Arameans (present)
The Aramaeans ( Aramaic ܣܘܪ̈ܝܝܐ) of the present-day (also known as Assyrians or Chaldeans ) are an Aramaic- speaking ethnic minority in the Middle East and see themselves as the descendants of the ancient Aramaeans . Their original home is Mesopotamia; today they live in southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria and northern Iraq. Due to Islamic oppression and the genocide of the Syrian Christians , a considerable part of the Aramaic people live in the western diaspora.
history
The Arameans founded several kingdoms such as Tur Abdin , Aram (Damascus), Arpad (Aleppo) and Hamath (Hama) in the Levant and northern Mesopotamia since the end of the Bronze Age . Due to resettlements and the general population shifts in Mesopotamia, the Aramaic language became the official language of the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid empires as well as more and more the language of communication and diplomacy in the Middle East, among the Seleucids, Parthians and Romans. Since the Parthian period (in the 3rd century BC), the individual Aramaic tribes can no longer be distinguished.
In connection with the genocide of the Armenians , there was also a genocide of the Arameans . Around 500,000 - 750,000 Arameans were killed by the Ottomans and Kurdish troops in southeastern Turkey. To this day, Turkey does not recognize the genocide.
language
The use of the Aramaic language was and is not restricted to the ethnic, Christian Arameans, but they and their churches have long been the strongest bearer of this language. Mandaeans are non-Christian but speak Aramaic. In addition, the Kurdish Jews also speak Aramaic, although Aramaic has been increasingly superseded by Hebrew among them since their immigration to Palestine in the late 19th century .
religion
The Arameans today belong to various Eastern Churches: the Orthodox Church , the Catholic Church , the Maronite Church , the Old Church of the East , the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church or Protestant communities. Most of them now live in the diaspora , especially in Europe and the USA. The Syrians in Dschubb-'Adin , As-Sarcha and a minority in Maalula belong to the Sunni Islam of. All three villages were purely Christian before the 18th century.
Since at the time of Jesus the Aramaic language was widespread from Palestine to the Persian Empire and beyond, there is historically neither a uniform Christianization of the Arameans nor a common church history for all. Insofar as Jesus and his disciples spoke a form of Aramaic , or more precisely: Judeo-Palestinian Aramaic , there is an Aramaic Christianity from the beginning. However, it was very soon overlaid by a Christianity in the Greek language, in which the New Testament was also disseminated, worship was celebrated and Christian theology was practiced. As a theological and liturgical language, an Aramaic called Syriac first became particularly important in the Edessa area and then in Mesopotamia east of the borders of the Roman Empire.
- From this emerged the two great churches of Syrian Christianity in late antiquity :
- In the course of further history, other church groups gained additional importance:
- the Syrian-Maronite Church of Antioch ,
- the Syrian Catholic Church and
- the Chaldean Catholic Church , the branch of the "Church of the East" united with the Roman Pope in modern times (see also Syrian Christians in Iraq ),
- the Aramaic Free Christians Congregation , "Hito hirto Oromayto", mostly known as Mhaymne (corresponding to Arabic muʾmin , "believer"),
- the Assyrian Evangelical Church ,
- the Assyrian Pentecostal Church .
Smaller Aramaic-speaking groups were and still are today in the Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Antioch of the followers of the Council of Chalcedon . What all the churches mentioned have in common is the use of (old) Syrian as the liturgical language and, for a long time, the rule or predominance of Islam in their traditional areas of distribution.
Diaspora
Most of the Aramaic Christians lived in Iraq , Syria , Iran , Lebanon and southeastern Turkey, in the border area with Syria , for most of the 20th century . However, almost all Aramaic Christians from Turkey, whose number used to be 50,000, emigrated to Europe, particularly to Sweden ; According to the Los Angeles Times of August 21, 1998, fewer than 3,000 New Aramaic speakers remained in Turkey . A larger number also previously lived in northern Iraq, in the Mosul plains and in the Baghdad region, as well as in northeast and central Syria and in three villages in the Qalamun Mountains west of Damascus ( New West Aramaic ). As a result of the Syrian civil war and the associated expansion of the Islamic State , however, numerous Christians in Syria and Iraq were forced to leave their homeland as refugees. In the western diaspora, Christian Arameans live predominantly in Germany and Sweden, as well as in the United States . All data on the numbers of today's Aramaic Christians are based on estimates. The Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch alone has around 5-6 million members, but the majority is Indian.
The largest Aramaic community in Germany, based on the number of inhabitants, is located in the East Westphalian district of Gütersloh , divided between the cities of Gütersloh , Rheda-Wiedenbrück , Harsewinkel and Verl .
literature
- Hüsnü Acar: people between cultures. Aramaic youth in Germany . Paderborn 1997.
- Sébastien de Courtois: Les derniers Araméens: le peuple oublié de Jésus . Paris 2004, ISBN 2-7103-2717-1
- Svante Lundgren: The Assyrians: From Nineveh to Gütersloh. Lit Verlag, Berlin / Münster 2016, ISBN 978-3-643-13256-7 .
- David Thomas (Ed.): Syrian Christians under Islam. The First Thousand Years . Brill, Leiden 2001, ISBN 90-04-12055-6 .
- Martin Tamcke (Ed.): Syriaca. On the history, theology, liturgy and present situation of the Syrian churches . 2nd German Syrologist Symposium, July 2000, Wittenberg (= Studies on Oriental Church History , Vol. 17). Lit-Verlag, Berlin / Münster 2002, ISBN 3-8258-5800-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Yona Sabar : Mene Mene, Tekel uPharsin (Daniel 5:25). Are the Days of Jewish and Christian Neo-Aramaic Dialects Numbered? In: Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies . tape 23 , no. 2 , 2009, p. 13 ( PDF [accessed August 5, 2015]).
- ↑ Yona Sabar: Mene Mene, Tekel uPharsin (Daniel 5:25). Are the Days of Jewish and Christian Neo-Aramaic Dialects Numbered? In: Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies . tape 23 , no. 2 , 2009, p. 11 ( jaas.org [PDF; accessed on August 5, 2015]).