The term Aramean was never used by my people, it is a systematic effort by Kurds and Turks to try and divide the Assyrians. They would love to eradicate our name in order to halt any advances by Assyrian Nationalists to reclaim our land in North Iraq.
Evidences of Assyrian survival into Christianity
Most citations in this article have been quoted verbatim because their original sources are not readily available to the average reader, also because Joseph and his minions often dismiss, trivialize or misinterpret, to their liking, all expressions of nationalism or references to the Assyrians before the 19th century. History often pays little attention to none sovereign people dominated by foreign rulers who impose their will, culture, language and power over the vanquished. It's primarily interest is in the exploits of the conquerors and the military conflicts between nations. A people without a sovereign state are seldom acknowledged and are in no position to demand recognition of their national name, culture and heritage from the international community. Because of these reasons we finds limited references to Assyrians outside their own community and the matter became worst when the term Syrian was used as a substitute and religious denominations subdivided them into quarreling sects. Even so Christians of Mesopotamia continued to remember their Assyrian ancestry. This is attested to by Syriac documents during most of the christian centuries. The 13th Century Nestorian, Givargis Arabilaya (georgis of Arbil) on the occasion of the Fast of the Ninevites observed by the Church of the East, Chaldean church, and the Syrian Orthodox church describes the nationality of his people as Assyrians and Babylonians.
"Our lord accept the request (Ba-oota):
of the Babylonians and Assyrians
and that of the leadership of our
distressed and confused Church.
"Our lord accept the request (Ba-oota)
of our poor and destitute country
I praise your Godliness and
ask your forgiveness." (4)
According to Badger "In many Syriac [Assyrian] manuscripts, Mosul is styled as Athur (Assyria) and it is not uncommon practice with ecclesiastical writers of the present day [19th century] to use the same phraseology". (5) Gesenius writes, "In Syriac Church literature 'Athur' (Assyria) is the name of Mosul, on the bank of the Tigris opposite to Nineveh; but it also designates a metropolitan see, including Mosul, Nineveh and other towns." (6) While Mesopotamia was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century and its name was changed to Iraq as far as Givargis Arabilaya and his people were concerned they were still living in Assyria and Babylon, and were Assyrians and babylonians. Even medieval Arab writers such as Yagout, Aboo alFoda and Ibn Saeed have used the name Athur at times for Mesopotamia and also for Mosul, Nimrod, and Nineveh..
Joseph prefers to ignore these evidences and pretend that he is more qualified to determine the nationality of the contemporary Assyrians. Because of repeated persecutions, fleeing and exiles most records pretraining to the Assyrian history were lost or destroyed. The surviving manuscripts were mostly rescued by the clergies because of their religious value yet even there we finds references to the Assyrian heritage of the Syriac speaking people.In a letter Thimathy I (770-823), patriarch of the Church of the East, to bishop Sarkis of Eilam wrote: "We invited our brethren Khnanishu and Eishu Soveron for the 2nd time as is a tradition but they did not arrive so that also "Assyrians" could honor them." The same Thimathy in another letter to the monks of Mar Marun declares that Assyria, Babylonia, Persia and the other oriental countries such as India and China were all under his jurisdiction (7) .
Here clearly Assyria and babylonia stand for all Mesopotamia and not an ecclesiastic province as Joseph sometimes has argued.The 5th century A.D. Narsai writes that the Magies who visited the christ were of Assyrian origin and "King Herod (of Israel) felt demeaned [by their worship of Christ] therefore in anger he ordered the killing of the infants."(8 ) Other sources have identified the Magies as Assyrians and not Persians or Medes as Joseph contends. In a 'Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch' bulletin an author citing ancient sources contends that twelve Assyrian wise men went to Urhoy/Urfa/Edessa when they had observed the shining star and from there three of them continued to Bethlehem while the rest returned home. The three mentioned in the Bible are Malkon, Kaspar, and Baghdassar. Their names seem to be corrupted form of the Assyrian Makoona (little king), Keespa (treasure) and Bel-shar-esur (Bel-protects the king).(9)Isho-Yahabh the head of the Church of the East (644-658) in a letter to Mar Gabriel, the Metropolitan Bishop of Beth Laphat, Mar hormizd and Mar Marmeh wrote:
. " This is how their faith was, as is mine, and continues to be as strong as ever regardless of whether or not it seems so to others. The best example of such faith is found among those living in central Athur (Assyria) and the surrounding places. A heritage of good manners, clear mind and the teaching of the word of God have contributed to the growth of this blessedness ."(10)
Central Athur included not only the city of Mosul, Nineveh but also Arbil, Kirkuk and other towns and villages which were then entirely populated by the Christian Assyrians and still live there. Joseph's objection to Fred Aprim identifying them as Assyrian is clearly unreasonable.In another letter Yeshu Yahab, to Raban Sargis of Beit Garmi [north of Arbil] wrote that Bar Bkhira a christian friend of the Prophet Mohammed had seen visions of Islamic Arabs invading "Assyria" and "Babylon" long before it happened. Here Yeshu Yahab clearly considers Assyria the region north of Babylon.
The tenth century writer Amanoeil Bar Shaharee wrote:
" The twin cities of the Sleleucia ( Salek) and Ctisphoon where the patriarchs of the Church of the East resided until 8th century were not only the capital cities of the Persians (Sassanian) also the ecclesiastical centers of the Assyrians." The twin cities were located near Baghdad on the border between Iran and Iraq. (11)
"Sleewa Ibn Yohanna", a Nestorian author of the early part of the 14 th century describes the duties of the Patriarch of the church of the East (Nestorian) after its independence from the church of Antioch consisted of "the administration of the affairs of the flock, the ordination of the Heads in the Eastern Borders, in Athur (Assyria), Media and Persia: all these sees shall be subject to him, shall submit to his authority, listen to his orders and his bidding."(12) The above is another example of Mesopotamia being identified as Assyria by the Syriac writers of various centuries. These are hard facts which are impossible to dispute.