Clarification on "Arameans and
Aramaic in Assyria on the eve of it’s fall"
Arabic
Translation from
Arabic by Jack B
Clarification on "Arameans and Aramaic in Assyria on the eve of it’s
fall"
The honorable Dr. Assad Sauma has published a very important
research about the role of our Aramean forefathers in the history of
the ancient Near East at the Baqofa site which can be found at the
following link:
http://www.baqofa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=38051
I
was hoping that this topic was discussed in a civilized manner, and
especially that Dr. Assad has highlighted the role of the Arameans
in the history of the old Iraq. It is unfortunate that some of our
brothers who are deceived by the Assyrian thoughts demand Dr. Sauma
not to do " History Search" even though that history is a bright
proof of the unity of our Syrian/ Aramean people and that history
science is exposing the radical views of some counterfeit.
I've posted two comments on Dr. Saumas search at Baqofa site, but
this site has prevented the comments indefinitely and this is
something that drives me to publish the third comment today.
First comment: The role
of Arameans in the fall of the Assyrian empire.
Thank you for this simple search on the role of Arameans in the fall
of the Assyrian empire. I will comment on several points in a coming
article, but I want to add a link which is an English translation of
the tablets of Ajar (Ajaru, month of April/May)
which codified the history of the great Aramean Chaldean King
Nabopolassar
and contains information about military operations against the
Assyrians and their allies.
http://www.livius.org/ne-nn/nineveh/nineveh02.html
And those who want to know what happened, "on the eve of" the fall
of the Assyrian State should known that many Arameans were fighting
in the ranks of the Assyrian army, or were allies of the Assyrian
empire.
* The thirteenth year of the rule of Nabopolassar (613 BC) the
Arameans of Suhu on the Euphrates Souhi rebelled against the king of
Akkad as they believed the final victory would be favorable to the
king of Assyria.
*
In the year 612 BC, Assur-uballit, king of Assyria, declared himself
king of Assyria in the city of Harran in the heart of the Aramaic
country. This prompted king Nabopolassar to destroy some Aramaic
cities including the city of Nisibis which forced the king of
Assyria to flee and ask protection from the Egyptian army and the
city of Harran fell in the hands of the Chaldeans.
*
When Assur-uballit, king of Assyria returned back with the Egyptian
army to conquer the city of Harran in the year 609 BC, the city held
out and the Egyptian army had to return back to Syria.
Finally, since you mentioned the famous historian Hayeem Tadmor I
will add a link as many readers are interested in reading:
The Aramaization of Assyria
History/Hayim-Tadmor
Second comment: The
extinction of the Assyrian people.
In
your search it was mentioned : "And so the Assyrian star failed and
fell from the graces of the great glory, and ceased to exist. Those
who pulled through the killings and massacres began gradually
melting together with the Arameans because of the Aramaic language
that was used in Assyria.
After a short time there was no one calling himself "Assyrian" or
belonging to the Assyrian ethnicity and nationality. All had become
"Aramean", linguistically, culturally and nationally".
Dr. Assad, the Assyrians were brave and among the most warrior and
organized nations. There is no doubt that the Assyrian political
governance is gone for ever, and so did our Aramean political
governance but we as people still exist unlike the Assyrian people,
why?
Some of our oriental Syrians brothers began in the beginning of the
twentieth century, claiming that they have maintained their identity
since the fall of the Assyrian Empire and they present a large
number of non-scientific historical propositions that demonstrate
their misleadings (for example that they speak Assyrian and others
false propositions ..) and they publish in different web sites what
is mentioned in the Torah that the State of Egypt and Assyria will
rise in witch they delude the youth into believing these dreams. My
question to you is: How can you write that "After a short time there
was no one calling himself "Assyrian" or belonging to the Assyrian
ethnicity or nationality. All had become "Aramean", linguistically,
culturally and nationally"? Isn’t your conclusion inconsistent with
the prophecy in the Torah?
There's another important point which is that Assyria has been
subjected to numerous attacks in which the final victory always was
to the favorable to the kings of Assyria.
For example, in the end of the reign of the Assyrian King Tiglath
Pileser I, Assyria was attacked by Arameans tribes. The Assyrians
have left many Akkadian writings regarding the history of their
kings. I will put a link containing the English translation that
tells us about this difficult period the Assyrian people went
through.
http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/cm/tiglath-pileser.html
This text is about the siege of Assyrian cities by Arameans tribes
that poured in like flooding, and forced the Assyrians to
cannibalism to stay alive and they were forced to flee to the
mountains and the Arameans got their gold and silver and their
belongings…
This text shows us the Arameans tribe’s incursion on the banks of
the Tigris River.
It
is tragic that there are no historians specialized in the history of
the ancient Near East among our people that can verify the validity
of the translation of the important Akkadian literature. And this
writing is very important because it shows the "Aramaen invasions
power" in the twelfth and eleventh century BC.
