In his lexicon, Isho Bar Ali, a 9th century member of the Church of the East, gave definitions of the terms Syriac and Aramean; here is a corrected translation, with clean punctuation:
“Aram is Haran in Mesopotamia.
Arameans are the Syrians, as Naaman was an Aramean.
‘Oromoyo’ (Aramean), when the resh (ܪ) is open (Ormoyo), means a worshipper of idols, a pagan; ‘Nabataean’ in another sense.
In another sense, from Aram, which is Syria, ‘Oromoyo’ is ‘Suryoyo’ (Syriac); and again from Aram, which is Haran, the ancient city of idolaters.”
“Ormoyo” (ܐܳܪܡܳܝܳܐ) in Syriac can denote a pagan by pronunciation and context, specifically when a vowel is missing or the resh is read “open,” yielding a form like ܐܳܪܡܳܝܳܐ instead of ܐܳܪܳܡܳܝܳܐ. Bar ʿAli carefully distinguishes Aramean from pagan on the basis of that vowel; the former is an ethnonym, the latter a religious label that can arise from pronunciation. He even adds that in another sense the word can mean Nabataean.
Isho Bar Ali also equates Aram with Upper Mesopotamia concentrated around Harran, which he identifies with Paddan-Aram (“the field of Aram”) in the Bible. Harran lies just below Urhoy (Edessa), about 206 kilometers west of Mardin and the Tur Abdin region. This reflects a geographical understanding of Aram as the northern Mesopotamian plain that served as the heartland of the ancient Arameans.
He then closes by defining Aram as Syria in the Greek rendering, which explains how Aramean (Ormoyo) yields Syriac (Suryoyo). Finally, he returns to his first regional definition, identifying Aram with the Harran-centered zone of Upper Mesopotamia.
In summary, Isho Bar Ali teaches that Aramean means Syriac, irrespective of location, because Aram came to be rendered as Syria/Syriac in Greek. At the same time, he defines Aram geographically as the region of Upper Mesopotamia concentrated around Harran, the ancient “field of Aram.”
Bar Bahlul says that "Syria includes Antioch, Aleppo, Seleucia (the port al-Suwaydiyya near Antioch), Hama, Shaizar, and Qinnasrin." He further says that "Syria is all the country from Antioch to Edessa, Bilad al-Sham."
Mesopotamia is called Aram-Nahrin, and the mountains of Tur Abdin are known as Mons Masius, named after Mash, the son of Aram, demonstrating the Aramean heritage of the region.
The author highest the fact that a connection to an Assyrian-Chaldean ancestry, as witnesses in the Chronicle of Saint Michael the Great, is only acknowledged in the use of a common language, i.e Aramaic and not an ethnic one. The author also confirms the fact that the tradition view of the Assyrians was presented in a negative and were not an ancestor the early Arameans would be proud of.
"During the Great War, the Nestorians sided with the Allies from the triumphant arrival of the Russian armies. The sufferings they endured from then on are well known. At the signing of the peace treaty, an Eastern Christian committee, composed of Catholics and non-Catholics, worked to obtain the creation of an independent Christian territory. This committee, like the proposed state, adopted the name “Assyro-Chaldean,” a new term that could be justified with a good definition, but which remained sufficiently vague to include all the Christians of the various Eastern rites in those regions, except the Armenians, who had particular historical and personal aims. The committee failed in its efforts, and in opposition to “Chaldean,” the Eastern Syrian Nestorians were called “Assyrians,” also a new term, which helped to confuse the concepts of many Europeans who were following, with interest, the minority question in the East, even from a strictly Catholic point of view; this term allowed absolutely erroneous official statements by certain important and necessarily well-informed figures."
The author describes the Nestorians, an Eastern Christian population long based in the Hakkari mountains between Lake Van and Lake Urmia. They lived under Ottoman rule but dealt directly through their patriarch Mar Shimun and were influenced by Russia as well as by Dominican and Anglican missions. Over the centuries some communities reunited with Rome and became Chaldeans, a Catholic church with its own patriarch and bishops; the author says most Iraqi Catholics belonged to this group and estimates roughly sixty to eighty thousand at the time.
During and after the First World War a mixed Eastern Christian committee tried to obtain an independent Christian territory. For this project it adopted the new umbrella label “Assyro-Chaldean,” which the author calls vague enough to cover many Eastern Christian groups in the region except the Armenians, and the effort failed. In the same period the Eastern Syrian Nestorians began to be called “Assyrians,” another new label. The author argues that these terms led Western observers, diplomats, and even churchmen to confuse identities and make erroneous official claims. He adds that there were about sixty thousand Nestorians worldwide then (not counting the Indian Nestorians), around thirty thousand of whom were in Iraq until 1933. A League of Nations mission in 1924 examined their case but promised solutions did not materialize, and after the 1933 crisis with Iraq many among them wished to leave for Syria. The overall message is that the recent political and ecclesiastical names “Assyro-Chaldean” and “Assyrian” blurred distinctions among Eastern Christians and generated misunderstanding in European and official discourse.
The disappearance of the Assyrians will always remain a unique and astonishing phenomenon in ancient history. Indeed, other kingdoms and empires similar to Assyria have disappeared, but their peoples have continued to live and be known after them. Recent discoveries have shown that communities ravaged by hunger and poverty have immortalized their ancient Assyrian names in various places, as we find represented in the city of “Ashur” for generations, but the main truth remained the same, namely that a nation that lived for two thousand
and extended its rule over a vast area, lost its independence. There are two reasons for this phenomenon: First, the Assyrians were immersed in sensual customs that could only lead to the suicide of their lineage, and the last two centuries of their history can be explained by a noticeable decline in their men, but this is not entirely due to internal wars. Second, we know that the Medes had brought a large number of Assyrian craftsmen who worked in metals and stones to their country, and we find many great works of art that were found in the cities of
Persepolis and Ekitana were made by craftsmen who learned their craft from groups from Nineveh. The Assyrian slaves taught their masters the art of seal carving.
In fact, no other country in the world was completely destroyed and plundered like Assyria, and no other nation, except for the Children of Israel, can give us a clear picture of the fate of these people.
The author highlights the fact that the names Assyrian and Syrian has no connection to each other. It only happened that there is an accidental similarity between the two terms. The author also supports the notion that the modern day Syrians/Syriacs are descendants of the Arameans
“Assyrians today may be Kurds, Turks, etc., with little possibility that these people have some of the ancient Assyrian blood-lines.”
“The Assyrians of today are not related to the ancient Assyrians at all—racially, ethnically, nor historically.” (cited by May Abraham from Dr. Kretkoff)
According to May Abraham’s pages (drawing on Ignace Gelb and John Joseph), the ancient Assyrian language had died out while the communities in question spoke Aramaic/Syriac; Joseph argues that today’s “Assyrians” are using the wrong name, should call themselves Chaldeans, and that what is called modern Assyrian should be called Aramaic. In this framing, “Assyrian” in the U.S. context functioned as an umbrella category that grouped Chaldeans, Jacobites, and members of the Church of the East from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, and Lebanon, who also used multiple everyday languages. Abraham underscores the point with two explicit claims from the text: “Assyrians today may be Kurds, Turks, etc., with little possibility that these people have some of the ancient Assyrian blood-lines,” and “The Assyrians of today are not related to the ancient Assyrians at all—racially, ethnically, nor historically” (cited by May Abraham from Dr. Kretkoff). Taken together, these statements present “Assyrian” as a modern, label-driven umbrella rather than a biologically or historically continuous identity from antiquity.
Stephanie Dalley writes that Syriac Christians from northern Iraq sometimes give their sons names like Sennacherib or Sargon and consciously identify with the ancient Assyrians, calling themselves “Assyrians” (Athoraye) rather than “Syriacs” (Suraye). She says this identification was fostered by Anglican missionaries working with the Nestorian Church in the nineteenth century and was later encouraged by the British in the late 1940s.
Aubrey R. Vine writes that British contact with the East Syriac Nestorians quickened after C. J. Rich’s encounters near Nineveh in the 1820s. Rev. Joseph Wolff carried a Syriac New Testament to England, and the British and Foreign Bible Society printed and distributed it around Urmi in 1827, while European governments protested after Kurdish attacks in 1830. The American Presbyterians opened a long mission at Urmi, while the Church of England worked through the SPCK, sending Ainsworth and later George Percy Badger, who earned goodwill by offering aid without trying to change doctrine and who sheltered the patriarch during the 1842 massacres. After the Nestorians appealed to Archbishop Tait in 1868, E. L. Cutts’s inquiry led to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Mission to the Assyrian Christians in 1881, staffed by Rudolph Wahl, later Canon Maclean, Athelstan Riley, W. H. Browne, and finally Canon W. A. Wigram. The mission lasted until the Great War and moved its headquarters from Urmi to Van in 1903.
Vine explains that late 19th century Anglicans deliberately adopted “Assyrian” as the title for their mission among the East Syriac Nestorians. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Mission used it in reports, school charters, and correspondence, and the term soon spread into wider English usage, so that newspapers, missionary journals, and general readers spoke of Assyrian Christians rather than Nestorians. The choice was both strategic and pastoral: it emphasized the community’s rootedness in the old Assyrian heartland, and it avoided the polemical associations of “Nestorian,” a term long tied to heresy and theological controversy. The new name also gave the community a dignified ethnonym that Western audiences could respect, while allowing Anglicans to support and reform the church without reopening ancient doctrinal debates.
Vine further notes that the community did not historically call itself Assyrian. In earlier Greek, Latin, and Western sources it was very often referred to as the Persian Church, because its catholicoi resided at Seleucia-Ctesiphon in the Sasanian Persian Empire, and its jurisdictions extended deep into Persia and beyond. Its own traditional title was the Church of the East, using the East Syriac rite and language. In Vine’s account, therefore, “Assyrian” was a modern, mission-driven designation, introduced and popularized by Anglicans, which gained legitimacy through long usage and was later embraced by many within the community itself, culminating in the modern name Assyrian Church of the East.
Philip Schaff (ed.) in A Religious Encyclopædia (1891), article “Semitic Languages,” states that “the Babylonian-Assyrian disappeared from history in the sixth century B.C., and their language survived only a few centuries,” whereas “the Syriac-Arameans lost their independence in the eighth century B.C., but continued to exist, and their dialect revived in the second century A.D. as a Christian language; and the Jewish Aramaic continued for some centuries (up to the eleventh century A.D.) to be the spoken and literary tongue of the Palestinian and Babylonian Jews.” In other words, as Schaff’s encyclopedia writes, the Assyrian-Babylonian tradition faded early as a historical nationality and language, while the Arameans lived on through enduring Christian and Jewish Aramaic traditions.
Yasmeen Hanoosh writes that the Chaldean–Assyrian identity dispute is not about whether people survived the fall of Nineveh. Some indigenous population clearly continued, and Aramaic persisted. What changes is how later communities tell a monumental history that links themselves to antiquity. In that long view, she argues, both Assyrians and Chaldeans were likely absorbed into mainstream Aramean culture after adopting the Aramaic language, much as other Mesopotamian empires had been absorbed when their own languages and polities declined.
Yasmeen Hanoosh writes that when missionaries and early excavators from the United States and Britain arrived in Mesopotamia in the early nineteenth century, they met East-Syriac Christians who variously identified as Jacobites, Nestorians, and Chaldeans and who also used the umbrella label “Syrian Christians.” This encounter helped set today’s name disputes in motion: the title “Assyrian” as a living communal label had not yet fully revived and only later came to supplant “Nestorian,” while “Chaldean” marked those who had accepted union with Rome.
She emphasizes that Western church patronage and great-power politics shaped communal lines as much as theology. Missionaries became conduits to foreign protection: some communities sought the Church of England’s backing, others aligned with the Roman Church and the French consulate. Conversions in this period were often strategic moves for security rather than changes of belief.
By the mid-nineteenth century these ties produced concrete administrative outcomes. In 1844 the French consul secured millet status for the Catholic Chaldeans; the following year, aided by Protestant missions, the Nestorians also obtained millet recognition. Their patriarch, Mar Shimun, now held both spiritual leadership and an Ottoman salaried office. In Hanoosh’s reading, the Anglo-American missionary presence, together with Catholic diplomacy, fixed the modern split between “Chaldean” and “Assyrian” and helped popularize the latter as the standard non-Catholic name.
Finally, Hanoosh traces the Church of the East from its Persian base to Baghdad, then its later dispersal and recurring succession crises. Papal diplomacy created a Chaldean patriarchate, while the remaining Nestorians later embraced the revived name Assyrian. Her conclusion is that today’s identities grew from hybrid inheritances shaped by language shift into Aramaic, assimilation to Aramean culture, and modern missionary and imperial naming, rather than from a single unbroken national line.
Ignace J. Gelb writes that linguistic change has been a principal driver in how ancient peoples vanish from the historical record: the Sumerians, he notes, "lost their ethnic identity" when they abandoned Sumerian for Babylonian, and later the Babylonians and Assyrians likewise "disappeared as a people when they accepted the Aramaic language." Gelb adds that a similar process occurred with the spread of Arabic after the rise of Islam, so that language replacement often corresponds with the fading of earlier ethnic labels in surviving sources.
Taken at face value, Gelb's point is a clear language centred explanation for why names like "Assyrian" drop out of texts: when a population adopts a new vernacular, external observers and documentary traditions begin to call them by different names, and the older ethnonym recedes. This helps explain the apparent "disappearance" of ancient Assyrians from later historical narratives even where people, settlements and cultural practices continued in roughly the same places. Gelb is therefore arguing about how identity is recorded and remembered as much as about biological or cultural extinction.
That said, Gelb's formulation needs nuance if you use it as a description on a website. A shift of language does not automatically mean that a people vanishes in every meaningful sense. Families, religious institutions, local customs and claims of descent can and often do persist through language change. In other words, while the ancient label "Assyrian" may recede in written sources after an Aramaic takeover, communities with clear lines of continuity survived, and their descendants today may legitimately claim cultural, religious and historical connections to the older societies.
Jessica R. Eber notes that the communities often linked with the “Church of the East” have been described by outsiders with several names over time, among them Syrian (referring to the liturgical language), Assyrian, Assyro-Chaldean, Old East Syrian Church, and Apostolic Assyrian Church of the East. She explains that Protestant missionaries popularized the label “Nestorian” to distinguish these Christians from the Chaldeans who entered communion with Rome in the fifteenth century. Eber also cautions against equating these communities directly with the Assyrians of the Old Testament, calling that linkage an inaccurate assumption that nevertheless influenced some nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship. Today, she observes, the term “Nestorian” is sensitive and often avoided, since many Christians use it pejoratively to denote schism or heresy.
Blincoe writes that in the 19th century Anglican missionaries promoted the name “Assyrian” for members of the Church of the East who did not join the Roman Catholic communion. They saw it as a less pejorative alternative to “Nestorian.” Earlier labels such as “Chaldean” for those in communion with Rome and “Nestorian” for those who were not referred mainly to church affiliation and geography, not to ancient ethnic descent. Blincoe concludes that modern Assyrians and Chaldeans should not be regarded as direct descendants of the ancient Assyrians or Chaldeans.
Philip K. Hitti writes that early Aramean Christians adopted the Edessan Syriac dialect for church, literature, and cultured life. Over time they came to be known as “Syrians” (Suryani), while their earlier name “Aramean” fell from use because it had gained a pagan connotation. In this usage, “Syrian” referred to the people and “Syriac” to the language, which later took a central place in Lebanese literature with the rise of the Maronites.
George Roux writes that after the Medes and Babylonians destroyed Nineveh, Assyria disappeared almost overnight, its cities and culture vanished, unlike Babylonia, which the Persians did not destroy and where monuments and inscriptions show some continuity into later periods. In his words, Mesopotamian civilization lay buried and forgotten until modern excavations, and Assyria is among the Near Eastern states that were wiped out by devastating wars.
