Assyrianism

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The term Assyrianism refers to Assyrian nationalism which increased in popularity in the late 19th century, a few generations after the modern discovery of Assyria, and in a climate of increasing ethnic and religious persecution.

Assyrian nationalism, which exists amongst a section, but not all, of today's Aramaic-speaking Christians, is the ideology of a united Assyrian people. Assyrianism is to a great degree geographically based. It is espoused by Assyrians from Iraq, north western Iran, south eastern Turkey, north eastern Syria (in effect a region corresponding with ancient Assyria and Mesopotamia), diaspora communities that left these areas for Armenia, Georgia, southern Russia and Azerbaijan and migrant Assyrians from all these lands. It is generally rejected by Aramaic speaking Christians native to western, central, southern and north central Syria, Lebanon and south central Turkey, these groups (not originating from the Mesopotamian region) preferring to be called Arameans or Syriacs.

Contents

[edit] Ideology

The ideology of an ancient heritage is common among the vast majority of Semitic Christian peoples in the near east, partly due to the fact that they existed prior to the Arab Islamic Conquest of the region, and are indeed of "Pre Arab" and "Pre Islamic" stock and are therefore indigenous to the region.

Within the Assyrian population, Assyrianism meets a degree of resistance as the result of confessional boundaries, in particular the christological division between the Syriac Orthodox Church ("West Syriac") on one hand and the Assyrian Church of the East, Ancient Church of the East and Chaldean Catholic Churches ("East Syriac")on the other. The first two churches are not divided by a formally declared schism, but their doctrine has moved so far apart for mutual accusations of heresy.

According to Raif Toma, Assyrianism goes beyond mere Syriac patriotism, and ultimately aims at the unification of all "Mesopotamians", properly qualifying as "Pan-Mesopotamianism". This variant of Assyrianism is independent of Christian denomination and qualifies as ethnic nationalism, in that it identifies the Assyrian people as the heirs of the Assyrian Empire, and as the indigenous population of Mesopotamia, as opposed to Arabism, which are identified as an intrusive element due to the non indigenous Arab Muslim conquests. This is expressed e.g. in the Assyrian calendar introduced in the 1950, which chooses as its era 4750 BC, the estimated date of construction of the first (pre-historical, pre-Semitic) temple at Assur.

Organisations advocating Assyrianism are the Assyrian Universal Alliance (since 1968) and Shuraya (since 1978). The Assyrian flag was designed by the Assyrian Universal Alliance in 1968.[1]

[edit] Irredentism

Main article: Assyrian independence

The ideology of Assyrian independence is a political movement that supports the creation of nation state corresponding to the Assyrian homeland, in the Nineveh plains of Northern Iraq. The issue of Assyrian independence has been brought up many times throughout the course of history from the end of World War I to the present-day Iraq War. The Assyrian-inhabited area of Iraq is located in the Ninawa-Mosul region in Northern Iraq where the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh was located.[2] This area is known as the "Assyrian Triangle."[3]

In post-Ba'thist Iraq, the Assyrian Democratic Movement (or ADM) was one of the smaller political parties that emerged in the social chaos of the occupation.[4] Its officials say that while members of the ADM also took part in the liberation of the key oil cities of Kirkuk and Mosul in the north, the Assyrians were not invited to join the steering committee that was charged with defining Iraq's future.

[edit] Continuity claims

Following the distruction of the Neo Assyrian Empire by 608 BC, the population of the Assyria came under the control of thier Babylonian relatives until 536 BC . From that time, Assyria as an entity was under Persian, Greek, Parthian and Roman rule for seven centuries undergoing Christianization during this time. There is some debate as to whether the inhabitants of northern Mesopotamia in the Early Christian period had retained any "Assyrian" ethnic identity. In Assyrian nationalism, the fact that it was is endorsed emphatically. It is certain that there had been some Assyrian resistance to Persian rule in Achaemenid Assyria. H. W. F. Saggs in his The Might That Was Assyria supports cultural continuity[5] In addition, it is a fact that Assyria existed as a distinct geo-political region named Assyria under Achamaenid Persian, Seleucid Greek, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid Persian rule, only ceasing to exist some time after the Arab Islamic conquest of the second half of the 7th century AD. It is also accepted that Assyrians are of "pre Arab" and "pre Islamic" stock.

