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128-620: The town fell into decline after the Islamic conquest of Persia , the city surrendering in 638. However, it continued to remain an important centre in the Islamic period. Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar , the founder of the Saffarid dynasty, made Gundeshapur his residence three years before his sudden death in 879. His tomb became one of the most prominent sites in the city. The Middle Persian word Gondēŝāhpūr (or Gonde Ŝāhpur ) may be from

256-682: A Muslim institute of higher learning. In 832 CE, Caliph al-Ma'mūn founded the Bayt al-Hikma , the House of Wisdom . There the methods of Gundeshapur were emulated since the House of Wisdom was staffed with graduates of the older Academy of Gundeshapur who had been trained heavily in Indic and some Greek and Iranian medical traditions. It is believed that the House of Wisdom was disbanded under Al-Mutawakkil , Al-Ma'mūn's successor who felt learning conflicted with

384-568: A city to the west of Gundeshapur and with which Gundesahur was administratively linked. Ath-Tha'ālibi, a scholar with access to Sassanian royal annals, discussing pre-Islamic Persia, wrote: Thus, the people of Sūs [Susa] became the most skilled in medicine of the people of Ahwāz and Fārs because of their learning from the Indian doctor [who was brought to Susa by Shāhpūr I] and from the Greek prisoners who lived close to them; then [the medical knowledge]

512-473: A grandson of Khosrau II and was said to be a mere child aged 8 years. After the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah in 628, Islamic tradition holds that Muhammad sent many letters to the princes, kings, and chiefs of the various tribes and kingdoms of the time, exhorting them to convert to Islam and bow to the order of God. These letters were carried by ambassadors to Persia , Byzantium , Ethiopia , Egypt , Yemen , and

640-569: A major offence in the Levant, Yazdegerd ordered the concentration of massive armies to push the Muslims out of Mesopotamia for good through a series of well-coordinated attacks on two fronts. Umar ordered his army to retreat to the Arabian border and began raising armies at Medina for another campaign into Mesopotamia. Owing to the critical situation, Umar wished to command the army personally, but

768-466: A new ecclesiastical hierarchy: the patriarchal line known as the Shimun line . The area of influence of this patriarchate soon moved from Amid east, fixing the see, after many changes, in the isolated village of Qochanis . The Shimun line eventually drifted away from Rome and in 1662 adopted a profession of faith incompatible with that of Rome. Leadership of those who wished communion with Rome passed to

896-530: A prime target for the Muslims. Sasanian society was divided into four classes: priests, warriors, secretaries, and commoners. The latter formed the bulk of the population, served as its sole tax base, and remained its poorest class. At the climax of Khosrau II's ambitious Byzantine territory conquests in the Levant and much of Asia Minor , taxes rose dramatically, and most people could not pay. Years of Sassanid-Byzantine wars had ruined trade routes and industry,

1024-509: A steady influx of Arabs, Kurds and other Iranian peoples , and later Turkic peoples . Assyrians were increasingly marginalized, persecuted and gradually became a minority in their homeland. Conversion to Islam was a result of heavy taxation, which also resulted in decreased revenue from their rulers. As a result, the new converts migrated to Muslim garrison towns nearby. Assyrians remained dominant in Upper Mesopotamia as late as

1152-538: Is His servant and Prophet. Under the Command of God, I invite you to Him. He has sent me for the guidance of all people so that I may warn them all of His wrath and may present the unbelievers with an ultimatum. Embrace Islam so that you may remain safe. And if you refuse to accept Islam, you will be responsible for the sins of the Magi. There are differing accounts of the reaction of Khosrau II . Years of warfare between

1280-652: Is given in Adrian Fortescue's Lesser Eastern Churches . Mar Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa returned to northern Mesopotamia in the same year and fixed his seat in Amid. Before being imprisoned for four months and then in January 1555 put to death by the governor of Amadiya at the instigation of the rival Patriarch of Alqosh , of the Eliya line , he ordained two metropolitans and three other bishops, thus beginning

1408-487: Is now Iraq was under Islamic control. Khalid received a call for aid from northern Arabia at Dawmat al-Jandal, where another Muslim Arab general, Iyad ibn Ghanm , was trapped among the rebel tribes. Khalid went there and defeated the rebels in the Battle of Dawmat al-Jandal in the last week of August. Upon his return, he received news of the assembling of a large Persian army. He decided to defeat them all separately to avoid

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1536-738: Is now widely believed that the annexation of the Lakhmid kingdom was one of the main factors behind the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the subsequent Islamic conquest of Persia, as the Lakhmids agreed to act as spies for the Muslims after being defeated in the Battle of Hira by Khalid ibn al-Walid . The Persian ruler Khosrau II (Parviz) defeated a dangerous rebellion within his own empire, Bahram Chobin 's rebellion. He then turned his focus to his traditional Byzantine enemies, leading to

1664-585: Is the attempt to replace Timothy I (779–823) with Ephrem of Gandīsābur. By tradition, a patriarch could be ordained only by someone of archiepiscopal (metropolitan) rank, a rank to which only members of that one family were promoted. For that reason, Sulaqa travelled to Rome, where, presented as the new Patriarch elect, he entered communion with the Catholic Church and was ordained by the Pope and recognized as Patriarch. The title or description under which he

1792-656: The 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies , and the Syrian civil war , which began in 2011. 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

