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96-411: The plains have a heterogenous population of Assyrian Syriac-Aramaic speaking Christians belonging to different Syriac Churches ( Chaldean Catholic , Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic ), Arabs , Kurds , Yazidis , Shabaks and Turkmens , and includes ruins of ancient Assyrian cities and religious sites, such as Nimrud , Dur-Sharrukin , Mar Mattai Monastery , Rabban Hormizd Monastery and

192-718: 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 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

288-467: A history stretching back over 3,000 years. Assyrians are almost exclusively Christian, with most adhering to the East and West Syriac liturgical rites of Christianity. Both rites use Classical Syriac as their liturgical language. The Assyrians were among the early converts to Christianity, along with Jews, Arameans, Armenians , Greeks , and Nabataeans . The ancestral indigenous lands that form

384-607: A longer period received residence permits for humanitarian reasons. Södertälje is considered the unofficial Assyrian capital of Europe because of the city's high percentage of Assyrians. The Assyrian TV channels Suryoyo Sat and Suroyo TV are based in Södertälje . From 2005 to 2006 and since 2014, the Assyrian Ibrahim Baylan has been a minister in the Swedish government. About 8,000 Assyrians live in

480-466: 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

576-1090: A region roughly corresponding with Assyria from the 25th century BC to the 7th century AD. Assyrians are predominantly Christians ; most are members of the Assyrian Church of the East , the Ancient Church of the East , the Chaldean Catholic Church , the Syriac Orthodox Church , the Syriac Catholic Church , the Assyrian Pentecostal Church and the Assyrian Evangelical Church . The terms "Syriac", "Chaldean" and "Chaldo-Assyrian" can be used to describe ethnic Assyrians by their religious affiliation, and indeed

672-509: 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

768-652: 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

864-773: Is no mention in Assyrian records, which date as far back as the 25th century BC. What is known is that Ashur-uballit I overthrew the Mitanni c. 1365 BC and the Assyrians benefited from this development by taking control of the eastern portion of Mitanni territory and later annexing Hittite , Babylonian , Amorite and Hurrian territories. The rise and rule of the Middle Assyrian Empire (14th to 10th century BC) spread Assyrian culture, people and identity across northern Mesopotamia . The Assyrian people, after

960-585: 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

1056-571: Is the homeland of the Assyrian people, located in the ancient Near East. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria belonged to the Jarmo culture c. 7100 BC and Tell Hassuna , the centre of the Hassuna culture , c. 6000 BC. The history of Assyria begins with the formation of the city of Assur , perhaps as early as the 25th century BC. During the early Bronze Age period, Sargon of Akkad united all

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1152-635: 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

1248-602: The Assyrian diaspora . As attacks on Christians increased in Basra , Baghdad , Ramadi and smaller towns. more families turned northward to the extended family holdings in the Nineveh Plain. This place of refuge remains underfunded and gravely lacking in infrastructure to aid the ever-increasing internally displaced people population. In February 2010, the attacks against Assyrians in Mosul forced 4,300 Assyrians to flee to

1344-575: The Assyrian homeland are those of ancient Mesopotamia and the Zab rivers, a region currently divided between modern-day Iraq , southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran , and northeastern Syria . A majority of modern Assyrians have migrated to other regions of the world, including North America, the Levant , Australia, Europe, Russia and the Caucasus . Emigration was triggered by genocidal events throughout

1440-664: 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

1536-552: 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

1632-697: 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

1728-845: The Nineveh Plain Protection Units was formed and many Assyrians joined the force to defend themselves. The organization later became part of Iraqi Armed forces and played a key role in liberating areas previously held by the Islamic State during the War in Iraq . In northern Syria, Assyrian groups have been taking part both politically and militarily in the Kurdish-dominated but multiethnic Syrian Democratic Forces (see Khabour Guards and Sutoro ) and Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria . Assyria

1824-727: 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

1920-642: 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

2016-691: The Simele massacres of the 1930s also stimulated emigration . Additional emigration occurred in the 1980s, as Assyrian communities fled the violence of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran . During the 1990s and 2000s, Assyrians left the Middle East to evade persecution in Ba'athist Iraq and from Muslim fundamentalists. The exodus continued into

