Out with the old Neo-Assyrian Empire, in with the new

On May 12, Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq loaded the Maryam Khatoon Mosque with TNT and obliterated the Ottoman-era heritage site out of existence. Despite the long list of atrocities committed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria over the past years, there is something particularly gut wrenching about watching the destruction of ancient antiquities. In the campaign to wipe out such culture, no demolition was as heart-breaking, nor revealing, as the desecration of the 3,000-year-old Assyrian cities of Nimrud, Khorsabad, and Hatra- all inside the ISIS stronghold of Nineveh, the former crown jewel of the Neo-Assyrian empire.

Although scores of priceless artifacts have disappeared under the rubble of ISIS’s destructive path, we can at least take solace in the fact that history tends to repeat itself; both in the destruction of Mesopotamian society and its eventual rebirth. One doesn’t have to look deep into historical records to understand the eerie and ironic similarities between ISIS and former Levant strong-men, the Neo-Assyrians.

{mosads}The Neo-Assyrian Empire, which reached its peak approximately 2,000 years ago, claimed jurisdiction over roughly the same territory as ISIS’s self proclaimed Caliphate, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. While many empires have grown and withered in the Middle East, the Neo-Assyrians stand out as a particularly brutal people. As German archaeologist Erika Bleibtreu writes, “Assyrian national history, as it has been preserved for us in inscriptions and pictures, consists almost solely of military campaigns and battles. It is as gory and bloodcurdling a history as we know.”

Under the Neo-Assyrian Empire, as is currently mirrored by ISIS, women were made slaves, enemies of the regime were beheaded in public spectacle, and cities were forced into military service. Steamrolling through what we know today as Iraq and Syria, the Assyrians wiped out virtually all culture that existed before them- the largest contributing factors as to why we never hear about ISIS destroying ancient artifacts from periods earlier than the Assyrians.

Neo-Assyria’s decline may provide us a glimpse to the Islamic State’s future. Similar to the ISIS signature mantra: “Always expanding, never stopping,” Assyrians considered it a religious duty to expand the empire, watching it grow exponentially in size in its early years. However eventually, due to exhaustive expansion, the empire began to fall at the hands of abused communities under its control. Powerhouse civilizations of the time that felt threatened by Assyrian expansion also contributed to the empire’s decline.

If history repeats itself, the fate of ISIS will be no different. Sunni communities in the northern Nineveh and Anbar provinces who once embraced the Islamic State now scream for liberation by the central government after suffering through tactics of heavy taxation, extortion, beheadings, and conscription. In Mosul, the area which served as the epicenter of both the Assyrian and Islamic State, growing resistance brigades like the Free Officers Movement, have killed several high ranking ISIS officers over the past months, disrupting leadership and compelling the diversion of offensive fighters back toward the city for municipal police work.

While the Babylonians and Iranic peoples (Medes, Persians and Parthians) were Neo-Assyria’s greatest foes, the destruction of the Empire was desired by many nations. Phoenicia and southern Canaan (modern Israel, Jordan, Sinai and Palestine), and local Scythians and Cimmerian communities joined in bringing an end to the nightmarish empire. This parallels today’s Iran aligning with local Iraqi populations- bitter rivals just a decade ago, now fighting on the same side to destroy ISIS. The modern Canaan countries of Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, are also working towards the group’s demise. The Western World and the Gulf nations have similarly begun systematic attempts to dislodge the terrorist group from its northern Nineveh stronghold. Just as the compounding onslaught from a myriad of enemies resulted in the destruction of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, so to may ISIS share the same fate.

When future generations look upon the ashes and rubble of the Islamic State it will be no different then when we look on the wreckage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire today. Gazing at the ruins of Nimrud, Hatra and Khorsabad, it’s important to remember that ISIS’s tactics are nothing new in the land between two rivers.

Balshan is an intelligence analyst at the Levantine Group, a Middle East-based geopolitical risk and research consultancy.