Encyclopedia

Muslims Of Aramean Origin

"The language of the people of Mosul is a dialect of Arabic, partly influenced by Kurdish and Syriac. The Moslems call themselves either Arabs or Kurds, but the prevalent type, very different from the true Arabian of Bagdad, proves the Aramaean origin of many of their number. Of the Christians the community of the Chaldaeans, i.e. those who have gone over from Nestorianism to Catholicism, seems to be the most important; there are also Syrian Catholics and Jacobites. Mosul has for several centuries been a centre of Catholic missionary activity, the Dominicans especially, by the foundation of schools and printing-offices, having made a marked impression upon an intelligent and teachable population. ‘There are very few Protestants. The town is the seat of British, French and Russian consulates."

Encyclopedia

From Arameans to Syriacs

"At Edessa, in the west of Mesopotamia, the native " dialect had already been used for some time as a literary language, and had been reduced to rule through the influence of the schools (as is proved by the fixity of the grammar and orthography) even before Christianity acquired power in the country in the 2d century. At an early period the Old and New Testaments were here translated, with the help of Jewish tradition. This version (the so-called Peshitta or Peshito) became the Bible of Aramaean Christendom, and Edessa became its capital. Thus the Aramaean Christians of the neighbouring countries, even those who were subjects of the Persian empire, adopted the Edessan dialect as the language of the church, of literature, and of cultivated intercourse. Since the ancient name of the inhabitants, "Aramaeans," just like that of Ἕλληνες, had acquired in the minds of Jews and Christians the unpleasant signification of " heathens," it was generally avoided, and in its place the Greek terms " Syrians " and "Syriac" were used. But "Syriac "was also the name given by the Jews and Christians of Palestine to their own language, and both Greeks and Persians designated the Aramaeans of Babylonia as "Syrians." It is therefore, properly speaking, incorrect to employ the word "Syriac" as meaning the language of Edessa alone; but, since it was the most important of these dialects, it has the best claim to this generally received appellation"

Encyclopedia

Arameans In Kurdish Highlands

"The Kurdish element only appears sporadically in the true Mesopotamian plain; but the Yezidis, who form the population of the Sinjar range, may be referred to this stock. He who encounters the uncanny figure of one of these people will hardly be able to restrain a slight shudder, esjjecially if he remembers the graphic descriptions of the Yezidi robbers in Morieris Ayetlia. Of the old Aramaean peasantry there are no longer any important remains in the plain the Aramaeans having withdrawn farther into the Kurdish highlands, where, in spite of their wild Kurdish neighbours, they are more secure from exactions of every kind. The plain of the northern country of the two rivers was at one time richly cultivated, and owed its prosperity to this industrious people, who formerly played so distinguished a part as a connecting link between the Persians and the Eoman empire and afterwards between the Western and the Arabian world, and whose highest culture was developed in this very region. Quite otherwise is it now. In the plain there are almost no remains of the common Aramaean tongue. Apart from the scattered areas in which Kurdish prevails, the ordinary language is a vulgar Arabic dialect ; but both Kurdish and Aramaean (Syriac) have exercised an influence on the speech of the Arab peasant. Finally it must be mentioned that certain Turcoman hordes roam about the Mesopotamian territory."

Encyclopedia

Mesopotamia Being Inhabited By Agricultural Arameans

"These statements of Xenophon already indicate a demarcation of the territory afterwards called Mesopotamia, as well as its division into two sections. The fertile portion, inhabited by agricultural Aramaeans, stretched from the Euphrates to the Chaboras; the desert portion, the home of wandering tribes, extended to the Tigris."

Encyclopedia

Beth Aramaye Being the Country of Syriacs

"The neighborhood of Ctesiphon was called in the time of the Sasanids Sûristân, a translation of the Aramean designation Bêth-Arâmâyê, “country of the Syriacs,” for the land was mainly occupied by Arameans. By a notable substitution the Arabs afterwards gave the name Nabat, i.e Nabataeans, to these Aramean peasantry, who, it may be added, were already found in these parts at the time of the Babylonian empire."

Encyclopedia

Aramean Missionaries

“The real missionaries of culture in the empire were the Arameans (Syriacs), who were connected with the West by their Christianity, and in their translations diffused Greek literature through the Orient.” Arameans (Syriacs) played a key cultural role in the Sassanid Empire by acting as intermediaries between the Greek-speaking West and the East. Through their Christian connections and translation work, they spread Greek knowledge and literature across the Orient.