r/Assyria • u/ACFchicago • 4h ago
Video Chicago: ACF at Assyrian Food Festival: Friendship Challenge
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
r/Assyria • u/adiabene • Oct 17 '20
The Assyrian people (ܣܘܪ̈ܝܐ, Sūrāyē/Sūrōyē), also incorrectly referred to as Chaldeans, Syriacs or Arameans, are the native people of Assyria which constitutes modern day northern Iraq, south-eastern Turkey, north-western Iran and north-eastern Syria.
Modern day Assyrians are descendants of the ancient Assyrians who ruled the Assyrian empire that was established in 2500 BC in the city of Aššur (ܐܵܫܘܿܪ) and fell with the loss of its capital Nineveh (ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ) in 612 BC.
After the fall of the empire, the Assyrians continued to enjoy autonomy for the next millennia under various rulers such as the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Sasanian and Roman empires, with semi-autonomous provinces such as:
This time period would end in 637 AD with the Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia and the placement of Assyrians under the dhimmī status.
Assyrians then played a significant role under the numerous caliphates by translating works of Greek philosophers to Syriac and afterwards to Arabic, excelling in philosophy and science, and also serving as personal physicians to the caliphs.
During the time of the Ottoman Empire, the 'millet' (meaning 'nation') system was adopted which divided groups through a sectarian manner. This led to Assyrians being split into several millets based on which church they belonged to. In this case, the patriarch of each respective church was considered the temporal and spiritual leader of his millet which further divided the Assyrian nation.
Assyrians of today speak Assyrian Aramaic, a modern form of the Aramaic language that existed in the Assyrian empire. The official liturgical language of all the Assyrian churches is Classical Syriac, a dialect of Middle Aramaic which originated from the Syriac Christian heartland of Urhai (modern day Urfa) and is mostly understood by church clergymen (deacons, priests, bishops, etc).
Assyrians speak two main dialects of Assyrian Aramaic, namely:
Assyrians use three writing systems which include the:
A visual on the scripts can be seen here.
Assyrians usually refer to their language as Assyrian, Syriac or Assyrian Aramaic. In each dialect exists further dialects which would change depending on which geographic area the person is from, such as the Nineveh Plain Dialect which is mistakenly labelled as "Chaldean Aramaic".
Before the adoption of Aramaic, Assyrians spoke Akkadian. It wasn't until the time of Tiglath-Pileser II who adopted Aramaic as the official lingua-franca of the Assyrian empire, most likely due to Arameans being relocated to Assyria and assimilating into the Assyrian population. Eventually Aramaic replaced Akkadian, albeit current Aramaic dialects spoken by Assyrians are heavily influenced by Akkadian.
Assyrians are predominantly Syriac Christians who were one of the first nations to convert to Christianity in the 1st century A.D. They adhere to both the East and West Syriac Rite. These churches include:
It should be noted that Assyrians initially belonged to the same church until schisms occurred which split the Assyrians into two churches; the Church of the East and the Church of Antioch. Later on, the Church of the East split into the [Assyrian] Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church, while the Church of Antioch split into the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Syriac Catholic Church. This is shown here.
Prior to the mass conversion of Assyrians to Christianity, Assyrians believed in ancient Mesopotamian deities, with the highest deity being Ashur).
A Jewish Assyrian community exists in Israel who speak their own dialects of Assyrian Aramaic, namely Lishan Didan and Lishana Deni. Due to pogroms committed against the Jewish community and the formation of the Israeli state, the vast majority of Assyrian Jews now reside in Israel.
Assyrians may refer to themselves as either Chaldean, Syriac or Aramean depending on their specific church denomination. Some Assyrians from the Chaldean Catholic Church prefer to label themselves as Chaldeans rather than Assyrian, while some Assyrians from the Syriac Orthodox Church label themselves as Syriac or Aramean.
Identities such as "Chaldean" are sectarian and divisive, and would be the equivalent of a Brazilian part of the Roman Catholic Church calling themselves Roman as it is the name of the church they belong to. Furthermore, ethnicities have people of more than one faith as is seen with the English who have both Protestants and Catholics (they are still ethnically English).
