The various communities of indigenous pre-Arab Neo-Aramaic-speaking people of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Territories and the surrounding areas advocate different terms for ethnic self-designation. It may be the case that these groups are merely closely related and not in fact exactly the same people.
The terminological problem goes back to colonial times, but it became more acute in 1946, when with the independence of Syria, the adjective "Syrian" referred to an independent state. The controversy isn't restricted to exonyms like English "Assyrian" vs. "Aramean", but also applies to self-designation in Neo-Aramaic, the minority "Aramean" faction endorses both Sūryāyē (ܣܘܪܝܝܐ) and Ārāmayē (ܐܪܡܝܐ), while the majority "Assyrian" faction insists on Āṯūrāyē (ܐܬܘܪܝܐ) but also accepts Sūryāyē (ܣܘܪܝܝܐ) as Sūryāyē is generally accepted to be a derivative of Āṯūrāyē.
The question of ethnic identity and self-designation is sometimes connected to the scholarly debate on the etymology of "Syria". The question has a long history of academic controversy, but majority mainstream opinion currently strongly favors that Syria is indeed ultimately derived from the Assyrian term 𒀸𒋗𒁺 𐎹 Aššūrāyu.[1] Meanwhile, other scholars have rejected the theory of 'Syrian' being derived from 'Assyrian' as "naive".[2]
Rudolf Macuch points out that the Eastern Neo-Aramaic press initially used the term "Syrian" (suryêta) and only much later, with the rise of nationalism, switched to "Assyrian" (atorêta).[3] According to Tsereteli, however, a Georgian equivalent of "Assyrians" appears in ancient Georgian, Armenian and Russian documents.[4] This correlates with the theory of the nations to the East of Mesopotamia knew the group as Assyrians, while to the West, beginning with Luwian, Hurrian and later Greek influence, the group was known as Syrians. "Syria" being an Indo-European corruption of "Assyria".[5] In addition, Arab writers of the Medieval period referred the indigenous Christians of Mesopotamia as Ashuriyun.
Syriac Christians from the Middle East shouldn't be confused with Syriac Christian Dravidians from India, who are an entirely different ethnic group but follow the same version of Christianity that was spread by Syriac Christians from Mesopotamia and the Middle East in general, centuries earlier. There are around 7,000,000+ Syriacs in the world, the majority living in the diaspora with the largest centres being in Brazil, India, the United States, Canada, Syrian Arab Republic, Lebanon, Sweden and Iraq.
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Syriac Christianity was established among the Syriac (Aramaic) speaking population of Upper Mesopotamia ( in other words Persian ruled Assyria/Assuristan) during the 1st to 5th centuries. Until the 7th century Arab Islamic conquests, the group was divided between two empires, Sassanid Persia in the east and Rome/Byzantium in the west. The western group in Syria (ancient Aramea), the eastern in Assyria and Persian Athura/Assuristan (Assyria) and Mesopotamia. Syriac Christianity was divided from an early date over questions of Christological dogma, viz. Nestorianism in the east and Monophysitism and Dyophysitism in the west.
The historical English term for the group is "Syrians" (as in, e.g., Ephraim the Syrian). It is not now in use, since after the 1936 declaration of the Syrian Arab Republic, the term "Syrian" has come to designate citizens of that state regardless of ethnicity. The designation "Assyrians" has also become current in English besides the traditional "Syrians" since at least the Assyrian genocide of the 1910s, although the term was used by European travellers as far back as the late 18th and early 19th Centuries and was always in use in the near east in various forms, including Ashuriyun, Assouri, Atorayeh etc.
The adjective "Syriac" properly refers to the Syriac language exclusively and is not a demonym. The OED explicitly still recognizes this usage alone:
The noun "Syriac" (plural "Syriacs") has nevertheless come into common use as a demonym following the declaration of the Syrian Arab Republic to avoid the ambiguity of "Syrians". Limited de facto use of "Syriacs" in the sense of "authors writing in the Syriac language" in the context of patristics can be found even before World War I.[7]
Since the 1980s, a dispute between Assyrianists, who are mainly indigenous Christians from Iraq, Iran, southeastern Turkey and northeastern Syria, and derive their national identity from the Iron Age Assyria, Mesopotamia and Assyria/Athura/Assuristan/Adiabene under Babylonian, Achamaenid Persian, Seleucid Greek, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid Persian rule, and Arameanists who are mainly from central, south, west and northwestern Syria and southcentral Turkey, (emphasizing their descent from the Levantine Arameans instead) has become ever more pronounced. In the light of this dispute, the traditional English designation "Assyrians" has come to appear taking an Assyrianist position, for which reason some official sources in the 2000s have come to use emphatically neutral terminology, such as "Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac" in the US census, and "Assyrier/Syrianer" in the Swedish census.
