The Chaldeans of antiquity NEVER settled in Assyria. Here are some historical data attesting to this fact. 1. In <b> The Conquest of Civilization </b>, by James Henry Breasted, a different theory about the origin of the Chaldeans is brought up, but I need not discuss that point for now rather where they existed. We read;
The Chaldeans, or Kaldi, the desert tribe from the land of the southwest Persia, began to creep slowly around the heads of the Persian Gulf and settling along its shores at the foot of the eastern mountains.
In 604 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II, the greatest of the Chaldean emperors, began his reign of over 40 years
over Babylonia and it was in 616 BC that he had mastered his control over the entire Babylonia region.
When the Medes, in 614 BC marched down the Tigris and captured Assur, Nebuchadnezzar II arrived
too late to share in the assault. He did establish an alliance with Cyaxares, the Median king, and together
they attacked Nineveh but the Medes were left in possession of the northern mountains of Assyria.
(Breasted is telling us that Chaldean kings of Babylon did not settle in Nineveh) 2. Even Arab historians support this fact, here is what Dr. Zubair Bilal Ismael in his study <b>Arbil and its Historical Periods</b> wrote in regards to the Medes march to Nineveh in 614 BC ;
Arbil fell to the Medes. Asia Minor and the Assyrian Empire was split between the Medes and the Babylonians, the Medes took the upper parts of Mesopotamia, including the Land of Ashur and the Babylonians controlled the southern parts of Bet Nahrain, Syria and Palestine......
(Translated from Arabic by the author of this article)3. Georges Roux in his book <b>Ancient Iraq</b> wrote about the events of the fall of the city of Assur in 614 BC, he stated ;
The Babylonians arrived too late to take part in the action
Then he attest to the fact that the Babylonians did not live in Assyria, by what he wrote next;
The Babylonians remained in full possession of Assyria, but did not occupy it and made no attempt to repair the damage they had caused. All their efforts were devoted to the religious and cultural revival of southern Mesopotamia, and in the field of foreign policy to the protection of the Taurus frontier and the subjection of Syria-Palestine.
He continues to refer to southern Mesopotamia as Babylonia even after the Chaldean dynasty took control over it and he calls its kings; The Chaldean kings of Babylon, since Chaldean control on that part was one of the shortest of any other dynasty, meaning that they did not establish an empire to the true sense meaning of the word, although they flourished for 40 years during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II.
After the death of Nebuchadnezzar II in 562 BC, Babylonia started to lose its power. And in 539 BC, the Persians under Cyrus defeated the Chaldean king army under the young crown prince Belshazzar with no trouble and entered Babylon. Hence, the Chaldean kings ruled for a total of (87) years in Babylonia. 4. Lets read from <b>The Babylonians</b> by H.W.F Saggs;
.... the Chaldeans as originally encountered were restricted to south Babylonia, and always remained predominant there ....
and continues to say;
.... There is no hint of any non-Semitic linguistic background, but this does not preclude the possibility that their ancestry included elements from earlier groups who had ruled the south of the country, or from the Kassites. Some scholars suggest that they were originally of east Arabian origin; there is little positive evidence for this, but it is not impossible, and if they came in via the west coast of the Persian Gulf it might explain why they were in the main only in the south of Mesopotamia." 5. Rev. W. A. Wigram in his book <b>The Assyrians and their Neighbors</b> wrote;
The Assyrian stock, still resident in the provinces about the ruins of Nineveh, where Mosul, Arbil, and Kirkuk were already great cities, seem to have been left to its own customs in the same way. 6. Dr. Faraj Basmachi in his book <b> Kinooz al-Matthaf al-Iraqi (The Treasures of the Iraqi Museum)</b>, stated; Key Akhsar controlled the north eastern parts of Land of Ashur, while Nebuchadnezzar controlled the southern parts. 7. <b>"Mesopotamia and Iran in the Persian Period"</b> Edited by John Curtis, we read: "So, when Cyrus entered the city in the autumn of 539 BC, he was greeted by the people as a liberator rather than as a conqueror. In spring 539 the Persian Army had started to move down the Diyala valley and in August of the same year there was a battle at Opis on the Tigris. On 10 October Sippar surrendered and Nabonidus fled to Babylon. Two days later the Persian army entered Babylon and Nabonidus was taken prisoner." (page 26)
What is the above paragraph telling us in addition: "In spring 539 the Persian Army had started to move down the Diyala valley and in August of the same year there was a battle at Opis on the Tigris." This is very important, because this proves the fact that the Persians were in control in Assyria (northern Mesopotamia) after the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC. For those who are not familiar with the geography of Iraq, Diyala valley is basically between Assyria and Babylonia. So this proves that there were no Chaldeans in Assyria for the Persians to fight, rather the Persians moved south the Diyala valley to meet Nabonidus. I guess seven historical quotes are enough to prove the point.
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