An Assyrian house in the Tyari, fromThe Assyrians and their Rituals (1852), vol. I, p. 216
Tyari[a] (Syriac:ܛܝܵܪܹܐ,romanized: Ṭyārē)[1][2] is anAssyriantribe and a historical district withinHakkari,Turkey. The area was traditionally divided into Upper Tyari (Tyari Letha[3]) and Lower Tyari (Tyari Khtetha[3])–each consisting of several Assyrian villages. Both Upper and Lower Tyari are located on the western bank of theZab river.[4] Today, the district mostly sits in around the town ofÇukurca.[5][6][7] Historically, the largest village of the region was known asAshitha.[8] According to Hannibal Travis the Tyari Assyrians were known for their skills in weaving and knitting.[5]
Before 1915, Tyari was home to Assyrians from theBet Tyari tribe as well as a minority ofKurds andArmenians. Following theAssyrian genocide,Ṭyārāyē, along with other Assyrians residing in the Hakkari highlands, were forced to leave their villages in southeast Anatolia and fled to join their fellow Assyrian brethren in modern-day northernIraq[9] (Sarsink,[10]Sharafiya,[11] Chammike[12] and various villages in theNahla valley[13]), northeasternSyria (Tel Tamer[14] andAl Hasakah),Armenia,Georgia and, from the late 20th century, to western countries. The Tyari tribe was, according toRobert Elliot Speer, one of the Assyrian "ashirets".[9] In 1869 there were 15,000 Tyari Assyrians living in 2,500 houses in the Tyari district according toJohn George Taylor in a report to theEarl of Clarendon.[15] The Tyari Assyrians lived across 51 different villages and constituted 50,000 members - making it the most powerful among the semi-independentAssyrian tribes.[16] The Tyari district is located in the boundaries of the ancient Neo-Assyrian kingdom ofAdiabene.[17]
It is worth particular notice that the most central parts of this region are, and have been from time immemorial, entirely inhabited by the Nestorians, to the exclusion of every other class of people. A great part of the Independent tribes ofTiari [Tiyari] and the whole of the tribes of Tekhoma, Bass, Jelu and other smailer tribes, are included in the boundaries of Adiabene.
— Asahel Grant, "The Nestorians, Or, the Lost Tribes",[18] (1841)
Tyari may be a variation of the ancient "Autiyara" (Assyria). American historianAlbert T. Olmstead describes in his workHistory of the Persian Empire how thePersian GeneralVaumisa wins a battle in the Autiyara districts located in Tyari and mentions that this is whereAssyrian Christians maintained independence until modern times.[19]
InSyriac, the wordṭyārē (ܛܝܪ̈ܐ) is the plural form ofṭyārā, meaning "sheepfold" or "grazing area".[1] Indeed, the Assyrians of Tyari were renowned even amongst neighboring Kurds andArmenians for theiryogurt,cheese and other dairy products mostly made fromsheep orgoat's milk. They were also famous for theirtextiles,[5] which again were spun and woven from sheep's wool. They also made woolen felt for their characteristic conical caps, a style dating back to theAssyrian Empire.[20]
One of the reasons the Assyrians of Tyari were able to stay independent for so long despite being significantly outnumbered by Turks, Kurds and Arab Muslims was their fighting ability. The Assyrians of Tyari were especially known for being a fierce, warlike people. It was said that they were the best fighters in West Asia, along with the Assyrian tribe ofTkhuma.[21] Their Muslim neighbors stated that in order to stand a chance they needed to outnumber the Assyrians of Tyari or Tkhuma five to one, and have superior modern weapons.[22] Assyrians of Tyari used much older weaponry and manufactured their own weapons and ammunition.[22]
In 1834 the leader of theSoran EmirateMuhammad Pasha ofRawanduz tried to subdue theAssyrians of Lower Tyari, but suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the vastly outnumbered Assyrians. They then chased the Kurds and Turks back to Amadiya.[23] This defeat played a major role in the collapse of the Soran Emirate.[24][23][25][26]
In 1844,Kurds from the Chull region seized fifty sheep from the Nestorian settlement of Matha’d Kasra. Shortly afterward,Bedirhan Bey dispatched three hundred men to Berawola, where they took 1,050 more sheep. As a result of these raids, only a small number of livestock remained in the Tiyari region. During their travels through the mountains, the missionaries Smith andLaurie passed a village that had been attacked byKurds at midnight the previous day.[27]
