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Concept
Assyrian homeland
Summary
The Assyrian homeland, Assyria (Āṯōr or Bêth Nahrin) refers to the homeland of the Assyrian people within which Assyrian civilisation developed, located in their indigenous Upper Mesopotamia. The territory that forms the Assyrian homeland is, similarly to the rest of Mesopotamia, currently divided between present-day Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. In Iran, the Urmia Plain forms a thin margin of the ancestral Assyrian homeland in the north-west, and the only section of the Assyrian homeland beyond the Mesopotamian region. The majority of Assyrians in Iran currently reside in the capital city, Tehran.
The Assyrians are indigenous Mesopotamians, descended from the Akkadians and Sumerians, who developed independent civilisation in the city of Assur on the eastern border of northern Mesopotamia. The territory that would encompass the Assyrian homeland however was divided through the centre by the Tigris River, with their indigenous Mesopotamia on the west and western margins of the Urmia Plains, which they occupied in 2000 BCE prior to the arrival of the modern Iranians, to the east. In modern times, Assyrians largely only recognise Assyrian towns and cities immediately neighbouring the Tigris to the east as their indigenous territory in addition to Mesopotamia, with the homeland only expanding beyond the borders due to the major centres of Assyrian civilisation, such as the cities of Nineveh, Assur and Nimrud, being built on the banks of the Tigris itself.
Modern Assyrians are predominantly Christian, mostly adhering to the East and West Syriac liturgical rites of Christianity. They speak Neo-Aramaic languages, most common being Suret and Turoyo.
AssyriaMesopotamiaNeo Assyrian Empire and
The city of Aššur and Nineveh (modern-day Mosul), which was the oldest and largest city of the ancient Assyrian empire, together with a number of other Assyrian cities, seem to have been established by 2600 BC. However it is likely that they were initially Sumerian-dominated administrative centres.
Official source
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