A Collection of Writings on Assyrians

FOREWORD In the following pages, Tomas Beth-Avdalla has framed the work of the most prolific Assyrian writer and activist of the 20th century, David Basrum Keshish Perley. Beth-Avdalla has compiled not only some of the most significant known and accessible publications of Perley including articles and speeches, but more importantly through painstaking research and fortitude, found many of his personal memoirs and musings. Perley’s writings are central to a more complete understanding of Assyrian intellectual history in the United States; a subject entirely overlooked by scholarship, and indeed largely by the Assyrian community itself. In the midst of a highly volatile time for the Middle East, particularly for indigenous and minority communities like the Assyrians, who due to a variety of reasons including simple negligence have also become increasingly sectarianized/balkanized both of their own volition due to religious/ecclesiastical politics and antiquated notions of belonging but also as a happenstance of the reemerging sectarianism in the region, Perley’s sagacity may be able to generate an important societal impact. (...) The term Assyrian is one single unity. The approach of this oneness of all Assyrians regardless of their religious adherence, is through the avenue of blood, and through the majesty of common memories. It is those common memories that Beth-Avdalla has reminded the reader of in the following pages. In some fashion the work has taken on the collective consciousness of a dispossessed community in the 20th century. Throughout his life, David Perley was a tireless pursuer of truths and justice. Despite what he experienced during the 1914-1918 Assyrian genocide while still a child in Harput, Ottoman Empire, he remained committed to the preservation and protection of his culture and identity rather than the destruction of those who had committed the terrible deeds against he and his brethren. In fact his meditations echo a sense of hope in the midst of tragedy, and also true grit from his pursuit of high education to his practice of law and continued focus on his community. In his later years, David Perley was almost as active as in those periods following the creation of the Assyrian American National Federation, a response to the Simele Massacre of Assyrians in Iraq in 1933. Intellectually he challenged Western scholarship’s focus on aspects of brutality in ancient Mesopotamian something highlighted by ancient historians such as J. Arnold Toynbee, citing the iniquitousness of framing his ancestors as the progenitors of violence, while forgetting the callousness of acts of barbarism and cultural extermination (never seen in Assyria) in ancient Rome, Israel, in European kingdoms, under the Mongols and Ottomans and elsewhere. Perhaps in his most striking academic dispute, Perley challenged the celebrated Assyriologist Adolf Leo Oppenheim, to a public debate following his inflammatory comments in the November 31, 1972 Wall Street Journal questioning the legitimacy of the lineage of Assyrians. To Perley’s dismay, Oppenheim never conceded to hold this debate. Despite being the preeminent writer and defender of his ancestral culture and its rights in the English language, Perley has remained underappreciated by the contemporary community, and as such less and less is known about his life’s work, philosophy, and activism. Of his more famous quotations, “The Soul of Assyria is spiritual through and through, and not material, and that which is spiritual is coexistent with Eternity” indeed few are aware, and has been relegated to an epithet on tombstones of an early generation of Assyrians. Other articles contained in this compilation include many writings regarding David Perley written by friends, colleagues, and confidants speak to his influence. Finally, the inclusion of historical photographs coupled with candid letters and conversations, allow Perley the man to come to life amidst the story of Perley the philosopher, lawyer, and tireless activist. It is with great pleasure that I write this foreword in tribute to one of the most influential Americans of Assyrian and Middle Eastern descent of the 20th century. Sargon George Donabed Associate Professor of History Roger Williams University