-qarqumta
w-demma b-kullay waride
“The brain will boil in the skull
and the blood in every vein” (On the Torments of Hell, st. 62)

bollirà quel sangue immondo nelle sue vene,

il cervello dentro il suo cranio
“that filthy blood will boil in his veins
and the brain in his skull”. (Pinamonti 1718: 269)

laybay d-jawji m-dukthayhin.

w-layth xa menayhin d-’ibbe
d-saqel tawletha m-’aynayhin
“They can not move from their place
and among them no-one can
take away the worm from his own eyes” (On the Torments of Hell, st. 109)

un reprobo sarà così fiacco,

che non potrebbe allontanarsi
da un occhio un verme, che glielo rodesse
“a sinner will be so exhausted
that he will not be able to remove
from his eye a worm biting into it”. (Pinamonti 1718: 267)

9
See Destefanis (2005). Mrs. Simona Destefanis (University of Torino) has prepared a critical
edition of the poems On the Torments of Hell and On the Delights of the Kingdom by Damyanos
of Alqosh, which will hopefully appear soon, with English translation.

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 54 RELIGIOUS POETRY FROM ALQOSH AND TELKEPE (NORTH IRAQ)

2.3. Sureth literature reaches Europe

While poems of this kind, more or less permeable to European motifs, were
composed and circulated among the Chaldeans of North Iraq, the poetic tradition
of the Iraqi Chaldeans found its way to Europe. As a matter of fact 19th century
German scholars were the first to record and publish poems in Sureth, some-
times among texts in other varieties of Neo-Aramaic, Kurdish and Arabic.
Albert Socin collected samples of religious and profane poetry; Guidi, Sachau,
Lidzbarski and Vandenhoff soon followed him, mostly concentrating on reli-
gious literature. After Vandenhoff’s text edition (1909), we have to wait until
the seventies of the 20th century for new studies on the Christian Neo-Aramaic
literature from North Iraq, thanks to the Rudolf Macuch, Father Yusuf Habbi,
Fabrizio Pennacchietti, and Bruno Poizat.10
The traveler and orientalist Eduard Sachau was very active in collecting
Neo-Aramaic manuscripts, besides Arabic and Classical Syriac ones. He also
did intensive fieldwork with native speakers and learnt Neo-Aramaic – FelliÌî,
as he called it – with the teacher and scribe Jeremiah Shamir. In his Reise in
Syrien und Mesopotamien (Sachau 1883: 355), he says:
Jeremias kam täglich zu mir; durch ihn suchte ich Bücher und Handschriften zu
erwerbern und beschäftigte mich unter seiner Leitung mit dem Studium des Dia-
lectes seiner Nation, des FellaeÌî.
“Jeremias came every day to my place; I tried through him to purchase books and
manuscripts and I engaged under his direction in the study of the dialect of his
nation, the FelliÌî.”

As a part of his fieldwork on Neo-Aramaic, Eduard Sachau collected written

material in various dialects and belonging to different genres. He commissioned
local scribes to write down or copy conspicuous collections of literary texts in
Sureth and other North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic varieties. Most of them are pro-
vided with an Arabic translation, either in a separate manuscript or in synopsis
with the Neo-Aramaic original.
The texts are now preserved in Berlin and London. The Berlin manuscripts
were extensively studied by Mark Lidzbarski, who published a selection of
specimens in two volumes in 1896, with a German translation and a precious
lexical list. Mengozzi (1999) briefly describes the London Neo-Aramaic man-
uscripts.
Both collections deserve further scholarly attention as a source for linguistic
and literary evidence. Sachau bought, e.g., a manuscript of the Gospel of
St. John, translated into Turoyo by Isaiah of Killit. An earlier copy of the same
translation is preserved in Harvard and has been described by Henrichs (1990:
184-185).
10
See, above, n. 3.

