Shabak

The presence of the Shabak in the lands they occupy today goes back to at least the early sixteenth century. Over the following centuries, the people developed their own identity on the Nineveh Plain, preserving a distinct language and religious tradition even while living among much larger Arab and Kurdish populations.

The twentieth century brought harsh trials: under the regime of Saddam Hussein, dozens of Shabak villages were destroyed and thousands of families forcibly displaced. After 2003, the community again became a target of attacks, and in 2014 the advance of the Islamic State across the Nineveh Plain emptied entire villages, forcing families to flee once more before they could return, years later, to a devastated territory.

The Shabak are mostly farmers, working the fertile soil of the Nineveh Plain north of Mosul. Until the mid twentieth century, nearly all worked as tenant farmers on land belonging to influential Shiite families from the city, who also mediated their disputes with neighboring tribes; later land reforms allowed part of the community to come to own their own land.

Social life revolves around the village and devotion to a spiritual guide called a pir, respected as a mediator between the divine and the faithful. Villages such as Ali Rash, Khazna and Talara, north of Mosul, are home to families who maintain ties to both the surrounding Kurdish and Arab cultures.

Most Shabak follow their own form of Islam, tied to the Shiite tradition and organized as a Sufi order, with a Sunni minority. At the center of this practice is the figure of the pir, a spiritual guide who directs the rituals and is seen as an intermediary between the faithful and a divine reality deeper than the literal interpretation of the Quran.

Historically, Shabak belief recognized in Ali, the son in law of Muhammad, a special manifestation of the divine, within a worldview that resembles Anatolian Alevism. Over time, much of the community moved closer to more conventional Shiite Islam, but reverence for the pir and for their own traditions remains alive in many families.

Shabaki is a distinct Iranian language, influenced by Turkish, Persian, Kurdish and Arabic, and considered endangered even among the people themselves, since many prefer Arabic or Kurdish in daily life. There is no record of a translation of the Scriptures in this language, which leaves the Shabak dependent on texts in Arabic or Kurdish, languages not all of them command with equal fluency. The absence of a New Testament or Bible portions in their heart language is one of the greatest spiritual gaps facing this people.

Among the Shabak, belonging to the people is almost inseparable from belonging to Islam: the Shiite faith, or devotion to the pir and the tariqa, functions as a mark of collective identity, and turning away from it is seen as breaking with family and community. The situation on the Nineveh Plain, marked by decades of forced displacement, persecution and insecurity, also leaves little room for outside ideas, including the gospel, to find open ears. With no local churches or Christian communities that speak Shabaki, first contact with the message of Jesus remains rare.

After years of displacement and the destruction brought by the war against the Islamic State, many Shabak families are still rebuilding homes, farmland and the confidence that a stable future is possible on the Nineveh Plain. There is a real need for lasting security, restored livelihoods and reconciliation among the groups that divide the region.

On the spiritual side, the Shabak people lack access to the Word of God in their own language and contact with a Christian community that could walk alongside them, discipling the few who draw near to faith in Jesus.