In the Aramaic language, the dispute boils down to the question of whether Sūrāyē/Sūryāyē "Syrian" or Āṯūrāyē "Assyrian" is in preferred use, or whether they are used synonymously. A 2007 Modern Aramaic Dictionary & Phrasebook does treat the terms as synonyms:
The question of the history of each of these terms is less clear. The points to be distinguished are
It is undisputed that reference to both the "Syrian" and "Assyrian" self-designations were in use by the mid 19th century.[9]
Medieval Syriac authors show awareness of the descent of their language from the ancient Arameans, without however using "Aramean" as an ethnic self-designation. Thus, Michael the Great (13th century) wrote
| “ | The kingdoms which have been established in antiquity by our race, (that of) the Arameans, namely the descendants of Aram, who were called Syriacs.[10] | ” |
Michael the Great also mentions an earlier, 9th century dispute of a dispute of Jacobite Syrians with Greek scholars, in which the Jacobites endorsed an "Assyrian" identity.
| “ | That even if their name is "Syrian", they are originally "Assyrians" and they have had many honorable kings ... Syria is in the west of Euphrates, and its inhabitants who are talking our Aramaic language, and who are so-called "Syrians", are only a part of the "all", while the other part which was in the east of Euphrates, going to Persia, had many kings from Assyria and Babylon and Urhay. ... Assyrians, who were called "Syrians" by the Greeks, were also the same Assyrians, I mean "Assyrians" from "Assure" who built the city of Nineveh.[11] | ” |
John Joseph in the Nestorians and Their Muslim Neighbors (1961) stated that the term Assyrians had for various political reasons been reintroduced to Syriac Christians by British missionaries during the 19th century, and strengthened by archaeological discoveries of ancient Assyria.[12] In the 1990s, the question was revived by Richard Frye among others, who disagreed with Joseph, establishing that the term "Assyrians" had existed amongst the Jacobites and the Nestorians already during the 17th century,[13] Frye further adduces Armenian, Persian, Russian, Arab and Georgian sources to establish the pre-modern usage of Assyrian for the Christian group.[14] The two scholars agreed on the fact that "confusion has existed between the two similar words ‘Syria’ and ‘Assyria’ throughout history down to our own day", but each accused the other of contributing further to this confusion.
The question of the synonymity of Suria vs. Assuria was already discussed by classical authors: Herodotus has “This people, whom the Greeks call Syrians, are called Assyrians by the barbarians”.[15][16] while strictly distinguishing the toponyms Syria vs. Assyria, the former referring to the Levant, the latter to Mesopotamia. Posidonius has “The people we [Greeks] call Syrians were called by the Syrians themselves Arameans”.[17]
Quite apart from the question of de facto usage, the question of the etymological relation of the two terms had been open until recently. The point of uncertainty was whether the toponym Syria was ultimately derived from the name Aššur (as opposed to alternative suggestions deriving Syria from the name of the non Semitic Hurrians). With the discovery of the Çineköy inscription the question does now appear to have been decisively settled to the effect that Syria does indeed derive from Aššur.[18]
The Çineköy inscription is a Hieroglyphic Luwian-Phoenician bilingual, uncovered from Çineköy, Adana Province, Turkey (ancient Cilicia), dating to the 8th century BC. Originally published by Tekoglu and Lemaire (2000),[19] it was more recently the subject of a 2006 paper published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, in which the author, Robert Rollinger, lends support to the age-old debate of the name "Syria" being derived from "Assyria" (see Etymology of Syria). The examined section of the Luwian inscription reads:
The corresponding Phoenician inscription reads:
The object on which the inscription is found is a monument belonging to Urikki, vassal king of Hiyawa (i.e. Cilicia), dating to the 8th century BC. In this monumental inscription, Urikki made reference to the relationship between his kingdom and his Assyrian overlords. The Luwian inscription reads "Sura/i" whereas the Phoenician translation reads ’ŠR or "Ashur" which, according to Rollinger (2006), "settles the problem once and for all".[20]
During the 2000 United States census, Syriac Orthodox Archbishops Cyril Aphrem Karim and Clemis Eugene Kaplan issued a declaration that their preferred English designation is "Syriacs".[21] The official census avoids the question by listing the group as "Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac".[22][23] Some Maronite Christians also joined this US census (as opposed to Lebanese American).[24]
In Sweden, this name dispute has its beginning when immigrants from Turkey, belonging to the Syriac Orthodox Church emigrated to Sweden during the 1960s and were applied with the ethnic designation Assyrians by the Swedish authorities. This caused many who preferred the indigenous designation Suryoyo (who today go by the name Syrianer) to protest, which led to the Swedish authorities began using the double term assyrier/syrianer.[25][26]
Advocated by followers of the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East, most followers of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Assyrian Protestants , some communities of the Syriac Orthodox Church (particularly in eastern Syria) and to a much lesser degree the Syriac Catholic Church . Those identifying with Assyria, and with Mesopotamia in general, tend to be from Iraq, north eastern Syria, south eastern Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, southern Russia and Azerbaijan. Assyrians point out that they are indeed of Assyrian/Mesopotamian heritage as they are indesputably the pre-Arab and pre-Islamic population of Assyria in particular and Mesopotamia in general. Furthermore, they point out that there is no historical evidence, let alone proof to suggest the indigenous Assyrians and Mesopotamians were wiped out or removed and that Assyria did exist as a specifically named region until the second half of the 7th century as Assuristan. Most speak various Mesopotamian dialects of Neo-Aramaic which still retain a number of Akkadian loan words. Assyrian continuity receives support from modern Assyriologists like H.W.F. Saggs, Robert D. Biggs, Giorgi Tsereteli and Simo Parpola,[28][29][30] and Iranologists like Richard Nelson Frye.[1][31] Further support is added by historians such as J.G. Browne, George Percy Badger and J.A. Brinkman. Nineteenth century orientalists such as Austen Henry Layard and Hormuzd Rassam also supported this view.
