Balad, Assyrian Balaṭ, Syriac and Arabic Balad or Balaṭ, and modern Aski Mosul (Turkish for ‘Old Mosul’) are names referring to a town located some 40 km. northwest of Mosul , on the west bank of the Tigris. Balad occurs in the inscriptions of the Assyrian king Sennacherib (BC 705–681), and in Syriac sources as part of the province of Beth ʿArbaye . In the late 5th cent. it became an E.-Syr. bishopric seat, beginning with bps Ḥawaḥ and Shubḥa l-Ishoʿ, who were present at the synod of Mar Babai that took place in Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 497. The long line of E.-Syr. bps. ended around 1364 with Aaron. Balad was also a Syr. Orth. bishopric seat, but only one bp., Mushe (mid 9th cent.), bore the title ‘bp. of Balad’. The other bishops may have resided in Dayr al-Muʿallaq ‘Hanging Monastery’, located some 15 km. from the city, on Mt. Buṭmān. They bore the title ‘bp. of Beth ʿArbaye’, having under their jurisdiction Sinjār and Nisibis , in addition to Balad. The last bp. was called ‘of Sinjār’ and served in this rank between 1317 and 1345, a fact that led Patr. Afram Barsoum to date the final destruction of Balad to the 14th cent. Two famous Syr. Orth. bps. originated from Balad, Aḥudemmeh and Athanasios II .