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| Assyrian Christians, who fled unrest in Syria, carry a cross outside St. Georges/ Cathedral in Jdeidah in Beirut. Aramaic-Speaking Assyrians are being driven from Syria and Iraq by war and the militant Islamic State group (Anwar Amro/ AFP/Getty Images) |
BEIRUT — Suhail Gabriel was in bed when Islamic State militants stormed his village in eastern Syria, firing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Gabriel rushed his wife and daughter onto his motorcycle and sped through the early-morning darkness, he later recalled.
“We left in our pajamas,” Gabriel said. “We didn’t even have time to put on clothes.”
He was among the thousands of people from an ancient community of Christians, known as Assyrians, who fled 35 farming villages in Syria’s Khabur River area in February because of attacks by the extremist Sunni Muslim group. The militants desecrated churches and religious symbols during the offensive and kidnapped about 250 of the Assyrians, including women and children.
Over the past decade, Assyrians have joined waves of Christians who have fled Syria and Iraq because of war and persecution by extremist Muslims. But the latest attacks have added to concerns that this unique Mesopotamian people are in danger of disappearing from the region.
Assyrians in Iraq and Syria belong to the last communities of significant size to speak the language of Jesus: Aramaic. Many of Assyrians are being forced to move outside the Middle East, where it becomes less likely that the tongue will be maintained, said Eden Naby, a Middle East historian and expert on Assyrian culture.
Aramaic is the oldest continuously written and spoken language in the Middle East, she said. It was once also used by other religious communities, including Jews. “Assyrians remain the last Aramaic-speaking of people of the world. So the disappearance and displacement of these people pretty much spells the closing chapter of Aramaic use in the world,” Naby said.
Assyrians, also referred to as Chaldeans or Syriacs, consider themselves ethnically distinct from Arabs and Kurds, tracing their roots in the region to 6,500 years ago. They speak a modern dialect of what was the lingua franca of the Assyrian Empire.
Assyrians were among the earliest people to convert to Christianity, and they mostly belong to four Eastern Rite churches, whose founders are said to have included the 1st-century apostles Thomas, Thaddeus and Bartholomew.... CONTINUE READING
