6. Present Condition. — The greater part of the coun- try which formed Assyria Proper is under the nominal sway of the Turks, who compose a considerable pro- portion of the population of the towns and larger vil- lages, filling nearly all public offices, and differing in nothing from other Osmanlis. The Pasha of Mosul is nominated by the Porte, but is subject to the Pasha of Bagdad ; there is also a pasha at Solymaneah and Akra ; a bey at Arbil, a mussellim at Kirkuk, etc. But the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, and of the whole mountain tract that here divides Turkey from Persia, are the Kurds, the Carduchii of the (Jreeks; from them a chain of these mountains were anciently called the Carduchian or Gordyaean, and from them now the country is designated Kurdistan. Klaproth, in his
Asia Polyglotta (Paris, 1823, 4to, p. 75), derives the name from the Persian root kurd, i. e. strong, brave. They are still, as of old, a barbarous and warlike race, occasionally yielding a formal allegiance, on the west, to the Turks, and on the east to the Persians, but nev- er wholly subdued ; indeed, some of the more powerful tribes, such as the Hakkary, have maintained an en- tire independence. Some of them are stationary in villages, while others roam far and wide, beyond the limits of their own country, as nomadic shepherds; but they are all more or less addicted to predatory habits, and are regarded with great dread by their more peace- ful neighbors. They profess the faith of Islam, and are of the Sunite sect. All travellers have remarked man j' points of resemblance between them and the an- cient Highlanders of Scotland. (See Mr. Ainsworth's second work, Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, etc., Lond. 1842, 2 vols.)
The Christian population is scattered over the whole region, but is found chiefly in the north. It includes Chalda?ans, who form that branch of the Nestorians that adheres to the Church of Rome, a few Jacobites, or monophysite Syrians, Armenians, etc. But the most interesting portion is the ancient Church of the prim- itive Nestorians, a livelj' interest in which has lately been excited in the religious world by the publications of the American missionaries (see, especially, The Nes- torians, by Asahel Grant, M.D., Lond. 1841 ; and com- pare Dr. E. Robinson, in the Am. Bibl.Repos. Oct. 1841; Jan. 1842 ; Rev. J. Perkins, ib. Jan. 1843 ; and Resi- dence in Persia, N. Y. 1843). Sec Nestorians. An- other peculiar race that is met with in this and the neighboring countries is that of the Yezidees (q. v.), whom Grant and Ainsworth would likewise connect with the ten tribes ; but it seems much more probable that they are an offshoot from the ancient Manichees, their alleged worship of the Evil Principle amounting to no more than a reverence which keeps them from speaking of him with disrespect (see Homes., in the Am. Bibl. Rejws. for April, 1842). Besides the dwellers in | towns and the agricultural population, there are a vast : number of wandering tribes, not only of Kurds, but of | Arabs, Turkomans, and other classes of robbers, who, , by keeping the settled inhabitants in constant dread \ of property and life, check every effort at improve- ment; and, in consequence of this and the influence of bad government, many of the finest portions of the country are little better than unproductive wastes. A copy of a famous history of Kurdistan, entitled Tarikh al-Akrad (Akratf being the collective name of the peo- ple), was procured by Mr. Rich when in the country, and is now, along with the other valuable Oriental MSS. of that lamented traveller, preserved in the Brit- ish Museum. See Kurdistan.
II. The Assyrian Empire.— No portion of ancient history is involved in greater obscurity than that of the empire of Assyria. Nor is this obscurity in any very great degree removed by the recent remarkable discoveries of the monumental records of the nation by Layard, Botta, and Loftus.
1. Scriptural Notices of Assyrian History. — In at- tempting to arrange even the facts deducible from Scripture, a difficulty presents itself at the outset, arising from the ambiguity of the account given of the ' origin of the earliest Assyrian state in Gen. x, 11. After describing Nimrod, son of Cush, " as a mighty j one in the earth," the historian adds (ver. 10), " And the beginning of his kingdom (or, rather, the first the- atre of his dominion) was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar," i. e. Babylonia. Then follow the words (as it is in the margin), " Out 1 of that land he (i. e. Nimrod) went out into Assyria and builded Nineveh," (comp. Noldius, Concord. Hebr, Particles, ed. Tymp., p. 223.) Moses is enumerating the descendants of Ham, and it is not likely that he : would interrupt the details to give an account of As- ; shur, a son of Shem, whose posterity are not introduced
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till ver. 21. Besides, in the circumstance of Asshur Leaving one country to settle in another, there was nothing remarkable, for that was the case with almost all Noah's grandchildren. But if we understand it of Nimrod, both the connection and the sense will be manifest. The design obviously is to represent him as a potent monarch and ambitious conqueror. His brethren, the other sons of Cush, settled in the south, but he, advancing northward, lirst seized on Baby- lonia, and, proceeding thence into Assyria (already partially colonized by the Asshurites, from whom it took its name), he built Nineveh and the other strong- holds mentioned, in order to secure his conquests. This view is confirmed by a passage in Mic. v, G, where, predicting the overthrow of Assyria by the Medes and Babylonians, the prophet says, " They shall devour the land of Asshur with the sword : even the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof" (comp. v. 5). It likewise agrees with the native tradition (if we can depend on the report of Ctesias), that the founder of the Assyrian monarchy and the builder of Nineveh was one and the same person, viz., Ninus, from whom it derived its name (q. d. Nin's Abode), and in that case the designation of Nimrod (the Rebel) was not his proper name, but an opprobrious appella- tion imposed on him by his enemies. Modern tradi- tion likewise connects Nimrod with Assyria ; for while, as we have seen, the memory of Asshur is preserved in the locality of A thur, that place is also termed the "city of Nimrud," and (as the above-mentioned dam on the Tigris is styled Nimrod's Castle) Rich informs us that "the inhabitants of the neighboring village of Deraweish consider him as their founder." He adds, that the village story-tellers have a book they call the Kissek-Nimrud, or "Tales of Nimrod."