Simon Amirkhas

Rabi Simon Amirkhas was born on March 24th, 1941 in Urmia, Iran. His parents were Dr. Malkom Amirkhas and Nina Bet David. The Amirkhas family moved to Baghdad, Iraq in 1947 after the looting of Assyrian villages and persecution of Assyrian intellectuals who were involved and represented Assyrians in the Azeri Democratic Movement in Urmia from 1940 to 1945.

Rabi Amirkhas studied in Baghdad, Iraq, and in 1962 he graduated from Baghdad’s School of Law. It is known that he was the first Assyrian to be graduated from that school. In addition to Law, Rabi Amirkhas mastered Arabic language and literature and while he was only 22 years old, he taught Arabic literature in a university in Baghdad for three years. He was named “The Youngest Scholar of Iraq” by Iraqi Ministry of Education and Culture.

In 1969, he moved back to Iran and married to Mariam Maghdoosi. The fruit of this marriage was one daughter Eilbra, and two sons Ninef and Rameil.

While he worked as a law consultant for years in Iraq and Iran, Rabi Simon’s passion remained art and literature. Among his first publication was an Arabic translation of “Traveler of the Horizon” by Rabi Benyamin Yosip Gandalo which was originally published in Assyrian. Among his important works was a historical fiction in Arabic about ancient Egypt in the Assyrian period under the title "Blood In The Land of Pharaos" which was never given permission to be published in Baghdad.

Rabi Amirkhas was also a prolific poet. His poetry spans a variety of topics from historical to romantic. A large set of his poems have turned into Assyrian songs around the world and can be found in many albums.
Rabi Amirkhas with his family moved to United States in 2009 and settled in Los Angles California. Since then our Mesopotamian Night team had close contacts with him and we were working to select a set of his songs and poems for performance in our annual events. The first song that we chose was “The Epic of Ishtar-Tammuz” which was turned into a song by his son Ninef Amirkhas. Rabi Simon Amirkhas passed away on Sep. 23rd 2012 in Los Angeles, California. R.I.P.