Beth Nahrain

Beth Nahrain is the Syriac-language name for the region that Greek-derived usage calls Mesopotamia. The Syriac phrase means home of the two rivers, and it points to the lands between and around the Euphrates and Tigris and their tributaries, not only the strip literally between them. The area roughly takes in almost all of present-day Iraq, parts of southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and, in more recent usage, northeastern Syria. The Assyrians, also called Syriacs, Arameans or Chaldeans, are regarded as the indigenous people of the region, and they speak varieties of Neo-Aramaic that differ by locality. Other groups living there include Arabs, Armenians, Mandaeans, Yazidis, Turkmen, Persians, Kurds and Turks. The name is attested from the Neo-Assyrian period, while the Greek name Mesopotamia was coined later, in the Seleucid era. Today the term is also used by Assyrian political and military organizations that claim it as the name of an autonomous Assyrian homeland.