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Arameans

This article is about the ancient Arameans. For other uses, see Aramean (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Armenians or Aromanians.

The Arameans, or Aramaeans (Old Aramaic: 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀, Aramayya; Hebrew: אֲרַמִּים; Ancient Greek: Ἀραμαῖοι; Classical Syriac: ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, Aramaye,[1] Syriac pronunciation: [ʔɑːrɑːˈmɑːje]), were a tribal[2] Semitic people[3][4] in the ancient Near East, first documented in historical sources from the late 12th century BC. Their homeland, often referred to as the land of Aram, originally covered central regions of modern Syria.[5]

The Arameans were never 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.[6][7] The people of Aram were called “Arameans” in Assyrian texts[8] and in the Hebrew Bible[9], but the term “Aramean” was used neither as a self-designation nor for their country by later Aramean dynasts, with the exception of the king of Aram-Damascus since his kingdom was also called Aram.[10] Aramean tribal groups were identified by family names that often began with the Semitic prefix Bit, meaning "house", 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.[11][12] The term "Aram" sometimes referred only to a part and other times to the whole of the Syrian region during the Iron Age. The concept of "All Aram" (ʿAram Kulloh) and a collective Aramean identity emerged in the mid-8th century BC. During this period, various Aramean chiefdoms and states, particularly in regions referred to as "Upper and Lower Aram", formed alliances that reinforced their shared identity. This collective identity, known as "All Aram", is mentioned in historical sources such as the Sefire Treaties, suggesting a degree of political and cultural unity among these Aramean polities. This coalition played a role in their opposition to the expanding Assyrian Empire.[13][14][15] This explains why the term "Arameans" was applied to the inhabitants of Syria in the 1st millennium BCE.[16]

At the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, a number of Aramean-ruled city-states were established throughout the ancient Near East. The most notable was Aram-Damascus, located in modern-day Syria, which reached its height in the second half of the 9th century BCE during the reign of King Hazael. During the eighth 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 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 later Achaemenid Empire (539–330 BCE).

A distinctive Aramaic alphabet was developed and used to write Old Aramaic.[17][18][19] As a result of linguistic Aramization, a wider Aramaic-speaking area was created throughout the central regions of the Near East that exceeded the boundaries of Aramean ethnic communities. During the later Hellenistic and Roman periods, minor Aramaic-speaking states emerged, the most notable of them being Osroene, centred on Edessa, the birthplace of Edessan Aramaic, which later came to be known as Classical Syriac.[20][21][22]

Before Christianity, Aramaic-speaking communities had undergone considerable Hellenization and Romanization in the Near East.[23] Thus, their integration into the Greek-speaking world had begun a long time before Christianity became established.[24] Some scholars suggest that Arameans who accepted Christianity were referred to as Syrians by the Greeks.[25] The early Muslim conquests in the 7th century was followed by the Islamization and the gradual Arabization of Aramaic-speaking communities throughout the Near East. That ultimately resulted in their fragmentation and acculturation.[26] Today, their cultural and linguistic heritage continues to be recognized by some Syriac-Christian or Neo-Aramaic speaking groups, such as the Maronites and the Aramean inhabitants of Maaloula and Jubb’adin near Damascus in Syria.[27][28][29][30]

