If I were provident, I’d save this letter, which arrived some two months ago, until December. But who can wait so long? So here it is now, from John Miller of Bryan, Texas:
“Every year it happens. As December arrives, our local newspaper prints a Hanukkah article, either as a compulsion to be ‘inclusive,’ or perhaps as a relief to the relentless Christmas cheer. An integral part of this article is the interview with our rabbi, wherein he recounts the story of the Maccabees. Somewhere in the article, the bad guys are always referred to as ‘the Assyrians.’
“Yet history tells us that the villain of the Hanukkah story was Antiochus IV Epiphanes (or Epimanes, if you like). He was one of the Seleucids, a Hellenic dynasty which ruled much of the Middle East from the time of Alexander the Great until the period of the Roman Empire, and whose capital was in Antioch, in what is today northwestern Syria. By the time the Seleucids arrived, the Assyrians had long ceased to be a regional power.
“In the Al ha-Nissim (‘For all the miracles’) prayer that is said on Hanukkah, there is mention of malkhut Yavan ha-resha’ah, ‘the wicked kingdom of Greece.’ And the second stanza of the Hanukkah song Ma’oz Tsur, ‘Rock of Ages,’ begins Yevanim nikbetsu alai, ‘Greeks gathered against me.’ Yet the translations found in the venerable Silverman prayer book — and for that matter, ‘The New Union Prayer Book’ — make no mention of Greeks. Could it be that this, and the ‘Assyrians’ of my rabbi, are to avoid antagonizing modern Greeks and Syrians?
“So, Philologos, who was it? Greek, Syrians, or Assyrians?”
Mr. Miller is probably right about both his rabbi and the Conservative movement’s “Sabbath and Festival Prayer Book,” edited by Morris Silverman. (I don’t possess a copy of the Reform movement’s “New Union Prayer Book.”) It’s just as he says. In the Silverman translation, “the wicked kingdom of Greece” becomes an unspecified “tyrannical power,” while the freely translated (although quite singable) second stanza of Ma’oz Tsur gives us:
Children of the martyr-race, whether free or fettered,
Wake the echoes of the songs, where ye may be scattered.
Yours the message cheering that the time is nearing
Which will see all men free, tyrants disappearing.
The desire not to incriminate contemporary Greeks or Syrians in Antiochus’s anti-Jewish measures, which led to the outbreak of the Maccabeean revolt in 166 BCE, is most likely behind the “Assyrians” of Mr. Miller’s rabbi and the anonymous “tyrants” of the Conservative prayer book. Yet as Mr. Miller points out, “Assyrians” is certainly not the right word for Antiochus and his Seleucids. The Assyrian Empire had ceased to exist half a millennium before the time of the Maccabees, when it was destroyed by the Babylonians in the seventh-century BCE, nor did it leave an Assyrian people behind when it collapsed, since its subjects were a conglomeration of different Aramaic-speaking tribes and populations that did not share a common identity.
Moreover, although the Assyrian Empire spread westward in the two centuries before its demise from its capital of Nineveh on the Tigris River (now in Iraq) to conquer the area known today as Syria, the name “Syria,” contrary to what one would expect, has no apparent etymological connection with Assyria. It was rather a Greek geographical term deriving from the Lebanese port city of Tyre, whose Phoenician name of Sur was pronounced with an emphatic, velarized “s” that does not exist in European languages. (The Hebrew name for Tyre, Tsor, was pronounced with an “s” in ancient times, as in the Arabic name Sur today.) “Syria,” that is, was in the beginning a word used by Greek traders in the eastern Mediterranean to denote Tyre and the nearby mountains of Lebanon, while the area beyond them, Koilé Syria or “low-lying Syria” (Coele Syria in Latin), originally signified the Beka’a Valley between the Lebanon and anti-Lebanon mountain ranges.
The Seleucids were thus certainly not Assyrians. But should we call them Syrians? No more than we would call the French-speaking Normans who conquered England in 1066 Englishmen, since they and the urban classes in their kingdom were Greek-speaking and culturally Hellenized. By contrast, the peasantry and lower classes of Coele Syria remained speakers of Aramaic and retained their Semitic culture.