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 A. MENGOZZI 55

2.4. The dorek†a on the Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878

The manuscript 9321 of the London Sachau collection contains 695 pages
of text and 7 accompanying letters of the scribe, the priest Gabriel. According
to Guest (1993: 148), Gabriel Jeremiah Shamir was the son of the famous
Jeremiah, copyist of part of the manuscripts of the Berlin Sachau collection
(Lidzbarski 1896).11 In a note, dated 27th August 1897, Sachau writes that the
texts were written in the years 1896 and 1897.
In the letter dated Baghdad May, 22nd, 1896, the priest Gabriel writes
in Arabic about the task he has received via Monsieur Richard, the British
consul,
to write down a number of poems and stories composed in the neighborhood of
Nineveh in the vernacular (darijah) FelliÌi, and to translate and comment upon
them in Arabic.

Notwithstanding his numerous undertakings, the priest Gabriel says he has

been able to fulfill his task and points out to prof. Sachau the literal character
of his Arabic translation, especially when the original Neo-Aramaic text is
poetic.
Then, – the scribe Gabriel goes on – it will not escape your knowledge that
freedom of speech, thinking and public acts is restricted for Eastern Christians…
and in this connection I would like to inform your Highness that the files that I
sent to you via his Excellency the eminent consul Monsieur Richard contain a
poem entitled Dorek†a d-sharê d-mesqof w-{e†manli ‘Poem of the war of Moscow
against the Ottomans’.12

The Sureth poem on the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 was circulating

in the last decades of the 19th century. As far as I know, it is preserved in
three manuscript versions: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France: Syr. 427,
22b-45b; London Sachau collection, British Museum: Or. 9321, 26b-68b;
Cambridge Syr. 1130, 1b-12a. It numbers around 200 stanzas, each containing
four lines of seven syllables in the Paris and London versions, but only three
lines per stanza in the Cambridge manuscript.13

11
Thanks to Prof J. F. Coakley (Harvard) for his kindness in sharing this information.
Prof. R. Y. Ebied (Sidney University) is preparing an edition of the London manuscript Or. 9326,
a collection of Arabic, Neo-Aramaic and English letters sent to Eduard Sachau, most of them by
Jeremiah Shamir (papers presented at the ARAM Conference, Chicago 10-12 April 2007 and the
Syriac Studies Symposium, Toronto, June 25-27, 2007).
12
British Museum, Or. 9321, 697a:
‫ وعليه‬... ‫خاف عن علمكم ا ّن نصارى الشرق مقيدو حريّة عن اظهار الافكار القول واجرآءها جها ًرا‬ ٍ ‫ثم غير‬
‫اعلن لحضرتكم الوقورة ان في الكراريس المراسلة اليكم بواسطة سعادة القنصل المسيو رشار الفخيم قصيدة‬
.‫ܿܦ ܘ ܸ ܼ ܵ ܼ ( قصيدة حرب مسكوب مع بني عثمان‬ ‫عنوانها )ܕܘ ܸܪ ܿ ܐ ܕ ܼܿ ܹܐ ܕ‬
13
I am currently collating the extant versions and hope to be able to publish a critical text
soon.

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 56 RELIGIOUS POETRY FROM ALQOSH AND TELKEPE (NORTH IRAQ)

The author seems quite well informed about the diplomatic scenario sur-
rounding the conflict of 1877. As is well-known, the casus belli was a Chris-
tian revolt in Bulgaria in which the European Powers as well as the United
States were involved. The Sureth poet mentions the diplomatic contacts and, in
a markedly anecdotic way, the military activities around the Armenian front
(Erzurum, Kars). The telegraph, a novelty in the field of communication tech-
nology for military purposes, is mentioned and the importance of the press in
spreading news and propaganda is specified.
In the Paris text, a versatile scribe added 50 stanzas, containing the names
of the author and of the scribe himself, hidden in numerical riddles.14
In his accompanying letter, the scribe Gabriel, who copied for Sachau the
poem On the Russian-Turkish war, now in the London collection, describes
it rather accurately and asks for prudence in divulging a text which could get
the Eastern Christians into trouble with the Ottoman authorities. Gabriel’s
description and critical remarks provide us with interesting information about
the circulation and reception of this kind of text:

