Reforging a Forgotten History

This book offers a narrative history and analysis of the Assyrian experience in 20th-century Iraq. Who are the Assyrians and what role did they play in shaping modern Iraq? Were they simply bystanders, victims of collateral damage who played a passive role in the history of Iraq? And how have they negotiated their position throughout various periods of Iraq's state-building processes? This book details the narrative and history of Iraq in the 20th century and reinserts the Assyrian experience as an integral part of Iraq's broader contemporary historiography. It is the first comprehensive account to contextualize this native people's experience alongside the developmental processes of the modern Iraqi 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 20th century Iraq. It includes oral history and ethnographic research on the Assyrians. It presents comprehensive and in-depth data pertaining to Iraqi Assyrian villages as well as ancient churches, monasteries, schools and other material culture edifices. It utilizes Assyrian-Aramaic/Syriac as well as Arabic primary sources to illuminate and corroborate the Assyrian narrative of Iraqi history.