In 1880,Ubeydullah's militia, with the support of mercenaries from the Tyari tribe, invaded the northwestern Kurdish territories ofQajar dynasty in attempt to expand his control.[28]
In 1907 the Ottomans sent troops to Hakkari to stop fighting between the Assyrians of Tyari and Kurds. The Ottoman troops were successful in subduing the Kurds. The Assyrians of Tyari, however, defeated them and the Ottomans wererouted and had their weapons seized.[29]
In 1915, theAssyrian tribesof Lower and Upper Tyari were attacked by Ottoman troops fromMosul under Vali Haydar Bey, supported by Kurdish irregulars. At the same time, the kaymakam of Djulemerk and theArtosh Kurds launched an assault on Upper Tyari. TheAssyrians were forced to abandon their valleys, seeking refuge in higher mountains and later in Persia, where many perished en route. Rashid Bey of Barwari Bala was noted for his particular violence during this campaign, devastating Lower Tyari and murdering Malik Yosip, the father ofMalik Khoshaba.[30]
Following theAssyrian Genocide ofWorld War One which began in 1915, the Tyareh tribe, along with all other Assyrians took part in theAssyrian War of Independence against the offendingOttoman Empire and their Kurdish and Arab allies, allying themselves with theBritish,Russians andArmenians (victims of theArmenian Genocide). The Tyareh, underMalik Khoshaba took part in scoring a number of notable victories against the Ottomans and Kurds despite being heavily outnumbered and outgunned. However Following the Russian withdrawal after theRussian Revolution in 1917 and the collapse of Armenian lines the Tyareh and other northern Assyrian tribes were forced to fight their way to British lines in Northern Mesopotamia and Northern Persia.
In the early 1930s, the Assyrians consisting mainly of Tyarayeh and Tkhoumnayeh successfully defeated the Iraqi army inDairabun killing 33 and wounding 40, including three officers, while the Assyrians suffered significantly less losses. The Iraqis were armed with modern weapons and attack planes given to them by the British, while the Assyrians were only equipped with old rifles.[31]
In the 1930s, the Iraqis admitted that one Assyrian soldier was equal to three Arab soldiers and saw the Assyrians as a huge threat to Iraq militarily if Assyrians went against the British.[32]
The dialect of Tyari belongs to the Ashiret group, along with the dialects of e.g.Tkhuma andBaz, of theNortheastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) dialects.[33] LikeJīlū, the Tyari dialect is a very distinctAssyrian Neo-Aramaic dialect. Unlike theJilu,Baz andGawar dialects (which are very similar to each other), this one is more "thick". It is, in a way, a sort of a "working class" accent of the Assyrian dialects. Dialects within Tyari, and especially the Western group, have more in common withChaldean Neo-Aramaic than with Iraqi Koine (similar to General Urmian). The Tyari dialect is divided into two main sub-dialects; upper Tyari and lower Tyari.[34]
Many Tyari speakers can switchback and forth from Tyari to "Assyrian Standard" (or "Iraqi Koine") when conversing with Assyrian speakers of other dialects. Some speakers tend to adopt a form of verb conjugation that is closer to the Iraqi Koine or Urmian Standard. This is attributed to the growing exposure to Assyrian Standard-based literature, media, and its use as aliturgical language by theAssyrian Church of the East. Furthermore, it is customary forAssyrian artists to generally sing inIraqi Koine for them to be intelligible and have widespread recognition. Songs in Tyari dialects are usually of thefolk-dance music genre and would attract certain audiences.[35]
Althoughpossessive affixes (beti - "my house") are more convenient and common among Assyrian speakers, those with Tyari and Barwari dialects take a moreanalytic approach regarding possession, just like modern Hebrew and English.[42]
"The view down stream from the mouth of the Ori valley, a little above Tal. The distant snow peak is Ghara Dagh on the southern side ofTkhuma."Assyrian church of St. George in Lizan, Lower Tyare.
