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Aramaeans

[ar-uh-mey-ik]

The Aramaeans (also Arameans) (Aramaic/Syriac: ܐܪܡܝܐ , Ārāmāye') were a Semitic (West Semitic language group), semi-nomadic and pastoralist people who lived in upper Mesopotamia and Syria. Aramaeans never had a unified empire; they were divided into independent kingdoms all across the Near East. Yet to these Aramaeans befell the privilege of imposing their language and culture upon the entire Near East and beyond, fostered in part by the mass relocations enacted by successive empires, including the Assyrians and Babylonians. Scholars even have used the term "Aramaization" for the process by which Assyro-Babylonian peoples became Aramaic-speaking.

Language

Aramaeans are mostly defined by their use of the Aramaic language, first written using the Phoenician alphabet slightly modified. Their language, namely Aramaic, belongs—like Hebrew, Ammonite and others—to the north-western group of Semitic dialects. As early as the 8th century BC, Aramaic language and writing competed with the Akkadian language and script (cuneiform) in Assyria, and thereafter it spread throughout the Orient. Around 500 BC, when the Achaemenid monarchs looked for a language that could be understood by all their subjects, they chose Aramaic, which became the lingua franca of their vast empire. It was not until Greek emerged several centuries later that Aramaic lost its prestige as the most sophisticated language; it remained unchallenged as the common dialect of all peoples of the Near East and was to remain so until the Arab invasion (7th century AD).

According to the linguist Klaus Beyer, the history of the Aramaic language is broken down into three broad periods:

Old Aramaic (1100 BC–AD 200), including:

The Biblical Aramaic of the Hebrew Bible.
The Aramaic of Jesus.
The Aramaic of the Targums.

The turning point of Old Aramaic was about 500 BC when it shifted to Imperial Aramaic, the lingua franca of the Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian Empires.

Middle Aramaic (200–1200), including:

Literary Syriac.
The Aramaic of the Talmuds and Midrashim.

In this period the Nabataeans "l" is often turned into "n", and there are a few Arabic loan words. Some Nabataean Aramaic inscriptions exist from the early days of the kingdom, but most are from the first four centuries. The language is written in a cursive script that is the precursor to the modern Arabic alphabet. The number of Arabic loan words increases through the centuries, until, in the fourth century, Nabataean merges seamlessly with Arabic.

Modern Aramaic (1200 – present), including:

Various modern vernaculars.

These languages are not all mutually understandable, for instance Eastern Syriac is called Chaldean or Assyrian and is very different from the language of the few Mandaeans living in the province of Khuzestan in Iran who speak Modern Mandaic. Very little remains of Western Aramaic, which today is only now spoken in the Christian village of Ma'lula in Syria and the Muslim villages of Bakh`a and Jubb`adin in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains.

History

The origin of the Aramaeans is still uncertain, arising from the limited amount of evidence regarding the mention of Aramaeans in Mesopotamian inscriptions. An inscription of Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2250 BC) provides the earliest reference to "Aram" as a place name, but scholars have disagreed as to its actual location and significance. Other early references to a place or people of "Aram" have appeared at the archives of Mari (c. 1900 BC) and at Ugarit (c. 1300 BC).

The city of Aram Also mention in Qur'an as Aram of the Pillars as home to the A'ad people.

14th century BC

Nomadic pastoralists have always been a feature of the Middle East, but their numbers seem to vary according to climatic conditions and the force of neighbouring states inducing permanent settlement. The period of the Late Bronze Age seems to have been one of increasing aridity, weakening neighbouring states, and inducing transhumance pastoralists to spend longer and longer periods with their flocks. Urban settlements diminished in size, until eventually fully nomadic pastoralist lifestyles came to dominate the region. These highly mobile, competitive tribesmen with their sudden raids were a continued threat to long distance trade and interfered with the collection of taxes and tribute. In the early 14th century BC, much of Israel was under Aramaean rule for eight years according to the Biblical Book of Judges until Othniel defeated the forces led by Chushan-Rishathaim, the King of Aram-Naharaim. Other entities mentioned in the Hebrew Bible include Aram Damascus and Aram Rehob.

