The Assyrian state is considered the first empire in the history of mankind. Power, where the cult of cruelty flourished, lasted until 605 BC. until it was destroyed by the combined forces of Babylon and Media.
Birth of Ashur
In the II millennium BC. the climate in the Arabian Peninsula worsened. This forced the natives to leave their original territory and go in search of a "better life". Among them were the Assyrians. They chose the valley of the Tigris River as their new homeland and founded the city of Ashur on its banks.
Although a fertile place was chosen for the city, the presence of more powerful neighbors (Sumerians, Akkadians and others) could not but affect the life of the Assyrians. They had to be the best at everything in order to survive. Merchants began to play a key role in the young state.
But political independence came later. First, Ashur was under the control of Akkad, then Ur, captured by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, and after that the city became dependent on Mitania.
Ashur remained under the rule of Mitania for about a hundred years. But under King Shalmaneser I, the state was strengthened. The result is the destruction of Mitania. And its territory, accordingly, went to Assyria.
Tiglath-Pileser I (1115 - 1076 BC) managed to bring the state to a new level. All neighbors began to reckon with him. It seemed that the "finest hour" was close. But in 1076 B.C. the king is dead. And among the contenders for the throne, there was no worthy successor. The Aramean nomads took advantage of this and inflicted several crushing defeats on the Assyrian troops. The territory of the state was sharply reduced - the captured cities came out of power. In the end, Assyria was left with only its ancestral lands, and the country itself was in the deepest crisis.
Neo-Assyrian power
It took Assyria more than two hundred years to recover from the blow. Only under King Tiglapalasar III, who ruled from 745 to 727 BC. the rise of the state began. First of all, the ruler dealt with the Urartian kingdom, having managed to conquer most of the cities and fortresses of the enemy. Then there were successful trips to Phoenicia, Syria, Palestine. The crowning activity of Tiglapalasar III was the ascent to the Babylonian throne.
The military success of the king is directly related to the reforms he is carrying out. So, he reorganized the army, which used to consist of landowners. Now, soldiers who did not have their own sector were recruited into it, and the state took over all the material support costs. In fact, Tiglapalasar III became the first king to have a regular army at his disposal. In addition, the use of metal weapons played a big role in the success.
The next ruler Sargon II (721-705 BC) was destined for the role of the great conqueror. He spent almost the entire time of his reign on campaigns, annexing new lands, and also suppressing uprisings. But the most significant victory of Sargon is the final defeat of the Urartian kingdom.
In general, this state has long been considered the main enemy of Assyria. But the Urartian kings were afraid to fight directly. Therefore, they in every possible way pushed certain peoples dependent on the country of Ashur to revolt. Unexpected help to the Assyrians was provided by the Cimmerians, even if they themselves did not want it. The Urartian king Rusa I suffered a crushing defeat from the nomads, and Sargon could not fail to take advantage of such a gift.
Fall of the god Khaldi
In 714 B.C. he decided to put an end to the enemy and moved inland, but crossing the mountains was not easy. In addition, Rusa, thinking that the enemy was heading for Tushpa (the capital of Urartu), began to gather a new army. And Sargon decided not to risk it. Instead of the capital, he attacked the religious center of Urartu - the city of Musasir. Rusa did not expect this, because he was sure that the Assyrians would not dare to desecrate the sanctuary of the god Khaldi. After all, he was honored in the northern part of Assyria. Rusa was so sure of this that he even hid the state treasury in Musasir.
The result is sad. Sargon captured the city and its treasures, and ordered the statue of Khaldi to be sent to his capital. Rusa could not survive such a blow and committed suicide. The cult of Haldi in the country was greatly shaken, and the state itself was on the verge of death and no longer posed a threat to Assyria.
The death of an empire
The Assyrian empire grew. But the policy pursued by its kings in relation to the captured peoples led to constant revolts. The destruction of cities, the extermination of the population, the cruel executions of the kings of the defeated peoples - all this caused hatred for the Assyrians. For example, the son of Sargon Sennacherrib (705-681 BC), after the suppression of the uprising in Babylon, executed part of the population, and deported the rest. He destroyed the city itself and flooded the Euphrates. And this was an unjustifiably cruel act, because the Babylonians and Assyrians are kindred peoples. Moreover, the former always considered the latter to be their younger brothers. This may have played a role. Sennacherrib decided to get rid of the arrogant "relatives".
