Assyrian people
Assyrians are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from other Mesopotamian groups, such as the Babylonians, they share in the broader cultural heritage of the Mesopotamian region. Modern Assyrians may culturally self-identify as Syriacs, Chaldeans, or Arameans for religious, geographic, and tribal identification.
The ancient Assyrians originally spoke Akkadian, an East Semitic language, but subsequently switched to the Aramaic language and currently speak various dialects of Neo-Aramaic, specifically those known as Suret and Turoyo, which are among the oldest continuously spoken and written languages in the world. Aramaic was the lingua franca of West Asia for centuries and was the language spoken by Jesus. It has influenced other languages such as Hebrew and Arabic, and, through cultural and religious exchanges, it has had some influence on Mongolian and Uighur. Aramaic itself is the oldest continuously spoken and written language in the Middle East, with a history stretching back over 3,000 years.
Assyrians are almost exclusively Christian, with most adhering to the East and West Syriac liturgical rites of Christianity. Both rites use Classical Syriac as their liturgical language. Assyrian Jews are speakers of Judeo-Aramaic dialects closely related to their Christian counterparts. The Assyrians are known to be among some of the earliest converts to Christianity, along with Jews, Arameans, Armenians, Greeks, and Arabs.
The ancestral indigenous lands that form the Assyrian homeland are those of ancient Mesopotamia and the Zab rivers, a region currently divided between modern-day Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, and northeastern Syria. A majority of modern Assyrians have migrated to other regions of the world, including North America, the Levant, Australia, Europe, Russia and the Caucasus. Emigration was triggered by genocidal events throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, including the Assyrian genocide or Sayfo, as well as religious persecution by Islamic extremists. The most recent reasons for emigration are due to events such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies, the Syrian civil war, and the emergence of the Islamic State. Of the one million or more Iraqis who have fled Iraq since the occupation, nearly 40% were indigenous Assyrians, even though Assyrians accounted for only around 3% of the pre-war Iraqi population.
The Islamic State was driven out from the Assyrian villages in the Khabour River Valley and the areas surrounding the city of Al-Hasakah in Syria by 2015, and from the Nineveh Plains in Iraq by 2017. In 2014, the Nineveh Plain Protection Units was formed and many Assyrians joined the force to defend themselves. The organization later became part of Iraqi Armed forces and played a key role in liberating areas previously held by the Islamic State during the War in Iraq. In northern Syria, Assyrian groups have been taking part both politically and militarily in the Kurdish-dominated but multiethnic Syrian Democratic Forces and Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
History
Pre-Christian history
is the homeland of the Assyrian people, located in the ancient Near East. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria belonged to the Jarmo culture c. 7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, the centre of the Hassuna culture, c. 6000 BC.The history of Assyria begins with the formation of the city of Assur, perhaps as early as the 25th century BC. During the early Bronze Age period, Sargon of Akkad united all the native Semitic-speaking peoples, including the Assyrians, and the Sumerians of Mesopotamia under the Akkadian Empire. At this time, the city of Assur already existed and would later become the heart of the Assyrian Empire.
Under Sennacherib, Nineveh became Assyria’s capital and was extensively expanded, covering about 750 hectares—more than twice the size of Calah or Dur-Sharrukin—and emerging as the largest and potentially wealthiest city of the ancient world. Some scholars suggest that the famed Hanging Gardens, often attributed to Babylon, may in fact have been located in Nineveh.
Prior to the rise of Nineveh, the Assyrian city of Nimrud emerged as the largest urban center in the world by around 800 BC. The city was established as the royal seat and military capital by Ashurnasirpal II, whose extensive building programs on the Acropolis and outer town significantly expanded Kalhu and enhanced its political and cultural significance in the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
In their early stages, Assyrian cities such as Assur and Nineveh appear to have functioned as administrative centers under Sumerian control rather than as independent political entities. Over time, the Sumerian population was gradually absorbed into the broader Akkadian-speaking populace. An Assyrian identity distinct from other neighboring groups appears to have formed during the Old Assyrian period, in the 21st or 20th century BC.
File:Map of Assyria.png|thumb|A map of the Neo-Assyrian Empire under Shalmaneser III and Esarhaddon
In the traditions of the Assyrian Church of the East, they are descended from Abraham's grandson, Dedan son of Jokshan, progenitor of the ancient Assyrians. However, there is no other historical basis for this assertion. The Hebrew Bible does not directly mention it, and there is no mention in Assyrian records, which date as far back as the 25th century BC. What is known is that Ashur-uballit I overthrew the Mitanni c. 1365 BC and the Assyrians benefited from this development by taking control of the eastern portion of Mitanni territory and later annexing Hittite, Babylonian, Amorite and Hurrian territories. The rise and rule of the Middle Assyrian Empire spread Assyrian culture, people and identity across northern Mesopotamia.
