From Mesopotamia to the Motor City
The Silk Road (in green) was a key trade route that ran through Asia from modern-day China to Eastern Europe, passing through what is modern-day Iraq (highlighted). Traditions of trade and commerce run deep in the Chaldean community. Paths marked in red represent other caravan routes.
Image courtesy Wikimedia
How pioneering Chaldeans created a community in Detroit
By Cal Abbo
Part II
Silk Road Roots
Ancient Mesopotamia was home to many great civilizations over different time periods. Because of the people and their inventions, the area is famous for many things, even as history is taught today, and is credited with the birth of society and cities. Writing, agriculture, laws, math, astronomy, city-states, architecture, and many more aspects of modern-day society that we take for granted originated in this area and within these communities.
Central to almost all these components are trade and commerce, responsible for furnishing these cultural elements around the world and developing them further. Often, Mesopotamia found itself playing a critical role connecting the Far East, the Middle East, and parts of Europe.
Early trade in these societies, according to the World History Encyclopedia, involved basic goods like ceramics, grain, leather, oils, and textiles. Trade was conducted initially between city-states and in the beginning, these areas did not have the capacity or logistics to travel to other civilizations, many of which were too simple to be called such.
Archaeologists discovered evidence that as humankind developed, ancient cities like Eridu, Ur, Uruk, and Nippur came into contact and experienced economic exchange with the Indus Valley civilization in modern-day west India around 7,000 years ago. As a result of this contact, Mesopotamia’s influence, as well as their tangible goods, may have reached as far as the Yellow River civilization in modern-day China.
When it began, this trade network would be traveled mostly on foot. Sometimes, these people were lucky enough to have pack animals to carry goods and supplies. A journey of this magnitude could take months or years to complete and likely involved other trade mediators, nomadic or settled, between the two civilizations.
Early trade generated a critical moment in world history. It spurred economic development and led to the creation of many fundamental technologies. Trade of all kinds led to enhanced record-keeping and the development of cuneiform, the earliest-known writing in human history and perhaps the strongest comparative advantage leading to Mesopotamia’s wealth and dominance.
Later, writing technology would encompass the full scope of spoken language, allowing for exponentially greater understanding of ancient societies as we uncover the past and chart the development of literature.
From these records, historians discovered the existence of glass and textile factories in Mesopotamia that employed thousands of people. The economies of city-states relied on these trade routes for goods not available in their region and surplus grain that encouraged exponential population growth.
Long-distance trade gradually increased in volume over the centuries. This reality enhanced the development of animal domestication, leading to increased use, breeding, and expertise surrounding donkeys, camels, and horses. Eventually, inventors realized the usefulness of a circular wheel pulling platforms of goods to and from different places. It’s an appropriate coincidence, then, that many Chaldeans in modern times chose to move to the Motor City, which can trace its technological history directly to the invention of the wheel and supply carriage.
Roads exploded in popularity. Outposts and settlements were added along trade routes and on paths to major cities. City-states and empires raised armies to defend these lucrative trade routes from highway robbers. As trade and civilization continued to develop, more and more individuals became involved in the industry and helped disperse goods once they arrived at their destination. Networking, merchanting, and warehousing grew alongside, and thousands of years of development and history informed the future of these people-groups.
After this initial age of trade and civilizational development, even as the major Mesopotamian powers fell, trade routes prevailed. Some of the most important routes in history relied on the persistence and stability of the Mesopotamian region even after its golden age came and went. The Silk Road passed directly through Babylon and Baghdad to follow the mighty Tigris River. The Incense Route stretched south along the Arabian Peninsula and the Royal Road had stops in modern-day northern Iraq. These trails and others shaped the lives, knowledge, economy, and daily practices of Chaldeans’ ancient ancestors.
Once Islam took hold and gained power in the region, centuries after the dawn of Christianity and the conversion of people living in the Middle East, Muslim rulers often ostracized the remaining Christians from larger society. Some examples of systemic persecution involved levying special taxes against Christians, preventing them from obtaining positions in government, requiring certain dress codes, restricting property ownership, limiting the number of churches and simplifying their architecture, depriving them representation in court, asserting social discrimination, and even restricting travel.