Smith traces Assyrian history from its beginnings to Nineveh’s fall in 612 BCE. Smith presents the Assyrians as a Semitic people in character and language, related to “the Jews, Syrians, and Arabs.” He stresses that Assyrian religion grew out of Babylonian religion, with the distinctive change of placing the city-god Assur at the head of the pantheon. In his narrative the empire’s rise rests on military vigor and centralized kingship under Assur.
For the end of the story, Smith writes that after Nineveh’s capture the land was divided among the conquerors: Egyptians held territory west of the Euphrates for a time, Babylonia took most of the country, and Media annexed the northern highlands. He concludes that Assyria then ceased to have a separate existence and was mostly absorbed into Babylonia; its cities decayed, its people dwindled, and its history and language were lost until modern excavations by Botta, Layard, Rawlinson, and others brought them back to light.
Saggs describes ancient Assyria as a state that drew many different peoples into one system. From the 9th century BCE especially, Assyrian kings deported populations from conquered lands and settled them inside Assyria as Assyrians. Cities in the Assyrian heartland became “cosmopolitan and polyglot,” and Saggs adds that there is a real possibility that “people of actual ancient Assyrian descent were a minority” in those cities (p. 128). He notes that whole communities were relocated, new capitals were populated with deportees, and multiple languages were spoken in Assyrian towns.
For Saggs, identity rested not on blood, but on shared institutions. He titles a chapter “Assyrians: a Nation, Not a Race.” His blunt summary is: “The Assyrians were mongrels, and knew it. To them, ethnic purity was an irrelevance.” (p. 126). There were no laws enforcing ethnic separation; outsiders could rise to high office; newcomers often arrived and kept their group cohesion at first, yet over time they entered the Assyrian mix. He emphasizes that Assyrians did not define themselves as a tribe of common descent.
Religion and language were the primary social glue. The unifying language was Akkadian, and the central public cult was that of Ashur. Yet even here Saggs stresses flexibility: a person did not have to worship Ashur to belong in the administration, because the Assyrian pantheon could accommodate gods from other peoples. In plain terms, without Akkadian and the Ashur-centered state religion, there was no strong, single feature that bound everyone into one “ethnic” Assyrian people.
Saggs also looks back to the earliest periods and cautions against assuming a clearly bounded ethnic community from the start. He raises “the basic question about the very existence of an entity that we could call Assyria” in the mid–third millennium (p. 20). Across the second and first millennia, he traces repeated immigrations and deportations—Hurrian, Aramean, and others—that produced a long-term, mixed population in northern Mesopotamia; some districts later became predominantly Aramean. In his narrative, the countryside that survived the empire’s collapse was made up of villagers and peasants shaped by this mixed history, not a single, self-contained ethnic line.
Taken together, Saggs’ account presents ancient Assyria as a political and cultural umbrella rather than an ethnicity in the modern sense: a realm that intentionally integrated diverse groups, called them “Assyrians,” and held them together mainly through administration, Akkadian language, and the public cult of Ashur, with ethnic purity explicitly dismissed as irrelevant.
His Holiness Mor Ignatius Zakka I (+2014) – Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Supreme Head of the Syriac Orthodox Church – together with His Eminence Julius Çiçek (+2005), Metropolitan and former Archbishop of Europe, holding the Syriac-Aramean flag during the inauguration and consecration of the Syriac Monastery of St. Ephrem in the Netherlands, 1984.
ܬܠܝܬܝ ܛܘܒ̈ܐ ܐܝܓܢܐܛܝܘܣ ܙܟܝ ܩܕܡܝܐ (2014♰) ـ ܦܛܪܝܪܟܐ ܕܐܢܛܝܘܟܝܐ ܘܕܟܠܗ ܡܕܢܚܐ، ܪܝܫܐ ܓܘܢܝܐ ܕܥܕܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ ܬܪܝܨܬ ܫܘܒܚܐ ـ ܥܡ ܡܢܚ ܢܦܫܐ ܝܘܠܝܘܣ ܓܝܓܟ ـ ܚܣܝܐ ܕܐܘܪܝܦܝ ـ ܕܢܣܒܝܢ ܐܬܐ ܕܥܡܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ ܐܪܡܝܐ ܒܝܘܡ ܩܘܕܫ ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ̱ ܐܦܪܝܡ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ ܒܗܠܢܕܐ ܐ̱ܨܦܕ
David G. Lyon, Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages at Harvard, states that among the ancient Semitic peoples of Western Asia (Arabs, Arameans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Hebrews/Jews, Phoenicians; and in Africa, Ethiopians), the Babylonians and the Assyrians had “vanished long since.” He contrasts this with the modern scholarly recovery of their languages and literary treasures. Notably, Arameans are listed but not said to have vanished, underscoring a distinction Lyon draws between groups that disappeared as historical nations and those that did not.
Leonard Cottrell’s edited volume The Concise Encyclopedia of Archaeology, a collaborative work by 48 contributing scholars specializing in history and languages, explains that Assyrian power ended catastrophically with the sack of Nineveh in 612 BC. From that point, the Assyrians “disappeared as a nation for ever.” The entry adds that their modern image is mediated largely through Old Testament narratives and, more recently, through the decipherment of their own inscriptions, while emphasizing that no Assyrian nation survived beyond the seventh century BC.
Randall Price contrasts biblical prophecies about Babylon’s permanent desolation with Nineveh’s fate. He notes that Scripture does not predict that no one would ever live at Nineveh again; in fact, the site is inhabited today, but not by Assyrians. What was foretold, he stresses, is that the Assyrians themselves would vanish and that the city would never be rebuilt as a functioning capital. Price therefore distinguishes between later settlement on the mounds and the absence of a restored Assyrian people or a revived Nineveh.
H. R. Hall explains Assyria’s collapse as a combination of military exhaustion and institutional fragility. Already under Sennacherib, he notes, the army had to be filled with subject peoples, which degraded its quality. By Ashurbanipal’s later years only a shadow of the old Assyrian fighting force remained. Hall speaks of the “degeneracy and disappearance of the army,” and because “the army was the nation,” the degeneracy and disappearance of the nation followed. When Nineveh fell, he writes, “literally the Assyrian nation was destroyed.” Unlike Babylon and Thebes, which were destroyed but revived their national life, Assyria “never rose again,” because no peace-organization or proper civil system existed to hold the realm together. The successors of Tiglath-pileser IV, in his view, lacked the intelligence to develop a lasting administrative structure; Assyria had become almost purely a military machine, whereas Egypt and Babylonia possessed age-long civil administrations that could outlive foreign rule.
John L. McKenzie’s entry “Assyria” sketches both the empire’s rise and its abrupt extinction. He says the collapse followed the death of Ashurbanipal: after a century of almost continuous warfare Assyria had exhausted its manpower, while new forces gathered on its borders—the Medes and Scythians to the north and Chaldeans in the south. In 612 B.C. Nineveh was stormed and thoroughly destroyed; its cities, he notes, were so completely ruined that they were never rebuilt. A last Assyrian remnant under Ashur-uballit attempted to carry on from Harran with Egyptian help, but the final blow came when the Babylonians and their allies crushed them at Carchemish in 605 B.C., after which, McKenzie concludes, “the Assyrians disappeared from history.”
Norman Yoffee argues that with the collapse of the Assyrian Empire, Assyrian civilization itself fell: there was no regeneration of an Assyrian state, and Assyria’s culture, religion, and language disappeared. The people living in Assyria proper and in the countryside were largely populations earlier conquered and resettled by the empire, and they had no interest in rebuilding an Assyrian polity or temple culture. Only nineteenth-century excavations restored knowledge of Assyria through thousands of reliefs, statues, and tablets.
John P. McKay and coauthors explain that after the joint Median and Babylonian assaults of the late seventh century BCE, Assyrian urban centers were destroyed and imperial power collapsed. With their cities in ruins and political authority gone, the Assyrians “disappeared from history,” surviving mainly as a negative memory in biblical tradition. They add that about two centuries later Xenophon marched past the mounds of Nineveh without recognizing them, illustrating how completely the imperial past had faded from living knowledge until modern rediscovery.
In The New Answers Book 1 (2006), Ken Ham includes a sidebar titled “Does Archaeology Support the Bible?” that lists historical notes related to Assyria. One point claims that as the Assyrians “disappeared from history after the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC,” the Bible’s retention of specific Assyrian titles (e.g., rabmag, rabshakeh, tiphsar) supports the texts’ authenticity, since such “obsolete” terms would have been preserved by eyewitness writers.
Herbert J. Muller frames the fall of Nineveh as a civilizational rupture. He writes that when the capital was “utterly destroyed” and the Assyrian kingdom “extinguished,” the Assyrians disappeared from history with unusual speed—“more quickly than any other prominent people before or after them.” In his narrative, what follows is a brief Chaldean interlude, but the obliteration of Assyria was so complete that even by Xenophon’s day the ruins passed unrecognized. Muller’s point is not just political collapse; it’s cultural erasure, the Assyrian name and memory slip from the lived historical record, leaving only later rediscoveries to reconstruct what had been the most feared power of the Near East.
Sir Harry Charles Luke uses Mosul’s annual Fast of Nineveh to contrast a living memory with an obliterated past. He writes that apart from this fast and a few earthen mounds, there are no visible links between modern Nineveh and the terror-inspiring city of antiquity. The destruction of Nineveh in 608 BC by the Medes and Babylonians, he says, was so complete that within a single lifetime the Assyrian Empire had not merely fallen but vanished from the face of the earth. Two centuries later, Xenophon marched past its ruins without recognizing that they were the remains of the former imperial capital. Luke adds that, with rare exceptions, the fearsome Assyrian monarchs had been forgotten by the very people who later lived on the site. In his depiction, what survived in Mosul was a religious observance and archaeological remnants, not a continuing Assyrian people.
W. A. Wigram describes the ruins of Nineveh and recounts the city’s final overthrow by Median and Babylonian forces. He writes that the Assyrian dynasty perished in flames in its own palace and concludes that after Nineveh fell there were no true Assyrians left, only a half-bred remnant produced by incessant intermarriage, scattered and incapable of recovery. He emphasizes that what remained at the site were walls, moats, and buried palaces rather than a continuing Assyrian people.
In 1993, leaders of the Ancient Church of the East in Iraq petitioned the Ba’ath authorities to register the church simply as the Church of the East rather than Ancient Eastern Church, presenting the change as a confessional designation and explicitly distancing it from an ethnic label.
W. A. Wigram states in his preface that he uses the name “Assyrian” for the Church of the East throughout his book, but that the term has no historical authority. He also notes that other common labels such as “Easterners,” Persians, Syrians, Chaldeans, and Nestorians are, for various reasons, misleading to the English reader.
Asahel Grant set out expressly to explore the Assyrian mountains to test the claim that the Nestorians were direct descendants of the ancient Assyrians, and after on the ground inquiry he says he found no evidence for that identification. Asahel Grant was an American physician and traveler who journeyed through northern Mesopotamia and into what he called the Assyrian mountains. He approached the region with the then popular expectation of linking the contemporary Nestorians to peoples of antiquity. After spending time in the country of the ancient Chaldeans, he explicitly states that he found no evidence to support such identifications. In particular, he argues that the ecclesiastical title “Chaldean” when applied to East Syriac Christians is of recent origin, arising in 1681 when a Nestorian prelate at Diyarbakir entered communion with Rome and was consecrated as patriarch of the Chaldeans. Grant describes this as the creation of a new Catholic body of “papal Syrians,” comparable to papal Armenians or papal Greeks. From his on the ground observations he treats the nineteenth century ethnonyms being applied in the area, including “Assyrian” and “Chaldean,” as modern overlays rather than proof of direct descent from the empires of antiquity, despite his own travel focus on the Assyrian districts and his interest in ancient Assyria.
According to this 1993 interview in Reformatorisch Dagblad, Prof. L. van Rompay (Leiden) explains that the Syriac Orthodox in southeast Turkey can be seen both as a religious and an ethnic minority: they have their own church and a distinct national-cultural identity, neither Turkish nor Kurdish, and are largely descended from the old populations of Mesopotamia. He sketches the late-antique church landscape in which Aramaic/Syriac-speaking communities formed on both the Roman and Persian sides. Christological disputes in the fifth–sixth centuries produced parallel traditions: the East-Syrian/Nestorian Church in the north of present-day Iraq and the Syriac Orthodox (often called “Monophysites”) in what is now southern Turkey. The Nestorian Church emphasized a clear distinction of Christ’s two natures and was condemned at Ephesus (431). The Syriac Orthodox tradition arose from resistance to Chalcedon (451), affirming one united divine-human nature; its patriarch later settled in Damascus, with communities across Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Europe, and the Americas.
Dr. Heleen Murre-van den Berg adds that the label “Assyrians” for Christians of northern Iraq and southeast Turkey applies mainly to the Nestorians/East Syrians and is of fairly recent origin, dating from the late nineteenth century. American and British missionaries built schools and introduced the first printing press, fostering cultural consciousness. At the same time, excavations of ancient Nineveh encouraged some Nestorians to link themselves to the ancient Assyrians and to articulate a national program (“we are one people; we should restore the Assyrian kingdom”). Syriac Orthodox Christians largely kept their distance from this project. Van Rompay concludes that while cultural continuities with ancient Mesopotamia exist, the Assyrians of antiquity were assimilated into many peoples over time; therefore no direct line can be drawn from the ancient Assyrians to today’s Nestorians, even if modern groups adopt the Assyrian name in a symbolic sense.
A short Christian Science Monitor note from September 1953 comments on mid-century terminology for East Syriac Christian refugees. It states that “Assyrian” was being used as a misapplied label that arose after World War I, when survivors of the Ottoman-era massacres fled to Iraq and were assisted under a League of Nations trusteeship supported by Britain, Iraq, and the League. The piece situates the naming issue within contemporary discussions of funding and politics surrounding refugee aid and associated publications.
According to Aaron Michael Butts, pre-modern Syriac sources do not use “Assyrian” as a normal self-designation for Syriac Christians. The typical self-labels are Oromoyo (“Aramean”) and Suryaya/Suryoyo (“Syriac”), with Suryaya becoming the standard adjective for Syriac Christians across the period. By contrast, Assyria/Assyrian (Othur / Othuroyo) appears in two other senses: first, the biblical–historical meaning referring to the ancient empire and to places like Nineveh; and second, a geographical gentilic used locally, above all for people from Mosul and, by extension in some texts, the region around Arbela (Erbil/Kirkuk). A further, purely rhetorical use appears in Christian writing where “Assyrians” function metaphorically as enemies of Israel, echoing biblical imagery rather than communal self-naming.
Butts then traces how “Assyrian” became attached to Syriac Christians in nineteenth-century Western literature. Early travelers occasionally wrote “Assyrian Christians” merely to mean Christians in Assyria (e.g., C. J. Rich), and some outsiders (Armenians) used forms like Asouri for them. The tighter linkage of East-Syriac Christians with ancient Assyria was popularized by A. H. Layard, who argued they were the descendants of the ancient Assyrians—though he did not claim the communities called themselves Assyrian. The systematic use of “Assyrian” for these Christians developed in the second half of the nineteenth century around the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Mission in Urmia. Seeking an alternative to the stigmatized term “Nestorian” (and distinct from “Chaldean” for the Roman-Catholic branch), Anglican writers adopted “Assyrian”; by 1870 the term was entrenched in Anglican vocabulary, and the mission’s official name became “The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Mission to the Assyrian Christians.” From there it spread in the West, even if field missionaries did not all use it consistently at first. The upshot in Butts’s chapter is that “Assyrian” as a communal label for Syriac Christians is modern and externally driven, arising from nineteenth-century Western (especially Anglican) discourse rather than from pre-modern Syriac self-designation.
