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100-570: The Arameans were not a single nation or group; rather, Aram was a region with local centers of power spread throughout the Levant . That makes it almost impossible to establish a coherent ethnic category of "Aramean" based on extra-linguistic identity markers such as material culture, lifestyle or religion. The people of Aram were called “Arameans” in Assyrian texts and in the Hebrew Bible , but

200-785: A Muslim majority in the Levant is presumed to have been reached by the 13th century. The majority of Levantine Muslims are Sunnis adhering to the four madhhabs ( Hanafi , Shafi'i , Hanbali and Maliki ). Islamic minorities include the Alawites and Nizari Ismailis in Syria, and Twelver Shiites in Lebanon . Levantine Christian groups include Greek Orthodox ( Antiochian Greek ), Syriac Orthodox , Eastern Catholic ( Syriac Catholic , Melkite and Maronite ), Roman Catholic ( Latin ), Nestorian , and Protestant . Armenians mostly belong to

300-507: A Semitic root rwm , "to be high". Newer suggestions interprets it as a broken plural meaning "white antelopes" or "white bulls". 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; thus, it is believed to originally be a toponym without any ethnic connotations. The earliest undisputed historical attestation of Arameans as

400-662: A battleground between the Babylonians and the 26th Dynasty of Egypt , which had been installed by the Assyrians as vassals after they had defeated and ejected the previous Nubian -ruled 25th Dynasty . The Egyptians, having entered the region in a belated attempt to aid their former Assyrian masters, fought the Babylonians, initially with the help of remnants of the Assyrian army, in the region for decades before they were finally vanquished. The Babylonians remained masters of

500-677: A generic term for Semitic wanderers and nomads of varying origins who appeared during the 13th century BCE across the ancient Near East , the Arabian Peninsula , Asia Minor , and Egypt . The Arameans would appear to be one part of the larger generic Ahlamû group rather than synonymous with the Ahlamu. The presence of the Ahlamû is attested during the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BCE), which already ruled many of

600-518: A mixture of Mesopotamian , Hittite and Hurrian influences. The legacy of ancient Arameans became of particular interest for scholars during the early modern period and resulted in the emergence of Aramaic studies as a distinctive field, dedicated to the study of the Aramaic language. By the 19th century, the Aramean question was formulated, and several scholarly theses were proposed regarding

700-465: A multiple 8-sided prisms and included 6 military campaigns that Marco De Odorico affirms as easily identifiable given that "the subdivision of paragraphs by horizontal lines... as well as the introduction begin with 'in my succession year'". Considering that much of Tiglath-Pileser I's reign involved military campaigns, it is unsurprising that most of his literary texts would include such information as "Altogether I conquered 42 lands and their rulers from

800-563: A part and other times to the whole of the Syrian region during the Iron Age . The expressions “All Aram” and “Upper and Lower Aram” in Sefire treaty inscriptions have been variously interpreted but can suggest a degree of political and cultural unity among some of the polities in the area. Biblical sources tell that Saul , David and Solomon (late 11th to 10th centuries BC) fought against

900-686: 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 numbers seem to vary according to climatic conditions and the force of neighbouring states inducing permanent settlement. The Late Bronze Age seems to coincide with increasing aridity, which weakened neighbouring states and induced transhumance pastoralists to spend longer and longer periods with their flocks. Urban settlements (hitherto largely inhabited by Amorite , Canaaite , Hittite , and Ugarite peoples) in

1000-405: A period of retrenchment, as Aramaean tribesmen put pressure on his realm. He died in 1076 BC and was succeeded by his son Asharid-apal-Ekur . The later kings Ashur-bel-kala and Shamshi-Adad IV were also his sons. Tiglath-Pileser's I inscriptions from his "fifth year annals" varied in form, from inscriptions on prisms to cuneiform inscriptions on tablets. A.0.87.i (or RIMA 2) was inscribed on

1100-552: A record of his victories engraved on copper plates in a fortress he built to secure his Cilician conquests. The Arameans emerged in a region which was largely under the domination of the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BC) and quickly posed a threat to the Assyrian polity which was largely located west of the Euphrates. In order to nullify this threat, Tiglath-Pileser I performed many campaigns in Aramean territory, although

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1200-531: A ship to sail the Mediterranean, on which he killed a nahiru or "sea-horse" (which A. Leo Oppenheim translates as a narwhal ) in the sea. The general view is that the restoration of the temple of the gods Ashur and Hadad at Assyrian capital of Assur was one of his initiatives. It is also believed he was one of the first Assyrian kings to commission parks and gardens with foreign trees and plants. The latter part of his reign seems to have been