1920-692: The Assyrian Genocide and lured by British and Russian promises of an independent nation, the Assyrians led by Agha Petros and Malik Khoshaba of the Bit- Tyari tribe, fought alongside the Allies against Ottoman forces known as the Assyrian volunteers or Our Smallest Ally . Despite being heavily outnumbered and outgunned the Assyrians fought successfully, scoring a number of victories over

2048-535: The Battle of Ullais , fought in mid-May. The Persian court, already disturbed by internal problems, was thrown into chaos. In the last week of May, the important city of Al-Hirah fell to the Muslims . After resting his armies, in June, Khalid laid siege to the city of al-Anbar , which surrendered in July. Khalid then moved south, and conquered the city of Ayn al-Tamr in the last week of July. At this point, most of what

2176-603: The Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628 . For a few years, he succeeded. From 612 to 622, he extended the Persian borders almost to the same extent that they were under the Achaemenid dynasty (550–330 BC), capturing Western states as far as Egypt , Palestine (the conquest of the latter being assisted by a Jewish army), and more. The Byzantines regrouped and pushed back in 622 under Heraclius . Khosrau

2304-602: The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 . Following the execution of Sasanian shah Khosrow II in 628, Persia's internal political stability began deteriorating at a rapid pace. Subsequently, ten new royal claimants were enthroned within the next four years. Shortly afterwards, Persia was further devastated by the Sasanian Interregnum , a large-scale civil war that began in 628 and resulted in the government's decentralization by 632. Amidst Persia's turmoil,

2432-789: The Church of the East , commonly referred to as " Nestorians ", and followers of the Syriac Orthodox Church , commonly called Jacobites . The latter were organised by Marutha of Tikrit (565–649) as 17 dioceses under a "Metropolitan of the East" or " Maphrian ", holding the highest rank in the Syriac Orthodox Church after that of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East . The Maphrian resided at Tikrit until 1089, when he moved to

2560-552: The Council of Ephesus (431), which condemned Nestorianism , and the Council of Chalcedon (451), 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 (derived from Syriac malkā , king), meaning royalists. All three groups existed among

2688-666: The East and West Syriac liturgical rites of Christianity. Both rites use Classical Syriac as their liturgical language. The Assyrians were among the early converts to Christianity, along with Jews, Arameans, Armenians , Greeks , and Nabataeans . 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

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2816-615: The Euphrates River. The border was constantly contested. Most battles, and thus most fortifications, were concentrated in the hilly regions of the north, as the vast Arabian or Syrian Desert (Roman Arabia) separated the rival empires in the south. The only dangers expected from the south were occasional raids by nomadic Arab tribesmen. Both empires therefore allied themselves with small, semi-independent Arab principalities, which served as buffer states and protected Byzantium and Persia from Bedouin attacks. The Byzantine clients were

2944-597: The Ghassanids ; the Persian clients were the Lakhmids . The Ghassanids and Lakhmids feuded constantly, which kept them occupied, but that did not greatly affect the Byzantines or the Persians. In the 6th and 7th centuries, various factors destroyed the balance of power that had held for so many centuries. The conflict with the Byzantines greatly contributed to its weakness, by draining Sassanid resources, leaving it

3072-574: The Maysan region, which the Muslims seized later as well. Assyrian people Assyrians are an indigenous ethnic group native to Mesopotamia , a geographical region in West Asia . Modern Assyrians descend 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

3200-674: The Muslim armies. Moreover, the powerful northern and eastern Parthian families, the kust-i khwarasan and kust-i adurbadagan, withdrew to their respective strongholds and made peace with the Arabs, refusing to fight alongside the Sassanians. Another important theme of Pourshariati's study is a re-evaluation of the traditional timeline. Pourshariati argues that the Arab conquest of Mesopotamia "took place, not, as has been conventionally believed, in

3328-646: The Muslim conquest of Persia , they relied solely on the accounts of the Armenian Christian bishop Sebeos , and accounts in Arabic written some time after the events they describe. The most significant work was probably that of Arthur Christensen , and his L’Iran sous les Sassanides , published in Copenhagen and Paris in 1944. Recent scholarship has begun to question the traditional narrative: Parvaneh Pourshariati , in her Decline and Fall of

3456-538: The Muslim conquest of Iran , the Arab conquest of Persia , or the Arab conquest of Iran , was a major military campaign undertaken by the Rashidun Caliphate between 632 and 654. As part of the early Muslim conquests , which had begun under Muhammad in 622, it led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the eventual decline of Zoroastrianism , which had been predominant throughout Persia as

3584-581: 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

3712-727: The Ottoman Empire occurred between 1894 and 1897 by Turkish troops and their Kurdish allies during the rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II . The motives for these massacres were an attempt to reassert Pan-Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, resentment at the comparative wealth of the ancient indigenous Christian communities, and a fear that they would attempt to secede from the tottering Ottoman Empire. Assyrians were massacred in Diyarbakir , Hasankeyef , Sivas and other parts of Anatolia, by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. These attacks caused

3840-642: The Parthian Empire , ceased to be ethnically distinct in Sasanian times. Most of the population were Eastern Aramaic speakers. 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

