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.
Hormizd II
Hormizd's rock relief at Naqsh-e Rostam in the present-day Fars Province indicates that there was internal turmoil in the empire during his reign. In the relief he is portrayed riding a horse whilst impaling a enemy, whose helmet bears the family signature of Papak, a high-ranking nobleman who served as the "bitakhsh" (viceroy) of Albania during the reign of Bahram II and Narseh. Hormizd, during the last years of his reign, raided the domains of the Ghassanid king in Syria, whom he tried to extract tribute from. The Ghassanid king as a result tried to get assistance from the Roman emperor, but was killed before Roman reinforcements appeared. Hormizd was reportedly in 309 ambushed and killed by Ghassanid troops whilst he was hunting in the desert. The more probable reason for his death was most likely the Iranian nobility that killed him in a secluded place, and now sought to get rid of his sons as well.