Who writes the history of a nation such as the Ashurai1 twenty-six centuries after their Biblically famous capital Nineveh was abandoned to the enemy?
The American missionaries who established the first Medical-Missionary college, the Qallah in Urmia, Iran, were impressed by the Ashurai people's retention of their Christian faith in a sea of Islamic nations; but they were not impressed with their achievements as the First Civilization and their ancient roots.
The Western World learned of the surviving Christian nation in Mesopotamia only in the late 19th Century after the archeological discoveries of Biblical cities in the North. They were amazed that the Ashurai had established the Greatest Church during the 12th Century, (which has survived to this day.)
During the intervening centuries, the name of the Ashurai Nation did not survive, because after Nineveh fell the various city-states that it protected were occupied by the Medes and the Babylonians that had conquered Nineveh.
The Western World recognized only that a Christian Nation had survived among the Islamic nations of the Middle East. but they were not sure what this Christian nation's beliefs were.
Over the course of the two hundred years that followed their discovery, the Western nations learned that this nation had a Church and that they had retained the Scriptures in their own ancient language. By now, in the mid-19th Century, the Reformation had already occurred and the Schism in the Roman Church, the splitting of the Protestants from Catholicism, had already happened. The Western nations had no knowledge of what was the place of the Scriptures of this ancient Church among the Bibles the Catholics and the Protestants had translated and fought over during the Dark Ages of Europe. One thing for sure is that the Western nations did not wish to entertain the notion that the Scriptures of this ancient Church had any legitimacy separate from the Canon of the Western Churches.
To this day the Western Churches deny the legitimacy of the Ancient Church of the East Scriptures. In fact, the Western Churches have bought and discarded the Ancient Scriptures of this Church.
The Ashurai people have survived under different names for fifteen centuries. They called themselves by the names of the towns and regions where they were scattered after the various conquests of their ancestral lands in the Middle East. There were the Greek, Roman, Arab, Mongolian and Tartar invasions after Nineveh fell.
From the Apostolic Age onwards the Ashurai had come to call themselves only "Christians", and since their Christianity had emanated from Syria through the work of such Apostles as St. Addai, they most commonly referred to themselves as "Sooryai", which means "Of the Syrian Persuasion or "Christian".2 No major nation has changed its very name to reflect its religion.
In the Ashurai language, the name of Jesus is Eashoa, and the faith in the name of Eashoa Msheekha (the Messiah) is called Msheekhai, or the followers of Msheekha. The Ashurai called Eashoa "Maryah," which means the Lord in English. The word "Maryah" also meant "Master." The Ashurai people retired the word "Master" and its derivatives, such as "Mister" or "Mr." The Ashurai also retired the title of Mary the Mother of the Lord, "Mart Maryam," from their language. They also retired the derivatives of the title of Mary, such as "Mrs."and "Miss." To this day, the Ashurai people use foreign words to designate "Mr", "Mrs", etc.
As a result of their faith in the Lord, the Ashurai identity has been tremendously weakened. Today, the name "Ashurai" is rarely used. The designation for this once world empire, Ashurai, has been so out of use, for twenty-six centuries in fact, that today hardly anybody remembers that such a people ever existed, and as for their continuity of ancient lineage the Ashurai people are even sometimes ridiculed.
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1. Pronounced: Ah-shu-rai. "Assyrian" is the Anglicized version of the name. Ashurai scholars theorize that the Greeks who were the first to write of Ashur (Assur) do not have the letter "Sheen" and, therefore, came up with the spelling "Assur" for Ashur.
Also, in the English language there is no letter "Sheen." However, there is the phonetic sound of "sh" in many words.
2. Theodorus Mar Shimun, the brother of the late Patriarch, Mar Shimun XXIII, is the source for this explanation of the name commonly used by the modern-day Ashurai in referring to themselves as "Soorai" or "Sooryai."