Assyrians still exist - yes, they do

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 99159

Sea Change:

Perhaps Uncle Algie is more progressive than we think. In real life,
smack dab in the center of California is a city called Ceres, and a
decently large proportion of the people living there call themselves
Assyrian. They think they've still got a homeland and are probably
interested in the current events in Iraq. It's not much of a stretch
for me to suppose in the Wizarding world this feeling is much 
stronger.

It's also possible that Uncle Algie is a Great Uncle Algie, and was
around pre-WW1. Many muslim empires had semi-autonomous regions with
names that we either recognize, or which were called by that name by
our diplomats. The Mimbulus Mimbletonia Neville has could just be a
cutting or a meristem of the original plant.

Neri:
To the best of my knowledge, Assyrians exist and are a small minority 
in Iraq today. I think they are actually christian, not muslims, 
thought I'm not sure of which church exactly. Might be something 
gnostic. Their connection with the biblical Assyrians might not be 
very established. The ancient Assyrians were a very warlike empire 
that vanquished, among other nations, the kingdom of Israel and 
exiled the ten tribes of Israel into the realm of legend (the modern 
Jews are supposed to be decedents of the remaining tribes from the 
kingdom of Judea). Shortly after that the Assyrian empire was itself 
conquered by Babylon and vanished forever. The modern Assyrians are 
actually one of the more advanced and peaceful cults in Iraq. 
However, to my knowledge they are not located within a single place 
in Iraq, and there is no geographic region called Assyria. This is 
all general knowledge that I didn't bother to verify, and should be 
treated accordingly.

Neri