The speech of the Nestorians is a Syriac dialect in which Persian, Arabic and Kurdish words have found place. Religious services are conducted, however, in the uncontaminated language. The Nestorians call themselves Syrians and refuse to recognize any other appellation. Owing to this fact much confusion has arisen in the minds of travelers who have attempted to describe them.
The Chaldeans
The Chaldeans are racially akin to the Nestorians, with whom they formed a single religious community prior to the seventeenth century. The hope of obtaining relief from Mohammedan persecution induced an important section of the old community to join the church of Rome at that time. In recent years, however, many have forsaken Roman Catholicism and formed a new sect which is known by the name of New Chaldeans. Protestant communities of this people as well as of Nestorians and Jacobites exist.
The Jacobites
The rugged limestone district around Midyad is the home of another mountain people known as the Jacobites. Banded together by the ties of religion they form a community of husbandmen living aloof from their neighbors of divergent religious views. They are described as of warlike nature and independent spirit. Language also differentiates them from other Ottoman groups, a Syriac dialect differing considerably from Nestorian being in use among them.[258] In Turabdin they speak an Aramaic dialect known as Turani. The Jacobites are noted for their aptitude for business. The important colony of traders founded in the eighteenth century in the vicinity of Bagdad owes its origin to the desert traffic and the Indian trade by way of Basra.
This people traces its religious origin to the teachings of Jacobus Baradeus,[259] who, in the middle of the sixth century, traveled through Asia Minor and consolidated scattered groups of Monophysite recusants into a single body. They constituted a large sect during the Middle Ages, but defections, notably in favor of the Roman Church, have thinned their numbers considerably since then. At present they muster hardly more than 15,000 individuals.
The Sabeans
We are still in the dark concerning the history of the Sabeans, a people of Semitic origin who profess Christianity. That they once formed a powerful nation is attested by numerous ruins and inscriptions. This state began to decline in the first century of the Christian era and had completely disappeared by 500 A.D. They call themselves Mendai and are often known by the name of Christians of St. John. The community is small, numbering hardly 3,000 souls, mostly goldsmiths and boatbuilders who ply their trade in the Arab encampments of the Amara and Muntefik sanjaks in the vilayet of Basra. They talk a Semitic dialect and dress like the Arabs, from whom they can scarcely be distinguished. Their original homeland is believed to have been Yemen.
