The Arameans and the Syriacs

Years ago I spent some time in the east of Turkey, and at weekends I went to the nearby cities such as Mardin.

There were many people there whom we called Syriacs (Süryani). A while ago our friend Silvyo told us about the inauguration of a Syriac church in Istanbul. Who are these Syriacs, who say their prayers in Aramaic, like our Kaddish?

One should know that the Aramaic language was spoken by both the Arameans and the Hebrews. Now, who are the Arameans? The Arameans were a Semitic people who lived in Harran (the country of Abraham our father and Jacob our father) under the domination of the Assyrians.

Both in the temple of Amenophis IV and in the tablets of the Hittites the Arameans are spoken of as the 'Habiru', who were Semites. The language they spoke was a Semitic language.

The Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser said: 'Twice a year I crossed the river Euphrates, defeated the peoples there and brought to my country everything that was there.' The peoples there were the Arameans.

In the letters of 'Tell el-Amarna' (a city on the river Nile) where the famous Pharaoh Akhenaten lived, who formed a kind of monotheistic religion, it says that the Habiru were the Arameans and the Hebrews.

Aramaic was spoken over a fairly wide geography: Anatolia, Syria, Mesopotamia, even today's Iran. The oldest writings are those of 'Hazael', who lived in the 800s before our era.

There was a period of peace between the Arameans and the Kingdom of Judah. But when King Ahab died, the peace ended.

Every time the Assyrians wanted to conquer the lands of the Jews and the Arameans, these two peoples united. After the Assyrian danger passed, they fought each other again.

The language of the Arameans belongs to the same family as Hebrew and Phoenician. That is, these languages are Semitic. For this reason certain of our prayers are in Aramaic and not in Hebrew. But having the same root, it is not very difficult to understand what they said. Even the Assyrians wrote in this language.

At Tel Dan (the north of Israel — Dan, Dafna, Metula) is the stone we call the Stele, where King Hazael wrote in Aramaic.

The book of Ezra and the book of Job are written in Aramaic. It is said that Jesus (Isa) too spoke Aramaic.

The Arameans lived in different countries. Those who settled in Syria took the name Syriacs and became Christians. There are Syriacs who belong to the church of Urfa; they are called Eastern Syriacs, or Nestorians.

There are also Syriacs who belong to the church of Antakya, called Western Syriacs, or Aramean Syriacs. As Jesus (Christ) spoke Aramaic, they are said to be the first Christians of the world, or the first who decided to convert to Christianity. Today they are mostly in Mardin and Tur Abdin. The monastery of 'Deyrülzafaran' (the house of saffron) is very famous. Other monasteries such as Mor Gabriel, the monastery of the Forty and the monastery of Mar Kiryako are the best known.

With the events of terrorism, many Syriacs decided to live in other countries such as Sweden and other neighbouring countries.