Eliya XI (
Syriac: ܐܠܝܐ / Elīyā, 1700 - April 1778) was
Patriarch of the
Church of the East from 1722 to 1778, with his residence in
Rabban Hormizd Monastery, near
Alqosh, in modern
Iraq. His father, the priest Hoshaba, was the brother of the previous patriarch
Eliya X (died 14 December 1722). Upon that patriarch's death, Eliya XI was elected to the patriarchal see, and enthroned on 25 December 1722.[1]
At the beginning of the
Ottoman–Persian War (1743–1746), his residence, the
Patriarchal Monastery of Rabban Hormizd, was attacked and looted in 1743.[2] Faced with frequent
conflicts between two mighty Islamic empires (
Ottoman and
Persian), local Christians in the frontier regions were constantly exposed to danger, not only in times of war, but also during the interwar years, since local
Kurdish warlords were accustomed to attack Christian communities and monasteries. Patriarch Eliya XI tried to improve the increasingly worsening position of his Christian flock, by staying loyal to Ottoman authorities, but the local administration was frequently unable to provide effective protection.[3]
In older historiography, he was designated as Eliya XI,[4] but later renumbered as Eliya "XII" by some authors.[5][6] After the resolution of several chronological questions, he was designated again as Eliya XI,[7][8][9] and that numeration is generally accepted in recent scholarly works,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] with some exceptions.[18][19]