1300-585: A string of states across the Levant and make notable expansions into Assyrian territory in this time such as in the Khabur Valley . For the time being, Assyria was unable to expand east of the Euphrates. The control of the high road to the Mediterranean was secured by the possession of the Hittite town of Pitru at the junction between the Euphrates and Sajur ; thence he proceeded to Gubal ( Byblos ), Sidon , and finally to Arvad where he embarked onto

1400-528: A variety of Arabic descended from the pre-Islamic Arabic dialects of Syria and Hejazi Arabic , but retaining significant influence from Western Middle Aramaic . Levantine Arabic is usually classified as North Levantine Arabic in Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Turkey, and South Levantine Arabic in Palestine and Jordan. Each of these encompasses a spectrum of regional or urban/rural variations. In addition to

1500-479: A vessel for as much information about his reign as possible, with the intent to be handed down to his successor. The son of Ashur-resh-ishi I , he ascended to the throne in 1115 BC, and became one of the greatest of Assyrian conquerors. Tiglath-Pileser I referred to himself as "unrivalled king of the universe, king of the four quarters, king of all princes, lord of lords… whose weapons the god Assur has sharpened and whose name he has pronounced eternally for control of

1600-664: A wider dispersion of Aramean communities throughout various regions of the Near East, and the range of Aramaic also widened. It gained significance and eventually became the common language of public life and administration, particularly during the periods of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 BCE) and the Achaemenid Empire (539–330 BCE). Before Christianity , Aramaic-speaking communities had undergone considerable Hellenization and Romanization in

1700-540: Is a term used to define the historical and geographical subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west and core West Asia , or by the political term, Middle East to the east . In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is equivalent to Cyprus and a stretch of land bordering the Mediterranean Sea in western Asia: i.e.

1800-552: Is a topic of interest among scholars but is never referred to simply as "Aramean". Scholars have difficulty in identifying and isolating characteristic Aramean elements in the culture. Even in North Syria, where more substantial evidence is available, scholars still find it difficult to identify what is genuinely Aramean from what is borrowed from other cultures. Widespread scholarly opinion still maintains that since several ethnic groups, such as Luwians and Aramaeans, interacted in

1900-544: Is also used for modern events, peoples, states or parts of states in the same region, namely Cyprus , Egypt , Iraq , Israel , Jordan , Lebanon , Palestine , Syria , and Turkey are sometimes considered Levant countries (compare with Near East , Middle East , Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia ). Several researchers include the island of Cyprus in Levantine studies, including the Council for British Research in

2000-512: Is literally "rising", deriving from Latin orior 'rise'. The notion of the Levant has undergone a dynamic process of historical evolution in usage, meaning, and understanding. While the term "Levantine" originally referred to the European residents of the eastern Mediterranean region, it later came to refer to regional "native" and "minority" groups. The term became current in English in

2100-1073: Is ultimately from the Latin word levare , meaning 'lift, raise'. Similar etymologies are found in Greek Ἀνατολή Anatolē ( cf. Anatolia 'the direction of sunrise'), in Germanic Morgenland ( lit.   ' morning land ' ), in Italian (as in Riviera di Levante , the portion of the Liguria coast east of Genoa ), in Hungarian Kelet ('east'), in Spanish and Catalan Levante and Llevant , ('the place of rising'), and in Hebrew מִזְרָח mizraḥ ('east'). Most notably, "Orient" and its Latin source oriens meaning 'east',

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2200-669: The Armenian Apostolic Church . There are also Levantines or Franco-Levantines who adhere to Roman Catholicism . There are also Assyrians belonging to the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church . Other religious groups in the Levant include Jews , Samaritans , Yazidis and Druze . Most populations in the Levant speak Levantine Arabic ( شامي , Šāmī ),

2300-700: The Bronze and Iron age Levant. Other Arabs include the Bedouins of Syrian Desert , Naqab and eastern Syria , who speak Bedouin Arabic . Non-Arab minorities include Circassians , Chechens , Turks , Jews , Turkmens , Assyrians , Kurds , Nawars and Armenians . Overlapping regional designations Subregional designations Others Other places in the east of a larger region Tiglath Pileser I Tiglath-Pileser I ( / ˈ t ɪ ɡ l ə θ p aɪ ˈ l iː z ər , - ˌ l æ θ , p ɪ -/ ; from

2400-652: The Caucasus Mountains, or any part of the Arabian Peninsula proper. Cilicia (in Asia Minor) and the Sinai Peninsula (Asian Egypt) are sometimes included. As a name for the contemporary region, several dictionaries consider Levant to be archaic today. Both the noun Levant and the adjective Levantine are now commonly used to describe the ancient and modern culture area formerly called Syro-Palestinian or Biblical: archaeologists now speak of

