Mesopotamia, Germany and West Africa Theories
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Mesopotamia, Germany and West Africa Theories Discussion in 'Black People Open Forum' started by omowalejabali, Yesterday at 12:33 PM. Thus far the only people who have been attested with a high level of research to be the descendants of the ancient Mesopotamians are the Assyrian Christians of Iraq and its surrounding areas. Assyria continued to exist as a geo political entity until the Arab-Islamic conquest in the mid 7th century AD, and Assyrian identity, personal names and evolutions of Mesopotamian Aramaic (which still contain many Akkadian loan words) have survived among the Assyrian people from ancient times to this day. (see Assyrian people). However, there have been many claims of ancient mid eastern ancestry (including Assyrian) throughout Europe, Africa (Afrocentric) and even the Americas, none of which have been supported by mainstream opinion or strong evidence, let alone proof. The most long standing and popularised theory has been the attempts to link Assyrian ancestry to the ancient Germans. The Assyria-Germany connection has an early precedent in Jerome, who compared the Germanic invaders of his day to the threats to the Kingdom of Israel described in the Bible, quoting Psalms 83:8, "Assur also is joined with them":[30] The whole country between the Alps and the Pyrenees, between the Rhine and the Ocean, has been laid waste by hordes of Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Allemanni and—alas! for the commonweal!—even Pannonians. For "Assur also is joined with them." The idea has also some backing in German legend, for example the Gesta Treverorum (a 12th century German medieval chronicle) makes Trebeta son of Ninus the founder of Trier.[31] This legend of Trebeta as having founded Trier is also found in Godfrey of Viterbo's Pantheon (1185) and several other German chronicles of the 12th or 13th century, including the works of Sigebert of Gembloux.[32] The legend is also found cited in compendiums of historical sources from later periods, for example Gottfried Leibniz's Scriptures rerum Brunsvicensium (1710) and the Anthologia veterum latinorum epigrammatum et poematum (1835).[33] Like with the West Africa theory, this idea does not have the backing of serious historians, nor contemporary written records of the time in the Near East. There have been no studies or records which show such a link, and it must be pointed out that Ninus and Trebeta were fictional figures, and not historically attested. In addition, there are no traces of Akkadian or Mesopotamian Aramaic in any Germanic Language. According to a single piece recent research, refugees from the collapsed Assyrian Empire claim to have reached the region of Lake Chad and founded the kingdoms of Kanem and Kebbi. Though these refugees claimed the ancestry of Sargon of Akkad, they also contrdictionally claimed ancestry from the Nabopolassar, a Babylonian king of Chaldean extraction who played a major part in the destruction of the Assyrian Empire. From the Medieval Arabic king lists of both African states, allegedly copied from earlier lists in ancient Near Eastern languages it appears that the state founders claimed to be deportees of the Assyrian empire who had fled from Syria and Samaria after the defeat of the Egyptian-Assyrian army at Carchemish in 605 BCE.[34] A counterpoint to this argument would be that neither Samaria nor Syria where these refugees were claimed to have originated from were actually part of Assyria, but were colonies inhabited largely by Hebrews, Nabateans and Arameans respectively. In addition, there is no evidence whatsoever in Assyrian, Babylonian, Median, Persian, Greek or Egyptian records of the time mentioning deportations of Assyrians from their homelands[35] Additionally, the claimants to this ancestry also claim decendancy from Sargon of Akkad (whose dynasty died out over 1500 years before the Assyrian dynasty fell), and from Nabopolassar, who was a Chaldean opposed to Assyria, and not in fact an Assyrian. It must also be pointed out that this theory has not received any support at all from the vast majority of historians or Assyriologists. The Battle of Carchemish was fought about 605 BC between the allied armies of Egypt and Assyria against Babylonia. Background When the Assyrian capital Nineveh was overrun by the Babylonians in 612 BC, the Assyrians moved their capital to Harran. When Harran was captured by the Babylonians in 610 BC, the capital was once again moved, this time to Carchemish, on the Euphrates river. Egypt was allied with the Assyrian king Ashur-uballit II, and marched in 609 BC to his aid against the Babylonians. The Egyptian army of Pharaoh Necho II was delayed at Megiddo by the forces of King Josiah of Judah. Josiah was killed and his army was defeated. The dead body of Josiah was delivered to Jerusalem immediately and buried according to the customs of Judah's kings, near the grave of King David. The Egyptians and Assyrians together crossed the Euphrates and laid siege to Harran, which they failed to re-take. They then retreated to northern Syria. Battle The Egyptians met the full might of the Babylonian army led by Nebuchadnezzar II at Carchemish, where the combined Egyptian and Assyrian forces were destroyed by the Babylonians and the Assyrian Empire collapsed. Results Assyria ceased to exist as an independent power. Egypt retreated and was no longer a significant force in the Ancient Near East. Babylon controlled the territory up to the Wadi of Egypt and after several subsequent reverses Pharaoh Necho no longer left Egypt to exert any influence in the affairs of the region.