Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Kirkuk-Sulaimaniya
The foundation of the Chaldean Catholic diocese of Kirkuk has been attributed to Yohannan VIII Hormizd, who was recognised by the Vatican as patriarchal administrator of the patriarch of Babylon in 1780 and, after five decades of disputes and confrontations, as patriarch in 1830. According to the Chaldean Catholic priest Joseph Tfinkdji, Yohannan Hormizd visited the town of Kirkuk in 1789 while travelling from Mosul to Baghdad, and converted its Church of the East community to Catholicism. He is said to have consecrated a Chaldean metropolitan for Kirkuk, Mar Abraham, who resided in Aïnqawa during his reign, and died between 1821 and 1824. The source for this assertion is not clear. Abraham is not mentioned by any other source, and as Yohannan Hormizd himself (then considered by the Vatican to be merely metropolitan of Mosul) is styled 'metropolitan of Kirkuk' in a colophon of 1798, the Kirkuk region would seem to have been part of the diocese of Mosul at this period.
Azen Gushnasp
Azen Gushnasp was a native of Khuzestan, and is also called "Khuzi" by al-Mas'udi and Gardezi. He belonged to the "arteshtaran" class. It seems that when the Sasanian military commander Bahram Chobin won a great victory over the Turks, Azen Gushnasp reportedly became jealous and accused the general of having kept the best part of the booty for himself and only sending a small part to Hormizd IV. According to other sources, however, it was the captive Turkic prince Birmudha or the courtiers that raised Hormizd's suspicion. Regardless, Bahram Chobin was later dismissed by Hormizd, which resulted in the latter starting a major rebellion. Azen Gushnasp was sent to suppress the rebellion, but was murdered in Hamadan by one of his own men, Zadespras.