View source for Asoristan

{{Short description|Sasanian province in Assyria and Babylonia (226–637 CE)}}
{{Coord|30|53|41|N|47|34|41|E|display=title}}
{{Infobox Former Subdivision
|native_name      = Asōristān
|common_name      = Babylonia
|subdivision      = [[Template:Sassanid Provinces|Province]]
|nation           = the [[Sasanian Empire]]
|era              = [[Late Antiquity]]
|capital          = [[Ctesiphon]]
|title_leader=
|image_map        = Sasanian Asoristan and its surroundings.svg
|image_map_caption= Map of Asoristan and its surrounding provinces
|life_span=
|year_start       = 226
|year_end         = 637
|event_start      = [[Battle of Hormozdgan|Sasanian conquest]]
|date_start=
|event1           = [[Arab conquest of Mesopotamia|First Muslim campaign]]
|date_event1      = 633
|event_end        = [[Muslim conquest of Persia|Second Muslim campaign]]
|date_end=
|p1               = Parthian Empire
|flag_p1          = Parther reich.jpg
|s1               = Rashidun Caliphate
|flag_s1          = Mohammad adil-Rashidun-empire-at-its-peak-close.PNG
|today            = [[Iraq]]
}}
{{History of Iraq}}

'''Asoristan''' ({{langx|pal|[[wikt:𐭠𐭮𐭥𐭥𐭮𐭲𐭭|𐭠𐭮𐭥𐭥𐭮𐭲𐭭]]}} ''Asōristān'', ''Āsūristān'') was the name of the [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] province of [[Assyria]] and [[Babylonia]] from 226 to 637.<ref name=oxref>{{cite book |last=Nicholson |first=Oliver |date=2018 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity |location= |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=1008 |isbn=9780198662778 |quote=Asuristan or Suristan (from Assyria)}}</ref><ref name=oxdict>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-882 |chapter=Assyria |last=Dalley |first=Stephanie |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics |date=Dec 22, 2015 |website=Oxford Classical Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.882 |isbn=978-0-19-938113-5 |access-date=Jul 29, 2024 |quote=the province of Assyria formed by Trajan in 116 CE and abandoned by Hadrian (Eutr. 8. 2; Ruf. Fest. 14 and 20) corresponds to the later Sasanid ‘Asorestan’ with a new royal city at Ctesiphon.}}</ref><ref name=CB>{{cite book|last=Buck|first=Christopher|title=Paradise and Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Baháí̕ Faith|url=https://archive.org/details/paradiseparadigm00buck|url-access=limited|year=1999|publisher=[[State University of New York Press|SUNY Press]]|isbn=9780791497944|page=[https://archive.org/details/paradiseparadigm00buck/page/n83 69]}}</ref>

==Name==
The [[Parthian language|Parthian]] name ''Asōristān'' ({{lang|xpr|𐭀𐭎𐭅𐭓𐭎𐭕𐭍}}; also spelled ''Asoristan'', ''Asuristan'', ''Asurestan'', ''Assuristan'') is known from [[Shapur I]]'s inscription on the [[Ka'ba-ye Zartosht]], and from the inscription of [[Narseh]] at [[Paikuli inscription|Paikuli]]. The region was also called several other names, mostly relating to its [[indigenous people|indigenous]] [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] inhabitants: [[Assyria]], [[Athura]], ''Bēṯ Nahren'' ({{langx|syc|ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪܝܢ}} {{lit|between the two rivers}}), ''Bābēl/Bābil'', and ''Ereḫ/Erāq''. After the mid-6th century, it was also called [[Khwarwaran|Khwārwarān]] in [[New Persian]]. Although it is difficult to determine the true meaning of the renaming of southern Mesopotamia to "Assyria", it is possible that due to the Assyrian kingdom of [[Adiabene]] being in the north, it excluded the Assyrians further south and therefore the Persians named it accordingly to include the few million Semitic Mesopotamian people who were descendants of the ancient Assyrians south of Adiabene, contrary to the Greeks renaming Assyrians "Syrians", an Indo-European corruption of "Assyrians". At the very least, names associated with Assyria continued to be used and were not obsolete.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Odisho |first=Edward Y. |title=The Sound System of Modern Assyrian (Neo-Aramaic) |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |year=1988 |isbn=9783447027441 |pages=10}}</ref>

