The manuscripts from the collection of Mar Sarkis and Bakhos Syrian Orthodox Church of Qarah Qūsh have now been fully cataloged and are available for viewing in HMML Reading Room. The church, named after the saints Sergius and Bacchus, is likely the oldest church in Qaraqosh, a village that is now known as Bakhdida, Iraq. This church of Mar Sarkis and Bakhos was badly damaged in attacks by ISIS between 2014 and 2016, making the preservation of these manuscripts in 2010 all the more significant.

The collection consists of 80 manuscripts, almost entirely in Syriac script. The majority of the manuscripts were copied in the 18th and 19th centuries, though some date earlier. MSBSOCQ 00058, for example, is a Fenqīthō (liturgical manuscript) dated to 1579 CE. Given that this collection comes from a church, it is not surprising that the contents of the manuscripts are primarily liturgical. Some of the manuscripts were copied in Qaraqosh, providing evidence of the local scribal culture among the Syriac Orthodox community there. View now