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[[File:Hormuzd.Rassam.reclined.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Hormuzd Rassam in Mosul c. 1854.]]

'''Hormuzd Rassam''' (1826{{spaced ndash}}16 September 1910) ({{lang-syr|ܗܪܡܙܕ ܪܣܐܡ}}), was a native [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] and [[Christian]] [[Assyriology|Assyriologist]] who made a number of important discoveries from 1877 to 1882, including the [[clay tablet]]s that contained the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', the world's oldest literature. He is accepted as the first-known [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]], [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] and [[Middle Eastern]] [[archaeologist]]. Later in life, he became a [[United Kingdom|British]] citizen, settling in [[Brighton]], and represented its government as a [[diplomat]]. 

==Biography==
===Early life===
Rassam, an ethnic [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]], was born in [[Mosul]], (now modern [[Iraq]]), then part of the [[Ottoman Empire]], into a [[Christian]] family that were members of the [[Assyrian Church of the East]] and [[Chaldean Catholic Church]].<ref name=reade>[http://www.jstor.org/stable/4200366 Julian Reade, "Hormuzd Rassam and His Discoveries"], ''Iraq,'' Vol. 55, (1993), pp. 39-62, Published by: British Institute for the Study of Iraq</ref> His father [[Anton Rassam]] was from Mosul and was archdeacon in the Chaldean Church of the East; his mother Theresa was a daughter of [[Ishaak Halabee]] of [[Aleppo, Syria]], also then within the Ottoman Empire.<ref name="rassam">[http://www.edessa.com/profiles/rasam.htm "Hormuzd Rassam Assyrian Archaeologist 1826-1910"], Edessa</ref> 

===Early archaeological career===
At the age of 20 in 1846, Rassam was hired by British [[archaeologist]] [[Austen Henry Layard|A.H. Layard]] as a pay master at a nearby excavation site. Layard, who was in Mosul on his first expedition (1845–1847), was impressed by the hard-working Rassam and took him under his wing; they would remain friends for life. Layard provided an opportunity for Rassam to travel to [[England]] and study at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] ([[Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen College]]). He studied there for 18 months before accompanying Layard on his second expedition to Iraq (1849–1851).

Layard left archeology to begin a political career. Rassam continued field work (1852–1854) at [[Nimrud]] and [[Kuyunjik]], where he made a number of important and independent discoveries. These included the clay tablets that would later be deciphered by [[George Smith (assyriologist)|George Smith]] as the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', the world's oldest-known example of written literature. The tablets' description of a flood story, written 1000 years prior to the earliest record of the Biblical story of Noah, caused much debate at the time about the Biblical narrative of ancient history.

===Diplomatic career===
Rassam returned to [[England]]. With the help of Layard, he began a new career in government with a posting to the British Consulate in [[Aden]], quickly rising to the post of First Political Resident and facilitating a number of agreements between the British and formerly hostile local community leaders. In 1866, an international crisis arose in [[Ethiopia]] when British [[missionaries]] were taken hostage by Emperor [[Tewodros II of Ethiopia]]. England decided to send Rassam as an ambassador with a message from [[Queen Victoria]] in the hope of resolving the situation peacefully. After being delayed for about a year in [[Massawa]], Rassam at last received permission from the Emperor to enter his realm. Due to rebellions in [[Tigray province|Tigray]], Rassam was forced to follow a circuitous route taking him to [[Kassala]], then to [[Metemma]] along the western shore of [[Lake Tana]], before finally meeting with Emperor Tewodros in northern [[Gojjam]]. At first his effort seemed promising, as the Emperor established him at [[Qorata]], a village on the south-eastern shores of Lake Tana, and sent him numerous gifts. The emperor sent the British consul [[Charles Duncan Cameron]], the missionary [[Henry Aaron Stern]], and the other hostages to his encampment. 