Becker argues that the modern ethnoreligious use of “Assyrian” is an “invented tradition”—a revived ancient appellation taken up in the nineteenth–twentieth centuries from Western scholarly and missionary discourse, not from an unbroken continuity with the ancient Assyrians. European and American missionaries, diplomats, and archaeologists routinely used “Chaldean” and “Assyrian” for East-Syriac Christians in and around Urmia and upper Mesopotamia; that external usage, he says, was gradually appropriated by the East Syriac community itself.
Becker’s aim is to explain how and why this retrieval succeeded. He locates the key drivers in the East Syrians’ intensive engagement with American evangelical missionaries, coupled with language reform, autoethnographic writing, and the push for a national literature—processes that made a modern national identity both imaginable and compelling. The result, in his account, is a self-consciously modern Assyrian identity whose label derives primarily from Western sources, but whose adoption was enabled by local social and ideological dynamics.
Crone and Cook argue that Syrian Christians (Suryane) moved from an older ethnic frame to a primarily religious one: as Christianity reordered communal life around baptism and Eucharist, “Aramean” came to be associated with a defeated pagan past and was relinquished as an ethnic badge, even though the word survived in usage (especially for language). In a note they add that the Suryane of Nestorian Iraq “quite frequently speak of themselves and their language as Aramean.” By contrast, pagan Harranians kept “Aramean” precisely by binding it to their native cult, maintaining a nation-plus-religion identity and hopes of restoring an earthly polity.
The later trajectory of these East-Syrian Iraqis aligns with the modern naming shift documented elsewhere in your sources: from the nineteenth century, Western missionaries and writers popularized “Assyrian” for the non-Catholic heirs of the Church of the East, and by the early twentieth century many descendants of those Iraqi communities publicly identified as Assyrian.
In Making History To/As the Main Pillar of Identity: The Assyrian Paradigm, Bülent Özdemir explains that the English term “Assyrian” has shifted meaning over time and across institutions, creating persistent confusion. In academic English it often points to the ancient Assyrians of Assur, but nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries began applying it loosely to a range of Eastern Christian communities, including—misleadingly—some labeled “Nestorian.” During and after World War I the British army continued this loose usage, even naming mountain Nestorian auxiliaries the “Assyrian Levies.” Meanwhile, “Syrian/Syriac Christian” in English can cover several Eastern churches (usually not the so-called Nestorians) and is defined inconsistently by different writers; in Turkish and Arabic, Süryani denotes Syrian Christians and is sometimes extended to Nestorians. Özdemir also notes that some modern Eastern Christian nationalists use “Assyrian” as a notional ethnonym for political purposes.
In Inledning till studiet av det assyriska folkmordet (translation), David Gaunt argues that research on the Assyrian genocide is riddled with terminological pitfalls rooted in how identities were recorded. Under the Ottoman millet system, subjects were classified by religion rather than ethnicity, so ethnic labels like “Assyrian” are largely absent from official sources. Instead, Syriac Orthodox communities appear as Süryani or Yakubiler (from Jacob Baradeus), Chaldean Catholics as Keldani, and members of the Church of the East as Nasturiler—labels echoed in older ecclesiastical discourse as “Jacobites” and “Nestorians.” Neighboring and later traditions added their own exonyms: Armenians called these groups aisori (a term that entered Russian), while late-nineteenth-century Anglo-Saxon missionaries popularized “Assyrian,” typically referring chiefly to the Church of the East; many American and German sources, by contrast, used the umbrella “Syriacs.”
For Gaunt, the consequence is methodological: the same people can surface in archives under different names depending on the language, confessional lens, or missionary agenda of the source. Effective scholarship therefore requires “cross-walking” these labels across Ottoman Turkish, Armenian, Russian, German, and English materials, attending to transliteration variants and the confessional baggage each term carries, and recognizing that “Assyrian” gained broader ethnonymic currency relatively late.
In Massacres, Resistance, Protectors (2006), David Gaunt explains that Anglican work in the mid nineteenth century helped standardize “Assyrian” as a label for Eastern or “Oriental” Christians, especially those often called Nestorians. English clergy began formal contacts in the 1840s, and in 1870 Archbishop A. C. Tait used “Assyrians” in a public appeal to establish the Assyrian Christians Aid Fund. In 1886 the Archbishop of Canterbury created a mission explicitly to the Assyrians. Gaunt notes that the choice of “Assyrian” was deliberate, since it sounded neutral and dignified compared with “Nestorian,” a term burdened by charges of heresy. Through Anglican fundraising, reports, and mission networks, this usage spread in English discourse and helped shift a confessional label toward a broader ethnonym.
Ingmar Karlsson writes that Sweden’s Liberal Party believed it was championing the extinct Assyrian people and Middle Eastern Christians, but in practice its efforts concerned Syriac Orthodox Christians specifically, one of the smallest of the many churches in the region.
Maclean and Browne report that the modern Assyrians habitually call themselves Syriacs or Suryayi (Surayi), and in formal documents “The Church of the East” or simply “The Easterns.” They rarely call themselves “Nestorians,” and resent it when used as a nickname. The authors stress that “Syrian” functions as a religious label shared with the Jacobites, not a racial or national term. They note that in England a fashion had lately arisen to use “Assyrian,” partly to distinguish these Christians from the Jacobites and partly from the supposition that they descend from the ancient subjects of Shalmaneser and Sardanapalus; they judge this usage unsafe and undesirable because the people themselves never used it, their lineage is mixed, and Assyria was only one province within the wider realm of the Church of Seleucia and Ctesiphon. They go further to argue that the modern Assyrians are most likely a mix of races, probably including Kurds, and that the claim of direct descent from the ancient Assyrians is unproven, with writers often confusing the people with the Assyrian Empire itself. They add that none of the territory inhabited by modern Assyrians can properly be called Assyria and that maps sometimes misassign the Kurdish mountains to it.
On “Chaldean,” they write that the name was never given to this people until Latin missionaries came to Mosul; the Latins applied it to distinguish their Roman Catholic converts from the Jacobites, whom they continued to call “Syrians.” In the community’s own old books, “Chaldeans” had meant astrologers, against whom they bore old enmity, so the authors conclude the title properly belongs to the Roman Catholic Uniats of Mosul, not to the modern Assyrians.
They further warn of recurrent confusion in learned and popular writing, citing the tendency for “Nestorians … under the name of Chaldeans or Assyrians” to be confounded with the most learned or the most powerful nation of Eastern antiquity. To avoid ambiguity, the authors themselves prefer “Syrians,” and when a distinction from the Jacobites is needed, “Eastern Syrians.”
The article “Finns det egentligen assyrier?” (“Do Assyrians Really Exist?”) by Ingmar Karlsson examines the question of whether the modern people who call themselves Assyrians are in fact descendants of the ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia, or whether the name represents a more recent historical and cultural construction.
Karlsson begins by outlining the background of the modern Assyrian movement in Sweden, which gained strength in the 1970s when immigrants from southeastern Turkey and northern Syria began identifying themselves as Assyrians. He explains that the ancient Assyrian Empire was destroyed in 612 BCE, and with its fall, the Assyrians disappeared from history as a political and ethnic entity. The groups that today call themselves Assyrians, he argues, do not originate from that ancient population. Instead, they descend from Syriac-speaking Christian communities that emerged centuries later in Mesopotamia. These Christians, who belonged to what became the Syriac Orthodox and Chaldean Catholic churches, spoke Aramaic rather than the ancient Assyrian language.
The article emphasizes that the designation “Assyrian” has no direct ethnic continuity with the Assyrian Empire. Karlsson notes that the use of the term in modern times is mostly coincidental, a result of later historical developments and church traditions rather than of an unbroken ethnic lineage. He traces the evolution of these Christian communities, describing how the Church of the East, the Chaldeans, and the Syriac Orthodox Church all developed from early Mesopotamian Christianity. Over time, the Syriac language replaced earlier local tongues and became a major liturgical language in the region.
Linguistically, Karlsson stresses that the modern Assyrian or “Syriac” language spoken today is not derived from the ancient Assyrian tongue but from Aramaic. The ancient Assyrian cuneiform script and its Semitic language vanished long before the birth of Christ. Modern Assyrians speak various Neo-Aramaic dialects that have been heavily influenced by Arabic and other regional languages. He further notes that the term “Assyrian” gained new meaning in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as part of a nationalist revival among Syriac-speaking Christians. This revival, particularly in the diaspora, sought to unite different Syriac Christian groups under a common historical label, using the name “Assyrian” to evoke the grandeur of the ancient empire and to assert continuity and identity in modern times.
Karlsson concludes that the modern Assyrians are not ethnically descended from the ancient Assyrians. Instead, they are the cultural and religious heirs of ancient Mesopotamian Christianity who adopted the Assyrian name as a historical and symbolic identity rather than an ethnic one. For him, “Assyrian” today is a cultural and ecclesiastical designation used to express unity and heritage, not a literal continuation of an ancient people.
Fortescue argues that the proper technical name for Mar Shimun’s flock is “Nestorians,” the term used universally since the fifth century and one they themselves have often accepted in devotion to “the Blessed Nestorius.” He criticizes the growing Anglican habit of avoiding “Nestorian,” insisting the label need not imply agreement with the condemned heresy and that the group was not founded by Nestorius in any case. Alternative labels fare no better: “Persian Church” or “Turkish Church” are vague; “East Syrian Church” is closer, but too imprecise because there are many different East Syrian bodies.
He reserves particular disdain for the newly adopted “Assyrian Church,” calling it “the worst of all.” In his view they are “Assyrians in no possible sense.” The people inhabit only a corner of the territory once ruled by the Assyrian Empire, a land also covered by the Babylonian Empire; if one follows that logic, he quips, why not call them the “Babylonian Church”? On descent, he says no one can specify the mixture of blood in these lands; while some Nestorians may carry the blood of old Assyrian subjects, so do many other Mesopotamian sects. The empire itself ended centuries before Christ, so a tiny modern sect cannot inherit the name of the vast, long-vanished state. For Fortescue, “Assyrian Church” is neither old, accepted, nor common; it is a recent fad among a handful of Anglican sympathizers.
On “Chaldean,” he explains that this title belongs to the Uniate body corresponding to the Nestorians. Although the word is not ideal, it is fixed by universal and official usage at Rome: they call themselves Chaldeans; their liturgical book is the Missale chaldaicum; and their head bears the style Patriarcha Babylonensis Chaldaeorum. Hence, for the Catholic Uniate counterpart he prefers “Chaldean,” while for Mar Shimun’s non-Uniate community he retains “Nestorian,” and, when a broader confessionally neutral term is needed, “East Syrian.”
Frazee situates the naming issue inside a concrete 19th-century history of the Church of the East and the emerging Chaldean Catholic hierarchy. He recounts the Roman attempt to stabilize the Mosul area by recognizing Yuhanna Hormizd as Chaldean catholicos in Mosul while approving Rabban Hormizd monastery’s constitution under Jibra’il Denbo. Tensions followed: Bishop Yusuf Audo of Mosul was shifted to Al-‘Amadiyah; two apostolic visitors were dispatched to reconcile factions; and in May 1832 Denbo and two companions were cut down by Kurdish raiders. Rome then kept a close watch by establishing a permanent Latin apostolic vicarage in Mosul. When Patriarch Yuhanna resigned shortly before his death on 16 August 1838, the synod chose Niqula Zaya, whom Rome confirmed in April 1840, though he insisted on residing in his Persian see.
Within that setting, Frazee describes how the ethnonym “Assyrian” entered Western usage. In 1820 James Rich of the British East India Company proclaimed he had discovered “Assyrian Christians,” and Europeans adopted the label for the Church of the East—eventually some community members did so too. Frazee calls this an unfortunate addition to the already misleading Catholic title “Chaldean,” producing a pair of confusing names for related but distinct bodies. He notes the influx of British and American missionaries who distributed Bibles and catechisms and tried to explain doctrine to local audiences. One consequence he judges positive was new public attention to the vulnerability of these Christians to Kurdish depredations. He cites the American Presbyterian Eli Smith’s encounter at Khosrowa with a Chaldean bishop, an elderly man in a long Kurdish cape, green turban, and ragged sheepskin pelisse, whose poverty was striking despite a Roman education and some familiarity with the West.
Erol explains that the Christians long labeled “Nestorians” in church polemics, later called Assyrians in Western usage, are the Church of the East, whose Christology was condemned at Ephesus in 431. He situates them among Jacobite villages north of Mosul (notably Telkayf) and describes their settlement in the Tiyari and Hakkari regions, organized as independent tribal groupings.
He then traces the modern ethnic project that gathered different Syriac Christian streams under an Assyrian banner. After arriving in the United States in 1916, Naum Faik changed his own identification and called on “Nestorians, Chaldeans, Maronites, Catholics, and Protestants” to remember their shared past, blood, and language, to exalt the name of the Assyrians, and to unite to secure Assyrian rights.
Atto explains that these communities historically self-named in their own Aramaic as Suroye/Suryoye (modern/classical Syriac). Neighbors called them Suryani (Arabic, Kurdish) and Süryaniler (Turkish). Western scholars long translated Suryoye as “Syrians,” a rendering many Assyrian and Syriac elites rejected because it confused them with the citizens of Syria. To avoid that confusion, elites in the late Ottoman and early American contexts promoted “Assyrian.” Atto cites Naum Faik (1916) urging readers of Bethnahrin in America to adopt the national label Assyrian in English, precisely to distinguish themselves from “Syrians.”
Atto frames this within a broader name debate. In diaspora settings, elites first insisted they were not Turks, Arabs, or Kurds; then many stated they were not Othuroye (Assyrians) but Suryoye; later, the alternative label was articulated as Syrianer or Arameans. Choosing Assyrian in Europe and the United States, she argues, “kills two birds with one stone”: it prevents confusion with Syrians and signals a distinct national identity among immigrant minorities. Young, secular elites advanced this usage, anchoring claims for international recognition as a people with cultural, linguistic, and religious rights.
Woźniak-Bobińska writes that the label “Assyrians” generates persistent confusion because names and identities don’t always map onto each other. Up to the 19th century, people in these communities primarily called themselves Suryoye/Suryaye. The term “Assyrians” was popularized mainly by Western researchers, while contemporary scholars often prefer “Syrians” or “Arameans.” Within the churches, members of the Syriac Orthodox call themselves mostly “Syrians/Syriacs,” and followers of the Chaldean Catholic Church prefer “Chaldeans.”
Margoliouth and Woledge outline Alphonse Mingana’s background and use that to clarify the period’s terminology. Mingana, born near Mosul in 1881, came from the Chaldean community—defined in the preface as the branch of the Nestorians that accepted the authority of Rome. His native language was Arabic; the ecclesiastical language of his community was Syriac, and the vernacular was a modern descendant of Syriac (Neo-Aramaic). Educated at the Lycée St. Jean in Lyon, he returned to Mosul to study at the Syro-Chaldean Seminary, run by French Dominicans for the two Syriac-speaking Uniate churches (Chaldean and “Syrian”). From 1902 to 1910 he taught Syriac, directed the Dominican press, traveled on the seminary’s behalf, and built two pillars of his later scholarly career: collecting Syriac manuscripts (about 70, including 20 on vellum, later burned during the First World War) and editing/publishing Syriac texts (including Narsai’s works, which earned him a papal doctorate).
Crucially for naming, the preface draws a clear contrast between Chaldeans and those whom it says have “in recent times” been called Assyrians—that is, the non-Catholic heirs of the Church of the East. In other words, Margoliouth and Woledge treat “Chaldean” as the Catholic, Rome-united stream of the historic East-Syrian tradition, and “Assyrian” as a modern label applied to the others. The passage thus frames Mingana’s identity and scholarly world within a Syriac Christian milieu where Assyrian as an ethnonym is presented as a recent usage, while Chaldean denotes the Uniate branch.
