Aram (Biblical region)

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Aram is the name of a region mentioned in the Bible located in central Syria, including where the city of Aleppo (aka Halab) now stands. The name is traditionally derived from Aram, son of Shem, a grandson of Noah in the Bible.

The Aramaeans (speakers of the Aramaic traditionally descended from Aram) began to settle in Aram and Mesopotamia in the late 12th century BCE. Two medium-sized Aramaean kingdoms, Aram-Damascus and Hamath, along with several smaller kingdoms and independent city-states, developed in the region during the first millennium BCE. A few stele that name kings of this period have been found (see, for example, the Zakkur stele). The Chaldeans who settled in southern Babylonia around 1000 BCE were founders of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 625 BCE are also believed to have been an Aramaean tribe. However, this is not certain and some dispute the alleged Aramaean ethnicity among the Chaldean dynasty.

As Christians began to inhabit that area of Syria, a dialect of Aramaic, Syriac, was born. Hence Syriac has been associated with Christian Syrians.

Today in this same area, there are several Eastern Catholic Churches that are distinct from the Latin Rite. Two of these are the Maronite Church and the Melkite Greek-Catholic Church, both common to Syria and Lebanon.

Aram (Biblical region)

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