Please read what the Assyrian Giant David B. Perley (An Assyrian from the Jacobite Church) wrote in his analysis and review of Rassam's book 'Ashur and the land of Nimrud'.
David Perley's review was published under the title;"The Discovery of an Assyrian Archaeologist". On Assyrian Sects
In the realm of sects, his journeys revealed that the chief Christian sects or millets (subject nationalities) were Assyrians or Chaldean Nestorians, Chaldean Catholic, Syrian Jacobite, and Syrian Catholic, all of whom are of Assyrian origin (page 167). And of the four branches of the Monophysites (Jacobites, Armenian, Coptic, Abyssinian), he ascertained that all retained their national names save alas! The Jacobites, who style themselves Syrians, which appellation has neither a legitimate meaning, nor an appropriate sectarianism (page 168). I agree most emphatically with his conclusions. Rassam has presented the Children of Ashur with an honorable challenge-strikingly intelligent. No matter how confused the situation may seem to appear, the Jacobites are Assyrians through and through. Rassams sensible concept of this truth is a matter of record. Wrote he in extreme historic accuracy (page 170).
It is worthy of remark that the so-called Syrian Jacobites and Syrian Catholics are not natives of what is known in Europe as Syria, and there are very few families of their sects in that country The word Syrian, or Syriannee, as it is called in Arabic, is known in the East simply to donate a religious sect, and not natives of any country in particular; for, although some modern geographers have tried to define the limits of Syria, yet it is a known fact that neither the Hebrews nor the Greeks knew exactly what constituted the boundary of Syria, or what is really meant by the Syriac language. In the English version of the Holy Bible, the words Aram and Aramaic are rendered Syria and Syriac, words which have no similarity to them, wither in sound or sense. It is conjectured by a number of authors that the word Syria is a corruption of Assyria, as it is mentioned by Herodotus that this people, whom the Greeks call Syrians, are called Assyrians by the barbarians. No matter how miscontrue the Assyrian malaise in the intolerable confusion of titles, as do most clerics who originated it, sustain, support, and cherish it nowthe Chaldeans are Assyrians! Rassams pronoumcements are on record. Exclaimed he (page 168): What more natural, the, that they should have applied to them the title of Chaldean, to which they have some claim nationally, in virtue of their Assyrian descent? All sects have a name for their nationalities but the poor Semitic Christians, no, not even as much as the slaves who were imported from Circassia or Africa!(The Thrones and Palaces of Babylon and Nineveh, by John P. Newman, page 373-4)
This pronouncement must be read and in the light of his further assertion: Whenever the word Chaldean is mentioned, it means an ancient Christian community in communion with the Roman Catholic Church (The Thrones and Palaces of Babylon and Nineveh, by John P. Newman, page 85)
There is but one national name for the native Semitic Christian sects (without admitting the accuracy of the noun sect) in the valley of the Euphratesit is Assyrian. Such is Rassams deepseated conviction. "The Discovery of an Assyrian Archaeologist"
by Dr. David Perley
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