Assyrian period. Long life of the Sumerian gods. Fall of the god Khaldi
- OK. 2000 BC e. Assyria becomes a kingdom.
- OK. 1000-663 BC e. - Assyrians create a powerful state.
- 883-859 BC e. reign of King Ashurnasirpal II. Built by Nimrud.
- 704-681 BC e. King Sennacherib builds the city of Nineveh.
- 668-627 BC e. - The reign of King Ashurbanipal.
- 612-609 BC e. Babylonians and Medes attack Assyria. The collapse of the Assyrian empire.
After a successful siege of the city, the Assyrian warriors tore down the city walls to the ground, and the houses and orchards in the city were set on fire. The rebels were executed, and the captives were taken away.
The punishment of the rebels
Often the captured city was destroyed, the inhabitants were taken prisoner or killed. Many were brutally tortured before they died. The Assyrians hoped that this would teach other cities to meekly obey the conquerors. However, these measures only embittered the conquered population against them.
The Assyrian kings believed that the gods had chosen them to rule Assyria and conquer new lands. They appropriated grandiose titles, such as the King of the Universe. Serving the gods, the king built temples and led religious festivities.
Between wars, the Assyrian kings hunted lions to show their skill and courage. Lions were kept in the cages of special parks only so that the king, when he pleases, could arrange a hunt for them. During the hunt, the warriors blocked the way for the lion to escape with shields.
Ashurbanapal
When Ashurbanipal, the last great Assyrian king, ascended the throne, the capital had already been transferred to a new city, Nineveh.
Most of the population of Assyria was engaged in agriculture. The Assyrians dug canals to bring water to their fields and grew barley, sesame, grapes and vegetables. The farmers also raised sheep, goats, cows and bulls.
With the help of a structure called shaduf, water was raised to the fields. Shaduf consisted of a leather tub for water on one side and a stone for weights on the other. They were connected by a wooden pole.
Religion
The Assyrians believed that their lands belonged to Ashur, the supreme god. The Assyrians had many other gods and goddesses, and, in addition, they were convinced of the existence of evil spirits. material from the site
Cities
The Assyrians built majestic cities with beautiful palaces and temples. Their first capital - Ashur - was named after the supreme god. Later, King Ashurnasirpal II founded a new capital, in the city of Nimrud.
palaces
Ashurnasirpal Palace
The entrance to the throne room of Ashurnasirpal's palace in Nimrud was guarded by two statues. They have human heads and the bodies of winged lions. Light entered the hall through a hole in the ceiling.
Around the palace was a huge beautiful garden and ponds. Here King Ashurnasirpal rested on a bed, which grapes protected from the sun's rays. The bed was decorated with gold and ivory. Musicians played for the king and queen, and the servants created coolness with fans and drove away flies. Of the delicacies were cakes made from honey and figs. The air in the garden was filled with smoking incense.
Libraries
Library in Nineveh
In Nineveh, there was a library in the palace, where hundreds of clay tablets were kept, which King Ashurbanapal collected throughout the country. All tablets are covered with letters: they contained information on history, religion, mathematics and medicine.
Pictures (photos, drawings)
Map of the Assyrian Empire
Assyrian army crossing the river
A man pays to file with a camel. Relief on stone
The siege of the city by the Assyrians
Assyrian warriors destroy the captured city
Statue of King Ashurnasirpal II
King Ashurbanipal in his own hunting park
Assyrian farmer at work
Throne room at Ashurnasirpal's palace in Nimrud
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Ancient Assyria
Assyria proper occupied a small area along the upper Tigris, which stretched from the lower Zab in the south to the mountains of Zagra in the east and to the mountains of Macios in the northwest. To the west, a vast Syrian-Mesopotamian steppe opened up, which was crossed in the northern part by the mountains of Sinjar. On this small territory, at different times, such Assyrian cities as Ashur, Nineveh, Arbela, Kalah and Dur-Sharrukin arose.
At the end of the XXII century. BC e. Southern Mesopotamia is united under the auspices of the Sumerian kings from the third dynasty of Ur. In the next century, they are already establishing their control in northern Mesopotamia.
Thus, at the turn of the III and II millennia BC. e. it was still difficult to foresee the transformation of Assyria into a mighty power. Only in the 19th century BC e. the Assyrians make their first military successes and rush far beyond the territory they occupy, which gradually expands as the military power of Assyria grows. Thus, during its greatest development, Assyria extended 350 miles in length, and in width (between the Tigris and Euphrates) from 170 to 300 miles. According to the English researcher G. Rawlinson, the entire area occupied by Assyria,
"was equal to no less than 7,500 square miles, that is, it covered an area larger than that occupied by ... Austria or Prussia, more than twice the size of Portugal and a little less than Great Britain."
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Geographical and natural features of Mesopotamia
In my own way geographic location Ancient Mesopotamia had two significant advantages. First, unlike the arid regions surrounding it, it was located in the zone of the so-called Fertile Crescent, where a significant amount of precipitation fell in winter, which was very favorable for agriculture. Secondly, the soil in this region abounded in deposits iron ore and copper, highly valued since the time people learned how to work them.
Today, the territory of Mesopotamia - an ancient country in the north of which the Assyrian state arose - is divided between Iraq and North-Eastern Syria. In addition, some of its areas belong to Iran and Turkey. Both in antiquity and in the period modern history this Central Asian region is a zone of frequent armed conflicts, sometimes creating tension in all international politics.
Warlike daughter of Mesopotamia
According to researchers, the history of Assyria goes back almost 2 thousand years. Formed in the XXIV century BC. e, the state existed until the beginning of the 7th century, after which, in 609 BC. e., fell under the onslaught of the armies of Babylon and Media. The Assyrian power is rightfully considered one of the most warlike and aggressive in the ancient world.