During the Medieval period, Arab histographers labelled the Assyrians of Mesopotamia as Ashuriyun. Early European travellers to the Ottoman Empire found eastern Aramaic speaking Christian people in upper Mesopotamia with distinct Assyrian names who referred to themselves and were referred to by neighbouring peoples as Assouri ( in other words Assyrians). Assyria continued to exist as a named province and entity under Achamenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid rule, and Syriac (Assyrian) Christianity began to take hold from the 1st to 3rd Centuries AD. The Assyrianist movement originated in the 19th to early 20th century, in direct opposition to Pan-Arabism and in the context of Assyrian irredentism. It was exacerbated by the Assyrian Genocide and Assyrian War of Independence of World War I. The emphasis of Assyrian antiquity grew ever more pronounced in the decades following World War II, with an official Assyrian calendar introduced in the 1950s, taking as its era the year 4750 BC, the purported date of foundation of the city of Assur and the introduction of a new Assyrian flag in 1968. Assyrians tend to be from Iraq, Iran, southeast Turkey, northeast Syria, Armenia, Georgia, southern Russia and Azerbaijan, as well as in diaspora communities in the USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Sweden, Holland etc. The Assyrians point out that they are the indigenous Pre Arab and Pre Islamic population of Assyria and Mesopotamia, and thus are indeed of ancient Mesopotamian heritage. The discovery of the Çineköy inscription in 2000 AD clearly supports the already prevailing argument that the terms Syrian and Syriac are indeed Luwian and Greek corruptions of the term Assyrian.
The Assyrian movement today, is still very strong going amongst the Jacobites. In Sweden, the majority of those who identify themselves as Assyrians, are Jacobites from the Syriac Orthodox Church,[32] but there are also Assyrians and Syriacs in Sweden representing the other Syriac churches.
Advocated by some followers of the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Syriac Catholic Church and to a much lesser degree, the Maronite Church. Those self identifying as Syriacs tend to be from western, northwestern, southern and central Syria, as well as southcentral Turkey. The term "Syriac" is the subject of some controversy, as it is generally accepted by the vast majority of scholars that it is a Greek corruption of "Assyrian". For this reason, some Assyrians also accept the term "Syriac" as well as "Assyrian", as it is taken to mean one and the same thing. The discovery of the Çineköy inscription in 2000 appears to have confirmed this. Likewise, some Syriacs identify equally with the term Assyrian. It is likely that Syriacs from the aforementioned regions are in fact Arameans rather than Assyrians, as geographically they are not from Mesopotamia or the immediate areas surrounding it, but are in fact from an area corresponding to the ancient Aramean homeland.
Advocated by some followers of the Chaldean Catholic Church who are mainly based in the United States. This is mainly a denominational rather than ethnic term, though a few Chaldean Catholics espouse a distinct Chaldean ethnic identity. However it is highly likely that these are exactly the same people as the Assyrians, both having the same culture and originating from the same lands. The term "Chaldean" came into being when some Mesopotamian/Assyrian followers of the Church of the East entered communion with Rome in the 16th and 17th centuries, and Rome named the new church the "Chaldean Catholic Church", after initially calling it the "Church of Assyria and Mosul". It is noteworthy that Chaldean Catholics originate from and live mostly in Northern Iraq, the traditional Assyrian Homeland, and not in the extreme south of Iraq where "Ancient Chaldea" was situated. The origins of the ancient Chaldeans is unclear, they first appeared in the 8th Century BC. It is most likely that they were either native Akkadians like the Assyrians and Babylonians, or were a powerful Akkadianized Aramean tribe. What is certain is that the Chaldean Dynasty did not even survive until the end of the aforementioned dynasty, Nabonidus, the last king of the Chaldean Dynasty and his son, prince Belshazzar were from Harran, and thus Assyrian born. Despite this, Babylon was often referred to as Chaldea in later Classical writings. There has been no serious historical evidence produced thus far to support a specific link between the Chaldean Catholics (who were originally members of the "Assyrian" Church) and the ancient long disappeared Chaldean tribe.
