3. Syrians of Kurdistan or Kaldani.
Physical appearance of the Kaldani.—Mountaineers, with fair complexions, grey eyes, and reddish beard.
Religion of—a. The ancient Syrians, chiefly Nestorian Christianity. b. Of the Kaldani, the same.
Pantheon of the Pagan Syrians.—Thammuz, Rimmon, &c.
Languages.—1. Syriac of Syria. 2. Chaldee of Mesopotamia. 3. Kaldani of Kurdistan.
The Syrian influence as an element of civilization has, probably, been undervalued. It was through the Syriac that two contiguous nations received much of their knowledge of what was to be learned from Greece, the Armenian and the Arabian; the latter, whose civilizational influence has been proportionately over-rated, being in many cases translators of Syriac translations rather than students of the original Greek.
More important still was the propagandism of the Nestorian Christians in the direction of Central and Eastern Asia. Without hazarding an opinion as to the extent to which their teaching may be the real epoch of the civilization of the Chinese, the fact of the Uzbek Turk alphabet, itself the prototype of the Manchu, being Syrian, is a pregnant one. The alphabet of Palmyra is the alphabet of the wall of China.
ASSYRIANS.
Area.—Assyria, east of the Tigris.