The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5
=> Dr. Aaron Butts of Yale on modern assyrians....
| Dr. Aaron Butts of Yale on modern assyrians.... |
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Posted by
pancho
(Moderator)
- Sunday, October 13 2013, 0:11:49 (UTC) from *** - ***  Commercial -  Windows NT -   MozillaWebsite: Website title: |
...this is lifted from a longer essay...the fellow sheds more light along the path that Joseph illuminated...fascinating and how we'd love to hear from Grandma Taco. note: I jumped around a bit but will provide the link so anybody can check for hisself..... "It is well-known that various individuals and groups associated with the Syriac Heritage are today called Assyrians. What is less understood is when, how, and why this identification came about...The present essay is not concerned with evaluating the legitimacy of connections between the Syriac Heritage and ancient Assyria. Rather, it assumes as a given that certain individuals and groups associated with the Syriac Heritage have in the past identified as Assyrian and continue to do so until the present. The essay does, however, take up the more modest task of outlining the historical background for the events that led to the promotion of this identification in the nineteenth century and to the ensuing development of an Assyrian ideology within the Syriac communities.. In pre-modern Syriac sources, the term athoraya “Assyrian” is not the typical self-designation for individuals belonging to the Syriac Heritage...The adjectives aramaya and suryaya serve as the typical self-designations for Syriac Christians throughout pre-modern sources. While athoraya “Assyrian” is not the typical self-designation for Syriac Christians in pre-modern Syriac sources, Assyria (athor) and Assyrian (athoraya) do occur in several senses throughout this period. First and foremost, athor refers to the ancient empire of Assyria and the area surrounding its last capital Nineveh...Following this usage, the gentillic adjective athoraya designated a person from the ancient empire of Assyria or more specifically its capital Nineveh. From this primary sense of athor, at least two secondary senses developed in pre-modern Syriac literature. First, Syriac athor came to refer to the city of Mosul (Fiey 1965-1986: 2.570), which was built on the west bank of the Tigris directly across from the ancient ruins of Nineveh...the gentilic adjective athoraya was, then, used as a designation for one from the city of Mosul. It is probably in this sense that the Syriac Orthodox patriarch and historian Michael the Great (d. 1199) calledImad al-Din Zangi (ca. 1085-1146), who was atabeg of Mosul, an 'Assyrian pig' in his chronicale (Chabot 1899-1910:3.261 [French translation]; 4.630.2.24 [Syriac text]. This meaning continued to be used in Classical Syriac at least until the turn of the 20th century (see Fiey 1965: 156 with n. 53;Heinrichs 1993:105). In addition it is found in the Neo-Aramaic dialect of Turyoyo (Ritter 1979:352 [387], which is spoken in the Tur Abdin region in South Eastern Turkey. This use of athoraya as a gentilic adjective for Mosul may well also explain why the Protestant mission in Mosul (1849-1860) chose the name Assyrian Mission for “geographical reasons” (Anderson 1872:8-106, esp 83; cf. Fiey 1965: 148-149). Finally, some scattered evidence suggests that the geographic sense of athoraya extended beyond Mosul to include the area around Arbela (modern Erbil) and Karka d-Beth Slokh (modern Kirkuk) (Brock 1982:16-17; Salvesen 1998:157). Second, based on the fact that the Biblical Assyrians were enemies of israel, athoraya was used with a metaphorical meaning for the enemies of Christians. This metaphorical use use is often accompanied by imagery based on Biblical depictions of the Assyrians, such as the Assyrians as the instruments of God's wrath found in Is. 10:5-34. The metaphorical meaning of athoraya was especially developed for the Persians. Already in the fourth century, Ephrem (d. 373) the most widely known of all Syriac authors, referred to Persia as 'filthy Assyria (athor) mother of corruption' (beck 1961:21.24 [Syriac text]; 24 [German translation]....similarly, the historian John of Ephesus (d. 589) refers to the conquest of Dara by the Persians in 566 as 'its capture and its deliverance into the hands of the Assyrians (athoraye). Following the Arab conquests, the metaphor of Assyrians as the enemies of Christianity was naturally extended to the Arab conquerors. The eigth-century 'Chroncile of Zuqnin' (formerly called the 'Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel Mahre) presents an elaborate description of the Arab conquerors as Assyrians based on Isaiah 10:5-24 (Chabot 1933 [Syriac text]; Harrak 1999 [English translation]: Thus, in the pre-modern period, Syriac authors at times used athoraya 'Assyrian' as an epithet for their enemies (for additional examples, see Harrak 2004:52-53 It is clear from the examples presented in this section that the term athoraya 'Assyrian' in pre-modern Syriac sources is used in its most basic sense as a gentilic adjective for ancient Assyria and its capital Nineveh. From this primary meaning to secondary uses developed: 1. a gentilic adjective for Mosul, as wellas possibly the area around Erbil and Kirkuk: 2. a metaphorical use for the enemies of Christians. The adjective athoraya is not, however, the typical self-designation for individuals belonging to the Syriac Heritage. This function, rather, is filled by the adjectives aramaya 'Aramean' and suryaya 'Syrian'. --------------------- |
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