A Cultural History of Aramaic: From the Beginnings to the Advent of Islam

Copyright

Dedicaton

Contents

Preface

List of Abbreviations

1 Introduction: Aramaic among the Semitic Languages

1.1 History of Research

1.1.1 The Beginnings in Early Modern Europe

1.1.2 The Coming-of-Age of Aramaic Philology in the Nineteenth Century

1.1.3 Continuity in Twentieth-Century Aramaic Studies

1.2 Aramaic as a Semitic Language

1.2.1 Aramaic in its Northwest Semitic Setting

1.2.2 The Grammatical Core of Aramaic

1.2.3 The Evolution of Aramaic Grammar until the Seventh Century c.e.

1.3 Historical-Linguistic Method and Internal Classification

1.3.1 The Periodization of Aramaic

1.3.2 Aramaic as a Dialect Continuum

1.3.3 A Chronological, Geographical, and Social Matrix

2 The Emergence of Aramaic Dialects in the Fertile Crescent

2.1 The First Appearance of the Aramaeans in the Ancient Near East

2.2 The Rise of Aramaic Chancellery Languages in Ancient Syria

2.2.1 Eastern Syria: The Tell Fekheriye Inscription

2.2.2 Central Syria: An Aramaic koiné

2.2.3 North-Western Syria: Sam?alian and Aramaic at Zincirli

2.3 The Influence of Aram-Damascus and the Spread of Central Syrian Aramaic

2.3.1 The Tell Dan Stele from Northern Galilee and Damascene Authority

2.3.2 The Deir ?Alla Plaster Text and the Aramaicization of Traditional Literature

2.3.3 The Bukan Inscription and the Cultural Prestige of Central Syrian Aramaic

2.4 Aramaic-Canaanite Multilingualism in Syria-Palestine

2.4.1 Phoenician and Aramaic

2.4.2 Aramaic and Hebrew

2.5 Conclusion

3 The Spread of Aramaic in the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires

3.1 Aramaic as an International Language

3.1.1 The Textual Corpus of Aramaic in the Neo-Assyrian and the Neo-Babylonian Periods

3.1.2 The Linguistic Profile of Seventh- and Sixth-Century Aramaic

3.1.3 Aramaic and Akkadian in Contact

3.2 Aramaic in Bilingual Imperial Administration

3.2.1 The Neo-Assyrian Tablets and Epigraphs

3.2.2 Administrative Continuity in the Neo-Babylonian Period

3.2.3 Aramaic as a Diplomatic Language and its Use in Official Letters

3.3 Aramaic in the Private Domain

3.3.1 Funerary Inscriptions

3.3.2 Private Letters

3.4 Aramaic Literature: The Ahiqar Tradition

3.5 Conclusion

4 Official Aramaic and the Achaemenid Chancellery

4.1 Aramaic in the Achaemenid Empire

4.1.1 The Corpus of Achaemenid Official Aramaic

4.1.2 Achaemenid Official Aramaic as a Standardized Chancellery Language

4.1.3 Aramaic and Other Languages in the Achaemenid Empire

4.2 Domestic Administration

4.2.1 Economic Documents

4.2.2 The Bisotun Inscription and Achaemenid Royal Ideology

4.3 Aramaic in the Provinces

4.3.1 Egypt

4.3.2 Palestine

4.3.3 North Arabia

4.3.4 Asia Minor

4.3.5 Bactria

4.4 National Literatures in Aramaic

4.4.1 Egypt: Ahiqar, Bar Puneš, and Papyrus Amherst 63

4.4.2 Palestine: Biblical and Jewish Literary Aramaic

4.5 Conclusion

5 Aramaic in the Hellenistic and Early Roman Near East

5.1 Achaemenid Heritage and Local Dialects

5.1.1 The Internal Classification of Post-Achaemenid Aramaic

5.1.2 Multilingualism in the Hellenistic and Roman Near East

5.2 Palestine

5.2.1 The Languages of Hellenistic and Roman Palestine

5.2.2 The Hasmonaean Literary Language

5.2.3 Early Forms of Jewish Palestinian

5.3 North Arabia: Nabataean

5.3.1 The Profile and Function of Aramaic in North Arabia

5.3.2 Nabataean Aramaic in Contact with Greek and Arabic

5.4 Syria

5.4.1 Palmyra and Palmyrene Aramaic

5.4.2 Edessa and the Osrhoene: Old Syriac

5.4.3 Dura Europos

5.5 Eastern Mesopotamia

5.5.1 Early Forms of Eastern Aramaic

5.5.2 Babylonia

5.5.3 Assur, Hatra, and the Rest of Eastern Mesopotamia

5.6 Aramaic Linguistic Heritage in Post-Achaemenid Iran

5.7 Conclusion

6 Western Aramaic in Late Antique Palestine

6.1 Western Aramaic and the Languages of Hellenistic and Roman Palestine

6.1.1 The Appearance of Western Aramaic

6.1.2 Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek: The Historical Language Situation

6.2 Jewish Palestinian Aramaic

6.2.1 The Dialectal Underpinnings of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic

6.2.2 Jewish Palestinian Aramaic and the Language of the Targumim

6.3 Samaritan Aramaic

6.3.1 Samarian and Samaritan Aramaic

6.3.2 The Languages of the Samaritans

6.4 Christian Palestinian Aramaic

6.4.1 Christian Palestinian Aramaic: Language and Use

6.4.2 Aramaic, Greek, and Arabic among Palestinian Christians

6.5 Conclusion

7 Eastern Aramaic in Late Antique Syria and Mesopotamia

7.1 Eastern Aramaic in the Roman-Sassanian Border-Zone

7.1.1 Points of Contact between Eastern Aramaic Dialects

7.1.2 Aramaic, Greek, and Iranian: The Historical Language Situation

7.2 Jewish Babylonian Aramaic

7.2.1 Jewish Babylonian and the Dialect Landscape of Mesopotamia

7.2.2 Linguistic Variation in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic

7.3 Classical Mandaic

7.3.1 Mandaic and its Babylonian Aramaic Background

7.3.2 Linguistic Evidence and the Origin of the Mandaeans

7.4 Classical Syriac

7.4.1 Syriac as a Standardized Literary Language

7.4.2 The Rise of Classical Syriac Literature

7.5 Conclusion

8 Epilogue

8.1 History and Internal Classification

8.2 Spoken and Written Language

8.3 Language Contact

Bibliography

Modern Authors

Index of Subjects

Sources