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Assyrians in Iran

March 06, 2023

Assyrians in Iran (Syriac: ܐܬܘܪܝܐ ܕܐܝܼܪܵܢ), (Persian: آشوریان ایران), are an ethnic and linguistic minority in present-day Iran. The Assyrians of Iran speak Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, a neo-Aramaic language descended from Classical Syriac and elements of Akkadian, and are Eastern Rite Christians belonging mostly to the Assyrian Church of the East and also to the Ancient Church of the East, Assyrian Pentecostal Church, Chaldean Catholic Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church.[2]

Assyrians in Iran
Persian Assyrians from Sanandaj, Iran
Total population
20,000 [1]
Regions with significant populations
Tehran, West Azerbaijan Province (Urmia, Salmas), Sanandaj
Languages
Neo-Aramaic and Persian
Religion
Syriac Christianity

They share a common history and ethnic identity, rooted in shared linguistic, cultural and religious traditions, with Assyrians in Iraq, Assyrians in Turkey and Assyrians in Syria, as well as with the Assyrian diaspora.[2]

The Assyrian community in Iran numbered approximately 200,000 prior to the Islamic Revolution of 1979.[3] In 1987, there were an estimated 50,000 Assyrians living in Tehran.[4] However, after the revolution many Assyrians left the country, primarily for the United States; the 1996 Iranian census counted only 32,000 Assyrians.[5] Current estimates of the Assyrian population in Iran consist of 7,000 combined members of the Assyrian Church of the East and Chaldean Catholic Church in addition to less than 10,000 members of the Assyrian Evangelical Church.[6]

The Iranian capital, Tehran, is home to the majority of Iranian Assyrians; however, approximately 15,000 Assyrians reside in northern Iran, in Urmia and various Assyrian villages in the surrounding area.[2] To note among the Assyrian diaspora, the Assyrians residing in California and Russia tend to be originally from Iran.[7]

The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, ratified in 1979, recognizes Assyrians as a religious minority and ethnic minority and reserves for them one seat in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Iranian parliament.[8] As of 2004, the seat was occupied by Yonathan Betkolia, who was elected in 2000 and reelected in the 2004 legislative election.[citation needed]

In 2010, it was estimated that there were only around 5,000 Assyrians left in the historical center of the city of Urmia.[9]

History

 
Assyrians producing butter in Persia

The Assyrian presence in Iran goes back 4,000 years to ancient times, and Assyria was involved in the history of Ancient Iran even before the arrival of the modern Iranian peoples to the region circa 1000 BC. During the Old Assyrian Empire (c.2025-1750 BC) and Middle Assyrian Empire (1365-1020 BC) the Assyrians ruled over parts of Pre-Iranic northern and western Iran. The Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-605 BC) saw Assyria conquer the Iranic Persians, Medes and Parthians into their empire, together with the ancient pre-Iranic Elamites, Kassites, Manneans and Gutians, and also the Iranic Cimmerians of Asia Minor and Scythians of the Caucasus.[10] The home of the Assyrians in Iran has traditionally been along the western shore of Lake Urmia from the Salmas area to the Urmia plain.[11]

After the fall of Assyria between 612 and 599 BC, after decades of civil war, followed by an attack by an alliance of former subject peoples; the Medes, Persians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Scythians and Cimmerians, its people became an integral part of the Achaemenid Empire (as did Assyria itself), holding important military, civic and economic positions, and the Achaemenid Persians, having spent centuries under Assyrian domination, were greatly influenced by Assyrian Art and Architecture, modelled their empire upon Assyrian lines, and saw themselves as the successors of the great Assyrian kings. Assyrians are still attested as being extant in the north west of the region during the Parthian Empire (160 BC-223 AD) and Sassanid Empire (224-650 AD), and throughout the Middle Ages, where the Bukhtishu family of physicians were held in great regard by the Persian kings.

There were about 200,000 Assyrians in Iran at the time of the 1976 census.[11] Many emigrated after the revolution in 1979, but at least 50,000 were estimated to be still in Iran in 1987.

In 1900, Assyrians numbered over 76,000 in northwestern Iran, constituting over a quarter of the Azerbaijan province's population and were the largest non-Muslim majority in Urmia. Of the 300 villages around Urmia, 60 were exclusively Assyrians and 60 were mixed villages with Assyrian, Armenian, and Azeri communities. Nevertheless, there were over 115 documented Assyrian villages to the west of Lake Urmia prior to 1918.[10]

 
Assyrian Christian women praying in Mart Maryam Church in Urmia, Iran.

During the Assyrian genocide, which took place during World War I, the Ottoman Army together with allied Kurdish and Arab militias along the Persian-Turkish and Persian-Iraqi border carried out religiously and ethnically motivated massacres and deportations on unarmed Assyrian civilians (and Armenians) both in the mountains and on the rich plains, resulting in the death of at least 300,000 Assyrians.[12] This genocide that started in 1914 was said to be started with the Ottomans’ ‘Jihad’ declaration, apparently solely based on its ethnic and religious differences with the Assyrians because of their belief in Christianity, but actually there was an ambition to extend their ‘holy war’ beyond Assyrian territories to spread its Ottoman influences. [13]

The Ottomans already implemented massacres of several Assyrian tribes from 1843 to 1845, with the motive of taking over their ancestral lands and making them part of the Ottoman Empire. These tribes were particularly the Tiyari, Tkhuma, Jilu and Baz, who all refused Ottoman command. According to British councils, 10,000 Assyrians were massacred already during this time alone. Women and children were taken while Assyrian leaders were cast out from Ottoman forces. Assyrians felt forced to convert to for example Catholicism or Russian Orthodoxy to receive help from the Russian, French or British. [13] 

In 1914 alone, they attacked dozens of villages and drove off all the inhabitants of the district of Gawar. The Assyrians defended themselves and for a time successfully repelled further attacks under the leadership of Agha Petros, seizing control of much of the Urmia region and defeating Ottoman forces and their Kurdish and Arab allies in the process. However, lack of ammunition and supplies, due mainly to the withdrawal of Russia from the war, and the collapse of allied Armenian forces led to their downfall. Massively outnumbered, surrounded, undersupplied and cut off, the Assyrians suffered terrible massacres. These included Assyrian deportations close to the Ottoman-Persian border in January 1915, as well as the invasion of several Assyrian tribes located in the Hakkari mountains. This area already suffered numerous massacres in the 1840s. [13]

By the summer of 1918 almost all surviving Assyrians had fled to Tehran or to existing Assyrian communities or refugee camps in Iraq such as Baqubah. Local Kurds and Arabs and took the opportunity of the last phases of World War I to rob Assyrian homes, murder civilians and leave those remaining destitute. The critical murder that sowed panic in the Assyrian community came when Kurdish militias, under Agha Ismail Simko, assassinated the Patriarch, Mar Benyamin Shimon XIX, on March 3, 1918, under the pretext of inviting him to negotiations, although the Assyrian leader Malik Khoshaba exacted revenge upon Simko by attacking and sacking his citadel, forcing the Kurdish leader to flee for his life.[11]

Religious communities

 
St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church, Tehran

Most Assyrians in Iran are followers of the Assyrian Church of the East, with a minority of 3,900 following the Chaldean Catholic Church.[14] Some also follow Protestant denominations such as the Assyrian Evangelical Church, Assyrian Pentecostal Church and possibly Russian Orthodoxy due to a Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Urmia during the 1900s.

Distribution

See also: List of Assyrian settlements § Iran

Churches

 
Mart Maryam Church in Urmia
 
Mar Toma church in Urmia.
 
Assyrian Evangelical Church in Urmia, Iran.


Famous Assyrians from Iran

See also: List of Assyrian-Iranians

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Iran". U.S. Department of State 2018 Report on International Religious Freedom: Iran.
  2. ^ a b c Hooglund (2008), pp. 100–101.
  3. ^ "Iran: Assyrian Policy Institute". Assyrian Policy Institute. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
  4. ^ "ASSYRIANS IN IRAN i. The Assyrian community ( – Encyclopaedia Iranica". www.iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
  5. ^ Hooglund (2008), pp. 100–101, 295.
  6. ^ "Iran". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
  7. ^ Nisan, Mordechai (2015). Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle and Self-Expression, 2d ed. McFarland. p. 191. ISBN 9780786451333.
  8. ^ Hooglund (2008), pp. 128–129.
  9. ^ Nicholas al-Jeloo, Evidence in Stone and Wood: The Assyrian/Syriac History and Heritage of the Urmia Region in Iran. Parole de l'Orient 35 (2010), pp. 1-15.
  10. ^ a b (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-01-04. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
  11. ^ a b c Iran A Country Study By Federal Research Division - Page 128
  12. ^ David Gaunt, "The Assyrian Genocide of 1915", Assyrian Genocide Research Center, 2009
  13. ^ a b c Travis, Hannibal (2011). "The Assyrian Genocide, a Tale of Oblivion and Denial". Forgotten Genocides: Oblivion, Denial and Memory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 125.
  14. ^ As of 2014, when combining the populations of all the Iranian diocese together, there are 3,900 followers http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/rite/dch2.html
  15. ^ Yonan, Gabriele. "Assyrer_heute_Kultur_Sprache_Nationalbew". Academia.edu (in German).

References

Bibliography

  • Eden Naby, “The Assyrians of Iran: Reunification of a ‘Millat,’ 1906-1914" International Journal of Middle East Studies, 8. (1977) pp. 237–249
  • Eden Naby, “The Iranian Frontier Nationalities: The Kurds, the Assyrians, the Baluch and the Turkmens,”Soviet Asian Ethnic Frontiers, ed.by McCagg and Silver (New York, Pergamon Press, 1979).
  • Eden Naby, “Christian Assyrian Architecture of Iran,” News – Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions (Spring 1998) vol. 5, no. 2, p. 7, 10.
  • Eden Naby, "Ishtar: Documenting the Crisis in the Assyrian Iranian Community," MERIA 10/4 (2006)

March 06, 2023
assyrians, iran, syriac, ܐܬܘܪܝܐ, ܕܐܝ, persian, آشوریان, ایران, ethnic, linguistic, minority, present, iran, assyrians, iran, speak, assyrian, aramaic, aramaic, language, descended, from, classical, syriac, elements, akkadian, eastern, rite, christians, belongi. Assyrians in Iran Syriac ܐܬܘܪܝܐ ܕܐܝ ܪ ܢ Persian آشوریان ایران are an ethnic and linguistic minority in present day Iran The Assyrians of Iran speak Assyrian Neo Aramaic a neo Aramaic language descended from Classical Syriac and elements of Akkadian and are Eastern Rite Christians belonging mostly to the Assyrian Church of the East and also to the Ancient Church of the East Assyrian Pentecostal Church Chaldean Catholic Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church 2 Assyrians in IranPersian Assyrians from Sanandaj IranTotal population20 000 1 Regions with significant populationsTehran West Azerbaijan Province Urmia Salmas SanandajLanguagesNeo Aramaic and PersianReligionSyriac ChristianityThey share a common history and ethnic identity rooted in shared linguistic cultural and religious traditions with Assyrians in Iraq Assyrians in Turkey and Assyrians in Syria as well as with the Assyrian diaspora 2 The Assyrian community in Iran numbered approximately 200 000 prior to the Islamic Revolution of 1979 3 In 1987 there were an estimated 50 000 Assyrians living in Tehran 4 However after the revolution many Assyrians left the country primarily for the United States the 1996 Iranian census counted only 32 000 Assyrians 5 Current estimates of the Assyrian population in Iran consist of 7 000 combined members of the Assyrian Church of the East and Chaldean Catholic Church in addition to less than 10 000 members of the Assyrian Evangelical Church 6 The Iranian capital Tehran is home to the majority of Iranian Assyrians however approximately 15 000 Assyrians reside in northern Iran in Urmia and various Assyrian villages in the surrounding area 2 To note among the Assyrian diaspora the Assyrians residing in California and Russia tend to be originally from Iran 7 The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran ratified in 1979 recognizes Assyrians as a religious minority and ethnic minority and reserves for them one seat in the Islamic Consultative Assembly the Iranian parliament 8 As of 2004 update the seat was occupied by Yonathan Betkolia who was elected in 2000 and reelected in the 2004 legislative election citation needed In 2010 it was estimated that there were only around 5 000 Assyrians left in the historical center of the city of Urmia 9 Contents 1 History 2 Religious communities 3 Distribution 4 Churches 5 Famous Assyrians from Iran 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 BibliographyHistory Edit Assyrians producing butter in Persia The Assyrian presence in Iran goes back 4 000 years to ancient times and Assyria was involved in the history of Ancient Iran even before the arrival of the modern Iranian peoples to the region circa 1000 BC During the Old Assyrian Empire c 2025 1750 BC and Middle Assyrian Empire 1365 1020 BC the Assyrians ruled over parts of Pre Iranic northern and western Iran The Neo Assyrian Empire 911 605 BC saw Assyria conquer the Iranic Persians Medes and Parthians into their empire together with the ancient pre Iranic Elamites Kassites Manneans and Gutians and also the Iranic Cimmerians of Asia Minor and Scythians of the Caucasus 10 The home of the Assyrians in Iran has traditionally been along the western shore of Lake Urmia from the Salmas area to the Urmia plain 11 After the fall of Assyria between 612 and 599 BC after decades of civil war followed by an attack by an alliance of former subject peoples the Medes Persians Babylonians Chaldeans Scythians and Cimmerians its people became an integral part of the Achaemenid Empire as did Assyria itself holding important military civic and economic positions and the Achaemenid Persians having spent centuries under Assyrian domination were greatly influenced by Assyrian Art and Architecture modelled their empire upon Assyrian lines and saw themselves as the successors of the great Assyrian kings Assyrians are still attested as being extant in the north west of the region during the Parthian Empire 160 BC 223 AD and Sassanid Empire 224 650 AD and throughout the Middle Ages where the Bukhtishu family of physicians were held in great regard by the Persian kings There were about 200 000 Assyrians in Iran at the time of the 1976 census 11 Many emigrated after the revolution in 1979 but at least 50 000 were estimated to be still in Iran in 1987 In 1900 Assyrians numbered over 76 000 in northwestern