Migrations of the Assyrians from Iran during World War I : fragmentization of tradition and the new forms of religiosity

By focusing on the Assyrian Christians scattered around Urmia in the north-western part of Iran during World War I, the article analyzes the processes and changes that occurred in the religious life of the population under the circumstances of depravity, trauma and migration. The migrations, as it is suggested, caused two opposing tendencies among Assyrians strengthening individualization and ethnicization of the religious matters. The migratory experience played a crucial role in transforming the Church institutions as it might be seen in reference to the Assyrian Church of the East and shifting the focus away from religious authority while giving space to more emotional, private, and finally Pentecostal religiosity.