Names of Syriac Christians

The various communities of adherents of Syriac Christianity and speakers of Neo-Aramaic languages advocate different terms for ethnic self-designation:

• "Assyrians", after the ancient Assyrian Empire, advocated by the Assyrian Church of the East ("Eastern Syrians"),^[1] and other Aramaic-speaking Christians from the other Syriac Churches, e.g., Assyrian nationalists from the Syriac Orthodox Church.
• "Aramaeans", after the ancient Aramaeans, advocated by the Syriac Orthodox Church ("Western Syrians")^[1]
• "Chaldeans", after ancient Chaldea, advocated by the Chaldean Catholic Church ("Chaldean Assyrians")
• "Phoenicians", after ancient Phoenicia, advocated by many Maronites, and other Syriac Christian factions in Lebanon.

The terminological problem goes back to colonial times, but it became more acute in 1946, when with the independence of Syria, the adjective Syrian referred to an independent state. The controversy isn't restricted to exonyms like English "Assyrian" vs. "Aramaean", but also applies to self-designation in Neo-Aramaic, but confusingly, the Aramaean faction endorses both Sūryōyō ܣܘܪܝܝܐ and Āramayē ܐܪܡܝܐ, while the "Assyrian" fraction insists on Āṯūrāyē ܐܬܘܪܝܐ but also accepts Sūryayē ܣܘܪܝܝܐ.

Contents 1 Exonyms 2 Aramaic 3 Archaeology 4 Footnotes 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

Exonyms

The most common English exonym is "Assyrians", but emphatically denounced by the "Aramaean" faction. In other parts of the Assyrian diaspora, the case may lie differently, depending on the confessional composition of the regional population. Thus, in Germany and in Sweden, "Aramaean" (Aramäer, Araméer) is more common, but by no means undisputed. Alternative terms are "Syriac" or "Syrian", both rarely used because "Syriac" is usually reserved for early Christian times, and "Syrian" for citizens of the modern nation of Syria. In Sweden Syrianer is commonly used in the Aramaean faction (as opposed to Syrier "Arab citizen of Syria"). However, Assyrier/Syrianer is a very common designation in use by Swedish authorities, in order to specify that both are from the same ethnic group.^[2] Proponents of self-identification as Chaldeans are in fact a sub-group of Syriac Christianity, the Chaldean Christians, adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church (since 1553), while the dispute between self-identification as "Assyrians" vs. "Aramaeans" concerns the entire ethnicity. The confusion was noted as early as the 18th century by Edward Gibbon, who wrote that the Nestorians "Under the name Chaldeans or Assyrians, are confounded with the most learned or the most powerful nation in Eastern antiquity." The English appellation "Assyrian" has been common since the First World War. In 1910, William A. Wigram in his An introduction to the history of the Assyrian Church opts for "Assyrian" in the interest of clarity, noting of the alternatives:

Syrian to an Englishman, does not mean 'a Syriac-speaking man'; but a man of that district between Antioch and the Euphrates where Syriac was the vernacular once, but which is Arabic-speaking today, and which was never the country of the 'Assyrian' Church. Chaldean would suit admirably; but it is put out of court by the fact that in modern use it means only those members of the Church in question who have abandoned their old fold for the Roman obedience; and Nestorian has a theological significance which is not justified. Thus it seemed better to discard all these, and to adopt a name which has at least the merit of familiarity to most friends of the church today

Assyriologist Simo Parpola argues for a common designation Assyrian, on grounds that:

In this context it is important to draw attention to the fact that the Aramaic-speaking peoples of the Near East have since ancient times identified themselves as Assyrians and still continue to do so. The self-designations of modern Syriacs and Assyrians, Sūryōyō and Sūrāyā, are both derived from the ancient Assyrian word for "Assyrian", Aššūrāyu, as can be easily established from a closer look at the relevant words.^[3]

Middle East expert Walid Phares speaking at the 70th Assyrian Convention, on the topic of Assyrians in post-Saddam Iraq, began his talk by asking why he as a Lebanese Maronite ought to be speaking on the political future of Assyrians in Iraq, answering his own question with "because we are one people. We believe we are the Western Assyrians and you are the Eastern Assyrians."^[4] During the 2000 United States census, Syriac Orthodox Archbishops Cyril Aprim Karim and Clemis Eugene Kaplan issued a declaration that their preferred English designation is "Syriacs"[3]. The official census avoids the question by listing the group as "Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac".^[5]

Aramaic

In Aramaic, the dispute boils down to the question of whether Sūryayē "Syrian" and Āṯūrāyē "Assyrian" are synonymous. Etymologically, the question is unsettled (see Syria#Etymology). J. Joseph emphasizes non-identity of the two terms, not so much on etymological as on geographical grounds, a position criticized by Michael (2002). Michael the Great in the 12th century reports on a 9th century dispute between Greek and Syriac sects, and has the Jacobites answer derogatory comments of their Greek opponents to the effect:

