History
The Arameans appear to have displaced the earlier Semitic Amorite populations of ancient Syria during the period from 1200 BC to 900 BC, which was a dark age for the entire Near East, North Africa, