Thursday, July 15, 2004
Sumerians
There were numerous civilizations in ancient Iraq and most of those magnificent civilizations were built by Semites who came to Iraq from the south – the Arabian Peninsula.
However, the very first of those civilizations (believed by most historians to be the earliest of mankind) was built by a different race - the Sumerians.
The Sumerians were definitely not Semitic. No one knows where those people originally came from… and they were not preserved as a people after their brilliant civilizations, which lasted for a couple of thousand years, withered.
The main point here is that the Semites and the Sumerians are two very distinctly different races.
Arabs are Semites! [For decades, it was always a constant source of amusement for Arabs to be branded as anti-Semitic by European and American media!]. The largest tribe in the marshes of Iraq is called "Bani Assad". They are of "undisputed" Arab descent!
***
It was the summer of 1985. The Iraq-Iran war was still raging fiercely. I had a chance to spend some time in the marshes of Iraq – near the area where ancient Sumer existed.
One day, I noticed a young boy around 15 years old hovering around us in his little reed-and-tar canoe which he handled with the same ease an American teenager would handle his skates.
I asked him what his tribe was and he proudly replied in the local dialect "Bani Issad".
The odd thing was that his facial features were the embodiment of everything that characterized those ancient Sumerians.
Ever since then, whenever the Sumerians are mentioned, an image of that young boy comes to my mind. In that young boy, I feel that ancient Sumer lives on... unaware of its own sacred antiquity!
However, the very first of those civilizations (believed by most historians to be the earliest of mankind) was built by a different race - the Sumerians.
The Sumerians were definitely not Semitic. No one knows where those people originally came from… and they were not preserved as a people after their brilliant civilizations, which lasted for a couple of thousand years, withered.
The main point here is that the Semites and the Sumerians are two very distinctly different races.
Arabs are Semites! [For decades, it was always a constant source of amusement for Arabs to be branded as anti-Semitic by European and American media!]. The largest tribe in the marshes of Iraq is called "Bani Assad". They are of "undisputed" Arab descent!
***
It was the summer of 1985. The Iraq-Iran war was still raging fiercely. I had a chance to spend some time in the marshes of Iraq – near the area where ancient Sumer existed.
One day, I noticed a young boy around 15 years old hovering around us in his little reed-and-tar canoe which he handled with the same ease an American teenager would handle his skates.
I asked him what his tribe was and he proudly replied in the local dialect "Bani Issad".
The odd thing was that his facial features were the embodiment of everything that characterized those ancient Sumerians.
Ever since then, whenever the Sumerians are mentioned, an image of that young boy comes to my mind. In that young boy, I feel that ancient Sumer lives on... unaware of its own sacred antiquity!
# posted by Abu Khaleel @ 4:10 PM 
