MODERN ARAMAIC WATCH:
Christians who speak the language of Jesus being uprooted by Islamic State (Hugh Naylor,
Washington Post). Excerpt:
Over the last 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 them are being forced to move outside the Middle East, where it becomes less likely 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 some other religious communities, including Jews. Now, “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 back their roots in the region 6,500 years. They speak a modern dialect of what was the lingua franca of the Assyrian Empire.
Persian Empire, not Assyrian. But that aside, the danger is real and is part of ISIS's sustained and systematic assault on the past. In the words of "Habib Afram, head of the Syriac League in Lebanon, which represents regional Assyrian issues":
They don't want to just take your land or kick you out of your villages — they want to erase your past, your heritage,” he said.
Background on ISIS is
here and many links. More on the persecution of Aramaic-speaking Christians in the Middle East is
here,
here,
here,
here, and many links.