However, about this time [[Charles Tilstone Beke|C.T. Beke]], arrived at [[Massawa]], and forwarded letters from the hostages' families to Tewodros asking for their release. At the least Beke's actions only made Tewodros suspicious.<ref>Alan Moorehead, ''The Blue Nile'', revised edition (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), pp. 232f</ref> Rassam, writing in his memoirs of the incident, is more direct: "I date the change in the King's conduct towards me, and the misfortunes which eventually befell the members of the Mission and the old captives, from this day."<ref>Hormuzd Rassam, [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y4koAAAAYAAJ&dq=Hormuzd+Rassam ''Narrative of the British Mission to Theodore, King of Abyssinia''] (London, 1869), vol. 2 p. 22.</ref> The monarch suddenly changed his mind, and made Rassam a prisoner as well.  The British hostages were held for two years until English and Indian troops under [[Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier|Robert Napier]] in the [[1868 Expedition to Abyssinia]] resolved the standoff by defeating the warlord and his army.<ref>Rassam described his experiences in Ethiopia in his memoir, [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y4koAAAAYAAJ&dq=Hormuzd+Rassam Hormuz Rassam, ''Narrative of the British Mission to Theodore, King of Abyssinia'']. London, 1869. In two volumes.</ref> Rassam's reputation was damaged in newspaper accounts because he was unfairly portrayed as ineffectual in dealing with the emperor. This reflected Victorian prejudices of the time against "Orientals".<ref>Damrosch, David (2006). ''The Buried Book''.</ref> However, Rassam did have supporters, both in the press and especially in Government amongst both Liberal and Tory ministers. In 1869, the London Quarterly Review received Rassam's memoir of the Abyssinian crisis positively, acknowledged Rassam's qualifications for the mission and defended his actions under difficult circumstances: {{quote|text="...it will remove any doubts that may still exist as to the origin of his mission, the wisdom of the selection of its chief, and the manner in which a task of extraordinary difficulty, delicacy, and danger was performed...it [is] shown by Mr. Rassam that two successive Governments should have expressed their entire approval of his conduct Lord Stanley has done, that he is above party of a public officer who has been unjustly attacked and condemned; and in a letter to Mr. Rassam, laid before Parliament, he expressed * the high sense entertained by Her Majesty's Government of his conduct during the difficult and arduous period of his employment under the Foreign Office,' and declared * that he had acted throughout for the best,'and that his prudence, discretion, and good management seem to have tended greatly to preserve the peace.' [and secured] prisoners in the most serious risk...This ample recognition of his services, coming from so high and impartial a quarter, ought to afford ample compensation to Ram for the injustice and cruelty " we might almost say malignity " of the attacks made upon his personal character and his public conduct, both in Parliament and the press, when he was in captivity and unable to reply or to defend himself."|sign=London Quarterly Review|source=1869, pp301-302}} <ref>{{cite journal
| author     =<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> 
| title      = THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.Art. I. Narrative of the British Mission to Theodore King of Abyssinia; with notices of the country traversed from Massowahy through the Sudan, the Amhdra and back to Annesley Bay, Distant from Madgdala. By Hormuzd Rassam, F.R.G.S., First Political Resident at Aden in charge of the Mission. 2 vols. London, 1869.
| url        = http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/The_Quarterly_Review_1000501261/331
| journal    = The Quarterly Review, 1869, pp299-327
| location   = London
| publisher  = Forgotten Books
| date       = 1869
| access-date= 22 March 2015
}}</ref> Queen Victoria presented him with a purse of £5,000 for services rendered as her envoy in the crisis.

Rassam resumed his archaeological work, but did undertake other tasks for the British government in later years.  During the [[Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78|Russo-Turkish War]] (1877-1878), he undertook a mission of inquiry to report on the condition of the [[Assyria]]n, [[Armenians|Armenian]] and [[Greeks|Greek]] [[Christian]] communities of [[Asia Minor]] and [[Armenia]].

===Later archaeological career===
From 1877 to 1882, while undertaking four expeditions on behalf of the British Museum, Rassam made some important discoveries. Numerous finds of significance were transported to the Museum, thanks to an agreement made with the Ottoman Sultan by Rassam's old colleague [[Sir Austen Henry Layard]], now Ambassador at Constantinople, allowing Rassam to return and continue their earlier excavations and to "pack and dispatch to England any antiquities [he] found … provided, however, there were no duplicates." A representative of the Sultan was instructed to be present at the dig to examine the objects as they were uncovered.<ref name="Rassam">[[#Rassam|Rassam (1897)]], p. 223</ref>