Having begun its aggressive campaigns in the first half of the 9th century, it soon managed to conquer a vast territory. Under the rule of its kings was not only the whole of Mesopotamia, but also Palestine, Cyprus and Egypt, which, however, after a short time managed to regain independence.
In addition, the Assyrian state controlled parts of present-day Turkey and Syria for many centuries. That is why it is considered to be an empire, that is, a state based in its own foreign policy on military force and expanding their own borders at the expense of the territories of the peoples they captured.
Colonial policy of Assyria
Since the country, in the north of which the Assyrian state arose, was already completely conquered by him at the beginning of the 9th century, the next 3 centuries are nothing more than a period of their common history, replete with many dramatic pages. It is known that the Assyrians imposed tribute on all the conquered peoples, for the collection of which they periodically sent armed detachments.
In addition, all skilled artisans were driven to the territory of Assyria, thanks to which it was possible to raise the level of production to an unprecedented height at that time, and to influence all the surrounding peoples with the achievements of culture. This order was maintained for centuries by the most cruel punitive measures. All those who were dissatisfied were inevitably doomed to death or, at best, to immediate deportation.
Outstanding politician and warrior
The peak of the development of the state of Assyria is considered to be the period from 745 to 727 BC. e., when it was headed by the greatest ruler of antiquity - King Tiglath-Pileser III, who went down in history not only as an outstanding commander of his time, but also as a very far-sighted and cunning politician.
It is known, for example, that in 745 BC. e. he responded to the call of the Babylonian king Nabonasar, who asked for help in the fight against the Chaldean and Elamite tribes that occupied the country. Having sent his troops into Babylonia and driven out the invaders from it, the wise king managed to win such ardent sympathy from the locals that he became the de facto ruler of the country, pushing their unlucky king into the background.
Under Sargon II
After the death of Tiglathpalasar, the throne was inherited by his son, who went down in history under the name of Sargon II. He continued to expand the borders of the state, but, unlike his father, he resorted not so much to skillful diplomacy as to rude military force. For example, when in 689 BC. e. an uprising broke out in Babylon subject to him, he razed it to the ground, sparing neither women nor children.
City returned from oblivion
During his reign, the capital of Assyria, and in fact of the entire Ancient Mesopotamia, became the city of Nineveh, mentioned in the Bible, but for a long time considered fictional. Only excavations by French archaeologists, carried out in the 40s of the XIX century, made it possible to prove its historicity. This was a sensational discovery, since until then even the very location of Assyria was not known exactly.
Thanks to the work of researchers, many artifacts were discovered that testify to the extraordinary luxury with which Sargon II equipped Nineveh, which replaced the former capital of the state - the city of Ashur. It became known about the palace he built and the powerful defensive structures that surrounded the city. One of the technical achievements of that era was the aqueduct, raised to a height of 10 meters and supplying water to the royal gardens.
Among other finds of French archaeologists were clay tablets containing inscriptions in one of the Semitic languages. Having deciphered them, scientists learned about the campaign of the Assyrian king Sargon II in the southwestern part of Asia, where he conquered the state of Urartu, as well as about the capture of the North Israeli kingdom, which is also mentioned in the Bible, but was doubted by historians.
Structure of Assyrian society
From the first centuries after the formation of the state, the Assyrian kings concentrated in their hands the entirety of military, civil and religious power. They were at the same time supreme rulers, military leaders, high priests and treasurers. The next step in the vertical of power was occupied by governors of the provinces, who were appointed from among the military.
They were responsible not only for the loyalty of the peoples living in the conquered territories, but also for the timely and complete receipt of the established tribute from them. The bulk of the population was made up of farmers and artisans, who were either slaves or workers who were dependent on their masters.
The death of an empire
By the beginning of the 7th century BC. e. the history of Assyria reached the highest point of its development, followed by its unexpected collapse. As mentioned above, in 609 BC. e. the territory of the empire was invaded by the combined troops of two neighboring states - Babylonia, which was once under the control of Assyria, but managed to gain independence, and Media. The forces were too unequal, and, despite the desperate resistance of the enemy, the empire, which for a long time kept all of Mesopotamia and the lands adjacent to it in its obedience, ceased to exist.
Under the control of the conquerors
However, Mesopotamia - the country in the north of which the Assyrian state arose - did not retain the status of a politically independent region for long after its fall. After 7 decades, it was completely captured by the Persians, after which it was no longer able to revive its former sovereignty. From the end of the VI to the middle of the IV century BC. e. this vast region was part of the Achaemenid state - the Persian empire, which subjugated the whole of Asia Minor and a significant part of Northeast Africa. It got its name from the name of its first ruler - King Achaemen, who became the founder of a dynasty that ruled for almost 3 centuries.
In the middle of the IV century BC. e. Alexander the Great expelled the Persians from the territory of Mesopotamia, incorporating it into his empire. After its collapse, the homeland of the once formidable Assyrians fell under the rule of the Hellenistic Seleucid monarchy, who built a new Greek state on the ruins of the former state. These were truly worthy heirs of the former glory of Tsar Alexander. They managed to extend their power not only to the territory of the once sovereign Mesopotamia, but also to subjugate all of Asia Minor, Phoenicia, Syria, Iran, as well as a significant part of Central Asia and the Middle East.
However, these warriors were also destined to leave the historical stage. In the III century BC. e. Mesopotamia is in the power of the Parthian kingdom, located on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, and two centuries later it is captured by the Armenian emperor Tigran Osroene. During the period of Roman rule, Mesopotamia broke up into several small states that had different rulers. This last stage of its history, relating to the period of Late Antiquity, is remarkable only in that the largest and most famous city of Mesopotamia was Edessa, repeatedly mentioned in the Bible and associated with the names of many prominent figures of Christianity.
