This article concerns the Assyrian people. For their ancient empire, see Assyria. United States and Canada:    300,000 (est.) CIS:    64,000 (est.) Europe:    93,000 (est.) Australia, New Zealand and Others:    150,000 (est.) Assyrians are a Syriac-speaking Semitic minority inhabiting northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran, some of whom are also identified ...

Including:

• Assyrian people - Language
• Assyrian people - Neo-Aramaic Koine
• Assyrian people - Assyrians and Islam
• Assyrian people - Ottoman Assyrians
• Assyrian people - Late Ottoman massacres and other issues
• Assyrian people - Assyrian Diaspora
• Assyrian people - Assyrians in Iraq
• Assyrian people - Neo-Assyrian revival
• Assyrian people - Assyrian denominations

Read more here: » Assyrian people: Encyclopedia - Assyrian people

Beside local Aramaic vernacular forms, there is a literary language, based primarily on the dialect used in the Urmia district of northwestern Iran. It uses the Syriac alphabet in its Nestorian variety, redesigned by European missionaries in the first half of the 19th century. It is in this alphabet and language, Eastern Neo-Aramaic, that the first newspaper in all of Iran was printed (1849–1918). When American missionaries first arrived in Urmia, among 125,000 Aramaic-speaking inhabitants only 40 men and one woman (sister of the Patriarch ...

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Assyrian people, Assyrian people - Language, Assyrian people - Neo-Aramaic Koine, Assyrian people - Assyrians and Islam, Assyrian people - Ottoman Assyrians, Assyrian people - Late Ottoman massacres and other issues, Assyrian people - Assyrian Diaspora, Assyrian people - Assyrians in Iraq, Assyrian people - Neo-Assyrian revival, Assyrian people - Assyrian denominations

Read more here: » Assyrian people: Encyclopedia II - Assyrian people - Neo-Aramaic Koine

The Ottoman Empire, before it began to decay, had an elaborate system of administering the non-Muslim "People of the Book." That is, they made allowances for accepted monotheists with a scriptural tradition and distinguished them from people they defined as pagans. (Buddhists and Hindus as well as some African groups were the ones with which they came in contact.) As People of the Book (or dhimmi), Jews, Christians and Mandaeans (in some cases Zoroastrians ...

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Assyrian people, Assyrian people - Language, Assyrian people - Neo-Aramaic Koine, Assyrian people - Assyrians and Islam, Assyrian people - Ottoman Assyrians, Assyrian people - Late Ottoman massacres and other issues, Assyrian people - Assyrian Diaspora, Assyrian people - Assyrians in Iraq, Assyrian people - Neo-Assyrian revival, Assyrian people - Assyrian denominations

Read more here: » Assyrian people: Encyclopedia II - Assyrian people - Ottoman Assyrians

Assyrians are not Arabs yet may speak Arabic and/or other languages of their adopted nations as well as their own. They are of Semitic origin and have a rich history distinct from ethnic Arabs. Historically, they contributed to the rise of Arabic astronomy, philosophy and medicine during the Abbasid period, and many scientists and scholars were in fact of Assyrian birth [1]. Since the early Islamic period, Assyrians, like other non-Muslims, were subjected to the special poll tax on non-Muslims, the jizya, and eventually to severe rest ...

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Assyrian people, Assyrian people - Language, Assyrian people - Neo-Aramaic Koine, Assyrian people - Assyrians and Islam, Assyrian people - Ottoman Assyrians, Assyrian people - Late Ottoman massacres and other issues, Assyrian people - Assyrian Diaspora, Assyrian people - Assyrians in Iraq, Assyrian people - Neo-Assyrian revival, Assyrian people - Assyrian denominations

Read more here: » Assyrian people: Encyclopedia II - Assyrian people - Assyrians and Islam

Many Assyrians currently have an apocalyptic belief in the future of their nation, based on the following passage from the Bible: At that time there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will visit Egypt, and the Egyptians will visit Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. At that time Israel will be the third member of the group, along with Egypt and Assyria, and will be a recipient of blessing in the earth. The Lord who leads armies will pronounce a blessing over the earth, saying, "Blessed be my people, Egypt, and the work of my hands, Assyria, and my special p ...

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Assyrian people, Assyrian people - Language, Assyrian people - Neo-Aramaic Koine, Assyrian people - Assyrians and Islam, Assyrian people - Ottoman Assyrians, Assyrian people - Late Ottoman massacres and other issues, Assyrian people - Assyrian Diaspora, Assyrian people - Assyrians in Iraq, Assyrian people - Neo-Assyrian revival, Assyrian people - Assyrian denominations

Read more here: » Assyrian people: Encyclopedia II - Assyrian people - Neo-Assyrian revival

In 1933, the Iraqi government held the Patriarch of the Church of the East, the Mar Shamun, under house arrest. When he left Iraq to appeal to the British with regard to how the Assyrians were being mistreated in Iraq contrary to the agreement at Iraq's independence to refrain from discrimination against minorities, he was stripped of his citizenship and refused reentry. During July 1933, about 800 armed Assyrians headed for the Syrian border, where they were turned back. While King Faisal had briefly left the country for medical reas ...

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Assyrian people, Assyrian people - Language, Assyrian people - Neo-Aramaic Koine, Assyrian people - Assyrians and Islam, Assyrian people - Ottoman Assyrians, Assyrian people - Late Ottoman massacres and other issues, Assyrian people - Assyrian Diaspora, Assyrian people - Assyrians in Iraq, Assyrian people - Neo-Assyrian revival, Assyrian people - Assyrian denominations

Read more here: » Assyrian people: Encyclopedia II - Assyrian people - Assyrians in Iraq

At the turn of the century the Christian population in Ottoman regions had numbered about 5,000,000. When the massacres finally ended in 1923, about 20,000 Greeks, 10,000 Armenians and 30,000 Assyrians remained. The Assyrian diaspora includes a community in Chicago numbering as many as 80,000, more than in any other American city. Since World War I, the Assyrian diaspora has steadily increased so that there are now more Assyrians living in western countries (including Australia) than in the Middle East. Södertälje in Sweden is often seen a ...

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Assyrian people, Assyrian people - Language, Assyrian people - Neo-Aramaic Koine, Assyrian people - Assyrians and Islam, Assyrian people - Ottoman Assyrians, Assyrian people - Late Ottoman massacres and other issues, Assyrian people - Assyrian Diaspora, Assyrian people - Assyrians in Iraq, Assyrian people - Neo-Assyrian revival, Assyrian people - Assyrian denominations

Read more here: » Assyrian people: Encyclopedia II - Assyrian people - Assyrian Diaspora

The modern Assyrian language belongs to the Eastern Aramaic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. It is a Semitic language similar to Hebrew and slightly similar to Arabic. The identity of the Assyrian language is complex. There is "Classical Syriac", which is used in the liturgies of the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syriac churches. There are three modern Syriac (also known as Neo-Aramaic) dialects that are spoken by Assyrians: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (spoken in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey) Chaldean Neo-Aramaic (spoken mainly in Iraq) Western ...

See also:

Assyrian people, Assyrian people - Language, Assyrian people - Neo-Aramaic Koine, Assyrian people - Assyrians and Islam, Assyrian people - Ottoman Assyrians, Assyrian people - Late Ottoman massacres and other issues, Assyrian people - Assyrian Diaspora, Assyrian people - Assyrians in Iraq, Assyrian people - Neo-Assyrian revival, Assyrian people - Assyrian denominations

Read more here: » Assyrian people: Encyclopedia II - Assyrian people - Language