The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Where Are Those Historians?

Posted by pancho (Guest) - Tuesday, October 2 2007, 2:46:29 (CEST)
from 71.116.101.196 - pool-71-116-101-196.snfcca.dsl-w.verizon.net

Network -

Windows XP -

Internet Explorer
Website:
Website title:

Maggie recently came up with yet another ditzy challenge to Dr Joseph’s thesis; if there is any validity to what he claims then where are the other historians backing him up? And, she adds, why hasn’t he managed to change the mind of all historians?

Again, simple answers are all that is required. Dr Joseph’s field of expertise is limited to modern, not ancient, Middle Eastern history…with an emphasis on the relationship and interaction, in the modern era, between Christians and Muslims…between Christian sects and, most interestingly of all, how the Christian sects came to consider themselves lineal descendants of the ancient Chaldeans and Assyrians.

The geographical area wherein these events took place roughly corresponds to where the countries of Persia, Turkey and Iraq meet…in the wild hills and mountains of the borders of the Ottoman empire with Persia. To find a historian to match knowledge and interests with Dr Joseph one would have to find one whose field of expertise and area of research matched those of Dr Joseph. To put before him a historian of ancient Assyrian history has no meaning…for they are experts in two very different fields. Dr Joseph has never claimed there were no Assyrians in ancient history…he merely writes that there is evidence that a. prior to the 17th century A.D. no one in Mesopotamia claimed to be a Chaldean…and b. prior to the 19th century A.D. no one there claimed to be an Assyrian. And that these ideas were introduced by Europeans: in the case of modern Chaldeans by the pope and with the modern Assyrians by British archaeologists.

For another historian to speak with knowledge on these topics he or she would have had to study the missionary records and writings as a main source of information because this out of the way corner held no interest to most people, let alone historians. It was considered a wild, dangerous backwater that only foreign missionaries showed any interest in. Representatives of European governments were present in Istanbul and Tehran, but did not venture into the tribal lands of the Nestorians and Jacobites. The Russian army did but their interests were taking land and using the Christian tribes against the Muslims and not deciding their ethnic identity or validating their claims of lineal descent… The writings available of the people themselves were mostly religious in nature with no mention of them being Assyrians or Chaldeans…not until after the Europeans came.

Any person, historian or not, wishing to examine Dr Joseph’s sources can do so, for he provides an ample bibliography.

As to why Dr Joseph hasn’t changed “all historians” on this topic is because so very few historians have focused on this particular topic and if any have they haven’t written books contradicting Dr Joseph or he would have been the first to mention it…certainly no historian of ancient Assyria has shown any interest…so how could he have his mind “changed”? Any clear thinking person who was not fearful of the simple truth could read and follow Dr Joseph’s thesis and draw his own conclusions…and it would be most refreshing and satisfying to argue with someone who actually did this rather than engage in cat-fights with people who “have no time to waste”….but waste plenty talking of what they know not.

And, finally, what historian has changed the minds of “all other historians” on anything?

It is a fitting, everlasting blight on us and more evidence than necessary that Dr Joseph is correct when we see the kind of reception he receives from us…from most of us…from the most gleefully ignorant lot of us.

---------------------

- BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

The full topic:
No replies.

Content-length: 4003
Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/x-shockwave-flash, application/vnd.ms-excel, applicatio...
Accept-encoding: gzip, deflate
Accept-language: es-mx
Cache-control: no-cache
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cookie: *hidded*
Host: www.insideassyria.com
Referer: http://www.insideassyria.com/rkvsf5/rkvsf_core.php?.01Ld.
User-agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; InfoPath.1)