The Chaldean Catholic Church was established as a split off the Assyrian East Syrian Rite, its first patriarch was proclaimed patriarch of "Mosul and Athur" (Persian for "Assyria") on February 20, 1553 by Pope Julius III.[35] The term "Chaldean" was chosen at the time to distinguish from the adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East after originally being called The Church of Athora(Assyria) and Mosul .[36][37]
A small minority Chaldean Catholics (mainly American-based) no longer subscribe to an "Assyrian" identity,[38] due mainly to the esposing of a purely Catholic identity, rather than any interest in an ethnic one, promoted by the Chaldean Catholic Church.[38] However most Chaldean Catholics acknowledge that ethnically they are one and the same people as the Assyrians, and many priests in the Chaldean Church, such as Mar Raphael I Bedawid, advocate the Assyrian ethnicity regardless of doctrinal differences.[39]
Others prefer to call themselves Chaldo-Assyrian to avoid division on theological grounds. The Iraqi government uses this term in recognition that Assyrians and Chaldeans are ethnically the same people but with different religious traditions. They are indigenous to in Iraq and southeast Turkey, for the most part speaking the Chaldean Neo-Aramaic and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic dialects.
Also sometimes erroneously known as "Chaldean Christians" or "Assyrian Christians" are the Saint Thomas Christians of India (also called the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church), ethnically Nasrani (speakers of Malayalam). However, these people are not ethnically related to the Chaldo-Assyrian people.
Advocated by a number of indigenous Christians in western, north-western, southern and central Syria, as well as south-central Turkey. They reject the term "Syriac" because of its probable Assyrian origin[40], and because they are not in fact geographically from Assyria or Mesopotamia in general, but rather are pre-Arab inhabitants of lands that encompass the traditional Aramean homeland, which is in effect most of modern Syria. Few of those identifying as Aramean now speak Aramaic, and most are now Arabic speaking. The Arameans are a people who emerged in the Levant (modern Syria) during the Late Bronze Age, who following the Bronze Age collapse formed a number of small kingdoms before they were conquered into the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the course of the 10th to late 7th centuries BC. During Horatio Southgate's travels through Mesopotamia, he encountered indigenous Christians, adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East and Chaldean Catholic Church who claimed an Assyrian ancestry and had distinct Assyrian names, but stated that the Jacobites (adherents of the Syriac Orthodox Church) of Syria where descendants of the Arameans, "whose chief city was Damascus" (Arameans).[41]
Such an Aramean identity is mainly held by a number of Syriac Christians in southcentral Turkey, western, central, northern and southern Syria and in the diaspora especially in Germany and Sweden.[42] In English, they self-identify as "Syriac", sometimes expanded to "Syriac-Aramean" or "Aramean-Syriac". In Swedish, they call themselves Syrianer, and in German, Aramäer is a common self-designation. In recent days the term Aramean rather than Syriac is gaining popularity among some Christians in Syria and the diaspora.
The Syriac-Aramaic flag[43] (also "Syriac flag", "Aramaean flag") is the flag chosen by the Arameanist faction to represent the Aramean (Syriac) nation in the Syriac homeland and in the Syriac diaspora. Its design is based on that of a relief excavated by André Dupont-Sommer (1900-1983) in the old Aramean village Tell Halaf, Syria.[44]
In the flag design, the sun is replaced by a flame or torch, symbolizing the Holy Spirit. The red background was chosen because of all blood that was spilled in the Syriac genocide. The yellow color is symbolizing the hope for a country of their own, since Syriacs are a people living without their own state.
Many Maronites identify with a Phoenician origin and do not see themselves as Syriac or Aramean. These tend to be from Lebanon and the Mediterranean coast of Syria, an area roughly corresponding to ancient Phoenicia. They are of pre-Arab and pre-Islamic origin, and thus naturally identify with the ancient population of that region. Middle East expert Walid Phares speaking at the 70th Assyrian Convention, on the topic of Assyrians in post-Saddam Iraq, began his talk by asking why he as a Lebanese Maronite ought to be speaking on the political future of Assyrians in Iraq, answering his own question with "because we are one people. We believe we are the Western Assyrians and you are the Eastern Assyrians."[45]
However, other Maronite factions in Lebanon, such as Guardians of the Cedars, in their opposition to Arab nationalism, advocate the idea of a Phoenician racial heritage (see Phoenicianism). They point out that they are of pre Arab and pre Islamic origin, and as such are at least in part of Phoenician stock, and certainly not Arab.
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