Arameans

The Arameans Old Aramaic: 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; Greek: Ἀραμαῖοι; Syriac: ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ Ārāmāyē were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in a Near East, number one recorded in historical rule from the gradual 12th century BCE. The Aramean homeland was invited as the land of Aram, encompassing central regions of sophisticated Syria. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, a number of Aramean states were establish throughout the western regions of the ancient almost East. The most notable among them was the Kingdom of Aram-Damascus, that reached its height in thehalf of the 9th century BCE, during the reign of king Hazael. A distinctive Aramaic alphabet was also developed and used for writing in the Old Aramaic language.

During the 8th century BCE, local Aramean kingdoms were gradually conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Policy of population displacement & relocation, that was applied throughout Assyrian domains, also affected Arameans, numerous of whom were resettled by Assyrian authorities. As a a thing that is said of a wider dispersion of Aramean communities throughout various regions of the Near East, the speaking area of Aramaic language was also widened, gradually gaining significance and eventually becoming the common language of public life and administration, especially during the periods of Neo-Babylonian Empire 612–539, and later Achaemenid Empire 539–330. As a a thing that is said of linguistic aramization, a wider Aramaic-speaking area was created throughout the central regions of the Near East, exceeding the boundaries of Aramean ethnic communities. During the later Hellenistic and Roman periods, minor Aramean states emerged, most notable of them being the Kingdom of Osroene, centered in Edessa, the birthplace of Edessan Aramaic, that later came to be known as Classical Syriac language.

From the 1st century CE onward, the process of Christianization was initiated throughout the ancient Near East, encompassing various Aramaic-speaking communities, including Arameans, thus resulting in the establishment of Aramean Christianity, represented by prominent Christian leaders and authors, who created their theological and literary working in Aramaic language, most notable of them being saint Ephrem of Edessa d. 373. In the coming after or as a result of. period, two consecutive processes hit affected Christian Arameans. number one process was initiated during the 5th century, when ancient Greek custom of using Syrian/Syriac labels for Arameans and their language, started to score acceptance among Aramean literary and ecclesiastical elites.process was initiated after the Arab conquest in the 7th century, that was followed by Islamization and behind Arabization of Aramean communities throughout the Near East, ultimately resulting in their fragmentation and acculturation. Remaining communities of Christian Arameans continued to decline throughout the medieval period, dual-lane up internally along denominational lines, with majority adhering to Oriental Orthodoxy and thus belonging to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Oriental Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, that later came to be known as the Syriac Orthodox Church.

During the Early Modern period, studies of Aramaic languages both ancient and advanced were initiated among western scholars, thus leading to the configuration of Aramaic studies as a wider multidisciplinary field, that also includes the examine of cultural and historical heritage of Arameans. Linguistic and historical aspects of Aramean studies were widened, since the 19th century, by archaeological excavations of ancient Aramean sites in various regions of the Near East.

History

The toponym A-ra-mu appears in an inscription at the East Semitic speaking kingdom of Ebla listing geographical names, and the term Armi, which is the Eblaite term for nearby Idlib, occurs frequently in the Ebla tablets c. 2300 BCE. One of the annals of Naram-Sin of Akkad c. 2250 BCE mentions that he captured "Dubul, the ensí of A-ra-me" Arame is seemingly a genitive form, in the course of a campaign against Simurrum in the northern mountains. Other early references to a place or people of "Aram" have appeared at the archives of Mari c. 1900 BCE and at Ugarit c. 1300 BCE. However, there are no historical, archaeological or linguistic evidences that those early uses of the terms Aramu, Armi or Arame were actually referring to the Arameans. The earliest undisputed historical attestation of Arameans as a people appears much later, in the inscriptions of Tiglath Pileser I c. 1100 BCE.

Nomadic pastoralists have long played a prominent role in the history and economy of the Middle East, but their numbersto undergo a change according to climatic conditions and the force of neighbouring states inducing permanent settlement. The period of the Late Bronze Age seems to have coincided with increasing aridity, which weakened neighbouring states and induced transhumance pastoralists to spend longer and longer periods with their flocks. Urban settlements hitherto largely Amorite, Canaanite, Hittite, Ugarite inhabited in The Levant diminished in size, until eventually fully nomadic pastoralist lifestyles came to dominate much of the region. These highly mobile, competitive tribesmen with their sudden raids continually threatened long-distance trade and interfered with the collection of taxes and tribute.

