Ain Sifni (, , ) also known as Shekhan (), is a town and subdistrict in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. It is located in the Shekhan District in the Nineveh Plains. In the town, there is a Chaldean Catholic church of Mar Yousif, and a church of Mar Gewargis of the Ancient Church of the East. There are also seven Yazidi religious monuments, including mausoleums of Sheikh ‘Alî Chamse and Sheikh Hantuch, and shrines of Sheikh Adi, Nishingaha Peroz, and Sheikh Mushelleh. Etymology The Kurdish name of the town is derived from the plural form of "sheikh" ("holy man" in Kurdish), and thus translates to "[the land of the] holy men", whereas the Arabic name is interpreted to stem from Aïn as Safīna in reference to the Yazidi tradition that the town was the location of the construction of Noah's Ark. History According to Yazidi tradition, Ain Sifni was the residence of Noah and location of the construction of Noah's Ark. Ain Sifni is attested as a diocese of the Church of the East in 576 AD, in which year its bishop Bar Sahde attended the synod of Catholicos Ezekiel of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. The town served as the centre of the subdistrict of Bēth Rustāqa which, as a consequence of the spread of the Syriac Orthodox Church in the district of Bēth Nūhadrā in the late sixth and early seventh centuries, was transferred to the district of Marghā in the late eighth century. Ain Sifni likely remained mostly Christian until the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. It is suggested that the mausoleum of Sheikh ‘Alî Chamse was constructed in the 15th century. The district of Ain Sifni was founded on 16 December 1924. Assyrians of the Baz clan of Hakkari settled at Ain Sifni after the Assyrian genocide in the First World War, and were attacked by the Iraqi army during the Simele massacre in 1933. Until the arrival of the Assyrians, Ain Sifni was populated only by Yazidis and Jews. The Chaldean Catholic church of Mar Yousif was rebuilt in 1960, replacing an older church built in 1946-1948. By 1961, 180 Chaldean Catholics inhabited the town. The Yazidi population of Ain Sifni was forcibly relocated to Mahad in 1975 by the Iraqi government as part of its policy of Arabisation, and the town was resettled by Arabs. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, two Iraqi military installations near Ain Sifni were struck