Mythology vs. Reality



Mythology vs. Reality

There are some scholars and authors who maintain that the name” Assyrian” was given to the followers of the Church of the East (also known as Nestorians) by the British missionaries in the nineteenth century . Fiey is one such author who believes that it was the Anglicans who attached the appellation” Assyrian” to the Nestorians. In discussing the reasons for choosing the name Assyrian by the Mission of the Archbishop of Canterbury, he concludes that” the name was quickly adopted and stayed.” Among some of the recent articles that expressed strong disagreement with Fiey's conclusion are those of Bet Ashur2 and Warda.

It is my strong conviction that there is ample evidence to indicate that the connection between the appellation” Assyrian” and the Church of the East is too old to be associated with the Christian missionaries of the18th and 19th centuries. The present article is an attempt to adduce further evidence to the effect that the connection dates as far back as the early Christian era.

In a general response to Fiey, Coakley states:” In respectful disagreement with Fiey, I think the part played by the Anglican missionaries in later years was slight.” In an earlier response to Joseph's statement that” While the name Chaldean was appropriated by the Uniats, the illustrious twin name Assyrian was in time applied to the Nestorians and that they accepted and used it from the end of the 19th century” . Odisho6 quotes Tseretely7 stating that” Those (Assyrians) who live in the Soviet Union call themselves Assyrians and their mother tongue Assyrian, an appellation which occurs in the 18th century Georgian documents".

More recently, Tseretely specifically refers to some correspondence between the Georgian King Irakli II and Mar Shimun in the years 1769 and 1770 in which Mar Shimun refers to himself as the” Assyrian Catholics” and the King identifies Mar Shimun's people as “ Assyrians.” The above documents are significant because they imply that the appellation” Assyrian “was in circulation before the British missionaries arrived in the region and that they were not the first to use the name Assyrian in connection with the Christians of the Church of the East. In reference to the significance of Tsereteli's documentation, Heinrichs writes: “There is, however, one suggestive indication that the idea of Assyrianism may have a slightly longer history than hitherto assumed: according to Tsereteli….“

One reason why it appears that it was the British who gave the Nestorians the name Assyrian is that during and after WWI the conditions were ripe for the spread of nationalism10 among the Assyrians. When the ominous clouds of WWI gathered, and enemy raids and threats became reality, Assyrianism became the rallying banner for a people faced with massacre and complete anihilation. The emergence of nationalism among Assyrians during WWI, followed the missionary work of the Church of England, hence, the second event was seen as the effect, and the first as the cause. But, as we saw above, the name Assyrian was applied to ...