Editing Assyria (section)

== Nomenclature ==
In the [[Old Assyrian period]], when Assyria was merely a city-state centered on the city of [[Assur]], the state was typically referred to as ''ālu Aššur'' ("city of [[Ashur (god)|Ashur]]"). From the time of its rise as a territorial state in the 14th century BC and onward, Assyria was referred to in official documents as ''māt Aššur'' ("land of Ashur"), marking its shift to being a regional polity. The first attested use of the term ''māt Aššur'' is during the reign of [[Ashur-uballit I]] ({{Circa}} 1363–1328 BC), who was the first king of the [[Middle Assyrian Empire]].{{Sfn|Aissaoui|2018|p=22}} Both ''ālu Aššur'' and ''māt Aššur'' derive from the name of the Assyrian national deity Ashur.{{Sfn|Maul|2017|p=344}} Ashur probably originated in the Early Assyrian period as a deified personification of Assur itself.{{Sfn|Lambert|1983|pp=82–85}} In the Old Assyrian period the deity was considered the formal king of Assur; the actual rulers only used the style ''Išši'ak'' ("governor").{{Sfn|Lewy|1971|p=754}}{{Sfn|Radner|2015|p=3}} From the time of Assyria's rise as a territorial state, Ashur began to be regarded as an embodiment of the entire land ruled by the Assyrian kings.{{Sfn|Maul|2017|p=344}}

The modern name "Assyria" is of Greek origin,{{Sfn|Tamari|2019|p=113}} derived from Ασσυρία (''Assuría''). The term's first attested use is during the time of the ancient Greek historian [[Herodotus]] (5th century BC). The Greeks called the Levant "[[Name of Syria|Syria]]" and Mesopotamia "Assyria", even though the local population, both at that time and well into the later Christian period, used both terms interchangeably to refer to the entire region.{{Sfn|Tamari|2019|p=113}} It is not known whether the Greeks began referring to Mesopotamia as "Assyria" because they equated the region with the Assyrian Empire, long fallen by the time the term is first attested, or because they named the region after the people who lived there, the Assyrians.{{Sfn|Rollinger|2006|p=284}} Because the term is so "[[Name of Syria|similar to Syria]]", scholars have been examining since the 17th century whether the two terms are connected. And because, in sources predating the Greek ones, the shortened form "Syria" is attested as a synonym for Assyria, notably in [[Luwian language|Luwian]] and [[Aramaic]] texts from the time of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, modern scholars overwhelmingly support the conclusion that the names are connected.{{Sfn|Rollinger|2006|pp=285–287}}

Both "Assyria" and the contraction, "Syria," are ultimately derived from the Akkadian ''Aššur''.{{Sfn|Rollinger|2006|pp=283–287}} Following the decline of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the subsequent empires that held dominion over the Assyrian lands adopted distinct appellations for the region, with a significant portion of these names also being rooted in ''Aššur''. The [[Achaemenid Empire]] referred to Assyria as ''Aθūrā'' ("Athura").{{sfn|Parpola|2004|p=18}} The [[Sasanian Empire]] inexplicably referred to [[Lower Mesopotamia]] as [[Asoristan]] ("land of the Assyrians"),{{sfn|Widengren|1986|pp=785–786}} though the northern province of [[Adiabene|Nōdšīragān]], which included much of the old Assyrian heartland, was also sometimes called ''Atūria'' or ''Āthōr''.{{sfn|Marciak|2017|p=416}} In Syriac, Assyria was and is referred to as ''ʾĀthor''.{{Sfn|Butts|2017|p=600}}