Doubt on the continuity hypothesis is based on the relative scarcity (but not total absence) of Assyrian (East Semitic) personal names in Roman Syria.[6] Odisho Gewargis explained the general scarcity of autochthonous personal names as a process taking place only after Christianization[7] The reduction in ethnic naming is of course common in most peoples that adopt a monotheistic religion,and they are generally replaced with biblical or koranic names. Fred Aprim points out that distinct Assyrian names did indeed continue from ancient times to the present[8] Sidney Smith rejects the continuity hypothesis to some degree, but accepts small, poor communities perpetuated some basic identity.[9] Simo Parpola emphatically accepts continuity and has produced evidence showing the continuity of Assyrian identity and culture from the fall of the Assyrian Empire to the present.[10] J. A. Brinkman is agnostic, but puts the burden of proof on those denying continuity, pointing out that there is no historical evidence to suggest the population of Assyria was wiped out or removed.[11] Similarly, Robert D. Biggs accepts genealogical continuity without prejudicing cultural continuity.[12] Regarding cultural continuity, Biggs speaks of a "remnant" of ethnic Assyrian continuity, surviving into the Christian era as a substrate to mainstream Persian and Greco-Roman culture through to the present day.[13] The noted Iranologist Richard Nelson Frye also accepts continuity. Some Arab records support continuity also. The 10th-century Arab scholar Abu al-Faraj Muhammad ibn Ishaq al-Nadim, while describing the books and scripture of many people defines the word Ashuriyun (Arabic for Assyrian) as "a sect of Jesus."[14] Adam H. Becker of New York University[15] regards the continuity claims as "hogwash" and writes that the special continuity claims "must be understood as a modern invention worthy of the study of a Benedict Anderson or an Eric Hobsbawm rather than an ancient historian."[16] Giorgi Tsereteli points out that the term Assyrian continued to be used to describe the Christian Aramaic speaking people in and around northern Mesopotamia in Georgian, Armenian (known as Assouri), Russian and Persian records from the middle ages onwards. The 2nd century AD theologian Tatian describes himself as an Assyrian, as does the 2nd century satirist Lucian. A plaque found in north east Syria dating from the 7th century AD mentions a man by the name of Otal Bar Sargon. Sargon bieng a very distinct Assyrian name.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/assyria.html
  2. ^ Minorities in the Middle East: a history of struggle and self-expression By Mordechai Nisan
  3. ^ The Origins of War: From the Stone Age to Alexander the Great By Arther Ferrill - Page 70
  4. ^ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/adm.htm
  5. ^ Saggs, pp. 290, "The destruction of the Assyrian Empire did not wipe out its population. They were predominantly peasant farmers, and since Assyria contains some of the best wheat land in the Near East, descendants of the Assyrian peasants would, as opportunity permitted, build new villages over the old cities and carried on with agricultural life, remembering traditions of the former cities. After seven or eight centuries and after various vicissitudes, these people became Christians. These Christians, and the Jewish communities scattered amongst them, not only kept alive the memory of their Assyrian predecessors but also combined them with traditions from the Bible."
  6. ^ Joseph, The Bible and the Assyrians: It Kept their Memory Alive, pp. 76
  7. ^ Odisho, We Are Assyrians, pp. 89, "If the children of Sennacherib were, for centuries, taught to pray and damn Babylon and Assyria, how does the researcher expect from people who wholeheartedly accepted the Christian faith to name their children Ashur and Esarhaddon?"
  8. ^ http://www.fredaprim.com/pdf/Timeline%20Assyrian%20Continuity.pdf
  9. ^ "The disappearance of the Assyrian People will always remain a unique and striking phenomenon in ancient history. Other similar kingdoms and empires have indeed died, but people have lived on. Recent discoveries have, it is true, shown that poverty-stricken communities perpetuated the old Assyrian names at various places, for instance on the ruined site of Ashur, for many centuries, but the essential truth remains the same. A nation, which had existed for two thousand years and had ruled over a wide area, lost its independent character." Yildiz, pp. 16, ref 3
  10. ^ Assyrians After Assyria, Parpola
  11. ^ "There is no reason to believe that there would be no racial or cultural continuity in Assyria, since there is no evidence that the population of Assyria was removed." Yildiz, pp. 22, ref 24
  12. ^ "Especially in view of the very early establishment of Christianity in Assyria and its continuity to the present and the continuity of the population, I think there is every likelihood that ancient Assyrians are among the ancestors of modern Assyrians of the area." Biggs, pp. 10
  13. ^ "In Achaemenian times there was an Assyrian detachment in the Persian army, but they could only have been a remnant. That remnant persisted through the centuries to the Christian era, and continued to use in their personal names appellations of their pagan deities. This continuance of an Assyrian tradition is significant for two reasons; the miserable conditions of these late Assyrians is attested to by the excavations at Ashur, and it is clear that they were reduced to extreme poverty under Persian rule." Yildiz, pp. 17, ref 9
  14. ^ The Fihrist (Catalog): A Tench Century Survey of Islamic Culture. Abu 'l Faraj Muhammad ibn Ishaq al Nadim. Great Books of the Islamic World, Kazi Publications. Translator: Bayard Dodge.
  15. ^ http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14225.html
  16. ^ Adam H. Becker, The Ancient Near East in the Late Antique Near East: Syriac Christian Appropriation of the Biblical East in Gregg Gardner, Kevin Lee Osterloh (eds.) Antiquity in antiquity: Jewish and Christian pasts in the Greco-Roman world, p. 396, 2008, Mohr Siebeck, ISBN 9783161494116

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