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2112-851: The Turkish towns of Midyat and Mardin in Tur Abdin . Most belong to the Syriac Orthodox Church, but some belong to the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church. Their three main settlements are in the Brussels municipalities of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode (where their municipal councilman, Christian Democrat Ibrahim Erkan, is originally from Turkey) and Etterbeek , Liège and Mechelen . Two more councilmen were elected in Etterbeek on October 8, 2006:

2208-743: The United Kingdom , primarily in London and Manchester . The first Assyrians arrived during the 1850s, most immigration began in the 1950s. In the 2016 census , 46,217 people identified themselves as having Assyrian ancestry, 0.13 percent of Australia's population. Of the Assyrians in Australia , 21,000 are members of the Assyrian Church of the East and 9,000 are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church . The City of Fairfield , in Sydney , has

2304-526: The Victorian era , the Assyrian diaspora began in earnest during World War I (1914–1918) as the Ottoman Empire conducted both large scale genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Assyrian people with the aid of local Kurdish , Iranian and Arab tribes. This genocide was coordinated alongside the Armenian genocide , Greek genocide and Great Famine of Mount Lebanon . Further atrocities such as

2400-605: 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

2496-719: The 1980s and 1990s as refugees from the Kurdish–Turkish conflict . The first Assyrian migrants arrived in Greece in 1934, and settled in Makronisos (today uninhabited), Keratsini , Pireus , Egaleo and Kalamata . The vast majority of Assyrians (about 2,000) live in Peristeri , a suburb of Athens . There are five Christian Assyrian marriages recorded at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Athens in 1924–25 (the transcripts can be viewed on St. Paul's Anglican Church website), indicating

2592-610: 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 the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies , and the Syrian civil war , which began in 2011. Of

2688-590: 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 ,

2784-620: The 20th century, many Assyrians arrived from Turkey seeking a better life. The first large wave arrived during the 1960s and 1970s as part of the gastarbeiter (guest worker) economic program. Germany was seeking immigrant workers (largely from Turkey) and many Assyrians, seeing opportunities for freedom and success, applied for visas. Assyrians began working in restaurants or in construction, and many began operating their own shops. The first Assyrian immigrants in Germany organized by forming culture clubs and building churches. The second wave came in

2880-715: The 28th–30 June 2017, a conference was held in Brussels dubbed The Future for Christians in Iraq . The conference was organised by the European People's Party and had participants extending from Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac organizations, including representatives from the Federal Iraqi Government and Kurdistan Region. The conference was boycotted by the Assyrian Democratic Movement , Sons of Mesopotamia , Assyrian Patriotic Party , Chaldean Catholic Church and Assyrian Church of

2976-759: The 3rd of September 1924 and ended on the 28th of September. The Assyrians of Tyari and Tkhuma returned to their ancestral land in Hakkari in 1922, shortly after World War I without permission from the Turkish government. This led to clashes between the Assyrians and the Turkish army with their Kurdish allies that grew into a rebellion in 1924, it ended with the Assyrians being forced to retreat to Iraq. Assyrian diaspora The Assyrian diaspora ( Syriac : ܓܠܘܬܐ, Galuta , "exile") refers to ethnic Assyrians living in communities outside their ancestral homeland . The Eastern Aramaic -speaking Assyrians claim descent from

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3072-548: 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

3168-419: 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

3264-486: 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 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

3360-467: 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

3456-491: 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

3552-416: 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

3648-489: The Argentine Census does not ask for ethnicity. Furthermore, their assimilation rate is very high, as it happens with other Middle Eastern communities settled in the country. There is an Assyrian presence in Buenos Aires , La Plata , Córdoba , Salta and Frías . In the past, intellectuals like Farid Nazha went into exile in Argentina. Although 2,000 Assyrians are listed in Argentina, the actual number may be lower. Assyrians arrived in Belgium primarily as refugees from

