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Voluntary and forced migrations over the past century have given rise to the number of displaced peoples and nations who consider themselves diasporas. The resiliency of these extra-territorial nations after displacement is something of a paradox in nationalism studies. For diaspora, the nation is simultaneously local and transnational, divided and caged by the confines of state borders, often intermixed with other ethnic groups, nations, and cultures, and yet, undeniably, a singular community. Through a comparative examination of the Assyrian and Chaldean diaspora in the United States, this dissertation uses boundary theory to explore the role of diasporic elites in making and sustaining a diasporic nation, and the events, identities, and ideologies that shape diasporic action. It draws from twenty-nine interviews held with Assyrian and Chaldean leaders in Michigan, Illinois, and California, and with policy-makers, as well as research into congressional documents, policy papers, and press reports. The multi-ethnic fabric of American society is formative to boundary-creation, and yet challenges its retention, providing an open society for ethnic expression and civic and political engagement, whilst at the same time facilitating assimilation and loss of diasporic culture and identity. Diasporic elites pursue institutional completeness to sustain diasporic presence in local societies, and cultivate national ideologies that in turn engender activism on behalf of the greater diasporic nation. The Iraq War served as a catalyst to nation-building, providing the first political opening in decades for diasporic actors to mobilize on behalf of Assyrians and Chaldeans in the homeland, seeking constitutional recognition as equal members of the Iraq state. However, the impermeable, exclusionary Iraqi national boundary wrought in conflict instead posed an existential crisis, forcing Assyrians and Chaldeans from Iraq and forcing diasporic leaders to confront questions of what will become of their nation if the homeland is lost. Revealed in the resulting political demands are two distinct strains of nationalism: that for resettlement into diaspora and continued integration into Iraq; and that for territorial autonomy within Iraq’s Nineveh Plain. This dissertation argues diaspora is a continuous, evolving product of boundary-making, often the result of diasporic elite mobilization. Diaspora is a nation not simply born of displacement, but formed through social boundaries encountered and made upon resettlement outside the homeland. Nationalism is a significant component of diasporic nation-building, offering insight into political goals, ideologies, and the dedication of diasporic elites to sustaining an Assyrian and Chaldean homeland, an atra, in diaspora.

This thesis focuses on various aspects of the social and political history of the Yazidi Kurds of Jabal Sinjar ( Iraq)during the British mandate. When relevant to the history of mandatory Sinjarit also deals with the neighbouring Yazidicommunity of Iraqi Shaikhan. Chapters I and II are primarily concerned with the society and economy of Jabal Sinjarin theperiod under consideration with particular emphasis on the socio-economic and political organization of the Yaziditribes settled in the area. They also provide a general historical perspective of the socio-economic development ofthe region. Chapter III discusses the late Ottoman period in detail with a view to defining community-state relations andthe development of Yazidi inter- tribalaf fairs in Jabal Sinjar. Chapters IV and V examine the history of the YazidiMountain in the years of the British mandate when the emerging structures of the Iraqi state had significantrepercussions on Sinjari society, especially on the attitude of a number of Yaziditri al leaders. These developments areanalysed primarily in the context of the policies implemented in the northern Jazirah by the British and Iraqiadministrations and by the French mandatory authorities who controlled its Syrian section. Particular emphasis is placedon the dispute between Great Britain and France concerning the elimination of the Syro- Iraqi border in the Sinjar areawhich affected relations between the Yazidis, the British mandatory administration and the Iraqi authorities ChapterVI gives an account of the Sinjari Yazidis' quest f or autonomy which became increasingly associated with theAssyro-Chaldean autonomist movement in the last years of the mandate.