2500-654: The Hebraic form of Middle Assyrian Akkadian : 𒆪𒋾𒀀𒂍𒈗𒊏 , romanized:  Tukultī-apil-Ešarra , "my trust is in the son of Ešarra ") was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian period (1114–1076 BC). According to Georges Roux , Tiglath-Pileser was "one of the two or three great Assyrian monarchs since the days of Shamshi-Adad I ". He was known for his "wide-ranging military campaigns, his enthusiasm for building projects, and his interest in cuneiform tablet collections". Under him, Assyria became

2600-724: The Indo-European -speaking post-Hittite states . The Arameans, together with the Edomites and the Ammonites , attacked Israel in the early 11th century BCE but were defeated. Meanwhile, Arameans moved to the east of the Euphrates and into Babylonia, where an Aramean usurper was crowned king of Babylon under the name Adad-apal-iddin. During the 11th and the 10th centuries BCE, the Arameans conquered Sam'al and renamed it Bît-Agushi ,. They also conquered Til Barsip , which became

2700-610: The Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages , the Ancient Greek custom of using Syrian labels for Arameans and their language started to gain acceptance among an Aramaic-speaking literary and ecclesiastical elites. The practice of using Syrian labels as designations for Aramaic-speakers and their language was very common among ancient Greeks, and under their influence, the practice also became common among

2800-516: The Levant diminished in size until fully-nomadic pastoralist lifestyles came to dominate much of the region. The 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 in what is now Syria (called the Land of the Amurru during their tenure) were

2900-582: The Levant Company to trade with the Ottoman Empire . The name Levant States was used to refer to the French mandate over Syria and Lebanon after World War I . This is probably the reason why the term Levant has come to be used more specifically to refer to modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and the island of Cyprus . Some scholars mistakenly believed that it derives from

3000-651: The Maronites and the Aramean inhabitants of Maaloula and Jubb’adin near Damascus in Syria. The toponym A-ra-mu appears in an inscription at the East Semitic -speaking kingdom of Ebla listing geographical names, and the term Armi , 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,

3100-651: The Middle Assyrian Empire . 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 launched repeated raids into Aramean lands, Babylonia, Ancient Iran, Elam, Asia Minor, and even as far as the Mediterranean to keep its trade routes open. The Aramean city-states, like much of

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3200-590: 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. The Assyrian withdrawal allowed the Arameans and others to gain independence and take firm control of Eber-Nari in the late 11th century BCE. Some of the major Aramean-speaking city states included Aram-Damascus , Hamath , Bet-Adini , Bet-Bagyan , Bit-Hadipe , Aram-Bet Rehob , Aram-Zobah , Bet-Zamani , Bet-Halupe , and Aram-Ma'akah , as well as

3300-676: The Near East in various dialects. By around 800 BCE, Aramaic had become the lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire , which continued during the Achaemenid period as Imperial Aramaic . Although it was marginalized by Greek during the Hellenistic period , Aramaic in its varying dialects remained unchallenged as the common language of all Semitic peoples of the region until the Arabs ' Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia in

3400-798: The Near East . Thus, their integration into the Greek-speaking world had begun a long time before Christianity became established. Some scholars suggest that Arameans who accepted Christianity were referred to as Syrians by the Greeks . The early Muslim conquests in the 7th century were followed by the Islamization and the gradual Arabization of Aramaic-speaking communities throughout the Near East. That ultimately resulted in their fragmentation and acculturation . Today, their cultural and linguistic heritage continues to be recognized by some Syriac-Christian or Neo-Aramaic speaking groups, such as

3500-795: The Palestine region , Transjordan and Sinai . Descendant Neo-Aramaic languages of the Eastern Aramaic branch continue to serve as the spoken and written languages of the Assyrians , Mandeans and Mizrahi Jews . These languages are primarily found in Iraq , northwestern Iran , southeastern Turkey and northeastern Syria , and to a lesser extent, in migrant communities in Armenia , Georgia, Russia , Lebanon , Israel , Jordan and Azerbaijan , as well as in Assyrian diaspora communities in

3600-614: The Seleucid Empire (305–64 BCE) and the Ptolemaic Empire (305–30 BCE). Since earlier times, ancient Greeks commonly used "Syrian" labels as designations for Arameans and heir lands, but it was during the Hellenistic (Seleucid-Ptolemaic) period that the term "Syria" was finally defined to designate the regions west of the Euphrates , as opposed to the term " Assyria ", which designated the regions further east. In

3700-735: The Southern Levant . While the usage of the term "Levant" in academia has been restricted to the fields of archeology and literature, there is a recent attempt to reclaim the notion of the Levant as a category of analysis in political and social sciences. Two academic journals were launched in the early 2010s using the word: the Journal of Levantine Studies , published by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Levantine Review , published by Boston College . The word Levant has been used in some translations of

