Tesqopa
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Tel Esqopa ܬܠܐ ܙܩܝܦܐ - Tesqopa |
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 Tel Esqopa
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| Coordinates: 36°35′50.72″N 43°6′13.40″E / 36.5974222°N 43.1037222°ECoordinates: 36°35′50.72″N 43°6′13.40″E / 36.5974222°N 43.1037222°E | |
| Country |
 Iraq
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| Governorate | Ninawa |
| Occupation | Nineveh Plain Protection Units |
| Population | |
| • Total | 11,000 |
| Time zone | GMT +3 |
Tesqopa (Tel Eskof or Tel Skuf or Tall Asqaf) (Syriac: ܬܠܐ ܙܩܝܦܐ; Arabic: تللسقف Tall Usquf 'Bishop's Hill') is an Assyrian town in northern Iraq located approximately 19 miles (about 28 kilometres) north of Mosul. In 2010, it had a population of 11,000 most of whom were Chaldeans belonging to the Chaldean Catholic Church. The town was captured by ISIS briefly in August 2014 and May 2016 but it is now partially reinhabited.
The name Tesqopa is of Syriac origin "Tilla Zqeepa" meaning the "Standing Hill" in reference to the hill next to it that contains the ruins of an ancient town. The people of Tesqopa are called Tisqopnaye [tis-kohp-na-ey] (singular: Tisqopnaya) (Syriac: ܬܣܩܘܦܢܝܐ) (Arabic: تللسقوفي).
Tesqopa is not mentioned in Thomas of Marga's Book of Governors (c. 840) or any of the other early monastic histories of the Church of the East, and may well have been founded as late as the Seljuq period, perhaps in the eleventh century. It is first mentioned as an Assyrian Christian village in a thirteenth-century poem by the Assyrian writer Giwargis Warda. This poem describes its sack by a raiding band of Mongols in November 1235 and the destruction of its church of Mar Yaʿqob the Recluse.
Tesqopa was subject to many attacks by the Mongols, the worst among them was the massacre of 1436 when they attacked the town, killing thousands of its Assyrian inhabitants and burning its crops and churches, ultimately forcing the rest of the inhabitants to flee to the mountains. In 1508 Tesqopa was attacked again by the Mongols, just as they attacked Tel Keppe, Alqosh and the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd. Tesqopa was also attacked by the army of Nader Shah in 1743 during his march on Mosul.
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