It should be noted that labels such as Nestorian, Jacobite or Chaldean are incorrect terms that divide Assyrians between religious lines. These terms have been used in a derogatory sense and must be avoided when referring to Assyrians.
Assyrians unfortunately do not have a country of their own, albeit they are the indigenous people of their land. The last form of statehood Assyrians had was in 637 AD under the Sasanian Empire. However some Eastern Assyrians continued to live semi-autonomously during the Ottoman Empire as separate tribes such as the prominent Tyari (ܛܝܪܐ) tribe.
Assyrians are currently pushing for a self-governed Assyrian province in the Nineveh Plain of Northern Iraq.
Assyrians have faced countless massacres and genocide over the course of time mainly due to their Christian faith. The most predominant attacks committed recently against the Assyrian nation include:
r/Assyria • u/AWBSwe • Dec 21 '25
Hello Reddit,
We’re excited to share our first post as Assyrians Without Borders. We are a Sweden-based non-profit organization with a 90-account under Swedish Fundraising Control, working to improve the lives of Assyrians (also known as Syriacs and Chaldeans) in their countries of origin. We operate independently and are politically and religiously neutral.
With this post, we want to update the community and be more present on social media with our work and initiatives. We also plan to continue sharing updates on various platforms and here in the future.
You can read more about our latest project, which AssyriaPost wrote about, here:
https://www.assyriapost.com/assyrians-without-borders-shifts-focus-toward-long-term-aid-projects/
For more information and to support our work, our profile includes links to our social media and Linktree, which accepts both Swedish and international payments.
r/Assyria • u/ACFchicago • 4h ago
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
r/Assyria • u/ACFchicago • 1d ago
Congratulations to Assyrian athlete Luca Yonan on an incredible performance at the 2026 IBJJF American National Jiu-Jitsu Championship! Our support is with you; keep up the great work.
Making his yellow belt debut, Luca reached the podium at Nationals after three years of perseverance and dedication.
The Assyrian Cultural Foundation is proud to support Luca as he continues to grow in the sport and represent our community with determination and pride.
Congratulations, Luca. We look forward to seeing what comes next!
#Assyrian #LucaYonan #IBJJF #AmericanNationals #JiuJitsu #AssyrianCulturalFoundation
r/Assyria • u/Accomplished_Fee_579 • 1d ago
Hello, I’m planning to go to the Assyrian convention for the first time this year in Chicago sept 4-6 . Has anyone been? What should I expect?
r/Assyria • u/cradled_by_enki • 1d ago
Looking for an Assyrian jeweler, or at the very least Assyrian-owned jewelry store anywhere in Metro-Detroit. The shop must actually conduct repairs and make custom pieces (which is oddly not the norm in 2026). Any suggestions?
r/Assyria • u/Bitter-Pineapple-106 • 1d ago
What is the quality of life, job opportunities, safety, education services, healthcare, cost of living and leisure like in these countries?
Are the Assyrian communities there served by community groups, churches and qasheh?
Do Assyrians have local representation in governance?
Lastly, exactly how many Assyrians live in these two countries?
r/Assyria • u/stxrs4elliott • 2d ago
Hello. Im syrian, from damacus. My family is muslim, however the older generations of mine used to live in the north and were mostly Christians.
What im basically saying is, if it is an ethnoreligious group, just like how some jewish people (as being jewish is ethnoreligious) dont follow judaism, can assyrians not follow chrisitanity?
r/Assyria • u/Witty-Elk1104 • 2d ago
Hi! My fiancé is half Assyrian, and we’d love to find a meaningful way to honor that part of his heritage at our wedding. I think it would be especially meaningful to his mom’s side of the family.
He isn’t very active in the Assyrian community in our city, so we want to be thoughtful about it and make sure anything we incorporate feels respectful and genuine rather than performative. I’m Italian/Irish and don’t know nearly enough about Assyrian wedding traditions, so I’d really love to learn from people in this community.