3968-629: The Roman city of Antioch in 256, the Sasanian King of Kings ( shahanshah ) Shapur I founded the city of Gundeshapur, situated between Susa and Shushtar . The city, constructed as a place to settle Roman prisoners of war, subsequently became a Sasanian royal winter residence and the capital of the Khuzistan province. Gundeshapur was one of the four main cities of the province, along with Susa , Karka d-Ledan , and Shushtar . Gundeshapur

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4096-580: The Safavids forcefully converted Iran to Shia Islam in the 18th century. This was the first time since the collapse of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC with the Battle of Opis , that Mesopotamia was ruled again by Semitic -speaking people, after centuries of Persian ( Achaemenid , Parthian and Sasanian empires), and Roman-Greek ( Macedonian , Seleucid the Roman empires) ruling periods. When Western academics first investigated

4224-550: The 14th century, and the city of Assur was still occupied by Assyrians during the Islamic period until the mid-14th century when the Muslim Turco-Mongol ruler Timur conducted a religiously motivated massacre against Assyrians. After, no records of Assyrians remained in Assur according to the archaeological and numismatic record. From this point, the Assyrian population was dramatically reduced in their homeland. From

4352-590: The 19th century, after the rise of nationalism in the Balkans , the Ottomans started viewing Assyrians and other Christians on their eastern front as a potential threat. The Kurdish Emirs sought to consolidate their power by attacking Assyrian communities, which were already well-established there. Scholars estimate that tens of thousands of Assyrians in the Hakkari region were massacred in 1843 when Bedr Khan Beg ,

4480-595: The 25th century BC. They appear to have been Sumerian-ruled administrative centres at this time rather than independent states. The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) population. An Assyrian identity distinct from other neighboring groups appears to have formed during the Old Assyrian period , in the 21st or 20th century BC. In the traditions of the Assyrian Church of

4608-548: The 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia . Assyrians contributed to Islamic civilizations during the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates by translating works of Greek philosophers to Syriac and afterward to Arabic . They also excelled in philosophy , science ( Masawaiyh , Eutychius of Alexandria , and Jabril ibn Bukhtishu ) and theology (such as Tatian , Bardaisan , Babai the Great , Nestorius , and Thomas of Marga ) and

4736-533: 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. 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

4864-665: The Arabs and Kurds), as well as other neighbouring countries in and around the Middle East such as Armenia , Georgia and Russia . During World War I ( Sayfo ), the Assyrians suffered heavy losses due to deportations and mass killings organized by the Ottoman Turks. Several representatives of the Assyrian people participated in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 after the war had ended. These representatives aimed to free Assyria and sought to influence

4992-435: The Arabs managed to maintain their presence in the area. Later on, the Persians defeated Abu Ubaid in the Battle of the Bridge . Muthanna bin Haritha was later victorious in the Battle of Buwayb . In 635 Yazdgerd III sought an alliance with Emperor Heraclius of the Eastern Roman Empire , marrying the latter's daughter (or, by some traditions, his granddaughter) in order to seal the arrangement. While Heraclius prepared for

5120-491: The Aramaic that the modern Assyrians speak. 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

5248-416: The Archbishop of Amid Joseph I , recognized first by the Turkish civil authorities (1677) and then by Rome itself (1681). A century and a half later, in 1830, headship of the Catholics (the Chaldean Catholic Church ) was conferred on Yohannan Hormizd , a member of the family that for centuries had provided the patriarchs of the legitimist "Eliya line", who had won over most of the followers of that line. Thus

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5376-431: 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 (14th to 10th century BC) spread Assyrian culture, people and identity across northern Mesopotamia . The Assyrian people, after the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 609 BC, were under

5504-466: The Byzantines with Persian support. Umar, allegedly aware of this alliance and not wanting to risk a battle with two great powers simultaneously, quickly reinforced the Muslim army at Yarmouk to engage and defeat the Byzantines. Meanwhile, he ordered Saad to enter into peace negotiations with Yazdegerd III and invite him to convert to Islam to prevent Persian forces from taking the field. Heraclius instructed his general Vahan not to engage in battle with

5632-400: The Church of the East from the northern regions of Amid and Salmas , who were dissatisfied with reservation of patriarchal succession to members of a single family, even if the designated successor was little more than a child, elected as a rival patriarch the abbot of the Rabban Hormizd Monastery , Yohannan Sulaqa . This was by no means the first schism in the Church of the East. An example

5760-404: 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

5888-451: 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. Another council held in 424 declared that the Catholicos of the East was independent of "Western" ecclesiastical authorities (those of the Roman Empire). Soon afterward, Christians in the Roman Empire were divided by their attitude regarding

6016-409: The First World War. Between 275,000 and 300,000 Assyrians were estimated to have been slaughtered by the armies of the Ottoman Empire and their Kurdish allies, totalling up to two-thirds of the entire Assyrian population. This led to a large-scale migration of Turkish-based Assyrian people into countries such as Syria, Iran , and Iraq (where they were to suffer further violent assaults at the hands of

6144-434: The Kurdish-dominated but multiethnic Syrian Democratic Forces (see Khabour Guards and Sutoro ) and Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria . Assyria 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

6272-491: The Middle East—the Arabs, Persians , Kurds, Turks —the Assyrians have endured much hardship throughout their recent history as a result of religious and ethnic persecution by these groups. After initially coming under the control of the Seljuk Empire and the Buyid dynasty , the region eventually came under the control of the Mongol Empire after the fall of Baghdad in 1258. The Mongol khans were sympathetic with Christians and did not harm them. The most prominent among them