The Ahlamû (= wanderers) are first mentioned in the el-Amarna letters alluding to the king of Babylon; the presence of the Ahlamû are also attested in Assyria, Nippur and even at Dilmun (Bahrain); Shalmaneser I (1274-1245 BC) defeated the Shattuara, King of Mitanni and his Hittite and Ahlamû mercenaries are mentioned in the Jazirah. The term appears equivalent to the Egyptian term Shasu (Shsw = wanderer), who replaced the outlaw 'Apiru (cuneiform SA.GAZ) as the major source of instability in the Egyptian Levantine empire from the reign of Tutankhamun onwards. In the following century, the Ahlamû cut the road from Babylon to Hattusas, and Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244-1208 BC) claims that he conquered Mari, Hana and Rapiqum on the Euphrates and "the mountain of the Ahlamû", apparently the region of Jebel Bishri.

12th century BC

For the first time, an inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I (1115-1077 BC) refers to the "Ahlamû-Aramaeans" (Ahlame Armaia) and shortly after, the Ahlamû rapidly disappear from Assyrian annals, to be replaced by the Aramaeans (Aramu, Arimi). "Ahlamû-Aramaeans" would consider the Aramaeans as an important and in time dominant faction of the Ahlamû tribes, however it is possible that the two peoples had nothing in common, but operated in the same area. It is conceivable that the name "Arameans" was a more accurate form of the earlier ethnonym Martu (Amorites, westerners) in the Assyrian tablets.

11th century BC

The Aramaeans were, in the 11th century BC, established in Syria. The Bible tells us that Saul, David and Solomon (late 11th to 10th centuries) fought against the Aramaeans kingdoms across the northern frontier of Israel: Aram-Sôvah in the Beq’a, Aram-Bêt-Rehob and Aram-Ma’akah around Mount Hermon, Geshur in the Hauran, and Damascus. Farther north, the Aramaeans were in possession of Hamath on the Orontes and were soon to become strong enough to dissociate with the Neo-Hittite block. The great massacre that took place in later days from the Hittites left the Arameans broken and worthless but they rose again.

10th – 9th centuries BC

The Aramaeans conquered, during the 10th and the 9th centuries, Sam’al (Zenjirli), also known as Yaudi, the region from Arpad to Aleppo which they renamed Bît-Agushi, and Til Barsip, which became the chief town of Bît-Adini, also known as Beth Eden. At the same time, Aramaeans moved to the east of the Euphrates, where they settled in such numbers that the whole region became known as Aram-Naharaim or "Aram of the two rivers". One of their earliest kingdoms in Mesopotamia was Bît-bahiâni (Tell Halaf). North of Sam'al was the Aramaean state of Bit-Gabari, sandwiched between the Neo-Hittite states of Carchemish, Gurgum, Tabal, Khattina and Unqi. Whilst these later states maintained a Neo-Hittite hieroglyphic for official communication, it would seem that the population of these small states was progressively Aramaeanised.

From 8th century BC

Aramaean kingdoms were subjugated by Adad-nirari II, Ashurnasirpal II, and his son Shalmaneser III, who destroyed many of the small tribes, and gave control of Syria and local trade and natural resources to the Assyrians. Some Assyrian Kings even took Aramaean wives. Though without a state, Arameans continued their presence in the Near East.

Religion and art

Modern

Modern Arameans are known as "Syriacs" or "Arameans". They are primarily followers of the various churches of Syriac Christianity.

External references

Jewish Encyclopedia: Aram-Naharaim
The Arameans

References

S. Moscati, 'The Aramaean Ahlamû', FSS, IV (1959), pp. 303-7;
M. Freiherr Von Oppenheim, Der Tell Halaf, Leipzig, 1931 pp. 71-198;
M. Freiherr Von Oppenheim, Tell Halaf, III, Die Bauwerke, Berlin, 1950;
A. Moortgat, Tell Halaf IV, Die Bildwerke, Berlin, 1955;
B. Hrouda, Tell Halaf IV, Die Kleinfunde aus historischer Zeit, Berlin, 1962;
G. Roux, Ancient Iraq, London, 1980.
Beyer, Klaus (1986). "The Aramaic language: its distribution and subdivisions". (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht). ISBN 3-525-53573-2.