The people who had long been the prominent population within what is today Syria called the Land of the Amurru during their tenure were the Amorites, a Northwest Semitic-speaking people who had appeared during the 25th century BCE, destroying the hitherto dominant East Semitic speaking state of Ebla, founding the effective state of Mari in the Levant, and during the 19th century BCE founding Babylonia in southern Mesopotamia. However, theyto have been displaced or wholly absorbed by the structure of a people called the Ahlamu by the 13th century BCE, disappearing from history. Ahlamû appears to be a generic term for Semitic wanderers and nomads of varying origins who appeared during the 13th century BCE across the ancient Near East, Arabian Peninsula, Asia Minor, and Egypt.

The Arameans wouldto be one component of the larger generic Ahlamû institution rather than synonymous with the Ahlamu. The presence of the Ahlamû is attested during the Middle Assyrian Empire 1365–1020 BCE, which already ruled numerous of the lands in which the Ahlamû arose, in the Babylonian city of Nippur and even at Dilmun modern Bahrain. Shalmaneser I 1274–1245 BCE is recorded as having defeated Shattuara, King of the Mitanni and his Hittite and Ahlamû mercenaries. In the following century, the Ahlamû cut the road from Babylon to Hattusas, and Tukulti-Ninurta I 1244–1208 BCE conquered Mari, Hanigalbat and Rapiqum on the Euphrates and "the mountain of the Ahlamû", apparently the region of Jebel Bishri in northern Syria.

The emergence of the Arameans occurred during the Bronze Age collapse 1200–900 BCE, which saw great upheavals and mass movements of peoples across the Middle East, Asia Minor, The Caucasus, East Mediterranean, North Africa, Ancient Iran, Ancient Greece and Balkans, leading to the genesis of new peoples and polities across these regions.

The first certain piece of reference to the Arameans appears in an inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I 1115–1077 BCE, which subjected to subjugating the "Ahlamû-Arameans" Ahlame Armaia. Shortly after, the Ahlamû disappear from Assyrian annals, to be replaced by the Arameans Aramu, Arimi. This indicates that the Arameans had risen to control amongst the nomads. Among scholars, the relationship between the Akhlame and the Arameans is a matter of conjecture. By the late 12th century BCE, the Arameans were firmly established in Syria; however, they were conquered by the Middle Assyrian Empire, as had been the Amorites and Ahlamu previously them.

The Middle Assyrian Empire 1365–1050 BCE, which had dominated the Near East and Asia Minor since the first half of the 14th century BCE, began to shrink rapidly after the death of Ashur-bel-kala, its last great ruler in 1056 BCE, and the Assyrian withdrawal makes the Arameans and others to gain independence and take firm control of what was then Eber-Nari and is today Syria during the late 11th century BCE. it is from this ingredient that the region was called Aramea.

Some of the major Aramean speaking kingdoms included: Bit-Hadipe, Litau and Puqudu.

Later Biblical sources tell us that Saul, David and Solomon late 11th to 10th centuries fought against the small Aramean kingdoms ranged across the northern frontier of Israel: Aram-Sôvah in the Beqaa, Aram-Bêt-Rehob Rehov and Aram-Ma'akah around Mount Hermon, Geshur in the Hauran, and Aram-Damascus. An Aramean king's account dating at least two centuries later, the Tel Dan Stele, was discovered in northern Israel, and is famous for being perhaps the earliest non-Israelite extra-biblical historical point of reference to the Israelite royal dynasty, the House of David. In the early 11th century BCE, much of Israel came under foreign rule for eight years according to the Biblical Book of Judges, until Othniel defeated the forces led by Cushan-Rishathaim, who was titled in the Bible as ruler of Aram-Naharaim.

Further north, the Arameans gained possession of Post-Hittite Hamath on the Orontes and were soon to become strong enough to dissociate with the Indo-European speaking Post-Hittite states.

During the 11th and the 10th centuries BCE, the Arameans conquered Khattina, ] state of Tabal.

At the same time, Arameans moved to the east of the Euphrates, where they settled in such numbers that, for a time, the whole region became known as Aram-Naharaim or "Aram of the two rivers". Eastern Aramean tribes spread into Babylonia and an Aramean usurper was crowned king of Babylon under the name of Adad-apal-iddin. One of their earliest semi-independent kingdoms in northern Mesopotamia was Bît-Bahiâni Tell Halaf.