Were the Seleucids then Greeks, as the prayer book calls them? Yes and no, because most Greek speakers living in Coele Syria were descended not from the soldiers who had come with Alexander, nor from Greek settlers who arrived at a later date, but from natives of the area who adopted Greek and Greek culture. Although they were assimilated to Greek ways, few of them had Greek ancestors or had ever set foot in Greece.
Perhaps it would be best just to say “Seleucids” and leave it at that. The term, which comes from the name of the founder of the Seleucid dynasty, Alexander the Great’s general Seleucus Nicator, is more accurate than any other term and has the advantage of hurting no one’s feelings. Unlike Greeks and Syrians, there are no descendants of the Seleucids still around to sue.
Questions for Philologos can be sent to philologos@forward.com.
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Go again to college, Mr Philologos. Because the name 'Syria' is indeed 'Assyria' and it does not come the village name Sur(Tyre); ALDOUGH SOME SCHOOLARS WANT TO BELIEVE THAT. The Greeks named the area 'SYRIA after the Assyrian Empire. Go and ask some contemprory the so called Aramaic-speakind Assyrians and they will tell you or study their language.
Assyrians Did not Vanish: While Mr. Philogos is right about the Jewish habit of blaming all their troubles on the Assyrians and Hannukah is a good example of it he is wrong about Assyrian's disappearance after their defeat. Such assumption is a myth which has been repeated over and over again in the West until it has been accepted as fact. The following article provides evidences of Assyrian survival and their existence from the fall of Nineveh to date. The Aramaic language long before the Assyrian defeat had been promoted by the Assyrians as the lingua Franca throughout their empire. It is preposterous to state that Assyrians were obliterated but the Arameans living in in Assyria survived. Even Nahum in his narration about the fall of Nineveh admits that Assyrians are scattered in the mountain, furthermore they survived in cities such as Harran, Nissibene, Araba-ilu and other places. http://christiansofiraq.com/facts.html
Assyrians From the Fall of Nineveh to date: While Mr. Philogos is right about the Jewish habit of blaming all their troubles on the Assyrians and Hannukah is a good example of it he is wrong about Assyrian's disappearance after their defeat. Such assumption is a myth which has been repeated over and over again in the West until it has been accepted as fact. The following article provides evidences of Assyrian survival and their existence from the fall of Nineveh to date. The Aramaic language long before the Assyrian defeat had been promoted by the Assyrians as the lingua Franca throughout their empire. It is preposterous to state that Assyrians were obliterated but the Arameans living in in Assyria survived. Even Nahum in his narration about the fall of Nineveh admits that Assyrians are scattered in the mountain, furthermore they survived in cities such as Harran, Nissibene, Araba-ilu and other places. * http://christiansofiraq.com/facts.html William Warda
I began reading this article and thought to myself,"finally here is some one who knows the real history behind the Hannukah story and she/he is telling it as is". The ancient Assyrians did not possess the political power at the time when the Hannukah story took place,yet there is always a tendency to blame the ancient Assyrians as if other ancient cultures, some of which today stand by names of some countries,didn't fight,conquer and rule? One can't help but wonder what is behind this vicious campaign against the ancient Assyrians??? Then,as I continued to read the article,misinformation began to appear which made the article look less credible. The word Syria does come from Assyria as history and archaeological findings have proved that Assyria spread over a vast area of the ancient Middle East.As for the Assyrian language which is erroneously referred to as Aramaic,is until today referred to amongst Jewish scholars as Kitav Ashuri(Assyrian writing).However,it's been accepted to refer to the Assyrian language as Aramaic since Christ The Lord spoke it. As for the false claim that the Assyrians seized to exist following the fall of their capital Nineveh,this can not be more of a rediculous claim since the Assyrians remained to live in their own land and they spread their civilization to the Medes and that is evident in all the sculpture which can be found today in modern day Iran whereby many if not all the symbols of ancient Assyria can be seen in one form or another in what came to be part of ancient Persia(today's Iran).They even used the Assyrian language until they adopted the arabic letters when they followed Islam.Assyrian existence is even found in Lebanon where the majority of its villages carry Assyrian names. History is full of evidence on the continuation of the Assyrians through their descendants today who are the true inheritors of the Assyrian civilization and the only indigenous people of what is today known as Iraq. Such heinous attempts to create doubts regarding the Assyrian existence,civilization and continuity will no doubt continue because there are people out there whose job is to distort history and tell fibs but as the Assyrian proverb goes:"Only the tree which bears fruit is the one which people through stones at".
