On March 27, 2004, the
Assyrian Youth Federation in Sweden (AUF)
organized a historical academic seminar as part of
Assyrians´ cultural and educational program.
The following lecture (article) by Dr. Simo Parpola
was presented at the seminar.
“In this context it is important to draw attention to the fact that the
Aramaic-speaking peoples of the Near East have since
ancient times identified themselves as Assyrians and
still continue to do so. The self-designations of modern
Syriacs and Assyrians, Sūryōyō and Sūrāyā, are both
derived from the ancient Assyrian word for "Assyrian",
Aššūrāyu, as can be easily established from a closer
look at the relevant words.”
“Today, the Assyrian nation largely lives in diaspora, split
into rivaling churches and political factions. The fortunes of
the people that constitute it have gone different ways over the
millennia, and their identities have changed accordingly. The
Syriacs in the west have absorbed many influences from the
Greeks, while the Assyrians in the east have since ancient times
been under Iranian cultural influence. Ironically, as members of
the
Chaldean Catholic Church (established in 1553 but
effectively only in 1830), many modern Assyrians originating
from central Assyria now identify with "Chaldeans", a term
associated with the Syriac language in the 16th century but
ultimately derived from the name of the dynasty that destroyed
Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire!”
“Disunited, dispersed in exile, and as dwindling minorities
without full civil rights in their
homelands, the Assyrians of today are in grave danger of
total assimilation and extinction (Aprim
2003). In order to survive as a nation, they must now
unite under the Assyrian identity of their ancestors. It
is the only identity that can help them to transcend the
differences between them, speak with one voice again, catch the
attention of the world, and regain their place among the
nations.”
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was a multi-ethnic state composed of many peoples
and tribes of different origins (cf. Postgate 1989). Its ethnic diversity
notwithstanding, it was a uniformly structured political entity with
well-defined and well-guarded borders,2 and the Assyrian kings certainly
regarded it as a unified whole, "the land of Aššur", whose territory they
constantly strove to expand (Tadmor 1999; see also below). To the outside
world, it likewise was a unified, monolithic whole, whose inhabitants were
unhesitatingly identified as Assyrians regardless of their ethnic
backgrounds.3
However, just how far did the masses of the Empire's population actually
share the Assyrian identity? Did they consider themselves as members of the
Assyrian nation, identifying with the ideals and ways of life of the
Assyrian ruling class, or did they rather identify themselves in terms of
their diverse ethnic origins, loathing and resenting the Assyrian rule and
way of life? I shall try to answer these questions by first considering the
matter briefly from a theoretical perspective and then reviewing the
available evidence, both Assyrian and post-Assyrian, in detail.
Editors'
Note
(original
PDF version)
Assyrian
Identity in Ancient Times and Today, by Dr. Simo Parpola
Assyrians
after Assyria
Education
Forum
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