| Chapter 1: | The Homeland and Origin of the Independent Assyrian Tribes of Tiyari and Hakkari |
|
|
This definition seems to match with that given by the historians of the ancient world and by classical scholars, who define Assyria as the triangle between the two lakes of Van and Urmia and the city of Mosul.3
Earl Percy wrote that the country of the Assyrians, or Nestorians, extended from Bitlis to Mosul along the Tigris River, with the Persian frontier forming its eastern limit along the height of land running from Lake Urmia to Karmanshah.4 An Assyrian writer defined the country between the mountains in the north, the Euphrates in the west, and the Zagros in the east as the region where the Assyrians had lived in large numbers for ages.5 Etheridge stated that “the region principally inhabited by them has been the mountain country in the interior of Assyria, a district they have possessed for ages as an independent people though subject to frequent collisions with the Nomadic tribes of Koordistan”.6
The country of the independent tribes occupied the upper valley of the Zab River. More accurately, the Zab with its tributaries runs throughout the country of Tiyari and Hakkari, dividing it into two halves.7 Both Upper and Lower Tiyari lay on the western bank, while other provinces known as Hakkari lay on the east side and contained the lands of the independent tribes of Tekhoma, Baz, Jelu, and Diz located near the border of Persian Azerbaijan. The district of Julamerk-Kochanis, which was the centre of these provinces, was a short way northwest of Zab. The mountain ranges of Jabal Tur Abdin overlooked the western border, while Persian Azerbaijan adjoined the eastern border. To the north, the country reached as far as the immediate district south of Lake Van. Ainsworth mentioned that the Tura (mountain) of Matineh defined the country on the west.8
During the first part of the nineteenth century, this country was known as Tiyari and Hakkari. After Turkish authority was established over the whole region (1831–1847), a new administrative regulation of 1868 created the Sanjaq of Hakkari, which was later subject to further regula-tions and amendments.9