6400-501: The Muslims before receiving explicit orders. Fearing more Arab reinforcements, Vahan attacked the Muslim army in the Battle of Yarmouk in August 636, and was routed. With the Byzantine threat ended, the Sasanian Empire was still a formidable power with vast manpower reserves, and the Arabs soon found themselves confronting a huge Persian army with troops drawn from every corner of the empire, including war elephants, and commanded by its foremost generals. Within three months, Saad defeated

6528-399: The Persian army in the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah , effectively ending Sasanian rule west of Persia proper. This victory is largely regarded as a decisive turning point in Islam's growth: with the bulk of Persian forces defeated, Saad with his companions later conquered Babylon ( Battle of Babylon (636) ), Kūthā , Sābāṭ ( Valashabad ) and Bahurasīr ( Veh-Ardashir ). Ctesiphon , the capital of

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6656-424: The Persian expression wandēw Šāhpur , means "acquired by Shapur", or from Gund-dēz-i Shāpūr , means "military fortress of Shapur", or from Weh-Andiyok-Shāpūr , "Better-than- Antioch of Shapur ". It is known as گندی‌شاپور Gondēshāpūr in New Persian . In Classical Syriac , the town was called ܒܝܬ ܠܦܛ Bēth Lapaṭ ,; in Greek Bendosabora ; and in Arabic : جنديسابور Jundaysābūr. After his conquest of

6784-421: The Persians decided to take back their lost territory. The Muslim army was forced to leave the conquered areas and concentrate on the border. Umar immediately sent reinforcements to aid Muthanna ibn Haritha in Mesopotamia under the command of Abu Ubaid al-Thaqafi . At that time, a series of battles between the Persians and Arabs occurred in the region of Sawad , such as Namaraq , Kaskar and Baqusiatha, in which

6912-423: The Roman forces, it was too slow and regimented to act with full force against the agile and unpredictable lightly armed Arab cavalry and foot archers. The Persian army had a few initial successes. War elephants temporarily halted the Arab army, but when Arab veterans returned from the Syrian fronts, where they had been fighting against Byzantine forces, they provided crucial instruction on how to effectively counter

7040-439: The Sasanian Empire. In 642, Umar ibn al-Khattab , eight years into his reign as Islam's second caliph , ordered a full-scale invasion of the rest of the Sasanian Empire. Directing the war from the city of Medina in Arabia, Umar's quick conquest of Persia in a series of coordinated and multi-pronged attacks became his greatest triumph, contributing to his reputation as a great military and political strategist. In 644, however, he

7168-412: The Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran , published in 2008, provides both a detailed overview of the problematic nature of trying to establish exactly what happened, and a great deal of original research that questions fundamental facts of the traditional narrative, including the timeline and specific dates. Pourshariati's central thesis is that contrary to what

7296-412: The Sasanian towns in Mesopotamia , actions that generated a considerable amount of booty was collected. Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha went to Medina to inform Abu Bakr about his success and was appointed commander of his people, after which he began to raid deeper into Mesopotamia. Using the mobility of his light cavalry , he could easily raid any town near the desert and disappear again into the desert, beyond

7424-448: The Sasanians and the Byzantines, as well as the strain of the Khazar invasion of Transcaucasia , had exhausted the army. No effective ruler followed Khosrau II , causing chaos in society and problems in the provincial administration, until Yazdegerd III rose to power. All these factors undermined the strength of the Persian army. Yazdegerd III was merely 8 years old when he came to the throne and, lacking experience, did not try to rebuild

7552-406: The Sassanid Empire, fell in March 637 after a siege of three months. In December 636, Umar ordered Utbah ibn Ghazwan to head south to capture al-Ubulla (known as "port of Apologos" in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea ) and Basra , in order to cut ties between the Persian garrison there and Ctesiphon . Utbah ibn Ghazwan arrived in April 637, and captured the region. The Persians withdrew to

7680-414: The Syriac Christians, the East Syriacs being called Nestorians and the West Syriacs being divided between the Monophysites (today the Syriac Orthodox Church , also known as Jacobites, after Jacob Baradaeus ) 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

7808-439: The Turks and Kurds. This situation continued until their Russian allies left the war, and Armenian resistance broke, leaving the Assyrians surrounded, isolated and cut off from lines of supply. The sizable Assyrian presence in south eastern Anatolia which had endured for over four millennia was thus reduced significantly by the end of World War I. The Assyrian rebellion was an uprising by the Assyrians in Hakkari that began on

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7936-483: 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

8064-403: The army. The Sasanian Empire was highly decentralized, and was in fact a "confederation" with the Parthians , who themselves retained a high level of independence. After the last Sasanian-Byzantine war, the Parthians wanted to withdraw from the confederation, and the Sasanians were thus ill-prepared and ill-equipped to mount an effective and cohesive defense against the Muslim armies. Moreover,

8192-429: 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. Assyrians speak Aramaic , specifically dialects such 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

