Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Page 283

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THE ALPHABET time, this dialect was the medium of commerce in the valley of the Euphrates and was used far and wide as a lingua franca. It became, thus, the most important of the Syriac dialects, and, after Greek, the most important language in the eastern Roman Empire,
In the third century, the city was the stronghold of Syrian national Christianity: here the scriptures were translated into Aramaic or "Syriae," which "now took its place, beside Greek, in Christian literature; here, and at Nisibis (about 120 miles almost due east from Edessa) not far away, were schools of theology, the influence of which in later times extended far through the Christian world." (Wright). The most important Syriac literary monument is the Peshito or Peshitta ("pure, simple"), a standardized but faithful Syriac version of the Bible which was composed about A.D. 200.
As Wright, the great authority on Syriac, pointed out, "with the seventh century begins the slow decay of the native literature of the Syrians, which was promoted partly by the frightful sufferings of the people during the great war with the Persians in its first quarter, and partly by the Arab conquest of Persia."
When Syriac became extinct in Edessa and its neighbourhood is not known with certainty. From the seventh century onwards, Arabic everywhere put a speedy end to it, though Syriae has remained in use for liturgical purposes, and is still spoken in a few villages near Damascus and in Lebanon by somne "Assyrians" (see below).
However, some Syrians were able to come to terms with the invaders, and for five centuries were a recognized institution within the territory of Islam. But the Mongolian invasions of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries "fell with crushing force on the Nestorians." About 1400,"Those who escaped capture by Timur fled to the mountains of Kurdistan, and the community that had played so large part in Mesopotamian history for a thousand years was thus shattered." Christian Palestinian or Palestinian Syriac
The Palestinian Christian community was remarkable for several reasons. According to some scholars, this Church consisted originally of Jews and Samaritans whom the Roman emperors of the fifth and sixth centuries, and particularly Justinian, compelled to become Christians. According to Schulthess, this community originated in the sixth century, formed for themselves a literature "out of their peasant Palestinian Syriac dialect," but M. Black rightly points out that for several centuries previous to the establishment of the Palestinian Melkite Church (see below) there existed already a Palestinian Aramaic literature among the Jews and a literary activity among the Samaritans. Thus, Palestinian Aramaic or Syriac already enjoyed the position of a literary language.
However, the terms "Christian Palestinian" or "Palestinian Syriac" denote the Christian literature written not in "classical" or Edessene Syriac, but in the vernacular dialect of Palestine, that is the indigenous language of Palestine in the time of Jesus Christ. The written documents consist nearly exclusively of liturgical manuscripts, all of them being translations from Greek originals. There are a couple or so, of sepulchral inscriptions. The manuscripts, preserved mainly in palimpsests (that is manuscripts which have been effaced and used for fresh writings), show