A line of barefoot girls in headscarves and long patterned skirts carry large clay water jars on their backs past a brick wall. Newton & Co lantern slide no. 50 from the series "The Persians, Kurds, and Nestorians, their manners and customs", attributed by the Nelson Collection to Ernest Hoeltzer, late 19th century; published in The Living Races of Mankind (1901) as "Armenians water-carrying (Nestorians)" and by D'Allemagne (1911) as "Jeunes filles Nestoriennes faisant le métier de porteuses d'eau" (young Nestorian women working as water carriers).

Nestorian (Assyrian) girls carrying water jars

A man on a ladder works at the arched doorway of a brick church; the sign above reads "Syrian Roman Catholic Church" beneath a line of non-Latin script. The agency titled it a Syrian church in Mesopotamia in 1916.

Syrian Catholic church in Mesopotamia during the First World War

Malik Ismail II sits in a dark robe surrounded by his grandchildren, with four sons standing behind in bandoliers holding rifles; a Russian caption runs along the bottom. The Commons description names the sons as Daniel, Shlimon, Yaqou (later Malik Yaqou) and Dinkha.

Malik Ismail II of Upper Tiyari with his sons and grandchildren, 1912

Armed men in caps and overcoats stand in a snowy bazaar street in Urmia in 1918, described as Assyrian militia on patrol.

Assyrian militia patrolling in Urmia, 1918

Dawid Mar Shimun, Assyrian military leader and relative of the patriarch, in a fur cap and British-style uniform at Baqubah, 1918–1919 (crop from a group photograph).

Dawid Mar Shimun at Baqubah

Malik Ismail II, chief of the Tiyari tribe, sits in a tall white felt hat, embroidered waistcoat and sash with a dagger at his waist, at Baqubah, 1918–1919 (crop from a group photograph).

Malik Ismail II of Upper Tiyari at Baqubah

Jilu Assyrian refugees bend over piles of clothing and bedding laid on the ground beside a mud-brick wall while men in caps look on. Photographed by Ariel Varges in 1918.

Jilu Assyrian refugees sorting clothing, 1918

A British soldier in a pith helmet kneels beside a cooking pot with Jilu Assyrian refugee women and children in a desert camp. Photographed by Ariel Varges in 1918.

Jilu Assyrian refugees cooking with a British soldier, 1918

A long line of Jilu Assyrian recruits in tall felt caps faces a New Zealand NCO of Dunsterforce in a slouch hat at Hamadan, August 1918. Photographed by Ariel Varges.

Jilu Assyrian recruits drilling with a New Zealand NCO, Hamadan

Bare-chested Jilu Assyrian recruits line up while a British officer examines one man's eyes and other officers in pith helmets look on, August 1918. Photographed by Ariel Varges during the formation of the Urmia Brigade at Hamadan.

Medical inspection of Jilu Assyrian recruits for the Urmia Brigade

Four refugees, two men and two women, stand in rags and wrapped footwear after reaching the American Relief Station in Urmia, 1918–1919. The War Department caption does not name their community; they were possibly Assyrian or Armenian.

Four refugees reach the American relief station in Urmia

A woman in a headscarf rides a laden horse among a mounted column of refugees from Urmia passing through Bijar in western Persia in 1918. The Australian War Memorial caption speaks of some of the 80,000 refugees from Urmia.

Urmia refugees on horseback trekking through Bijar, 1918

Rows of boys in long tunics and caps stand behind seated Syriac Orthodox clergy at the Deyrulzafaran (Mor Hananyo) monastery near Mardin in 1918. The source identifies the group as the monk Hanna Dolabani with orphaned students.

Monk Hanna Dolabani with orphaned students at Deyrulzafaran, 1918

The stone church of Mar Zaya, with a ladder leaning on its flat roof, stands above terraced slopes in the village of Mata d-Mar Zaya in Jilu, Hakkari. Photographed by the Russian officer Sergei Olferiev in 1912.

Church of Mar Zaya at Mata d-Mar Zaya, Jilu, 1912

Title page of the Russian-language edition of the Urmia Orthodox mission's periodical ("Pravoslavnaya Urmiya"), no. 16, October 1913, with subscription details. The mission published it alongside a Syriac edition for Assyrian converts to Orthodoxy.

Cover of Pravoslavnaya Urmiya (Urmia Orthodokseta), October 1913

Rows of bell tents of the Baqubah refugee camp stretch along the bank of the Diyala river, seen from the air. The negative is marked "CA.906 29.1.19", suggesting January 1919; Commons dates it 1920.

Aerial view of the Baqubah refugee camp on the Diyala

A dense crowd of refugees from the Kurdistan mountains, men, women and children, fills the steps and yard of a brick building at the Russian consulate in Urmia. Published in Abraham Yohannan's The Death of a Nation (1916); they were likely Assyrians from Hakkari.

Refugees from the Kurdistan mountains at the Russian consulate, Urmia

A long column of refugees on foot, with carts and horses, winds down a slope beside Lake Urmia in spring 1915. Photographed by Basil Nikitin, then Russian consul at Urmia; the refugees are likely Assyrian and Armenian Christians.

Refugee column near Lake Urmia, 1915

An elderly bearded archdeacon in a white headcloth and a torn, patched coat stands holding the hand of a young boy. Published in 1916 in Rockwell's account of the Assyrian refugees in Persia; he was likely a Church of the East cleric from Hakkari.

A refugee archdeacon and a boy, 1916

Assyrian Christian refugees from Tiyari and Tkhuma sit in a grove hung with drying meat and clothing, autumn 1915. The original caption says they brought their sheep, wheat, kettles and clothes and had no shelter for the winter.

Assyrian refugees from Tiyari and Tkhuma encamped near Urmia, 1915

Eight armed Jilu Assyrian men in tall felt caps, embroidered jackets, sashes and patterned trousers pose against a mud-brick wall, four standing and four seated, 1918. From Major W. Leith-Ross's album at the National Army Museum.

Assyrian fighters from Jilu, 1918

A crowd of armed Assyrian volunteers, some mounted, surround a captured Turkish banner in 1918. The Commons description identifies the rider in the white hat as Agha Petros saluting his men; the photograph comes from Major W. Leith-Ross's album at the National Army Museum.

Assyrian volunteers with a captured Turkish banner, 1918

Half-length portrait of a young Jilu Assyrian soldier in a wrapped turban, embroidered tunic and sash, with a rifle at his side. The print, captioned "Type of Jelu" and "Mesopotamian Campaign", is mounted on a U.S. War Department photo card; it likely dates from 1918.

Jilu Assyrian soldier, Mesopotamian campaign

A young Assyrian man from Jilu in a felt cap, patched clothes and cloth leggings stands with a rifle over his shoulder at Hamadan, August 1918, recruited for the British-formed Urmia Brigade. Photographed by Ariel Varges.

Jilu Assyrian recruit for the Urmia Brigade at Hamadan

A Jilu Assyrian refugee woman in a headscarf and layered clothing carries her child on her back and lifts a cup for it to drink. Photographed by Ariel Varges in 1918.

Faces, places & memories of the Assyrian people.