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The history of the Assyrian people begins with the formation of Assyria circa 2500 BC, followed by rise of the Akkadian Empire during the 24th century BC, in the early bronze age period. Sargon of Akkad united all the native Akkadian-speaking Semites and the Sumerians of Mesopotamia (including the Assyrians) under his rule. After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, the Akkadians split into two nations, Assyria in the north and much later, Babylonia in the south. However, Babylonia unlike Assyria, was founded and originally ruled by non indigenous Amorites, and was more often than not ruled by other waves of non indigenous peoples such as Kassites, Hittites, Elamites, Arameans and Chaldeans. In Church tradition, they are descended from Abraham's grandson (Dedan son of Jokshan), progenitor of the ancient Assyrians.〔Genesis 25:3〕 However, there is no historical basis for the biblical assertion whatsoever; there is no mention in Assyrian records (which date as far back as the 24th century BC). The Assyrian king list records kings dating from the 25th century BC onwards, the earliest being Tudiya, who was a contemporary of Ibrium of Ebla. However, many of these early kings would have been local rulers, and from the late 24th century BC to the early 22nd century BC, usually subject to the Akkadian Empire. Assyria essentially existed as part of a unified Akkadian nation for much of the period from the 24th century BC to the 22nd century BC, and a nation state from the 21st century BC until 605 BC. Assyria was for most of this period a powerful nation and had three periods of empire, between 1813–1750 BC, 1365–1020 BC and 911–605 BC. Following the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and final resistance after 605 BC, Assyria came under the rule of its Babylonian brethren for a short period, from 604 BC until 539 BC. The last king of Babylon, Nabonidus, was ironically an Assyrian from Harran. Assyria then became an Achaemenid province named Athura (Assyria). The Assyrian people were Christianized in the 1st to 3rd centuries, in Roman Syria and Roman Assyria.〔 They were divided by the Nestorian Schism in the 5th century, and from the 8th century, they became a religious minority following the Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia. They suffered a genocide at the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and today to a significant extent live in diaspora. They are culturally, linguistically, genetically and ethnically distinct from their neighbours in the Middle East – the Arabs, Syrians, Persians, Kurds, Turks, and Armenians. Assyrian nationalism emphasizes their indigeneity to the Assyrian homeland, together with cultural, historical and ethnic Assyrian continuity since the Iron Age Neo-Assyrian Empire, and Achaemenid Persian, Greek, Roman, Parthian and Sassanid ruled Athura/Assuristan. Assyria was a land stretching from Kirkuk in the south to Amida in the north, and from Edessa in the west to the border of Persia (Iran) in the east. The Assyrians are indigenous to modern northern Iraq, northeast Syria, southeast Turkey and northwest Iran, an area which encompassed Assyria between the 21st century BC and 7th century AD. They are a Semitic people, with many (estimates range between 575,000 and 1,000,000) still speaking, reading and writing Akkadian influenced dialects of East Aramaic. They are a Christian people, with most being followers of the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Ancient Church of the East, Assyrian Pentecostal Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church. ==Ancient Assyria== (詳細はNeanderthal culture such as has been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria were the Jarmo culture c. 7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, the centre of the ''Hassuna culture'', c. 6000 BC. The cities of Assur (also spelled Ashur or Aššur) and Nineveh, together with a number of other towns and cities, existed since at least before the middle of the 3rd millennium BC (c. 2600 BC), although they appear to have been Sumerian-ruled administrative centres at this time, rather than independent states. The history of ancient Assyria harks back to the 25th century BC, with the earliest king being Tudiya. From the late 24th century BC it became a part of the Akkadian Empire, based in the city of Akkad, which united all of the Akkadian speaking Semites (including the Assyrians) under one rule. Assyria regained its independence in the early 21st century BC. Assyria became an imperial power with the Old Assyrian Empire (1975-1750 BC), and the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365-1020 BC), the latter of which became the most powerful state in the region, eclipsing Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylonia and Elam.. The Neo-Assyrian Empire flourished between 911 BC and 608 BC, becoming the greatest empire the world had yet seen, stretching from Cyprus to Persia, and The Caucasus to Egypt at its zenith. It eventually became riven by civil war after 627 BC, allowing it to be conquered by a coalition of former subject peoples led by their Babylonian brothers, and which also included the Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians and Cimmerians. However, Assyria was to survive as a geo-political entity until the mid 7th century AD. The Assyrians today speak dialects of Eastern Aramaic, which still contain an Akkadian grammatical structure and hundreds of Akkadian loanwords. This language was originally introduced to Assyria as the lingua franca of the Neo Assyrian Empire in the mid 8th century BC by Tiglath-pileser III. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Assyrian people」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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