Aramaea

From Free net encyclopedia

Aramaea (also spelled Aramea) is the land of the Aramaeans. In the Hebrew Bible, it is called Aram-Naharaim, meaning "Aram (highland) of two rivers," to distinguish it from other Arams.

Aramaea was located in central Syria, including where the city of Aleppo (aka Halab) now stands.

The Aramaeans (speakers of Aramaic) began to settle in Syria and Mesopotamia in the late 12th century BCE. They never succeeded in unifying their city states into a single "kingdom of Aramaea." Two medium-sized Aramaean kingdoms, Aram-Damascus and Hamath, along with several smaller kingdoms and independent city-states, developed in Syria during the first millennium BCE, and the Chaldeans who settled in southern Babylonia around 1000 BCE and founded the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 625 BCE are also believed to have been an Aramaean tribe.

As Christians began to inhabit that area of Syria, a dialect of Aramaic, Syriac, was born. Hence Syriac has been associated with Christian Syrians.

Today in this same area, there are several Catholic Rites that are distinct from the Roman Rite. Two of these are the Maronite Catholic Rite and the Melkite Catholic Rite, both common to Syria and Lebanon.

Some Aramaeans of today dream of an independent Aramaea in Lebanon where the Syriac Maronites (who are Aramaeans) now predominate. Aramaic, the language of Jesus, would replace the Arabic language as the official language in this future state.nl:Aramese Rijk