Wilmshurst opens by noting that the 1920s–1930s saw the rise of a common Assyrian identity, a struggle for an Assyrian homeland, and a turn away from Western missions—developments that mark a fundamentally new phase compared with the prewar history of the Church of the East. He then explains his terminology policy. For most of the period he studies (1318–1913), the church was commonly called “Nestorian” and its faithful were “Nestorians” (or “Chaldeans” for those who entered communion with Rome after 1552). In the sources of the time, “Nestorian” could be a term of abuse used by opponents of East Syrian theology, a badge of pride among its own defenders, and a neutral descriptor in other contexts. He gives concrete examples of East Syrian leaders who used the term positively: ‘Abdisho‘ of Nisibis (1318), Patriarch Eliya X of Mosul (1672), and Patriarch Shem‘un XVII Abraham (1842). Because the word has acquired a stigma in modern discussion, Wilmshurst avoids it as a label in his own prose and instead uses the theologically neutral “East Syrian.” To distinguish the post-1552 non-Catholic branch he uses “traditionalist.”
Wilmshurst also clarifies two other labels that appear in modern writing. First, the modern ethnonym “Assyrian”—often used today in roughly the same sense as “East Syrian” for the non-Catholic branch—was not in use for most of the period he covers, so he avoids it for historical accuracy. Second, “Chaldean,” which the Vatican first applied in the 15th century to identify Catholic converts from the Church of the East in Cyprus, and which was occasionally used by the Catholic patriarchs of Amid in the 18th century, only entered common currency after 1828 with the union of the Mosul and Amid patriarchates; for earlier centuries he therefore prefers “Catholic.” He adds a short note on transliteration: where Syriac and Arabic forms differ, he gives the Syriac form (reflecting his Syriac sources, especially manuscript colophons) and standardizes spellings accordingly—e.g., Denha, not Dinkha.
The Oxford outlines the historical arc of the Church of the East. It notes a phase of repression under the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil (847–861). Earlier witnesses such as Thomas of Marga’s ninth-century Book of Governors and references to Ishaq (d. 877) attest to the church’s intellectual life, while later the Mongols initially favored it. A major collapse followed in the fourteenth century after the Mongol dynasty’s conversion to Islam in 1295. Survivors who escaped Timur’s campaigns fled into the mountains of Kurdistan; their descendants, says the entry, have lived into modern times under the name “Assyrian Christians.” The article adds that the Church of the East’s liturgical language is Syriac and that its eucharistic anaphoras include those attributed to Theodore of Mopsuestia, Nestorius, and to Addai and Mari, the last retaining notably early features.
The entry is also a guide to sources and terminology. It remarks that the Church of the East has always called itself by that name, and it provides an extensive bibliography on the Nestorian controversy and church history (editions of Nestorius’s writings and classic modern studies by, among others, Loofs, Bethune-Baker, Labourt, and Assemani). It directs readers to a cross-reference on “Assyrian Christians” and to related bibliographies, indicating how modern scholarship labels the surviving Kurdish-mountain communities that stem from the historic Church of the East.
According to Christine Chaillot, the communities in question are the Eastern Syriac churches: the Assyrian Church of the East (officially “Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East” since 1976), its parallel jurisdiction the Ancient Church of the East (since 1968, same tradition, Old/Julian calendar), and their Catholic counterpart, the Chaldean Catholic Church (historically linked to the Church of the East). She also shows how names vary by place, especially in India (Chaldean Syrian Church of the East / Assyrian Church of the East; Syro-Malabar; Malankara branches)—which is why the same people can appear under different labels. In her wording, “Assyrian” is the name applied to followers of the Church of the East from the nineteenth century and, after World War I, it also carries a political-ethnic sense.
Chaillot highlights the role of missionaries in that modern consolidation: American and British workers operated among the faithful of the patriarchate of Kochanes (Urmia, Hakkari); the Archbishop of Canterbury founded an Anglican mission in 1881, reorganized in 1886 (Riley, Maclean, Browne). Their stated aim was to assist while preserving beliefs and ancestral customs, notably through schools and by translating and publishing the Church of the East’s books. Taken together, her pages indicate that the use and public prominence of “Assyrian” as a church-linked and later political-ethnic identity are modern (19th–20th century) developments. She does not claim that there was no earlier sense of peoplehood; rather, she shows that the label “Assyrian” and its broader, revived scope are recent and were amplified by missionary activity and twentieth-century usage.
Vine traces the Anglican engagement with the Nestorian Church from the late 19th century: after an appeal in 1868, Archbishop Tait sent E. L. Cutts to investigate (arriving 1876), which led to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Mission to Assyrian Christians beginning in 1881. Early staff included Rudolph Wahl (to 1885), followed in 1886 by Canon A. J. Maclean, Athelstan Riley, and W. H. Browne; later, Canon W. A. Wigram worked there from 1902 to 1912. Headquarters were first at Urmia and moved in 1903 to Van. Vine remarks that the name chosen by the Church of England for its mission “has tended to come into general use,” so that Nestorian Christians were now usually called “Assyrians.” She adds that the Nestorians themselves styled their community “Christians” or “Syrians.” Vine situates the Anglican choice alongside other missionary efforts, Danish and Norwegian Lutherans, Baptists, and the Russian Orthodox. The Russian approach briefly drew Nestorian leaders toward union (notably an 1898 delegation to St. Petersburg); by 1900 Russia had built an Orthodox church at Urmia and opened schools, but its influence soon waned. In contrast, Rome’s solution was to make the Church Uniate (retaining rites while conforming to canon law), while Protestants sought to preserve the church as a distinct body, “the continuation of the Church of the Persian Empire”—yet to reform it from within, correcting doctrine and administration. That stance, Vine notes, sometimes created confused allegiances for Nestorians who benefited from Protestant schooling but hesitated to leave their historic church (she cites the case of Nestorius George Malech).
Later in the chapter, Vine carries the naming point forward into the First World War and its aftermath: in British discussions about Mesopotamia and Nestorian resettlement, she observes that the community was “now generally called Assyrians.” A footnote explains why the label had traction in English public culture, by the 1920s and 1930s, references in The Times, Hansard, Keesing’s Contemporary Archives, Headway, and Great Britain and the East were filed under “Assyrian” rather than “Nestorian,” and the patriarch raised no objection to either name. Vine’s narrative thus shows both the missionary origin of the term’s spread (via the Church of England) and the administrative-media routinization that made “Assyrian” the default Anglophone heading, even as local self-designations remained “Christians” or “Syrians.”
Gallo Shabo, the Syriac-Aramean leader and commander of the defense of Iwardo during the genocide of 1915.
Under his leadership, he successfully gathered a resistance force of 6,000 Syriac-Arameans to protect the village against 13,000 Kurds and Turks, who sought to kill all the Christian Syriac-Arameans of Iwardo.
"It is necessary to know that Naaman was a man from among the nations, an Aramean, that is, Syrian; and in the Greek (version), instead of Aramean it is written Syrian."
Saint Ephrem the Syrian sang the praises of Aram. He prized her even above ‘her companion’ land, as Ephraem calls the historical ‘Holy Land’, and he addressed Aram directly as he spoke of the glories of her saints whose festivals were resounding within her as he wrote. He said,
"May myriads of tongues give thanks for our country,
in which Abraham and his son Jacob walked,
Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel too,
even the eleven chiefs of the tribes.
It was out of your treasury Zion grew rich in the sons of Jacob.
Our country’s name is greater than her companion’s name,
for in her Levi, the chief of the priests, was born,
Judah too, the chief of the royals,
and Joseph, the child who went on to become
the lord of Egypt; in light from you the whole world is alight.
For the new sun which has arisen in creation,
from Judah, who was born in our country, has also risen
and been reflected within our country, albeit he made his light shine from Bethlehem. Since from you the beginning
shone forth, in you too is the end enriched."
About the term "nature," Mor Jacob of Edessa mentions his people being Syriac-Arameans:
“So then, this noun kyōnō, as we Syrians—that is, Arameans—express it, is derived from [the word meaning] “natural/capable” (m’eḳan). And because a single term or word does not suffice to elucidate and explain it thoroughly, but [rather] one must make use of further expressions that have, so to speak, the same meaning, either wholly or in part, [for this reason] we shall express it also by means of [some] other terms, in order to demonstrate just what the meaning of the expression is. We say of something that it is m’eḳan to mean that it is appropriate or well-adapted. People customarily say that something has a certain appropriateness in some way or other, and is well-adapted and properly constituted (kuyyōnō). So let us define meḳan as [meaning] appropriate, well-adapted and properly constituted (kīn), such that by means of all of these terms, we may discover what is the usage and the etymology of this word kyōnō, insofar as it is [used] in our language.”
"Because this man was so cunning and crafty, no place in which someone hid any object escaped his attention, as if that very object had been calling him, saying: “Here I am! I belong to so and so!” He was aware of everything as quickly as the one who hid or put away an object, and everything was revealed to him, as is written about the Son of Perdition. As for the people who married (Syrian) women, sired Syrian children, and mixed with the Syrians, and whom no one was able to distinguish from the Aramaeans, he quickly found out about them."
In 769–770 CE, the Abbasid governor’s agents hunted down fugitives from Mosul hiding in villages across the Jazira. Some were Muslim Arabs who had married local Christian women, fathered children, and lived among the Syriac-speaking Christian population so long that they were outwardly indistinguishable from the Aramaeans (here meaning Syrians). Despite this, the governor identified them, seized them, and confiscated their property.
Amir Harrak notes: Aramaeans here is synonymous with Syrians (Syriac-speaking Christians; see the note on p. 225 n. 1 above). The men in question may have been Muslim Arabs who had married Christian women.
"Often they used to cross over and penetrate inside the borders, either because of the negligence of the agent in charge of the guard, or because of the tithe which was mercilessly imposed on them out of greed, and used to be captured and brought into Qamh by the Romans. When the man in question would see them, he treated them with a great deal of compassion, saying: “If you want, stay with us, or if you want, leave and go home in peace.” But if they left, he would send along provisions for them. Truly, my brothers, God has rewarded this man in that he saved him, together with all the people who were with him inside the fortress, from the hands of the Assyrians […] they heard: ‘He will not invade this town, but I will put a ring in the nose of this Assyrian and I will cause him to return with shame by the way in which he came.’ The Persians were fighting with all means, yet their tricks failed. They built mobile wooden houses to fill the ravine beside the city wall, but the Romans destroyed them. One night, thinking the defenders were asleep, countless Persians tried to climb the walls, shouting “Allahu Akbar,” but the Romans struck them down, piling their corpses in heaps. Thus all their efforts proved futile, for the helper of the Romans was the Lord."
In 769–770 CE, a massive multi-ethnic Abbasid army under ‘Abbas (brother of the Caliph) besieged the Byzantine fortress of Qamh. The chronicler describes the army’s diverse pagan and Muslim elements, their sins, and the heavy burden Arab rule placed on the local Syrian (Aramean) villagers. The Roman commander, Sergius, treated captured villagers with compassion. During the siege, the enemy taunted the defenders with boasts about past victories over many kings and lands. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Sergius and his men relied on prayer and faith, eventually repelling the attackers.
“Assyrian” is a figurative label for the Arab Muslim besiegers.
"At this time the people of Mosul, who lived in this region of the Jazira, were exceedingly rich, in such a manner that they were devouring all the output of the people of the Jazira through forfeit and usury. Though the Lord said: Do not lend money to your brother on interest, and do not give your money with usury, they did the opposite. They lent on interest and gave their money at forfeit and with usury. They became owners of slaves and maidens, and possessed properties, vineyards, and lands, in such a manner that soon they were close to owning the entire land which spoke the language of the children of Aram, and the whole Jazira was near to becoming the property of the Narsabadians."
Wealthy outsiders from Mosul, the Narsabadians, used debt and usury to seize land in the Jazira, coming close to owning the entire “land which spoke the language of the children of Aram” — the native Syriac-speaking Christian population whose land was being taken.
ܐܪܥܐ ܕܠܫܢܐ ܕܒܢܝ ܐܪܡ: Northern Syria, the Jazira of the Arab sources, had been the homeland of the Aramaeans since the late second millennium B.C. Syriacspeaking people were the descendants of these Aramaeans, as the expression above indicates.*
"The year one thousand and three: ‘Abd-al-Malik made a “census (ta‘dil) among the Syriacs. He issued a swift decree stating that every person must go to his country, village, and paternal house to register his name and that of his father, as well as his vineyards, olive trees, cattle, children, and all that he owned.
From this time, the “poll-tax” began to be levied on the male heads, and all the calamities began to emerge against the Christian people. Previously, kings used to levy tribute on land, not on men. From this time onward, the Sons of Hagar began to reduce the Sons of Aram to Egyptian slavery. But woe unto us! Because we sinned, the “slaves” ruled over us!
This was the first census (ta‘dil) the Arabs had made."
In the passage, it first says that ‘Abd al-Malik made a census “among the Syrians” and later that the “Sons of Hagar” began to reduce the “Sons of Aram” to slavery. Such wording shows “Syrians” and “Sons of Aram” are used for the same people, the native Syriac speaking Christian community descended from the ancient Arameans.
In this year, when I was visiting the diocese of Tur Abdin, some brothers asked me to translate this article into Syriac and publish it for the benefit of our Aramean readers. Their request pleased me, and as soon as I reached my place, I fulfilled their wish, translating the article into Aramaic and making such corrections as were appropriate for the language.
"The deceitful workers sent by Persia descended upon her, and with their swords they trampled her beautiful grapes, pressing her like clusters—the bodies of her children—and wine flowed within her, which the swords of Assyria pressed. Beautiful forms, beloved persons, were destroyed in the hasty trampling by captors when it was opened like a great winepress of blood."
"Nations and tribes and all families shall weep for OMID, which once gave abundance to the regions and now has perished. Travelers shall weep for her on their paths, for all roads have been cut off from passers-by. All merchants shall weep for her in their caravans, for captives entered instead of merchants and plundered her merchandise. The chiefs of cities and towns shall weep for her, for the sword of the Assyrians has devoured her leaders."
"Look and see the destruction of OMID when it was handed over, when its foot was caught in the trap of the Assyrians who hunted it with skill and persistence, when they stirred it with the sounds of bowstrings and bows."
"Persecutors, arrows loosed, fearful spears, sharpened swords; severed heads, mangled bodies, and corpses laid to ruin; devastation in houses and courtyards; the blood of the slain; skeletons strewn in the streets and at every gate; a drawn sword and a cloud of suffering spread over all; a flood of tears; thunders of weeping rising from those who hear. Who has a heart of stone that would not be moved to bitterness over the destruction of the daughter of the Arameans?"
"This one opened the big gate of baptism in Edessa, the city full of blessings for the prudent ones. This one brought the glorious garments from the house of the Father and bathed and embellished the daughter of the Arameans when she was taken [as wife]."
Bar Hebraeus writes about the sons of Shem:
"Assyrians, Chaldeans, Lydians, [Lurs?], Syriacs, Hebrews, Persians."
Interesting how he replaced Arameans with Syriacs, while Assyrians remained unchanged. Suryoyo/Syriac refers exclusively to Arameans, regardless of its etymology.
"I thank You, God the Father, who brought me from non-existence into existence, and by Your grace have led me to the knowledge of Your greatness. From the depths of the voiceless, You raised me by Your Word, and to the heights of the spiritual ones You have exalted me. You have removed from me the impediment of the tongue and the stammering of speech, and You have multiplied perfect gifts upon me. You did not corrupt me with barbaric, pagan astrology, but instead brought me to the eloquent Syriac-Aramean nation.
Nature, worshipped by all powers; Power, who empowers all; Light, who illuminates all — You are glorified in Your oneness and exalted in Your Trinity by minds enlightened by the light of Your face, now and forever and ever."
“A lovely conversation with our brothers and sons of our race (fellow countrymen), the beloved and humble Syriac Jacobites, in the form of a disputation between St. Aphrem the Teacher and his Aramean Nation, that is to say, the Syriac Nation.”