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Located in an isolated gorge in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Neo-Assyrian rock reliefs at Khinnis are unusual for their size, shape, and subject matter. The most striking of these is the enormous Great Relief, the largest single Assyrian sculpture in existence, which depicts a pair of gods attended by the duplicated figure of the Assyrian king. Both the Great Relief and the other sculptures of the Khinnis site were carved on the orders of Sennacherib (r. 705-688 BCE), to commemorate the canal head he constructed there. The Great Relief itself was positioned over the exact juncture wherein the waters of the river Gomel were canalized and sent on their way towards Nineveh, designated by Sennacherib as Assyria’s new imperial capital, irrigating fields and orchards along the way. In this thesis I examine the composition and iconography of the Great Relief, both in the context of Sennacherib’s irrigation programs and the inscription carved at the Khinnis site. This inscription contains a curiously bifurcated account of both Sennacherib’s civil works in Assyria and his brutal sack of Babylon in 689. In both cases, Sennacherib emphasizes his ingenious technical ability to manipulate water for the benefit of the Assyrian state, either through the creative irrigation of the Assyrian heartland and the new capital, or the destructive flooding and leveling of Babylon. I argue that the dichotomy presented by these activities, a dualism of “nurture and control” through technical expertise, is a persistent theme throughout the rhetoric of Sennacherib’s inscriptions and reliefs. Through a close analysis of the Khinnis inscription, the Assyrian tradition of landscape sculpture, and the emblematic and narrative strategies employed in palatial relief programs, I argue that the Great Relief at Khinnis is an emblematic image of the dualistic ideology of Sennacherib’s reign. Ultimately, the Great Relief stands as a carefully devised visual statement about the nature of state power, consciously created by Sennacherib to signal his conceptual re-founding of the Assyrian empire. / text

Isa 10:5–34 has long been understood as an oracle, like many others in the Book of First Isaiah, that expresses anti-Assyrian theology. The text inverts several policies and ideologies of Neo-Assyrian imperialism and projects them back on Assyria, portraying the Assyrian king, in particular, as the primary object of Yahweh’s derision. However, Isa 10:5–34 appears to be doing more than simply offering a polemic of Neo-Assyrian ideology; the text provides a detailed, systematic attack of key policies and ideology that define the Neo-Assyrian colonial mission, all of which is done to comfort a Judean population suffering and afraid under Assyrian rule. Thus, anti-Assyrian theology, on its own, might not be a useful term for defining the function of the text. When read in light of modern scholarship discussing the phenomenon of terrorism, however, Isa 10:5–34 takes on a different character. This Isaianic oracle might not be merely an expression of anti-Assyrian theology but, instead, an ancient rhetoric of counter-terrorism. / 2021-07-23T00:00:00Z

It is widely acknowledged that the phenomenon of prophecy was not restricted only to ancient Israel, but is well attested throughout the ancient Near East, not least but in the textual material retrieved from the Mesopotamian capitals of Mari and Nineveh. A number of recent studies have utilized these sources to discuss the literary history and rhetorical content of Hebrew prophecy. The following thesis differs from these by undertaking to examine and compare the institution of prophecy as it occurs in the Mari, Neo-Assyrian, and Hebrew sources. -Prophecy‖ is considered to be a mode of non-inductive divination, separate from dreams, that, ideally, is denoted by the active intermediation of allegedly divine messages to a human audience. Thus, texts that record the direct speech of a deity and are communicated to an audience by a human intermediary-without recourse to dreams or technical divination-may potentially reflect prophecy in the Mari and Neo-Assyrian sources. Along with a selection of preexilic Hebrew oracular sources, the image of prophecy in all three corpora is independently examined along seven lines: Prompting Prophecy, Prophets, Prophetic Deities, Venues, Means of Delivery, Content of Oracles, and the Responses to Prophecy. Observations gleaned from this analysis are then compared and contrasted with one another to derive a more nuanced understanding of the phenomenon of prophecy in each source. Among other conclusions, it is observed that it is insufficient to simply silhouette Hebrew prophecy against its Mesopotamian counterparts, as if the images of prophecy in Mari and Neo-Assyrian sources themselves represent indistinguishable phenomena. Indeed, despite considerable overlap, they are not completely consistent. This result, it is argued, places in context some of the more glaring discrepancies between these sources and the image of prophecy in the Hebrew sources.