Bemused, Evidence is plenty about the ancient and modern Assyrians,the burden of proof is on you to prove whom you are. The one point in the whole article which was worthy reading was that the story of Hannukah is being distorted by involving the ancient Assyrians when they didn't have any role and in that way it loses its credibility. Now you work on that and convince those Rabbis who are changing history to tell it as it really happened.
There are 5.2 Million people living in Northern Iraq who say they are Assyrians, There pushing for a homeland of there own. It would seem they were not completely wiped out.
There are 5.2 Million people living in Northern Iraq who say they are Assyrians, There pushing for a homeland of there own. It would seem they were not completely wiped out.
Lots of fans of the Assyrians, but little evidence to show that their quibbling makes any sense. yes, I know there are still some Asyrian speakers, mainly Christians and that the language did not completely die out. However, Philologos' main points about are right on. btw: Does anyone have any evidence that Tyre was not pronounced with an "s?"
I also like Philologos' conclusion: "Perhaps it would be best just to say “Seleucids” and leave it at that. The term, which comes from the name of the founder of the Seleucid dynasty, Alexander the Great’s general Seleucus Nicator, is more accurate than any other term and has the advantage of hurting no one’s feelings. Unlike Greeks and Syrians, there are no descendants of the Seleucids still around to sue." This makes a lot of sense. Calling the Seleucids Syrians is refusing to differentiate between Pharonic Egypt and the Egypt of the Ptolemains.
It was the Greek dynasty of Seleucid who ruled, Mesopotamia, Syria and Israel after Alexander's death. Assyrians and the indigenous inhabitants of Syria were the conquered subjects of the Seleucid as much as the Jews were. They were also impacted by the Macedonian's wars of conquest and their Hellenization policies. When Antiochus Epiphanes* became king the Hellenization of Jerusalem accelerated.. In 168-167 B.C., he forbade Jewish rituals in the Temple and an altar to Zeus was placed on top of where Jews offered sacrifice. A rebellion against the Greeks was organized by the Maccabeans. Jerusalem was finally freed from the Greek rule. "Jews celebrate the re-dedication of the temple (known as the Feast of Dedication in the New Testament)." This celebration is known as Hanukkah. "See: http://emp.byui.edu/SATTERFIELDB/Papers/IntertestamentalPeriod.htm Because of lack of knowledge about the Christian Assyrians misinformation about who they are has been parroted over and over again which has led to the assumption that Assyrians no longer existed. The fact is even though the name of the country was changed to Iraq by the Arabs after their 7th century conquest of the Middle East the Christian Assyrians continued to call their homeland Athour and Ashur meaning Assyria and considered themselves as the descendants of the ancient Assyrians. In tribute to their ancient forefathers since early Christianity they have observed a fast based on the Jonah's Book of Old Testament which is known as Ba-oota D' ninevaye or the Rogation of the Ninevites. They were often subjected to persecution by their Muslim neighbors but lived in peace and harmony with the Jews who had fled Israel and taken refuge in Mesopotamia. In fact Jews who migrated from northern Iraq to Cochin in India, perhaps in the 16th century, have preserved as part of their name the term Ashurai (from Assyria. http://jewishcuba.org/cochin.html
I had a date with a young woman, about 40 years ago, who was part of the Assyrian-Christian ethnic group that includes a segment living in the US. Reports of their demise are obviously exaggerated.
