Reforging a Forgotten History: Iraq and the Assyrians in the Twentieth Century

by Sargon Donabed

Overview

Were they simply bystanders, victims of collateral damage who played a passive role in its history? Furthermore, how have they negotiated their position throughout various periods of Iraq's state-building processes? This book details a narrative of Iraq in the twentieth century and refashions the Assyrian experience as an integral part of Iraq's broader contemporary historiography. It is the first comprehensive account to contextualize a native experience alongside the emerging state. Using primary and secondary data, this book offers a nuanced exploration of the dynamics that have affected and determined the trajectory of the Assyrians' experience in twentieth-century Iraq.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780748686025
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	02/27/2015
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Sargon George Donabed is Assistant Professor of History at the Department of History and American Studies at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. He is co-editor of The Assyrian Heritage: Threads of Continuity and Influence (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2012), Religion and the State: Europe and North America in the 17th and 18th centuries (Lexington Books, 2012) and The Assyrians of Eastern Massachusetts (Arcadia Publishing, 2006).

Table of Contents

Introduction; The Assyrians; A New Approach to Meaning; Moving Forward with Purpose; Chapter Analysis

1. Integrating the Assyrian Question; A Historiography of Historiography and a Theoretical Framework; Key Sources: Mapping Iraqi Assyrians and Sectarianisation

2. Framing the Assyrian Narrative: Late 19th and Early 20th Century; Assyrian Demography: Between Deteriorating Empires and Colonial Expansion; Modern Roots of Inter-Religious Animosity; World War 1; From Versailles 1919 to Lausanne 1923; The Period of the Iraq Levies and the Assyrian Settlement

3. Iraq: Buildin a 'Nation'-State; The Patriarch and Temporal Authority; The Massacre at Simele; International Recognition; Road to the Republic

4. The Birth of the Republic and an Autonomist Struggle; The 1958 Coup and Renewed Internal Strife; Soriya Massacre of 1969; Demographic Situation

5. Enduring Discord: Political Machinations and Border Clearings; A Resumption of Violence; The Border Clearings of 1977 — 1978

6. New Movements and War on the Horizon; Iraq-Iran War; The Calm Before the Storm; Renewed International Interest in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign

7. Nation-State Formation, Nation-State Building and Contentious Pluralism; Situating the Assyrian Experience; Agency, Failed Strategies and Transdenominationalism; Simele Revisited; Development and Further Consequences of Urbanisation and Arabisation; State-Sponsored Acculturation

Conclusion
Glossary
Appendix A: Village Data
Appendix B: Bibliography
Appendix C: Documents Concerning Cultural and Political Organisations

What People are Saying About This

Sargon Donabed provides a comprehensive overview of the modern Assyrian story, merging emic and etic perspectives of their struggle to attain sovereignty over the past century and beyond. His work offers both an informative source for Assyrian ethnic history and an alternative reading for Mesopotamian regional history as a whole.

University of Mary Washington Nabil Al-Tikriti

Sargon Donabed provides a comprehensive overview of the modern Assyrian story, merging emic and etic perspectives of their struggle to attain sovereignty over the past century and beyond. His work offers both an informative source for Assyrian ethnic history and an alternative reading for Mesopotamian regional history as a whole.

Trinity Western University Paul S. Rowe

In telling the story of modern Assyrian responses to a history of tragedy, Sargon Donabed helps us understand them as actors in their own right. He thereby rewrites Iraqi history from the perspective of the oppressed. No longer may we ignore the plight of this misunderstood minority.

Editorial Reviews

Sargon Donabed provides a comprehensive overview of the modern Assyrian story, merging emic and etic perspectives of their struggle to attain sovereignty over the past century and beyond. His work offers both an informative source for Assyrian ethnic history and an alternative reading for Mesopotamian regional history as a whole.

University of Mary Washington Nabil Al-Tikriti

In telling the story of modern Assyrian responses to a history of tragedy, Sargon Donabed helps us understand them as actors in their own right. He thereby rewrites Iraqi history from the perspective of the oppressed. No longer may we ignore the plight of this misunderstood minority.

Trinity Western University Paul S. Rowe

"Sargon Donabed provides a comprehensive overview of the modern Assyrian story, merging emic and etic perspectives of their struggle to attain sovereignty over the past century and beyond. His work offers both an informative source for Assyrian ethnic history and an alternative reading for Mesopotamian regional history as a whole." — Nabil Al-Tikriti, University of Mary Washington

"In telling the story of modern Assyrian responses to a history of tragedy, Sargon Donabed helps us understand them as actors in their own right. He thereby rewrites Iraqi history from the perspective of the oppressed. No longer may we ignore the plight of this misunderstood minority." — Paul S. Rowe, Trinity Western University

From the Publisher