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THE ALPHABET
by the latter thanks to the commercial activities of the Palmyrenians. Rosenthal, however, is probably right in suggesting that the resemblance between the Palmyrene cursive and the Syriac scripts should be explained by their origin from the common source, and by mutual influences. Already Lidzbarski pointed out that the Syriac Estrangela did not derive from the cursive Palmyrene, but both were parallel developments.
However, the early Syriac script was an offshoot of a cursive Aramaic writing, perhaps of the Palmyrene cursive in its early stage. The earliest Syriac inscriptions extant belong to the first half of the first century A.D. and to the second half of the second century. Very few inscriptions are earlier than the seventh century A.D. (Fig. 137, 6).
The earliest datable Syriac written document is the sepulchral inscription of Ma'nu, found near Serrin, and belonging to A.D. 73. Another inscription is dated 513 Seleucid er, that is A.D. 201/2. A contract of sale, written on parchment, and dated from A.D. 243. comes from Dura-Europos: it is the earliest extant document not inscribed on stone, couched in Edessene Syriac and written in Estrangela character (it was published in 1935, by Prof. C. C. Torrey).
The earliest dated Syriac MS., of A.D. 411, is "probably the earliest dated codex in any language that is still extant." (Hatch.)
The principal development of the Syriac scripts was encouraged by the Syriac Church, especially between the fourth and seventh centuries.
Syriac
Syrisc was then the language and script of the extensive Syriac literature, which is a Christian literature in a very special sense, all original documents dealing exclusively with Christian subjects. It is important not to overlook the fact that the city of Antioch of Syria was one of the most important centres of early Christianity; it was there that the disciples were called Christians first", and it remained a great centre of Christian doctrine through the centuries till Moslem conquest swept it within the new orbit of Islam." The influence of Antioch on the Orontes extended to the north-west over Cilicia and Cappadocia in Asia Minor; to the East, through Syria proper, into regions beyond the Roman frontiers: North Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia and even Georgia. Antioch, however, although the chief town of Syria, was a centre of Greek culture.
Edessa, in north-western Mesopotamia was the first centre of Christianity in the Syriac-speaking world, and it became its principal focus. In fact, it was the only centre of early Christian life where the language of the Christian community was other than Greek. Here, the native Animaic or Syriac dialect had already been used for some time as a literary language even before Christianity acquired power in the country. Edessa (called in Syriac Ur-hai, now Urfa) was then the capital of Osrhočne (a Greek name, derived from Ur-hai), a small kingdom east of the Euphrates. In A.D. 216, this kingdom lost its independence to the Roman Empire, Christianity was preached in Edessa already in the second century, and the city became the Christian metropolis of East Syria. From Edessa the Christian faith spread to Persia. The Aramaean Christians of the neighbouring countries, even those who lived in Persia, adopted the Edessan Syriac as the language of the Church, of literature, and of cultivated intercourse. At the same