I think you should re-read history because these are only hallucinations, Assyrians continuously known themselves as Assyrians and this attested by Herodotus, and other Greek historians, even Assyrians themselves who were always proud of their race, unlike the Jews who are only a religion and not a race or Ethnicity. And Assyrians were never disbelievers but they worshiped the mighty God and called him “Ashur” (From “Asharru” – Akkadian - means : the beginning) , and here you can see the proof in my article about the origins of the Torah and the prophecies about the coming of Jesus (Messaya) : http://www.bethsuryoyo.com/currentevents/AGNisan6752/NisanEnglish.html As for the Assyrian continuity, one wonders about the claims made by some that today’s Assyrians aren’t the descendants of ancient Assyrians and that the Assyrian name is a new name which was given by the English to those who were called “Nestorians”, hence we see one of those accused of “Assyrianizing the Nestorians” that is the Englishman Dr William Wigram writing that the Persian king Yezdegerd recognized Assyrians as a “Millet” (nation)[1] as it was also mentioned by Father Horatio Southgate when he had visited Tur Abdin and Deir Azza’afaran in the western mountains of Ashur that he was surprised by Syrian Orthodox being called “Assouri” by the Armineans and he wrote: [… “Assouri”, which struck me the more at the moment from its resemblance to our English name “Assyrians”, from whom they claim their origin, being sons, as they say, of Assour, (Asshur,)][2] This phrase clearly shows that the English who came to the area called us “Assyrians” in reference to history and because we retrace ourselves to the Assyrians before their arrival, of the Englishmen, but they were interested with this new “discovery” for political reasons and they as part of a sham, supported the independence of the Assyrian nationality from the occupying peoples, as well as for religious reasons because they had thought that the Assyrians were annihilated as was mentioned in a the political Jewish magazine (The Torah), thus meeting the “Nestorians, Syrians and Chaldeans” was for the English a historical discovery specially that the Assyrians had kept traditions, customs, and a heritage which were “purely Assyrian” and were spoken of by many English and German travelers. In the following lines we shall limit the mention of the Assyrians before the 19th century (before the arrival of the English) as this subject is worthy to be aware of because Assyrian generations are brought up upon wrong understanding of history, we shall state “some” references which point to the irrefutable truth about the continuity of the Assyrian people, language, land and identity even with the fall of their political entity in 612B.C., it’s to be duly noted that many Assyrian and non-Assyrian authors and historians have preceded us in supplying the libraries with interesting researches in the matter but regrettably they are still discarded by many something which is clear through some of the opinions which we read or hear about from some who are naïve. The historical accounts have proved that the “Assyrian” language remained alive and was even used by the Persians, it was known to the Greeks as well by the same name even with the inclusion of some Aramaic vocabulary which were used by the Aramaean tribes, this is what we know from a foreigner called Thucydides (471-400 B.C), the commander of the Greek navy in the war between the cities of Sparta and Athena (05th century B.C.) who had mentioned the arrival of Artavernis the Persian King’s envoy to Athena by saying: [When he was brought to Athens, the Athenians translated his letters out of the Assyrian language into Greek, and read them][3] This took place after the fall of Nineveh and Babylon, and after the Assyrians had developed the Akkadian language from the time of Sennacherib and included some Aramaic which was already influence by the Assyrian writing in what relates to grammar and conjugation as asserted by the late Dr Taha Baqer, who was Professor of ancient languages at Baghdad University.