A picture from the village of Qeleth, taken by American missionaries in 1949, during the inauguration of the new bell of the Syriac Protestant church in the village.
Semhan Kerimo (left) and Lahdo Uyar dbe Basso (right) in Midyat, 1960, with the Syriac Protestant church in the background. They bought their bike in Syria, where they were working.
Above, from left: Shibo Sedde-Ediz, Lahdo Antar-Cakir, Aziz dbe Maksi Galle, Nicmo dbe Cabdiyo, Yakub Ercan dbe Kittik, and the driver with a hat, Abdulkadir Kahla.
Seated, from left: Gevriye dbe Bugdo, Suphi Kermane, Denho Rhavi Akbas, and Melek Bisse.
On the right (owner): Musa Aras; Hanne Chalma; Lahdo dbe Lahdoko Grigo; Bunyamin Icmen; Savme dbe Chamo; Musa dbe Xirman; and on the left, Fikri Zatte Chalma. Various silver items produced on the table were sold all over Anatolia.
"With the help of our Lord I have arrived at the end. And as a miracle provides the sweetness of the essence of the Aramaeandom, I have arranged (only) the beginnings for you (and) I ask you to be very careful with it."
"Aramean teachers give advice about this and say: do not talk too much, neither words of wisdom"
"For the fear of God and the love of mankind by the Arameans."
"And as a careful examination by scholars (shows), the art of writing was a discovery of the Arameans; and among those who received it were the Greeks and the Romans, and the Saracens (i.e. Arabs), and the Persians, and the Armenians. Therefore, for the Arameans it is a blessing without equal among all mankind."
"My dear and beloved Aramean, in many ways I am indebted to you on account of the racial love of Adam and the Semitic one of Aram (that burns in my heart)."
"I think, my dear one, . . . that you long for the Aramaic tongue, the tongue which my ancestors spoke – the lordly and ancient language. That (language) in which our Lord spoke when he was dwelling on the earth."
In this dictionary, it is stated that the Hebrew word אַרָמִי, translated as Aramean, is an adjective meaning of 'a Syriac.' It appears in Genesis 25:20 and is found in Targum Aramaic (TA) and Syriac (ܐܳܪ̈ܳܡܳܝܶܐ, lit. Oromoye, meaning Arameans).
The distinction between this entry and the previous one, which refers to pagans, is based on vocalization traditions in TA and Syriac.
So, this dictionary clearly states that Aramean is synonymous with Syriac and is differentiated from pagan in both the Syriac language and Targum Aramaic.
Flavius Josephus (c. AD 37 – c. 100) was a Roman-Jewish historian and military leader. He is best known for The Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews, key works on Jewish history. Initially fighting against Rome in the First Jewish–Roman War, he later defected and became an advisor to Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus. Josephus played a crucial role as a mediator and translator during the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70. His writings remain vital sources for understanding the history of ancient Israel, Jewish culture, and the Roman Empire.
Strabo (64 or 63 BC – c. 24 AD) was an ancient Greek geographer who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. He is best known for his work Geographica, which presented a descriptive history of the people and places from different regions of the world known during his lifetime. Additionally, Strabo authored historical works, but only fragments and quotations of these survive in the writings of other authors.
Karl Eduard Sachau (born 20 July 1845, died 1930) was a German orientalist. He became a professor at the University of Vienna in 1872 and, in 1876, was appointed professor at the University of Berlin, where he became the director
Dietrich Hermann Hegewisch (15 December 1746 – 4 April 1812) was a German historian who was a native of Quakenbrück. He was the father of political publicist Franz Hermann Hegewisch (1783-1865).
Hegewisch studied theology and history at the University of Göttingen. Following graduation he was a private tutor, then later worked as a newspaper editor in Hamburg. From 1782 to 1812 he was a full professor of history at the University of Kiel. In 1805 he was appointed Etatsrat by the Danish monarchy.
Theodor Mommsen (November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th century. He received the 1902 Nobel Prize in Literature for his historical writings, including The History of Rome, after having been nominated by 18 members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. He was also a prominent German politician, as a member of the Prussian and German parliaments. His works on Roman law and on the law of obligations had a significant impact on the German civil code.
Theodor Nöldeke (born March 2, 1836, Harburg, Hanover [Germany]—died December 25, 1930, Karlsruhe, Germany) was a German Orientalist noted for his Semitic and Islamic studies, which included a history of the Qurʾān (1859). After holding several academic posts, Nöldeke became professor of Oriental languages at the University of Strasbourg (1872–1906), then within the German Empire. His large contribution to the history of Semitic languages included the publication of several grammars. His other scholarly works included Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden (1879; “History of the Persians and Arabs to the Sāsānid Period”), a version of the Arabic chronicle of aṭ-Ṭabarī. Among his works intended for a general readership were Orientalische Skizzen (1892; Sketches from Eastern History, 1892) and a life of Muḥammad (1863).
"The children of Aram planted the fertile country north of Babylonia, called Aram Naharaim, or ‘Aram between the two rivers,’ the Euphrates and Tigris, thence called by the Greeks, Mesopotamia, Gen. xxiv. 10: and Padan Aram, the level country of Aram, Gen. xxv. 20. This country of Aram is frequently rendered Syria in Scripture; Judges x. 6; Hosea xii. 12, &c.; which is not to be confounded with Palestine Syria; into which they afterwards spread themselves, still retaining their original name, of Ἀράμοι, or Arameans, noticed by Homer, Il. ii. 783."
Here it is written that the Arameans were from Mesopotamia, that is Aram Naharaim. It also states that Aram is synonymous with Syria in Scripture. Furthermore, it mentions that when the Arameans spread to Palestine Syria, they retained their original name.
The Chronicle of Arbela, attributed to Meshihâ-zkhâ and believed to date from the 6th century, consists of biographies of twenty bishops who led the Church of Adiabene until that time. This work provides insight into the early history and leadership of the church in the region.
Shemon Bar Sabbae (d. 341 or 344) was the Bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and a martyr. He was arrested for refusing a royal order to raise a double tax on Christians during the reign of Shapur II. After several meetings with the king, Shemon was executed. His martyrdom is recorded in Syriac texts, including the 'Martyrdom of Shemon' and the 'History of Shemon,' both of which highlight his steadfastness in faith and his role in the persecution of Christians under Shapur II.
Agapius of Hierapolis, also known as Maḥbūb ibn Qusṭanṭīn (died after 942), was a Melkite Christian historian and the bishop of Manbij in Syria. He wrote a universal history in Arabic, titled Kitāb al-ʿunwān ("Book of the Title"), which covers the history of the world from its creation up to the year 941/942. He was a contemporary of the annalist Eutychius (Said al-Bitriq), also a Melkite.
Paul Al-Khoury Al-Kfarnissy (1888–1963) was a professor of Syriac at the Lebanese Maronite Order. His works include an unpublished history of Syriac literature. He is particularly known for his Grammar of the Aramaic Syriac Language, which is considered one of the best-written Syriac grammars produced in Arabic.
Mgr Paul Assemani (1879–1958) was a Syrian priest and scholar. He was born in 1879 in Hasroun, Lebanon, and joined the Petit Séminaire of Ain Waraqa for his studies. He was ordained a priest in 1900. Mgr Assemani taught Arabic at the Patriarchal Seminary and was responsible for the Arabic section of the Chancery. Between 1914 and 1918, he returned to Lebanon and, on 8 September 1919, was appointed parish priest of the Holy Family Church in Ramallah, Palestine, where he served until 1921. In April 1921, he resumed his position as an Arabic language professor at the Patriarchal Seminary until 1933. In 1933, he became the Procurator of the Maronite Patriarchate and Rector of the Maronite Roman College in Rome. He celebrated his golden priesthood jubilee in 1950 at Saint Maron Church in Rome. Mgr Assemani was also a Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. He passed away on 5 November 1958 in Rome after falling in an elevator shaft at the age of 80. Mgr Assemani translated approximately ten works and published a history of the Assemani family as well as a history of Syriac literature.
Philoxenos Yuḥanon Dolabani (1885–1969) was a modern Syriac Orthodox writer, educator, and bishop of Mardin (1947–69). Born and raised in Mardin, he initially pursued a career in shoe-making but later became a monk in 1908. Dolabani taught at several monasteries and the Syriac Orthodox Orphanage in Adana. He accompanied Patriarch Eliya III on pastoral tours in the Middle East, particularly after World War I and the Sayfo massacres. In 1947, he was consecrated Bishop of Mardin. Dolabani edited various works, including an abridged version of the *Beth Gazo* and Bar ʿEbroyo’s *Book of the Dove*. He authored over 40 books in Syriac, Arabic, and Turkish. His autobiography was published posthumously in 2007.
Mor Sevira Yacob Bartelli, Bishop of the Convent of Mor Matta and Azerbaijan, who died in 1241, in his book Questions and Answers, advises those studying the Syriac dialects: "Reject what they composed and be Syriac like the Syriacs."
Dionysios bar Ṣalibi (d. 1171) was the Metropolitan of Amid (modern-day Diyarbakır) and a prolific Syriac Orthodox author. He was likely born in Melitene, a cultural crossroads for Syriac and Greek influences. His first notable work was a refutation of Yuḥanon of Mardin's claim that the fall of Edessa in 1144 was against God's will. Initially banned, Dionysios' work was later accepted, leading to his appointment as Bishop of Marʿash in 1148. After Marʿash was taken by the Armenians in 1156, he returned to Melitene, later becoming the Bishop of Amid in 1166, where he restored the Church of Yoldat Aloho. Dionysios died in 1171 and was buried in Amid.
Moses Bar Kepho was the bishop of Beth Raman and a significant Syriac theologian. Born in Balad (modern Eski Mosul), he became a monk at 20 and was consecrated bishop at around 30. His diocese covered Beth Raman, Beth Kiyonaye, Beth ʿArbaye, and Mosul. Known for his theological works, he was one of the greatest scholars in the Syriac Orthodox Church. His writings often used a formulaic, question-and-answer style, focusing on biblical exegesis, theology, and liturgy. He died on February 12, 903, at age 70 or 90.
Anton of Tagrit, also known as Antonius Rhetor, was a 9th-century Syriac Orthodox theologian, monk, and rhetor. He was based in Tagrit and is best remembered for his contribution to Syriac literature. One of his few surviving works, The Book of the Rhetoric (ܥܠ ܝܕܥܬܐ ܕܪܗܝܛܪܘܬܐ), was translated into several languages, including English.
Dionysios of Tel Maḥre (Patriarch 818–845) was a historian and a Syriac Orthodox patriarch. Born in Tel Maḥre, he became a monk and was later elected patriarch in 818. His tenure was marked by challenges, including opposition from schismatic groups and tensions with Muslim authorities. He worked to maintain unity in the church, gaining official support from Caliph al-Maʾmūn in 820 and obtaining decrees to suppress rival bishops. Dionysios also intervened in other Christian communities' issues, including the Bashmurites' revolt. He authored a historical work covering ecclesiastical and secular matters, though only fragments remain. Dionysios died in 845.
The Chronicle of Zuqnin is a universal history that begins with the creation of the world and concludes around 775, the time it was written. Known from a single manuscript, it is housed in the Vatican Library (Codex Zuqninensis Vat. Syr. 162) and includes additional folios in the British Library. The author's name is not provided, but it is likely Yeshuʿ the Stylite of Zuqnin, based on a 9th-century colophon.
The chronicle is divided into four parts. Part I covers the creation to Constantine, using the Chronicle of Eusebius. Part II spans from Constantine to Theodosius II, based on sources like Socrates Scholasticus. Part III, using works like Yuḥanon of Ephesus' Ecclesiastical History, covers Zeno to Justinian. Part IV, the chronicler’s own contribution, discusses Justinian's reign up to 775, with detailed accounts of the early Abbasids' economic policies and the Syriac Orthodox Church in the Jazīra.
Severus of Antioch (d. 538) was a Syriac Orthodox theologian and patriarch, recognized as one of the most important Greek theologians of the 6th century. Born in Sozopolis, he converted to Christianity in 488 and later became a prominent anti-Chalcedonian leader. He was elected patriarch of Antioch in 512 but fled to Egypt in 518 after the pro-Chalcedonian emperor Justin I came to power.
Severus' theological writings, mostly in Greek, were condemned by Emperor Justinian in 536, with many surviving only in Syriac translations. His works focused on refuting Chalcedonian positions and defending his Christological views. He also wrote letters, hymns, and theological treatises, and is remembered for his influence on Syriac Orthodox Christianity. He died in 538.
Simeon of Beth Arsham was a 6th-century Syriac bishop known for defending Orthodox Christianity. As bishop near Seleucia-Ctesiphon, he opposed Nestorians and other heresies, converting many in Persia and Mesopotamia. After imprisonment, he continued his missionary work and served as an envoy between Byzantium and Persia. He died around 540 in Constantinople.
John Rufus was an anti-Chalcedonian priest of Antioch, a disciple of Peter the Iberian and an ecclesiastical historian who served as the bishop of Maiuma.
Saint Mari (Mor Mari), originally named Palut, was a disciple of Addai (Thaddeus of Edessa) and a key figure in early Christianity. As one of the 72 disciples, he was sent to preach in Mesopotamia, particularly around Nineveh, Nisibis, and along the Euphrates. He played a major role in spreading Christianity in Syria and Persia.
According to tradition, Mor Mari performed many miracles, demonstrating his holiness. His missionary work laid the foundation for the Church of the East, and his legacy remains significant in Syriac Christian history.
Addai of Edessa (Mor Addai) was one of the 72 apostles of Jesus. According to tradition, he was a Jew from Edessa who became a follower of Jesus after hearing John the Baptist. After Pentecost, he preached in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Persia, converting many and establishing the church in Edessa.
A key legend about Addai involves King Abgar of Edessa, who was said to have written to Jesus, asking for healing. Jesus supposedly replied, promising to send a disciple. After Jesus’ ascension, Addai was sent to Edessa, where he healed Abgar and spread Christianity. This story, recorded by Eusebius in the 4th century, later became central to Syriac Christian tradition.
In this dictionary, it is stated:
ארם, meaning Aram in English, is equated as Syria, showing that Aram and Syria are synonymous and mean the same thing.
ארמיא, meaning Aramean in English, is equated as Syriac, showing that Syriac and Aramean are synonymous and mean the same thing.
ארמיא, meaning Aramean in English, is equated as the Syriac language, showing that Aramaic and the Syriac language are synonymous and mean the same thing.
These definitions confirm the interchangeable use of Aram, Syria, Aramean, and Syriac, demonstrating their historical and linguistic continuity.
"Syriac, i. e. the language of the Christian Arameans, who had their headquarters in Edessa in a northern Mesopotamia, is, in the first place, historically important, since it was through the medium of Syriac literature that Christian and philosophic learning passed to the Arabs and Persians, and even to India and China"
Syriac is said to be the language of the Aramean Christians, i.e., Syriacs.
In Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, it is stated:
אֲרָם ('Arâm) comes from a root meaning 'highland' and refers to Aram or Syria, including its inhabitants. The term is used to describe Aram, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Syriacs, demonstrating that Aram and Syria are interchangeable in biblical and linguistic usage.
אֲרַמִּי ('Arammîy) is defined as an Aramean or Aramitess, with the meaning Syriac, confirming that Arameans and Syriacs are synonymous in identity.
אֲרָמִית ('Aramîyth) is defined as the Aramaic language, and it is specified that this is the Syriac language (tongue), in Syriack, showing that the language of the Arameans was also called Syriac.
אֲרָם צוֹבָה ('Aram Tsôbâh) is defined as Aram of Tsoba (Coele-Syria), linking Aram directly to historical Syria, further reinforcing the synonymous nature of these terms.
