Some notes about the Assyrian origin of Syriacs (Syrians)
• "The Assyrians, who were afterwards called Syrians, held their empire for thirteen hundred years."
Source: Justninus third century
• The Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Michael the great (1126-99) wrote:
In the first half of the 9th century "the Greeks were offending the Jacobites by saying: 'Your Syrian sect has no importance neither honor, and you did never have a kingdom, neither an honorable king'. the Jacobites answered them by Saying that even if their name is "Syrian", but they are originally "Assyrians" and they have had many honorable kings.... Syria is in the west of Euphrates, and its inhabitants who are talking our Aramaic language, and who are so-called 'Syrians', are only a part of the 'all', while the other part which was in the east of Euphrates, going to Persia, had many kings from Assyria and Babylon and Urhay.
Source: (History of Mikhael The Great" Chabot Edition (French) P: 750) as quoted by Addai Scher, Hestorie De La Chaldee Et De "Assyrie")
• "I observed that the Armenians did not know them under the name which I used, SYRIANI; but called them ASSOURI, which struck me the more at the moment from its resemblance to our English name ASSYRIANS, from whom they claim their origin, being sons, as they say, of Assour, (Asshur,) who 'out of the land of Shinar went forth, and build Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resin between Nineveh and Calah; the same is a great city..
source: Horatio Southgate, "Narrative of a Visit to the Syrian [Jacobites] Church", 1844 P 80
• Even before the archaeologist Austen Henry had published his book about his ancient Assyrian discoveries Horatio Southgate in 1843 visited the Syrian Orthodox communities of Turkey and reported they identified themselves as Assyrians in the form of "Suryoyo, Othoroyee"
• The third century Roman historian Justinus also attests to this fact. He wrote: "The Assyrians, who were afterwards called Syrians, held their empire for thirteen hundred years."
source: Marcus Junianus Justinus Epitome of the Philippic, "History of Pompeius Trogus", translated by Rev. John Selby Watson. (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853
• During Mor Michael's life time, between 1160 and 1170 John of Wurzburg who visited Jerusalem refers to the Syriac speaking christians of the city as Assyrians. There were both Nestorians and Jacobite communities among others in that city. He writes:
"For the Assyrians [ local Syrian Christians] whose fathers were the settlers of that country from the first persecution, say that after Our Lord's Passion the city was seven time captured and destroyed, together with all the churches, but not wholly leveled to the ground."
Source: F. E. Peters, "Jerusalem", Princeton University Press 1985 pp. 297-8 citing Saewulf 1896; "Saewulf. 'Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land', Trans. the Lord Bishop of Clifton. 'Palestine Pilgrims Text Society 4' Reprint New York Ams Press, 1971
• When Horatio Southgate visited the Syrian Orthodox communities of Turkey in 1843 he reported that: its followers were calling themselves Assyrians in the form of "Suryoye Othoroye". He writes:
" I began to make inquiries for the Syrians. The people informed me that there were about one hundred families of them in the town of Kharpout, and a village inhabited by them on the plain. I observed that the Armenians did not know them under the name which I used, SYRIANI; but called them ASSOURI, which struck me the more at the moment from its resemblance to our English name ASSYRIANS, from whom they claim their origin, being sons, as they say, of Assour, (Asshur,) who 'out of the land of Shinar went forth, and build Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resin between Nineveh and Calah; the same is a great city..
source: Horatio Southgate, "Narrative of a Visit to the Syrian [Jacobites] Church", 1844 P 80
• The text of Mor Barsum's petition dated Feb. 1920 reads:
"We have the honor of bringing before the Peace Conference the information that H.B. the Syrian Patriarch of Antioch has entrusted me with the task of? laying before the Conference the suffering and the wishes of our ancient Assyrian nation who reside mostly in the upper valleys of Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia..." (46)