Iran constituting over a quarter of the Azerbaijan province s population and were the largest non Muslim majority in Urmia Of the 300 villages around Urmia 60 were exclusively Assyrians and 60 were mixed villages with Assyrian Armenian and Azeri communities Nevertheless there were over 115 documented Assyrian villages to the west of Lake Urmia prior to 1918 10 Assyrian Christian women praying in Mart Maryam Church in Urmia Iran During the Assyrian genocide which took place during World War I the Ottoman Army together with allied Kurdish and Arab militias along the Persian Turkish and Persian Iraqi border carried out religiously and ethnically motivated massacres and deportations on unarmed Assyrian civilians and Armenians both in the mountains and on the rich plains resulting in the death of at least 300 000 Assyrians 12 This genocide that started in 1914 was said to be started with the Ottomans Jihad declaration apparently solely based on its ethnic and religious differences with the Assyrians because of their belief in Christianity but actually there was an ambition to extend their holy war beyond Assyrian territories to spread its Ottoman influences 13 The Ottomans already implemented massacres of several Assyrian tribes from 1843 to 1845 with the motive of taking over their ancestral lands and making them part of the Ottoman Empire These tribes were particularly the Tiyari Tkhuma Jilu and Baz who all refused Ottoman command According to British councils 10 000 Assyrians were massacred already during this time alone Women and children were taken while Assyrian leaders were cast out from Ottoman forces Assyrians felt forced to convert to for example Catholicism or Russian Orthodoxy to receive help from the Russian French or British 13 In 1914 alone they attacked dozens of villages and drove off all the inhabitants of the district of Gawar The Assyrians defended themselves and for a time successfully repelled further attacks under the leadership of Agha Petros seizing control of much of the Urmia region and defeating Ottoman forces and their Kurdish and Arab allies in the process However lack of ammunition and supplies due mainly to the withdrawal of Russia from the war and the collapse of allied Armenian forces led to their downfall Massively outnumbered surrounded undersupplied and cut off the Assyrians suffered terrible massacres These included Assyrian deportations close to the Ottoman Persian border in January 1915 as well as the invasion of several Assyrian tribes located in the Hakkari mountains This area already suffered numerous massacres in the 1840s 13 By the summer of 1918 almost all surviving Assyrians had fled to Tehran or to existing Assyrian communities or refugee camps in Iraq such as Baqubah Local Kurds and Arabs and took the opportunity of the last phases of World War I to rob Assyrian homes murder civilians and leave those remaining destitute The critical murder that sowed panic in the Assyrian community came when Kurdish militias under Agha Ismail Simko assassinated the Patriarch Mar Benyamin Shimon XIX on March 3 1918 under the pretext of inviting him to negotiations although the Assyrian leader Malik Khoshaba exacted revenge upon Simko by attacking and sacking his citadel forcing the Kurdish leader to flee for his life 11 Religious communities Edit St Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church Tehran Most Assyrians in Iran are followers of the Assyrian Church of the East with a minority of 3 900 following the Chaldean Catholic Church 14 Some also follow Protestant denominations such as the Assyrian Evangelical Church Assyrian Pentecostal Church and possibly Russian Orthodoxy due to a Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Urmia during the 1900s Distribution EditSee also List of Assyrian settlements Iran Urmia Syriac ܐܘܪܡܝܐ Abajalu Abdulkandi Adeh ܥܕܐ Aliabad Aliawach Alikumi Alqayeh Anhar Ardishai Armutaghaj Babarud Badelbu Badiki Balanush Balu Borashan Chamaki Chamashajan Charagushi Charbakhsh چهاربخش ارومیه fa Darbarut Digala دیگاله fa Dizataka Diszgeri Gawilan Geogtapa Lower Gniza Upper Gniza Gulpashin Gulpashan Gowzgavand Hesar Babaganja Ikiaghaj Iryawa Jamlawa Khanishan Kosi Lulpa Mushawa Nazlu Piqabaklu Qala Qara Aghaj Qarajalu Qaragoz Qasemlu Qezel Ashuq Qurtapa Saatlu Sainabad Sangar Saralan Sardarud Shirabad ܫܝܪܐܒܕ Sir Sopurghan Taka Tarmani Tazakand Urmia Vazirabad Yaghmiralu Yengija Zumalan ܙܘܡܠܢ Margawar Diza Gerdik Gullistan Nergi Razhani Targawar Syriac ܬܪܓܘܪ Anbi Balulan Darband Dastalan Haki Mavana ܡܥܘܢܐ Qurana Salona Shibani Tuleki Tulu Sumay Baradust Gangachin Tazakand Salmas Syriac ܣ ܠ ܡ ܣ Akhtekhana Chara Delemon دیلمقان fa Guliser Khanaga Khosrawa Mahlam Patamur Qederabad Sarna Sawra Ulah Zewajik 15 Churches Edit Mart Maryam Church in Urmia Mar Toma church in Urmia Assyrian Evangelical Church in Urmia Iran Holy Mary Mart Maryam Church Urmia St Mary s Cathedral Urmia St Cyriacus Church Urmia St Daniel Church fa Adeh St John Church Adeh 1901 Sts Peter and Paul Church fa Kelisakandi St George Church fa Sopurghan St Peter Church fa Qarabagh St Sarkis Church fa Kelisa ye Sir St George Church fa Gulpashan St John Church fa Gawilan Holy Mary Church fa Mavana St Thomas Church Balowlan Assyrian Pentecostal Church Kermanshah 1955 St Joseph Mar Yozep Church Tehran Forsat St 1950 St Thomas Mar Toma Church fa Tehran Amirabad 1967Famous Assyrians from Iran EditSee also List of Assyrian Iranians Hannibal Alkhas poet and visual artist Andre Agassi Assyrian Armenian tennis player Evin Agassi music artist Mike Agassi Olympic boxer and father of Andre Agassi Ramona Amiri Miss World Canada 2005 Ashurbanipal Babilla actor theatre director playwright and visual artist Steven Beitashour MLS player Patrick Bet David Assyrian Armenian entrepreneur George Bit Atanus designed the current Assyrian flag in 1968 Bukhtishu family famous physicians in the Middle Ages Beneil Dariush MMA fighter Jack Douglas television personality Eprime Eshag Fellow of Wadham College Oxford Alexander L George Graham H Stuart Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Stanford University Mar Youhannan Semaan Issayi Archbishop of Assyro Chaldean Metropolitan Tehran George Malek Yonan procured a seat in the Iranian Parliament for Assyrians Rosie Malek Yonan actress author and activist Younan Nowzaradan Assyrian American physician and television personality My 600 lb Life Andrew David Urshan evangelist and authorSee also EditChristians in Iran Ethnic minorities in Iran List of Assyrian settlements Religious minorities in Iran Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Urmia Da tid Bahrana Urmia OrthodoksetaNotes Edit Iran U S Department of State 2018 Report on International Religious Freedom Iran a b c Hooglund 2008 pp 100 101 Iran Assyrian Policy Institute Assyrian Policy Institute Retrieved July 29 2020 ASSYRIANS IN IRAN i The Assyrian community Encyclopaedia Iranica www iranicaonline org Retrieved 2020 05 20 Hooglund 2008 pp 100 101 295 Iran United States Department of State Retrieved 2020 05 20 Nisan Mordechai 2015 Minorities in the Middle East A History of Struggle and Self Expression 2d ed McFarland p 191 ISBN 9780786451333 Hooglund 2008 pp 128 129 Nicholas al Jeloo Evidence in Stone and Wood The Assyrian Syriac History and Heritage of the Urmia Region in Iran Parole de l Orient 35 2010 pp 1 15 a b Settling Into Diaspora A History of Urmia Assyrians in the United States PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2018 01 04 Retrieved 2015 01 07 a b c Iran A Country Study By Federal Research Division Page 128 David Gaunt The Assyrian Genocide of 1915 Assyrian Genocide Research Center 2009 a b c Travis Hannibal 2011 The Assyrian Genocide a Tale of Oblivion and Denial Forgotten Genocides Oblivion Denial and Memory Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press p 125 As of 2014 when combining the populations of all the Iranian diocese together there are 3 900 followers http www catholic hierarchy org rite dch2 html Yonan Gabriele Assyrer heute Kultur Sprache Nationalbew Academia edu in German References EditHooglund Eric 2008 The Society and Its Environment PDF In Curtis Glenn E Hooglund Eric eds Iran A Country Study Area Handbook Series United States Library of Congress Federal Research Division 5th ed Washington D C United States Government Printing Office pp 81 142 ISBN 978 0 8444 1187 3 Retrieved 13 October 2013 Bibliography EditEden Naby The Assyrians of Iran Reunification of a Millat 1906 1914 International Journal of Middle East Studies 8 1977 pp 237 249 Eden Naby The Iranian Frontier Nationalities The Kurds the Assyrians the Baluch and the Turkmens Soviet Asian Ethnic Frontiers ed by McCagg and Silver New York Pergamon Press 1979 Eden Naby Christian Assyrian Architecture of Iran News Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions Spring 1998 vol 5 no 2 p 7 10 Eden Naby Ishtar Documenting the Crisis in the Assyrian Iranian Community MERIA 10 4 2006 https web archive org web 20090124055153 http meria idc ac il journal 2006 issue4 Naby pdf Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Assyrians in Iran amp oldid 1136868141, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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