Do
you have a question? Search our Frequently Asked Questions, FAQs.
Who
are the Assyrians?
The Assyrians of today are the indigenous Aramaic-speaking descendants of the ancient Assyrian people, one of the earliest civilizations emerging in the Middle East, and have a history spanning over
6760 years.
Although the Assyrian empire ended in 612 B.C., history is replete with
recorded details of the continuous presence of the Assyrian people till the present time.
Assyrians are
not Arabian or Arabs, we are not Kurdish, our religion is
not Islam.
The Assyrians are the indigenous
Aramaic-speaking
Christian people of the Middle East, with our own unique
language, culture and heritage.
The
English word “Assyrian” comes from classical Greek “Assurios”
through Latin “Assyrius”; the Greeks borrowed it in
the 8th century BC directly from the Assyrians, who at that
time called themselves “Assurayeh,” originating from their
capital city “Assur”. The
Aramaic word “Athourayeh”
was likewise borrowed from Assyrian, but earlier, in the
12th century BC, when the later “Assurayeh” was
pronounced “Athourayeh” [the sound (th) shifted to
(s) in Assyrian about 1100 BC]; still earlier, about
2300-1600 BC, the word had been pronounced “Ashur”
and “Ashourayeh”. The initial syllable in “Assurayeh”
was frequently dropped in the Neo-Assyrian period (900-600
BC), so that “Assurayeh” also had a variant “Surayeh,”
which the Greeks took over as "Surios" (the English
equivalent being Syrian). There was originally no difference
in meaning between Assurayeh/Surayeh and Assurios/Surios;
both meant the same thing.
What
is this website's perspective on our 'name' issue?
We support an academic
viewpoint which defines
Assyrians as the national title of our people, as
referenced in the
Assyrian History Timeline and other
online projects and websites.
I'm
searching for the online dictionary to translate some
English words to Aramaic and vice versa, where is it
located?
The
Aramaic Lexicon
and Concordance (Aramaic Dictionary) is located in the "Education" section,
and several other areas where the link "Shlama"
appears (check the greetings above). This online Aramaic
dictionary contains over 72,000 words. After you click on
the link above, use the "Help!"
section to learn how to install the Estrangelo font which
will allow you to properly view the Aramaic words in the
dictionary.
Specifically download and install the following recommended
font, (Estrangelo
Version 1.1) as used on http://www.atour.com. Installing
this font will allow your computer to properly display the
Aramaic (Syriac) fonts and documents on this website.
For font installation help, view the online Aramaic Dictionary
help
section.
I'm
trying to find information about a recent event, where can I
find it?
View the Assyrian Calendar for the latest events, or, search this
website to find information. If the event is not in
the calendar, then we have not received any information
through this contact form.
We
do our best to simplify the process of sending information
for future posting on this website to individuals and
organizations by displaying this statement at the end of the
sections and documents at Atour:
Do you have any related information or suggestions?
Please email
them.
We recommend contacting the source of that event and suggest
using this website's resources to bring further awareness to
important projects and events.
Additionally, we highly recommend posting your community
news, events, and photographs at the
Assyrian Forums to
bring further awareness to important information.
I
have a portable digital assistant (PDA) or mobile phone
which I use to access the Internet, is there a section on
this website which can be viewed on my PDA?
Yes,
a section was developed specifically for mobile users.
Simply enter the following URL web address as a bookmark
into your Internet-enabled PDA or mobile phone and your
device will then be able to view this website's current news
documents.
We
would like to volunteer and write, edit or publish pages for the Assyrian
History Timeline and some other areas of the website, how is
the publishing process of this website?
Thank
you for your activism, we look forward to working together
with you.
We require all volunteers to register and post their information within the Assyrian Forums,
history and other
forum categories.
Registration benefits:
editing and community feedback purposes
facilitate communications between volunteers
and coordinate projects
bring awareness to important information
Additionally, you can also send us information through this
contact form.
I
need someone's email address, can you send it to me?
We
do not share email addresses or lists with any organization,
company, and/or individual. Email addresses and
correspondences are considered
private and confidential material.
As an alternative, if your interested in
sending and receiving private messages, register in the
Assyrian Forums.
Registered members have the ability to
send and receive private messages with each other by
using this system. Your email address is never shown and
remains confidential to protect you from SPAM messages. This
communications feature allows other registered people within
the Assyrian Forums to privately and safely contact you
online.
My
friends and I would be honored to be added to your mailing list,
could you please add our email addresses?
We
are humbled with your request. Thank you!
The Atour Newsletter Subscription Center is a mailing list
system which allows us to send the Atour Newsletter to
people who have registered their email address with our
website. People sometimes put their friends' email addresses
and subscribe them because they feel it would be important
that they receive our messages. We send the newsletter once a
month to the 2,000+ people already registered.
How
can I financially support these important website
projects?
Thank
you for your support.
The donation
information is provided for individuals interested in donating to support
this server and projects.
Additionally, purchasing items from our business affiliations through the links from our website, enables us to receive a small referral fee per transaction from the companies to help in maintaining this server and projects.
Please visit the
information section
to learn more about this website.
How
can our company or organization advertise on the Atour website?
There
are two options available for Assyrian individuals,
organizations and corporations interested in advertising on
this website.
Please visit the
information section
to learn more about this website.
How
often does my advertising banner appear on the website?
The
advertising banners of our
partners and
sponsors are
given higher priority placements on our advertising system.
The banners will be shown more often than
affiliate
advertising banners.
When your advertising banner is updated on the
system, we will send you an email message with login
information (URL, username and password) to access and view
the current statistics of your advertisement.
Please visit the
information section
to learn more about this website.