In Assyria his chief finds were the Ashurnaçirpal temple in [[Nimrud]], the cylinder of [[Ashurbanipal]] at [[Kouyunjik]], and the unique and historically important bronze doors of the temple of [[Shalmaneser III]]. He identified the famous [[Hanging Gardens]] with the mound known as [[Babil]]. He excavated a palace of [[Nebuchadrezzar II]] at Birs Nimrud ([[Borsippa]]).<ref name="goodspeed"/>

In March 1879 at the site of the Ésagila temple in Babylon, Rassam found the [[Cyrus cylinder]], the famous declaration of [[Cyrus the Great]] that was issued in 539 BC to commemorate the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]]'s conquest of [[Babylon]]. 

At [[Abu Habba]] in 1881, Rassam discovered the temple of the sun at [[Sippar]]. There he found a [[Cylinders of Nabonidus|clay cylinder]] of [[Nabonidus]], and the stone tablet of [[Nabu-apal-iddin]] of Babylon with its ritual bas-relief and inscription. Besides these, he discovered some 50,000 clay tablets containing the temple accounts.<ref name="goodspeed">[http://www.kellscraft.com/HistoryofBabylonians/HistoryOfBabyloniansCh01.html Goodspeed, George Stephen (1902). Chapter 2, "The Excavations in Babylonia and Assyria"], ''A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians'', New York. Charles Scribner's Sons, Accessed April 4, 2011.</ref>

After 1882, Rassam lived mainly at [[Brighton]], England. He wrote about Assyro-Babylonian exploration, the [[Christian]] peoples of the [[Near East]], and current religious controversies in [[England]].

===Archeaological reputation===
Rassam's discoveries attracted worldwide attention. The Italian Royal Academy of Sciences at [[Turin]] awarded him the Brazza prize of 12,000 francs for the four years from 1879 to 1882. He was elected as a fellow of the [[Royal Geographical Society]], the Society of Biblical Archaeology, and the [[Victoria Institute]].

Sir Henry Rawlinson, one of the trustees of the British Museum at the time of Rassam's later excavations, and who had been British Consul in Baghdad at the time of Rassam's original excavations at Nineveh, alleged that he should receive the credit for the discovery of Ashurbanipal's palace himself. Rassam, he wrote, was just a "digger" who had overseen the work. In Rassam's defence, Layard wrote that he was, "one of the honestest and most straightforward fellows I ever knew, and one whose services have never been acknowledged".<ref>{{cite news |last=Adamson |first=Daniel Silas |date=22 March 2015 |title=The men who uncovered Assyria |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31941827 |newspaper=BBC News Magazine |location=London |access-date=22 March 2015 }}</ref>

Rassam believed that the credit for some of his other discoveries had been taken by senior British Museum staff. In 1893 Rassam had sued the British Museum keeper [[E. A. Wallis Budge]] in the British courts for both slander and libel. Budge had written that Rassam had used "his relatives" to smuggle antiquities out of [[Nineveh]] and had only sent "rubbish" to the [[British Museum]]. The elderly Rassam was upset by these accusations. When he challenged Budge in court, he received a partial apology that a later court considered "ungentlemanly". Rassam was fully supported by the courts.<ref name=rassam>{{cite news|last=del Mar|first=Alexander|title=Discoveries at Nineveh|url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0B14FF345D16738DDDA90A94D1405B808DF1D3|accessdate=13 December 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=18 September 1910}}</ref> Later archaeological evidence found in relation to artefacts such as the [[Balawat Gates]] support Rassam's account of the dispute. By the end of his life, Rassam's reputation and achievements were once again receiving greater recognition, at least amidst his professional colleagues; in their obituary for Rassam, the Royal Geographical Society wrote: "The death of Mr Hormuzd Rassam... deprives the Royal Geographical Society of one of its older and more distinguished Fellows..."<ref>{{cite journal
| author     =<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> 
| title      = Obituary: Hormudz Rassam
| url        = http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1777613?sid=21105731963491&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3738032
| journal    = The Geographical Journal, Vol. 37, No.1
| location   = London
| publisher  = The Royal Geographical Society
| date       = January 1911
| access-date= 22 March 2015
}}</ref>

===Published works===
*''The British Mission to Theodore, King of Abyssinia'' (1869), memoir
*''Biblical Nationalities, Past and Present'', article in Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, Vol.3, 8, pp358–385 
*''The Garden of Eden and Biblical Sages'' (1895)
*''Asshur and the Land of Nimrod'' (1897).

