Naqqāsheh, Afram (1850–1920) [Syr. Cath.]

Bishop and author.

He was born in Mosul to ʿAbdulaḥad b. Eliās Naqqāsheh and Khāliṣah daughter of Qas Boutros and given the baptismal name Behnam. He studied at Sharfeh from 1866 to 1867, then at Rome where he was ordained a priest in 1874 and was given the name Afram. He returned to Mosul, and in 1895 was consecrated a bp. for Edessa but did not stay there for long. He accompanied Patr. Raḥmani to Constantinople and Rome in 1899. In 1903 he became bp. of Aleppo until 1914 when he fell ill. He spent the last months of his life from 1919 to 1920 at Sharfeh.

In addition to his Arabic writings, he composed in Syriac a sugitho (dialogue poem) between St. Ephrem and the Syriac nation (ms. copy by Armalah in Sharfeh [catalogue, 281]), and translated from Latin into Syriac a theological book (Abūna gives the Arabic title mukhtaṣar ʿilm al-lāhūt al-adabī [The concise study of literary theology]) (ms.). He also wrote a catechism in Syriac, Turkish, and Kurdish (ms).