Assyria - an ancient state in the Northern Mesopotamia (on the territory of modern Iraq). The Assyrian Empire existed for almost two thousand years, starting from the 24th century BC. and until its destruction in the 7th century BC. (about 609 BC) Media and Babylonia.
Created by the Assyrian My state with its capital in the city of Nineveh (a suburb of the present city of Mossul) existed from the beginning of the 2nd millennium until about 612 BC, when Nineveh was destroyed by the united armies of Media and Babylonia.
Ashur, Kalah and Dush-Sharrukin ("Sargon's Palace") were also major cities.
The kings of Assyria concentrated almost all power in their hands - they simultaneously held the position of high priest and military leader, and for some time even treasurer. The royal advisers were privileged military leaders (managers of the provinces, who necessarily served in the army and paid tribute to the king). Farming was done by slaves and dependent workers.
Assyria reached the summit
creatures during the reign of the Sargonid dynasty (late 7th-7th centuries BC). Sargon II, the founder of a new dynasty, seized the kingdom of Israel and resettled its inhabitants, destroyed the Hittite fortresses and pushed the boundaries of the kingdom to Egypt. His son Sinnacherib is remembered for the fact that after the uprising in Babylon (689 BC) he razed this city to the ground. He chose Nineveh as his capital, rebuilding it with the greatest pomp. The territory of the city was significantly enlarged and surrounded by powerful fortifications, a new palace was built, and temples were renovated. To supply the city and the gardens around it with good water, an aqueduct 10 m high was built.The Assyrians began aggressive military campaigns in the second half of the 8th century BC. e., resulting in the formation of a huge empire. The Assyrians captured all of Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Cyprus, the territories of modern Turkey and Syria, as well as Egypt (which, however, they lost 15 years later). On the conquered lands, they formed provinces, imposing an annual tribute on them, and the most skilled artisans were resettled in Assyrian cities (this is probably why the influence of the cultures of the surrounding peoples is noticeable in the art of Assyria). The Assyrians ruled their empire very harshly, deporting or executing all rebels.
There are three periods in the history of Assyria:
Old Assyrian (XX-XVI centuries BC)
Middle Assyrian (XV-XI centuries BC)
Neo-Assyrian (X-VII centuries BC)Old Assyrian period
The deterioration of the climate in the Arabian Peninsula in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC caused the migration of Semitic tribes from there to the middle reaches of the Euphrates and further to the north and east. The northern group of these Semitic settlers were the Assyrians, closely related in origin and language to the tribes that settled in that part of Mesopotamia where the Euphrates approaches the Tigris and were called Akkadians. The Assyrians spoke a northern dialect of the Akkadian language.
The first city built by the Assyrians (probably on the site of a Subarean settlement) - they called Ashur, after their supreme god Ashur.Cities that later formed the core of the Assyrian state (Nineveh, Ashur, Arbela, etc.), until the 15th century BC. e. At first, Ashur was the center of a relatively small, nome, predominantly trading state, in which merchants played a leading role. Assyrian state until the 16th century BC. e. was called "alum Ashur", that is, the people or community of Ashur. Using the proximity of their city to the most important trade routes, the merchants and usurers of Ashur penetrated into Asia Minor and founded their trading colonies there, the most important of which is the city of Kanish.
From the 3rd millennium BC - Nome state Ashur on the middle Tigris.
In the 21st century BC. - was part of the power of the III dynasty of Ur.
Around 1970 BC - power passes to the native Asshhurians.
Around 1720 BC - A ruler from the family of the Amorite leader Shamshi-Adad restores independence.Middle Assyrian period
In the XIV-IX centuries BC. Assyria repeatedly subjugated all of Northern Mesopotamia and the surrounding areas.
Mid 15th century BC e. - dependence on Mitanni.
Ashur-uballit I (1353-1318 BC) - the beginning of the formation of the empire.
Adad-nirari I (1295-1264 BC) - completed the formation of the empire.
Second half of the 14th-13th centuries BC. - wars with the Hittites and Babylonians.
12th century BC e. - a period of decline in the fight against the Balkan tribes of the Mushki.
Tiglath-pileser I (1114-1076 BC) - a new rise.Around 1000 BC. e. - intervention of nomadic Aramaeans, another decline. After the death of Tiglath-pileser I, the Assyrians not only failed to gain a foothold to the west of the Euphrates, but even to defend the territories to the east of it. The attempts of subsequent Assyrian kings to conclude an alliance against the ubiquitous Arameans with the kings of Babylonia also did not bring any benefit. Assyria was thrown back to its indigenous lands, and its economic and political life fell into complete disrepair. From the end of the XI to the end of the X centuries. BC e. almost no documents or inscriptions have survived from Assyria to our time.
Neo-Assyrian period
Neo-Assyrian kingdom. A new period in the history of Assyria began only after she managed to recover from the Aramaic invasion. The period of the highest power of Assyria - VIII-VII century BC. The new Assyrian Empire (750–620 BC) is considered the first empire in human history.
Adad-nirari II (911-891 BC) - brought the country out of the crisis, subsequent rulers were mostly conquerors.
Adad-nirari III (810-783 BC) - initially ruled under the care of his mother Shammuramat.
First half of the 8th century BC. - loss of possessions under the blows of Urartu.
Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 BC) - a new rise of Assyria, the defeat of Urartu.
Shalmaneser V (c. 727 - 722 BC) - the conquest of the kingdom of Israel.
671 BC e. - Assarhaddon (680-669 BC) - the conquest of Egypt.
Ashurbanipal (668-627 BC) - the expansion of the power of Assyria to Lydia, Phrygia, Media, the defeat of Thebes.
630s BC. - an attack by the Medes, who had previously been in an alliance.
