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Assyrian people

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Assyrians
ܐܬܘܖ̈ܝܐ (Āṯūrāyē)
File:Assyrian people.jpg Ashurbanipal • Saint Ephrem • Freydun Atturaya • Ashour Asho
Total population
1,600,000
Regions with significant populations
 Iraq800,000+[1]
 Syria500,000[1]
 Iran10,000[2]
 Turkey5,000[2]
 United States83,000[3]
 Jordan77,000[4][5]
 Sweden35,000[6]
 Australia24,000[7]
 Germany23,000[6]
 France15,000[8]
 Russia14,000[9]
 Canada7,000
Languages
Akkadian (ancient)
Neo-Aramaic (modern)
(various Neo-Aramaic dialects)
Religion
Ashurism (ancient)
Christianity (modern)
(various Eastern denominations)
Related ethnic groups
other Semitic peoples

Assyrians are an ethnic group whose origins lie in what is today Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, but many of whom have migrated to the Caucasus, North America and Western Europe during the past century. Hundreds of thousands more live in Assyrian diaspora and Iraqi refugee communities in Europe, the former Soviet Union, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.

The Assyrians are believed to have descended from the ancient Akkadians, who, starting with Sargon of Akkad, emerged as the ruling class of Assyria.[10] Eventually Aramaean tribes assimilated into Assyrian society, and their language, Aramaic, supplanted the native Akkadian language, due in part to the mass relocations enforced by Assyrian kings of the Neo-Assyrian period. The modern Assyrian identity is therefore believed to be a miscegenation, or ethnogenesis, of the the major ethnic groups which inhabited Assyria-proper, which were, for the most part, Assyrian, and to some extent, Aramaean. By the 5th century BC, "Imperial Aramaic" had become lingua franca in the Achaemenid Empire.

Most Assyrians speak a modern form of Syriac,[11] an Eastern Aramaic language whose dialects include Chaldean and Turoyo as well as Assyrian. All are classified as Neo-Aramaic languages and are written using Syriac script, a derivative of the ancient Aramaic script. Assyrians also may speak one or more languages of their country of residence.

As a result of persecution, mostly during the last century, there is now a significant Assyrian diaspora. Major events included the Islamic revolution in Iran, the Simele massacre, and the Assyrian genocide that occurred under Ottoman Turkish rule in the early 1900s. The latest event to hit the Assyrian community is the war in Iraq; of the one million or more Iraqis reported by the United Nations to have fled, forty percent are Assyrian, despite Assyrians comprising only three to five percent of the Iraqi population.[12]

History

Main article: History of the Assyrian people

The Assyrian people are believed to have descended from the ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia (Aramaic: Bet-Nahrain, "the land of the rivers"), who, in the 7th century BC, controlled a vast empire which stretched from Egypt and Anatolia, across the land between two rivers, to western Iran. Tradition maintains that the history of the Assyrian people stretches back nearly 7 000 years, to the dawn of Mesopotamian civilization, although contemporary research on the Assyrians suggests otherwise.[citation needed] Culturally and linguistically distinct from, although quite influenced by, their neighbours in the Middle East - the Arabs, Persians, Kurds, Turks, and Armenians - the Assyrians have, throughout their recent history, endured much hardship as a result of religious and ethnic persecution.

Identity

File:Assyrmardin.JPG
Two Assyrian women from Mardin, 19th century.

Modern Assyrians are believed to have descended from the ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia, a Semitic people whose civilization flourished between the third and first millenia B.C. The evidence of cultural continuity is strong, although, as in most cases, genetic continuity is a matter in need of scientific study - more ancient graves need to be found and their contents exhumed, examined, carbon-dated and DNA remains compared with contemporary samples. Regardless, DNA analysis that has been conducted "shows that [Assyrians] have a distinct genetic profile that distinguishes their population from any other population."[13] Genetic analysis of the Assyrians of Persia demonstrated that they were "closed" with little "intermixture" with the Muslim Persian population.[14] Culturally, the language of the modern Assyrians is extraordinarily similar to that of the ancient Assyrians[15], and the earliest European visitors to northern Mesopotamia in modern times encountered a people called "Assyrians" and men with ancient Assyrian names such as Sargon and Sennacherib.[16][17][18] The Assyrians manifested a remarkable degree of linguistic, religious, and cultural continuity from the time of the ancient Greeks, Persians, and Parthians through periods of medieval Byzantine, Arab, Persian, and Ottoman rule.[19]

