Selected Pieces of Aramean Literature

Title

Creator

Eugene Manna

Date

1901 AD

Description

"What induced us to dedicate to the mentioned topic a special chapter is to end the controversy between many Chaldeans and Syriacs. Everyone of them claims the origin for himself and to be the older one, without having a reliable evidence or a funded scientific proof. In order to clarify the actualness of this problem and avoid the controversy, we say: All tribes, which lived in ancient times in the expanded countries, which were limited in the east by Persia, in the west by the Mediterranean, in the north by Asia Minor, by the countries of the Armenians and Greeks and in the south by the Arab peninsula, were known as children of Arams or as Arameans.

The countries of Babylon and Assur were at all times, even after the Arab conquest, called Beth Aramaye, that is countries of the Arameans. It is not necessary to demonstrate the innumerable testimonies in order to prove this fact; it is a truth, which is known for everybody, who has the slightest idea of the informations about the Church of the East, because the books of our ancestors are full of them. Likewise the countries of Mesopotamia were well-known as the countries of Arams.

You will realize from the mentioned testimonies here and also from others, that the inhabitants of Edessa and Jazira all of them were Arameans by nation and language. Regarding the dwellers of Syria, it is even more evident.

You will receive testimonies of the church authors, who confirm this position. It became clear that all countries, which are known today under the designation syriac is, whether in the east or in the west, were since time immemorial known as Aramean, and this is the correct designation.

The syriac authors whether in the East or in the West, state that the term [Syriac] comes from Suros. Suros was a man of Aramean origin, who founded according to their opinion the city of Antiochia and conquered the countries of Syria and Mesopotamia. Following him these countries were called Syria and their inhabitants Syriacs, as today the inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire are called Ottomans.

The Syriacs generally, whether from the East or from the West were not called Syriacs in former times, but Arameans in dependance on their progenitor Aram, the son of Shem, the son of Noah.

The name 'Syriac' dates from a time about 400 or 500 B.C.

The term Syriac was adopted by the East-Arameans (Chaldeans and Assyrians) after Christ through the apostles, who had proselytized these countries."

Language

Arabic & Syriac

Publisher

(Bishop J.E. Manna, Chaldean-Arabic Dictionary, Babel Center Publications. Beirut 1915, p. 11-21)

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Item