Speech
nin...@wwa.com
Speech Read at the Assyrian Academic Society Dinner Banquet for
Congressman Michael Flanagan. March 9, 1996 Chicago, Illinois
Right Honorable Congressman Michael Flanagan, Mr. Greg Liates, Mr.
Shiba Mando, Mr. mark Mkrdichian, my Fellow Assyrians.
In twelve days, on March 21st, four days after St. Patrick's day,
Assyrians will celebrate their 6746th new year. I wonder if those
first Assyrian settlers of the city of Nineveh, in 5000 B.C., realized
that their children would one day, 6700 years later, find themselves
dispersed throughout the world, far from their homeland, some of them
having dinner with an Irish-American Congressman in a city named after
an onion.
From the seed that those first settlers planted grew what was to
become a magnificent legacy; indeed, the very basis of life for most
societies in the world, for these settlers were among the early
pioneers of the sedentary, agrarian societies. And it is here, in the
Assyrian heartland, the land between two rivers, that the first
agricultural societies are found. It is here that we find the first
system of writing, the first cities, the first legal codes. It is
here where the history of ideas begins. And it is here that the great
Assyrian cities of Ashur, Nineveh, Arbela and Nimrod, arise to
prominence by the end of the fourth millennium B.C.
The first Assyrian dynasty began in 2400 B.C. with Sargon I, who as
an infant was placed in a basket and set afloat on the Tigris river.
He was found and raised by an Assyrian couple. Sargon I was the first
recorded Assyrian king, and he listed 173 kings before him. Although
Sargon's empire was small in comparison to the second and third
Assyrian empires, it laid the foundation for eighteen hundred years of
Assyrian rule, beginning with Sargon I in 2400 B.C. and ending with
the tragic fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C.
But before Assyrian hegemony would come to an end, the Assyrians would
bring the highest civilization to the then known world. From the
Caspian to Cyprus, from Anatolia to Egypt, Assyrian imperial expansion
would bring into the Assyrian sphere nomadic and barbaric communities,
and would bestow the gift of civilization upon them.
And though today we are far removed from that time, some of our most
basic and fundamental devices of daily survival, to which we have
become so accustomed that we cannot conceive of life without them,
originated in Assyria. One cannot imagine leaving his home without
locking the door; it is in Assyria where locks and keys were first
used. One cannot survive in this world without knowing the time; it
is in Assyria that the sexagesimal system of keeping time was
developed. One cannot imagine driving without paved roads; it is in
Assyria where paved roads were first used. And the list goes on,
including the first postal system, the first use of iron, the first
magnifying glasses, the first libraries, the first plumbing and flush
toilets, the first electric batteries, the first guitars, and so on.
But it is not only things that originated in Assyria, it is also
ideas, ideas that would shape the world to come. It is the idea, for
example, of imperial administration, of dividing the land into
territories administered by local governors who report to the central
authority, the King of Assyria. This fundamental model of
administration has survived to this day, as can be seen in America's
federal-state system.
It is in Assyria where the mythological foundation of the old and new
testament is found. It is here that the story of the flood
originates, 2000 years before the old testament is written. It is
here that the first epic is written, the Epic of Gilgamesh, with its
universal and timeless theme of the struggle and purpose of humanity.
It is here that civilization itself is developed and handed down to
future generations. It is here where the first steps in the cultural
unification of the Middle East are taken by bringing under Assyrian
rule the diverse groups in the area, from Iran to Egypt, breaking down
ethnic and national barriers and preparing the way for the cultural
unification which facilitated the subsequent spread of Hellenism,
Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
It is, indeed, here in Assyria where the history of ideas begins.
This is the legacy of the pre-Christian Assyrians.
But the end of the Assyrian empire in 612 B.C. did not signal the end
of the Assyrians; they continued living in their homeland until that
momentous moment in human history, when the Lord Son of God gave
himself for the salvation of mankind. Very soon after the
crucifixion, the bulk of the Assyrian population converted to
Christianity, although there remained to be Ashur worshippers, the
original Assyrian religion, until 256 A.D. It was the Apostle Thomas,
with Thaddeus and Bartholomew who came to the Assyrian city of Edessa
and founded the Assyrian Church of the East, the first and oldest
church in the world.
Armed with the word of God, and after 600 years of dormancy, the
Assyrians once again set out to build an empire, not a military
empire, but a religious empire founded on divine revelation and
Christian brotherhood. So successful was the Assyrian missionary
enterprise, by the end of the twelfth century the Assyrian Church was
larger than the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches combined,
and it spanned the Asian continent, from Syria to Mongolia, Korea,
China, Japan and the Philippines.
