History of the Assyrians. Who are the Assyrians?

A

ASHOOR

Administrator
Staff member
Who are the Assyrians? Simply put, the modern-day Assyrians are Semitic people, and the direct descendants of the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian people, including their predecessors the Akkadians and Sumerians, and have a history spanning over 6760 years. Assyrians are considered the indigenous and native people of Iraq and are not to be confused with other ethnic groups in Iraq and the region, such as Arabs, Persians and Kurds. Unlike these groups, Assyrians are Christians and have their own language (Assyrian Neo-Aramaic)

The heart of the Assyrian empire was located in the northern part of ancient Mesopotamia,present day northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, and northwestern Iran.  Its sister city-state of Babylon occupied the southern portion of ancient Mesopotamia, present day southern Iraq and Kuwait.  These people were literally blood related and frequently intermarried, just the same as Israel and Judea were two separate kingdoms or city-states for the one Jewish people. Their main capital was Assur. The Assyrians are known for their various contributions to  the advancement of science, astronomy and warfare. King Ashurpanipal, one of the most popular and powerful Assyrian kings, is known for having built the first known library in history. Given all of this and the vast interest in the Assyrian civilization and its contributions to history, the field of Assyriology seeks to study and teach all about ancient the Assyrians and their empire.

The Assyrian empire dominated the region for close to 500 years, and in its peak, its control reached as far as Egypt in the west and all the way to present day Iran in the east. The empire officially fell in 612 B.C Despite this fall, Assyrians as people and ethnicity didn't cease to exist  and have continued to play a major role in the subsequent empires that ruled the region, including the Persian, Roman, Islamic and recently with the Ottoman empire.

-Read more here: http://www.assyrianvoice.net/assyrians.htm

Or check out the following good resources for those wanting to learn more about Assyrians and their history.

Brief History of Assyrians

Who are the Assyrians?




ASHOOR
 
I dont trust this post because one of the reasons is that the Assyrian library was not the first library in the world..... For example the hittites had one library hundreds of years before the assyrians had their library.....
 
And you know if u could, as l, accept the Aramean history and the Assyrian then we would be United maybe.....
 
Neta1991 said:
And you know if u could, as l, accept the Aramean history and the Assyrian then we would be United maybe.....
Click to expand...

What about the Persian history? Greek History? Akkadian history? Sumerian history?

modern Assyrians aren't just ancient Aramean-mixed... You still don't understand the identity do you?...
 
mrzurnaci said:
What about the Persian history? Greek History? Akkadian history? Sumerian history?

modern Assyrians aren't just ancient Aramean-mixed... You still don't understand the identity do you?...
Click to expand...

Yes l know l think. The Assyrians conquered those regions and made them Assyrians. We are all mixed
 
Neta1991 said:
Then explain
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter what you call yourself, you still have one language, one history, one heritage, and one culture...

Take away religion and you see every Suraya is one.

We cannot do injustice to the real Aramean people by stealing their heritage because the core of our culture and heritage originates from the Akkadian-Sumerians of Mesopotamia.

When the ancient Arameans massively moved into Mesopotamia, they became Mesopotamians; we didn't become Arameans...

For you to accept Aramean history would mean you're accepting history of both Mesopotamia and the Levant area which is completely useless to the Mesopotamian identity we hold.
 
Neta1991 said:
I dont trust this post because one of the reasons is that the Assyrian library was not the first library in the world..... For example the hittites had one library hundreds of years before the assyrians had their library.....
Click to expand...
There is difference between a room of tablets to be gathered and a library, the distinction is that a library has different titles and names on each desk you place your book with that we will count science,history,religion,politics,astrology etc. as a real library, Ashurbanipal, was the first inventor , but if you would call the one of the Hittites a library then you might as well count the one in Uruk and UR and the Iblaite library in Syria which were atleast 500 years older.
 
May l ask you why you are claiming to be all Semitic people that lived in Mesopotamia? We are talking about the Amorites, kassites, Sumerians, Akkadians and so on? It doesnt make any sence. Do you even have proof?
 
Quote from: Neta1991 on Today at 05:24:42 PM<blockquote>May l ask you why you are claiming to be all Semitic people that lived in Mesopotamia? We are talking about the Amorites, kassites, Sumerians, Akkadians and so on? It doesnt make any sence. Do you even have proof?
</blockquote>
Because those people (at least a portion of them) migrated to Mesopotamia and contributed to its civilization in their own way.