[4] Therefore, the language which was and is still spoken by the Assyrians is an Assyrian language. The Assyrians continued on with their daily lives, participating as a military power within the Empires which ruled them after the political fall of Assyria (Ashur), the most important sources which mention that are those written by the Greek Herodotus who was born the Greek city of Halicarnasus in 490B.C., that is 122 years after the fall of Nineveh and he lived in Assyria during the Persian occupation. Herodotus told about the Assyrians’ daily lives, their participation as brigades in the Persian army and of that he wrote [The Assyrians were equipped with bronze helmets, made in a complicated barbarian way which is hard to describe, shields, spears, daggers, woodden clubs studded with iron, and linen crosslets…][5] In one of his valuable researches titled The Archaemenid period in Northern Iraq, Professor John Curtis, head of the Eastern Artifacts section at the British Museum, wrote about [Assyrian delegations used to visit Darius and Xerxess][6] Arian (Lucius Flavius Arrianus) the well known Greek historian 86-160A.D. wrote that 10.000 Assyrian men had helped Alexander the Great in building aqueducts after they welcomed him as their savior from the Persians[7] The Assyrian continuity wasn’t only a human one, because the Assyrian culture continued through the Persian and Roman eras when the temple of god Ashur was re-built and worshipping continued in other temples such as that of god “Sin” which was considered one of the religious, military and political inspiration centers for the Assyrians[8] and that was re-built in the neo Babylonian era by Nabonides (556-539 B.C)[9] after he dreamt of “Sin” calling him to rebuild the temple so he would have had the power to occupy Egypt[10]. The Assyrians continued worshipping in that temple before the coming of Christ and till the 09th century A.D, one of the temple’s priests “Baba of Harran” had predicted the coming of Christ[11] The Assyrians in these areas remained on their ancient religious beliefs, while Professor Simo Parpola mentions that the ancient beliefs continued till the 10th century A.D. when he says: [In Harran, the cults of Sin, Nikkal, Bel, Nabu, Tammuz and other Assyrian gods persisted until the 10th century AD and are still referred to in Islamic sources. Typically Assyrian priests with their distinctive long conical hats and tunics are depicted on several Graeco-Roman monuments from Northern Syria and East Anatolia][12] The beginning of the Christian era witnessed the folding of some long pages of history, when societies began to go through new social, religious and intellectual ideas, the Assyrian people accepted the new religion easily because it didn’t differ much from their old religion (the Assyrian religion before Christianity). Before the coming of Christ the Lord, the Assyrians had spread the idea of the Oneness of God and believed in him as “Ashur” in Nineveh and Merdokh in Babylon, as they had believed in his resurrection three days after his death, the significance of these ideas was what the Assyrian New Year represented, which was celebrated on the 01st of “Nissanu” (Starts in the Spring equinox, 19-21 of March) in Babylon and Nineveh[13] These similarities influenced the traditions of the Church of the East which was founded by the Assyrians, thus tangible representations such as (portraits and statues) didn’t become a part of its daily practices and worshipping rites, in contrast other Churches which its people used to worship idols and statues or used tangible representations as means of communicating with the gods before the coming of Christ, while till today there hasn’t been any discovery of idols in Assyria. As they embraced the new religion, the Assyrians added new ideas to understanding life and the philosophy beyond it, as they were the first to accept Christianity[14] when the Church was founded at the hands of the apostles Addai (Thaddaeus) and Mari, the Assyrian society with all its classes welcomed it where monasteries quickly spread in all the Assyrian regions but specially in the areas of Beth Karmaii (Kirkuk), Hidyab {Adiabene} (Arbil), Nohadra (Dohuk), Beth Bagash (Nojiyya and Gawar) and Beth Slakh (today’s Shaqlawa and North Eastern Arbil). As to what concerns the continuation of the Assyrian identity following the spread of Christianity, Henry Saggs, Professor of Semitic languages at the University of Cardiff-Britain wrote: [The collapse of the Assyrian Empire didn’t obliterate the inhabitants who were –primarily- peasants, the descendants of those Assyrian peasants used to re-build-when given