The Arameans of Aram-naharaim
or The Ancient Syrians of Mesopotamia
By Johny Messo - 2004
The Arameans trace their genealogical lines back to the eponymous ancestor Aram, the son of Shem, the son of Noah (Genesis 10:1, 22).[1] In pre-Christian times, notably between 1150-700 B.C., they played a crucial and decisive role in Mesopotamia and ancient Syria.[2] Due to the advanced scholarship of the past decades, we have become pretty familiar now with their Upper Mesopotamian origins as well as with their many kingdoms and principalities, which they established in the fertile area that has been aptly called “The Cradle of Civilization.”
Appeal to our (spiritual and cultural) leadership:
Please contribute to the preservation of our beloved Syro-Aramaic legacy!
By Johny Messo (2002)
In the early part of the 20th century the Syro-Arameans were (reluctantly) divided among the new born countries Syria, Turkey and Iraq by the contemporary Western superpowers. After, and even before, the horrible year of the (Islamic) sayfo (‘sword’), many Arameans fled to Arab countries because of, softly put, uneasy circumstances; some even moved to Western countries, such as the U.S.A., Australia and South-America. The second immigration wave from the Tur-‘Abdin regions, of whom the majority fled to Europe, was that of the 1960s onwards. They were rapidly followed by our people from Syria and Iraq until the present-day. Thus, in a sense the Aramean people are reunited in the Diaspora.