3744-400: 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

3840-453: The East . A position paper was signed by the remaining political organizations involved. In 2019 and 2020 the Christians of the Nineveh Plains belonged to the following Eastern churches: The Nineveh Plain appears to hold under its rich agricultural lands an extension of the petroleum fields tapped in 2006 by the Kurdistan Region in direct contract with foreign oil exploration companies. It is believed that this added incentive for absorption by

3936-451: 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

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4032-409: 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

4128-412: The KRG of the region may lead to economic conflict with Sunni Arab tribes in the Mosul region itself. Assyrians claim that without Nineveh Plain autonomous administration, the indigenous Assyrian presence in its ancient homeland could well disappear. There are some oil reserves in Nineveh Plains. Most of the inhabitants have practiced dry agriculture since ancient times and rely on the fertile plains to

4224-400: The Liberal Sandrine Es (whose family is from Turkey) and the Christian Democrat Ibrahim Hanna (from Syria's Khabur region). Flemish author August Thiry wrote Mechelen aan de Tigris ( Mechelen on the Tigris ) about Assyrian refugees from Hassana in the southeastern Turkish district of Silopi . Municipal candidate Melikan Kucam is one of them. In the October 14, 2012 municipal elections , Kucam

4320-491: 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

4416-424: The Nineveh Plain form a concentration of those belonging to Syriac Christian traditions, and since this area is the ancient home of the Assyrian empire through which the people trace their cultural heritage, the Nineveh Plain is the area on which an effort to form and has become concentrated. There have been calls by some politicians inside and outside Iraq to create an autonomous region for Assyrians in this area. In

4512-415: The Nineveh plains where there is an Assyrian-majority population. From 2012, it also began receiving influxes of Assyrians from Syria owing to the civil war there. In August 2014 nearly all of the non-Sunni inhabitants of the southern regions of the Plains were driven out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant during the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive . The Assyrian inhabited towns and villages on

4608-414: 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

4704-474: The Tomb of Nahum . Nineveh Plains lie to the east, northeast of the city of Mosul in the Iraqi Nineveh Governorate , plus between Semi-arid climate and Mediterranean climate . The ancient city of Nineveh stood where the eastern outskirts of Mosul are today, on the bank of the Tigris river. The Nineveh Plains is the only region in Iraq where a plurality of inhabitants follow Syriac Christianity . Before ISIL invaded Nineveh, Assyrians made up around 40% of

4800-519: The Transitional Administrative Law adopted in March 2004 in Baghdad, not only were provisions made for the preservation of Assyrian culture through education and media, but a provision for an administrative unit also was accepted. Article 125 in Iraq's Constitution states that: "This Constitution shall guarantee the administrative, political, cultural, and educational rights of the various nationalities, such as Turkomen, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and all other constituents, and this shall be regulated by law." Since

4896-439: 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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4992-423: The Yezidi people. On January 21, 2014, the Iraqi government had declared that Nineveh Plains would become a new province, which would serve as a safe haven for Assyrians. After the liberation of the Nineveh Plain from ISIL between 2016/17, all Assyrian political parties called on the European Union and UN Security Council for the creation of an Assyrian self-administered province in the Nineveh Plain. Between

5088-401: The ancient Assyrians and are one of the few ancient Semitic ethnicities in the Near East who resisted Arabization , Turkification , Persianization and Islamization during and after the Muslim conquest of Iraq , Iran , Syria and Turkey. The indigenous Assyrian homeland is within the borders of northern Iraq , southeastern Turkey , northwestern Iran , and northeastern Syria ,

5184-625: The arrival of refugees at that time. The first Assyrians came to the Netherlands in the 1970s, primarily from Turkey and observing the West Syriac Rite . The number of Assyrians in the country is estimated at 25,000 to 35,000. They primarily live in the eastern Netherlands, in Enschede , Hengelo , Oldenzaal and Borne in the province of Overijssel . In the late 1970s, about 12,000 Assyrians from Turkey , Iran , Iraq and Syria emigrated to Sweden . Although they considered themselves persecuted for religious and ethnic reasons, they were not recognized as refugees. Those who had lived in Sweden for

