12.1 The place, and the name

12 · The Assyrians of Urmi: a background · a plain-language guide to Assyrian (Sureth) grammar

Urmi is a town in north-western Iran, on a fertile plain with Lake Urmi to the east and mountains climbing to the Turkish border on the west. It is the capital of Iran's West Azerbaijan province. Urmi is what the Assyrians themselves call it, and it is the form used throughout this guide; the neighbours each have their own — Urumiya in Persian, Urmu in Azeri. Under the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979) the state renamed it Rezaiyeh, after Reza Shah.

A nice local etymology says the name means "place of water," from miyya. Khan thinks it more likely connects to Ormazd, the Middle Persian form of Ahuramazda — his evidence being the old word for a man from Urmi, urmezhnaya.

The people are suraye. The other name they use for themselves is aturaye (a heavy word — say it dark and throaty).

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