AMADIA (AMADIJAH), DIOCESI di. – A residential Chaldean diocese in Kurdistan, suffragan to Babylon of the Chaldeans. When A. was Nestorian, it also included the present dioceses of Zâhû and Aqra Zehbar; and the situation remained unchanged even after the union with Rome. Only in 1850 was the division into three dioceses carried out. In 1895 Aqra was again united with A. under a single bishop, but in 1910 it was separated once more. The Catholic episcopal succession begins in 1785. There are 5,457 faithful and 17 priests. The see is in the village of Arâden, where the faithful are more numerous than in A.
BIBL.: J. B. Chabot, in Rev. de l'Orient Chrétien, 1 (1896), p. 449-53; Tinkdji, L'Eglise Chaldienne Cath., in A. Battandier, Annuaire Pontif. cath., Paris 1914, p. 52 of the offprint; Anon., Statistique des catholiques de rite chaldéen du patriarcat de Babylone, in Orientalia Chr. Periodica, 4 (1938), p. 273.