אֲרַם נַּהֲרַיִם ('Aram Nahărayim) means 'Aram of the Two Rivers' (Euphrates and Tigris) or Mesopotamia, indicating that Aram extended into what was also considered Mesopotamia, yet still retained 'Aram' in its name.
In summary, Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary consistently equates Aram with Syria and Aramean with Syriac, both in ethnic identity, geography, and language.
"We have already expressed the assumption that originally, northern Mesopotamia in the narrower sense, as the relatively original land of the Arameans, was called 'Aram' and that this name was only later transferred to some other parts of Mesopotamia and Syria. Here, the Arameans are connected as a native people of northern Mesopotamia, and the name of their land, Aram, was also used to refer to Syria and parts of Mesopotamia, such as Aram-Naharaim."
Aram is stated to be synonymous with Syria.
Eliya of Nisibis is referenced with the statement that ܐܳܪܳܡܳܐ (translated as Aram) is the name of a place, while ܐܳܪܳܡܳܝܳܐ (translated as Aramean) is a Syriac. Here, Aramean is synonymous with and equated to 'a Syriac.'
The author, referencing Isho Bar Ali and Bar Bahlul, makes the statement that Armojó and Armoït mean pagan and heathen. He further notes that this distinction already appears in the Syriac translation of the New Testament, where Ἕλληνες (Hellenes, i.e., Greeks) is translated as Armojó, ἐθνικῶς (ethnikos, i.e., gentile/pagan) as Armoït, and ὁ Σύρος (ho Syros, i.e., the Syrian) as Oromojó.
Thus, it is said that Aramean and pagan/heathen are differentiated.
In Lexicon Chaldaicum et Syriacum, it is stated:
אָרָם – Translated as Aram. The entry explains: "The name of the man Aram, from whom Syria is called Aramia." This demonstrates that Aram and Syria are synonymous.
אָרָמָא – Translated as Aramean and Syriac. The term ܐܳܪܳܡܳܝܳܐ is also given as Aramean, demonstrating that Syriac and Aramean are synonymous. Syriac and Aramean are used interchangeably and are equated to each other, reinforcing their identical linguistic and ethnic significance.
In Lexicon Syriacum Concordantiale, it is stated:
ܐܳܪܳܡ – Translated as Aram and equated with Syria. The name ܐܳܪܳܡ (Aram) is synonymous with Syria, and from it, the region was called Aramia, from which the gentilic/racial designation also derives. Aram and Syria are used interchangeably, referring to the same geographical and historical entity.
ܐܳܪܳܡܳܝܳܐ – Translated as Aramean and equated with Syriac, with both terms being synonymous. ܐܳܪܳܡܳܝܳܐ (Aramean) and Syriac are used interchangeably, signifying the same ethnic and linguistic identity.
In Lexicon Syriacum by Antonio Zanolini, the entry for ܐܳܪܳܡܳܝܳܐ is translated as 'Aramean' and is also equated with 'Syriac,' using the terms interchangeably.
In Schindleri Lexicon Pentaglotton, it states the following:
Aramean (ארמי) is equated with Syrus (Syriac) and Aramaeus (Aramean), using Syriac and Aramean interchangeably.
The term ארם (Aram), ארמי (Aramean, singular), and ארמים (Arameans, plural) are given in Hebrew.
The Lexicon Syriacum Concordantiale states that Aram is a proper name of a man (Luke 3:33), from which the region of Syria derives its name, equating Syria with Aram.
Additionally, it is used as a gentilic/racial designation, with its emphatic form meaning Aramean, equated to Syrian (Luke 4:27).
The Lexicon Syriacum Concordantiale states that Aram is the man after whom Syria was named, showing that Syria and Aram are synonymous. It also identifies Arameans as Syriacs, confirming that the terms are used interchangeably in history and the Bible.
- The term ܐܳܪܳܡ and ܐܰܪܰܡ is translated as Aram and equated to Syria.
- The term ܐܳܪܳܡ ܢܰܗܪ̈ܺܝܢ is translated as Aram-Naharaim and equated to Mesopotamia.
- The term ܐܳܪܳܡܳܝܳܐ is translated as Aramean and equated to Syriac.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia states the following:
- Arameans (ארמים) are equated with Syriacs – The entry explicitly mentions that Arameans are often translated as Syriacs in both the Authorized Version (AV) and Revised Version (RV) of the Bible. The text directs the reader to Syria for further clarification.
- Aramaic (ארמית) is equated with Syrian/Syriac – The encyclopedia lists Aramaic as equivalent to Syrian/Syriac in biblical translations. In the AV, it appears as Syrian, while in the RV, it is Syriac.
- Biblical references confirm this equivalence – Passages like 2 Kings 18:26 and Isaiah 36:11 describe Aramaic as the "Syriac language," reinforcing that in biblical contexts, the terms Aramean and Syriac, as well as Aramaic and Syriac, are used interchangeably.
- Aram-Dammesek (ארם דמשק) is Syria of Damascus, conquered by David (2 Samuel 8:5-6), reinforcing the identification of Aram with Syria.
- Aram (ארם) and its people, the Arameans, are equated to Syriacs. The term Aramitess (ארמית) refers to an Aramean woman, equated to a Syriac woman (1 Chronicles 7:14), showing that some inhabitants of Gilead were Arameans, equated to Syriacs, by descent.
- Aram-Naharaim (ארם נהרים) refers to Mesopotamia, also called Syria of the Two Rivers, identifying it with the region between the Tigris and Euphrates and reinforcing the connection between Aram and Syria.
- Aramean regions such as Aram-Maacah (ארם מעכה), Aram-Rehob (ארם רחוב), and Aram-Zobah (ארם צובה) are equated to Syrian territories, as they are all listed under Syria in the encyclopedia.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia equates Arameans (ארמים) with Syriacs and Aramaic (ארמית) with Syrian/Syriac, as seen in Biblical translations where "Syrian" (AV) and "Syriac" (RV) are used interchangeably. It identifies Aram (ארם) with Syria, including regions like Aram-Dammesek, Aram-Naharaim, and Aram-Zobah, and states that an Aramean woman (ארמית) is equated to a Syriac woman (1 Chronicles 7:14).
- ארם (Aram) is translated as Aram, Mesopotamia, and Syria. It refers to both Western Syria and Mesopotamia. When used alone, it usually means Western Syria, especially Syria of Damascus. When referring to Mesopotamia, it appears as ארם נהרים (Aram-Naharaim), meaning Syria of the two rivers, or פדן ארם (Paddan-Aram), meaning the plain of Syria.
- ארמי (Aramean) is equated with Syriac as a term for the people.
- ארמית (Aramaic) is equated with Syriac as the language, as seen in Daniel 2:4, Ezra 4:7, and Isaiah 36:11.
- ארם צובה (Aram-zobah) and ארם בית רחוב (Aram-beth-rehob) were Aramean kingdoms later subject to Damascus.
- ארם (Aram) is also a personal name, referring to a grandson of Nahor in Genesis 22:21.
Arameans (ארמי) are equated with Syriacs, and Aramaic (ארמית) is equated with the Syriac language. Aram (ארם) refers to both Syria and Mesopotamia, linking the Arameans, their land, and their language to Syriac identity.
In this dictionary:
- ארם (Aram) is translated as Aram and equated with Aramaea and Syria.
- ארמא (Aramaah) and ארמיתא (Aramitah) are translated as Aramaic but equated with Aramean and Syriac.
- ארמאי (Armaei) is equated with Arameans.
- ארמית (Aramit) is translated as Aramaic but equated with Syriac.
In this dictionary, the term ארם (Aram) is equivalent to Aramaea and is equated with Syria.
The term ארמא ,ארמאה (Aramean) is also equated with Syriac.
The term ܐܳܪܳܡܳܝܳܐ is equated with Aramean, which is equivalent to Syriac.
The term ܐܳܪܡܳܐܻܝܬ is equated with Aramaic, which is also equivalent to Syriac.
In this dictionary, Syriac refers both to the Aramean people and to their language, Aramaic.
"In the name of God, I undertake to write a book of Christian teaching for the progress of Aramean learners in Syriac confession, which was established in Arabic by Mor Ignatius Aphrem the First, Patriarch of the Apostolic See and of all the East."
"Because of their hatred, they (the Greeks) call us Jacobites instead of Syriacs. In response, we say that the name Syriac, which you have taken from us, is superior, for it comes from Syrus, who ruled over Antioch, and the land was named Syria after him—just as your name, Greek, comes from Javan the pagan. However, we are the descendants of Aram, and in ancient times, we were called Arameans after his name."
"Again, by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, we write a codex showing all the feasts of our Lord and the commemorations of the saints throughout the entire annual cycle. The first of October, the first month and the beginning of the Syriac year."
"Again, by the power of our Lord, we write a codex showing all the feasts of the year. First, the first of Octobter, the beginning of the Syriac year."
(ܬܘܒ ܒܝܕ ܚܝܠܗ ܕܡܪܢ ܟܬܒܝܢܢ ܩܘܕܝܟܘܣܟ ܡܚܘܝܢܐ ܕܟܠܗܘܢ ܥܐܕܐ ܕܫܢܬܐ ܩܕܡܝܬ ܬܫܪܝܢ ܩܕܡܝܐ ܪܝܫ ܫܢܬܐ ܕܣܘܪܝܝܐ)
"Calendar of the Lord's Feasts and Commemorations of Saints of the Annual Cycle according to the Order of Mor Jacob of Edessa before the First of October, the beginning of the Suryoyo/Syriac year"
(ܡܚܘܝܢܐ ܕܥܐܪܐ ܡܪܐܢܝܐ ܘܕܘܟܪܢܐ ܕܩܕܝܫܐ ܕܟܪܘܟܝܐ ܫܢܬܢܝܐ ܛܘܟܣܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܝܥܩܘܒ ܐܘܪܗܝ ܩܕܡ ܬܫܪܝܢ ܩܕܝܡ ܪܝܫ ܫܢܬܐ ܕܣܘܪܝܝܐ)
"The Syriacs are the grandchildren of the Aramaeans that trace their roots to Aram, the Son of Sam, the Son of Noah. Their civilization flourished in the land of Syria and the Levant since the 15th century B.C.³ After the Arameans converted to Christianity, and as they were very faithful and proud of their new religion, they denounced their old name (i.e. Aramaeans) and adopted the name Syriacs which gave them their religious identity instead of the name Aramaeans that denoted paganism, thus differentiating themselves from the Aramaeans that remained pagans.⁴"
"The Syriac language is the Aramaic language itself, and the Arameans are the Syrians themselves. Whoever has made a distinction between them has erred."
"In fact, no Church can claim to have studied the Scriptures more, carefully, and to have applied all the scientific resources of the early ages of Christianity to biblical criticism more steadily than the Syriac community. From the second century till the first quarter of the seventh, eight different versions of the New Testament were produced by genuine researches of the Aramaean population, spreading from the Mediterranean shores to the East of Persia, and from the massif of the Taurus to the Arabian peninsula. [...] On the other hand, the writers of the Gospels, being from an Aramaic-speaking population, while writing in Greek were generally thinking in Syriac, and the Aramaic stamp of their phrases is sometimes so strong that without a knowledge of this language and the reading of the versions which are written in it, the real thought of the sacred author will perhaps be misunderstood."
Metropolitan of Nisibis and author. Eliya d-Ṣoba or bar Shinaya was born in Shenna (North Iraq) and studied in the St. Michael’s monastery near Mosul. In 1002, he was ordained bp. of Beth Nuhadra and, in 1008, metropolitan of Nisibis. The majority of Eliya’s works were written in Arabic.
"After his death, Heggag, Emir of Beth Aramaye gave order that there should not established any Catholic. The patriarchal throne of Seleucia remained without a chief for 20 years till Heggag died."
In the Hebrew Bible, the Sassoon Codex, dated to the 10th century AD, states in 2 Kings 8:28-29:
“28 Ahaziah went with Joram, son of Ahab, to war against Hazael, king of Aram, at Ramoth Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram; 29 so King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramoth in his battle with Hazael, king of Aram.”
Note that “Arameans” and “Aram” are labeled. Now, if we look at the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (specifically, the Greek translation of this verse), the term “Aramean” is substituted with “Syrian/Syriac” (Suryoyo) and "Aram" with "Syria."
In the Syriac-English dictionary of Abraham Yohannan, a member of the Church of the East, he states that, according to generally accepted opinion, the Syrians were first known as Aramoye or Oromoye, which means Arameans. The designation Suryoyo (i.e., Syrian) came to be replaced by Aramean because the latter expression sounded pagan.
In the Dictionary of Races or Peoples by the United States Immigration Commission (1907–1910), a Suryoyo (Syriac) is defined as a member of the native Aramaic race, that is, an Aramean.
"The Patriarch Joshua bin Nun said in the eighth century of Christ that the land was called Syria by king Suros who after killing his brother became king over Mesopotamia and all the countries subject to his rule were called Syria. The Syriacs were called Arameans in ancient times, but when the Arameans embraced Christianity they abandoned their ancient name and were called Syriacs. We know that the Aramean language in which Abraham spoke was the Syriac."
"Nahor begat Aram, from this name (of Aram), those settled in Harran in Mesopotamia and its neighbouring areas up to Mosul were called "Arameans". The books tell us about another Aram descending from Shem, whose land was situated in the East side of the sun [...] The borders of Aram son of Shem son of Noah are to the country of Misan; therefore the population of that city and its areas is called after Aram."
"The Arameans were in Aram which was from Persia to the Mediterranean, and they all were called Arameans, but when the Greeks seized the area they called it Syria."
"The Arameans are the sons of Aram, son of Shem. They settled since old times in the large Aramean countries which were stretched from Persia in the East, and from the Mediterranean in the West and Armenia and Asia Minor in the North and Arabian Peninsula in the South. Their lands were Bayblon, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine."
"The conversion of Kashkar preceded the conversion of Seleucia and Beth-Aramaye, because tradition holds that the bish- opric see of this place was older than all the other sees."
"The blessed Mar Mari previously went to Kashkar, when he first arrived in Beth-Aramaye and realized that Seleucia would not open its door so that he could teach its inhabitants a lesson in the fear of God."
"Now the cities and territories of Babylonia and Persia were full of small kings, but the Parthians were ruling the territory of Babylonia. At that time, the Parthian Aphrahat son of Aphrahat was reigning in Babylonia - in Seleucia and Ctesiphon in Beth- Aramaye."
Mor Jacob of Edessa (c. 684–9, 708) was one of the greatest Syriac Orthodox scholars, bishops, and biblical commentators. Born in ʿEn Deba, Antioch, he studied at the Monastery of Qenneshre and in Alexandria, mastering Greek and Syriac. Appointed Bishop of Edessa around 684, he resigned after a few years due to disagreements over canon law, famously burning a copy of the canons in protest.
He later taught at the Monastery of Eusebona but left due to opposition to Greek influence. Settling at the Monastery of Tell ʿAda, he worked on revising the Old Testament. Reappointed as Bishop of Edessa in 708, he died four months later on June 5 at Tell ʿAda. A polymath, Jacob’s works significantly influenced the Syriac Orthodox Church, and miracles were reported at his tomb.
Bar Hebraeus [Bar 'Ebroyo] was the Syriac Orthodox Maphrian from 1264 until his death in 1286. He was consecrated in 1246 as Bishop over the district of Gubos by Patriarch Ignatius III David (1222–52) and at this consecration took the name Gregory. He became friends with the Eastern Catholicos, Yahballaha III and recognized the value of Christian unity amongst the "Nestorian", Greek, Latin, and Armenian Christians. As a young man in Antioch and Tripoli, Bar 'Ebroyo was educated in a broad range of fields and industrious in his publications. He published works in the following genres: encyclopedia, philosophy, medicine, mathematics, science, theology, canon law, Biblical exegesis, grammar, chronicles, other miscellaneous works.