the chance-their new villages on top of the old cities and they would live their rural lives remembering the traditions of the cities; following seven or eight centuries of turbulence they embraced Christianity… ][15] In what concerns the cohesiveness of the Assyrian society, the historian Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) wrote in his famous book “The history of the Decline and the fall of the Roman Empire” quoting the philosopher Libanius (314-394) who taught rhetoric to Emperor Julian[16] as follows: [The fields of Assyria were devoted by Julian to the calamities of war, The trembling Assyrians summoned the rivers to their assistance; and completed, with their own hands, the ruin of their country … Two cities of Assyria presumed to resist the arms of a Roman emperor: and they both paid the severe penalty of their rashness…. The Assyrians maintained their loyalty by a skilful, as well as vigorous, defense; till the lucky stroke of a battering-ram, having opened a large breach, by shattering one of the angles of the wall, they hastily retired into the fortifications of the interior citadel][17] which means, that during the time of the Persian king Shah’bur Ardashir and Julian the Roman emperor who was killed at the entrances of Ctesephon during his attack on the city[18], the Assyrians were ready to face a great Empire and they were united even though they were overcome by the Persian Empire. The Assyrian national tendency in the early centuries of Christianity is confirmed by Patricia Crone, history Professor at the University of London, who goes as far as accusing the Assyrians of being chauvinists because they resorted to Christianity but more precisely “Nestorianism” fleeing from being integrated with Persian Zoroastrianism and Greek Orthodoxy, so that they would avoid dispersing within the surrounding cultures. She writes that in her book Hagarism: The making of the Islamic world […condemned to oblivion by the outside world, Assyria could recollect its own glorious past in certain tranquility. Consequently when the region came back into the focus of history under the Parthians, it was with an Assyrian, not a Persian let alone Greek, self-identification: the temple of Ashur was restored, the city was rebuilt, and an Assyrian successor state returned in the shape of the client kingdom of Adiabene…. Like the provincials of the west, the Assyrians stuck to their genealogy, but unlike them they could not merely go heretical: even a heretical Zoroastrian was still conceptually a Persian, and vis-à-vis the Persians the Assyrians therefore needed a different religion altogether. On the other hand, even an orthodox Christian was still only a Greek by association; vis-à-vis the Greeks a heresy therefore sufficed. Consequently, after a detour via Judaism, the Assyrians adopted Christianity and found their heresy in Nestorianism… (And she continues) Hence where Coptic chauvinism was ethnic and linguistic, that of Assyria turned on the memory of a glorious past. In this connection two timely conversions served to dear the Assyrian kings of their Biblical disrepute. Firstly Sardana the son of Sennacherib, thirty-second king of Assyria after Belos and ruler of a third of the inhabited world, submitted to the monotheistic message of Jonah and instituted the Ninivite fast which saved Ninive from destruction; and the fast having saved the Assyrians from the wrath of God in the past, it was reinstituted by Sabrisho' of Karkha de-Bet Selokh to save them from a plague a thousand years later." Secondly, the conversion of Izates II of Adiabene to Judaism was reedited as the conversion of Narsai of Assyria to Christianity. In other words the Assyrians were monotheists before Christ and Christians after him, and the past therefore led on to the present without a break. Thus the history of Karkha de-Bet Selokh begins with the Assyrian kings and ends with the Assyrian martyrs: Sargon founded it and the martyrs made it 'a blessed field for Christianity'. Likewise in the seventh century before Christ all the world stood in awe of Sardana, and in the seventh century after Christ the saints took his place as the 'sun of Athor' and the 'glory of Ninive'. …][19] In the 04th century A.D. King Sennacherib II reigned over the kingdom of "Ashur" and he was the father of the saints Behnam and Sarah[20] Ashur was also mentioned by