3800-595: The endonymic (native) terms that were used in the Hebrew Bible. In Septuagint, the region of Aram was commonly labelled as "Syria", and the Arameans were labelled as "Syrians". When reflecting on traditional influences of Greek terminology on English translations of the Septuagint, American orientalist Robert W. Rogers noted in 1921 that it was unfortunate that the change also affected later English versions. In Greek sources, two writers spoke particularly clearly on

3900-414: 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). There is no consensus on the origin and meaning of the word "Aram", one of the most accepted suggestions being that it is derived from

4000-493: The "Ahlamû-Arameans" ( Ahlame Armaia ). Shortly afterward, the Ahlamû disappear from Assyrian annals and are replaced by the Arameans ( Aramu, Arimi ). That indicates that the Arameans had risen to dominance 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 had been firmly established in Syria; however, they were conquered by

4100-401: The 16th century, along with the first English merchant adventurers in the region; English ships appeared in the Mediterranean in the 1570s, and the English merchant company signed its agreement (" capitulations ") with the Ottoman Sultan in 1579. The English Levant Company was founded in 1581 to trade with the Ottoman Empire , and in 1670 the French Compagnie du Levant  [ fr ]

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4200-470: The 1st century BCE, Aramean lands became the frontier region between two empires, Roman and Parthian , and later between their successor states, the Byzantine and Sasanid Empires. Several minor states also existed in frontier regions, most notably the Kingdom of Osroene , centred in the city of Edessa , known in Aramaic as Urhay. However, it is not easy in either pre-Christian or Christian periods to trace purely-Aramean elements in Edessan culture. During

4300-581: The 3rd century BCE, various narratives related to the history of earlier Aramean states became accessible to wider audiences after the translation of the Hebrew Bible into the Greek language . Known as Septuagint , the translation was created in Alexandria , the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt that was the most important city of the Hellenistic world and was one of the main centres of Hellenization . Influenced by Greek terminology, translators decided to adopt ancient Greek custom of using "Syrian" labels as designations for Arameans and their lands and thus abandon

4400-428: The 7th century AD, when the language became gradually superseded by Arabic . The vernacular dialects of Eastern Old Aramaic, spoken during the Neo-Assyrian , Neo-Babylonian , and Achaemenid Persian empires, developed into various Eastern Middle Aramaic dialects. Among these were the Aramaic dialects of the ancient region of Osrhoene , one of which later became the liturgical language of Syriac Christianity . In

4500-505: 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 , the East Mediterranean , North Africa , Ancient Iran , Ancient Greece and the Balkans and led to the genesis of new peoples and polities across those regions. The Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BCE), which had dominated

4600-456: The Amorites, a Northwest Semitic -speaking people who had appeared during the 25th century BCE, destroyed the hitherto dominant state of Ebla, founded the powerful state of Mari in the Levant and during the 19th century BCE also Babylonia , in southern Mesopotamia . However, they seem to have been displaced or wholly absorbed by the appearance of a people called the Ahlamu by the 13th century BCE and disappear from history. Ahlamû appears to be

4700-492: The Aramean groups is derived from excavated objects and temples and by Aramaic literary sources, as well as the names they had. Their religion did not feature any particular deity that could be called an Aramean god or goddess. It appears from their inscriptions and their names that the Arameans worshipped Canaanite and Mesopotamian gods such as Hadad , Sin , Ishtar (whom they called Astarte ), Shamash , Tammuz , Bel and Nergal , and Canaaite - Phoenecian deities such as

4800-450: The Aramean lands only until 539 BCE, when the Persian Achaemenid Empire overthrew Nabonidus , the Assyrian-born last king of Babylon, who had himself 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, maintained Imperial Aramaic as

4900-406: The Aramean tribal polities of the Gambulu , Litau and Puqudu . Akkermans and Schwartz note that in assessing Luwian and Aramean states in ancient Syria, the existing information on the ethnic composition of the regional states in ancient Syria primarily concerns the rulers and so the ethnolingustic situation of the majority of the population of the states is unclear. Furthermore, they mean that

5000-448: The Arameans. Posidonius , born in Apamea , as quoted by Strabo , writes: "Those people whom we Greeks call Syrioi, call themselves Aramaioi". Further, Josephus , who was born in Jerusalem , defines the regions of "Aram's sons" as the Tranchonitis, Damascus "midway between Palestine and Coelo-Syria", Armenia, Bactria, and the Mesene around Spasini Charax. The ancient Arameans lived in a close relationship with other distinct societies in

5100-543: The Byzantine authorities and thus secured religious tolerance. The Byzantines extended their rule up to Edessa (1031) but were forced into a general retreat from Syria during the course of the 11th century and were pushed back by the newly-arrived Seljuk Turks , who took Antioch (1084). The later establishment of Crusader states (1098), the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa , created new challenges for local Aramaic-speaking Christians, both Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox. The Iron Age culture of Syria