The Sumerians started the civilization along with Semitic people living near them, the Amorites built Babel, the Akkadians established a culture of tolerance with the Sumerians that allowed their cultures to combine into a larger Mesopotamian culture with Akkadian as the main language using Sumerian as the language of higher learning and science...

 
So you are saying as a Mesopotamian culture as a whole? I know that Sumerians language existed after the Akkadians conquered Sumer. But then the official language of Mesopotamia was Akkadian. So you see your culture Mesopotamian? Clearly the Persians later conquered Mesopotamia 539 BC to one conquereror, the persian king. But that have been done by many others before. Mesopotamia was a culturell and religious land that many people contributed to be a part of it, meaning the Semitic people. Without changing all of the culture and religion. Many gods, for example inanna-ishtar, were worshiped all the history of Mesopotamia, by all Mesopotamians. I think l understand now. You are claiming to be the Mesopotamians and with that all peoples that kept the Mesopotamian culture and religion? Sorry for my English....
 
Neta1991 said:
So you are saying as a Mesopotamian culture as a whole? I know that Sumerians language existed after the Akkadians conquered Sumer. But then the official language of Mesopotamia was Akkadian. So you see your culture Mesopotamian? Clearly the Persians later conquered Mesopotamia 539 BC to one conquereror, the persian king. But that have been done by many others before. Mesopotamia was a culturell and religious land that many people contributed to be a part of it, meaning the Semitic people. Without changing all of the culture and religion. Many gods, for example inanna-ishtar, were worshiped all the history of Mesopotamia, by all Mesopotamians. I think l understand now. You are claiming to be the Mesopotamians and with that all peoples that kept the Mesopotamian culture and religion? Sorry for my English....
Click to expand...

Yes, modern Assyrian, Chaldean, Aramean, Chicagonaya culture is Mesopotamian
 
But your culture is not Mesopotamian, its Christianity. Much similar from Armenians, Greek etc Orthodox Christianity.What culture from Mesopotamia do you have?
 
Neta1991 said:
But your culture is not Mesopotamian, its Christianity. Much similar from Armenians, Greek etc Orthodox Christianity.What culture from Mesopotamia do you have?
Click to expand...

Alright then, tell me what you know about early medieval Mesopotamian culture...

I don't know much about our own culture because I was born in the USA and I've never been to the homeland before.

why don't you tell a budding Syriacist+Programmer about Mesopotamian culture after the spread of Christianity
 
Nemrud said:
Noone care about unity here?......
Click to expand...

we do but why not just use all 3 versions of writing?

syriac___aramaic_diagram_chart_by_assyrianic-d7xqkjf.png
 
mrzurnaci said:
we do but why not just use all 3 versions of writing?

syriac___aramaic_diagram_chart_by_assyrianic-d7xqkjf.png
Click to expand...

I actually learnt how to read and write in Assyrian pretty quickly with the help of your chart :p. I read pretty slowly though and I make a lot of spelling errors, but I'm slowly getting better.
 
Our history begins with the formation of assyria, but we are descendants from those people, their history are our history too, l mean, assyrians are a mixed of sumerians, akkadians etc.
 
Nimrod91 said:
Our history begins with the formation of assyria, but we are descendants from those people, their history are our history too, l mean, assyrians are a mixed of sumerians, akkadians etc.
Click to expand...
True, but I would go further and say that modern Assyrians have other mixes as well. It sounds more realistic because us being a mix of just Akkadians and Sumerians is unrealistically "straightforward" and simplistic in nature.

For the record, our ancient society was a melting pot. We only became an endogamous ethnic group in the 1st century AD after adopting Christianity. Before that, we mixed with our neighbours to some degree as our empire absorbed and annexed other surrounding kingdoms. Whilst we are mostly Assyrian/Akkadian/Babylonian, we probably do have some Hittite, Hebrew/Judean, Persian, Armenian (Urartu), Phoenician, Median in us, etc.

The Hittites for sure mostly absorbed into us, some modern Syrians and eastern Anatolians/Turks. We are as much as Hittites as we are Sumerians, but Assyrians are too Iraqi-centric and wherefore they would only include Sumerians as being our pure ancestors when they're really not. Even Iraqi Arabs and Gulf Arabs would have some Sumerian in them. But I digress...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top