A series of massacres in Hakkari in the years 1843 and 1846 of Assyrians were carried out by the Kurdish emirs of Bohtan and Hakkari, Bedr Khan Bey, Nurullah. The massacres resulted in the killing of more than 10,000 Assyrians and the captivity of thousands of others. Background Ottoman affairs By the 19th century, the weakened Ottoman Empire had started losing control over Upper Mesopotamia and Kurdistan. The empire seemed on the brink of collapse when Muhammad Ali revolted in Egypt and took control of Syria. It was then that Kurdish Emirs found an opportunity to assert their independence. Among them was Ibrahim Pasha, a Kurdish Emir whose dominion included a region extending from Diyarbakır to Aleppo, and who fought alongside Muhammad Ali against the Ottomans and their allies from the Shammar tribe in Jazira. Despite the failure of Muhammad Pasha in his Syrian campaign, the events showed the vulnerability of the Ottomans and encouraged Kurdish aghas to try and increase their control in the region. British fears of another French attempt similar to Napoleon's Egyptian campaign contributed to an increase of British influence. As these events unfolded, the British appointed Hormuzd Rassam, an ethnic Assyrian archaeologist from Mosul, and brother-in-law of Britain's ambassador in the city, as a delegate to expand British influence to the areas of the independent Assyrian tribes. British and American Protestant missionaries, such as Justin Perkins and Asahel Grant, started visiting the area in the same period. They generally showed great sympathy to the Assyrian Christians. The Kurds, however, were wary of them, and Assyrians hospitality towards the foreigners only increased their suspicion. The "hostile intention of the Kurds towards the Assyrians” was well known to British officials.” On 27 January 1842, Canning wrote to the foreign secretary, Lord Aberdeen, informing him that the Nestorians of Kurdistan have been subdued by a "Kurdish Bey" acting in concert with the Ottomans. Kurdish internal conflicts War broke out in Hakkari in 1839 between Nurullah, brother of the former Emir, who governed from Bash Qal'a, and Suleyman his nephew whose capital was in Gullamerk. The Assyrians were also split in their allegiances, according to their distribution. Most of them, including the Patriarch of the Church of the East Shimun XVII Abraham, supported Suleyman as the rightful successor to his father. The conflict turned into a massacre when Nurullah defeated his opponent and retaliated by attacking Assyrian villages and