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5200-431: 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 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 River and became strong enough to dissociate with

5300-410: The Levant share not only geographic position, but cuisine , some customs, and history . They are often referred to as Levantines . The term Levant appears in English in 1497 , and originally meant 'the East ' or 'Mediterranean lands east of Italy'. It is borrowed from the French levant 'rising', referring to the rising of the sun in the east, or the point where the sun rises. The phrase

5400-401: The Levant , the UCLA Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department, Journal of Levantine Studies and the UCL Institute of Archaeology, the last of which has dated the connection between Cyprus and mainland Levant to the early Iron Age . Archaeologists seeking a neutral orientation that is neither biblical nor national have used terms such as Levantine archaeology and archaeology of

5500-403: The Levant and of Levantine archaeology ; food scholars speak of Levantine cuisine ; and the Latin Christians of the Levant continue to be called Levantine Christians . The Levant has been described as the "crossroads of Western Asia , the Eastern Mediterranean, and Northeast Africa ", and in geological ( tectonic ) terms as the "northwest of the Arabian Plate ". The populations of

5600-415: The Middle Assyrian period. The texts were believed to be "justification of war." Although little literary text is available from the time of Tiglath-Pileser I, there is evidence to show that the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I inspired the act of recording information, including that of his military campaigns. Toward the end of Tiglath-Pileser's reign literary texts took the form of "summary texts" which served as

5700-443: The Near East and Asia Minor, were subjugated by the Neo Assyrian Empire from 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 all directions. The process was continued by Ashurnasirpal II and his son Shalmaneser III , who destroyed many of the small Aramean tribes and conquered Aramean lands for the Assyrians. In 732 BCE, Aram-Damascus fell and

5800-457: The Neo-Assyrian Empire and followed by the gradual linguistic Aramization of non-Aramean populations, created a specific situation in the regions of Assyria proper among ancient Assyrians , who originally spoke the ancient Assyrian language , a dialect of Akkadian, but later accepted Aramaic. Eber-Nari was then ruled by the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire, which was initially headed by a short-lived Chaldean dynasty. The Aramean regions became

5900-596: 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 series of brutal internal wars from 626 BCE that weakened it greatly. That allowed a coalition of many its former subject peoples ( Babylonians , Chaldeans , Medes , Persians , Parthians , Scythians , Sagartians and Cimmerians ) to attack Assyria in 616 BCE, sack Nineveh in 612 BCE and finally defeat it between 605 and 599 BCE. During

6000-473: The Romans and Byzantines. An Arabization process was initiated after the Arab conquest in the 7th century. In the religious sphere of life, Aramaic-speaking Christians (such as Melkites in Palestine) were exposed to Islamization , which created a base for gradual acceptance of the Arabic language not only as the dominant language of Islamic prayer and worship but also as a common language of public and domestic life. The acceptance of Arabic language became

6100-411: The Upper Euphrates ; then he overran Commagene and eastern Cappadocia , and drove the Hittites from the Assyrian province of Subartu , northeast of Malatia . In a subsequent campaign, the Assyrian forces penetrated into the mountains south of Lake Van and then turned westward to receive the submission of Malatia . In his fifth year, Tiglath-Pileser attacked Comana in Cappadocia , and placed

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6200-418: The West, particularly in the United States , Canada , Great Britain , Sweden , Australia and Germany . Western Neo-Aramaic , the only surviving modern variety of the Western branch, is now spoken by Muslims and Christians solely in Maaloula and Jubb'adin in the Qalamoun mountains of southwestern Syria. During the early modern period , the study of the Aramaic language, both ancient and modern,

6300-459: The ancient Near East . The most notable was Aram-Damascus which reached its height in the second half of the 9th century BCE during the reign of King Hazael . During the 8th century BC, local Aramaean city-states were gradually conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire . The policy of population displacement and relocation that was applied throughout Assyrian domains also affected Arameans, many of whom were resettled by Assyrian authorities. That caused

6400-414: The boundaries of the Levant as follows. A distinction is made between the main subregions of the Levant, the northern and the southern: The island of Cyprus is also included as a third subregion in the archaeological region of the Levant: The vast majority of Levantines are Muslims . After the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century, Islam was first introduced into the region. However,

6500-484: The chief town of Bît-Adini , also known as Beth Eden. North of Sam'al was the Aramean state of Bit Gabbari, which was sandwiched between the post-Hittite states of Carchemish , Gurgum , Khattina , Unqi and the Georgian state of Tabal . One of their earliest semi-independent kingdoms in northern Mesopotamia was Bît-Bahiâni ( Tell Halaf ). The first certain reference to the Arameans appears in an Assyrian inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I, which refers to subjugating