5280-414: 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

5376-574: The concerted attacks on Assyrians in Iraq, especially highlighted by the Sunday, August 1, 2004 simultaneous bombing of six Churches (Baghdad and Mosul) and subsequent bombing of nearly thirty other churches throughout the country, Assyrian leadership, internally and externally, began to regard the Nineveh Plain as the location where security for Christians may be possible. Schools especially received much attention in this area and in Kurdish areas where Assyrian concentrated population lives. In addition, agriculture and medical clinics received financial help from

5472-416: 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

5568-512: 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

5664-422: The country's largest number of Assyrians. In Sydney, Assyrians are the leading ethnic group in the Fairfield LGA suburbs of Fairfield , Fairfield Heights and Greenfield Park . In Melbourne , Assyrians live in the northwestern suburbs of Broadmeadows , Craigieburn , Meadow Heights , Roxburgh Park and Fawkner . In 2016, Melbourne had 13,812 people who claimed Assyrian ancestry. The Assyrian community

5760-444: 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

5856-434: 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

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5952-409: 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

6048-528: 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

6144-420: The fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 609 BC, were under the control of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and later, the Persian Empire , which consumed the entire Neo-Babylonian or "Chaldean" Empire in 539 BC. Assyrians became front line soldiers for the Persian Empire under Xerxes I , playing a significant role in the Battle of Marathon under Darius I in 490 BC. However, Herodotus , whose Histories are

6240-429: 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

6336-561: The government and are deputized to their owners to use them, as most were taken during Saddam Hussein 's control. The Assyrian settlement of Alqosh enjoyed being an important trade center for the various Kurdish , Yazidi , and Arab villages in the region and it houses a large market that receiving agricultural and animal products from across the region. 36°37′N 43°7′E  /  36.617°N 43.117°E  / 36.617; 43.117 Assyrian people Assyrians are an indigenous ethnic group native to Mesopotamia ,

6432-413: 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

6528-433: The mid-2010s, as Assyrians fled Iraq and northeastern Syria due to genocide by the Islamic State and other Sunni Islamist groups. From 1937 to 1959, the Assyrian population in the Soviet Union grew by 587.3 percent. Assyrians came to Russia and the Soviet Union in three large waves. The first wave was after the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, that delineated a border between Russia and Persia . The second

6624-510: 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 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

6720-419: The oldest continuously spoken and written languages in the world. Aramaic was the lingua franca of West Asia for centuries and was the language spoken by Jesus . It has influenced other languages such as Hebrew and Arabic, and, through cultural and religious exchanges, it has had some influence on Mongolian and Uighur. Aramaic itself is the oldest continuously spoken and written language in the Middle East, with

6816-416: The one million or more Iraqis who have fled Iraq since the occupation , nearly 40% were indigenous Assyrians, even though Assyrians accounted for only around 3% of the pre-war Iraqi population . The Islamic State was driven out from the Assyrian villages in the Khabour River Valley and the areas surrounding the city of Al-Hasakah in Syria by 2015, and from the Nineveh Plains in Iraq by 2017. In 2014,

6912-577: 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

7008-689: 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

7104-502: The population within the plains. The Nineveh Plains are not only the historical homeland of the Assyrian people and a crucible of pre-Arab, pre-Kurdish, pre-Islam Mesopotamian civilisation, and it is a region where a majority of the population is currently drawn from the minorities. A 2019 testimony from Assyrian activist Reine Hanna at the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom claimed that

7200-669: The primary source of information about that battle, makes no mention of Assyrians in connection with it. Despite the influx of foreign elements, the presence of Assyrians is confirmed by the worship of the god Ashur . References to the name survive into the 3rd century AD. The Greeks , Parthians , and Romans had a relatively low level of integration with the local population in Mesopotamia, which allowed their cultures to survive. Semi-independent kingdoms influenced by Assyrian culture ( Hatra , Adiabene , Osroene ) and perhaps semi-autonomous Assyrian vassal states ( Assur ) sprung up in