==Personal life==
Rassam married Anne Eliza Price, an Englishwoman. They had seven children together. His eldest daughter, [[Theresa Rassam]], born in 1871, became a professional singer who performed with the [[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company]].<ref>[http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/whowaswho/R/RassamTheresa.htm Profile of Theresa Rassam's career with D'Oyly Carte]</ref> He died on September 8, 1910, and was buried in Hove Cemetery.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=108892921 |title=Hormuzd Rassam |last1=Keld |first1=Julia |date=Apr 21, 2013  |website=http://www.findagrave.com/ |publisher=Find A Grave, Inc, Delaware |access-date=22 March 2015}}</ref> A number of personal effects relating to his career, including the chains he had worn in captivity in Ethiopia, were donated to Hove Museum, and were on display there until the 1950s, according to the recollections of his great-grandson, Cornelius Cavendish. Other items in the Museum's possession relating to Rassam were at that time requested for the collections of the British Museum.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cmpcaonline.org.uk/page_id__56_path__0p36p21p61p30p31p.aspx |title=A hostage in Abyssinia |last1=Sansbury |first1=Carolyn |last2=Cavendish |first2=Cornelius |date= |website=http://www.cmpcaonline.org.uk/ |publisher=Clifton Montpelier Powis Community Alliance |access-date=22 March 2015}}</ref>

His daughter Annie Ferida Rassam, born in 1878, later secretly gave birth on September 10, 1914 to an illegitimate daughter in Paris. She named her Jeanne Ferida Rassam. The presumed father was said to be 'Sir Wallinger', a name that might refer to either of two brothers, Sir John Arnold Wallinger or his brother Ernest Wallinger, who were both undertaking work for the British secret services in Paris. Jeanne Ferida Rassam was adopted by a French couple, Sir and Mme. Courthial. Annie Ferida Rassam returned to Brighton few months later.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sansbury |first=Carolyn |date=December 2011 |title=More news of the Rassams at 7 Powis Square . . . and a French connection |url=http://www.cmpcaonline.org.uk/documents/CMPCA_26_for_web.pdf |journal=CMPCA News |location=Brighton,UK |publisher=Clifton Montpelier Powis Community Alliance |access-date=22 March 2015 }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Assyrian people]]
*[[Assyria]]
*[[Cyrus Cylinder]]
*[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*[http://www.edessa.com/profiles/rasam.htm Hormuzd Rassam, Assyrian Archaeologist 1826-1910]
*Rassam, [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y4koAAAAYAAJ&dq=Hormuzd+Rassam ''Narrative of the British Mission to Theodore, King of Abyssinia''] (1869) at [[Google Books]].
*[[David Damrosch]] (2006). ''The Buried Book''. ISBN 0-8050-8029-5 Chapters 3 and 4 are an essential revised biography of Rassam's life.
*Mogens T Larsen (1997), ''The Conquest of Assyria''. ISBN 0-415-14356-X.

;Attribution
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Rassam, Hormuzd}}

==External links==
*{{Cite Nuttall|title=Rassam, Hormuzd|short=1}}

{{Authority control|VIAF=32378701}}

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME              = Rassam, Hormuzd
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Iraqi archaeologist
| DATE OF BIRTH     = 1826
| PLACE OF BIRTH    =
| DATE OF DEATH     = 16 September 1910
| PLACE OF DEATH    =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rassam, Hormuzd}}
[[Category:Iraqi archaeologists]]
[[Category:British people of Assyrian descent]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society]]
[[Category:Iraqi Assyrian people]]
[[Category:Iraqi Eastern Catholics]]
[[Category:Iraqi Oriental Orthodox Christians]]
[[Category:Iraqi Assyriologists]]
[[Category:People associated with the British Museum]]
[[Category:People from Mosul]]
[[Category:People of the Abyssinian War]]
[[Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford]]
[[Category:19th-century Ottoman writers]]
[[Category:19th-century archaeologists]]
[[Category:1826 births]]
[[Category:1910 deaths]]