6600-403: The countries along the Eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece in Southern Europe to Egypt and Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya) in Northern Africa . In the 13th and 14th centuries, the term levante was used for Italian maritime commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean, including Greece, Anatolia , Syria-Palestine , and Egypt , that is, the lands east of Venice . Eventually

6700-543: The development of the language and the history of the Arameans. In modern times, Aramean identity is held mainly by a number of Syriac Christians , from southeastern Turkey and parts of Syria , in the diaspora , especially in Germany and Sweden . In 2014, Israel officially recognised Arameans as a distinctive minority. Questions related to the minority rights of Arameans in some other countries were also brought to international attention. Levant The Levant ( / l ə ˈ v æ n t / lə- VANT )

6800-451: The first centuries AD, the Christian Bible was translated into Aramaic and by the 4th century, the local Aramaic dialect of Edessa ( Syriac : Urhay ) had evolved into a literary language known as Edessan Aramaic (Syriac: Urhaya ). Since Edessan Aramaic ( Urhaya ) was the primary liturgical language of Aramaic Christianity, it also became known as Edessan Syriac and was later defined by Western scholars as Classical Syriac . This laid

6900-455: The foundation for the term Syriac Christianity . The Eastern Orthodox patriarchates were dominated by Greek episcopate and Greek linguistic and cultural traditions. The use of the Aramaic language in liturgical and literary life among Melkites of Jewish descent persisted throughout the Middle Ages until the 14th century, as exemplified in the use of a specific regional dialect known as Christian Palestinian Aramaic or Palestinian Syriac in

7000-413: The four quarters… splendid flame which covers the hostile land like a rain storm". Alongside this view of himself, he emphasized the brutality of his takeover of numerous lands, and was the first Assyrian king to claim hostages, occasionally children, as a political instrument against conquered peoples. His first campaign was against the Mushku in 1112 BC, who had occupied certain Assyrian districts in

7100-1522: The gates in the City of Ashur" These statues were mainly used to decorate the "royal entrance", a practice that was taken up by Tiglath-Pileser I's son Aššur-bel-kala after his father's passing. In addition to erecting statues of animals his people had never seen, Tiglath-Pileser I returned from some war campaigns with the living animals themselves, including calves of wild bulls as well as elephants. Attribution: ( Shamshi-Adad dynasty 1808–1736 BCE) (Amorites) Shamshi-Adad I Ishme-Dagan I Mut-Ashkur Rimush Asinum Ashur-dugul Ashur-apla-idi Nasir-Sin Sin-namir Ipqi-Ishtar Adad-salulu Adasi (Non-dynastic usurpers 1735–1701 BCE) Puzur-Sin Ashur-dugul Ashur-apla-idi Nasir-Sin Sin-namir Ipqi-Ishtar Adad-salulu Adasi ( Adaside dynasty 1700–722 BCE) Bel-bani Libaya Sharma-Adad I Iptar-Sin Bazaya Lullaya Shu-Ninua Sharma-Adad II Erishum III Shamshi-Adad II Ishme-Dagan II Shamshi-Adad III Ashur-nirari I Puzur-Ashur III Enlil-nasir I Nur-ili Ashur-shaduni Ashur-rabi I Ashur-nadin-ahhe I Enlil-Nasir II Ashur-nirari II Ashur-bel-nisheshu Ashur-rim-nisheshu Ashur-nadin-ahhe II Second Intermediate Period Sixteenth Dynasty Abydos Dynasty Seventeenth Dynasty (1500–1100 BCE) Kidinuid dynasty Igehalkid dynasty Untash-Napirisha Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt Smendes Amenemnisu Psusennes I Amenemope Osorkon

7200-575: The historical region of Syria ("Greater Syria"), which includes present-day Israel , Jordan , Lebanon , Syria , the Palestinian territories and most of Turkey southwest of the middle Euphrates . Its overwhelming characteristic is that it represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia . In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the Eastern Mediterranean with its islands; that is, it included all of

7300-547: The lands in which the Ahlamû arose in the Babylonian city of Nippur and even at Dilmun . Shalmaneser I (1274–1245 BCE) is recorded as having defeated Shattuara , King of the Mitanni and his Hittite and Ahlamû mercenaries. In the next century, the Ahlamû cut the road from Babylon to Hattusas . Also, Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244–1208 BCE) conquered Mari , Hanigalbat and Rapiqum on the Euphrates and "the mountain of

7400-553: The leading power of the Ancient Near East , a position the kingdom largely maintained for the next five hundred years. He expanded Assyrian control into Anatolia and Syria, and to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea . From his surviving inscriptions, he seems to have carefully cultivated a fear of himself in his subjects and in his enemies alike. The beginning of Tiglath-Pileser's I reign, laid heavy involvement in military campaigns, as suggested from translated texts from

