Modern Day Assyrians

[us4-he2-gal2]

Some of you may have heard of the group of Middle Easterners who today refer to themselves as the modern day Assyrians - they are a christian people which may seem in itself surprising. In fact I have known one or two modern day Assyrians studying this or that ANE subject here in Toronto.


Simo Parpola has been seen on youtube defending this people claim to be the genetic decendants of the ancient Assyrians. This seems like a strong support as Parpola is a great scholar of Akkadian - on the other hand, he is possible the most controversial academic in the field, almost everytime he says something.


Today while reading for Islam I come across a comment on the subject - the book is "Introducing Islam" by William Shepherd. He is discussing the religion world on the eve of Islam and particular the history of Christianity at the moment. He describes a Christian sect known as the Nestorians, who had a major difference with Rome over the nature of the divinity of Christ. Shepard explains further:

"The Nestorians organized themselves after the council of Chalcedon as a separate churches in Iraq and Syria...They developed into a very strong church in Iran and spread northeastward into Central Asia and for a brief period into China. They converted a number of Mongols, who invaded Muslim lands in the thirteenth century, but after the Mongol ruler converted to Islam at the end of that century they lost ground. After the invasion of Timur (c. 1405) they were reduced to a small minority. Today they call themselves Assyrians and are found in Iran and, at least until recently, in Iraq, and in immigrant populations throughout the world."