B1 The Assyrians of Urmi
Yosep Bet-Yosep of Zumallan in Turlock, California
They say that Tiglath Pileser brought people and settled them in Urmi. At the time that the Persians come, that group of Assyrians is still remaining, at the time that Cyrus comes, at that time they come. Years pass and we do not have any information about them. Now let us come to the time of Christianity. They say that the Magi came and met Christ. They say that two of them were from Urmi. One of them was from Maraga. At that time there were Assyrians there and they say that they were Assyrians. It seems that there were still Assyrians remaining in Urmi at the time of Christ. Then we come to the time when Christianity is growing. St. Thomas, when he comes to Edessa, from there he comes to Urmi. He comes to Muyshava. He comes to the lake of Urmi. They call it the ‘swarm of the seas.’ If St. Thomas came to Urmi, he would not have dared to come to preach to the Zoroastrians. It is true that Christ said ‘Go and preach,’ but if there were not Assyrians in Urmi and there were only Iranians, he would have had to come and enter among the Zoroastrians to preach about Christ. But we see that he comes to Urmi and everybody welcomes him. Now those who welcomed him were Assyrians. This shows that there were Assyrians at the time of Christ in Iran, in Urmi. This is because St. Thomas—the people of Edessa, who seemed to have knowledge about the Assyrians and say to him ‘Go to Urmi, we have people (there). Do not fear. Go and preach among them.’ The Assyrians of Urmi—the church of St. Mary in Urmi was a place of worship of the Zoroastrians and they take it and make it into a church. It is one of the oldest churches of Christianity. Why do they build a church there? We do they not build one in a … in the village of Spurǧan or in a village? Because they had a belief that the place of the church had to be clean, that for many years a fox should not have left its filth on it or that cattle must not have died there, so they could establish a church, because it is the house of God. So, they came and said: ‘The Zoroastrians who used to worship (in) this house before us, in the age before us—perhaps for five hundred, six hundred years there was a place for the worship of the Zoroastrians. Now the Zoroastrians have abandoned it and gone from here. We know that this is cleaner than other places, so let us establish our church here.’ Right on that place of worship of the Zoroastrians, the church of St. Mary—the first to be built in Iran was the church of St. Mary, in which there are very ancient graves. This also is a proof that there were people in Urmi at the time of (the rise of) Christianity.
We come (to the period) a thousand years later. We see that in Spurǧan, in some some of the villages, there are tombstones one thousand one hundred years old. In some churches we see that they know the stone, they know that it was erected at such-and-such a time. So one thousand and one hundred years after Christ, a thousand or nine hundred years after Christ we see that there is an indication that there were Assyrian Christians in Urmi. They make (people) Christians, they convert them from (being) Zoroastrians. But we see on those churches a sign of the script of the Assyrians. It is not the script of the Zoroastrians, Pahlavi. So, if it is that of the Assyrians, then an Assyrian wrote it, an ancient script. So we see in general that the Assyrian was in Urmi down to the time of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire gains control over Urmi and extends as far as Egypt. It takes possession of everything and takes control of it. It comes and does not allow the minorities to speak their own language or give their own names (to their children). The majority of Jacobites have Turkish names. They did not allow the majority of Jacobites to speak the Assyrian language, or the dialect we call suryoyo. They spoke in Turkish. Also in Iran they did not allow the Assyrians (to use their language). With regard to names, they changed the names of all their villages. They could not speak in their language much. In their weddings they could not sing in their own language, in the Assyrian language. The majority of the wedding songs were in Turkish. So, this has a (great) effect (on their lives). The oppression (of the Assyrians) took place mostly at the time of the Ottoman Empire. During a certain period there was oppression of the Assyrians in the region of Persia, at the time of the early kings, Shapur the Second and a little later. Then the oppression stopped, because in the time of Harun al-Rashid and his son who was from … one of his wives was from Iran. In the royal household of Harunids, the caliphs, we had doctors, we had learned men. That is, we had a very close relationship. At the time of the Shapur dynasty there was oppression and again at the time of the Ottoman Empire there was oppression. But in that interval, for seven hundred, eight hundred, nine hundred years, we lived very peacefully in Iran. We lived with the Zoroastrians, but as Christians, but not always Zoroastrians. Iran became Muslim. We lived very well.