7500-663: The liturgical Aramaic/Syriac language. In the 10th century, the Byzantine Empire gradually reconquered much of northern Syria and upper Mesopotamia, including the cities of Melitene (934) and Antioch (969) and thus liberated local Aramaic-speaking Christian communities from the Muslim rule. Byzantines favoured Eastern Orthodoxy, but the leadership of the Antiochian Oriental Orthodox Patriarchate succeeded in reaching agreement with

7600-494: The main language of public life and administration. Provincial administrative structures also remained the same, and the name Eber Nari still applied to the region. The conquests of Alexander the Great marked the beginning of a new era in the history of the entire Near East, including the regions inhabited by Arameans. By the late 4th century BCE, two newly created Hellenistic states emerged as main pretenders for regional supremacy:

7700-453: The main vessel of the gradual Arabization of Aramean communities throughout the Near East and ultimately resulted in their fragmentation and acculturation . Those processes affected not only Islamized Aramaic-speakers but also some of those who remained Christians, which created local communities of Arabic-speaking Christians of Syriac Christian origin who spoke Arabic in their public and domestic life but continued to belong to churches that used

7800-574: The material culture shows no distinctions between states dominated by the Luwians or the Arameans. Aramean tribal groups were identified by family names that often began with the Semitic prefix Bit , meaning "house of", such as "Bit Adini". This naming convention was influenced by the writing system used by the coastal Phoenicians . Each tribe's name signified the house or ancestral lineage to which it belonged. The term "Aram" sometimes referred only to

7900-576: The name of Lebanon. Today the term is often used in conjunction with prehistoric or ancient historical references. Another term for "Syria-Palestine" is Ash- Shaam ( Arabic : ٱلشَّام , /ʔaʃ.ʃaːm/ ), the area that is bounded by the Taurus Mountains of Turkey in the north, the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the north Arabian Desert and Mesopotamia in the east, and Sinai in the south (which can be fully included or not). Typically, it does not include Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor),

8000-655: The north. Two minority languages are recognized: Armenian , and Cypriot Maronite Arabic , a hybrid of mostly medieval Arabic vernaculars with strong influence from contact with Turkish and Greek, spoken by approximately 1,000 people. Western Neo-Aramaic is additionally spoken in three villages in Syria: Maaloula , Jubb'adin and Bakhah . Among diaspora communities based in the Levant, Greek , Armenian and Circassian are also spoken. According to recent ancient DNA studies, Levantines derive most of their ancestry from ancient Semitic-speaking peoples of

8100-407: The numerous campaigns that the Assyrian records recorded that he took indicate that Assyrian military campaigns were unsuccessful at exercising power or dominance over the Arameans. Some scholars believe that the Arameans took Nineveh in this time. In the 11th century BC, Assyria fell into decline which may have been caused by the incursions of the emerging Arameans, allowing the Arameans to establish

8200-405: The one hand, and Canaanite , which comprises languages further south in the speech area such as Hebrew , Phoenician , and Moabite , on the other hand. All three branches can be subsumed under the more general rubric Northwest Semitic and thus share a common origin. The earliest direct witnesses of Aramaic, which were composed between the 10th and 8th centuries BC, are unanimously subsumed under

8300-547: The opening centuries of the Iron Age , when several newly-emerging chiefdoms decided to use it as a written language . The process coincided with a change from syllabic cuneiform to alphabetic scribal culture and the rise of a novel style of public epigraphy , which was formerly unattested in Syria-Palestine. The language is considered a sister branch of the idiom used in the Bronze-Age city-state of Ugarit , on

8400-652: The other side of the Lower Zab in distant mountainous regions to the other side of the Euphrates, people of Hatti, and the Upper Sea in the west – from my accession year to my fifth regnal year." Tiglath-Pileser I's prism was essentially a year-by-year layout of his military campaigns, and today is considered one of the world's first-preserved annals. Tiglath-Pileser I's annals contain military campaign documentation, as well as other information such as what Tiglath-Pileser I would bring back in an early form of tribute, from

8500-441: The place instead of any one culture. The French mandate of Syria and Lebanon (1920–1946) was called the Levant states. Today, "Levant" is the term typically used by archaeologists and historians with reference to the history of the region. Scholars have adopted the term Levant to identify the region due to its being a "wider, yet relevant, cultural corpus" that does not have the "political overtones" of Syria-Palestine. The term

