Editing Assyria (section)

=== Ancient Assyrian religion ===
{{main|Ancient Mesopotamian religion|Ashur (god)}}
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| image1 = Nimrud - emblem of the god Ashur.png
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| footer = Three symbols of the god [[Ashur (god)|Ashur]], from reliefs at [[Nimrud]]
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}}Knowledge of the ancient [[Polytheism|polytheistic]] Assyrian religion, referred to as "Ashurism" by some modern Assyrians,{{sfn|BetGivargis-McDaniel|2007|p=7}} is mostly limited to state cults given that little can be ascertained of the personal religious beliefs and practices of the common people of ancient Assyria.{{Sfn|Bedford|2009|p=35}} The Assyrians worshipped the same pantheon of gods as the Babylonians in southern Mesopotamia.{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=54}} The chief Assyrian deity was the national deity Ashur.{{Sfn|Lambert|1983|p=83}}{{Sfn|Lewy|1971|p=763}} Though the deity and the ancient capital city are commonly distinguished by modern historians through calling the god Ashur and the city Assur, both were inscribed in the exact same way in ancient times (''Aššur''). In documents from the preceding Old Assyrian period, the city and god are often not clearly differentiated, which suggests that Ashur originated sometime in the Early Assyrian period as a deified personification of the city itself.{{Sfn|Lambert|1983|pp=82–85}}

Below Ashur, the other Mesopotamian deities were organized in a hierarchy, with each having their own assigned roles (the sun-god [[Shamash]] was for instance regarded as a god of justice and Ishtar was seen as a goddess of love and war) and their own primary seats of worship ([[Ninurta]] was for instance primarily worshipped at Nimrud and Ishtar primarily at Arbela). Quintessentially Babylonian deities such as [[Enlil]], [[Marduk]], and [[Nabu]] were worshipped in Assyria just as much as in Babylonia, and several traditionally Babylonian rituals, such as the ''[[akitu]]'' festival, were borrowed in the north.{{Sfn|Bedford|2009|p=35}}

Ashur's role as the chief deity was flexible and changed with the changing culture and politics of the Assyrians themselves. In the Old Assyrian period, Ashur was mainly regarded as a god of death and revival, related to agriculture.{{sfn|Breasted|1926|p=164}}{{Sfn|James|1966|p=42}} Under the Middle and Neo-Assyrian Empire, Ashur's role was expanded and thoroughly altered. Possibly originating as a reaction to the period of suzerainty under the Mittani kingdom, Middle Assyrian theology presented Ashur as a god of war, who bestowed the Assyrian kings not only with divine legitimacy, something retained from the Old Assyrian period, but also commanded the kings to enlarge Assyria ("the land of Ashur") with Ashur's "just scepter", i.e. expand the Assyrian Empire through military conquest.{{Sfn|Fales|2017|p=402}}

This militarization of Ashur might also have derived from the Amorite conqueror Shamshi-Adad I equating Ashur with the southern Enlil during his rule over northern Mesopotamia in the 18th and 17th centuries BC. In the Middle Assyrian period, Ashur is attested with the title "king of the gods", a role previous civilizations in both northern and southern Mesopotamia ascribed to Enlil.{{Sfn|Maul|2017|p=342}} The development of equating Ashur with Enlil, or at least transferring Enlil's role to Ashur, was paralleled in Babylon, where the previously unimportant local god [[Marduk]] was elevated in the reign of [[Hammurabi]] (18th century BC) to the head of the pantheon, modelled after Enlil.{{Sfn|Maul|2017|pp=343–344}}

Assyrian religion was centered in temples, monumental structures that included a central shrine which housed the cult statue of the temple's god, and several subordinate chapels with space for statues of other deities. Temples were typically self-contained communities; they had their own economic resources, chiefly in the form of land holdings, and their own hierarchically organized personnel. In later times, temples became increasingly dependent on royal benefits, in the shape of specific taxes, offerings and donations of booty and tribute. The head of a temple was titled as the "chief administrator" and was responsible to the Assyrian king since the king was regarded to be Ashur's representative in the mortal world. Records from temples showcase that divination in the form of astrology and [[extispicy]] (studying the entrails of dead animals) were important parts of the Assyrian religion since they were believed to be means through which deities communicated with the mortal world.{{Sfn|Bedford|2009|p=35}}

Unlike many other ancient empires, the Neo-Assyrian Empire did at its height not impose its culture and religion on conquered regions; there were no significant temples built for Ashur outside of northern Mesopotamia.{{Sfn|Frahm|2017b|p=180}} In the post-imperial period, after the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the Assyrians continued to venerate Ashur and the rest of the pantheon,{{Sfn|Radner|2015|p=19}} though without the Assyrian state, religious beliefs in many parts of the Assyrian heartland diverged and developed in different directions.{{Sfn|Haider|2008|p=200}} From the time of Seleucid rule over the region (4th to 2nd century BC) onward, there was a strong influence of the [[ancient Greek religion]], with many Greek deities becoming syncretized with Mesopotamian deities.{{Sfn|Haider|2008|p=202}} There was also some influence of [[Judaism]], given that the kings of [[Adiabene]], a vassal kingdom covering much of the old Assyrian heartland, converted to Judaism in the 1st century AD.{{sfn|Marciak|Wójcikowski|2016|p=80}}

In the 1st century BC onward, as a frontier region between the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] and the [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] empires, Assyria was likely highly religiously complex and diverse.{{sfn|Hauser|2017|p=238}} Under Parthian rule, both old and new gods were worshipped at Assur.{{Sfn|Haider|2008|p=194}} As late as the time of the city's second destruction in the 3rd century AD, the most important deity was still Ashur, known during this time as ''Assor''{{Sfn|Radner|2015|p=19}} or ''Asor''.{{Sfn|Hauser|2017|p=240}} Worship of Ashur during this time was carried out in the same way as it had been in ancient times, per a cultic calendar effectively identical to that used under the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] 800 years prior.{{Sfn|Parpola|2004|p=20}} The ancient Mesopotamian religion persisted in some places for centuries after the end of the post-imperial period, such as at Harran until at least the 10th century (the [[Sabians#Sabians of Harran|"Sabians" of Harran]]) and at [[Mardin]] until as late as the 18th century (the ''[[Shamsīyah]]'').{{sfn|Parpola|2004|p=21}}