Malik Ismail II

Malik Ismail II
Malik Ismail II of Upper Tyari (middle), surrounded by his children and grandchildren. Standing (left to right) are his sons Daniel, Shlimon, Yaqou (later Malik Yaqou) and Dinkha
Born	1854 Chamba
Died	1936 Henadi
Buried	Henadi (later moved to St Mary al-Tahira Church in 1970)
Allegiance	Assyrian volunteers, Assyrian Levies
Battles / wars	Hakkari Expedition 1916 Assyrian rebellion Battle of Chamba Battle of Chal
Children	Malik Yaqo, Dinkha, Daniel, Shlemon.

Malik Ismail II of Upper Tyareh (1854–1936) Was an Assyrian malik of the Tyari tribe (Bit Tyareh), who was born in Chamba, which was the capital of upper Tyari. His father was Shlimon who was one of the two surviving sons of Malik Ismail I. His grandfather Malik Ismail I had fought bravely against Bedir Khan Beg’s forces in 1843, defending Upper Tyari’s autonomy and status until his last breath. Named in his honor, Malik Ismail II grew into a brave and wise leader, known for his deep understanding of the political dynamics of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Turks referred to him as "Ismail Beg".

Background

Malik Ismail II took leadership of Upper Tyari in the year 1885, succeeding his uncle Malik Yaqo I. Under his sharp leadership, Upper Tyari grew rapidly stronger which allowed him to combine his reign over several Kurdish tribes that were within Upper Tyari’s jurisdiction. He defeated several Kurdish chieftains, the most famous being against Tatar Khan Beg, the prince or Mir of Barwar, which resulted in the liberation of the Assyrian towns of Halmoun and Geramoun from Tatar Khan Beg's oppressive rule over them. Thereafter, Halmoun and Geramoun were administratively included under Upper Tyari’s control and the people of those two towns honored Malik Ismail II as their hero and offered his household yearly tribute of sheep.

Malik Ismail II sitting while in his suit

Malik Ismail II was the most powerful Assyrian Chieftain who ever lived in Hakkari and furthermore, it can be argued that by 1905, he was the most powerful leader in all of Hakkari which caused the Ottoman authorities to treat him with all the respect and honor like a prince of Hakkari.

Ismail was a merciful man, and even toward his enemies. In one instance, A group of Kurdish men had ambushed and killed four Tyari men on the road. Fearing revenge, they ran to Ismail's house, confessed their crime, and begged him to protect them. He assured them he would do everything in his power to keep them safe.

Shortly afterwards, Tyari tribesmen gathered to take revenge and advanced towards Chamba. Malik Ismail met them and tried to reason with them, but they were determined. They finally told him, “It is no good, Malik, you have done your best, but we must have our revenge, and that is our last word. Stand out the way“

Malik Ismail rose up on a bridge and declared, ”If that is your last word, now hear mine. These men are my guests now, and have eaten my bread and are in my house. What they did before is nothing to me, and if it were my own brother they had killed I would guard them now, and if you dare to attack, I and mine will defend them, and you will have to kill your own chief before you lay a hand on any one of his guests.“

The tribesmen hesitated, and as night fell, they abandoned their plan. Malik Ismail and his son Shlimon later escorted the men to safety.

A Battle in the Kurdish mountains took place in 1916, more specifically in the village of Chal. The Assyrian forces had previously split into 2 separate groups, one under Malik Ismail II and the other one under Dawid Mar Shimun along with some Maliks. On 27 May, the Assyrian forces met up in the village of Chal and there the battle began.

After a fierce battle, six of the best and most inaccessible castles were destroyed by the Assyrians, after crushing and tearing apart the enemy, along with a part of their established homes. The Assyrian army later returned from Chal, Chal was one of the most difficult places in these mountains.

Battle of Chamba

The Battle of Chamba occurred on 12 June 1915. Deacon Dinkha and Malik Ismail, head of committee of spies in the town square, was watching the enemy army of Ismail Agha who was the head commander of Upper Artushis at the time. Dinkha and his men were hiding in the mountains called Qarna D’Kilazer (perhaps Kalyazer) at dawn, the day that Dinkha was looking through his binoculars when he saw the enemy’s powerful army camping at the place called yellow water till Kani Khale (Uncle’s eye). This large army arrived at the aforenamed place that night, they camped in close quarters, it was very cold in the mountain at that time, at sunrise, and the warming of the day they left towards Kelazar mountain, but the Assyrian spies had left their place before they were seen by the enemies, who returned to the Suwareh camp and stayed there at that night, the enemy army camped at Samano camp all the way to Boosindi mountain.