The name Asōristān is a [[compound (linguistics)|compound]] of ''Asōr'' "Assyria" and the Iranian suffix ''[[-stan]]'' "land of".<ref name=oxref/> The name Assyria, in the form ''Asōristān'', was shifted to include what had been ancient [[Babylonia]] by the Parthians, and this continued under the Sasanians, the Babylonians being ethnolinguistically the same people as the Assyrians.<ref name=MP>{{cite book|last1=Panaino|first1=Antonio C.D.|last2=Pettinato|first2=Giovanni|author-link2=Giovanni Pettinato|title=Ideologies as Intercultural Phenomena|year=2002|publisher=[[Melammu Project]]|isbn=9788884831071|page=76}}</ref> During the [[Parthian Empire]], much of historical Athura lay to the north of Asoristan in the Assyrian inhabited independent frontier provinces of [[Upper Mesopotamia]] (in modern Northern Iraq, Southeast Turkey and Northeast Syria): [[Beth Nuhadra]], [[Beth Garmai]], [[Adiabene]], [[Osroene]], [[Hatra]], [[Tyareh]] and [[Assur]]. when the Sassanid Empire conquered these in the mid-[[3rd century]], they were reincorporated into Asoristan.<ref>''The Encyclopedia of Military History: From 3500 B.C. to the Present'', Part 25. Richard Ernest Dupuy, Trevor Nevitt Dupuy. Harper & Row, 1970. Page 115.</ref>

==History==
===Names, capital, language===
During the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] (550–330 BCE) and [[Parthian Empire]]s (150 BCE – 225 CE), [[Achaemenid Assyria]] had been known by the [[Old Persian]] name ''Athura''. Asōristān, [[Middle Persian]] "[[-stan|land]] of [[Assyria]]",<ref name=oxref/> was the capital province of the [[Sasanian Empire]] and was called ''Dil-ī [[Ērānshahr]]'', meaning "Heart of Iran".<ref name= CB/> The city of [[Ctesiphon]] served as the capital of both the [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] and Sasanian Empire, and was for some time the largest city in the world.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Rosenberg|first=Matt T.|title=Largest Cities Through History|year=2007|publisher=[[About.com]]|location=New York|url=http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm|access-date=2012-05-01|archive-date=2016-08-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818124242/http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The main language spoken by the [[Assyrian people]] was [[Eastern Aramaic languages|Eastern Aramaic]], which still survives among the Assyrians, with the local [[Syriac language]] becoming an important vehicle for [[Syriac Christianity]]. The [[Assyrian Church of the East]] was founded in Asōristān and it was an important centre of the [[Syriac Orthodox Church]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Khanbaghi|first=Aptin|title=The Fire, the Star and the Cross: Minority Religions in Medieval and Early Modern Iran|date=2 February 2006|publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]]|page=6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7iAbUEaXnfEC&q=asuristan&pg=PA6|isbn=9781845110567}}</ref>

===Geographical extent===
Asōristān was largely identical with [[Geography of Mesopotamia#Defining Mesopotamia |ancient Mesopotamia]].<ref name=oxdict/> The northern border is somewhat uncertain but probably went along a line from Anta{{where|date=January 2024}} to [[Tikrit|Takrīt]]. [[Al-Hirah|Ḥīra]] was probably the southernmost point, north of [[Arabia]], the border then following the northern part of the swamps of [[Wasit]].

===Parthian client kingdoms===
The Parthians had exercised only loose control at times, allowing for a number of Assyrian kingdoms to flourish in [[Upper Mesopotamia]] in the form of independent [[Osroene]], [[Adiabene]], [[Beth Nuhadra]], [[Beth Garmai]] and the partly Assyrian state of [[Hatra]], and Assyriologists such as [[Georges Roux]] and [[Simo Parpola]] opine that ancient [[Assur]] itself may have been independent during this time.

The Sasanian Empire conquered Assyria and Mesopotamia from the Parthians during the 220s, and by 260 AD had abolished these independent Assyrian [[city-state]]s and kingdoms, with the 3000-year-old city of Assur being sacked in 256 AD. Some regions appear to have remained partly autonomous as late as the latter part of the fourth century, with an [[List of Assyrian kings|Assyrian]] king named [[Sinharib]] reputedly ruling a part of Assyria in the 370s AD.