609 BC - the last territory - Harran in the west of Upper Mesopotamia - was conquered by Babylonia.Assyrian army
During the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BC) it was reorganized. The Assyrian army, formerly consisting of warriors who had land allotments. Since then, the basis of the army consisted of impoverished farmers, armed at the expense of the state. Thus arose a permanent army, called the "royal detachment", which included prisoners. There was also a special detachment of warriors guarding the king. The number of permanent troops increased so much that Tiglath-Palassar carried out some campaigns without resorting to tribal militias.
In the Assyrian army, monotonous weapons were introduced. The soldiers used bows with metal tips on arrows, slings, a short spear with a bronze tip, a sword, a dagger, and iron clubs. The protective armament was also improved: the helmet had a suspension that covered the back of the head and the sides of the head; the warriors conducting siege work were dressed in solid long shells made of fiber sheathed with oblong bronze plates; the shields of the Assyrian warriors were diverse both in shape and material, and in purpose - from light round and quadrangular to high rectangular ones with a canopy that protected the warrior from above. The warrior carried a bronze pickaxe on a long wooden handle, which was used in laying roads, constructing defensive structures, destroying conquered fortresses, which were usually destroyed to the ground, as well as an iron axe. Stocks of weapons and equipment were stored in the royal arsenals.
Kisir was considered the main army. Kisir was divided into fifties, which were subdivided into tens. Several kishirs made up an emuku (strength).
The Assyrian infantry was divided into heavy and light. Heavy infantry were armed with spears, swords and had protective weapons - armor, helmets and large shields. The light infantry consisted of archers and slingers. The combat unit usually consisted of two warriors: an archer and a shield bearer.
Along with this, there were also combat units, consisting only of heavily armed warriors. The Assyrian infantry operated in close formation of archers, fighting under the cover of heavy infantrymen with shields. The infantrymen threw arrows, darts and stones at the enemy.
An important part of the Assyrian army were war chariots, which began to be used from 1100 BC. e. Two or four horses were harnessed to them, and a quiver with arrows was attached to the body. Its crew consisted of two warriors - an archer and a charioteer, armed with a spear and a shield. Sometimes the crew was reinforced by two shield-bearers who covered the archer and the charioteer. War chariots were used on level ground and were a reliable means of action against irregular troops.
In addition, the beginnings of completely new types of troops appeared in the Assyrian army - cavalry and "engineering" troops. Riders in in large numbers first appeared in the Assyrian army in the 9th century BC. e. At first, the rider sat on a bare horse, and then a high saddle without stirrups was invented. The horsemen fought in pairs: one was armed with a bow, the other with a spear and a shield. Horsemen were sometimes armed with swords and maces. However, the Assyrian cavalry was still irregular and did not displace the war chariots.
To carry out various kinds of digging, road, bridge and other works, the Assyrian army had special detachments, which laid the foundation for the development of engineering troops. The troops were armed with rams and catapults for the destruction of fortress walls, siege towers and assault ladders, as well as crossing facilities - wineskins (individual soldiers crossed rivers on them, rafts and floating bridges were made from them). Phoenician craftsmen built for Assyria warships like galleys with a sharp nose for ramming enemy ships. Rowers in them were located in two tiers. Ships were built on the Tigris and Euphrates and descended into the Persian Gulf.
Alphabet Library of AshurbanipalArmy. Attitude towards conquered peoples. The Assyrian army was divided into cavalry, which, in turn, was divided into chariot and simple cavalry, and into infantry - lightly armed and heavily armed. The Assyrians in a later period of their history, unlike many states of that time, were influenced by Indo-European peoples - for example, the Scythians, who were famous for their cavalry (it is known that the Scythians were in the service of the Assyrians, and their union was sealed by marriage between the daughter of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon and the Scythian king Bartatua), began to widely use simple cavalry, which made it possible to successfully pursue the retreating enemy. Due to the presence of metal in Assyria, the Assyrian heavily armed warrior was relatively well protected and armed. In addition to these military branches, for the first time in history, auxiliary engineering troops (recruited mainly from slaves) were used in the Assyrian army, who were engaged in laying roads, building pontoon bridges and camps-fortresses. The Assyrian army was one of the first (and perhaps the very first) to use various siege weapons, such as a battering ram and a special device, somewhat reminiscent of an ox-vein ballista, which fired stones weighing up to 10 kg at a besieged city at a distance of 500-600 m. The kings and generals of Assyria were familiar with frontal and flank attacks and a combination of these attacks. The system of espionage and intelligence was also quite well established in countries where military operations were planned or there was a danger to Assyria. Finally, a warning system, like signal beacons, was quite widely used. The Assyrian army tried to act unexpectedly and quickly, not giving the enemy the opportunity to come to their senses, often making sudden night raids on the enemy camp. When necessary, the Assyrian army resorted to "starvation" tactics, destroying wells, blocking roads, and so on. All this made the Assyrian army strong and invincible. In order to weaken and keep the conquered peoples in greater submission, the Assyrians practiced the resettlement of the conquered peoples to other, uncharacteristic for them. economic activity regions of the Assyrian Empire. For example, sedentary agricultural peoples were resettled in deserts and steppes suitable only for nomads. So, after the capture of the state of Israel by the Assyrian king Sargono II, 27,000 thousand Israelis were resettled in Assyria and Media, and Babylonians, Syrians and Arabs settled in Israel itself, who later became known as the Samaritans and entered the New Testament parable of the “good Samaritan”. It should also be noted that in their cruelty the Assyrians surpassed all other peoples and civilizations of that time, which also did not differ in particular humanity. The most sophisticated tortures and executions on a defeated enemy were considered normal for the Assyrians. One of the reliefs shows how the Assyrian king feasts in the garden with his wife and enjoys not only the sounds of harps and tympans, but also a bloody spectacle: the severed head of one of his enemies hangs on a tree. Such cruelty served to intimidate enemies, and also partly had religious and ritual functions.