8320-570: The capital with him. She brought with her two Greek physicians who settled in the city and taught Hippocratic medicine. In 489, the Nestorian theological and scientific center in Edessa was ordered closed by the Byzantine emperor Zeno , and transferred itself to become the School of Nisibis or Nisibīn, then under Persian rule with its secular faculties at Gundeshapur, Khuzestan . Here, scholars, together with Pagan philosophers banished from Athens by Justinian in 529, carried out important research in medicine, astronomy, and mathematics". It

8448-408: The city of Al-Hirah in Iraq on the same day. This assertion has been brought under scrutiny by some modern historians of Islam—notably Grimme and Caetani. Particularly in dispute is the assertion that Khosrau II received a letter from Muhammad, as the Sassanid court ceremony was notoriously intricate, and it is unlikely that a letter from what at the time was a minor regional power would have reached

8576-414: The city of Mosul for half a century, before settling in the nearby Monastery of Mar Mattai (still belonging to the Syriac Orthodox Church) and thus not far from the residence of the Eliya line of Patriarchs of the Church of the East. From 1533, the holder of the office was known as the Maphrian of Mosul, to distinguish him from the Maphrian of the Patriarch of Tur Abdin . In 1552, a group of bishops of

8704-414: The claims that [Gundeshapur] played a crucial role in medical history". It has been assumed that a medical center at Gundeshapur would have resembled the School of Nisibis . What is more likely is there existed a seminary, like the one in Nisibis, where medical texts were read, and an infirmary, where medicine was practiced. Additionally, Gundeshapur's reputation may have been conflated with that of Susa ,

8832-416: 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. Roman influence in the area came to an end under Jovian in 363, who abandoned

8960-477: 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

9088-512: The conversion of a Muslim, a non-Muslim man could not marry a Muslim woman, and the child of such a marriage would be considered a Muslim. They could not own an enslaved Muslim and had to wear different clothing from Muslims to be distinguishable. In addition to the jizya tax, they were required to pay the kharaj tax on their land, which was heavier than the jizya. However, they were protected, given religious freedom, and to govern themselves according to their own laws. As non-Islamic proselytising

9216-444: The death of over thousands of Assyrians and the forced "Ottomanisation" of the inhabitants of 245 villages. The Turkish troops looted the remains of the Assyrian settlements and these were later stolen and occupied by Kurds. Unarmed Assyrian women and children were raped, tortured and murdered. The Assyrians suffered a number of religiously and ethnically motivated massacres throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, culminating in

9344-555: The east under Parthian rule, lasting until conquests by the Sasanian Empire in the region in the 3rd century AD. 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 Akkadian language has influenced

9472-485: The east, and sent the famous physician Borzouye to invite Indian and Chinese scholars to Gundeshapur. These visitors translated Indic texts on astronomy, astrology, mathematics and medicine and Chinese texts on herbal medicine and religion. Borzouye is said to have himself translated the still popular Indic Pañcatantra from Sanskrit into Persian as Kelile væ Demne . Many Assyrians settled in Gundeshapur during

9600-519: The emir of Bohtan , invaded their region. After a later massacre in 1846, western powers forced the Ottomans into intervening in the region, and the ensuing conflict destroyed the Kurdish emirates and reasserted the Ottoman power in the area. The Assyrians were subject to the massacres of Diyarbakır soon after. Being culturally, ethnically, and linguistically distinct from their Muslim neighbors in

9728-714: The end of the thirteenth century, Bar Hebraeus , the noted Assyrian scholar and hierarch, found "much quietness" in his diocese in Mesopotamia. Syria's diocese, he wrote, was "wasted." The region was later controlled by the in Iran-based Turkic confederations of the Aq Qoyunlu and Kara Koyunlu . Subsequently, all Assyrians, like with the rest of the ethnicities living in the former Aq Qoyunlu territories, fell into Safavid hands from 1501 and on. The Ottomans secured their control over Mesopotamia and Syria in

9856-665: The entirety of the Arab Peninsula under the authority of the Caliph at Medina. Abu Bakr set in motion a historical trajectory (continued later by Umar and Uthman) that in a few decades led to one of the largest empires in history , beginning with a confrontation with the Sassanid Empire under the general Khalid ibn al-Walid . After the Ridda wars , a tribal chief of northeastern Arabia, Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha , raided

9984-548: The fifth century. The Assyrians were most of all medical doctors from Urfa , which was during that time, home to the leading medical center. Teaching in the Academy was done in Syriac until the city fell to Arab-Islamic armies, which destroyed the city and places of learning. Sassanid Persia fell to Arab-Islamic armies in 638 CE. The academy survived the change of rulers and persisted for several centuries, by projecting itself as

10112-702: The first Rashidun invasion of Sasanian territory took place in 633, when the Rashidun army conquered parts of Asoristan , which was the Sasanians' political and economic centre in Mesopotamia . Later, the regional Rashidun army commander Khalid ibn al-Walid was transferred to oversee the Muslim conquest of the Levant , and as the Rashidun army became increasingly focused on the Byzantine Empire ,

10240-465: The first epidemic was brought by the Sasanian armies from its campaigns in Constantinople , Syria , and Armenia . It caused the death of many Aryan and therefore contributed to the fall of the Sasanian Empire. Khosrau II was executed in 628 and, as a result, there were numerous claimants to the throne; from 628 to 632 there were ten kings and queens of Persia. The last, Yazdegerd III , was