7296-476: 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.,

7392-421: The rate of Assyrian return in towns guarded by the Nineveh Plain Protection Units was significantly higher than those controlled by other forces following the end of the Islamic State's occupation of the Nineveh Plain. The NPU guarded Assyrian town of Bakhdida , for example, saw a 70% return of the town’s original Assyrian population (about 35,000 Assyrians). In Tesqopa , which is controlled by KRG Peshmerga ,

7488-592: The rate of return is about 20% of the original Assyrian population. In Tel Keppe , which is controlled by PMF Brigade 50 , the return rate of the original Assyrian population is about 7%. The Middle Bronze Age Kingdom of Andarig used to be located in the north. Peutinger's map of the inhabited world known to the Roman geographers depicts Singara as located west of the Trogoditi. Persi. ( Latin : Troglodytae Persiae , " Persian troglodytes ") who inhabited

7584-573: 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

7680-542: 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

7776-545: The same way that they persecuted Russians who remained members of the Russian Orthodox Church . Most Assyrians are members of the Assyrian Church of the East ; other churches include the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Chaldean Catholic Church . Next to Uruguay, in Argentina the Syriac Orthodox Church counts with a Patriarchal Vicar. However, the actual number of Assyrians is hard to know because

7872-602: 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

7968-453: The south, growing agricultural products like grain, wheat , beans and in the summer goods such as cantaloupe and cucumber . Farmers followed old non-technological methods in their farming for several centuries, and their livelihood was always threatened due to nature's betrayal in situations of drought or plant epidemics such as grasshoppers . Besides farmlands, other agriculture also occurs in grape vineyards . Grapevines spread all over

8064-407: The terms "Syriac" and "Syrian" are much later derivatives of the original "Assyrian", and historically, geographically and ethnically originally meant Assyrian (see Name of Syria ). Before the Assyrian genocide , the Assyrian people were largely unmoved from their native lands which they had occupied for about 5,000 years. Although a handful of Assyrians had migrated to the United Kingdom during

8160-457: The territory around Mount Sinjar . By the medieval Arabs, most of the plain was reckoned as part of the province of Diyār Rabīʿa , the "abode of the Rabīʿa " tribe . The plain was the site of the determination of the degree by al-Khwārizmī and other astronomers during the reign of the caliph al-Mamun . Sinjar also boasted a famous Church of the East cathedral in the 8th century. Following

8256-421: The towns and villages on the Nineveh Plain form a concentration of those belonging to Syriac Christian traditions, and since this area is the ancient home of the Assyrian empire through which these people trace their cultural heritage, the Nineveh Plain is the area on which the effort to form an autonomous Assyrian entity have become concentrated. The same article has been used to proclaim an autonomous province for

8352-402: 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

8448-412: The village and produce various types of grapes, among which are the black grapes that are well known in northern Iraq. Modern agricultural machinery such as tractors , harvester-threshers ( reapers ), along with new methods of treating and curing plant epidemics now exist. However, irrigation is still a problem in the area, and farming still relies on rainfall. Currently, dozen of farms now belong to

8544-525: 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

8640-528: 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

8736-596: Was as a result of the Assyrian genocide during and after World War I ; the third was after World War II , when the Soviet Union unsuccessfully tried to establish a satellite state in Iran. Soviet troops withdrew in 1946, and left the Assyrians (who supported the coup) exposed to retaliation identical to that received from the Turks 30 years earlier. Soviet authorities persecuted Assyrian religious and community leaders in

8832-929: Was elected in Mechelen as a member of the Flemisch nationalists N-VA . An estimated 20,000 Assyrians live in France , primarily concentrated in the northern French suburbs of Sarcelles (where several thousand Chaldean Catholics live) and in Gonesse and Villiers-le-Bel . They are from several villages in southeastern Turkey . The number of Assyrians in Germany is estimated at 100,000. Most Assyrian immigrants and their descendants in Germany live in Munich , Wiesbaden , Paderborn , Essen , Bietigheim-Bissingen , Ahlen , Göppingen , Köln , Hamburg , Berlin , Augsburg and Gütersloh . Since they were persecuted throughout

8928-501: 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

9024-652: 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

9120-601: 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

9216-602: 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

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