Political system. Population. Family Initially, the city-state of Ashur (the core of the future Assyrian Empire) was an oligarchic slave-owning republic, governed by a council of elders, which changed every year and was recruited from the most prosperous inhabitants of the city. The tsar's share in the administration of the country was small and was limited to the role of commander in chief of the army. However, gradually the royal power is strengthened. The transfer of the capital from Ashur for no apparent reason to the opposite bank of the Tigris by the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurt I (1244–1208 BC) apparently testifies to the king’s desire to break with the Ashur council, which became only the council of the city. The main basis of the Assyrian states were rural communities that were the owners of the land fund. The fund was divided into plots owned by individual families. Gradually, as successful conquests and accumulation of wealth, rich communal slave-owners stand out, and their poor fellows in the community fall into debt slavery to them. So, for example, the debtor was obliged to provide a wealthy creditor neighbor with a certain number of reapers in return for paying interest on the loan amount. Also, a very common way to get into debt slavery was to give the debtor into temporary slavery to the creditor as collateral. Noble and wealthy Assyrians did not perform any duties in favor of the state. The differences between the rich and poor inhabitants of Assyria were shown by clothing, or rather, the quality of the material and the length of the “candi” - a short-sleeved shirt that was widespread in the ancient Near East. The more noble and richer a person was, the longer his candi was. In addition, all ancient Assyrians grew thick long beards, considered a sign of morality, and carefully looked after them. Only eunuchs did not wear beards. The so-called “Middle Assyrian laws” have come down to us, regulating various aspects of the daily life of ancient Assyria and, along with the laws of Hammurabi, are the oldest legal monuments. In ancient Assyria there was a patriarchal family. The power of the father over the children differed little from the power of the master over the slaves. Children and slaves alike were counted among the property from which the creditor could take compensation for the debt. The position of the wife also differed little from that of a slave, since a wife was acquired by purchase. The husband had a legally justified right to use violence against his wife. After the death of her husband, the wife went to the relatives of the latter. It is also worth noting that an external sign free woman was wearing a veil that covered the face. This tradition was subsequently adopted by the Muslims.
Assyrians (Arm. 됬ժ̈Ր, self-names - aturai, surai, there are also the names of Aysors, Suriani, Chaldeans, Syro-Chaldeans, Syrians, Armenian Ասորիներ, Georgian ასურელები) - a people originating from the ancient population of Western Asia. The origin is traced to the inhabitants of the Assyrian Empire. The immediate ancestors of the modern Assyrians are the Aramaic-speaking inhabitants of Mesopotamia, who adopted Christianity in the 4th century.
Modern Assyrians speak the northeastern New Aramaic languages, which are part of the Semitic family. In the places of their original residence, almost all Assyrians were two-, three-, and sometimes four-lingual, in addition to their own mother tongue environment languages - Arabic, Persian and / or Turkish. In the diaspora, where most Assyrians are now, many have switched to the languages of the new surrounding population. In the second or third generation, many Assyrians no longer know their ethnic language, as a result of which many New Aramaic languages are endangered.
Assyrians live in Iran, Northern Iraq, Syria, Turkey. There are also Assyrian communities in Lebanon, Russia, Ukraine, USA, Sweden, Georgia, Armenia, Germany, Great Britain and other countries. There are no reliable data on the number of Assyrians. The total number, according to different sources ranges from 350 thousand to 4 million people.How did the first empire rise and fall? History of the Assyrian state
Assyria - this name alone terrified the inhabitants of the Ancient East. It was the Assyrian state, possessing a strong combat-ready army, that was the first of the states to embark on the path of a broad policy of conquest, and the library of clay tablets collected by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal became the most valuable source for studying science, culture, history, and ancient Mesopotamia.
The Assyrians, who belonged to the Semitic language group (this group also includes Arabic and Hebrew) and who came from the arid regions of the Arabian Peninsula and the Syrian Desert, along which they roamed, settled in the middle part of the Tigris River Valley (the territory of modern Iraq).Ashur became their first major outpost and one of the capitals of the future Assyrian state. Due to the proximity and as a result of acquaintance with the more developed Sumerian, Babylonian and Akkadian cultures, the presence of the Tigris and irrigated lands, the presence of metal and wood, which their southern neighbors did not have, due to the location at the intersection of important trade routes of the Ancient East, the foundations of statehood were formed among the former nomads , and the settlement of Ashur turned into a rich and powerful center of the Middle East region.
Most likely, it is control over the most important trade routes pushed Ashur (this is how the Assyrian state was originally called) on the path of territorial-aggressive aspirations (in addition to the capture of slaves and booty), thereby predetermining the further foreign policy of the state.
The first Assyrian king to launch a major military expansion was Shamshiadat I. In 1800 B.C. he conquered all of Northern Mesopotamia, subjugated part of Cappadocia (modern Turkey) and the large Middle Eastern city of Mari.
In military campaigns, his troops reached the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and Assyria itself began to compete with powerful Babylon. Shamshiadat I himself called himself "the king of the universe." However, at the end of the 16th century BC. for about 100 years, Assyria fell under the rule of the state of Mitanni, located in the northern Mesopotamia.
A new surge of conquests falls on the Assyrian kings Shalmaneser I (1274-1245 BC), who destroyed the state of Mitanni, capturing 9 cities with the capital, Tukultininurta I (1244-1208 BC), which significantly expanded the possessions of the Assyrian state , who successfully intervened in Babylonian affairs and made a successful raid on the powerful Hittite state, and Tiglath-Pileser I (1115-1077 BC), who made the first sea voyage in the history of Assyria in the Mediterranean Sea.