When the First World War begins, the Assyrians of Urmi are afraid. Germany was allied with Turkiye for it wanted to prevent the Americans, the French and the Russians gaining power. They put great pressure on the king of Iran, Reza-shah, in order that Iran also became allied with them. Why? So that they would not allow the Russians and the Americans to manoeuvre there. They knew, they came previously and saw that Iran was the place from which help must not reach Russia. They came and immediately seized Iran and captured it. Iran was the place of the bridge by which they wanted to convey help to Russia. So, it was at that time that they came and they helped the Assyrians fight. But the enemies of the Assyrians were numerous, because they were Christians, and around them all the people were Muslim. When Russia retreated, when the English were obliged to say ‘We have finished with this place, we have no business (here), now let’s go,’ they said ‘Let’s go, now that Turkiye has lost’—All the plain of Nineveh etc. was in the hands of the Turks—they said ‘Let’s go and clean up that place. We shall not allow the tribes to revolt on their own, the Arab tribes.’ At that time they left our nation alone. Our nation was obliged to follow the English and it went to Hamadan. Some of them remained there. Some on the way remained at Kermanshah. There were English with them who said ‘We shall take you to Baquba,’ and a large proportion of them entered Baquba. On this journey a large number of the Assyrians perished (before reaching their destination). When they arrive in Iraq they have an argument. After they disperse, a number of the Assyrians of Hakkari do not want to hand over their weapons. Some of the Assyrians of Hakkari were with Faisal, that is with Iraq, with the new government of Iraq, let’s say they submitted to it. The Assyrians of Iran remained by themselves. The Assyrians of Iran said ‘We shall return.’ When they returned, they came to Urmi and began slowly to rebuild it. They came and rebuilt Urmi, until the time when the Russians, who had become communist, came, sometime around the Second World War, and entered Iran. There was a movement there, let’s say of the Reds, of the Russians. The population of Urmi, which was mainly Azeri, said ‘(It belongs to) Turkiye. We shall take this part of Azerbaijan from Iran. Perhaps we shall take all of Iran.’ They wanted to fight with the king of Iran. The Assyrians, who were living with them in the plain of Urmi, were forced to ally with them. When this also did not succeed, because the Americans helped the king of Iran and the Russians did not help the Turks of Urmi, the Assyrians again became subject to oppressions. Why? Because the Muslims portrayed themselves better and said ‘Yes, we were with the Russians, but we were mistaken.’ They immediately changed sides and became allied with the king. The Assyrian was oppressed. So, slowly they (the Assyrians) began to leave Urmi, because their strength diminished. An Assyrian only has two children. They started not to have six, seven, eight to help them with farming, with cultivation. A Muslim used to marry three or four wives, and suddenly in a period of ten years, (the family of) a Muslim used to increase. But the Assyrians could not increase in number in this way and remain in Urmi, and keep (residence in) Urmi. They were forced to leave, because there were no jobs in Urmi. They left there. Gradually the wife was left alone and the Muslims in the surrounding area were many. The husband began to become worried. He wrote to the wife ‘Come to the town.’ Afterwards (this situation developed) until (they said) ‘Come to Kermanshah’ or ‘Come to Abadan’ or ‘Come to Tehran.’ Gradually the community all left. They looked at each other and left. This is why they left, why the Assyrians left Urmi.
