Remarkably, the town of Al Qosh is home to the remains of an ancient Jewish Synagogue, and within its confines, the tomb of Nahum the Elkoshi. The tomb, purported to be 2,700-years-old is guarded by a family of Assyrian Christians.
According to the Hebrew bible, Nahum accurately predicted the fall of the Assyrian empire and its capital Nineveh around 615 BC. Many scholars today look at the writings of Nahum not only as prophetic but also as history. And now, the prophet’s purported resting place is in danger of the very same fate at the hands of ISIS militants, according to Haaretz.
Nahum was one of seven minor prophets in the Old Testament. His name is a shortened form of Nehemiah which means “the comfort of Yahweh.” Remarkably, he is only mentioned one time in the bible, in Nahum, Chapter 1, verse 1, where he is identified as “Nahum the Elkoshite.”
(Source: Iconostasis of Kizhi monastery, Karelia, Russia.)
Keepers of the tomb of Nahum the prophet
The houses in Al Qosh on the ancient Ninevah plain are made of beige stone, their smooth domes topped with crucifixes. But this present-day Assyrian town is a vast treasure trove of history, dating from the Assyrian Empire to the beginnings of Christianity. Its Hebrew history is also an important part of the fabric of life here, though little is known except for the tomb.
The crumbling stone walls of an ancient Hebrew synagogue lie in the center of the town, abandoned by the last Jewish residents to leave Iraq in the early 1950s. At that time the Iraqi government was pursuing policies, often brutal, to purge the country of Jews as punishment for their wanting a separate, independent state. By 1953, almost 77 percent of Iraq’s Jewish population had fled, including the last Jews in Al Qosh.
The caretaker of the tomb is an Assyrian Christian Iraqi, Asir Salaam Shajaa. He was born and raised in Al Qosh, as was his father and grandfather before him. Shajaa takes care of the falling-down synagogue and burial site daily, fulfilling a promise made more than 60 years ago to the fleeing Jewish residents of Al Qosh.
Covering the tomb is a hand-sewn green cloth which Shajaa dusts off daily. His wife brings a broom weekly and sweeps the stone floors. He told Haaretz that “he is adamant that resting under the heavy stones are really the remains of Prophet Nahum.”
To Shajaa, it is a simple matter, and he explains, “When the last Jewish people in Al Qosh left, they asked my grandfather to watch over the tomb, to keep it safe. I don’t know much more than that. Nahum is not our prophet, but he is a prophet, so we must respect that. He’s a prophet, it is simple.”
The synagogue and tomb of Nahun
The walls of the synagogue were hand-laid, but now, few of the stones are left in place. It has been a lifetime since thousands of pilgrims would visit the tomb yearly, praying in the synagogue’s enclosure. Now, says Shajaa, only a few come, and people in Al Qosh know to send visitors to his house.
The Iraqi government has constructed a barbed-wire fence around the structure, what’s left of it, not to keep people out, but to keep people from danger, because it can be dangerous. The walls are still crumbling. Over the years, different townspeople have tried to rebuild the walls, but again, the government says a different type of material must be used, rather than the beige sandstone.
The Iraqi government did install a corrugated covering over the synagogue to shield it from further weathering. But Shajaa smiles and says he doesn’t care if no one is allowed inside. He holds the only key to the padlock that protects the site, and he says he has never turned anyone away who wanted to pray.
The keeper of the key also says that ISIS being so close has prevented many people from visiting, “so nothing will happen now.” As for the future of the synagogue and tomb of Nahum the Prophet, Shajaa says, “I’m not sure how long my family will continue to stay in Iraq, we want to leave, most of the Christians want to leave. My brother says he will stay though, if my family gets to leave Iraq my brother and his children will look after the tomb. It will stay in the family, God willing.”