“	That even if their name is "Syrian", they are originally 'Assyrians' "and they have had many honorable kings ... Syria is in the west of Euphrates, and its inhabitants who are talking our Aramaic language, and who are so-called 'Syrians', are only a part of the 'all', while the other part which was in the east of Euphrates, going to Persia, had many kings from Assyria and Babylon and Urhay. ... Assyrians, who were called 'Syrians' by the Greeks, were also the same Assyrians, I mean 'Assyrians' from 'Assure' who built the city of Nineveh.[6]	„

When Horatio Southgate visited the Syrian Orthodox communities of Turkey in 1843 he reported that its followers were calling themselves Suryoye Othoroye:

“	I began to make inquiries for the Syrians. The people informed me that there were about one hundred families of them in the town of Kharpout, and a village inhabited by them on the plain. I observed that the Armenians did not know them under the name which I used, Syriani; but called them Assouri, which struck me the more at the moment from its resemblance to our English name Assyrians, from whom they claim their origin, being sons, as they say, of Assour who 'out of the land of Shinar went forth, and build Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resin between Nineveh and Calah.[7]	„

In the wake of the modern rediscovery of Ancient Assyria from the 1840s, "Assyrian" identity was embraced with renewed enthusiasm in Assyrian nationalism. John Joseph, has claimed that it was British archaeologists, during the 19th century, who imposed the Assyrian identity on the Syriac Orthodox Christians (also known as Jacobites). However, according to the 'Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia' The Pope Paul V in a letter dated November 3, 1612 to the Persian King Shah Abbas I, wrote:

“	Those in particular who are called Assyrians or Jacobites and inhabit Isfahan will be compelled to sell their very children in order to pay the heavy tax you have imposed on them, unless You take pity on their misfortune.[8]	„

The former patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Mar Raphael I Bedawid, had this to say:

“	I personally think that these different names serve to add confusion. The original name of our Church was the ‘Church of the East’ ... When a portion of the Church of the East became Catholic, the name given was ‘Chaldean’ based on the Magi kings who came from the land of the Chaldean, to Bethlehem. The name ‘Chaldean’ does not represent an ethnicity... We have to separate what is ethnicity and what is religion... I myself, my sect is Chaldean, but ethnically, I am Assyrian.[9]	„

Archaeology

Recent archaeological evidence includes a statue from Syria with Assyrian and Aramaic inscriptions,^[10] as well as the Çineköy inscription.

Footnotes

References

• John Joseph, The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East - Encounters with Western Christian Missions, Archeologists & Colonial Powers
• R.N. Frye, Assyria and Syria: Synonyms, Journal of Near Eastern Studies vol.51, n. 4, pp.281-285, reprinted Journal of the Assyrian Academic Studies 1997, vol.11, n.2, pp.30-36.
• Parpola, Simo (2004). "National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in Post-Empire Times". Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies Vol. 18 (No. 2): pp. 8-9. JAAS.
• Sargon R. Michael, review of J. Joseph The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East, Zinda magazine (2002)

See also

• Aram Nahrin
• Assyrian homeland
• Assyrianism
• Aramaeanism
• Syria (etymology)
• Cinekoy inscription

External links

general

• Kelley L. Ross, Note on the Modern Assyrians, The Proceedings of the Friesian School
• Assyrian Hammorabi Union (Assyriska Hammorabi Föreningen) Namnkonflikten
• Kenneth Nordgren, Vems är historien? Historia som medvetande, kultur och handling i det mångkulturella Sverige Doktorsavhandlingar inom den Nationella Forskarskolan i Pedagogiskt Arbete nr 3 (in Swedish)
• Los Angeles Times (Orange County Edition), Assyrians Hope for U.S. Protection, February 17, 2003, p. B8.

pro "Assyrian"

• Parpola, Simo, National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in Post-Empire Times (2004)
• Edward Odisho, Ph.D., Assyrians, Chaldeans & Suryanis: We all have to hang together before we are hanged separately (2003)
• Aprim, Fred, The Assyrian Cause and the Modern Aramean Thorn (2004)
• Wilfred Alkhas, Neo-Assyrianism & the End of the Confounded Identity (2006)

pro "Aramaean"

• http://suryoyo-oromoyo.info.se/
• M. S. Megalommatis, Do not Call the Illustrious Nation of Aramaeans by the Misnomer ‘Assyrians’! (2007)[4]
• M. S. Megalommatis, Aramaeans, Syrians, Syriacs, Assyrians or Chaldaeans? [5]

anti "Assyrian"

• M. S. Megalommatis, The Assyrian and Israelite Origin of the Northern Europeans and Americans [6]

•  • e - ܣܘܖ̈ܝܝܐ Syriac Christianity
Churches	Ancient Church of the East · Assyrian Church of the East · Assyrian Evangelical Church · Chaldean Catholic · Maronite Church · Syriac Catholic · Syriac Orthodox
Subgroups	Assyrian people · Chaldeans · Nestorians · Syriacs · Naming dispute