Nesta dissertação são analisadas fontes iconográficas do I milênio a.C. na Assíria representando mulheres deportadas. Examinam-se representações de mulheres na arte assíria, resgatando-se a memória de sujeitos subalternos na historiografia e suas funções no cenário bélico. Realiza-se um catálogo temático das representações de mulheres deportadas na arte assíria, com uso de fontes editadas, contendo ficha técnica, com descrição iconográfica e interpretação. Além de se estudar como eram representadas as mulheres deportadas e quais funções os assírios davam para estas mulheres nas narrativas bélicas, vemos como se representava o outro, o estrangeiro inimigo, vencido e cativo. Nota-se, ademais, que os assírios ressaltavam aspectos da sua compreensão de feminilidade, assim como denotavam a distinção étnica e de gênero que marcava a identidade dessas mulheres, oriundas de diversas regiões sob domínio do impérioassírio (884-631 a.C.). / This work plan to do an analysis of iconographic sources from the I millennium B.C. in Assyria. The studies of these iconographic sources are widespread among Assyriologists and scholars of Assyrian art. However, little is attentive to the presence of women in Assyrian art. Besides being subaltern historiography subject as a whole, women and their role in war are poorly studied objects. In this paper, I intend to develop a critical and analytical view of how the deported women were represented, and what actions the Assyrians gave to these women in warlike narratives, besides representing the other, the stranger, the Assyrians were concerned to emphasize aspects of their understanding of femininity, as well as emphasized the gender distinction in aspects that marked the identity of these women, coming from different parts that were on the domain of the Assyrianempire.

Nesta dissertação são analisadas fontes iconográficas do I milênio a.C. na Assíria representando mulheres deportadas. Examinam-se representações de mulheres na arte assíria, resgatando-se a memória de sujeitos subalternos na historiografia e suas funções no cenário bélico. Realiza-se um catálogo temático das representações de mulheres deportadas na arte assíria, com uso de fontes editadas, contendo ficha técnica, com descrição iconográfica e interpretação. Além de se estudar como eram representadas as mulheres deportadas e quais funções os assírios davam para estas mulheres nas narrativas bélicas, vemos como se representava o outro, o estrangeiro inimigo, vencido e cativo. Nota-se, ademais, que os assírios ressaltavam aspectos da sua compreensão de feminilidade, assim como denotavam a distinção étnica e de gênero que marcava a identidade dessas mulheres, oriundas de diversas regiões sob domínio do impérioassírio (884-631 a.C.). / This work plan to do an analysis of iconographic sources from the I millennium B.C. in Assyria. The studies of these iconographic sources are widespread among Assyriologists and scholars of Assyrian art. However, little is attentive to the presence of women in Assyrian art. Besides being subaltern historiography subject as a whole, women and their role in war are poorly studied objects. In this paper, I intend to develop a critical and analytical view of how the deported women were represented, and what actions the Assyrians gave to these women in warlike narratives, besides representing the other, the stranger, the Assyrians were concerned to emphasize aspects of their understanding of femininity, as well as emphasized the gender distinction in aspects that marked the identity of these women, coming from different parts that were on the domain of the Assyrianempire.

Nesta dissertação são analisadas fontes iconográficas do I milênio a.C. na Assíria representando mulheres deportadas. Examinam-se representações de mulheres na arte assíria, resgatando-se a memória de sujeitos subalternos na historiografia e suas funções no cenário bélico. Realiza-se um catálogo temático das representações de mulheres deportadas na arte assíria, com uso de fontes editadas, contendo ficha técnica, com descrição iconográfica e interpretação. Além de se estudar como eram representadas as mulheres deportadas e quais funções os assírios davam para estas mulheres nas narrativas bélicas, vemos como se representava o outro, o estrangeiro inimigo, vencido e cativo. Nota-se, ademais, que os assírios ressaltavam aspectos da sua compreensão de feminilidade, assim como denotavam a distinção étnica e de gênero que marcava a identidade dessas mulheres, oriundas de diversas regiões sob domínio do impérioassírio (884-631 a.C.). / This work plan to do an analysis of iconographic sources from the I millennium B.C. in Assyria. The studies of these iconographic sources are widespread among Assyriologists and scholars of Assyrian art. However, little is attentive to the presence of women in Assyrian art. Besides being subaltern historiography subject as a whole, women and their role in war are poorly studied objects. In this paper, I intend to develop a critical and analytical view of how the deported women were represented, and what actions the Assyrians gave to these women in warlike narratives, besides representing the other, the stranger, the Assyrians were concerned to emphasize aspects of their understanding of femininity, as well as emphasized the gender distinction in aspects that marked the identity of these women, coming from different parts that were on the domain of the Assyrianempire.