By the late eighth century BC, Assyria had become the largest and most formidable empire yet established, with the most powerful army assembled up to that time and pioneering military techniques—including cavalry and advanced siege equipment—that influenced warfare for more than two millennia. Its success relied not only on military strength but also on a highly efficient bureaucracy and a vast administrative and trade network stretching from the Persian Gulf to Egypt.
The excessive expansion of the Assyrian Empire, combined with internal conflict during the reign of Ashurbanipal and the widespread resentment provoked by its oppressive rule, significantly undermined the state’s stability and strength. The Babylonians and Medes formed an alliance and captured Nineveh in 612 BC. After a final defeat at Harran in 609 BC, the empire fell. Despite this, Assyria’s culture and administrative practices influenced the subsequent Babylonian and Persian empires.
The Assyrian people, after the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 609 BC, were under the control of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and later, the Persian Empire, which consumed the entire Neo-Babylonian or "Chaldean" Empire in 539 BC. Assyrians became front line soldiers for the Persian Empire under Xerxes I, playing a significant role in the Battle of Marathon under Darius I in 490 BC. However, Herodotus, whose Histories are the primary source of information about that battle, makes no mention of Assyrians in connection with it.
Despite the influx of foreign elements, the presence of Assyrians is confirmed by the worship of the god Ashur. References to the name survive into the 3rd century AD. The Greeks, Parthians, and Romans had a relatively low level of integration with the local population in Mesopotamia, which allowed their cultures to survive. Semi-independent kingdoms influenced by Assyrian culture and perhaps semi-autonomous Assyrian vassal states sprung up in the east under Parthian rule, lasting until conquests by the Sasanian Empire in the region in the 3rd century AD.
Language
Modern Assyrian derives from ancient Aramaic, part of the Northwest Semitic languages. Around 700 BC, Aramaic slowly replaced Akkadian in Assyria, Babylonia and the Levant. Widespread bilingualism among Assyrian nationals was already present before the fall of the Empire. The Aramaic spoken by Assyrians today is the only Aramaic variety that contains ancient Assyrian Akkadian loanwords. The other Eastern Aramaic languages contain mostly Babylonian Akkadian loanwords, while Syriac has fourteen loanwords unique to it, nine of which come from the ancient Assyrian Akkadian dialect.The Kültepe texts, which were written in Old Assyrian, preserve some loanwords from the Hittite language. Those loanwords are the earliest attestation of any Indo-European language, dated to the 20th century BC. Most of the archaeological evidence is typical of Anatolia rather than of Assyria, but using both cuneiform and the dialect is the best indication of Assyrian presence. Over 20,000 cuneiform tablets have been recovered from the site.
From 1700 BC and onward, the Sumerian language was preserved by the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians only as a liturgical and classical language for religious, artistic, and scholarly purposes.
The Akkadian language, with its main dialects of Assyrian and Babylonian, once the lingua franca of the Ancient Near East, began to decline during the Neo-Assyrian Empire around the 8th century BC, being marginalized by Old Aramaic during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III. By the Hellenistic period, the language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia.
Early Christian period
From the 1st century BC, Assyria was the theatre of the protracted Roman–Persian Wars. Much of the region would become the Roman province of Assyria from 116 AD to 118 AD following the conquests of Trajan. Still, after a Parthian-inspired Assyrian rebellion, the new emperor Hadrian withdrew from the short-lived province Assyria and its neighboring provinces in 118 AD. Following a successful campaign in 197–198, Severus converted the kingdom of Osroene, centred on Edessa, into a frontier Roman province.Osroëne and Adiabene were ancient kingdoms located in northern Mesopotamia. Both kingdoms played significant roles in the cultural and political landscape of the Near East from the Hellenistic period through late antiquity.
Osroëne, centered around its capital Edessa, was founded around 136 BC by Osroes, likely of Iranian origin. The kingdom controlled key trade routes and often balanced its alliances between the Roman and Parthian empires.
Edessa emerged as a cultural center where the Syriac language and Christianity flourished. Osroëne retained some autonomy under Roman protection until its final incorporation into the empire in 216 AD.
Adiabene was a small Parthian vassal kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, with its capital at Arbela. In the 1st century AD, its royal family converted to Judaism, and Queen Helena and her sons were buried in Jerusalem. The kingdom was frequently attacked by Roman forces during their campaigns against Parthia.