When Marco Polo visited China in the thirteenth century, he was
astonished to find Assyrian priests in the Chinese royal court, and
tens of thousands of Chinese Christians. The Assyrian missionaries
had reached China in the sixth century. With only the bible, a cross,
and a loaf of bread in hand, these messengers had walked thousands of
miles along the old silk road to deliver the word of God. So
successful were the missionaries, when Genghis Khan swept through
Asia, he brought with him an army over half of which belonged to the
Assyrian Church of the East. So successful were the missionaries, the
first Mongolian system of writing used the Assyrian alphabet.
Armed with the word of God, Assyrians once again transformed the face
of the Middle East. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries they
began a systematic translation of the Greek body of knowledge into
Assyrian. At first they concentrated on the religious works but then
quickly moved to science, philosophy and medicine. Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle, Galen, and many others were translated into Assyrian, and
from Assyrian into Arabic. It is these Arabic translations which the
Moors brought with them into Spain, and which the Spaniards translated
into Latin and spread throughout Europe, thus igniting the European
renaissance.
By the sixth century A.D., Assyrians had begun exporting back to
Byzantia their own works on science, philosophy and medicine. In the
field of medicine, the Bakhteesho Assyrian family produced nine
generations of physicians, and founded the great medical school at
Gundeshapur. Also in the area of medicine, Hunayn ibn-Ishaq's
textbook on ophthalmology, written in 950 A.D., remained the
authoritative source on the subject until 1800 A.D.
In the area of philosophy, the Assyrian philosopher Job of Edessa
developed a physical theory of the universe, in the Assyrian language,
that rivalled Aristotle's theory, and that sought to replace matter
with forces.
One of the greatest Assyrian achievements of the fifth century was the
founding of the first university in the world. The School of Nisibis
had three departments: theology, philosophy and medicine, and became
a magnet and center of intellectual development in the Middle East.
The statutes of the School of Nisibis, which have been preserved,
later became the model upon which the first Italian university was
based.
When Arabs and Islam swept through the Middle East in 630 A.D., they
encountered 600 years of Assyrian Christian civilization, with a rich
heritage, a highly developed culture, and advanced learning
institutions. It is this civilization which became the foundation of
the Arab civilization.
But this great Assyrian Christian civilization would come to an end in
1300 A.D. The tax which the Arabs levied on Christians, simply for
just being Christian, forced many Assyrians to convert to Islam to
avoid the tax; this inexorably drained the community, so that by the
time Timurlane the Mongol delivered the final blow in 1300 A.D., by
violently destroying most cities in the Middle East, the Assyrian
Christian community had dwindled to its core in Assyria, and
henceforth the Assyrian Church of the East would not regain its former
glory, and the Assyrian language, which had been the lingua franca of
the Middle East until 900 A.D., was completely supplanted by Arabic
(except amongst the Assyrians). This, from 1300 A.D. until World War
One, became the second Assyrian dark age.
It was the momentous events of World War One which brought the
Assyrians out of their 700 year seclusion and thrust them into the
world scene once again. This time, the Assyrians united with the
Allies, fighting against the Turks. The Assyrian losses were
devastating; 750,000 Assyrians, three out of four, were massacred by
the Turks, along with one million Armenians. As a result of the
Turkish genocide, Assyrians fled to other countries, including Russia,
Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. They also fled to Europe and America.
It is at that time that the first significant Assyrian population came
to America, and it is at that time, for the first time in their
history, that the Assyrians became a diasporic nation. It remains to
be seen whether the Assyrians can survive the diaspora.
But the biggest exodus of Assyrians from their homeland began in the
sixties and continued into the late seventies. Hundreds of thousands
of Assyrians emigrated to the West, mostly to America. There are now
300,000 Assyrians in America, with 80,000 in Chicago, 80,000 in
Detroit, 40,000 in the Bay Area, 20,000 in the Los Angeles Area,
20,000 in San Diego and 5,000 in Yonkers..
This large exodus of Assyrians was precipitated by oppressive policies
practised by Arab/Muslim governments, which most Assyrians find
themselves living under. Not having their own state, Assyrians have
become the victims of intolerant governments, prejudiced societies,
and opportunistic nationalists. In Iraq, Assyrians are not recognized
as a national minority, even though there are two million living
there, and they are not granted citizenship, yet they are expected to
die for the country, as 40,000 Assyrians died in the Iran-Iraq war.
And the exodus continues. As a result of the Gulf War, one hundred
thousand Assyrians have left Iraq, and the remaining ones are living
in extremely harsh and inhuman conditions.
Wherever Assyrians live, they are a law-abiding people, with strong
family and Christian values. They are also loyal citizens of their
host country. After all, was it not Khalil Gibran, an Assyrian, who
said, "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do
for your country"?
Thank you very much.