Assyrians are divided among several churches (see below). They speak and many can read and write modern Assyrian, a dialect of neo-Aramaic, a Semitic language that is related to ancient Phoenician and was adopted as the principal administrative language of the ancient Assyrian Empire, and which is used in Assyrian religious observances.[20] Historians and linguists use the term "modern Assyrian" to refer to the language spoken by the modern Assyrians.[21][22][23] The original ancient Assyrian language, also known as Akkadian, is now used only in scholarly and historical research.[24]

Some scholars, such as Richard Nelson Frye, has stated that "Syria" has always meant "Assyria",[25] pointing, for example, to the Greek historians such as Herodotus and Strabo, who referred to Assyrians as "Syrians", dropping the initial "A".[25] (video) Encyclopedia Americana states "It is now certain that the name Syrian is derived from the older name Assyrian."[26] This could explain why Assyrians called themselves Syrian throughout much of the time after Anno Domini. Other scholars argue about which came first, "Syrian" or "Assyrian". Rudolf Macuch points out that the Eastern Neo-Aramaic press initially used the term "Syrian" (suryêta) and only much later, with the rise of nationalism, switched to "Assyrian" (atorêta).[27] According to Tsereteli, however, a Georgian equivalent of "Assyrians" appears in ancient Georgian and Armenian documents.[28]

Furthermore, a more recent archaeological finding attests to the synonymy between the terms "Assyria" and "Syria". In Çineköy, Turkey, a Hieroglyphic Luwian and Phoenician bilingual monumental inscription was found, belonging to Urikki, vassal king of Que (i.e. Cilicia), dating to the eighth century BC. In this monumental inscription, Urikki made reference to the relationship between his kingdom and his Assyrian overlords. The Luwian inscription reads "Sura/i" whereas the Phoenician translation reads ’ŠR or "Ashur"[29]. In a thorough analysis of this inscription, Robert Rollinger, a professor of Assyriology at the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck (University of Innsbruck), states that this bilingual inscription "settles the problem once and for all"[30]. Whether this is proof of the synonymy between the terms "Suryoyo" and "Ashuraya" is open to interpretation, and still a growing topic of debate.

In order to assimilate them, the ancient Assyrian empire relocated conquered populations to urban areas all over the empire. Today, Assyrians and other ethnic groups feel pressure to identify as "Arabs".[31]

Today, in certain areas of the Assyrian homeland, identity within a community depends on a person's village of origin (see List of Assyrian villages) or Christian denomination, for instance Chaldean Catholic.[32]

Culture

Alqosh, located in the midst of Assyrian contemporary civilization.
Assyrian people
Culture
Music
Language
Cuisine
Folk Dance
Religion
Clothing
Settlements
Tribes
Main article: Assyrian culture

Assyrian culture is dictated by religion. The language is also tied to the church as well for it uses the Syriac language in liturgy. Festivals occur during religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas. There are also secular holidays such as Akitu (the Assyrian New Year).[33]

People often greet and bid relatives farewell with a kiss on each cheek and by saying "Peace be upon you." Others are greeted with a handshake with the right hand only; according to Middle Eastern customs, the left hand is associated with evil. Similarly, shoes may not be left facing up, one may not have their feet facing anyone directly, whistling at night is thought to waken evil spirits, etc.

There are many Assyrian customs that are common in other Middle Eastern cultures. A parent will often place an eye pendant on their baby to prevent "an evil eye being cast upon it". Spitting on anyone or their belongings is seen as a grave insult.

There are Assyrians that are not very religious yet they may be very nationalistic. Assyrians are proud of their heritage, their Christianity, and of speaking the language of Christ. Children are often given Christian or Assyrian names such as Ashur, Sargon, Shamiram, Nineveh, Ninos, Nimrod, etc. Baptism and First Communion are heavily celebrated events similar to how a Bris and a B'nai Mitzvah are in Judaism. When an Assyrian person dies, three days after they are buried they gather to celebrate them rising to heaven (as did Jesus), after seven days they again gather to commomerate their passing. A close family member wears only black clothes for forty days or one year as a sign of respect.