Assarhaddon, who came to power after Sennacherrib, rebuilt Babylon, but the situation escalated every year. And even a new surge in the greatness of Assyria under Ashurbanipal (668-631 BC) could not stop the inevitable collapse. After his death, the country plunged into endless strife, which Babylon and Media took advantage of in time, enlisting the support of the Scythians, as well as Arab princes.
In 614 B.C. The Medes destroyed the ancient Ashur, the heart of Assyria. The Babylonians did not participate in the capture of the city; according to the official version, they were late. In fact, they simply did not want to participate in the destruction of the shrines of a kindred people.
Two years later, the capital, Nineveh, also fell. And in 605 BC. in the Battle of Karchemish, Prince Nebuchadnezzar (who later became famous for his hanging gardens) finished off the Assyrians. The empire died, but its people did not die, who retained their self-identity to this day.
The content of the article
BABYLON AND ASSYRIA- a historical region in Mesopotamia. Ancient Babylonia included the Tigris and Euphrates valley from present-day Baghdad in the northwest to the Persian Gulf in the southeast. Before the rise of Babylon around 1900 B.C. this area was known as Sumer (in the southeast) and Akkad (in the northwest). Assyria lay north of Babylonia along the upper Tigris and the basins of the Big Zab and Little Zab rivers; in our time, its borders would be the borders of Iran in the east, Turkey in the north and Syria in the west. In general, modern Iraq north of the Euphrates includes most of the ancient territory of Babylonia and Assyria.
Sumero-Akkadian period.
The Sumerians, the first civilized inhabitants of the Babylonian Plain, took possession of the area around the Persian Gulf around 4000 BC. They drained swamps, built canals and farmed. Developing trade with the surrounding areas and creating an economy that relied not only on agriculture, but also on the production of metals, textiles and ceramics, the Sumerians by 3000 BC. had a high culture, which was characterized by urban life, a carefully developed religion and a special writing system (cuneiform). Their civilization was adopted by the Semites (Akkadians), who lived in the northwest of the plain. History of Sumer and Akkad 2700–1900 BC filled with constant clashes between the various Sumerian city-states and wars between the Sumerians and the Akkadians.
The Sumero-Akkadian period ended c. 1900 BC, when a new Semitic people, the Amorites, who settled, in particular, in Babylon, seized power in the cities of Mesopotamia. Gradually, the city of Babylon extended its influence to the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, and by 1750 BC. Hammurabi, the sixth Amorite king, completed the process of Babylonian expansion, creating an empire that included Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and possibly Syria. Babylon was the capital of this vast kingdom, and since then the region that was previously called Sumer and Akkad became known as Babylonia.
Babylonia.
Despite the fact that the civilization of the Babylonians at the time of Hammurabi was based on Sumerian, Akkadian became the official language. There were three main classes: the highest, which consisted of the feudal landowning nobility, civil and military officials and clergy; middle - merchants, artisans, scribes and representatives of free professions; the lowest - small landowners and tenants, urban and rural dependent workers, as well as numerous slaves. Under Hammurabi, the Babylonian government was a well-organized bureaucracy headed by a king and ministers. The government was engaged in waging wars, administering justice, directing agricultural production and collecting taxes. Business documents of the Babylonians, preserved on clay tablets, speak of an amazing development and complexity of economic life. Among the found business documents - receipts, receipts, debt records, contracts, leases, inventory lists, account books. Large tracts of land were owned by private individuals, the rest of the land belonged to the king or temples. It was processed by free Babylonians, slaves and indentured workers. There were also tenant farmers who could be tenants or sharecroppers.
Some Babylonian artisans owned their own workshops, others worked in palaces and temples for food and wages. There was a system of apprenticeship, artisans united in guilds according to professions. Trade was conducted with Egypt, Syria, northern highlands and India. The media of exchange were gold, silver and copper; the Babylonian system of weights and measures was used, which became the standard throughout the Middle East.