One specific aspect of Islam helped shape the role of Christians in the Middle East. The Quran bans its followers from consuming alcohol. In many places, this was and still is enforced legally. More importantly, though, the Quran bans Muslims from selling alcohol. This left a niche for the region’s Christians to fill. Many Christians that lived in Muslim societies served alcohol through restaurants and stores to the general population — including Muslims who disregarded the Quran’s rules, passing down the tradition through generations, and building experience in the service industry.
All these historical factors came into play when the community felt compelled to leave their homeland of thousands of years. War, genocide, persecution, and a lack of economic prospects resulting from village life motivated Chaldeans to find a new home. The process took time, but over the past century, the Chaldean community in Detroit now numbers close to 200,000 people, according to recent data.
After learning about the opportunities available to immigrants in Detroit, almost all related to the auto industry, a few brave Chaldeans in villages or urban areas decided to try it out for themselves. Some worked for the burgeoning Ford Motor Company, like John Joseph, “Man Who Was Born in Region of ‘Garden of Eden’” according to a 1915 issue of the Sunday Chronicle, whose story lives on in the newspaper archives. This new industry offered direct employment opportunities, but Chaldeans aspired to more and had more needs than the average American, ultimately wanting to bring their families and friends to the land of opportunity.
Market Square (left) and Plum Market (right) offer an impressive array of fresh and prepared foods.
Beyond the Assembly Line
Some decades before this, the nation experienced plenty of periods like the one Detroit was going through. The most appropriate example in this case is the California Gold Rush. Over a period of seven years, nearly 300,000 people migrated west to find work opportunities and gold.
Overall, the area developed rapidly and needed to accommodate the exponential growth of people. The most consistently successful people who moved west were not those who searched for gold themselves, but the newcomers who were wise enough to realize and act upon the opportunities to provide services like saloons, supply stores, restaurants, and housing to the community there.
In this style, Chaldeans established themselves in Detroit, moving on from basic factory work into entrepreneurial territory and imagination. As many Chaldeans were farmers before their transition to America, they began with grocery services and stalls at farmers markets. Eventually, these developed into full-fledged stores where they could employ and teach new Chaldeans who arrived from Iraq. Detroit was forever changed by the Chaldeans who purchased and developed high-quality stores in the area.
Over time, some Chaldeans found a sense of responsibility to the upstart community and helped establish a pipeline for Chaldeans to come to Michigan, train as store operators, and eventually become owners and begin contributing to the economy. Specific men, like Mike George, whose legacy lives on in the hearts of all the Chaldean families he helped establish, financed business loans for new immigrant families. Even today, a loan fund in his name lives at the Chaldean Community Foundation and helps immigrants attain a vehicle for a low interest rate.
In 1962, the Chaldean community owned around 120 stores in Detroit and its metro area. By the 1990s, Chaldeans owned 1,500 stores. In many ways, the huge gamble paid off for the Chaldean community as they prospered with their new economic engine. Their status as immigrants whose native tongue was far from common in Detroit was not dissimilar to their status in the homeland, separated linguistically from Arabic speakers, religiously from Muslims, and culturally from city-dwellers. Trade continued to support and uplift the community even as it had in ancient times.
Modern-day grocery stores have evolved from the smaller stores that once dotted Detroit’s landscape. While those still exist in the form of gas stations and liquor stores, in tandem with suburbanization, food and grocery have become a more centralized endeavor with larger and fewer stores.
Plum Market and Market Square are two shining examples of the modern Chaldean grocery store. They offer high-end food items and serve hot, prepared food for their customers. This is a sign of the Chaldean entrepreneurial spirit, the attitude that brought the community this far. Since the establishment of community stores, Chaldeans have expanded their business into many different facets of life and encouraged their children to join the professions.
Still now, as Chaldeans have moved away from the storied lands that are so well-documented in history books, many traditions stay with them. In Detroit, the Chaldean community has become famous for servicing all kinds of stores and selling staples like gasoline, alcohol, and basic food services. In fact, Chaldeans leveraged these historical skills to establish their families and peers in a new society while providing an essential service to its new community.