The Assyrians are the last substantial ethnic group in the world to have preserved Aramaic - the language spoken by Jesus and his disciples - as its native language. To listen to Aramaic is to catch the echoes of biblical Palestine. A minority people with distinctive cultural and religious, as well as linguistic, traditions, the Assyrians have in the modern era come under threat from the twin perils of persecution and assimilation. Though nowadays located mostly in Iran and Syria, this remarkable indigenous race - the easternmost Christians of the Middle East - were at one time numerically strong also in Iran, before falling victim in the early 20th century to Ottoman assault. The rise of Islamic exclusivity - in Iran following the Revolution of 1979, and in recent decades elsewhere in the Middle East - has further diminished the Assyrian communities, driving them from their ancient homelands. Does diaspora offer them rescue, or oblivion? Eden Naby is the foremost scholar in English of the venerable Assyrian heritage. In her much-anticipated and lively book she charts the the community from its identification with the ancient Akkadian and Assyrian empires through to Christian conversion; subsequent religious fragmentation (Nestorians, Chaldeans and Syriacs); genocide in the First World War; and statelessness and dispersal across the globe. This is the first time that the story of the resilient Assyrians has been told in its entirety.