The Babylonians were the first to use a seven-day week and a 24-hour day (with twelve double hours). They achieved significant success in astronomy (which was used to compile the calendar), and astrology played a large role in their lives. The Babylonians possessed knowledge in arithmetic and geometry, necessary for measuring land, as well as in algebra.
Kassite rule and the rise of Assyria.
The early stage of Babylonian history (the Old Babylonian period) ended ca. 1600 BC, when Babylonia was invaded by invaders from the north. The Hittites, firmly established in Asia Minor, ravaged and destroyed Babylon in 1595, after which the Kassites flooded in from Elam, destroying the Amorite dynasty.
After the capture of Babylonia by the Kassites, the rise of Assyria as an independent state began. During the reign of Hammurabi, Assyria was a Babylonian province, but the Kassites were unable to keep Assyria in subjection. Thus a situation arose in which, along the banks of the Upper Tigris, the warlike, predominantly Semitic Assyrians began to lay the foundations of an empire that eventually surpassed all its predecessors in size.
The main milestones in the history of Assyria.
The history of Assyria, after the first rise to the scale of a great power, falls into three main periods.
1) About 1300 - approx. 1100 BC The first task that the Assyrians had to solve was the defense of the borders. The once mighty Mitanni was in the west, Urartu in the north, the Elamite tribes in the east, and the Kassites in the south. During the first part of this period, there was a continuous struggle with the Mitannians and Urartu, which was waged by the great Assyrian king Shalmaneser I (1274-1245 BC) and his successors. By the end of the period, when strong borders with neighbors were established in the east, north and west, the Assyrians were able, under Tiglath-Pileser I (1115–1077 BC), to occupy the southern borders, where the Kassite dynasty had fallen shortly before in Babylon (1169 BC). AD). At the beginning of the 11th c. BC. Tiglathpalasar captured Babylon, but the Assyrians failed to hold it, and the pressure of the nomads forced them to focus on the western borders.
2) 883–763 BC After two centuries of unrest that followed the death of Tiglath-Pileser I, at the beginning of the 9th c. BC. the Assyrians created a fully militarized state. Under the three great conquering kings - Ashurnasirpal II, Shalmaneser II and Adadnirari III, whose reign covers the period from 883 to 783 BC, the Assyrians again expanded their possessions to the former northern and eastern borders, went to the Mediterranean Sea in the west and captured part of Babylonia. Ashurnasirpal II, who boasted that he "had no rivals among the princes of the Four Countries of the World," fought now with one, then with another of the enemies of Assyria almost every year of his long reign; successors followed suit. One hundred years of unremitting efforts could not but lead to a natural result, and the Assyrian state collapsed overnight, when, after a solar eclipse of 763 BC. riots broke out across the country.
3) 745–612 BC By 745 BC Tiglath-Pileser III restored order in his kingdom, completed the reconquest of Babylonia, and in 728 was crowned in the ancient city of Hammurabi. During the reign of Sargon II, the founder of the new Assyrian dynasty (722 BC), the truly imperial age of Assyria began. It was Sargon II who captured the kingdom of Israel and resettled its inhabitants, destroyed the Hittite fortresses, among them Karchemish, and pushed the boundaries of the kingdom to Egypt. Sennacherib (Sinnacherib) (705-681 BC) established Assyrian rule in Elam, and after the revolt in Babylon (689 BC) razed this city to the ground. Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) carried out the conquest of Egypt (671 BC), but during the reign of his son Ashurbanipal (Ashurbanibal) (669–629 BC), the Assyrian Empire, having reached its maximum size, started to fall apart. Shortly after 660 BC Egypt regained its independence. The last years of the reign of Ashurbanipal were overshadowed by the invasions of the Cimmerians and Scythians in the Middle East and the rise of Media and Babylonia, which depleted the military and financial reserves of Assyria. In 612 BC the Assyrian capital of Nineveh was captured by the combined forces of the Medes, Babylonians and Scythians, and this was the end of Assyrian independence.