Language

Main article: Neo-Aramaic languages
Syriac alphabet
(200 BCE–present)
ܐ    ܒ    ܓ    ܕ    ܗ    ܘ
ܙ    ܚ    ܛ    ܝ    ܟܟ    ܠ
ܡܡ    ܢܢ    ܣ    ܥ    ܦ
ܨ    ܩ    ܪ    ܫ    ܬ

The ancient Assyrian tongue was referred to as the Akkadian language, an East Semitic language written in cuneiform script. After the Assyrian empire expanded westward, Aramaic gradually became the dominant tongue: it was declared an auxiliary language by King Ashur-nirari V in 752 BC and became a lingua franca under Achaemenid Dynasty of Persia. By the first century AD, Akkadian was extinct. Modern Syriac, however, shares some of its vocabulary, as both are Semitic languages.[34]

To the native speaker, "Syriac" is usually called Soureth or Suryoyo. A wide variety of dialects exist, including Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, and Turoyo. Being stateless, Assyrians also learn the language or languages of their adopted country, usually Arabic, Persian or Turkish. In northern Iraq and western Iran, Kurdish is widely spoken.

Religion

File:Chaldean.jpg
File:Assyrian Church of the East Symbol.JPG
Main article: Syriac Christianity

Many members of the following churches consider themselves Assyrian. Ethnic and national identities are deeply intertwined with religion, a legacy of the Ottoman Millet system.

Main Churches

A small minority of Assyrians accepted the Protestant Reformation in the 20th century, possibly due to British influences, and is now organized in the Assyrian Evangelical Church, the Assyrian Pentecostal Church and other Protestant Assyrian groups.

There are no Assyrian Muslims, but Arabic-speaking Muslims known as Mhalmoye or Mhallami from the Tur Abdin region may originally have been converted from Syriac Orthodoxy to Islam during the sixteenth century.[35] (cf. Hamshenis, Greek Muslims, Pomaks, Torbesh, Gorani). Culture from their pre-Islamic period survived, such as the appearance of the cross otherwise considered to be a decoration based on a flower.[36] Throughout history, when Assyrians converted to Islam, the population would blend in with the rest of the Arab population, and instead of passing down the Syriac language to the next generation, Arabic is whats spoken and thus Arabization takes place. This can be seen by the Arab population in and around the city of Mosul; Arab "Maslawis" tend to be different looking when compared to the Arabs of Baghdad or Basra. Conversion within the Assyrian community is very rare, as the Christian faith is a very strong one among them. A Swedish Assyrian website names four other ethnic groups whom it considers as "Assyrian Muslims": Barzanoye (the Barzani Kurdish clan), Tagritoye, Taye (the Tay tribal confederation), and Shammor (the Shammar tribal confederation).[37][38]

Based on the following Bible passage, many Assyrians hold apocalyptic beliefs as regards the future of their nation:[39]

In that day there shall be a way from Egypt to the Assyrians, and the Assyrian shall enter into Egypt, and the Egyptian to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrian. In that day shall Israel be the third to the Egyptian and the Assyrian: a blessing in the midst of the land, Which the Lord of hosts hath blessed, saying: "Blessed be my people of Egypt, the work of my hands Assyria, and Israel my inheritance."

— Isaiah 19:23-25

Music

Main article: Assyrian music

Assyrian music is divided into three main periods: ancient music written in Ur, Babylon and Nineveh; a middle period of tribal and folkloric music; and the modern period.

Art

Main article: Assyrian art

An Assyrian artistic style distinct from that of Babylonian art which was the dominant contemporary art in Mesopotamia, began to emerge c.1500 B.C. and lasted until the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC. The characteristic Assyrian art form was the polychrome carved stone relief that decorated imperial monuments.

Cuisine

Main article: Assyrian cuisine

Assyrian cuisine is very closely related to other Middle Eastern cuisines, predating both Arab and Turkish cuisine. It is also similar to Armenian, Persian, Jewish and Greek cuisine. It is believed that Assyrians invented baklava in the eighth century BC.[40]

Institutions

Assyrian children in Iraq.

Political parties

Other institutions

See also

The Assyrian flag.