Between 633 and 638, the region was invaded by the [[Arabs]] during the [[Muslim conquest of Persia]]; together with [[Meshan]], it became the province of '''al-ʿIrāq'''. Asōristān was dissolved by 639 AD, bringing an end to over 3000 years of Assyria as a geopolitical entity, although it remained an ecclesiastical province within [[Syriac Christianity]], and Medieval Arabs continued to refer to the indigenous people as [[Assyrians|Ashuriyun]]. A century later, the area became the capital province of the [[Abbasid Caliphate]] and the center of the [[Islamic Golden Age]] for five hundred years, from the 8th to the 13th centuries.

After the Muslim conquest, Asōristān saw a gradual but large influx of [[Muslim]] peoples; at first Arabs arriving in the south, but later also including [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]] (Kurdish) and [[Turkic peoples]] during the mid to late [[Middle Ages]].

The Assyrian people continued to endure, rejecting [[Arabization]], [[Turkification]] and [[Islamization]], and continued to form the majority population of the north as late as the [[14th century]], until the massacres of [[Timur]] drastically reduced their numbers and led to the city of [[Assur]] being finally abandoned. After this period, the indigenous Assyrians became the ethnic, linguistic and religious minority in their homeland that they are to this day.

==Population==
The population of Asorestan was a mixed one, however it's naming indicates that there was a large population of Assyrians in southern Mesopotamia, in the region that was once Babylonia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nezhad |first=Shahin |title=Iranshahr and the Downfall of the Sassanid Dynasty: Persia at the Eve of the Arab Invasions |last2=Delshad |first2=Farshid |publisher=Logos Verlag Berlin |year=2023 |isbn=9783832556112 |pages=67}}</ref> The [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]] lived in the northern half while their ethnically indistinguishable brethren formerly known as Babylonians lived in the south, including the still extant [[Mandaeans]] who, like the Assyrians, are indigenous to Mesopotamia. [[Nabateans]] and [[Arameans]] dwelt in the far southwestern deserts, and minorities of [[Persians]], [[Armenians]] and [[Jews]] lived throughout Mesopotamia. The small [[Greeks|Greek]] element in the southern cities, still strong in the [[Parthian Empire|Parthian period]], was absorbed by the [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]] in Sasanian times. The majority of the population was Assyrian, Jewish, and Mandaean, speaking [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]-influenced [[Eastern Aramaic languages]], some of which still survive as [[Northeastern Neo-Aramaic]] among the Assyrians and Mandeans. As the breadbasket of the Sasanian Empire, most of the population was engaged in [[agriculture]] or worked as soldiers, traders, and merchants. The Persians lived in various parts of the province; Persian garrison soldiers lived along the outer fringe of southern and western Asoristan; Persian noble families lived in the major cities, while some Persian peasants lived in the villages in Lower Mesopotamia.{{sfn|Morony|2005|p=181}} The native Assyrians played a very active role in the province and were found in the administrative class of society as army officers, civil servants, and feudal lords.

==Language==
At least three dialects of [[Eastern Middle Aramaic]] were in spoken and liturgical use, many of which are descended from the [[Imperial Aramaic]] introduced by [[Tiglath-Pileser III]] as the [[lingua franca]] of the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] in the [[8th century BC]]: [[Classical Syriac]], mainly in the north and among [[Syriac Christianity|Syriac Christians]] throughout the region; [[Mandaic language|Classical Mandaic]] by the [[Mandaeans]], and [[Jewish Babylonian Aramaic]] by the [[Jews]]. Other colloquial but unnamed or unrecorded Eastern Middle Aramaic dialects were also spoken. Some Eastern Aramaic languages survive as the NENA languages and [[Turoyo language|Turoyo]], with estimates ranging from 577,000 to 1,000,000 fluent speakers, with a far smaller number of speakers of [[Neo-Mandaic]] still extant.

Aside from the liturgical scriptures of these religions which exist today, archaeological examples of all three of these dialects can be found in the collections of thousands of Aramaic [[incantation bowl]]s—ceramic artifacts dated to this era—discovered in [[Iraq]], northeast [[Syria]] and southeast [[Turkey]]. While the Jewish Aramaic script called [[Ktav Ashuri]] retained the original "square" or "block" style used to write Imperial Aramaic, the [[Syriac alphabet]] and the [[Mandaic alphabet]] developed when cursive styles began to appear. The Mandaic alphabet likely evolved from [[Inscriptional Parthian]].

