Araden (, , ) is a village in Dohuk Governorate in Kurdistan Region, Iraq. It is located in the Sapna valley in the Amadiya District. In the village, there are Chaldean Catholic churches of Mart Shmune, Sultana Mahdokht, and Mar Awda. There is also a church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Etymology According to local tradition, the name of the village is derived from "ara" ("land" in Syriac) and "aden" ("Eden" in Syriac), and thus translates to "land of Eden". History It is suggested that one or all of the churches of Mart Shmune, Sultana Mahdokht, and Mar Awda may have been constructed over a thousand years ago. Local tradition attests that the church of Sultana Mahdokht was constructed by a pilgrim who was instructed to build a church there in a dream from the saint after he had discovered a relic of the saint's arm. The population of Araden were likely adherents of the Church of the East long before the 14th century. The village was a notable centre of manuscript production, and the earliest surviving manuscript copied at Araden is dated to 1571. The inhabitants of Araden were converted to Chaldean Catholicism in the 1830s by Joseph Audo, archbishop of Amadiya, and Dominican missionaries. Therefore, in 1850, 50-75 Chaldean Catholic families inhabited Araden, and were served by two functioning churches and one priest as part of the archdiocese of Amadiya. By 1913, the community had expanded to 650 Chaldean Catholics, with two priests, two schools, and one functioning church. The village was inhabited by 515 Assyrians in c. 1933, and the church of Mart Shmune was rebuilt in 1935. A small Jewish community resided at Araden until their emigration to Israel in 1950-1951. The village's population fluctuated dramatically, as it grew to approximately 5000 Assyrians, with 474 families, in 1954, then decreased to 1049 people in the census of 1957. At the onset of the First Iraqi–Kurdish War in 1961, Araden was inhabited by c. 3000 people, with 350 families, in which year the village was bombed and then razed by 700 Iraqi government forces, dispersing the villagers, some of whom were killed by government-allied Kurdish irregulars under the leadership of Mahmud Agha Zebari, father of the Kurdish politician Hoshyar Zebari. At the war's end in 1971, c. 80 families returned to Araden, but most were forced to take refuge elsewhere in 1975 after the resumption of