History of the Assyrians

Puzur-Ashur's dynasty continued to govern Assur which became a regional power with colonies in Anatolia and influence over South Mesopotamia until the throne was usurped by the Amorite conqueror Shamshi-Adad I c. 1808 BC.

Assyrian expansionism and power reached its peak under Tiglath-Pileser III in the 8th century BC and the subsequent Sargonid dynasty of kings, under whom the Neo-Assyrian Empire stretched from Egypt, Libya and Arabian Peninsula the south to the Caucasus in the north, and Persia in the east to Cyprus in the west .

The Assyrians continued to constitute a significant if not majority portion of the population in northern Mesopotamia, Northeast Syria and Southeast Anatolia until suppression and massacres under the Ilkhanate and the Timurid Empire in the 14th century.

[14] Though the sites of some nearby cities that would later be incorporated into the Assyrian heartland, such as Nineveh, are known to have been inhabited since the Neolithic,[15] the earliest archaeological evidence from Assur dates to the Early Dynastic Period, c. 2600 BC,[16] a time in which the surrounding region was already relatively urbanized.

[17] Surviving archaeological and literary evidence has been suggested by some historians that Assur in its earliest history may have been inhabited by Hurrians as well as Semitic ancestors of the Assyrians, although others reject this hypothesis.

The original city-state came to an end c. 1808 BC when it was conquered by the Amorite ruler of Ekallatum, Shamshi-Adad I,[48] who deposed Erishum II, the last king of the Puzur-Ashur dynasty after having been repelked by his predecessor,[49][50] and took the city for himself.

[71] Assyria's rise was intertwined with the decline and fall of the Mitanni kingdom, its former suzerain, which allowed the early Middle Assyrian kings to expand and consolidate territories in northern Mesopotamia.

[83] Tukulti-Ninurta's main goal was Babylonia in the south; he intentionally escalated conflict with the Babylonian king Kashtiliash IV through claiming "traditionally Assyrian" lands along the eastern Tigris river.

[95] Modern researchers tend to varyingly ascribe the Bronze Age collapse to large-scale migrations, invasions by the mysterious Sea Peoples, new warfare technology and its effects, starvation, epidemics, climate change and an unsustainable exploitation of the working population.

[126] Through campaigns aimed at outright conquest and not just extraction of seasonal tribute, as well as reforms meant to efficiently organize the army and centralize the realm, Tiglath-Pileser is by some regarded as the first true initiator of Assyria's "imperial" phase.

[147] To ensure that the succession to the throne after his own death would go more smoothly than his own accession, Esarhaddon forced everyone in the empire, not only the prominent officials but also far-away vassal rulers and members of the royal family, to swear oaths of allegiance to the successors and respect the arrangement.

[150] While Esarhaddon's documents suggest that Shamash-shum-ukin was intended to inherit all of Babylonia, it appears that he only controlled the immediate vicinity of Babylon itself since numerous other Babylonian cities apparently ignored him and considered Ashurbanipal to be their king.

Ashurbanipal's reign also appears to have seen a growing disconnect between the king and the traditional elite of the empire; eunuchs grew unprecedently powerful in his time, being granted large tracts of lands and numerous tax exemptions.

[159] Though the prince Ashur-uballit II, possibly Sinsharishkun's son, attempted to lead the resistance against the Medes and Babylonians from Harran in the west,[160] he was defeated in 609 BC, marking the end of the ancient line of Assyrian kings and of Assyria as a state.

[11] Archaeological surveys of the Assyrian heartland have consistently shown that there was a dramatic decrease in the size and number of inhabited sites in Assyria during the Neo-Babylonian period, suggesting a significant societal breakdown in the region.

The Assyrians in Uruk apparently continued to exist as a community until the reign of the Achaemenid king Cambyses II (r. 530–522 BC) and were closely linked to a local cult dedicated to Ashur.

The Achaemenid kings interfered little with the internal affairs of their individual provinces as long as tribute and taxes were continuously provided, which allowed Assyrian culture and customs to survive under Persian rule.

[192] Though once more without any real political power, the population of northern Mesopotamia (called Asoristan by the Sassanids) continued to keep the memory of their ancient civilization alive and positively connected with the Assyrian Empire in local histories written during the Sasanian period.

[198] Medieval tales written in Aramaic (or Syriac) for instance by and large characterize Sennacherib as an archetypical pagan king assassinated as part of a family feud, whose children convert to Christianity.

[203] The Sasanian Empire confusingly[i] applied the name Āsōristān ("land of the Assyrians") to a province corresponding roughly to the borders of ancient Babylonia, thus excluding the historical Assyria in northern Mesopotamia.

The Academy of Gondishapur in southern Mesopotamia, founded by Assyrians from Nisibis in the north, continued to operate and produce skilled Christian physicians under Muslim rule, many of whom were employed by the caliphs.

Through the translation and copying of ancient works, the early medieval Syriac-language authors not only contributed to mainstream intellectual history, but also left a significant mark on the local Christian denominations.

[225] For propaganda purposes, the Crusaders typically described the Christians under Turkish rule as oppressed and in need of liberation, though it is clear from surviving accounts that the views of the Armenians and Assyrians themselves were more complex.

Despite the efforts of the Patriarch of the East, Yahballaha III, to calm the situation down, the insurrection was violently suppressed by the Kurds and the local Mongol governor, who captured the citadel on 1 July 1310 and massacred all the defenders, as well as all of the Christian inhabitants of the lower town in the city.

[256] Millennia of being an ethnic minority, combined with the many persecutions in the Middle Ages and early Modern period, reduced the number of Assyrians from as many as 20 million in ancient times[238] to only about 500,000–600,000 people at the beginning of the 20th century.

Large segments of the Assyrian population in the Tur Abdin region fled across the Izla ridge into the plains surrounding Nusaybin, where many settled in what would later become the city of Qamishli in northern Syria,[252] founded in 1926.

In an effort to safeguard his people, Shimun XIX Benyamin, the Patriarch of the Church of the East, plead with the Allies of World War I for assistance and sought the aid of the Russian Empire.

[266] With the collapse and breakup of the Ottoman Empire and the Qajar dynasty in Iran and the rise of new nation states in their place, many of the minorities of the Middle East began asserting their rights to self-determination and sovereignty, including the Assyrians.

[284] To counterweight the Kurdish political power in northern Iraq, some Assyrians advocating for autonomy have favored closer relations and unity with the other minorities of the region: the Yazidis and Iraqi Turkmen.

On 23 February 2015, ISIL fighters combed the region along the Khabur river in north-eastern Syria, imprisoning locals, destroying shrines, churches and monasteries and plundering and razing villages.