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Church of the East — Live Q&A with Zaia | October 14

Join us Wednesday, October 14, for a live Q&A about the Church of the East. The discussion starts at 7 PM Central and will be held on Discord. Bring your questions!

Join the Assyrian Church of the East Discord

Other times: 8 PM Eastern · 5 PM Pacific · 12 AM UTC (October 15)

Hey guys i wondered about the word "Orzo". I heard that it means "tomboy" in assyrian and is short for "urzambook" and that it has a connection to the word "Urza", which means male. Is this true?

There is another similar word tho: "Arzo", which means cedarwood. Could "Arzo" also be pronounced "Orzo" depending on the dialect?

I’m trying to get into studying traditional assyrian folk music with hopes of learning how to play it. but i’m curious what instruments are actually used. i’m aware we have used zurna and dawol but what other instruments are traditional for our music?

Does anyone have the footage of the axe attack that took place in Dohuk on kha b’nissan in 2025? I’ve been trying to find the footage for documentation purposes but haven’t found it.

Don't miss a one-of-a-kind evening of Assyrian American folk-pop with the mesmerizing Rachel Sarah Thomas!

Chicago based Rachel Sarah Thomas trained classically from age five, but in her mid 20s fell in love with pop music and never looked back. Rachel had a long musical career in electro pop and her debut album Petra landed on NPR and scored a hit film. Then, after ISIS invaded Mosul in 2014, Rachel turned her focus toward creating music about the Assyrian diaspora. 

Her latest project is Sheekar (meaning sugar): a fusion of Assyrian folkloric and pop music from Iraq, Iran, and Syria, with American musical traditions. It's a celebration of Rachel's blended identity. An East meets West sound created to introduce newcomers to Assyrian music while giving Assyrians a fresh, unexpected take on their own rich musical heritage.

Rachel is bringing Sheekar along with additional covers of classic Assyrian music and original unreleased music to San Francisco's historic Palace theater. Come enjoy this unique evening in an intimate cabaret!

Tickets can be purchased here: Tickets
Trailer for concert: Watch here

Photographs of our people sit scattered across libraries, mission archives, old books and Instagram accounts. I've been gathering them into one place: assyrian.io

What's there now:

- 741 photographs and documents, from medieval Syriac manuscripts to 1980s diaspora life, covering 121 places: Urmia, Hakkari, Tur Abdin, Baqubah, Habbaniya, Chicago and more

- Every item credits its source (Library of Congress, Gallica, the Imperial War Museum, the Albert Kahn autochromes, community archives) with a link to the original

- A map and a decade-by-decade timeline

- 444 photos have an AI-colorized version. It's always labelled, and you can switch to the original or compare them side by side.

It's free, with no account and no ads.

How you can help:

The best photos are still in family albums. If you have old ones, send them over.

Hi! Assyrian/Syriac here. I am wondering if there if anyone out there with Assyrian heritage carrying Y haplogroup E-L795, and who originally is from the Mardin region specifically the Savur, Mahsarte/Ömerli and Bafawa/Beth Awe or any nearby villages.​

Just curious if anyone has used it. It seems the most polished app out there. Wondering if people have used it & whats their experience. Thanks in advance

Are there any rules that govern which gender to use when speaking? This is something I've struggled with my entire life.

Examples:

You'll put one over there.

• When talking to a female: matwaht kha tamah.
• When talking to a male: matweht kha tamah.

This boy/girl.

• When talking about the boy: awa yallah.
• When talking about the girl: aya bratah.

This light.

• Female: aya birqah
• Male: awa birqah

I assume the first two examples are correct since the targets of the conversation have a gender, but what about the last example? It's an inanimate object with no gender, so how do I refer to it? "aya" or "awa"?

Are there any other situations where the rules might differ?

Hello everyone. In some alternative therapy and esoteric circles in Turkiye, there is a popular claim that says "The language of the subconscious mind is Syriac." They also link this language directly to dream interpretation and astrology. I am trying to find the root of this claim. Is there any historical, linguistic, or mystical basis for this belief within the Syriac tradition itself?

My question is mainly about the fact that a deity from a polytheistic pantheon appears on the flag, while the overwhelming majority of Assyrians are, as far as I understand, devout Christians. Is this something that actually comes up in conversation, is it a source of discomfort? Or do people simply view the deity in question as part of their cultural heritage, and therefore see no issue with having it represented on the flag?

Edit : Some people here seem to believe, for some reason I don’t understand, that I’m attacking the design of the Assyrian flag. I’m not even saying that such criticism would or wouldn’t be legitimate; I’m simply asking whether it exists. If a deity from the pre-Islamic Arab polytheistic era were depicted on the flag of Saudi Arabia, I would also wonder whether some Muslims might see an issue with it. Again, that would be nothing more than a question.
I’d be happy for someone to explain to me concretely what could possibly be problematic about what I’m asking, because I’m absolutely convinced that it’s perfectly reasonable and that there is no reason whatsoever for it to cause any tension.

Yes, ancient Assyrians were brutal. But the framing of this 2015 article really pissed me off, particularly this part:

I also watched recent video of ISIS members in a museum smashing (alleged) archaeological relics from the very ancient Mesopotamian past. I felt a certain sense of historical irony while doing so. I wondered as I watched them use sledgehammers and power drills on a 3,000 year old Assyrian statue if they realized that they were following the ancient Assyrian playbook as they tried to erase the region’s past.

So this Reuters writer compares ISIS to the ancient Assyrians, yet never really addresses the much more immediate Islamic influences and especially the ways of Muhammad?

What makes it even more insensitive is the timing. ISIS was literally persecuting, kidnapping and killing Assyrians at the time, yet this article invokes their ancient ancestors to illustrate brutality without even acknowledging the modern Assyrian community or what it was going through. The framing just feels incredibly tone-deaf.

I know this is old news, but I only came across it recently and it really got to me. Sorry!

Indigenous Aššūrāyeh in their homeland, māt-Aššur (aka occupied Assyria) 🔵⚪️🔴☀️🔵⚪️🔴

These men are wearing their traditional conical hats which have been preserved throughout the empire days as well as their modified clothes throughout the ages. The first attestation of these baggy clothes can be found in the artefact called ‘Rʻuth-Assor’ circa 2nd century C.E.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%CA%BButh-Assor

The bad news? We’re the bad guys, as usual. The good news? Not only are we the 'final boss', you get to play as the Babylonians (who are the good guys in the game), and they’re considered closely related to us anyway.🤷🏻‍♀️😂

Assyria is also playable in the 1995 computer game Avalon Hill's Advanced Civilization, but not many people know about that game.

Hello beautiful and lovely Assyrian people. I'm Kurdish, grew up in KRI. I was never taught anything about Seyfo and Simele, how bad and horrific it was. I would like to say that I'm really sorry. I wish Seyfo/Simele genocide were taught in schools.

Apparently, the concept of genocide was inspired by Simele, a Jewish man heard of what were being done to Assyrians in the 30s and came up with the concept of genocide and I think he discussed it in the League of Nations.

I would love to hear your perspectives, your grandparent's stories, and Assyrian accounts of the genocide.