Both kingdoms are recognized today as key centers of Assyrian heritage. Although Osroëne was ethnically mixed—characterized by an Arab ruling dynasty, a Greek-influenced urban culture, and an Aramean majority population—it is regarded by Assyrians as part of their historical and cultural identity. Adiabene, by contrast, was an Assyrian successor state: the temple of Ashur was restored, the city was rebuilt, and an Assyrian identity persisted even under Parthian rule.
Roman influence in the area came to an end under Jovian in 363, who abandoned the region after concluding a hasty peace agreement with the Sassanians.
The Assyrians were Christianized in the first to third centuries in Roman Syria and Roman Assyria. The population of the Sasanian province of Asoristan was a mixed one, composed of Assyrians, Arameans in the far south and the western deserts, and Persians. The Greek element in the cities, still strong during the Parthian Empire, ceased to be ethnically distinct in Sasanian times. Most of the population were Eastern Aramaic speakers. Much of the population of Asoristan was Christian. However, according to Isho'Yahb III, there were perhaps more pagans than Christians in the region. These pagans worshipped Gods such as Tammuz and a Babylonian Sea monster along with sacrifice to idols.
Within Sasanian Adiabene an examination of Syriac source work can infer that the majority of the population of Adiabene were Syriac speaking and of local Assyrian origin. At the same time, Adiabene's elites were integrated with values of Zoroastrian social life. It can be assumed that many local Semitic cults succumbed to state supported Zoroastrianism during this period. These trends can be seen in the Legend of Mar Qardagh, where the main protagonist is portrayed as being of Assyrian royal descent, yet of Zoroastrian creed prior to his conversion to Christianity.
Along with the Arameans, Armenians, Greeks, and Nabataeans, the Assyrians were among the first people to convert to Christianity and spread Eastern Christianity to the Far East despite becoming, from the 8th century, a minority religion in their homeland following the Muslim conquest of Persia.
In 410, the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sasanian Empire, organised the Christians within that Empire into what became known as the Church of the East. Its head was declared to be the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, who in the acts of the council was referred to as the Grand or Major Metropolitan and who soon afterward was called the Catholicos of the East. Later, the title of Patriarch was also used. Dioceses were organised into provinces, each of which was under the authority of a metropolitan bishop. Six such areas were instituted in 410.
File:Mar Matti Monastery.jpg|thumb|Mor Mattai Monastery in, Bartella, Nineveh, Iraq. It is recognized as one of the oldest Christian monasteries in existence. It is famous for its magnificent library and a considerable collection of Syriac Christian manuscripts
Another council held in 424 declared that the Catholicos of the East was independent of "Western" ecclesiastical authorities.
Soon afterward, Christians in the Roman Empire were divided by their attitude regarding the Council of Ephesus, which condemned Nestorianism, and the Council of Chalcedon, which condemned Monophysitism. Those who for any reason refused to accept one or other of these councils were called Nestorians or Monophysites, while those who accepted both councils, held under the auspices of the Roman emperors, were called Melkites, meaning royalists.
All three groups existed among the Syriac Christians, the East Syriacs being called Nestorians and the West Syriacs being divided between the Monophysites and those who accepted both councils, primarily today's Eastern Orthodox Church, which has adopted the Byzantine Rite in Greek, but also the Maronite Church, which kept its West Syriac Rite and was not as closely aligned with Constantinople.
Roman/Byzantine and Persian spheres of influence divided Syriac-speaking Christians into two groups: those who adhered to the Miaphysite Syriac Orthodox Church, or West Syrians, and those who adhered to the Church of the East, the so-called Nestorian Church. Following the split, they developed distinct dialects, mainly based on the pronunciation and written symbolization of vowels. With the rise of Syriac Christianity, eastern Aramaic enjoyed a renaissance as a classical language in the 2nd to 8th centuries, and varieties of that form of Aramaic are still spoken by a few small groups of Jacobite and Nestorian Christians in the Middle East.
Theodora, who lived from April 1, 527 A.D. to June 28, 548 A.D., was a notable empress of the Byzantine Empire and the wife of Emperor Justinian I. Although her exact ethnic background is not definitively established, some sources suggest she was of Assyrian origin. She played a significant role in advocating for women's rights and social reforms. Theodora is particularly remembered for her efforts to improve the status of women, including legislation against forced prostitution and support for widows and orphans. She was a key supporter of her husband's efforts to restore and expand the Byzantine Empire from their capital, Constantinople. Additionally, Theodora worked towards alleviating the persecution of Miaphysites, although full reconciliation with this Christian sect was not achieved during her lifetime.