  1. ^ The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. p. 234. ISBN 9780192562463.
  2. ^ Sargon II, King of Assyria. p. 179. ISBN 9780884142232. The origin of the Aramean tribal groups in this area still remains unclear, in spite of the several hypotheses proposed.? Aramean tribal groups are attested at least from the eleventh century as new occupants of strategic areas in the Jezirah, northern Mesopotamia, and the Syrian steppe.
  3. ^ The Ancient Assyrians. p. 13. ISBN 9781472848079.
  4. ^ Ancient Egypt and the Near East. p. 140. ISBN 9780761499572.
  5. ^ Studies in the Aramaic Legal Papyri from Elephantine. ISBN 9789004294233. The spread of the Aramaic language from its Syrian homeland resulted in large part from Aramean migration and expansion, and was abetted by the Neo-Assyrian policy of deportation operative during the gth to the 7th cen turies. These factors led to the so-called Aramaization of Assyria and Babylonia, a process that gained momentum in the latter days of the Assyrian Empire.
  6. ^ Doak 2020, p. 51:However, we must be clear at the outset: the Arameans were never, in fact, a single nation or group; rather, Aram was a region with local centers of power spread throughout contemporary Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, at major cities such as Damascus and Hamath.
  7. ^ Gzella 2017, p. 23:It is nonetheless difficult if not impossible to establish a coherent ethnic category "Aramean" on the basis of extra-linguistic identity markers such as material culture, lifestyle (including cuisine), or religion and other cultural core traditions.
  8. ^ Jan Dušek; Jana Mynářová. Aramaean Borders. Brill. p. 82. ISBN 9789004398535. Tiglath-pileser III stated: 13 [From] those [Ara]means whom I deported, [I distribut]ed (and) settled [...thousand to the province of] the turtanu, 10,000 (to) the province of the palace herald, [...] thousand (to) the province of the chief cupbearer, ...thousand (to) the province of the land] Barha(l)zi, (and) 5,000 (to) the province of the land Mazamua.
  9. ^ Thomas V Brisco. Holman Bible Atlas. ISBN 9781433670312. The cultural identity of Syria varied historically; but from at least the beginning of the Iron Age (ca. 1200 B.C.), the Arameans increasingly dominated the region. Aramean kingdoms like Aram-Damascus, Aram-zobah, and Hamath appear repeatedly in the biblical record.
  10. ^ Herbert Niehr. The Aramaeans in Ancient Syria. Brill. p. 15. ISBN 9789004229433. It is interesting to note in this context that later Aramaean dynasts never refer to themselves as Aramaeans or to their country as Aram, with the exception of the king of Aram-Damascus since his kingdom was also called Aram.
  11. ^ Ancient Israel's Neighbors. pp. 54–55. ISBN 9780190690618. Groups of family members lived near one another, and the social structure was probably focused on the identity of a primarymale figure in the family ("patriarchal") and possibly even traced its roots to some local tribal ancestor, after which the group was named (e.g., Bit Adini, Bit-Agusi, Bit-Gabbari, Bit-Hazaili; the Semitic word "Bit" means "House of," followed by the name of a founding figure). Most scholars who study the Arameans speak of their origins in terms of "tribes" and tribal leaders who took advantage of political instability in the region during certain time periods to expand their territory.
  12. ^ A History of Syria in One Hundred Sites. p. 5. ISBN 9781784913823. Each Aramean tribal group was called by the family name, 'Bit' (house), following a coastal Phoenician writing system. The most important Aramaic kingdoms were established at Halaf (Kingdom of Guzana - the Kingdom of Bit-Bahiani), Ahmar (the Kingdom of Bit-Adini), Damascus (the Kingdom of Aram Damascus) and North of Aleppo (the Kingdom of Bit-Agushi).
  13. ^ Steven Grosby. Biblical Ideas of Nationality. pp. 150–151. ISBN 9781575060651. The qualifier "all" in "all Aram" is clearly of some sociological significance; it implies a certain kind of collective unity. One is immediately re-minded of the Deuteronomistic use of "all" in "all Israel (kol yisra'el) from Dan to Beersheba."
  14. ^ J. Brian Peckham. Phoenicia. ISBN 9781646021222. By mid-century, the Syrian chiefdoms, through a system of alliances, affirmed their Aramean identity as "All Aram", consisting of the states in "Upper and Lower Aram", and together defied the Assyrian Empire.70