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References

  1. ^ a b CIA World Factbook
  2. ^ a b Encyclopedia of the Orient: Assyrians
  3. ^ 2000 United States census
  4. ^ Immigration of Iraqi Chaldeans Abroad Passes through Jordan
  5. ^ http://i-cias.com/e.o/jordan_4.htm
  6. ^ a b Ethnologue Reports
  7. ^ 2001 Australian census
  8. ^ US Citizenship and Immigration Services
  9. ^ 2002 Russian census
  10. ^ Early History of Assyria, By Sidney Smith, University of Michigan, 1928
  11. ^ The British Survey, By British Society for International Understanding, 1968, page 3
  12. ^ Qais al-Bashir, Associated Press (2006-12-25). "Iraqi Christians celebrate Christmas". Yahoo! News. Retrieved 2007-01-07.
  13. ^ Nissman, David. "Assyrians Highlighted by Genetics Study, Radio Free Europe, vol. 3, Dec. 8, 2000" (HTML). Analysis of the Assyrians shows that they have a distinct genetic profile that distinguishes their population from any other population. It is important to understand that this applies to the population as a whole, not to any one individual. The study thus does two things: it confirms the uniqueness of the Assyrian population as a whole, and it establishes genetics as a major criterion of a population group, potentially overriding elements such as language, religion, and other social and historical components which were formerly considered to be primary determinants. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  14. ^ M.T. Akbari, Sunder S. Papiha, D.F. Roberts, and Daryoush D. Farhud, ‘‘Genetic Differentiation among Iranian Christian Communities,’’ American Journal of Human Genetics 38 (1986): 84–98
  15. ^ J.G. Browne, ‘‘The Assyrians,’’ Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 85 (1937)
  16. ^ George Percy Badger, The Christians of Assyria Commonly Called Nestorians (London: W.H. Bartlett, 1869)
  17. ^ J.F. Coakley, The Church of the East and the Church of England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), pp. 5, 89, 99, 149, 366–67, 382, 411
  18. ^ Michael D. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 279
  19. ^ Fred Aprim, Assyrians: The Continuous Saga (Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2004); ‘‘Parthia,’’ in The Cambridge Ancient History: The Roman Republic, 2nd ed., vol. 3, pt. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 597–98; Patricia Crone and Michael Cook, Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 55–60; ‘‘Ashurbanipal and the Fall of Assyria,’’ in The Cambridge Ancient History: The Assyrian Empire, vol. 3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954), 130–31; A.T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948), 168; Albert Hourani, Minorities in the Arab World (London: Oxford University Press, 1947), 99; Aubrey Vine, The Nestorian Churches (London: Independent Press, 1937); Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, trans. William Whiston (1737), bk. 13, ch. 6, http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-13.htm; Simo Parpola, ‘‘National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in the Post-Empire Times,’’ Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 18, 2 (2004): 16–17; Simo Parpola, ‘‘Assyrians after Assyria,’’ Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 12, 2 (2000): 1–13; R.N. Frye, ‘‘A Postscript to My Article [Assyria and Syria: Synonyms],’’ Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 11 (1997): 35–36; R.N. Frye, ‘‘Assyria and Syria: Synonyms,’’ Journal of the Near East Society 51 (1992): 281–85; Michael G. Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 336, 345; J.G. Browne, ‘‘The Assyrians,’’ Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 85 (1937)
  20. ^ Florian Coulmas, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems 23 (1996)
  21. ^ Andrew Dalby, Dictionary of Languages: The definitive reference to more than 400 languages (2004): 32
  22. ^ Dr. J. F. Coakley, "The First Modern Assyrian Printed Book," Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society, vol. 9 (1995)
  23. ^ Eden Naby & Michael E. Hopper eds., The Assyrian Experience: Sources for the study of the 19th and 20th centuries: from the holdings of the Harvard University Libraries (with a selected bibliography) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Library, 1999)
  24. ^ Edward Odisho, The sound system of Modern Assyrian, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1988. Odisho also argues that ancient Assyrians may have been ancestors of modern-day Assyrians.
  25. ^ a b Richard N. Frye Ph.D., Harvard University (1992), "Assyria and Syria: Synonyms", Journal of Near Eastern Studies
  26. ^ http://www.assyrians-homeland.org/Assyria_and_Assyrians.html
  27. ^ Rudolf Macuch, Geschichte der spät- und neusyrischen Literatur, New York: de Gruyter, 1976.
  28. ^ Tsereteli, Sovremennyj assirijskij jazyk, Moscow: Nauka, 1964.
  29. ^ Rollinger, R. (2006). The Terms "Assyria" and "Syria" Again. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 65(4), p. 284-285.
  30. ^ Rollinger, p. 287.
  31. ^ Iraqi Assyrians: A Barometer of Pluralism
  32. ^ Note on the Modern Assyrians
  33. ^ The Assyrian New Year
  34. ^ Akkadian Words in Modern Assyrian
  35. ^ http://www.kalan.com/scripts/Dergi/Dergi.asp?t=3&yid=9392
  36. ^ A Fourth Visit to Tur Abdin and SE Turkey Tur Abdin - A Report of a Visit to SE Turkey in May 2001
  37. ^ VERKSAMHETSBERÄTTELSE 1997
  38. ^ Denho Özmen, Shaikh fathullah. The Assyrian "modern" identity, Hujådå, autumn 1997.
  39. ^ Assyria in Prophecy
  40. ^ History of Baklava, Turkish Culture: Baklava, Baklava War Intesifies, Baklava
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