Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/462

402 the Holy Fast, i.e. the last portion of our '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 [ 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, 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 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.