Rassam

Rassam, HORMUZD, Assyriologist, was born, the son of Chaldean Christian parents, at Mosul in Mesopotamia in 1826. He gained the friendship of Layard, and assisted him in his excavations at Nineveh in 1845–47 and 1849–51, and then succeeded him, until 1854, as British agent for conducting Assyrian explorations. His grandest success was the finding of the palace of Assurbani-Pal (Sardanapalus). After holding in the following years political offices at Aden and Muscat, he was sent (1864) by the British government to Abyssinia, to demand the release of the Europeans kept in prison by King Theodore; but that potentate cast him also into prison, and only released him with the rest of his captives after his army had been defeated by Sir R. Napier in 1868. From 1876 to 1882 Rassam was employed by the trustees of the British Museum in making explorations in Mesopotamia, and discovered Sepharvaim (Sippura) and Kuthah. He published The British Mission to Theodore, King of Abyssinia (1869).