The Akkadians were a Semitic people living on the Arabic peninsula during the great flourishing period of the Sumerian city-states. Although we don't know much about early Akkadian history and culture, we do know that as the Akkadians migrated north, they came in increasing conflict with the Sumerian city-states, and in 2340 BC, the great Akkadian military leader,
Sargon, conquered Sumer and built an Akkadian empire stretching over most of the Sumerian city-states and extending as far away as Lebanon. Sargon based his empire in the city of Akkad, which became the basis of the name of his people. This great capital of the largest empire humans had ever seen up until that point later became the city of Babylon, which was the commercial and cultural center of the middle east for almost two thousand years.
But Sargon's ambitious empire lasted for only a blink of an eye in the long time spans with which we measure Mesopotamian history. In 2125, the Sumerian city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia rose up in revolt, and the Akkadian empire fell before a renewal of Sumerian city-states.
The Akkadians were
Semites, that is, they spoke a language drawn from a family of languages called
Semitic languages (the term "Semite" is a modern designation taken from the Hebrew Scriptures; Shem was a son of Noah and the nations descended from Shem are the Semites). These languages include Hebrew, Arabic, Assyrian, and Babylonian. After the final end of Sumerian power and civilization around 2000 BC, the area came under the exclusive control of Semitic peoples for centuries.
Richard Hooker
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/AKKAD.HTM
Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Assyrians
Top
Home >
Library >
History, Politics & Society >
Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia
A Semitic people indigenous to Mesopotamia, with a history spanning 4,700 years.
Contemporary Assyrians are the descendants of the Akkadian-speaking inhabitants of the Assyrian Empire, which ended in 612 B.C.E. Ancient Assyrians worshipped the god Assur until 256 C.E.; their descendants were among the first to accept Christianity, with the founding of the Assyrian Church of the East by the apostle Thomas in 33 C.E. By 1300, the modern culture's homeland included the territories of present-day northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, and northwestern Iran. Contemporary Assyrians are ethnically distinct from Arabs and Jews and speak Neo-Syriac. Islam and Arab civilization engulfed the Assyrian Christians and some converted to Islam, but the Mongol invasions led by
Tamerlane forced others into the Hakkari Mountains of eastern Turkey. Others continued to live in northern Iraq and Syria. Assyrian Christians of this period belonged to either the Assyrian Church of the East or the Syriac Orthodox Church. In 1550, a religious
schism resulted in the creation of the Chaldean Church of Babylon and a Roman Catholic Uniate. The Assyrian Church of the East is
Nestorian, but English speakers in the West classify Nestorian churches as belonging to the Oriental Orthodoxy. Contemporary religious divisions include the Chaldean, Syrian Catholic, Maronite (Uniate), and
Jacobite churches, but Protestantism (Evangelical, Pentecostal, and Presbyterian) has also attracted converts.
Assyrians migrated to Europe and the United States by 1870, but the end of World War I witnessed genocides and
dispersal throughout the world. From 1915 to 1918, approximately 750,000 Assyrians were massacred by Turkish and Kurdish forces. The French in Syria and the British in Iraq exacerbated the
plight of the Assyrian survivors, who lost their ancestral lands and
dispersed throughout the Middle East, Europe, and North America. Persecutions in Iran (194
, the Lebanese Civil War (1975 - 1990), unrest in Iraq (1970s), and the Gulf War (1991) resulted in increased immigration. By 2000, the Assyrian population was estimated at 3.5 million, with approximately one-third in a
diaspora. Current demographic estimates are: Iraq, 1,500,000; Syria, 700,000; United States, 400,000; Sweden, 120,000; Lebanon, 100,000; Brazil, 80,000; Germany, 70,000; Russia, 70,000; Iran, 50,000; Jordan, 44,000; Australia, 30,000; Turkey, 24,000; Canada, 23,000; Holland, 20,000; and France, 20,000. Smaller numbers migrated to Belgium, Georgia, Armenia, Switzerland, Denmark, Greece, England, Austria, Italy, New Zealand, and Mexico. Chicago, Detroit, and Phoenix have substantial populations. Assyrians in the diaspora seek to maintain their language, culture, and religion, and financially support Assyrian refugees in the Middle East and other countries.
Bibliography
Andrews, F. David, ed.
The Lost Peoples of the Middle East: Documents of the Struggle for Survival and Independence of the Kurds, Assyrians, and Other Minority Races in the Middle East. Salisbury, NC: Documentary Publications, 1982.
Brentjes, Burchard.
The Armenians, Assyrians, and Kurds: ThreeNations, One Fate? Campbell, CA: Rishi, 1997.
Macuch, R. "Assyrians." In
Encyclopedia Iranica. London: Routledge &
Kegan, 1992
Michael, John, and Jassim, Sheren. "The Assyrians of Chicago." Available from
http://www.aina.org/aol/ethnic.htm.