‫ غير انها لا تخلو عن بعض مبالاغات‬.‫وهي تاريخ ّية منسوقة العبارة حسنة التركيب‬
‫وغلطات تاريخية فالقصيدة المذكورة بما انها تطعن بعض الطعن بدولتنا العثمانية ارجوكم‬
‫الّا تضموها تحت الطبع خو ًفا من ان تُشهر وتُنشر ويطلع عليها فيحدث من ذلك سؤال‬
… ‫ فا ًذا يقتضى الاحتيال على المارة‬... ‫ وجواب فيرتبك بنا الأمر‬...
“It is historical in content, written in a nice style and well-structured. It is
not free from instances of historical exaggeration and inaccuracy and expresses
some criticism towards this our Ottoman State. I ask you to avoid printing
it, so that it may not circulate and become popular, as it might give rise to
questions and answers and cause us troubles… This matter requires therefore
prudence.”

Gabriel’s words are not only to the point as a critical description of the
text – the poem is indeed well-structured and nice and it contains historical
mistakes – but they also bear witness to reception and circulation of Sureth
poetry at the end of the 19th century. The Sureth poet was writing about his-
torical events for a critical audience, able to criticize both form and content of
the poems. As a scribe, Gabriel acts as a professional member of the audience.

14
The name of the author should be } Estephanos, since 266 is the sum of the numerical
value of the letters that make up the name, as stanza 259 requires, and he should be from
Alqosh, as stated in stanza 257. Unfortunately, I do not have any information about a Stephen
of Alqosh. No evidence allows us to identify him with Stephen Rayes, the putative author of a
poem on Joseph son of Jacob (see above, n. 8). According to stanzas 264-266, the name of the
scribe who added the riddle is {Azarya, i.e., Joseph {Azarya of Telkepe, the author of the Neo-
Aramaic versions of the poems on Joseph son of Jacob (according to the London Sachau ms.
Or. 9321; see Mengozzi 1999: 482-483).

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 A. MENGOZZI 57

Texts circulated in oral and manuscript form. In expressing dissension or

open criticism of the Muslim – in our case Ottoman – rulers, the choice of the
Aramaic vernacular and of the traditional script was strategic, keeping the
texts out from the notice of the authorities. Gabriel, the scribe of the London
Sachau collection, consciously excludes the idea of publishing a text like this
in printed form. Not only the language, but the medium of transmission too,
had to be chosen prudently in a context in which the religious minorities
enjoyed very limited freedom of speech and expression.

3. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

In 19th century, Sureth poetry continued the traditional genre of the dorekya†a
in two main directions. Authors such as Damyanos of Alqosh, Thomas Tektek
Sindjari and David Kora composed hymns on spiritual themes. Unlike what we
know of earlier Sureth literature, these 19th-century texts show traces of Euro-
pean influence. Damyanos of Alqosh, for example, drew inspiration from Italian
sources, as shown in a recent study, for his description of Hell. As in the late
East-Syriac liturgical tradition, other authors wrote on contemporary historical-
catastrophic events, which affected the Christians of North Iraq and confronted
them with complicated religious issues. Stephen of Alqosh, the author of a poem
On the Russian-Turkish war, adopted a more secular view of history in his work
and broadened the scope of Sureth poetry to a wide geo-political scenario, in
which European Powers dealt the Ottoman Empire a terrible blow.
Sureth poems reached Europe thanks to German scholars such as Albert
Socin and Eduard Sachau, in the last decades of the 19th century. As far as
their homeland is concerned, external evidence confirms that the circulation of
the dorekya†a remained quite limited in the 19th century. As in the preceding
centuries, orally transmitted texts in Sureth were seldom recorded in written
form. Nevertheless, Sureth poets interacted with a living audience and scribes
such as the priest Gabriel, who worked for Eduard Sachau, proved to be con-
scious and critical readers. In the case of the poem on the Russian-Turkish
war, he appealed to Sachau’s prudence in divulging a text that, given its anti-
Ottoman contents, was potentially dangerous.

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African Studies. University of London. 40.3: 605-606.
COGHILL, E. (2004). The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Alqosh. Ph.D. diss., University of
Cambridge.

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 58 RELIGIOUS POETRY FROM ALQOSH AND TELKEPE (NORTH IRAQ)

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