other Assyrians, when the Catholicos Mar Isho-Yabh III of Adiabene (649-659) wrote a letter to the Archbishop Mar Gabriel, and to Mar Hermis D’Beth Laphat stating [The best example of such faith is found among those living in central Athur (Assyria) and the surrounding places. A heritage of good manner, a clear mind and the teaching of the word of God have contributed to the growth of this blessedness][21] During the period when the Assyrians embraced the new religion, many prominent brilliant figures appeared in intellect and philosophy such as Tatian of Adiabene (130 A.D.) who called himself “the Assyrian”, he was the one who collected the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in one book which he called the Diatessaron[22] He is credited with firmly establishing the doctrine of the Holy Trinity since the idea was originally that of his forefathers culture, about that, Hippolytus the historian (170-236 A.D) who was known as “the martyr bishop of Rome” wrote in his book titled “Refutatio” (“Refutations of all Heresies”) what follows: [The Assyrians first advanced the opinion that the soul has three parts, and yet one. For of soul, say they, is every nature desirous, and each in a different manner, for soul is cause of all things made.][23] In any case the Church of Rome was concerned about the Christian Trinity, for the Pope Dionysius (259-268 A.D.) considered the trinity idea proposed by Clement of Alexandria as a heresy and when he asked about the origines of his trinity Ideology, Clement said that it’s from the teacher, “Tatian the Assyrian”[24] The mention of the Assyrians is seen precisely again in the middle of the 06th century A.D. when Emperor Anastasius occupied the city of Dara (between Mardin and Nisibis) in 556 A.D. which is mentioned by Bishop John of Ephesus (505-585 A.D.) in his Ecclesiastical History: [And thus he (Anastasius) spoiled the city of a vast and incalculable prey, and took the people captive, and emptied it of its inhabitants, and left in it a garrison of his own, and returned to his land with an immense 385 booty of the silver and gold taken from the inhabitants, and the churches, and every where else. Its capture, and deliverance into the hands of the Assyrians, took place seventy-two years, more or less, after the time of it’s first being founded by king Anastasius ][25] In another letter of Patriarch Mar Ishoyahb III to Bishop Theodorus he wrote: [I shall be late for few days visiting the Assyrians who live outside these lands][26] This took place in the 07th century A.D., then in the 08th century A.D. we read in a letter by the Catholicos Mar Timotheus the Great to Mar Sargis the bishop of Elam: “We wrote twice to the brothers Khnanisho and Isho Sabran, as per the law of the word of God, but they are not willing to come even though the Assyrians respect them”…[27] In his book the “Sharafnameh”, the Kurdish historian Sharaf khan Bedlisi (16th century A.D.) had stated about how a group of Assyrians from Hakkari had met with Asad al-Din al-Kolabi ( nicknamed “Zerinjank”: the golden hand) where he said: “A group of Christians known as “Assuri” of that Vilayat (Hakkari) had traveled as usual to Egypt and Sham (Syria) to work and make a living, so they had a chance to see the position and prestige of Asad al-Din Zerinjank”[28] During the 18th century A.D. , before the arrival of the English, and according to George Bournoutian, Professor of Middle East history at the University of New York, in a letter from the Russian Colonel Sivan Burnashiev to General Paul Potmekin dated 26/05/1784, Burnashiev wrote: [There are 100 villages inhabited by Assyrians in the domain of the Khan of Urmiye, in addition , some 20,000 families reside within the borders of Turkey][29] These were but some of a wealth of resources which confirm the presence of the Assyrian people since the falling of the Assyrian empire to the Medes till the arrival of the missionaries in 1837. References : [1] “Assyrians and their neighbors”, Rev. W. A. Wigram, London, 1929, P:51 [2] See reference # 8 - Southgate. [3] “History Of The Peloponnesian Wars”, Thucydides, Trans. Thomas Hobbes (1839), Volume I: Book: VI [4] “Ancient linguistic precipitations in our linguistic heritage”. The late Dr Taha Baqer. Popular Heritage magazine, Baghdad-Iraq, 1973, pages 9-21 (From a research by Dr. Saddi Al-Malih: “The Assyrian roots