10368-490: The first half of the 17th century following the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39) and the resulting Treaty of Zuhab . Non-Muslims were organised into millets . Syriac Christians, however, were often considered one millet alongside Armenians until the 19th century, when Nestorian, Syriac Orthodox and Chaldeans gained that right as well. The Aramaic-speaking Mesopotamian Christians had long been divided between followers of

10496-604: 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 (2335–2154 BC). The cities of Assur and Nineveh (modern-day Mosul ), which was the oldest and largest city of the ancient Assyrian Empire, together with several other towns and cities, existed as early as

10624-920: The hands of the Shahanshah. With regards to Persia, Muslim histories further recount that at the beginning of the seventh year of migration, Muhammad appointed one of his officers, Abdullah Huzafah Sahmi Qarashi, to carry his letter to Khosrau II inviting him to convert: In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful. From Muhammad, the Messenger of God, to the great Kisra of Persia. Peace be upon him, who seeks truth and expresses belief in God and in His Prophet and testifies that there are no gods but one God whom has no partners, and who believes that Muhammad

10752-574: The heresy, alienating the Ghassanids and sparking rebellions on their desert frontiers. The Lakhmids also revolted against the Persian king Khusrau II. Nu'man III (son of Al-Monder IV), the first Christian Lakhmid king, was deposed and killed by Khusrau II in 602, because of his attempt to throw off Persian suzerainty. After Khusrau's assassination in 628, the Persian Empire fractured and the Lakhmids were effectively semi-independent. It

10880-492: 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 ( Hatra , Adiabene , Osroene ) and perhaps semi-autonomous Assyrian vassal states ( Assur ) sprung up in

11008-585: The information given in the Quran. In addition, the intellectual center of the Abbasid Caliphate had shifted to the Arab stronghold of Baghdad , as henceforth there are few references in contemporary literature to universities or hospitals at Gundeshapur. Gundeshapur had been major link between Indic and some Greek medicine, because of its previous practices of combining the medical traditions, therefore

11136-497: The invaders. When the main Arab army reached the Persian borders, Yazdegerd III procrastinated in dispatching an army against the Arabs. Even Rostam-e Farokhzad , who was both Eran Spahbod and Viceroy , did not see the Arabs as a threat. Without opposition, the Arabs had time to consolidate and fortify their positions. When hostilities between the Sasanians and the Arabs finally began, the Persian army faced fundamental problems. While their heavy cavalry had proved effective against

11264-413: The large-scale Hamidian massacres of unarmed men, women and children by Muslim Turks and Kurds in the late 19th century at the hands of the Ottoman Empire and its associated (largely Kurdish and Arab) militias, which further greatly reduced numbers, particularly in southeastern Turkey. The most significant recent persecution against the Assyrian population was the Assyrian genocide which occurred during

11392-645: The last major battle of the Sassanids. The Sassanid dynasty came to an end with the death of Yazdegerd III in 651. Muhammad died in June 632, and Abu Bakr took the title of Caliph and political successor at Medina . Soon after Abu Bakr 's succession, several Arab tribes revolted, in the Ridda Wars ( Arabic for the Wars of Apostasy). The Ridda Wars preoccupied the Caliphate until March 633, and ended with

11520-532: The members of Majlis ash-Shura demurred, claiming that the two-front war required Umar's presence in Medina. Accordingly, Umar appointed Saad ibn Abi Waqqas , a respected senior officer, even though Saad was suffering from sciatica. Saad left Medina with his army in May 636 and arrived at Qadisiyyah in June. While Heraclius launched his offensive in May 636, Yazdegerd was unable to muster his armies in time to provide

11648-603: The month of November. These devastating defeats ended Persian control over Mesopotamia, and left the Persian capital Ctesiphon vulnerable. Before attacking Ctesiphon, Khalid decided to eliminate all Persian forces in the south and west. He accordingly marched against the border city of Firaz , where he defeated the combined forces of the Sasanian Persians , the Byzantines and Christian Arabs in December. This

11776-505: The nation's official religion. The persecution of Zoroastrians by the early Muslims during and after this conflict prompted many of them to flee eastward to India , where they were granted refuge by various kings. While Arabia was experiencing the rise of Islam in the 7th century, Persia was struggling with unprecedented levels of political, social, economic, and military weakness; the Sasanian army had greatly exhausted itself in

11904-543: The newly conquered Mesopotamian territories were retaken by the Sasanian army. The second Rashidun invasion began in 636, under Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas , when a key victory at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah permanently ended all Sasanian control to the west of modern-day Iran . For the next six years, the Zagros Mountains , a natural barrier, marked the political boundary between the Rashidun Caliphate and

12032-651: The notable exception of the provinces along the Caspian Sea (i.e., in Tabaristan and Transoxiana ), had come under Muslim domination. Many localities fought against the invaders; although the Rashidun army had established hegemony over most of the country, many cities rose in rebellion by killing their Arab governors or attacking their garrisons. Eventually, military reinforcements quashed the Iranian insurgencies and imposed complete control. The Islamization of Iran

12160-556: The objective of Khalid, Abu Bakr sent reinforcements and ordered the tribal chiefs of northeastern Arabia, Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha, Mazhur bin Adi, Harmala and Sulma to operate under Khalid's command. Around the third week of March 633 (first week of Muharram 12th Hijrah) Khalid set out from Al-Yamama with an army of 10,000. The tribal chiefs, with 2,000 warriors each, joined him, swelling his ranks to 18,000. After entering Mesopotamia, he dispatched messages to every governor and deputy who ruled