But, perhaps, Assyria reached its highest power in the so-called Neo-Assyrian period of its history. The Assyrian king Tiglapalasar III (745-727 BC) conquered almost the entire powerful Urartian kingdom (Urartu was located on the territory of modern Armenia, up to present-day Syria), except for the capital, Phoenicia, Palestine, Syria, and the fairly strong Damascus kingdom.
The same king, without bloodshed, ascended the throne of Babylon under the name of Pulu. Another Assyrian king Sargon II (721-705 BC), spending a lot of time in military campaigns, capturing new lands and suppressing uprisings, finally pacified Urartu, captured the state of Israel and subjugated Babylonia by force, taking the title of governor there.
In 720 BC Sargon II defeated the combined forces of the rebellious Syria, Phoenicia and Egypt that joined them, and in 713 BC. makes a punitive expedition to Media (Iran), captured before him. The rulers of Egypt, Cyprus, the Sabaean kingdom in South Arabia fawned over this king.
His son and successor Sennacherrib (701-681 BC) inherited a huge empire, in which rebellions had to be suppressed periodically in various places. So, in 702 BC. Sennacherrib in two battles at Kutu and Kish defeated the powerful Babylon-Elamite army (the Elamite state, which supported the rebellious Babylonia, was on the territory of modern Iran), capturing 200,000 thousand prisoners and rich booty.
Babylon itself, whose inhabitants were partly exterminated, partly resettled in various regions of the Assyrian state, Sennacherib flooded the Euphrates River with the discharged waters. Sennacherib also had to fight with a coalition of Egypt, Judea and the Arab tribes of the Bedouins. During this war, Jerusalem was besieged, but the Assyrians failed to take it because, as scientists believe, a tropical fever that crippled their army.
The main foreign policy success of the new king Esarhaddon was the conquest of Egypt. In addition, he rebuilt the destroyed Babylon. The last powerful Assyrian king, during whose reign Assyria flourished, was the already mentioned library collector Ashurbanipal (668-631 BC). Under him, the hitherto independent city-states of Phenicia, Tire and Arvada, were subjugated to Assyria, and a punitive campaign was carried out against the longtime enemy of Assyria, the Elamite state (Elam then helped his brother Ashurbanipal in the struggle for power), during which in 639 BC. e. its capital, Susa, was taken.
During the reign of three kings (631-612 BC) - after Ashurbanipal - uprisings raged in Assyria. Endless wars exhausted Assyria. In Media, the energetic king Cyaxares came to power, expelled the Scythians from his territory and even, according to some statements, managed to win them over to his side, no longer considering himself to be indebted to Assyria.
In Babylonia, a longtime rival of Assyria, King Nabobalasar, the founder of the New Babylonian kingdom, comes to power, who also did not consider himself a subject of Assyria. These two rulers made an alliance against their common enemy Assyria and began joint military operations. Under the circumstances, one of the sons of Ashurbanipal - Sarak - was forced to enter into an alliance with Egypt, by that time already independent.
Military actions between the Assyrians and the Babylonians in 616-615. BC. went with varying degrees of success. At this time, taking advantage of the absence of the Assyrian army, the Medes broke through to the indigenous regions of Assyria. In 614 BC they took the ancient sacred capital of the Assyrians Ashur, and in 612 BC. the combined Median-Babylonian troops approached Nineveh (the modern city of Mosul in Iraq).
Nineveh since the time of King Sennacherib was the capital of the Assyrian state, a large and beautiful city gigantic squares and palaces, the political center of the Ancient East. Despite the stubborn resistance of Nineveh, the city was also taken. The remnants of the Assyrian army, led by King Ashshuruballit, retreated to the Euphrates.
In 605 BC in the battle of Karchemish near the Euphrates, the Babylonian prince Nebuchadnezzar (the future famous king of Babylon), with the support of the Medes, defeated the combined Assyrian-Egyptian troops. The Assyrian state ceased to exist. However, the Assyrian people did not disappear, retaining their national identity.
What was the Assyrian state like?
Army. Attitude towards conquered peoples.
The Assyrian state (approximately XXIV BC - 605 BC) at the highest peak of its power owned vast territories by then standards (modern Iraq, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Armenia, part of Iran, Egypt). To capture these territories, Assyria had a strong, combat-ready army that had no analogues in the then ancient world.
The Assyrian army was divided into cavalry, which in turn was subdivided into chariot and simple cavalry, and into infantry - lightly armed and heavily armed. The Assyrians in a later period of their history, unlike many states of that time, were influenced by Indo-European peoples, for example, the Scythians, who were famous for their cavalry (it is known that the Scythians were in the service of the Assyrians, and their union was sealed by marriage between the daughter of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon and the Scythian king Bartatua) began to widely use simple cavalry, which made it possible to successfully pursue the retreating enemy. Due to the presence of metal in Assyria, the Assyrian heavily armed warrior was relatively well protected and armed.
In addition to these types of troops, for the first time in history, the Assyrian army used engineering auxiliary troops (recruited mainly from slaves), who were engaged in laying roads, building pontoon bridges and fortress camps. The Assyrian army was one of the first (and perhaps the very first) to use various siege weapons, such as a battering ram and a special device, somewhat reminiscent of an ox-vein ballista, which fired stones weighing up to 10 kg at a besieged city at a distance of 500-600 m The kings and commanders of Assyria were familiar with frontal and flank attacks and a combination of these attacks.
Also, the system of espionage and intelligence was quite well established in countries where military operations were planned or were dangerous for Assyria. Finally, a warning system, like signal beacons, was quite widely used. The Assyrian army tried to act unexpectedly and quickly, not giving the enemy the opportunity to come to their senses, often making sudden night raids on the enemy camp. When necessary, the Assyrian army resorted to "starvation" tactics, destroying wells, blocking roads, etc. All this made the Assyrian army strong and invincible.
