ABSTRACT
This chapter is largely a linear trajectory of the Assyrian predicament in the Middle East, as a case in point, a litmus test for threatened communities, illuminating patterns of hostility, dispossession, and displacement, but also perseverance, strength, and hope amidst peril. It approaches Assyrians as an indigenous and transnational society with the promise of creating a model that can be used for analyzes of similar communities around the globe. This approach undoes forms of violence against the community by making its history larger than the nation-state and dominant narrative. From ancient Arba'ilu to Arbela during the Christian period in the ecclesiastical province of Adiabene between the fifth and the fifteenth centuries AD, the presence and culture of the people of upper Mesopotamia endures through to the modern day. Their language and material culture constitute one of the oldest continuous traditions in the Middle East.