==Religion==
The religious demography of Mesopotamia was very diverse during Late Antiquity. From the 1st and 2nd centuries [[Syriac Christianity]] became the primary religion, while other groups practiced [[Mandaeism]], [[Judaism]], [[Manichaeism]], [[Zoroastrianism]], and the ancient [[Assyro-Babylonian]] [[Mesopotamian religion]].<ref name=RP>{{cite book|last=Etheredge|first=Laura|title=Iraq|year=2011|publisher=[[Rosen Publishing]]|isbn=9781615303045|page=72}}</ref> Assyrian Christians of the [[Syriac Orthodox Church]] and [[Assyrian Church of the East]] were probably the most numerous group in the province.<ref name=RP/>

===Ancient Mesopotamian religion===
[[Ancient Mesopotamian religion]] remained strong in places, particularly in Upper Mesopotamia. Temples were still being dedicated to [[Ashur (god)|Ashur]], [[Shamash]], [[Inanna|Ishtar]], [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]], [[Hadad]], [[Dumuzid]], [[Nergal]], [[Bel (mythology)|Bel]] and [[Ninurta]] in [[Assur]], [[Arbil|Arbela]], [[Edessa]], [[Amid]], [[Nohadra]], [[Kirkuk]], [[Sinjar]], [[Nineveh Plains]], and [[Harran]] among other places, during the [[3rd century|3rd]] and [[4th century|4th centuries]], and traces would survive into the 10th century in remote parts of Mesopotamia.<ref>J. Hämeen-Anttila ''[http://melammu-project.eu/pdf/hameen-anttila2002.pdf Continuity of Pagan Religious Traditions in Tenth-Century Iraq]''</ref>

===Christianity===
Asorestan, and particularly Assyria proper, were the centers for the [[Church of the East]] (now split into the [[Assyrian Church of the East]], the [[Ancient Church of the East]] and the [[Chaldean Catholic Church]]), which at one time extended far beyond the confines of the by then defunct Sasanian empire and was the most widespread [[Christianity|Christian]] church in the world, reaching well into [[Central Asia]], [[China]], [[Mongolia]] [[Tibet]] and [[India]] as well as the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]]. It sees as its founders the apostle Thomas ([[Thomas the Apostle|Mar Toma]]), and Saint Thaddeus ([[Addai of Edessa|Mar Addai]]), and used the distinctly [[Syriac language|Syriac]] version of Eastern Aramaic for its scriptures and liturgy. The [[Holy Qurbana of Addai and Mari]] is one of the oldest [[Anaphora (liturgy)|Eucharistic prayers]] in Christianity, composed around the year 200 AD. The Church of the East was consolidated in 410 at the [[Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon]], held at the Sasanian capital, [[Selucia-Ctesiphon]], which remained the seat of the [[List of Patriarchs of the Church of the East|Patriarchate of the Church of the East]] for over 600 years.

===Mandaeism===
{{Main|Mandaeism}}
The [[Mandaeans]], who are according to their traditions the original followers of [[John the Baptist]], are the last surviving [[Gnosticism|Gnostics]] from antiquity.<ref name=McGrath>{{Citation|last=McGrath|first=James|title=The First Baptists, The Last Gnostics: The Mandaeans|website=YouTube-A lunchtime talk about the Mandaeans by Dr. James F. McGrath at Butler University|date=23 January 2015|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvv6I02MNlc |access-date=14 December 2021}}</ref> According to most scholars, [[Mandaeism]] originated sometime in the first three centuries CE, in either southwestern Mesopotamia or the Syro-Palestinian area.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mandaeanism|title=Mandaeanism &#124; religion|website=Britannica|access-date=4 November 2021}}</ref> However, some scholars take the view that Mandaeism is older and dates from pre-Christian times.<ref>{{cite book|last=Duchesne-Guillemin|first=Jacques|title=Etudes mithriaques|year=1978|page=545|location=Téhéran|publisher=Bibliothèque Pahlavi}}</ref> Mandaeans assert that their religion predates Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as a monotheistic faith.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/iraq/case-study/background/people-of-the-book|title = The People of the Book and the Hierarchy of Discrimination| website=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|access-date=14 December 2021}}</ref> Their language and script is [[Mandaic language|Mandaic]], a form of Aramaic. Two of their important religious texts, written between the 1st and 3rd centuries, are the [[Ginza Rabba]] and the [[Mandaean Book of John]] (preserving original traditions about [[John the Baptist]]). The Mandaean population numbers between 60,000 and 100,000 today.<ref name=WMP>{{Cite web|url=http://mandaeanpriests.exeter.ac.uk/the-mandaeans|title=The Mandaeans - Who are the Mandaeans?|website=The Worlds of Mandaean Priests|access-date=14 December 2021}}</ref> Mandaeism flourished in the [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] and early [[Sasanian Empire|Sassanid]] period in the region.<ref name="Buckley 2002">{{citation |last=Buckley |first=Jorunn Jacobsen |title=The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people |year=2002 |location=[[Oxford]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780195153859 |url=http://mandaeannetwork.com/Mandaean/books/english/2The_Mandaeans_Ancient_Texts_and_Modern_People_American_Academy_of_Religion_Books_Jorunn_Jacobsen_Buckley.pdf?bcsi_scan_955b0cd764557e80=0&bcsi_scan_filename=2The_Mandaeans_Ancient_Texts_and_Modern_People_American_Academy_of_Religion_Books_Jorunn_Jacobsen_Buckley.pdf}}</ref>