Assyrian civilization.
The Assyrian civilization was modeled after the Babylonian, but the Assyrians introduced a number of important innovations into it. The formation of their empire was called the first step in the creation of a military-political organization in the ancient world. The conquered territories were divided into provinces, which paid tribute to the royal treasury. In remote areas, the provinces retained their system of government, and the officials who carried it out were considered vassals of the Assyrian ruler; other areas were governed by local officials under the Assyrian governor, who had at his disposal a garrison of Assyrian troops; the rest of the regions were in complete subordination to the Assyrians. Many cities had municipal autonomy granted to them by special royal charters. The Assyrian army was better organized and tactically superior to any other army of previous times. It used war chariots, there were heavily armed and lightly armed infantrymen, as well as archers and slingers. Assyrian engineers made effective siege weapons that could not be resisted by the most powerful and impregnable fortifications.
Scientific progress.
In the fields of medicine and chemistry, the Assyrians advanced much further than the Babylonians. They achieved great success in the processing of leather and the manufacture of paints. In medicine, the Assyrians used more than four hundred herbal and mineral potions. Surviving medical texts report the use of amulets and incantations in the treatment of disease, although in many cases the Assyrians resorted to more effective means. For example, doctors prescribed cold baths to relieve feverish conditions and recognized that a tooth infection could be the cause of a number of diseases. There is evidence that Assyrian physicians were also involved in the treatment of mental illness.
terrorist methods.
The Assyrians were masters of psychological warfare. They deliberately spread stories of their own ruthlessness in combat and the brutal reprisals that await those who resist them. As a result, their enemies often fled without fighting, and their subjects did not dare to rebel. Official Assyrian inscriptions are full of tales of bloody battles and harsh punishments. It is enough to cite a few lines from the Annals of Ashurnasirpal II to imagine how it looked: “I slaughtered every single one, and I painted the mountains with their blood ... I cut off the heads of their warriors and poured a high hill out of them ... and I burned their virgins in the fire... I exterminated an incalculable number of their inhabitants, and put the cities on fire... I cut off the hands and fingers of some, cut off the noses and ears of others.
Rise of Babylonia. Nebochudnezzar II.
The history of the last Babylonian kingdom, called Neo-Babylonian, began with the uprising of 625 BC, when the Chaldean leader Nabopolassar broke away from Assyria. Later, he entered into an alliance with Kiyaksar, king of Media, and in 612 BC. their combined armies destroyed Nineveh. The son of Nabopolassar, the famous Nebuchadnezzar II, ruled in Babylon from 605 to 562 BC. Nebuchadnezzar is known as the Hanging Garden builder and the king who led the Jews into Babylonian slavery (587–586 BC).
Persian invasion.
The last Babylonian king was Nabonidus (556-539 BC), who ruled jointly with his son Belsharutzur (Belshazzar). Nabonidus was an elderly man, a scholar and lover of antiquities, and apparently did not possess the qualities and energy necessary to rule the kingdom at a moment of extreme danger, when other states, Lydia and Media, collapsed under the onslaught of the Persian king Cyrus II the Great. In 539 BC, when Cyrus finally led his troops into Babylonia, he did not meet with any serious resistance. Moreover, there is reason to suspect that the Babylonians, especially the priests, were not averse to replacing Nabonidus with Cyrus.
After 539 BC Babylonia and Assyria could no longer regain their former independence, passing successively from the Persians to Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, the Parthians and other later conquerors of the Middle East. The city of Babylon itself remained an important administrative center for many centuries, but the ancient cities of Assyria fell into disrepair and were abandoned. When Xenophon passed at the end of the 5th century. BC. as part of a detachment of Greek mercenaries on the territory of the Persian state, the location of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, once a flourishing bustling city, a large trading center, could only be determined by a high hill.
