AMADIA (AMADIJAH), Diocese of. — A Chaldean residential diocese in Kurdistan, suffragan of Babylon of the Chaldeans. When Amadia was Nestorian, it also included the present dioceses of Zâhô and Aqra Zehâr; this situation remained unchanged even after union with Rome. Only in 1850 was the division into three dioceses effected. In 1895 Aqra was again united with Amadia under a single bishop, but in 1910 it was separated once more. The Catholic episcopal series begins with 1785. The faithful number 5,457, with 17 priests. The see is in the village of Arâden, where the faithful are more numerous than in Amadia.
BIBL.: J. B. Chabot, in Rev. de l'Orient Chrétien, 1 (1860), pp. 449-53; Tinkdji, L'Eglise Chaldéenne Cath., in A. Bantadier, Annuaire Pontif. cath., Paris 1914, p. 52 of the offprint; Anon., Statistique des catholiques de l'Italie, 4 (1938), p. 273.