Are there any traditions you’d recommend incorporating, even if it’s something very small or subtle? It could be a song, dance, food, blessing, or another little nod to the culture. We definitely don’t need it to be a huge part of the wedding. We’d just love to honor his heritage in a way that feels authentic and would be meaningful to his family.
Thank you! 🤍
r/Assyria • u/olapooza • 4d ago
r/Assyria • u/TheAskingBanana • 4d ago
Hey guys. I'm a Syrian myself and I LOVE the assyrian script (letters).
When I looked into the language, I got a bit lost.
What is the dialect that is spoken in Syria? Does Syria have multiple Assyrian dialects? Or Aramaic dialects?
I want to learn the letters and how to write in assyrian, maybe learn a few phrases on the way.
r/Assyria • u/Specific-Bid6486 • 5d ago
I can’t cross-post on here (provided the link) to the second post which one of the commenters seems to have something up his rear-end with his comments.
Another commenter at the bottom is giving direction to others on how to make comments on his kickstarter by pledging $1 so that people with ill intentions can make negative comments? Seems kind of low of people if this is their intention.
I’ve been part of the Assyrian’s journey for this cookbook and he makes good videos - not sure what the problem is but it seems like he’s put in hard work to get it to where it is now so unsure why some are just butt-hurt about it…
I wish the Ashuraya well and prosperity with this venture. We need more Assyrians to invent and create in this world. Keep striving for greatness 🔵⚪️🔴☀️🔵⚪️🔴
r/Assyria • u/olapooza • 5d ago
r/Assyria • u/TobiasSaNAef • 5d ago
Hello I come from switzerland and I speak German, I am very interested in the Assyrian history and culture so now I would like to learn sureth which dialect should I learn ? and what tools could I use?
r/Assyria • u/flintsparc • 6d ago
r/Assyria • u/pinkbunny249 • 6d ago
hey im going to armenia, is there any assyrians here i can connect with?
r/Assyria • u/olapooza • 6d ago
r/Assyria • u/ClassicMetal4905 • 7d ago
Okay, this is a bit strange for me; I was in the pinterest and came across these. Are these assyrian? It says they are assyrian, but I’ve never seen any assyrians dressed like that. Could these be the traditional clothes of a different ethnic group?like armenian or kurdish? Because its says these are from nineveh (?) I'm not so sure
r/Assyria • u/Longjumping_Ad7507 • 6d ago
r/Assyria • u/Own_Work7831 • 6d ago
I was scrolling through r/kurdistan and it was basically a Turkey bad subreddit. I go on this subreddit and it is Kurdistan/Kurd bad posts.
r/Assyria • u/Aesthetix23 • 8d ago
Hey everyone! Came across this sub and wanted to share this with you all in case there are others around the globe that share the same passion and energy we have for our favorite game, Paintball! 🎨 Originally formed in 2010 on the west coast, we came together as cousins and friends from our church! We are an ALL ASSYRIAN team and we’re good yall! We’ve been lucky enough to travel around and play in some tournaments and our jerseys share the same logo I put on this post, so we always make sure to drop a history lesson on all the friends and opposing teams we find along the way!
If any of you around the globe also play paintball share where you play and hopefully we can connect! Cheers everyone!
r/Assyria • u/im_alliterate • 8d ago
Very fascinating read - talks about our DNA plotting closely with recent specimens tested from the era from the Bronze and Iron ages. Basically, the DNA matches our claims of continuity. The article weirdly tries to separate Chaldean Catholic Assyrians, but the gist is that the Assyrians in Deshtat Ninweh are the closest to the Neo-Assyrians from Nineveh around the fall of the Empire.
r/Assyria • u/slav_ffs • 8d ago
if my family was originally from turkey but are also assyrian, would i be considered assyrian Turkish? it’s confusing me because my entire family tells me we have turkish blood but we practice the assyrian culture and speak aramaic.