> Layard and his protégé, a Christian Arab from Mosul named Hormuzd Rassam ...<p>Hormuzd Rassam was not an "Arab". He was an Assyrian. Not many (any, ever?) "Arabs" go around sporting an ancient Iranian name for God (Hormuzd) for their first name, though it is interesting how that name somehow got adopted by the Chaldean Christian Assyrian community. And based on his bio on wikipedia, it appears his mother was in fact from a Jewish family since her father's name was Isaak Halabee (which is the Arabized variant of יצחק חליבה).<p>One expects more from a magazine published by the Smithsonian, and rather ironic in an article about ancient languages of that region.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormuzd_Rassam#Early_life" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormuzd_Rassam#Early_life</a><p><a href="https://www.uncomfortableoxford.com/unburying-an-archaeologist-the-forgotten-story-of-hormuzd-rassam" rel="nofollow">https://www.uncomfortableoxford.com/unburying-an-archaeologi...</a><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishak_Haleva" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishak_Haleva</a> - not his grandfather but the same exact name.