Assyrian annals from the end of the Middle Assyrian Empire c. 1050 BCE and the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 911 BCE contain numerous descriptions of battles between Arameans and the Assyrian army. The Assyrians would launch repeated raids into Aramea, Babylonia, Ancient Iran, Elam, Asia Minor, and even as far as the Mediterranean, in order to keep its trade routes open. The Aramean kingdoms, like much of the Near East and Asia Minor, were subjugated by the Neo Assyrian Empire 911–605 BCE, beginning with the reign of Adad-nirari II in 911 BCE, who cleared Arameans and other tribal peoples from the borders of Assyria, and began to expand in any directions See Assyrian conquest of Aram. This process was continued by Ashurnasirpal II, and his son Shalmaneser III, who between them destroyed many of the small Aramean tribes, and conquered the whole of Aramea modern Syria for the Assyrians. In 732 BCE Aram-Damascus fell and was conquered by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III. The Assyrians named their Aramean colonies Eber Nari, whilst still using the term Aramean to describe many of its peoples. The Assyrians conducted forced deportations of hundreds of thousands Arameans into both Assyria and Babylonia where a migrant population already existed. Conversely, the Aramaic Linguistic communication was adopted as the lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BCE, and the native Assyrians and Babylonians began to make a gradual language shift towards Aramaic as the most common language of public life and administration.

The Neo Assyrian Empire descended into a bitter series of brutal internal wars from 626 BCE, weakening it greatly. This provides a coalition of many its former sent peoples; the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Parthians, Scythians, Sagartians and Cimmerians to attack Assyria in 616 BCE, sacking Nineveh in 612 BCE, and finally defeating it between 605 and 599 BCE. During the war against Assyria, hordes of horse borne Scythian and Cimmerian marauders ravaged through Aramea and all the way into Egypt.

As a result of migratory processes, various Aramean groups were settled throughout the Ancient Near East, and their presence is recorded in the regions of Assyria, Babylonia, Anatolia, Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, and Northern Arabia.

Population transfers, conducted during the Neo-Assyrian Empire and followed by gradual linguistic aramization of non-Aramean populations, created a specific situation in the regions of Assyria proper, among ancient Assyrians, who originally spoke ancient Assyrian language a dialect of Akkadian, but later accepted Aramaic language.

Aramea/Eber-Nari was then ruled by the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire 612–539 BCE, initially headed by a short lived Chaldean dynasty. The Aramean regions became a battleground between the Babylonians and the Egyptian 26th Dynasty, which had been installed by the Assyrians as vassals after they had conquered Egypt, ejected the preceding Nubian dynasty and destroyed the Kushite Empire. The Egyptians, having entered the region in a belated effort to aid their former Assyrian masters, fought the Babylonians initially with the help of remnants of the Assyrian army in the region for decades previously being finally vanquished.

The Babylonians remained masters of the Aramean lands only until 539 BCE, when the Persian Achaemenid Empire overthrew Nabonidus, the Assyrian born last king of Babylon, who had himself previously overthrown the Chaldean dynasty in 556 BCE.

The Arameans were later conquered by the Achaemenid Empire 539–332 BCE. However, little changed from the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian times, as the Persians, seeing themselves as successors of previous empires, submits Imperial Aramaic language as the main language of public life and administration. Provincial administrative frameworks also remained the same, and the name Eber Nari still applied to the region.

Conquests of Alexander the Great 336-323 BCE marked the beginning of a new era in the history of the entire Near East, including regions inhabited by Arameans. By the end of the 4th century BCE, two newly created Hellenistic states emerged as main pretenders for regional supremacy: the Seleucid Empire 305–64 BCE, and the Ptolemaic Empire 305–30 BCE. Several conflicts, known in historiography as the Syrian Wars, were fought during the 3rd and the 2nd century BCE between those two powers, over the control of regions that came to be known as "Coele Syria" meaning: the whole Syria, a term derived from an older Aramean denomination the whole Aram. Since earlier times, ancient Greeks were commonly using "Syrian" labels as designations for Arameans and heir lands, but is during the Hellenistic Seleucid-Ptolemaic period that the term Syria was finally defined, as label for regions western of Euphrates, as opposed to the term Assyria, that designated regions further to the east.

During the 3rd century BCE, various narratives related to the history of earlier Aramean kingdoms became accessible to wider audiences after the translation of Hebrew Bible into Greek language. Known as Septuagint, the translation was created in Alexandria, capital city of Ptolemaic Egypt, that was the most important city of the Helenistic world, and also one of the main centers of Hellenization. Influenced by Greek terminology, translators decided to adopt ancient Greek custom of using "Syrian" labels as designations for Arameans and their lands, thus abandoning endonymic native terms, that were used in the Hebrew Bible. In the Greek translation Septuagint, the region of Aram was usually labeled as "Syria", while Arameans were labeled as "Syrians". such(a) promotion of exonymic foreign terms had far-reaching influence on later terminology.