“Out of this land came Asshur and built Nineveh, Rehobothir, Kalah and Resen between Nineveh and between Kalah; this is a great city"(Gen. 10:11,12)
Assyria is one of the greatest states of the ancient world, which went down in history thanks to its outstanding military campaigns and conquests, cultural achievements, art and cruelty, knowledge and strength. As with all the great powers of antiquity, Assyria can be looked at with different eyes. It was Assyria that possessed the first professional, disciplined army of the ancient world, a victorious army that made neighboring peoples tremble in fear, an army that sowed horror and fear. But it was in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal that an unusually large and valuable collection of clay tablets was preserved, which became the most valuable source for studying the science, culture, religion, art and life of those distant times.
Where is Assyria
Assyria, at the time of its highest development, owned vast territories both between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and the vast eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. To the east, the possessions of the Assyrians extended almost to the Caspian Sea. Today, on the territory of the former Assyrian kingdom there are such modern countries as Iraq, Iran, part of Turkey, part of Saudi Arabia.
History of Assyria
The greatness of Assyria, however, like all great powers, did not manifest itself in history immediately, it was preceded by a long period of formation and emergence of Assyrian statehood. This power was formed from nomadic Bedouin shepherds who once lived in the Arabian desert. Although the desert is there now, and earlier there was a very pleasant steppe, but the climate has changed, droughts have come and many Bedouin shepherds, as a result of this reason, preferred to move to the fertile lands in the Tigris River valley, where they founded the city of Ashur, which became the beginning of the creation of a mighty Assyrian state. The location of Assur was chosen very well - it was at the crossroads of trade routes, other developed states of the ancient world were located in the neighborhood: Sumer, Akkad, which intensively traded (but not only, sometimes fought) with each other. In a word, very soon Ashur turned into a developed trade and cultural center, where merchants played the leading role.
At first, Ashur, the heart of the Assyrian state, like the Assyrians themselves, did not even have political independence: at first it was under the control of Akkad, then it came under the control of the Babylonian king Hammurabi, famous for his code of laws, then under the rule of Mitania. Ashur remained under the rule of Mitania for a whole 100 years, although, of course, he also had his own autonomy, Ashur was headed by a ruler, who was a kind of vassal of the Mitanian king. But in the 14th century BC e. Mitania fell into decay and Ashur (and with it the Assyrian people) gained true political independence. From this moment begins a glorious period in the history of the Assyrian kingdom.
Under King Tiglapalasar III, who ruled from 745 to 727 BC. e. Ashur, or Assyria is turning into a real superpower of antiquity, active militant expansion has been chosen as a foreign policy, constant victorious wars with neighbors are being waged, bringing an influx of gold, slaves, new lands and related benefits to the country. And now the warriors of the militant Assyrian king are marching through the streets of ancient Babylon: the Babylonian kingdom, which once itself ruled the Assyrians and arrogantly considers itself their “elder brothers” (reminds nothing?) is defeated by its former subjects.
The Assyrians owe their brilliant victories to the very important military reform that King Tiglapalasar carried out - it was he who created the first professional army in history. After all, before, as it was, the army was composed mainly of tillers, who replaced the plow with a sword for the period of the war. Now it was staffed by professional soldiers who did not have their own land plots, all the expenses for their maintenance were paid by the state. And instead of plowing the land in peacetime, they improved their military skills all the time. Also, the use of metal weapons, which actively came into use at that time, played a big role in the victory of the Assyrian troops.
The Assyrian king Sargon II, who ruled from 721 to 705 BC. e. strengthened the conquests of his predecessor, finally conquering the Urartian kingdom, which was the last strong opponent of the rapidly gaining strength of Assyria. True, Sargon, without knowing it, was helped by those who attacked the northern borders of Urartu. Sargon, being a smart and prudent strategist, simply could not help but take advantage of such a great opportunity to finally finish off his already weakened opponent.
Fall of Assyria
Assyria grew rapidly, new and new occupied lands brought into the country a constant stream of gold, slaves, Assyrian kings built luxurious cities, so the new capital of the Assyrian kingdom, the city of Nineveh, was built. But on the other hand, the aggressive policy of the Assyrians bred the hatred of the captured, conquered peoples. Here and there rebellions and uprisings broke out, many of them were drowned in blood, for example, the son of Sargon Sineherib, after suppressing the uprising in Babylon, brutally cracked down on the rebels, ordered the remaining population to be deported, and Babylon itself was razed to the ground, flooded with the waters of the Euphrates. And only under the son of Sineherib, king Assarhaddon, this great city was rebuilt.