8600-603: The region, one material culture with "mixed" elements resulted. The material culture appears to be so homogeneous that it "shows no clear distinctions between states dominated by Luwians or Aramaeans". Arameans were mostly defined by their use of the West Semitic Old Aramaic language (1100 BCE – 200 CE), which was first written using the Phoenician alphabet but over time modified to a specifically- Aramaic alphabet . Aramaic first appeared in history during

8700-453: The region. Throughout much of their history, they were heavily influenced by the cuneiform culture of Mesopotamia and the surrounding areas. Bilingual texts in Aramaic and the Assyrian dialect of Akkadian are among the earliest examples of Aramaic writing. In the western regions, Aramean states had close contact with Israel, Phoenicia , and northern Arabia . The Phoenician god Baʿalšamem

8800-587: The small Aramean states 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 reference to

8900-444: The storm-god, El , the supreme deity of Canaan, in addition to Anat (‘Atta) and others. The Arameans who lived outside their homelands apparently followed the traditions of the countries in which they settled. The King of Damascus , for instance, employed Phoenician sculptors and ivory-carvers. In Tell Halaf-Guzana, the palace of Kapara , an Aramean ruler (9th century BCE) was decorated with orthostates and with statues that display

9000-636: The term ash-Shām as used by the organization known as ISIL, ISIS, and other names , though there is disagreement as to whether this translation is accurate. In The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: c. 8000–332 BCE (OHAL; 2013), the definition of the Levant for the specific purposes of the book is synonymous to that of the Arabic " bilad al-sham , 'the land of sham [Syria]'", translating in Western parlance to greater Syria . OHAL defines

9100-529: The term " Old Aramaic ". The early writings exhibit variation and anticipate the enormous linguistic diversity within the Aramaic language group. Despite the variation, they are connected by common literary forms and formulaic expressions. As early as the 8th century BCE, Aramaic competed with the East Semitic Akkadian language and script in Assyria and Babylonia and then spread throughout

9200-477: The term was restricted to the Muslim countries of Syria-Palestine and Egypt. The term entered English in the late 15th century from French. It derives from the Italian levante , meaning "rising", implying the rising of the Sun in the east, and is broadly equivalent to the term al-Mashriq ( Arabic : ٱلْمَشْرِق , [ʔal.maʃ.riq] ), meaning "the eastern place, where the Sun rises". In 1581, England set up

9300-430: The terms “Aramean” and “Aram” were never used by later Aramean dynasts to refer to themselves or their country, with the exception of the king of Aram-Damascus since his kingdom was also called Aram. "Arameans" is merely an appellation of the geographical term Aram given to 1st-millennium BC inhabitants of Syria. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, several Aramean-ruled city-states were established throughout

9400-400: The varieties normally grouped together as "Levantine", a number of other varieties and dialects of Arabic are spoken in the Levant area, such as Levantine Bedawi Arabic (by Bedouins ) and Mesopotamian Arabic (in eastern Syria). Of the languages of Cyprus , the two official languages are Turkish and Greek. The most used languages by population are Greek in the south followed by Turkish in

9500-489: The various locations he showed military strength over. Once returned from a successful war campaign Tiglath-Pileser I is said to have had statues of the various animals he had come into contact with as well as hunted. From the translated annals text, it is said that Tiglath-Pileser I had "2 nāhirū (horse of the sea)  sculptures, 4 burhiš sculptures, 4 lions constructed of basalt, 2 bull colossi made of alabaster, 2 burhiš sculptures made of white limestone and had them set up at

9600-423: The war against Assyria, hordes of horse-borne Scythian and Cimmerian marauders ravaged through the Levant 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

9700-400: Was conquered by Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser III . The Assyrians named their Aramean colonies Eber Nari but still used the term "Aramean" to describe many of its peoples. The Assyrians conducted forced deportations of hundreds of thousands of Arameans to both Assyria and Babylonia, where a migrant population already existed. Conversely, the Aramaic language was adopted as the lingua franca of

9800-411: Was even incorporated into the Aramean tradition. Identifying distinct elements of the Aramean heritage in later times is challenging because of the diverse influences on their culture. For example, the earliest Syriac legal documents contain legal formulae that could be considered Aramean, but they could also be interpreted as Neo-Assyrian or Neo-Babylonian . After the establishment of Roman Syria in

9900-542: Was founded for the same purpose. At this time, the Far East was known as the "Upper Levant". In early 19th-century travel writing , the term sometimes incorporated certain Mediterranean provinces of the Ottoman Empire , as well as independent Greece (and especially the Greek islands ). In 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference

10000-411: Was initiated among Western scholars. This led to the formation of Aramaic studies as a broader multidisciplinary field, encompassing the study of the cultural and historical heritage of Aramaic. The linguistic and historical aspects of Aramaic studies have been further expanded since the 19th century through archaeological excavations of ancient sites in the Near East . What is known of the religion of

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