Bar ʿEbroyo composed over forty works covering a wide range of subjects, mostly in Syriac, but occasionally also in Arabic. Taken as a whole, Bar ʿEbroyo’s literary output may be seen as an attempt at a revival of learning in Syriac through the use of the latest scholarly literature which was available in his day mostly in Arabic.
Patr. and scholar. He was born to Stephan Barsoum and Susan Abdulnur, who both hailed from distinguished families of Mosul, and was named Ayyoub. He studied as a child at the Dominican School in Mosul and then taught there after he graduated. He also studied Arabic literature and rhetoric at the hands of a local Muslim imām. He joined Dayr al-Zaʿfarān where he was tonsured a monk in 1907 and named Afram after St. Ephrem the Syrian, and later was ordained a priest in 1908. He taught at the school of the monastery, and became director of its printing press in 1911. In 1913, he embarked on a scholarly trip in the Ṭur ʿAbdin region studying local mss. He was consecrated bp. of Syria in 1918 and resided in Ḥimṣ; later Lebanon was added to his diocese. In 1919 he represented his church at the Paris Peace Conference and embarked on a second scholarly trip across Europe where he spent 17 months visiting libraries that hold Syriac mss. In 1927, he embarked on a third scholarly trip visiting Europe and the US, where he consecrated three churches in Worcester, MA, Patterson, NJ, and Rhode Island. During his stay there, he visited the University of Chicago where he worked at the Oriental Institute. In 1932 he became a member of the Syrian Academy. In 1933, he was elected and consecrated patr. , and transferred the Patriarchate to Ḥimṣ. He established in 1939 the Seminary of Saint Ephrem. He authored numerous books, published Syriac texts, and translated Syriac texts into Arabic.
"It is not sufficiently realized by modern scholars that the immense majority of the members of the Nestorian Church living east of the Tigris were of Persian, and not Semitic or Aramean birth and extraction".
"the dependence of these vowels on those of Arameans obliges us to find a centre where the culture of the Aramaic language was flourishing, and this centre is the school of Baghdâd, which was, as we have already stated, under the direction of Nestorian scholars, and where a treatise on Syriac grammar was written by the celebrated Hunain."
"What induced us to dedicate to the mentioned topic a special chapter is to end the controversy between many Chaldeans and Syriacs. Everyone of them claims the origin for himself and to be the older one, without having a reliable evidence or a funded scientific proof. In order to clarify the actualness of this problem and avoid the controversy, we say: All tribes, which lived in ancient times in the expanded countries, which were limited in the east by Persia, in the west by the Mediterranean, in the north by Asia Minor, by the countries of the Armenians and Greeks and in the south by the Arab peninsula, were known as children of Arams or as Arameans.
The countries of Babylon and Assur were at all times, even after the Arab conquest, called Beth Aramaye, that is countries of the Arameans. It is not necessary to demonstrate the innumerable testimonies in order to prove this fact; it is a truth, which is known for everybody, who has the slightest idea of the informations about the Church of the East, because the books of our ancestors are full of them. Likewise the countries of Mesopotamia were well-known as the countries of Arams.
You will realize from the mentioned testimonies here and also from others, that the inhabitants of Edessa and Jazira all of them were Arameans by nation and language. Regarding the dwellers of Syria, it is even more evident.
You will receive testimonies of the church authors, who confirm this position. It became clear that all countries, which are known today under the designation syriac is, whether in the east or in the west, were since time immemorial known as Aramean, and this is the correct designation.
The syriac authors whether in the East or in the West, state that the term [Syriac] comes from Suros. Suros was a man of Aramean origin, who founded according to their opinion the city of Antiochia and conquered the countries of Syria and Mesopotamia. Following him these countries were called Syria and their inhabitants Syriacs, as today the inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire are called Ottomans.
The Syriacs generally, whether from the East or from the West were not called Syriacs in former times, but Arameans in dependance on their progenitor Aram, the son of Shem, the son of Noah.
The name 'Syriac' dates from a time about 400 or 500 B.C.
The term Syriac was adopted by the East-Arameans (Chaldeans and Assyrians) after Christ through the apostles, who had proselytized these countries."
"It is well-known by scholars, that the syriac language was at that time the spoken language of the population, which lived in large numbers in the eastern areas, that is Syria, Beth Nahrin, Assyria and the land of Sinear and its environments.
All these territories were called Beth Aram by the Jews, as it is revealed in the Old Testament.
For Aram, the son of Shem, ruled over them and populated them with his offspring. For this reason, the language is not called Syriac in the Old [Testament], but ‘Aramaic’, which is its genuine and original name, as it appears to us.
For the Christian doctrine prospered first in that part of Beth Aram, which was called especially by the Greeks Syria, and primarily prospered first in Antiochia, the mother of all cities, where the disciples were called christians for the first time.
All the people from Beth Aram, who became christians, were called Syriacs.
Everyone of the children of the Aramean race, and especially the clergy, should care for, learn and sponsor the precious Aramaic language."
"Touching the writing which was written in Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and set over Christ's head, there was no Aramean written upon the tablet, for the Arameans or Syriacs had no part in (the shedding of) Christ's blood, but only the Greeks and Hebrews and Romans; Herod the Greek and Caiaphas the Hebrew and Pilate the Roman. Hence when Abgar the Aramean king of Mesopotamia heard (of it), he was wroth against the Hebrews and sought to destroy them."
"In the days of Reu the languages were divided into seventy and two; up to this time there was only one language, which was the parent of them all, namely, Aramean, that is Syriac."
A 10th-century bishop of Urhoy/Edessa discussed ideas similar to Galileo's astronomy and Nietzsche's superman in his book 'The Cause of All Causes', a remarkable and insightful work:
"And the knowledge of the whole star system, discovered by the Babylonian Arameans, that is to say the Chaldeans, those who in the south-east regions are growling because of the sandy soil in all their places and the unknown paths and roads leading from place to place and from city to city."
"Now when the blessed Mar George the Patriarch went up from the countries of Persia and Beth Katraye, because he had been absent there a long time, and because everything concerning him was a joy or a sorrow to this holy congregation, when all the holy Elders heard of his coming to the paternal throne of Beth Aramaye, they decided to send suitable men to meet him and to salute the father of fathers."
"It is understood that Abraham was a Syriac. [...] This is the reason for the corruption of the Syriac language during the centuries. It was spoiled by accepting foreign words. [...] And if you compare the Babylonian language with the real Syriac language, you will see that even one percent of it does not exist in Syriac.”
"Syria was thus called by the name of Suros, who having killed his brother, reigned in Mesopotamia, and hence the whole region during his reign was called Syria. But in ancient times Syriacs were called Arameans. [...] We know that the Aramean language in which Abraham spoke was the Syriac."
It is written by Mor Philoxenos Yuhanon Dolabani in the preface of Mimre d-Bar Maadani:
"For the benefit of those who love the Aramaeandom, we were careful to publish this book of memre and verse homilies of Mor Yuhanon Bar Ma‘dani."
"Wash my tongue with hyssop, so that they speak in the Aramaic language in the measure of Ephraem, because this is the Syriac way of speaking, which foreigners do not use."
"The Syriac tongue is from Aram, the son of Shem, the son of Noah; the name is transmitted in Aramaic."
"Aram is Inner Syria, that is Palestine, while outside of Syria is called Aram-Nahrin."
"The Arameans don't want to mix with the pagans."
"That is, that the Syriac was the first tongue, and not the Hebrew as some think, is known from this, that Abraham was first called Hebrew because of the crossing of the river Euphrates"
"And Saint Basil and Mar Aprim have decided that the first language which existed before the division of tongues was Syriac, even as the word 'Bhulbala' itself testifieth. But the pious Jacob and John of Yathreb think that Hebrew was the first language—the Hebrew which was preserved with Eber, for he was a righteous man and did not agree to the building of the Tower."
"The Border of Shem: From Persia and Bhakurtos to India and Rinokura, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Lydians, the Syriacs, the Hebrews, and the Persians."
"Because the world is dark and Abgar—the son of the Aramaeans—black,
The world of darkness was illumined through Abgar, by Christ; But the People were darkened by the Son of God, who was the Light."
"They have combined and made from the word 'man,' 2 as it is written in the Aramaic (the explanation) that this (word) refers to a (single) man, that is the Primal Man, the Father of the Five Shining Ones whom they call ZIWANE (the Bright Ones)."
Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306–373) is celebrated as the "Harp of the Holy Spirit," his evocative hymns and profound theological insights echoing through the ages. From his early days, his poetic brilliance and visionary thought captivated both common believers and church authorities, setting a luminous standard for Christian liturgy and doctrine. Through a vast body of work—ranging from stirring hymns to incisive theological treatises—Ephrem wove the mysteries of faith into a tapestry of divine poetry, offering solace and clarity amid times of doctrinal uncertainty. His enduring legacy continues to inspire theologians, poets, and seekers alike, illuminating the path to a deeper understanding of the sacred.
"Following Hairan, who is worthy of honor among the saints, was Šahlupa, zealous and caring and hard-working in fear of God. Also this holy father was from Beth Aramaye."
“After 'Ebedh-Msiha came the blessed Hiran, from the land of Beth Aramaye. In the early days of his episcopate, there was terror and war everywhere. The sun eclipsed and refused to shine on us: a sign of the Lord's wrath against the exasperating people. For in his time, there were many wars between Romans and Parthians, and Artaban, king of the latter, entered the land of the Romans and burned several towns in Beth Aramaye”
“From the beginning they had rushed into Mesopotamia, then into Beth Aramaye.”
"They are called Syriacs or Syrians. They call their country Syria and their language Syriac or Syrian to distinguish themselves from their fellow Aramaeans who did not convert to Christianity."
"I wish that, despite their intense zeal for the Christian religion, they had continued to preserve their noble Aramaic name, which was not at all soft on Christianity, but rather was intended to revive in them the memory of their past glory and the greatness of their Aramaic state throughout the ages."
"The Arameans are the sons of Aram, son of Shem. They were a large and famous nation. Their homeland from the oldest days was the vast country that they settled in with their father before everyone else, so it was named after them: the land of Aram or the land of the Arameans."
"It is bounded to the east by the land of Persia, to the west by the Mediterranean Sea, to the north by the land of Armenia and Asia Minor, and to the south by the Arabian Peninsula. So it includes the land of Babylon, Assyria, Mesopotamia, the land of the Levant, and Lebanon."
"When the Greeks took over this country (in 312 BC) and saw the remains of the Assyrian kings in it, they called it Syria, a corruption of Ashur in Aramaic, and they said in it Assur Ya, then they shortened it to Syria."
"However, the Arameans continued to call their country Aram and claim to be related to it until they embraced the Christian religion. Then they began, with excessive jealousy, to abandon their old name, Arameans."
“The fifth meter of poetry is usually composed of six or seven strophics whose number sometimes increases or decreases. This meter belongs to a man named W'afa, an Aramaean philosopher. The composition of poetry by this man, whose name has been unknown for generations, is evidence that this art (poetry) is old with us.”
"Languages, again first ascended to the generations of Aram and was then called the Aramaic language. Secondly, many wise men and philosophers who have no comparison in ancient times spread and expanded the Syriac language. We have no place to count them except for a few to mention, like Ahiqar the great sage who lived at the end of the eighth century and beginning of the seventh century BC, and likewise Wafa the Aramean, the famous philosopher who was praised in his time, and other scholars from whom, it is said, great nations learned all knowledge and teachings of philosophy and logical wisdom and other teachings, and even the signs and letters of ancient Aramaic inscribed on stones."
”Mor Philoxenus said also that the translation of the Bible called 'The Simple-Pashitto' which was translated into our language, the Aramaic, is the work of Agola and Soomkhos. ”
Mor Jacob (♱ ca. 521) is known by his followers as the flute of the Holy Spirit (sometimes even the Harp), second only in importance to St. Ephrem himself. From an early age, his prophetic voice and poetic splendor were recognized by ecclesiastical authorities. He spent the majority of his life preaching throughout the territory of Batnan, but was ordained Bishop of Serugh in 518. Jacob remains not only an important spiritual writer, but an important source for historians of anti-Chalcedonian theology. Of his approximately 700 works, only roughly half survive, some of which have yet to be edited and many of which have yet to be translated into modern languages.
Mor Michael Rabo (St. Michael the Great), born in 1126 in Melitine during Patriarch Mor Athanasius VII’s reign, was raised in a devout Syrian family and became a monk at Mor Barsawmo’s Monastery. Ordained first as a priest and Abbot, he was eventually elected (albeit reluctantly) as Patriarch of Antioch in 1166, moving the Patriarchal See to Mor Hananya Monastery and enacting numerous ecclesiastical reforms and synods to address discipline and heresy. A dedicated scholar and scribe, he authored significant works on liturgy, priesthood, and church history—including a comprehensive history from Creation to 1193—and transcribed key manuscripts, such as a Syriac Gospel later presented to Malankara. His leadership and scholarly contributions have earned him a lasting legacy as one of the Church’s most revered pontiffs.
"Glory and praise before him in the morning in which the splendor of the king's son shone forth. The mountains will be humbled and the valleys will be filled. The ropes strike the earth harshly, and the sons of Aram rise and offer praise. The twenty-second voice in the signs of the upper monastery has no common arrangement. Because I loved your law, my prayer comes before you. May our prayer be pleasing to you."
"I found these four first letters written above in that manuscript from which we wrote. The preparation of this holy seal that we present to you today, our beloved Aramean brothers, is a portion of the hymns of our blessed fathers that was taken from the great books and arranged specifically for the pilgrims of those holy monasteries."
"May the peace of your Lord be with you according to His promise, and may He drive away from you all the conflicts of the accuser. May peace increase in the church and in the congregations, and may the children of the daughter of the Arameans rejoice in faith. Son of God who is the way of life, have mercy on your church on the day of your revelation. Glory to you. Again, peace of Saint Mor Jacob, a little from the second discourse."
"Syria was derived from Suros, either during his lifetime or after his death. This Suros had killed his brother and ruled over Mesopotamia. His whole kingdom was called Syria. The Syriacs were formerly called Arameans, but when Suros ruled over them, from then on they were called Syriacs."
Here, Bar Salibi makes the connection between modern Syriacs being descendants of the ancient Arameans, emphasizing the connection between 'Suryoye Oromoye.'
In the grammar of Bar Hebraeus, 'Aramean,' as written in the Aramaic part of the text, is translated as 'Syriac' in the Latin part.
Thus, Aramean is equated with Syriac.
"We call 'Syriacs,' in a special way, those living in the land West of the Euphrates River, from the Mount Amanon in the north of Antioch until the boundaries of Palestine, and from the Red Sea until the Euphrates.
And in a figurative way, we call 'Syriacs' those who speak this Aramaic language from the West and East side of the Euphrates (that is to say from the Mediterranean Sea until the land of Persia).
We said this, in order to show in a special way, that the 'Syriacs' are those living in the West. And the inhabitants of the Island that is to say those living between the land of the Two Rivers are inhabtiants of the land situated on the East side of the Euphrates: and that Urhoy is the country of the Syriac-Aramaic language and its foundation."
and from Adam until the present time they were all of one speech and one language. They all spake this language, that is to say Syriac, which is Aramaic, and this language is the king of all languages. Now, ancient writers have erred in that they said that Hebrew was the first [language], and in this matter they have mingled an ignorant mistake in their writing. For all the languages that are in the world are derived from Syriac, and all the languages in books are mingled with it."
"And in such danger I stood bitterly, when I was asking for death for myself earnestly, without hesitation, with thought and meditation, to go to the courtyard of the church, the daughter of the Arameans."
"Tell how Zion rejected his burden and the Church confesses his death by which it was saved. Blessed is Christ who uprooted Zion who loved the calf and thirsted for blood, and chose the Church, daughter of the Arameans, through his life-giving death by which it was saved. Blessed are the children, blessed are the children who were worthy to see Christ when he entered Jerusalem riding on a borrowed, bare colt."