The cruelty of the Assyrians towards the conquered peoples was also reflected in the Bible, the Old Testament mentions Assyria more than once, for example, in the story of the prophet Jonah, God tells him to go preach in Nineveh, which he really did not want to do, as a result he ended up in the womb of a large fish, and after a miraculous salvation, he still went to Nineveh to preach repentance. But the Assyrians did not appease the sermons of the biblical prophets, and already around 713 BC. e. The prophet Nahum prophesied about the death of the sinful Assyrian kingdom.
Well, his prophecy came true. All the surrounding countries united against Assyria: Babylon, Media, Arab Bedouins, and even the Scythians. The combined forces defeated the Assyrians in 614 BC. That is, they besieged and destroyed the heart of Assyria - the city of Ashur, and two years later a similar fate befell the capital of Nineveh. At the same time, the legendary Babylon returned to its former power. In 605 B.C. e. the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in the battle of Carchemish finally defeated the Assyrians.
Culture of Assyria
Despite the fact that the Assyrian state left an unkind mark in ancient history, nevertheless, during its heyday, it had many cultural achievements, which cannot be ignored.
In Assyria, writing actively developed and flourished, libraries were created, the largest of them, the library of King Ashurbanipal, consisted of 25 thousand clay tablets. According to the grandiose plan of the king, the library, which served part-time as a state archive, was supposed to become not more, not less, but a repository of all the knowledge ever accumulated by mankind. What is there just not there: the legendary Sumerian epic and Gilgamesh, and the works of the ancient Chaldean priests (and in fact scientists) on astronomy and mathematics, and the oldest treatises on medicine giving us the most interesting information about the history of medicine in antiquity, and countless religious hymns, and pragmatic business records, and scrupulous legal documents. A whole specially trained team of scribes worked at the library, whose task was to copy all the significant works of Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia.
The architecture of Assyria also received significant development, Assyrian architects achieved considerable skill in the construction of palaces and temples. Some of the decorations in Assyrian palaces are excellent examples of Assyrian art.
Art of Assyria
The famous Assyrian bas-reliefs, which were once the interior decorations of the palaces of the Assyrian kings and have survived to this day, give us a unique opportunity to touch the Assyrian art.
In general, the art of ancient Assyria is full of pathos, strength, valor, it glorifies the courage and victory of the conquerors. On the bas-reliefs, images of winged bulls with human faces are often found; they symbolize the Assyrian kings - arrogant, cruel, powerful, formidable. That is what they were in reality.
Assyrian art subsequently had a great influence on the formation of art.
Religion of Assyria
The religion of the ancient Assyrian state was largely borrowed from Babylon and many Assyrians worshiped the same pagan gods as the Babylonians, but with one significant difference - the true Assyrian god Ashur was revered as the supreme god, who was considered the head even of the god Marduk - the supreme god of the Babylonian pantheon. In general, the gods of Assyria, as well as Babylon, are somewhat similar to the gods of ancient Greece, they are powerful, immortal, but at the same time they have weaknesses and shortcomings of mere mortals: they can be envious or adulterous with earthly beauties (as Zeus liked to do).
Different groups of people, depending on their occupation, could have a different patron god, to whom they gave the most honors. There was a strong belief in various magical ceremonies, as well as magical amulets, superstitions. Part of the Assyrians preserved the remnants of even more ancient pagan beliefs of those times when their ancestors were still nomadic shepherds.
Assyria - masters of war, video
And in conclusion, we suggest you watch an interesting documentary about Assyria on the Culture channel.
Assyria is one of the first empires in the world, a civilization that originated on the territory of Mesopotamia. Assyria dates back to the 24th century and has existed for almost two millennia.
Assyria in antiquity
Assyria was one of the most powerful empires in the 1st millennium BC. e., its heyday and golden age fall precisely on this period. Until that time, it was a simple state in the north
Mesopotamia, which was mainly engaged in trade, since it was located on important trade routes.
