Challenege/WI: Assyria Regains Independence During the Medieval Period

[TickTock The Witch's Dead]

Assyria had been under various foreign powers for a while after the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and never regained its independence ever since.

So right after the year 1000, is it possible for Assyria to regain its independence? At that time the Assyrian population hasn't gone through the genocides that Temur and other horrific warlords inflicted on them, nor have the Kurds began settling on their indigenous lands on a mass-scale yet. So could Assyria be able to regain independence somehow? Could they do it on their own or would it require the help of Christian powers like the Eastern Roman Empire or the Crusader States? Could there even be a crusade from Europe to help the Assyrians?

How big would this new Assyrian state get? Could they conquer all of Mesopotamia? Would such a state also gain parts of OTL Syria (the modern state) and Anatolia? Could they survive the Mongolian invasions and the warlords that would plague the Middle East thereafter? Could they be able to assimilate Muslim/Arab/Kurd/Iranian/Turkic territories into Assyrian culture and nationhood? How would an independent Assyria change the history of the region and that of the world?

 

[TickTock The Witch's Dead]

Posting this map for reference.

 

[Vinization]

Maybe if one of the Crusader States is 'hijacked', so to speak, by the Assyrian population?

 

[Nivek]

o right after the year 1000, is it possible for Assyria to regain its independence?

If they kick out the crusaders and are able to cop out the caliphate, you could see a caliphate doubling as the neo Assyrian Empire.

SCRATH THAT, the Ummayds already where that, the neo-neo Assyrian jundist. In Islamic historiography the Ummayds Kinda where that as their powerbase and most common nucleus where the Junds of Syria alongside the syriacs-arabs

 

[kholieken]

By this time Assyrian had been replaced by Kurdish people. Assyrian/Syriac is used as names by Christian people, but they no longer held the land, had dubious connection to history and culture of old Assyrian people, and militarily powerless.

 

[TickTock The Witch's Dead]

Maybe if one of the Crusader States is 'hijacked', so to speak, by the Assyrian population?

How so? Maybe the Crusaders/Rhomanians create an Assyrian puppet state instead?

If they kick out the crusaders and are able to cop out the caliphate, you could see a caliphate doubling as the neo Assyrian Empire.

SCRATH THAT, the Ummayds already where that, the neo-neo Assyrian jundist. In Islamic historiography the Ummayds Kinda where that as their powerbase and most common nucleus where the Junds of Syria alongside the syriacs-arabs

The Ummayds were Arab though.

By this time Assyrian had been replaced by Kurdish people. Assyrian/Syriac is used as names by Christian people, but they no longer held the land, had dubious connection to history and culture of old Assyrian people, and militarily powerless.

There was still a sizable Assyrian population before the genocides by Temur so it's not too late for a Assyrian state to form.

Though sure there could be debates in an ATL world where people dispute an Assyrian state's claim to Assyrian-ness.

 

[Wendell]

Hard to do without a stronger Byzantine Empire or more successful Crusader States, which are just as likely to deny them a state as to embrace them.

 

[Sarufiyyun]

Have Nawruz's rebellion against Arghun Khan fail. Arghun Khan lives many more years and his son (and successor) Ghazan is raised as a Christian. The former decides to centralize his realm, using the Nestorian Christians to serve as a check on the Turco-Mongol and Persians. Ghazan is given an Assyrian wife to cement this partnership. When the Ilkhanate eventually breaks apart, there is an alt-Mongol successor state based in Mosul that is more Assyrian than Mongolian in character.

 

[TickTock The Witch's Dead]

Hard to do without a stronger Byzantine Empire or more successful Crusader States, which are just as likely to deny them a state as to embrace them.

They could give them a state as the Crusaders established several states. They could even assimilate into Assyrian culture if necessary.

 

[Avalon]

They could give them a state as the Crusaders established several states. They could even assimilate into Assyrian culture if necessary.

Basically, pull a Norman England.

 

[Coyote_Waits]

The Assyrian Church of the East was considered to be Nestorian by other churches, meaning it was strongly heretical. In order for the Crusaders to work with Assyrians their would have to be some significant religious concessions on the part of the Assyrians, but this already presupposes Crusader state(s) an order of magnitude more powerful than OTL. Really Christian Mongols is the only way something like this might happen as late as the Middle Ages. Now roll the clock back to around the time of Mohammed and there are more possibilities.

 

[TickTock The Witch's Dead]

The Assyrian Church of the East was considered to be Nestorian by other churches, meaning it was strongly heretical. In order for the Crusaders to work with Assyrians their would have to be some significant religious concessions on the part of the Assyrians, but this already presupposes Crusader state(s) an order of magnitude more powerful than OTL. Really Christian Mongols is the only way something like this might happen as late as the Middle Ages. Now roll the clock back to around the time of Mohammed and there are more possibilities.

Or maybe the Crusaders could form a desperately needed alliance if possible if it meant preventing Muslim states from getting more powerful.