In order to weaken and keep the conquered peoples in greater subordination, the Assyrians practiced the resettlement of the conquered peoples in other regions of the Assyrian empire, uncharacteristic of their economic activities. For example, sedentary agricultural peoples were resettled in deserts and steppes suitable only for nomads. So, after the capture of the 2 states of Israel by the Assyrian king Sargon, 27,000 thousand Israelis were resettled in Assyria and Media, and Babylonians, Syrians and Arabs settled in Israel itself, who later became known as the Samaritans and included in the New Testament parable of the "good Samaritan".
It should also be noted that in their cruelty the Assyrians surpassed all other peoples and civilizations of that time, which also did not differ in particular humanity. The most sophisticated torture and execution of a defeated enemy was considered normal for the Assyrians. One of the reliefs shows how the Assyrian king feasts in the garden with his wife and enjoys not only the sounds of harps and tympans, but also a bloody spectacle: the severed head of one of his enemies hangs on a tree. Such cruelty served to intimidate enemies, and also partly had religious and ritual functions.
Political system. Population. Family.
Initially, the city-state of Ashur (the core of the future Assyrian Empire) was an oligarchic slave-owning republic, governed by a council of elders, which changed every year and was recruited from the most prosperous inhabitants of the city. The tsar's share in the administration of the country was small and was limited to the role of commander in chief of the army. However, gradually the royal power is strengthened. The transfer of the capital from Ashur for no apparent reason to the opposite bank of the Tigris by the Assyrian king Tukultininurt 1 (1244-1208 BC) apparently testifies to the king’s desire to break with the Ashur council, which became only the council of the city.
The main basis of the Assyrian state was the rural communities, which were the owners of the land fund. The fund was divided into plots owned by individual families. Gradually, as successful conquests and accumulation of wealth, rich communal slave owners stand out, and their poor fellows in the community fall into debt slavery to them. So, for example, the debtor was obliged to provide a wealthy creditor neighbor with a certain number of reapers in return for paying interest on the loan amount. Also, a very common way to get into debt slavery was to give the debtor into temporary slavery to the creditor as collateral.
Noble and wealthy Assyrians did not perform any duties in favor of the state. The differences between the rich and poor inhabitants of Assyria were shown by the clothes, or rather, the quality of the material and the length of the "kandi" - a short-sleeved shirt, widespread in the ancient Near East. The more noble and richer a person was, the longer his candi was. In addition, all ancient Assyrians grew thick long beards, considered a sign of morality, and carefully looked after them. Only eunuchs did not wear beards.
The so-called “Middle Assyrian laws” have come down to us, regulating various aspects of the daily life of ancient Assyria and, along with the “laws of Hammurabi”, are the oldest legal monuments.
In ancient Assyria, there was a patriarchal family. The power of the father over the children differed little from the power of the master over the slaves. Children and slaves alike were counted among the property from which the creditor could take compensation for the debt. The position of the wife also differed little from that of a slave, since a wife was acquired by purchase. The husband had a legally justified right to use violence against his wife. The wife after the death of her husband went to the relatives of the latter.
It is also worth noting that the external sign of a free woman was the wearing of a veil that covered her face. This tradition was subsequently adopted by the Muslims.
Who are the Assyrians?
Modern Assyrians are Christians by religion (the majority belong to the "Holy Apostolic Assyrian Church of the East" and to the "Chaldean Catholic Church"), speaking the so-called northeastern New Aramaic language, continuers of the Old Aramaic language spoken by Jesus Christ, consider themselves direct descendants of the ancient Assyrian state, which we know from school history books.
The ethnonym “Assyrians” itself, after a long oblivion, appears somewhere in the Middle Ages. It was applied to the Aramaic-speaking Christians of modern Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey by European missionaries, who declared them descendants of the ancient Assyrians. This term successfully took root among the Christians of this region, surrounded by alien religious and ethnic elements, who saw in it one of the guarantees of their national identity. It was the presence of the Christian faith, as well as the Aramaic language, one of the centers of which was the Assyrian state, that became ethno-consolidating factors for the Assyrian people.
We practically know nothing about the inhabitants of ancient Assyria (the backbone of which was occupied by the territory of modern Iraq) after the fall of their state under the blow of Media and Babylonia. Most likely, the inhabitants themselves were not completely exterminated, only the ruling class was destroyed. In the texts and annals of the Persian state of the Achaemenids, one of the satrapies of which was the territory of the former Assyria, we find characteristic Aramaic names. Many of these names contain the Assyrian sacred name Ashur (one of the capitals of ancient Assyria).
Many Aramaic-speaking Assyrians occupied quite high posts in the Persian Empire, such as, for example, a certain Pan-Ashur-lumur, who was the secretary of the crowned princess of Cambysia under Cyrus 2, and Aramaic itself under the Persian Achaemenids was the language of office work (imperial Aramaic). There is also an assumption that the appearance of the main deity of the Persian Zoroastrians Ahura Mazda was borrowed by the Persians from the ancient Assyrian god of war Ashur. Subsequently, the territory of Assyria was occupied by successive states and peoples.
In the II century. AD the small state of Osroene in western Mesopotamia, inhabited by the Armai-speaking and Armenian population, with its center in the city of Edessa (the modern Turkish city of Sanliurfa, 80 km from the Euphrates and 45 km from the Turkish-Syrian border), thanks to the efforts of the apostles Peter, Thomas and Jude Thaddeus, the first in history adopted Christianity as the state religion. Having adopted Christianity, the Arameans of Osroene began to call themselves "Syrians" (not to be confused with the Arab population of modern Syria), and their language became literary language of all Aramaic-speaking Christians and was called "Syriac", or Middle Aramaic. This language is now practically dead (now used only as a liturgical language in the Assyrian churches), became the basis for the emergence of the New Aramaic language. With the spread of Christianity, the ethnonym "Syrians" was adopted by other Aramaic-speaking Christians, and then, as mentioned above, the letter A was added to this ethnonym.
