What is "kashkar"

Kashkar is an ancient city of Mesopotamia.

Kashkar may also refer to:

• Kaškar, a former city and current titular see of Oman
• Kashkar (East Syrian Diocese), a former diocese
• Kashkar, an alternative name for Chitral, a city in Pakistan
• Kashkar, or Qashqari, an alternative name of the Khowar language of Pakistan
• Kara-Kashkar, a village in Kyrgyzstan

The Diocese of Kashkar, sometimes called Kaskar, was the senior diocese in the Church of the East's Province of the Patriarch. The diocese is attested between the fourth and the twelfth centuries. The bishops of Kashkar had the privilege of guarding the patriarchal throne during the interregnum between the death of a patriarch and the appointment of his successor. As a result, they are often mentioned by name in the standard histories of the Nestorian patriarchs, so that a relatively full list of the bishops of the diocese has survived.

Kashkar, also known as Kaskar, , was a city in southern Mesopotamia. Its name appears to originate from Syriac meaning "citadel" or "town". Other sources connect it to "farming". It was originally built on the Tigris, across the river from the later medieval city of Wasit.

The city was originally a significant Sasanian city built on the west bank of the Tigris where Greek speaking deportees from north-western Syria were settled by Shapur I in the mid third century A.D.

According to Syriac tradition, Mar Mari is said to have preached and performed miracles and converted many of its inhabitants to Christianity. Kashkar became an important centre of Christianity in lower Mesopotamia and had its own diocese which lay under the jurisdiction of the patriarchal see of Seleucia-Ctesiphon of the Church of the East.

During a flood the Tigris burst its banks leaving Kashkar on its east bank. The medieval city of Wasit was built on the west bank of the new channel by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, who drew off the population of Kashkar, which eventually turned it to a ghost town. By the middle of the twelfth century Kashkar ceased to exist as a bishopric see.