In the morning, 13 June, the enemy army brought a cannon via mule to the Suwareh camp, they had guards in front of them about 200 meters away. As they neared the aforenamed camp, Dinkha and his men revealed themselves to the enemy, and from there a battle occurred that lasted 2 hours. Those 22 men were forced to fall back by the enemy, the mountain above camp was also held by the enemy. After they left the campsite, they found a better location more suited for fighting and also difficult for the enemy to attack. Here Lazar Beh Samano and 11 fighting men with him held the kamaka beybuneh mountain, and Dinkha with 11 men crossed the rock of Sheeva d’Gelleh which is across from the village of Malouta. There they fought the whole day, and the enemy unable to take those two difficult positions, lost five men trying to take the village. One Kurd from the army of Ismail Agha snuck away and entered from a passage where the enemy was least expected, He then set a house on fire and the smoke arose and covered the whole village, which darkened the way between them and the village. As they entered the village, Dinkha from house to house, was calling Malik Ismail about the movement of the enemy and their army.

After night fell, Dinkha and the men who were with him returned to Chamba D’Malik. There he gave all the information that was relevant to the Malik. That same night, the Malik occupied the entire mountain behind Chamba, from the great zab to the river which flows from the villages of Erda and Kalitan under the command of Daniel his son and Sawro Beh Samano. All the fighting men were ready which was shown to them, that same night, he sent Khamis Dinkha of Khateaban to spy on the forces of Haidar beg vail of Mosul and of Rashid beg Emir of lower berwer. At that time, he sent letters to the villages of Roumta and Darawa among walto, to also invite their fighters who were ready there.

The next day, which is 14th of June, at about seven in the morning, a great firefight opened in all the aforesaid mountains. At that time, the brilliant spy Khamis returned from his trip and told Malik Ismail about the forces of Rashid that have drawn around chamba. Haidar with Turkish forces left asheeta to Sarespeedo with field cannons and machine guns. Then the Malik commanded his son Shlemon saying, "Get word to Daniel and Sawro to Relinquish that whole mountain which they occupy, and cross the Arab to this side of beh Delyata quickly before they are surrounded by two armies of the enemy from the north and from the south."

That same night, Shlemon himself delivered this command to his brother and Sawro head of the soldiers, they quickly abandoned their barricades. However, many brave fighters hesitated saying, "What is the reason we should abandon the mountain? The strength of our forces is not less than that of the enemy." Daniel and Sawro replied “It is better we follow this order, because there must be a reason which is secretly kept from us” at that time, they abandoned that whole mountain. At about two in the morning, they crossed the bridge to the other side of Delyata. From there, the soldiers of Roumta arrived and Darawa and Beh Marigo under the command of Deacon Ayo and Sheeno, about one hundred fighters were then sent to hold the rock of Crucifixtion, which is located in the east of Zab across Chamba under the command of the strong and mighty Sawro Beh Samano. Malik ordered the rest to hide themselves in the houses so that they would not be seen by the enemy.

On 15 June, very early in the morning, the enemy began to slowly open fire with rifles but were not answered by the Assyrians. Ismail Agha’s army thought that this was a trick because in the evening the Assyrians opened fire, Ismail Agha stated, “what is the reason today that they are not answering, unless they have a trap set for us?” so they did not dare to show themselves, but a small group from Agha’s army hesitantly moved to the front, slowly from rock to rock, they were not hindered. Then they were sure the whole mountain was empty of the Assyrian army.

So, the army of Ismail Agha freely entered all the barricades and rushed down to the village of Chamba, the 100 fighting men were ready at the rock of Crucifixion. They opened fire as the ordered from the Malik, showing the enemy their weakness as they were fortified on that rock. From what the enemy observed, they became very comfortable and started to pillage the houses, then the Malik gave order to those men who were hiding in the village  of Beh Delyata, which is east of the Zab across the bridge of Chamba, to quickly surround the enemy. Some of them headed by Tia Lazar attacked the village, second group under the command of Zindo Beh Khiu were to occupy the whole mountain behind them.

There, a very bloody battle occurred with thousands of rifles opening fire in those deep valley’s. After the gun sounds echoed in those high mountains like reverberations, the enemy became disoriented and could not find an escape route. Without any other option, the army of the enemy, like a herd of sheep, moved through the valley to Kalitan village. The fighting men of the Malik drove after them until the village of Eada. During the startling escape, they let fifteen killed as they ran away, they left 40 rifles under the corpses. In this battle only seven men from the Assyrians were killed while sixteen wounded, one of the wounded was Tia Lazar from the  village of Koh. When one of the remaining enemy was running out of the Malik’s castle, at about 20 meters away, Tia attacked the enemy with a dagger and got him wounded.

Death

Malik Ismail II died at Henadi, Iraq, in 1936 and his remains were moved to St Mary's Assyrian Church in Baghdad in the 1970s.

Malik Ismail II’s funeral in 1936