The Assyrians were able to preserve the Christian faith and not dissolve in the surrounding Muslim and Zoroastrian population. In the Arab caliphate, Assyrian Christians were doctors and scientists. They did a great job of spreading secular education and culture there. Through their translations from Greek into Syriac and Arabic, ancient science and philosophy became available to the Arabs.
The real tragedy for the Assyrian people was the First World War. During this war, the leadership of the Ottoman Empire decided to punish the Assyrians for "treason", or rather, for helping the Russian army. During the massacre, as well as from forced exile in the desert from 1914 to 1918, according to various estimates, from 200 to 700 thousand Assyrians died (presumably one third of all Assyrians). Moreover, about 100 thousand Eastern Christians were killed in neighboring neutral Persia, whose territory the Turks invaded twice. 9 thousand Assyrians were exterminated by the Iranians themselves in the cities of Khoi and Urmia.
By the way, when the Russian troops entered Urmia, they created detachments from the remnants of the refugees, at the head of which they put the Assyrian general Elia Agha Petros. With his small army, he managed for some time to hold back the attacks of the Kurds and Persians. Another black milestone for the Assyrian people was the 1933 murder of 3,000 Assyrians in Iraq.
A reminder and day of remembrance of these two tragic events for the Assyrians is August 7th.
Fleeing from various persecutions, many Assyrians were forced to flee the Middle East and scattered throughout the world. To date, the exact number of all Assyrians living in different countries, cannot be installed.
According to some data, their number is from 3 to 4.2 million people. Half of them live in their traditional habitat - in the countries of the Middle East (Iran, Syria, Turkey, but most of all in Iraq). The other half settled throughout the rest of the world. The United States ranks second after Iraq in terms of the Assyrian population in the world (here, most Assyrians live in Chicago, where there is even a street named after the ancient Assyrian king Sargon). Assyrians also live in Russia.
Assyrians first appeared on the territory of the Russian Empire after the Russian-Persian war (1826-1828) and the signing of the Turkmenchay peace treaty. According to this agreement, Christians living in Persia had the right to move to the Russian Empire. A more numerous wave of emigration to Russia falls on the already mentioned tragic events of the First World War. At that time, many Assyrians found salvation in the Russian Empire, and then in Soviet Russia and Transcaucasia, such as, for example, a group of Assyrian refugees who marched along with Russian soldiers retreating from Iran. The influx of Assyrians into Soviet Russia continued further.
It was easier for the Assyrians who settled in Georgia, Armenia - there the climate and natural conditions were more or less familiar, there was an opportunity to engage in familiar agriculture and cattle breeding. The same is true in the south of Russia. In the Kuban, for example, Assyrian immigrants from the Iranian region of Urmia founded the village of the same name and started growing red bell pepper. Every year in May, Assyrians from Russian cities and from the Near Abroad come here: the Khubba (friendship) festival is held here, the program of which includes football matches, national music, and dances.
It was more difficult for the Assyrians who settled in the cities. Former mountaineers-farmers, who were mostly illiterate and did not know the Russian language (many Assyrians did not have Soviet passports until the 1960s), found it difficult to find employment in urban life. The Moscow Assyrians found a way out of this situation by cleaning shoes that did not require special skills, and practically monopolized this area in Moscow. The Moscow Assyrians settled compactly, according to tribal and one-village characteristics, in the central regions of Moscow. The most famous Assyrian place in Moscow was the house in 3rd Samotechny Lane, inhabited exclusively by Assyrians.
In 1940-1950, an amateur football team "Moscow Cleaner" was created, consisting of only Assyrians. However, the Assyrians played not only football, but also volleyball, as Yuri Vizbor reminded us in the song "Volleyball on Sretenka" ("The son of an Assyrian Assyrian Leo Uranus"). The Moscow Assyrian diaspora continues to exist today. There is an Assyrian church in Moscow, and until recently there was an Assyrian restaurant.
Despite the great illiteracy of the Assyrians, in 1924 the All-Russian Union of Assyrians "Hayatd-Atur" was created, national Assyrian schools also operated in the USSR, and the Assyrian newspaper "Star of the East" was published.
Hard times for the Soviet Assyrians came in the second half of the 1930s, when all Assyrian schools and clubs were abolished, and the few Assyrian clergy and intelligentsia were repressed. The next wave of repressions hit the Soviet Assyrians after the war. Many were exiled to Siberia and Kazakhstan on trumped-up charges of espionage and sabotage, despite the fact that many Assyrians fought alongside the Russians on the fields of the Great Patriotic War.
Today, the total number of Russian Assyrians is between 14,000 and 70,000. Most of them live in Krasnodar Territory and in Moscow. Quite a lot of Assyrians live in former republics THE USSR. In Tbilisi, for example, there is the Kukia quarter, where the Assyrians live.
Today, the Assyrians scattered all over the world (although in the thirties a plan for the resettlement of all Assyrians to Brazil was discussed at a meeting of the League of Nations) have retained their cultural and linguistic identity. They have their own customs, their own language, their own church, their own calendar (according to the Assyrian calendar, it is now 6763). They also have their own national dishes - for example, the so-called prahat (which means “hand” in Aramaic and symbolizes the fall of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh), round cakes based on wheat and corn dough.
Assyrians are cheerful, cheerful people. They love to sing and dance. Assyrians all over the world dance the national dance "Sheikhani".