Arameans

The Arameans, or Aramaeans (Old Aramaic: 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; Hebrew: אֲרַמִּים; Ancient Greek: Ἀραμαῖοι; Classical Syriac: ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, romanized: Ārāmāyē), were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East that was first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BC. The Aramean homeland, sometimes known as the land of Aram, encompassed central regions of modern Syria.

At the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, a number of Aramean-ruled states were established throughout the western regions of 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.

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.^[1][2] 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.^[3][4][5] 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.^[6][7][8] Before Christianity, Aramaic-speaking communities had undergone considerable Hellenization and Romanization in the Near East.^[9] Thus, their integration into the Greek-speaking world had begun a long time before Christianity became established.^[10] Some scholars consider that Arameans who accepted Christianity came to be referred to as Syrians by the Greeks.^[11] 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.^[12]