  15. ^ Nation and Empire as Two Trends of Political Organization in the Iron Age Levant. Brill. p. 117. ISBN 9789004685581. What is certain is that no united, pan-Aramean national state ever existed, yet clearly "Aram" served as a common identity marker and (self-)designation, although possibly with different meanings (e.g. as a region, as a collective noun for the people; or another appellation of the Damascus-centered polity). The brief analysis of the lists of treaty partners as well as the geographical description in the Sefire Treaties, furthermore, appears to suggest that "all Aram" may indicate the highest level of identity among different Aramean polities, above the tribe, the city-state and the individual ruling families, even if not all Aramean speakers, all Aramean tribes or states were included in this "all Aram". 119 The phrase more likely refers to a group of polities that shared common Aramean cultural and social features, perhaps all with Aramean tribal structures internally in addition to the use of varieties of the Aramean language, who chose to pick Aram as a common denominator in this context. 120 How inclusive or exclusive this phrase is in reality cannot be judged. Finally, while the nature of the Aramean identity is largely cultural and perhaps ethnic, the presence of political elements is also likely. Although a united Aramean polity, as the one suggested by B. Mazar (1962), might not be fully tenable, the fact that "all Aram", with Arpad as its representative, can serve as a party in international treaties indicates that the Arameans as an cultural community may have engaged in joint political acts, at least conceptually.
  16. ^ Herbert Niehr. The Aramaeans in Ancient Syria. Brill. p. 16. ISBN 9789004229433. So Aram is a geographical term that refers at times to part and at others to all of the Syrian territory in the Iron Age, hence the appellation "Aramaeans" given to the 1st - millennium B.C. inhabitants of Syria
  17. ^ Lipiński 2000, p. 25-54, 347–407.
  18. ^ Gzella 2015, p. 16-45, 53–103.
  19. ^ Younger 2016, p. 109-220, 549–654.
  20. ^ Lipiński 2000, p. 409-489.
  21. ^ Gzella 2015, p. 104-211.
  22. ^ Younger 2016, p. 655-740.
  23. ^ Healey 2019, p. 443.
  24. ^ Healey 2019, p. 444.
  25. ^ Witakowski 1987, p. 76:Ever since the time of christianization those Arameans who embraced the new religion have been referred to as the Syrians, a name of Greek origin which they eventually accepted themselves.
  26. ^ Griffith 1997, p. 11–31.
  27. ^ Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World. p. 17. ISBN 9781107244566. As Greek politai became a sub-category for a wider group of Syrians, the Greek peer polity network of Syria and, more broadly, the Roman imperial Syrian ethnos maintained cognitive and performative commonality, even if it did not always enjoy political solidarity or engage in unified mass action. Within it, both ethnic Greeks and ethnic Syrians, whether speaking Greek or Aramaic, deemed ancient (As)Syrians/Arameans among their ethnos civic founders (if not ethnic ancestors), but their historical narratives were often informed by Greek influences and categories. In this sense, Syrians of the Roman imperial era, and even Assyrians or Arameans beyond the frontier, posited links to various ancient Greek or Syrian "founders," with or without positing ethnic descent.
  28. ^ The Maronites in history. p. 177. Lammens states that al-Baladhuri labeled these Maronites al-Anbat to indicate their Aramaic (Syriac) origin.
  29. ^ Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, Or Philosophical Society of Great Britain. Victoria Institute. p. 51. The only people that remain who might be considered lineal descendants of the Aramean race are the Droozes and Maronites.
  30. ^ Asher Kaufman. Reviving Phoenicia. The Syrians today, Zaydan continued, are divided by their origin into two groups: Muslims and Christians. Most of the Muslims are Arabs. As for the Christians, the majority are descendants of the Arameans, the Arabs and the Greeks. The Arameans were the original inhabitants of the land, then came the Greeks from the West, followed by the Arabs, the Ghasanis, who came from the Hauran in the hinterland. In short, Christian Syrians are not genealogically Arabs, even if there is some Arab blood flowing in their veins. Yet they are considered Arabs because they speak Arabic, they procreate in an Arab land and they live according to Arab morals. Thus, Syria became an Arab country after the Islamic occupation.
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