The Nestorians and their Rituals/Volume 1/Note to Page 87
NOTE TO PAGE 87.
Tomb of the Prophet Jonah.
The above description coincides with the usual style of architecture adopted in the ancient churches of this district, and there can be no doubt that this edifice was originally a place of Christian worship. The convent of the prophet Jonah is frequently mentioned in the ecclesiastical traditions of the Nestorians, and the following quotation from Bar Saliba identifies the site with the position of the modern mosque and tomb. Writing of the Patriarch Hnan-Yeshua, who was raised to that dignity during the caliphate of Abd ’ool-Melek ibn Merwân, cir. a.d. 686, he says: "Hnan-Yeshua resided in the convent of the prophet Jonah, which is situated on the western side of the wall of Nineveh facing the eastern gates of Mosul, and the river Tigris separates the two cities. When he died, he was buried here, in a coffin made of ebony. Six hundred and fifty years afterwards, the tomb containing the coffin was opened, and the body was discovered whole, and looked as if sleeping. Most of the inhabitants of Mosul went out to see this sight, and we also went and saw it with our eyes. And, even now, whoever desires to behold it, and to receive a blessing therefrom, is at liberty to do so; and if any disbelieve, let them go, and see and believe."
Bar Saliba, or Ibn Sleewa, lived in the fourteenth century, and as he introduces himself as an eye-witness of the above fact, it is clear that the convent was not converted into a mosque till a later period. Perhaps a peep beneath the sumptuous covering of the so-called tomb of Jonah might detect the ebony coffin of the Nestorian saint. Similar pious frauds have been perpetrated by Christians, if we are to believe what is alleged of S. Peter's chair at Rome.
The Mohammedans of the present day do not deny that many of their places of worship in this region were formerly Christian churches; on the contrary, they rather pride themselves upon the circumstance as a token of the triumphs of Islam. More than a century ago, a coffin containing a human skeleton was dug up within the precincts of the mosque at Mosul, called "Beit oot-Tekreeti." The coffin contained also several Syriac books, in one of which the following records were found: "This book of the Holy Fast, i.e. the last portion of our Lord's Fast, compiled from many works with great labour and care, and arranged according to the Order of the East, (which is the mother of light and the boast of Christians,) under the direction of the eminent presbyter Aboos-Saadât, surnamed Bar Dokeek, of noble parentage,—was completed on Tuesday after New Sunday, the 17th of Nisán, in the year 1557 [a.d. 1246], and of the Hegira 643, in the month of Zoo’l Kaada. It was completed in the holy Catholic Church,—the church of the blessed Tekreetians at Mosul. And this book belongs to the holy Church of Mar Theodorus, the victorious martyr, known as 'the Church of the Cross,' and is for the use of the eminent deacons and true believers Deacon Ibraheem and Deacon Abdoon of the family of Zorongheel, and for the great head Dadôn, and for the blessed brethren of the same Church, the preserved of God from all evil and danger, [written] in the days of the Fathers and watchful Shepherds, and the approved heads of the flock of Christ, Mar Ignatius, Patriarch of the Apostolic and Simonite throne of Antioch of the Syrians, and our lord Mar Yohannan the glorious Catholicos, and the lawful Maphrian of Tekreet, and of Nineveh, and of all the East. May God award to them the success of the Apostles and Evangelists, and prolong their lives to times and years."
The next is as follows: "Written by Shimoon an unworthy presbyter of the Church of the Tekreetians, the church of the victorious martyr Mar Theodorus, known as 'the Church of the Cross,' and situated near the [gate called the] Bab ’ool Irak, at the expense of the eminent presbyter Aboos-Saadat surnamed Bar Dokeek. And let whoever reads this book pray for the writer."
These records clearly testify that this mosque also had formerly been a church belonging to the Syrian Jacobites. They further render it more than probable that there was still a large Christian community at Tekreet, (a town on the Tigris mid-way between Mosul and Baghdad,) as late as the thirteenth century. At present it is inhabited exclusively by Arabs.