The Assyrian Library is an online digital collection of rare books, manuscripts,
magazines, essays, audio and video files, and recently published books
written by Assyrian authors.
A collection of Assyrian-related publications written by
English authors is also available.
Do you have information to add to the library?
Please send a detailed description of the materials using our
online form. Thank you.
Midsummer, 1918, saw the arrival in the occupied territory of Mesopotamia of some 45000 Armenians and Assyrians from Asia Minor, Lake Van, and Urmia. The majority of these refugees are Christians, who for many years had been fighting against the oppression to which they were subjected by the Turkish and Persian Governments. In the great war these small nationalities saw an opportunity of freeing themselves from the Turkish yoke, and did their utmost to aid Russia in her campaign on the Caucasus and on the Persian fronts. Both Assyrians and Armenians, especially the Turkish Armenians, suffered cruel hardships during the war, and time after time were in imminent danger of total extermination. The Russians would occupy a certain area, retreat suddenly, leaving their unfortunate allies to the mercy of the vindictive Turks, who looked on them as renegades, traitors, and, above all, Christians...
"Growing up as a child in Chicago, my father who was an Assyrian, and who married my mother (a Polish woman), he never talked much about his life or his heritage or his family background. Its great that through this website, it has helped me learn a little bit more about who I am on my father's side of the family, and get some answers to many questions I had thought about over the years. Again thank you!"
— Kenneth W. Michael Pleasanton, Ca. USA [North America]
Assyria
\ã-'sir-é-ä\ n (1998)
1: an ancient empire of Ashur
2:
a democratic state in Bet-Nahren, Assyria (northern Iraq, northwestern
Iran, southeastern Turkey and eastern Syria.)
3: a democratic state that fosters the social and
political rights to all of its inhabitants irrespective of their religion,
race, or gender 4: a democratic
state that believes in the freedom of religion, conscience, language,
education and culture in faithfulness to the principles of the United
Nations Charter —
Atour synonym
Ethnicity, Religion, Language
»
Israeli, Jewish, Hebrew
»
Assyrian, Christian, Aramaic
»
Saudi Arabian, Muslim, Arabic
Assyrian
\ã-'sir-é-an\ adj or n (1998)
1: descendants of the ancient empire of Ashur
2: the Assyrians, although representing but one single
nation as the direct heirs of the ancient Assyrian Empire, are now
doctrinally divided, inter sese, into five principle ecclesiastically
designated religious sects with their corresponding hierarchies and
distinct church governments, namely, Church of the East, Chaldean,
Maronite, Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic. These formal
divisions had their origin in the 5th century of the Christian Era.
No one can coherently understand the Assyrians as a whole until he can
distinguish that which is religion or church from that which is nation
-- a matter which is particularly difficult for the people from the
western world to understand; for in the East, by force of circumstances
beyond their control, religion has been made, from time immemorial,
virtually into a criterion of nationality.
3:
the Assyrians have been referred to as Aramaean, Aramaye, Ashuraya,
Ashureen, Ashuri, Ashuroyo, Assyrio-Chaldean, Aturaya, Chaldean, Chaldo,
ChaldoAssyrian, ChaldoAssyrio, Jacobite, Kaldany, Kaldu, Kasdu, Malabar,
Maronite, Maronaya, Nestorian, Nestornaye, Oromoye, Suraya, Syriac,
Syrian, Syriani, Suryoye, Suryoyo and Telkeffee. — Assyrianism
verb
Aramaic
\ar-é-'máik\
n (1998)
1: a Semitic language which became the lingua franca of
the Middle East during the ancient Assyrian empire.
2: has been referred to as Neo-Aramaic, Neo-Syriac, Classical
Syriac, Syriac, Suryoyo, Swadaya and Turoyo.