Assyrian fighter in the 1890s from the Tyari tribe.
About the national dress worn by the Tyari men in the Bakuba camp, Brigadier-General Austin wrote; "Fine upstanding fellows they are, ...their legs, encased in long loose baggy trousers of a greyish hue originally, but so patched all over with bits of blue, red, green and other colors that their pants are veritable patch work. A broad cloth, "Kammar band," or waist band, is folded several times round the trunk of the body, and a short cut-away jacket of amazing colors, worn over a thin cotton variegated shirt. The head-dress consists of conical felt cap as depicted in frescoes of Assyrians of thousands of years ago, and which has survived to this day."[46]
"Among them are a number of Tyari men, whose wild looks, combined with the splendour of their dress and arms, are a great interest. […] Their jackets are one mass of gold embroidery (worked by Jews), their shirts, with hanging sleeves, are striped with satin, their trousers, of sailor cut, are silk, made from the cocoons of their own silkworms, woven with broad crimson stripes on a white ground, on which is a zigzag pattern; and their handsome jack-boots are of crimson leather. With they white or red peaked fell hats and twisted silk pagris, their rich girdles, jewelled daggers, and inlaid pistols, they are very imposing."[47]
Isabella L. Bird wrote in her work "Journeys In Persia And Kurdistan" about a Tyari man wearing a white conical cap.
On his head, where one would have expected to see a college “trencher”, was a high conical cap of white felt with apagri of black silk twisted into a rope, the true Tyari turban.
^abMaclean, Arthur John (1895).Grammar of the Dialects of Vernacular Syriac. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 241.
^Payne Smith, Robert (1879–1901).Thesaurus Syriacus (in Latin). Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1464.
^abOdisho, Edward Y. (1988).The sound system of modern Assyrian (Neo-Aramaic). Harrassowitz. p. 21.ISBN3-447-02744-4.OCLC18465409.
^Aboona, Hirmis (2008).Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans : intercommunal relations on the periphery of the Ottoman Empire. Cambria Press. p. 2.ISBN978-1-62499-167-7.OCLC819325565.
^Aboona, Hirmis (2008).Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans : intercommunal relations on the periphery of the Ottoman Empire. Cambria Press. p. 18.ISBN978-1-62499-167-7.OCLC819325565.
^Grant, Asahel (1841).The Nestorians. New York, Harper & brothers. p. 165.
^Olmstead, Albert T. (1970).History of the Persian Empire. University of Chicago Press. p. 114.On June 11 Vaumisa won his own second victory in the district Autiyara in the Tiyari Mountains, where until our own day the "Assyrian" Christians maintained a precarious independence.
^Layard, Austen Henry, 1817-1894. (1858).Nineveh and Its Remains. Appleton. p. 194.OCLC12578949.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^abcdTalay, Shabo (2008).The Neo-Aramaic Dialects of the Tiyari Assyrians in Syria: With Special Attention to Their Phonological Characteristics. Gorgias Press. p. 47.
^abYonan, Gabriele (1996).Lest we perish : a forgotten Holocaust : the extermination of the Christian Assyrians in Turkey and Persia. Peace Palace Library: Assyrian International News Agency. p. 193.OCLC889626846.
^Bird, Isabella L (1891).Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan : including a summer in the Upper Karun region and a visit to the Nestorian rayahs. Cambridge University Press. p. 314.ISBN978-1-108-01470-0.OCLC601117122.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
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