Assyrian continuity

Assyrian continuity is the study of the connection between modern Assyrians and ancient Assyrians.^[1] Currently, the mainstream academic view is that Assyrians still existed after the fall of the Assyrian Empire,^[1][2] with modern Assyrians being the genetic descendants of Mesopotamia's Akkadian-speaking Bronze Age population.^[a][5]

The modern Assyrian flag (top) uses ancient Assyrian iconography, including the god Ashur (bottom left) and the star of the god Shamash (bottom right)

Background

Aramaic alphabet

Map of modern Assyrian Aramaic dialects

A medieval icon depicting Saints Behnam, Sarah, and the Forty Martyrs; their legend prominently incorporates the ancient Assyrian king Sennacherib.

Fall of Nineveh (1829) by John Martin

Early modern period

Syriac Christian Denominations in Middle East^[6]

Before the 19th century, Western historians wrongly believed that Assyrians no longer existed after the fall of the Assyrian Empire.^[2][5] European writers also wrongly equated Assyrians with Nestorians in the Middle Ages.^[5] Notably, Assyrians converted to Christianity centuries before Nestorianism occurred as a heretic Christian sect.^[5][7] Assyrians are mainly members of the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, and Syriac Catholic Church,^[8] whose teachings are different from Nestorianism.^[9]

Modern period

The past misconceptions of Assyrians have been proven wrong by modern historians.^[10] It is also proven that the Akkadian-influenced East Aramaic dialects survived until today, with some of them used in Eastern Christian rituals.^[10]

Genetic evidence

Genetic testing of Assyrians is a new field of study, which has provided evidence for Assyrian continuity. In particular, Assyrians are found to have seldom intermarried with other groups,^[11] indicating that they have historically been closed due to their traditions.^[12]

Assyrian nationalism

Shortly after the first Russian retreat from Persie, and before the arrival of Mar Shimon's Army, the Persian Assyriahs began to flee to the protection of the American and the French flags in Urmia. But they were intercepted by the Moslems, who killed hundreds of them and carried their women captives.

Assyrian nationalism grew around the same time as European nationalisms.^[1] The multiple massacres inflicted on the Assyrians by the Islamic Ottoman Empire,^[13] which peaked in the Assyrian genocide,^[b][14] made Assyrian nationalism grow faster.^[1] European missionaries also contributed to the rise of Assyrian nationalism.^[1]

Horatio Southgate (1812–1894), an American missionary, wrote in the Narrative of a Visit to the Syrian [Jacobite] Church of Mesopotamia (1844) that Armenians called the Assyrian Christians Assouri (in a similar manner as medieval Arab writers and Northern Mesopotamian Christians called them Ashuriyun), implying the Assyrian ancestry of Assyrian Christians.^[1]

Glazed tile from Nimrud depicting a Neo-Assyrian king, accompanied by attendants.

Among the first Western historians who found the link between modern Assyrians and ancient Assyrians included British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard (1817–1894), the discoverer of the Nimrud^[c] who gained much of his knowledge about Assyrian from the local Assyrian archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam (1826–1910).^[1] Assyrian nationalism spread among Assyrians after the Assyrian genocide and forced displacement of Assyrians worldwide.^[d][1]

Assyrian genocide (Sayfo) memorial in Locarno, Switzerland

Denial

Further information: Khazar myth and Historical revisionism

Some historians, especially J.F. Coakley,^[1] John Joseph, David Wilmshurst and Adam H. Becker denied the Assyrian continuity.^[16] Despite their denial being rejected by mainstream historians, they remain a significant minority.^[17]

Reactions

Modern Assyrians took offense with the denial of Assyrian continuity.^[18] They consider such denial a product of oppression by Arab nationalists, especially Saddam Hussein's regime, which promoted such denial to attack Assyrians' demand for autonomy by refusing to consider the Assyrians an ethnic group.^[18]

Footnotes

1. At the height of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, there were around 20 million Assyrians.^[3] Settlers came from Babylonia and the Levant.^[4]
2. Also known as Sayfo (ܣܲܝܦܵܐ) in Aramaic. As many as 300,000 Assyrians were killed by the Islamic Ottoman Empire.^[14]
3. An ancient Assyrian city in Iraq, 30 km (20 mi) south of Mosul, and 5 km (3 mi) south of Selamiyah in the Nineveh Plains in Upper Mesopotamia.^[15]
4. Known as the Assyrian diaspora.