Assyria was then subjected to attacks by nomads, such as the Arameans, who led to the decline of the state in the 11th century BC. e.
In total, historians conditionally divide into three periods:
- Old Assyrian;
- Middle Assyrian;
- Neo-Assyrian.
In the latter, Assyria becomes the first empire in the world. In the VIII century, the golden age of the empire begins, then it is ruled by King Tiglath-Pileser III. Assyria crushes the state of Urartu. At the end of the 8th century, she subjugates Israel, and in the 7th century she also captures Egypt. When Ashurbanipal becomes king, Assyria subdues Media, Thebes, Lydia.
After the death of Ashurbanipal, Assyria could not resist the onslaught of Babylon and Media, the end of the empire comes.
Where is ancient Assyria now
Now Assyria as a state does not exist; in the 21st century, countries have settled on the territory of the former empire: Iraq, Iran and others. The peoples of the Semitic group live on its territory: Arabs, Jews and some others. The dominant religion in the territory of the former Assyria is Islam. The largest territory belonging to Assyria is now occupied by Iraq. Now Iraq is on the brink of civil war. On the territory of Iraq there is a diaspora of those ancient Assyrians who founded the world's first empire that conquered almost the entire Arabian Peninsula (Mesopotamia).
What does Assyria look like today?
Now the world, according to some data that is not confirmed, is inhabited by about a million Assyrians. In the modern world, they do not have their own state, they inhabit Iran, Iraq, the USA, Syria, there are also small diasporas in Russia and Ukraine. Modern Assyrians mainly speak Arabic and Turkish. And their ancient, native language is on the verge of extinction.
Modern Assyria is not a state, but only one million descendants of the ancient Assyrians, who carry the unique Assyrian culture and folklore.
Assyria is an ancient civilization that originated on the territory of the "Fertile Crescent" or, more simply, Mesopotamia. Assyria existed as an independent state for two thousand years.
History of Ancient Assyria
Assyria begins its existence from the 24th century BC. e. and exists until the end of the 7th century BC. e.
History is divided into three periods:
- the Old Assyrian period (XXIV - XVI centuries BC);
- Middle Assyrian (XV - XI century BC);
- Neo-Assyrian (X - VII century BC).
History of Ancient Assyria: Old Assyrian period
At this time, the Assyrians founded the city of Ashur, which became their capital, also called their state. The country was mainly engaged in trade, since Ashur was located on important trade routes.
Historians know very little about this period, and Assyria itself did not exist as such, and Ashur was part of Akkad. In XVIII Babylon conquers Ashur.
Middle Assyrian period
In this period, Assyria finally gains independence and pursues an active foreign policy, the direction of the seizure of the territories of Northern Mesopotamia.
In the middle of the 15th century, Assyria was freed from the encroachments of the Mitanni. Already in the XIII century, Assyria as an empire was fully formed. In the XIV - XIII centuries. waging war with the Hittites and Babylon. In the XII century, the decline of the empire began, however, when Tiglath-Pileser I (1114 - 1076 BC) came to power, he flourished again.
In the 10th century, the invasion of the nomadic Aramaeans begins, which led to the decline of Assyria.
Neo-Assyrian period
It begins only when she manages to recover from the Aramaean invasion. In the 8th century, the Assyrians founded the world's first empire, which existed until the end of the 7th century. This period marks the golden age of Assyria. The newly created empire breaks Urartu, conquers Israel, Lydia, Media. However, after the death of the last great king Ashurbanipal, the great empire could not resist the onslaught of Babylon and the Medes. Divided between Babylon and Midea, it ceases to exist.
Capital of Ancient Assyria
Was the capital of Assyria. It begins its existence from the 5th millennium BC. e., in the VIII century. BC e. - during the time of Ashurbanipal. This time is considered to be the heyday of Nineveh. The capital was a fortress with an area of more than 700 hectares. Interestingly, the walls reached a height of 20 meters! It is impossible to say exactly about the population. During the excavations, the palace of Ashurbanipal was found, on the walls of which hunting scenes were depicted. The city was also decorated with statues of winged bulls and lions.