The book of Edward Lipinski is one of the most important scientific
resources on the study of our Aramaic history. I would advise anyone
who wants to "enter deeply" in the knowledge of the spread of
Chaldean and Aramaean tribes to review this book. It is possible to
view a large section of the book on the following link.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=rrMKKtiBBI4C&pg=PA26&dq=aram+naram&lr=&as_brr=3#v=onepage&q=aram%20naram&f=false
On
page 36 and on the basis of the significance of this letter,
Lipinski mentioned:
"The
Assyrians, pressured by starving Aramaean tribes
took then refuge in Kirruri, in
the Zagros area, norteas
of Erbil, and the Aramaeans probably
captured Nineveh
This Akkadian text, which was written in the tenth century, is not
the oldest text were Aramaic name is mentioned, but is still about
600 years older than the Torah.
And some of our brothers being familiar with history are still
claiming that the Aramaic name is the designation of Jewish and
means pagans.
This text which is written by the Assyrians themselves, illustrates
the importance of the spread of Aramaeans tribes and the extent of
the losses suffered by the Kingdom of the Assyrian. Lipinski says
that the capital Nineveh "might" had fallen in the hands of the
Arameans, and this is likely because the text speaks about the
escape of the King to the mountains…..
We
know that the Assyrian people was subject to Mitani people for a
long time, but managed to get independence and we know that it was
able to be a strong Kingdom and great empire in the subsequent
centuries: My question Dr. Asaad: why could not the Assyrian people
rise again after the fall of the state year 612 B.C?
Third comment: Is
"Babylonians" a name of an ancient people or naming of a specific
geography?
Dr. Sauma has been using the term "Babylonians" just like a large
number of researchers, but it is more correct not to use this
expression for the following reasons:
First - An exhibition was
held recently on the civilization of the Babylonians in the museums
of Paris and Berlin and currently in London. I have visited this
important exhibition at the Louvre in Paris and saw the artifacts
displayed, and the comments about them. But unfortunately, this
exhibition used the name "the Babylonian" meaning "name of
historical people".
This exhibition launches the name "the Babylonian" on the king
Hammurabi in the eighteenth century BC. and the king Nbokhaddnasr
(II), who ruled from 605 to 562 BC. As it´s known Hammurabi used to
belong to the Amouri people and Nbokhaddnasr (II) to the
Chaldean/Aramaic people.
The responsible for these exhibitions have been using this
Babylonian naming instead of the historical ones, leading to
mistakes in history, which came to distort the large role played by
the Aramean, Chaldeans, in the history of the country Akkadian and
it’s capital the city of Babylon the Great.
During the fair, held in Paris at the beginning of this year, the
Museum of Louvre established a special site about BABYLONE
exhibition which can be visited on this link and which contains
explanations on Akkadian archeology.
http://mini-site.louvre.fr/babylone/FR/html/1.4.1.html
Important comment: This
link is on the French language and rich with rare archeological
pictures and especially those tablets that have been left to us buy
the painters. I recommend every one to visit this site.
Second: The city of
Babylon in history. There is no mention of the city of Babylon in
the Sumerian language sources. The earliest mention of this city is
stated in Akkadian writing back to about 2500 years BC. It was also
mentioned in "History of the ancient Kings" , which speaks about the
occupation of the city of Babylon by Sargon of Akkadian and the
building of his new capital," Akkad."
But the King Sargon used soil devoted to the city of Babylon, and
this means that Babylon was sacred city for the Akkadians. The
appearance of the Amorite tribes in the land ofSumer and Akkad dates
back to the nineteenth century BC.
One of their kings "Sumu-la-El" captured the city of Babylon
and reigned it between 1880-1845 BC and established the Amorite
Dynasty in which their most famous king, Hammurabi, 1792 -1750 BC
would turn the city of Babylon to the capital of the vast empire.
The most surprising is that the city of Babylon was not the oldest
city in the land of Akkad and was not mentioned in the Epic of
Gilgamesh, but become in the era of the Amorites the most important
city in the land of Sumer and Akkad!
Third- We must not confuse between the city of Babylon and Babylon:
The city was really existing since the late third millennium and the
city was the capital of the land of Sumer and later the capital of
the land of Sumer and Akkad, and in the first millennium BC, it
became the capital of the capital of the land of Akkad and the title
of the Chaldeans, Aramean kings was, "the kings of Akkad "and not"
the kings of Babylon.
Each Syriac Aramean should know that the people of Persia were those
who begun using the term "Marzaban of Babylon" on the southern and
central Iraq and the people of this region were belonging to the
Aramean people and to the rest of the people who were fully
assimilated in the Aramean people as Dr. Sauma explained. However
the Greek historians would use the term "Babylonian people," which
would suggest the existence of Babylonian etnic people! |