===Manichaeism===
The religion of [[Manichaeism]], founded by [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]] (216–276), originated in 3rd century Asorestan, and spread across a vast geographical area. In some instances, Manichaeism even surpassed the Assyrian Church of the East in its reach, as it was for a time also widespread in the [[Roman Empire]]. While none of the six original [[Syriac language|Syriac]] scriptures of the Manichaeans have survived in their entirety, a long Syriac section of one of their works detailing key beliefs was preserved by [[Theodore Bar Konai]] (a Church of the East author from [[Beth Garmaï (East Syriac ecclesiastical province)|Beth Garmaï]]), in his book ''Ketba Deskolion'' written in about 792. Like the Church of the East, the traditional center of the Manichaean church was in [[Seleucia-Ctesiphon]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Gardner|first1=Iain|last2=Lieu|first2=Samuel N.C.|title=Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/manichaeantextsf00gard_243|url-access=limited|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2004|page=[https://archive.org/details/manichaeantextsf00gard_243/page/n64 43]|isbn=9780521568227}}</ref> Mani dedicated his only [[Middle Persian]] writing, the [[Shāpuragān]], to [[Shapur I]].

===Judaism===
The [[History of the Jews in Iraq|Jewish community of Babylonia]] came to prominence in the 3rd century CE as a center of Jewish scholarship owing to the decline of the [[Jews|Jewish]] population in the [[Land of Israel]]. The [[Jewish–Roman wars]], the [[Crisis of the Third Century]], and Rome's conversion to Christianity all led to an increase in Jewish immigration to Asoristan, and the region became the main center of Judaism in Late Antiquity. This set the stage for the composition of the major book defining [[Rabbinic Judaism]], the [[Babylonian Talmud]], which was written in [[Jewish Babylonian Aramaic]] in Asoristan between the 3rd and 5th centuries. The [[Talmudic academies in Babylonia|Babylonian Talmudic academies]] were all established relatively near to Seleucia-Ctesiphon. The first Talmudic academy was founded in [[Sura (city)|Sura]] by [[Abba Arikha|Rav]] (175–247) in about 220. One of the most influential Talmudic teachers, [[Rava (amora)|Rava]] (270–350), who was influenced by both Manichaean polemic and Zoroastrian theology, studied in another Talmudic academy at [[Pumbedita]].

===Zoroastrianism===
The Sasanian state religion, [[Zoroastrianism]], was largely confined to the Iranian administrative class, and did not filter down to the Assyrian-Babylonian population.<ref name=RP/>

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book|last=Morony|first=Michael G.|author-link=Michael Morony|title=Iraq After The Muslim Conquest|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u4g9nQAACAAJ|year=2005|orig-year=1984|publisher=Gorgias Press LLC|isbn=978-1-59333-315-7}}

==Further reading==
* {{ODLA|title=Mesopotamia, Persian|last=Rezakhani|first=Khodādād|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-3137#}}
* {{cite conference |url=http://www.melammu-project.eu/pdf/frye2002.pdf |title=Mapping Assyria |last1=Frye |first1=Richard |date=Oct 27–31, 2000 |publisher=Mimesis Edizioni |book-title=Ideologies as Intercultural Phenomena |pages=75–8 |location=Chicago, USA |conference=Proceedings of the Third Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project}}

{{Sasanian Provinces}}
{{Assyrian topics}}
{{Iraq topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asorestan}}
[[Category:Provinces of the Sasanian Empire]]
[[Category:Ancient Upper Mesopotamia]]
[[Category:States and territories established in the 3rd century]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in the 7th century]]
[[Category:Ctesiphon]]