A Cultural History of Aramaic: From the Beginnings to the Advent of Islam (Handbook of Oriental Studies: Section 1; The Near and Middle East)

Aramaic Is A Constant Thread Running Through The Various Civilizations Of The Near East, Ancient And Modern, From 1000 Bce To The Present, And Has Been The Language Of Small Principalities, World Empires, And A Fair Share Of The Jewish-christian Tradition. Holger Gzella Describes Its Cultural And Linguistic History As A Continuous Evolution From Its Beginnings To The Advent Of Islam. For The First Time The Individual Phases Of The Language, Their Socio-historical Underpinnings, And The Textual Sources Are Discussed Comprehensively In Light Of The Latest Linguistic And Historical Research And With Ample Attention To Scribal Traditions, Multilingualism, And Language As A Marker Of Cultural Self-awareness. Many New Observations On Aramaic Are Thereby Integrated Into A Coherent Historical Framework. Introduction : Aramaic Among The Semitic Languages -- The Emergence Of Aramaic Dialects In The Fertile Crescent -- The Spread Of Aramaic In The Assyrian And Babylonian Empires -- Official Aramaic And The Achaemenid Chancellery -- Aramaic In The Hellenistic And Early Roman Near East -- Western Aramaic In Late Antique Palestine -- Eastern Aramaic In Late Antique Syria And Mesopotamia -- Epilogue. By Holger Gzella. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Aramaic is a constant thread running through the various civilizations of the Near East, ancient and modern, from 1000 BCE to the present, and has been the language of small principalities, world empires, and a fair share of the Jewish-Christian tradition. Holger Gzella describes its cultural and linguistic history as a continuous evolution from its beginnings to the advent of Islam. For the first time the individual phases of the language, their socio-historical underpinnings, and the textual sources are discussed comprehensively in light of the latest linguistic and historical research and with ample attention to scribal traditions, multilingualism, and language as a marker of cultural self-awareness. Many new observations on Aramaic are thereby integrated into a coherent historical framework. In A Cultural History of Aramaic, Holger Gzella comprehensively describes the history of Aramaic and its socio-cultural underpinnings as an ongoing linguistic evolution between its emergence and the spread of Arabic through the Near East (ca. 1000 BCE-700 CE) List of Abbreviations Preface 1. Introduction: Aramaic among the Semitic Languages 2. The Emergence of Aramaic Dialects in the Fertile Crescent 3. The Spread of Aramaic in the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires 4. Official Aramaic and the Achaemenid Chancellery 5. Aramaic in the Hellenistic and Early Roman Near East 6. Western Aramaic in Late Antique Palestine 7. Eastern Aramaic in Late Antique Syria and Mesopotamia 8. Epilogue Bibliography Indices