[1] Babylonia reached its economic peak after 605 BC[2] and became the dominant military power in the region, from the Battle of Carchemish until the defeat of Nabonidus at the hands of Cyrus the Persian some sixty-five years later. (See Battle of Opis.) Records of the battle The Jerusalem Chronicle, part of the Babylonian Chronicles, now housed in the British Museum, claim that Nebuchadnezzar "crossed the river to go against the Egyptian army which lay in Karchemiš. They fought with each other and the Egyptian army withdrew before him. He accomplished their defeat and beat them to non-existence. As for the rest of the Egyptian army which had escaped from the defeat so quickly that no weapon had reached them, in the district of Hamath the Babylonian troops overtook and defeated them so that not a single man escaped to his own country. At that time Nebuchadnezzar conquered the whole area of Hamath."[3] The battle is also mentioned and described in the Bible, in the Book of Jeremiah.[4] Notes 1. ^ II Kings 24:7 2. ^ King, Philip J., 1993 Jeremiah: An Archaeological Companion , Westminster/John Knox Press p.22 [1] 3. ^ Chronicle Concerning the Early Years of Nebuchadnezzar II. Retrieved July 18, 2010. 4. ^ The Bible, Jer. 46:3-12 Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Carchemish&oldid=440734317" The Kanem Empire (ca. 600 BCE - 1380 CE) was located in the present countries of Chad, Nigeria and Libya.[1] At its height it encompassed an area covering not only much of Chad, but also parts of southern Libya (Fezzan), eastern Niger and north-eastern Nigeria. The history of the Empire is mainly known from the Royal Chronicle or Dīwān discovered in 1851 by the German traveller Heinrich Barth.[2] Theories about Origins There are two views concerning the foundation of Kanem. The majority view based on previous scholarship is that the state was founded by local Zaghawa. According to recent research by historian Dierk Lange, the Kanem state was founded by immigrants from the Near East, however, due to its novelty this view is not yet widely accepted. State founding by immigrants from the collapsed Assyrian Empire: c. 600 BCE The information contained in the prologue and the first section of the Girgam provides evidence for the founding of Kanem by refugees from the collapsing Assyrian Empire: the names of biblical patriarchs point to Israelites, the names of ancient Mesopotamian kings indicate Babylonian contributions and the names of the last Assyrian kings bear witness of immigration in consequence of the fall of Assyria.[3] The royal titles offered by the Girgam and the origin-chronicles support the idea of mass immigration of various people formerly dominated by the Assyrians in consequence of the destruction of the Assyrian Empire by the invading Babylonian and Median armies in 612 BCE. The theory is further strengthened by linguistic and archeological evidence.[4] Writing in the ninth century, the celebrated Arab historian al- Ya'qubi seems to refer to this migration on the basis of Central Sudanic oral traditions when he describes the dispersion of people from Babylon which led to the foundation of Kanem and other states in West Africa.[5] Another theory proposes that the lost state of Agisymba (mentioned by Ptolemy in the middle of the 2nd century CE) was the antecedent of the Kanem Empire.[6] Dīwān is the Arabic and Girgam is the older designation of the royal chronicle of Kanem-Bornu. The latter name is also used for written historical records in some kingdoms west of Bornu, including Daura, Fika and Mandara. The Dīwān was discovered in 1851 by the German traveller Heinrich Barth in Kukawa, the nineteenth century capital of Bornu.[1] Its "local" name girgam appears to be derived from the Sumero-Akkadian term girginakku ("library, box for written tablets"). Hence its Arabic translation dīwān ("register, collection of written leaves"). [2] It begins with an original list of all the Biblical patriarchs (except one) before Abraham, and it places Sef and Dugu before and after Abraham. The thirteenth century identification of Sef with the pre-Islamic Yemeni hero Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan represents a conscious effort to bring the history of Kanem-Bornu in line with pre-Islamic Arab history.