Assyrian culture is that of the Assyrians, an Eastern Aramaic speaking Semitic race indigenous to northern Iraq, southeast Turkey, northeast Syria and northwest Iran. The Assyrian people gradually converted from the ancient Mesopotamian religion to East Syrian Rite Christianity between the 1st and 4th centuries AD (although the final traces of Mesopotamian religion did not die out until as late as the 17th century AD), and many Assyrian cultural practices today are linked to their Christian faith, together with their ancient Mesopotamian ancestry and language. Many Assyrians (estimates of fluent speakers range from 575,000 to 1,000,000) still speak, read and write distinct Akkadian influenced dialects of Eastern Aramaic. They are predominantly adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East,