Now, first, let me describe Urmi, so we know what the place is like. Urmi is divided into three parts. One part is this side of Sulduz, that is south-west of the lake, the lake of Urmi. One of them is Urmi itself. The other is the eastern north side, let’s say, or the north-eastern, which is Salamas. A number of people lived in Salamas, Salamas and Gavilan, and a number lived in Urmi. A number of people lived in Sulduz. Why? Because the rivers that descended from the mountains and entered the lake of Urmi—our people, since they were farmers, established villages around these rivers and lived there. There were rivers on this side of Sulduz. They came down from the mountains of Mahabad into the lake. There were rivers from the mountains of Turkiye which descended into the lake. There are rivers from the mountains almost of the Ural range, those of Jilu, which descended into the lake, in the region of Salamas. On the plain of Urmi at the time of the war, in 1918, we only had seventy-two Assyrian villages. Before we had more villages, but these had become small and (the Assyrians) came—because Islam increased around them, they were afraid, and came and lived in large villages. That is, there were many very small villages around, perhaps on the maps the villages of Urmi amount to one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty villages. But in 1918 seventy-two villages remained. They subsisted only on farming. In the northern region, where they lived in the mountains, they made a livelihood from sheep. They did not have many cattle, since cattle cannot live easily. Most of them had sheep and lived by milking the sheep and selling the wool of the sheep, butter, cheese and such things. But the group who were on the plain had cattle and had crops. Most of them had orchards, vineyards and apple orchards. In summer, we may say that the fruit that ripened first was apricots. They would dry the apricots and sell them, because one can easily dry an apricot. After these (apricots), they would sell apples and pears, if it was necessary, if they needed to. If not, they kept them for themselves. They dried these also so they would keep for their winter—they called them ⁺k̭axə. They would cut up the apple, dry it in the sun and keep it for the winter. Now, they had grapes. They used to make grapes into raisins, they made them into blanched grapes, they made them into syrup, they made them into wine and they made hanging preserved grapes, again for winter. They had hanging grapes—that is they would conserve them in air that was slightly cool and moist. They would keep until winter. Not moist but dry, and they would keep until winter. They passed their life in this way. There were jujube fruits, walnuts, raisins. They preserved these. Their work was mainly in the summer. For five months, six months in the summer they would cultivate potatoes, onions, beetroot. Everything that they needed, that was necessary, they would gather for winter. Also for their cattle they would gather grass, they would gather hay, from the wheat that they harvested. They cut them up and (kept) the wheat for themselves and its hay for the cattle. That is called ‘hay.’ They preserved it and together with grass they put it in barns. They kept it for winter to give to the cattle. Because they tried to keep the cattle for five months, perhaps six months, on the plain, then the other six months they would stay in the stable, so they would have food for them.
The Assyrian people in Urmi before the war, indeed many years before the war, in 1830, were all Church of the East. That is they were all one church. They were the church of, the Church of the East. (Starting) from 1831 or 32, Perkins, the first missionary, comes and gradually other missionaries come. They see that there are Christians there, Christians there. They establish schools for these Christians. Gradually our people (start) to study in the schools and they are successful, until later when the First World War takes place, they abolish the schools. The missionaries come from different places. They come from France, they come from England, they come from America, they come from Russia, they come from Italy, from Rome. Each one preaches to his flock, wishing to gain for themselves some of these Christians with his own particular beliefs. There a division took place in the people, in the Assyrian community, who according to need went over to different churches, that is the churches became different from one another. At that time there was an argument within the Assyrian community, between one another. They attempted to conduct their argument mainly through writing. There were four or five magazines. A magazine was published in the plain of Urmi. There was printing. There were fonts. So they argued, they argued with each other in those magazines. The more their argument continued, hatred developed among one another. They began not to like one another. Perhaps this this was a cause for the fact that the strength of the Assyrians diminished. This was one of the reasons that the Muslims around them began to see that this community was weak, was not very strong. Before they would fear it, but now they began not to fear it. They had an influence on them in commerce. If some of the Muslims were allied to the Catholics, they purchased mainly the goods of the Catholics. A group of Muslims who were allied with the Americans, they bought vegetables, they bought wheat, they bought everything mainly from the evangelical churches, or the people who were from among the Presbyterians or Evangelicals. But this section does not relate to what you asked. I beg your pardon. But I wanted to make this known, because it mainly had the effect that the bond of unity, the bond of working together was broken. Their life gradually began to deteriorate.
