Muslim Assyrians

The Assyrian people have been subject to Islamisation since the 7th century Muslim conquests. Some of them have been fully Arabized, while a small number retains elements of Assyrian ethnic identity::"A small minority of the Assyrians, around 1%, has converted to Islam, but remains Assyrian in culture and language...The flag of the Muslim Assyrian minority is a vertical tricolor of violet, yellow and green, bearing a white crescent moon and five-pointed star on the upper hoist."Minahan, James (1996). "Nations Without States: A Historical Dictionary of Contemporary National Movements". Greenwood Press, p. 247f.

Arabic-speaking Muslims known as "Mhalmoye" or "Mhallami" from the Tur Abdin region may originally have been converted from Syriac Orthodoxy to Islam during the sixteenth century.Cite web| author=Kalan Müzik | date=2003 online | title="Syriac Culture" | work=Kalan.com | url=http://www.kalan.com/scripts/Dergi/Dergi.asp?t=3&yid=9392 | archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20030929053902/http://www.kalan.com/scripts/Dergi/Dergi.asp?t=3&yid=9392 | archivedate=2003-09-29 (cf. Hamshenis, Greek Muslims, Pomaks, Torbesh, Gorani). Culture from their pre-Islamic period survived, such as the appearance of the cross otherwise considered to be a decoration based on a flower. [ [http://sor.cua.edu/Pub/StephenGriffith/VisitSETurkeyOct1999.html "A Fourth Visit to Tur Abdin and SE Turkey"] [http://sor.cua.edu/Pub/StephenGriffith/VisitSETurkeyMay2001.html "Tur Abdin - A Report of a Visit to SE Turkey in May 2001"] ]

References

ee also

*Arabization