of today’s Chaldeans, The language as example”. [5] “Histories”, Herodotus, Book VII, P: 396, Penguin Classics edition, Trans. By Prof. Aubrey De Selincourt, 1996. [6] “The Archaemenid period in northern Iraq”, 21-22 Nov, 2003, Ref: Schmidt 1953: pls.153B, 203C; Roaf 1983, P: 130 [7] “The Campaigns of Alexander”, Arrian, Trans: Sergyenko, 1962, P:231 – Ref: Matviev [8] “The religion of Babylon and Assyria”. S. Hook. Translation Nohad Khayyata, page 144. [9] “Gaza”, Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol.VI [10] “Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament”, James B. Pritchard, 1969 P: 562. [11] “The missing link in the Assyrians history”. Zaia Kanon, page51.(Arabic) [12] “State Archives of Assyria”, Prof. Simo Parpola, Vol.9: Assyrian Prophecies - Helsinki, 1997 [13] “April First: The Assyrian New Year”, Ashur Giwargis. An-Nahar Newspaper 14/04/2002. Beirut-Lebanon. (Arabic and English) [14] I Peter, 5:13. [15] “The might that was Assyria”. Professor Henry Saggs, Arabic edition by Dr Aho Yousif, 1995, pages 396-397. [16] “Julian the Emperor" (1888) -Libanius, Funeral Oration for Julian [17] “The history of the Decline and the fall of the Roman Empire” -1776, Lord Edward Gibbon, Part III, Chap:24 [18] “The Quarterly Journal of military history”, Barry S. Strauss, June/29/2005 [19] See reference # 35, Patricia Crone. [20] “The biographies of the Martyrs and Saints. The works of Mar Marutha, IV century. Zaia Kanon, page 68. (Arabic) [21] “The Book of Consolations, the Pastoral Epistles of Mar Isho-Yahbh of Kuphlana in Adiabene”, Philip S. Moncrieff, Part I [22] “Diatessaron”, a Greek word meaning “stemming from four”. This book was translated to Arabic by Abu al-Faraj Abdalla Ibn Al-Tayeb (an Arab from the Church of the East) 1543. [23] “Refutatio”, Hippolytus, The System of the Naasseni, Book V, 7.9 [24] “Strom”, Clement of Alexandria, III, 12.81, 1.1 and 11.2 [25] “Ecclesiastical History of John Bishop of Ephesus”, By Jessie Payne Margoliouth, 1909, Part III, Book VI. [26] “Ishoyahb Patriarch III liber epistularum”, Rubens Duval, 1905, P: 106 [27] “Today’s Assyrians”. Odisho Malko. In reference to the book of the late Archbishop Yacoub Augin Manna “Al Mouroj al Nozheeya” Vol. II, page 34 (Arabic) [28] “Sharafnameh”. Sharaf khan al-Badlisi, translated from Persian by Mohammad Ali Aouni. Vol. I, page 90 (Arabic) [29] "Armenians and Russia (1626-1796): A Documentary Record", G. Bournoutian, Coasta Mesa, California: 2001 (From “Assyrians, the continuous saga, By Frederick Aprim, edition 2004, P: 166) Now, please apologize A.G
Yikes. And I guess we should apologize to the British for believe that they're the descendants of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes and Normans. After all, the word British comes from the Britons, who used to live in Britain, and the word is still in use. Therefore, everyone who calls himself British is a descendant of those Britons. Also, every American is a descendant of Amerigo Vespucci, who of course founded the United States of America. Marya raham alan!
hi iam assyrian and we sill life in this world but there is ppl the want to los our history that never gana hapend we are more then 4,000,000 ppl we life in iraq and evry were in this world as i saed there is ppl the want to ching that like assyrian we know who want to ching that if u ask any assyrian he is gana tell u the thro he is gana say the josh want to delete our histroy we are here in this world
I always come to a conclusion of being mad about when i hear people ask me the five "W"s about Assyrians. What pisses me more off is people talking about things they dont really know, and spread it around. Born Assyrian, still Assyrian, die Assyrian. khayah omtah atoureta
the people of Syria, Lebanon and Iraq are ethnic Arameans
Syria = Aram the name in the Old Testament given to the whole country which lay to the northeast of Phoenicia, extending to beyond the Euphrates and the Tigris
Mesopotamia is called (Gen. 24:10; Deut. 23:4) Aram-naharaim (Syria of the two rivers), also Padan-aram (Gen. 25:20). Other portions of Syria were also known by separate names, as Aram-maahah (1 Chr. 19:6), Aram-beth-rehob (2 Sam. 10:6), Aram-zobah (2 Sam. 10:6, 8). All these separate little kingdoms afterwards became subject to Damascus. In the time of the Romans, Syria included also a part of Palestine and Asia Minor