In the town, in the period that there were missionaries, many of our people who had some education used to go to America to study. They would return and become doctors, they were well-off. That is during that period they were making money, their livelihood through their education. We had schools. In those schools male teachers and female teachers that were there used to teach. In the market, let’s say, if there was a shop for selling, buying and selling, they would mainly sell textiles, our Assyrians, or would make sewn work. There were not many in jobs involving iron. There were people who made ovens, cooking pots, tools for cooking, but these (jobs) were done by Muslims. Our community, our people were mainly either tailors, tailors, doing tailoring, or were teachers, or sold textiles. We had a very small number who sold wood or sold vegetables. I am talking about only those of the town. There was also a very small number who sold cheese, tea, sugar. They had a shop, a small shop, and they used to do this job. We had very few people who had a restaurant, that is a place for serving food. We had very few people who had a lodging place, that is hotels. We did not have many since at that time in Urmi there were not many people who went and stayed for a night or two nights, so there needed to be a place (for to stay). There were a few places they called a travellers’ lodge. This was a place where for a few hours a car or a bus would come, it would come and remain until after a few hours it would leave, or until it left the next day. A person would stay in the travellers’ lodge. Before buses came out, there were carriages, there were coaches. On account of this there were not many hotels. In these travellers’ lodges they built very large rooms. You would see everybody (together, as many as) seventy people asleep in one room, husband, wife, an old man, an old woman. For this reason our people did not want to have a travellers’ lodge because they did not like this way of earning a living. They were mainly in (the trade) of selling textiles, or we had a few in the gold business. Mostly (it was) the Jews (who) were in the gold business. They (the Assyrians) were teachers, some of them had shops, or (they were) tailors. They earned their living in this way, (that is) the people in the town. The account of the people of the villages is different.
The town of Urmi is not very big. If we are talking about that time, that is in earlier years, the town of Urmi is not big. If you want to go by foot from one side of it to the other side, perhaps you could reach the other side in twenty minutes or half an hour, whatever route you take in Urmi, the town of the Urmi. Our Assyrians were mainly in the northern part of Urmi, and a small number were right on the east side, which leads to the villages, that is the part, the way, the road that leads to the villages. Two rivers are on the east side of the town of Urmi. On those rivers there are many villages. The road that leads to the east side, towards Tabriz and towards those villages—we had some Assyrian people there, because they were closer to the travellers’ lodges that I am talking about, because a travellers’ lodge was close there and they (the villagers) would come close by there with a carriage, with a coach or with buses. So their relatives bought houses in those areas. But the other group was living mainly on the northern side of the town of Urmi. This was more beautiful, that is it was the area of rich people. The upper class people of Urmi used to live there. Later, the other group, about whom I am talking, in the east, gradually stopped (living there), that is they moved to the northern area. The majority of Assyrians used to live in one place. Their houses, like all the houses in Urmi, began to be built with bricks, that is baked brick. The houses were (built) with baked brick. Their courtyards were big. They had a bathroom. At that time the European type of bathrooms had not yet come (to Urmi). They had a bathroom like (that of) the Muslims. But since the Assyrians had learnt from the missionaries, their houses were more beautiful than the houses of the Muslims. They had a very beautiful bathroom, which they put on the other side of the courtyard. Although it was like that of the others, the Muslims, it was much more beautiful, since they had learnt, as I said, they had learnt from the missionaries. Their houses were more beautiful. They had bedrooms. They had stoves for winter, two stoves, if their house was big, two stoves. They would gather wood. They had a storeroom, a storeroom for wood. They would bring wood from the village. They would bring hanging preserved grapes from the village. Because in the village—all the people who live in the town, either had orchards in the village or had relatives there. They brought to the town walnuts, raisins, chickpeas, everything. They used to live as high-class people. Their clothing was very beautiful. Their children who were studying in the schools were very intelligent, that is the Assyrians in the town were the foremost (members of the population), let’s say ninety-eight or ninety-five out of a hundred, the first level.