"And how did the son of a donkey carry him? Zion denied, and the Church confesses, in his death is life by which she was saved. Blessed is Christ who uprooted Zion, who loved the calf and thirsted for blood, and chose the Church, daughter of the Arameans, in his death is life by which she was saved. Blessed are the children, blessed are the children who were worthy to see Christ, when he entered Jerusalem riding on a borrowed, stripped colt."
"And in such danger I stood bitterly, when I was asking for death for myself earnestly, without hesitation, with thought and meditation, to go to the courtyard of the church, the daughter of the Arameans."
"It appears that the south was so named also by us Arameans. But as for the north, it is not known to us why it was called (such) by the ancient sons of Aram."
"The Greek translation [the Septuagint] calls always Aram and Arameans ‘Syrian’. Consequently, Aram becomes the father of the Syrians. And from this name (of Aram), those living in Mesopotamia were called ‘Arameans’. There is another Aram, descending from Shem; he dwelt in the land situated on the east side of the sun."
"The Armenians say: 'From whom do you descend—you who are Syriacs by race?' — Against them we will say: Neither you know from whom you descend. The name 'Armenian' is derived from "Armenian" which is the name of a country (and not of a person). It is we (Syriacs) who have enlightened your authors and revealed to them that you are descending from Togarma, who was from the children of Japhet. As to us Syriacs we descend racially from Shem, and our father is Kemuel son of Aram, and from this name of Aram we are also called sometimes in the Books by the name of 'Arameans.' We are called 'Syriacs' after the name of 'Syrus,' who built Antioch with its banlieue; and the country was called after him, 'Syria'."
"Neither the Greeks are our fathers nor the Romans, nor are the Jews the fathers of Christians: all these are loose expressions and old women's tales. If Yawan, the father of the Greeks, was born before Aram, our father, there might have been occasion for discussion, but when this is not the case, how did you then glory in the not very weighty words of those haughty and arrogant people."
"[...] in the reign of king Abgar, son of king Ma'nu, in the month of October, on the twelfth day, Abgar Ukkama sent Marihab and Shamshagram, chiefs and honoured persons of his kingdom, and Hannan the tabularius, the sharrir, with them, to the city which is called Eleutheropolis, but in Aramaic Beth-gubrin[...]"
"The ancient inhabitants of Tur Abdin were the Arameans— a Syriac speaking people. Since they were citizens of Beth Nahrin (Mesopotamia) they are akin to the Arameans of Iraq, Syria proper and Palestine."
"If someone asks about eliminating the confusion resulting from the English use of the 'Syrian' name in the USA because it is translated in French 'Syrien' and in English 'Syrian' for both country and religion, so that no one could distinguish between the different kinds of the religious rites. And if we add the word 'Orthodox' to the 'Syrian' name, there will be association with Greek Orthodox, who in the recent years, named themselves 'Syrians' as coming from Syria. There is no way to change the accepted French or English use of this word. However, the present ambiguity would disappear if we add 'Aramaic' to the Syriac language, and 'Aramean' to the Syrian Church."
"The Holy Spirit is fulfilled upon the baptized immediately after baptism, and the baptized children shall be named with the names of saints and martyrs according to the ancient tradition of our Syriac Aramean church fathers. The Orthodox glorified ones, also with Syriac names like their fathers, are very fitting and praiseworthy, and not with names foreign to our priestly heritage."
"The year 815 (A.D. 503-4). When the Roman emperor learned what had happened, he sent his magister Celer with a large army. When Kawad heard this, he directed his marches along the river Euphrates that he might go and stay in that province of his which is called Beth Armaye."
Mor Sevira Yacob Bartelli († 1241), was the bishop of the convent of Mar Mattay and Azerbaijan. He writes in his book 'Questions and Answers':
"Some of them were called Arameans, some Izleans and some others Sofnians."
"From ܐܪܡ, 'Syria,' we say ܐܳܪܳܡܳܝܳܐ, 'Syrian,' with Zqopho at Olaph, Rish, and Mim. However, from ܐܪܡ, which refers to the city of the pagans, ancient Harran, it is ܐܰܪܡܳܝܳܐ, meaning “pagan,” with Ftoho at Olaph and an unvocalized Rish. The East Syrians are unfamiliar with the former and read in (2 Kings 18:26) ܡܠܠ ܥܡ ܥܒ̈ܕܝܟ ܐܰܪܡܳܐܝܬ, "Speak with your servants in Aramaic,” with Ftoho at Olaph and an unvocalized Rish. It is evident that the script here demands 'Syrian' and not 'pagan.'
And in Paul (Galatians 2:14), they read ܐܢ ܐܢܬ ܕܝܘܕܝܐ ܐܢܬ ܐܰܪܡܐܝܬ ܚܝܐ ܐܢܬ, "If you, who are a Jew, live as a pagan," again with Ftoho at Olaph and an unvocalized Rish. It is clear that the script here demands 'pagan' and not 'Syrian.' But this is not the case with the West Syrians, who, by using Zqopho, make a distinction between the pagan and the Syrian."
"In this way, in the beauty of wisdom, you have overthrown evil and its snare. The whole people of the Aramean-Syriacs see that he refreshes his thirst."
"For because 'light' in the Aramaic language is called as masculine, and 'eye' feminine in the same"
"he, Bardaisan, calls the moon feminine in the Aramaic language"
The Sefire Steles document the treaties between Mati'el of Arpad and the king of KTK, mentioning "all Aram" and "Upper and Lower Aram," directly referencing the geographical and political expanse of Aramean influence. The inscription states:
"The treaty of Bar-Ga'yah, king of KTK, with Mati'el, the son of 'Attarsamak, the king [of Arpad; and the treaty] of the sons of Bar-Ga'yah with the sons of Mati'el; and the treaty of the grandsons of Bar-Ga'[yah and] his [offspring] with the offspring of Mati'el, the son of 'Attarsamak, the king of Arpad; and the treaty of KTK with [the treaty of] Arpad; and the treaty of the lords of KTK with the treaty of the lords of Arpad; and the treaty of Ha[bur]u with all Aram and with Misr and with his sons who will come after [him], and [with the kings of] all Upper-Aram and Lower-Aram and with all who enter the royal palace."
"...she and the Arameans who were beside the river, their warriors they slew, their cities they captured, and their spoil they carried off [15]... she and the Arameans in great numbers came and a battle they made, and the Arameans, his helpers, they slew...."
"(As for) the rest of the dangerous Arameans who dwell in their district (and) who had paid attention (lit.: “inclined their cheek”) to Marduk-apla-iddina (II) (Merodach-Baladan) and Šutur-Naḫūndi and taken (themselves) to the Uqnû River, a far-off place to live (lit.: “a distant dwelling”),"
"... I received substantial ... from ...] the land Aram, the land Bīt-Amukkāni, [the land Bīt-Dakkūri, ...]."
"While I was br[inging about] the defeat of the Chaldeans (and) Arameans of the Eastern Sea"
"With the support of the god Aššur, my lord, I took my chariots and warriors (and) set off for the desert. I marched against the Aḫlamû-Arameans, the enemies of the god Aššur, my lord."
The Stele of Shalmaneser III describes his military campaigns in western Mesopotamia and Syria. It describes Shalmaneser’s victory at the battle of Karkar, situated in northern Syria, where he overthrew an alliance of 12 local kings. Shalmaneser had inscribed on the monolith:
"Karkar, his royal city, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire. 1,200 chariots, 1,000 cavalry, 20,000 soldiers, of Hadad-ezer, of Aram; 700 chariots, 700 cavalry, 10,000 soldiers of Irhulêni of Hamath; 2,000 chariots, 10,000 soldiers of Ahab, the Israelite."
"I am Zakkur, king of Hamath and Luash... Bar-Hadad, son of Hazael, king of Aram, united against me seventeen kings... all these kings laid siege to Hazrach... Baalshamayn said to me, 'Do not be afraid! ...I will save you from all [these kings who] have besieged you.'"
In December 402 B.C.E., Ananiah, son of Haggai, borrowed two monthly rations of grain from Pakhnum, son of Besa, an Aramean with an Egyptian name. This receipt would have been kept by Pakhnum and returned to Ananiah upon repayment of the loan. No interest was charged on the loan, but a penalty was imposed for failing to repay it by the appointed date.
"[The Patriarch] Jacob and [the apostle] Addai were sent to Aram-Naharaim, so that they would fulfill both the New and Old (Testament words)."
"Addai himself, too, came to the land of Beth Aramaye, so that these symbols drawn by Jacob would be fulfilled through him. And (so) in Urhoy he opened up a big fountain of living waters."
"The nation of the Arameans: This national name later gave way to the Greek designation 'Syriacs,' mainly due to influences from Jewish-Christian literature."
The Greeks were largely unfamiliar with the name 'Aramaeans.' Apart from Posidonius, whom Strabo follows, only another Oriental writer, Josephus, mentions it (Antiquities 1, 6, 4). It is highly improbable that Homer was referring to them with the terms Ἔρεμβοι (Eremboi - 'Erembians') or εἰν ᾿Αρίμοις (ein Arimois - 'in Arimi'). Instead, the Greeks referred to these people as 'Syriacs.'
Seelen (de Dis Syris, prol. cap. 1) explained that Σύριοι (Syriacs) or Σύροι (Syriacs) was a shortened form of ᾿Ασσύριοι (Assyrians). Initially, the Greeks used 'Syriacs' to describe the subjects of the Assyrian Empire without distinction of nationality. However, over time, they applied this name specifically to the northwestern Semitic regions, eventually associating it with the predominant nationality in these areas. Thus, Σύροι (Syriacs) became synonymous with ᾿Αραμαῖοι (Aramaeans).
I have explored this argument in greater detail in an article recently published in Hermes, to which I must refer the reader. Over time, the Aramaeans themselves gradually adopted the Greek name 'Syriacs.' While the dominance of Greek rule and education played a significant role in this shift, an even more powerful factor contributed to it: the change of religion.
Quatremère (Jour. As., Feb. 1835, p. 122 f.) suggested that newly converted Aramaic Christians, feeling ashamed of their pagan compatriots, believed that adopting a new religion also required adopting a new name. As a result, they embraced the term Σύροι (Syriacs), which appears in the New Testament.
“Regarding the name of this nation and its language is the original ‘Aramean’ in essence also the only one [sic], that for the employment of the present-day scholarship as yet strongly fits.”
“From the time the Greeks came to have a more intimate acquaintance with Asia, they designated by the name of ‘Syriacs’ the people who called themselves ‘Arameans’.”
"Since the times of Alexander [the Great], if not already somewhat earlier, people have started to transfer the name of the Syriacs exclusively over the prevailing in Syria nationality, and in this way this originally political-geographical term became an ethnological one that was identified with the local Arameans."
"It is well understandable that people have started to transfer the name of the country to the most important nationality and so the name 'Syriac' was apprehended ethnological and was equated with 'Aramaic'."
"The main body of the population of all these wide landscapes from the Mediterranean Sea to beyond the Tigris belonged to a certain nationality, that of the Arameans."
"the Arameans defended their nationality with the weapons of intellect as well as with their blood against all the allurements of Greek civilization and all the coercive measures of eastern and western despots, and that with an obstinacy which no Indo- Germanic people has ever equalled, and which to us who are Occidentals seems to be sometimes more, sometimes less, than human."
"The names Syria, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Babylon, and others stem from the Greeks, who were unfamiliar with the true geography of these lands when the names were first used. Later, partly due to ongoing ignorance and partly for convenience, these names persisted even after more accurate knowledge became available. It would have required considerable effort to abandon the old, familiar names and divisions in favor of new, more accurate ones. The true and original name of these lands is Aram. It is mentioned numerous times in the Old Testament, and Greek scholars were also familiar with it. They likely referred to the people of these regions as Arameans, though this was rare, as they generally continued to use the term Syriac, which had been familiar to them."
"Do not the Syriacs, as they are usually called, or the Arameans, as they in fact are termed, deserve more attention in world history than they are usually given?"
"Poseidonius conjectures that the names of these nations also are akin; for, says he, the people whom we call Syriacs are by the Syriacs themselves called Arameans."
John Rufus, priest at Antioch, wrote the following:
"For at that time those who were instructed in wisdom were learning this Aramaic writing, namely Syriac, because it was the language of those who dwell in Mesopotamia from the beginning. After the Flood that was in the days of Noah the Arameans dwelled in Mesopotamia."
"Many of the sons of Aram were instructed in the Greek writing."
John Rufus, priest at Antioch, wrote the following:
"They were instructed in both of the writings: in this Aramaic writing, which is named Syriac, and also in the Greek writing, which is called Roman."
About the Catholicos Babai, he writes: "In the days of Babai the Catholicos, this Mari emerged as the teacher of the heresies of the followers of Paul of Samosata and Diodorus [of Tarsus] in Beth Aramaye. And Babai the Catholicos, the son of Hormizd, who was the secretary of Zabercan, the Marzban of Beth Aramaye, received the doctrine from him. Anyone who does not confess that Mary is Theotokos, let him be anathema!"
And about those 'Nestorians' who were driven from Roman Urhoy and went to Persia, where they became bishops, he states: "Acac (in) Beth Aramaye and Bar-Sawmo the abominable in Nisibin."
He writes in a letter concerning Barsauma and the heresies of the Nestorians about Acac, Catholicos of the Church of the East from 485-495/6 AD: "Acac the Aramean, who was called 'the suffocator/oppressor of farthings' at the very school (of Urhoy/Edessa)."
In the Martyrdom of Simon Bar Sabbae and His Companions, we read:
"But that deceiver also came to [the city of] Mahuze, which belongs to Beth Aramaye, and he deceived myriads of Jews."
In the Martyrdom of Simon Bar Sabbae and His Companions, we read:
"But that deceiver also came to [the city of] Mahuze, which belongs to Beth Aramaye, and he deceived myriads of Jews."
In the Martyrdom of Simon Bar Sabbae and His Companions, we read:
"And from Khuzestan [ancient Elam], he [King Shapur II] wrote an edict to the rulers of Beth Aramaye."
"These things were written by King Shapur II [309–379 AD] from Khuzestan to the rulers of Beth Aramaye."
"Nor did we find any history dealing with the time of afflictions and bitterness that came upon us and our fathers, or an author who wrote anything about the bad and bitter times that came upon us on account of our sins, when we were delivered into the hands of the Assyrians and the Barbarians.
Therefore, we decided to leave a record of this evil time and bitter affliction, which the land suffered in our day and in our time, at the hands of the Assyrians, whom the prophet described: "The Assyrian is the rod of my anger, and the stick of my punishment is in his hand; I will send him against an idolatrous nation and I will command him against a malicious people."
This rod or stick of the Lord that He stretched forth and gave to the Assyrian in order to chastise the earth was also seen ascending in the sky, and was visible for many days. Perhaps those who will come after us into the world will listen, tremble, fear the Lord, and walk before Him with integrity, lest He should deliver them too, as is the case with us, into the hands of this rapacious wolf."
In this passage, he says that “we” were handed over to the Assyrians and Barbarians, showing he is part of the same suffering group. His people are the Syriac-speaking Christians, descendants of the ancient Arameans, and rejects being an Assyrian himself.
About the strike between the Turks and Francs and the siege of Urhoy during the period of the Crusaders, he writes:
"These things happened in the year 1414 on the river Baliha, which arises in Paddan-Aram."
About Aram, the son of Kemuel, and his descendants, he writes:
"Among the sons of Nahor, the brother of Abraham, was born Aram, who is [the son of] Kemuel, from whom descend the Arameans of Beth Nahrin [Mesopotamia]."
He lists in his world chronicle the children of Shem:
"The children of Shem are the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Ludians, and the Arameans, who are the Syriacs, the Hebrews, and the Persians."