12288-522: The patriarchal line of those who in 1553 entered communion with Rome are now patriarchs of the "traditionalist" wing of the Church of the East, that which in 1976 officially adopted the name " Assyrian Church of the East ". In the 1840s many of the Assyrians living in the mountains of Hakkari in the south eastern corner of the Ottoman Empire were massacred by the Kurdish emirs of Hakkari and Bohtan. Another major massacre of Assyrians (and Armenians) in

12416-405: The period from 628 to 632." An important consequence of this change in timeline means that the Arab conquest started precisely when the Sasanians and Parthians were engaged in internecine warfare over who was to succeed the Sasanian throne. When Arab squadrons made their first raids into Sasanian territory, Yazdegerd III did not consider them a threat, and he refused to send an army to encounter

12544-638: The personal physicians of the Abbasid Caliphs were often Assyrians, such as the long-serving Bukhtishu dynasty. Many scholars of the House of Wisdom were of Assyrian Christian background. Indigenous Assyrians became second-class citizens ( dhimmi ) in a greater Arab Islamic state. Those who resisted Arabization and conversion to Islam were subject to severe religious, ethnic, and cultural discrimination and had certain restrictions imposed upon them. Assyrians were excluded from specific duties and occupations reserved for Muslims. They did not enjoy

12672-417: The population's main income sources. The existing Sassanid administrative structure proved inadequate when faced with the combined demands of a suddenly expanded empire, economy, and population. Rapid turnover of rulers and increasing provincial landholder ( dehqan ) power further diminished the Sasanians. Over a period of fourteen years and twelve successive kings, the Sassanid Empire weakened considerably, and

12800-588: The power of the central authority passed into the hands of its generals. Even when a strong king emerged following a series of coups, the Sassanids never completely recovered. The Byzantine clients, the Arab Ghassanids , converted to the Monophysite form of Christianity , which was regarded as heretical by the established Byzantine Eastern Orthodox Church . The Byzantines attempted to suppress

12928-564: The powerful northern and eastern Parthian families, the Kust-i Khwarasan and Kust-i Adurbadagan, withdrew to their respective strongholds and made peace with the Arabs, refusing to fight alongside the Sasanians . Pourshariati argues that the Arab conquest of Mesopotamia "took place, not, as has been conventionally believed, in the years 632–634, after the accession of the last Sasanian king Yazdgerd III (632–651) to power, but in

13056-416: 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 ( Neo-Aramaic languages ) 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.,

13184-479: The provinces calling on them to either embrace Islam or pay tribute. Khalid did not receive any responses and continued with his tactical plans. Khalid went on to win decisive victories in four consecutive battles: the Battle of Chains , fought in April; the Battle of River , fought in the third week of April; the Battle of Walaja the following month (where he successfully used a double envelopment manoeuvre), and

13312-425: The reach of the Sasanian army . Al-Muthanna's acts made Abu Bakr think about the expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate . To ensure victory, Abu Bakr used a volunteer army and put his best general, Khalid ibn al-Walid , in command. After defeating the self-proclaimed prophet Musaylimah in the Battle of Yamama , Khalid was still at Al-Yamama when Abu Bakr ordered him to invade the Sasanian Empire. Making Al-Hirah

13440-459: 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

13568-418: The risk of being defeated by a large unified Persian army. Four divisions of Persian and Christian Arab auxiliaries were present at Hanafiz, Zumiel, Sanni and Muzieh. Khalid divided his army into three units, and employed them in well-coordinated attacks against the Persians from three different sides at night, in the Battle of Muzayyah , then the Battle of Saniyy , and finally the Battle of Zumail , all during

13696-542: The same political rights as Muslims, and their word was not equal to that of a Muslim in legal and civil matters. As Christians, they were subject to payment of a special tax, the jizya . They were banned from spreading their religion further or building new churches in Muslim-ruled lands, but were expected to adhere to the same laws of property, contract, and obligation as the Muslim Arabs. They could not seek

13824-602: 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

13952-454: The transition from earlier ancient civilisations to later Islamic appropriation was more coherent. The last attested head of the Gundeshapur hospital was Sābur bin Sahl who died in 869. The fate of the hospital after this is unknown. Some scholars have cast doubts on the existence of the hospital at Gundeshapur by claiming that there are no known surviving Persian sources "that would corroborate

14080-402: The victorious powers to place it under one mandatory power. Although many felt sympathy for the Assyrians, none of their demands were implemented. The Assyrians failed in their efforts due to geographical and denominational differences among themselves, as well as the fact that the major powers, Britain and France, had their own plans for the territories where the Assyrians lived. In reaction to

14208-468: The war elephants. These factors contributed to the decisive Sassanid defeat at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah. The Persians, who had only one generation before conquered Egypt and Asia Minor, lost decisive battles when nimble, lightly armed Arabs accustomed to skirmishes and desert warfare attacked them. The Arab squadrons defeated the Persian army in several more battles culminating in the Battle of Nahāvand ,

14336-583: 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 emergence of the Islamic State and the occupation of a significant portion of the Assyrian homeland resulted in another major wave of Assyrian displacement due to events such as

