“Who is the present emperor of Russia? Alexander the Czar. And who are found among the monarchs of Assyria? Nobonazar, Nebuchadnezzar, and Belshazzar. These were not accidental terminations of their respective names but were doubtless terms of Assyrian royalty. So also the Roman Caesars, which scarcely vary from the true pronunciation of the czars. We behold in Russia the original trunk of autocracy.”
Hoo boy. Well, first of all the word “czar” comes from Julius Caesar, whose name the succeeding Roman emperors took in honor of him. So it could not possibly have anything to do with the “zar” in Assyrian names, since they existed long before Julius Caesar was ever born.
Also, why say “doubtless” the “zar” in those Assyrian names was a term of royalty? The Assyrian language is not some mystery that we have yet to unlock. Instead of speculating foolishly, we can just look up what that suffix means.
Turns out, “zar” is not even an actual suffix in Assyrian though, so that would not help the author’s argument I guess. The “zars” are only present when the Assyrian names are transliterated into English. In Assyrian, the suffix would be “usar”, which means, not “emperor” or even “king” but “heir”. It’s no more unusual than seeing an English last name ending in “son”.
Sheesh - the Russian term is pronounced TSar
And Nobonazzsar and Nebuchadnazzar were not "monarchs of Assyria" - they were rulers of Babylon
Ditto for Belassar --> this idiot who wrote the article thinks that everything is in the English language
Boogieman - great answering post.
In fact Assyria was destroyed in the same time when the city of Rome was founded!