14464-538: The years 632–634, after the accession of the last Sasanian king Yazdgerd III (632–651) to power, but in the period from 628 to 632." An important consequence of this change in timeline means that the Arab conquest started precisely when the Sassanians and Parthians were engaged in internecine warfare over succession to the Sassanian throne. Since the 1st century BC , the border between the Roman (later Byzantine ) and Parthian (later Sasanian ) empires had been

14592-525: 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. The Assyrians initially experienced periods of religious and cultural freedom interspersed with periods of severe religious and ethnic persecution after

14720-462: 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

14848-405: Was assassinated by the Persian craftsman Abu Lu'lu'a Firuz , who had been captured by Rashidun troops and brought to Arabia as a slave. Some Iranian historians have defended their forebears by using Arab sources to illustrate that "contrary to the claims of some historians, Iranians, in fact, fought long and hard against the invading Arabs." By 651, most of the urban centres in Iranian lands, with

14976-589: Was commonly assumed, the Sassanian Empire was highly decentralized, and was in fact a "confederation" with the Parthians , who themselves retained a high level of independence. Despite their recent victories over the Byzantine Empire , the Parthians unexpectedly withdrew from the confederation, and the Sassanians were thus ill-prepared and ill-equipped to mount an effective and cohesive defense against

15104-421: Was defeated at the Battle of Nineveh in 627, and the Byzantines recaptured all of Syria and penetrated far into the Persian provinces of Mesopotamia . In 629, Khosrau's general Shahrbaraz agreed to peace, and the border between the two empires was once again the same as it had been in 602. The Plague of Sheroe (627–628) was one of several epidemics that occurred in or close to Iran within two centuries after

15232-513: Was gradual and incentivized in various ways over a period of centuries, though some Iranians never converted and there is widespread evidence of Zoroastrian scriptures and all other pre-Islamic being systematically burnt and Zoroastrian priests being executed, particularly in areas that were centers of resistance. Islam had become Iran's predominant religion by the Late Middle Ages ; the majority of Iranians were Sunni Muslims until

15360-693: Was handed down from generation to generation. On the other hand, the same source might be another confirmation of the medical reputation of Gundeshapur as Susa may represent the whole local region which included Gundeshapur (as they were administratively linked). This is enforced by the fact that Ahwāz and Fārs, mentioned in the quote for comparison to Susa, were regions as well, an indication that regions were being compared. Muslim conquest of Persia Khuzestan Central Persia Caucasus Pars Khorasan Other geographies Byzantine Empire Sassanid Persia Caucasus Other regions The Muslim conquest of Persia , also called

15488-474: Was mainly inhabited by Christians, and served as the East-Syrian metropolitan see of Bet Huzaye . Most scholars believe Shāpur I , son of Ardeshir (Artaxexes), to have founded the city after defeating a Roman army led by Emperor Valerian . Gundeshapur was a garrison town and housed many Roman prisoners of war. Shāpur I made Gundeshapur his capital. Shāpur's wife, the daughter of Aurelian , lived in

15616-501: 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 (the so-called Jacobite 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

15744-652: Was probably Isa Kelemechi , a diplomat, astrologer, and head of the Christian affairs in Yuan China . He spent some time in Persia under the Ilkhanate . The 14th century massacres of Timur devastated the Assyrian people. Timur's massacres and pillages of all that was Christian drastically reduced their existence. At the end of the reign of Timur, the Assyrian population had almost been eradicated in many places. Toward

15872-601: Was punishable by death under Sharia , the Assyrians were forced into preaching in Transoxiana , Central Asia , India , Mongolia and China where they established numerous churches. The Church of the East was considered to be one of the major Christian powerhouses in the world, alongside Latin Christianity in Europe and the Byzantine Empire ( Greek Orthodoxy ). From the 7th century AD onwards, Mesopotamia saw

16000-602: Was recognized as Patriarch is given variously as "Patriarch of Mosul in Eastern Syria"; "Patriarch of the Church of the Chaldeans of Mosul"; "Patriarch of the Chaldeans"; "Patriarch of Mosul"; or "Patriarch of the Eastern Assyrians", this last being the version given by Pietro Strozzi on the second-last unnumbered page before page 1 of his De Dogmatibus Chaldaeorum , of which an English translation

16128-406: 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

16256-602: Was the last battle in his conquest of Mesopotamia. While Khalid was on his way to attack Qadissiyah (a key fort en route to Ctesiphon), Abu Bakr ordered him to the Roman front in Syria to assume command there. According to the will of Abu Bakr, Umar was to continue the conquest of Syria and Mesopotamia. On the northeastern borders of the Empire, in Mesopotamia, the situation was rapidly deteriorating. During Abu Bakr 's era, Khalid ibn al-Walid had left Mesopotamia with half his army of 9000 soldiers to assume command in Syria, whereupon

16384-734: Was under the rule of the Sassanid monarch Khusraw I (531-579 CE), called Anushiravan "The Immortal" and known to the Greeks and Romans as Chosroes, that Gundeshapur became known for medicine and erudition. Khusraw I gave refuge to various Greek philosophers , Nestorian Assyrians fleeing religious persecution by the Byzantine empire . The emperor commissioned the refugees to translate Greek and Syriac texts into Pahlavi . They translated various works on medicine, astronomy, astrology, philosophy, and useful crafts. Anushiravan also turned towards

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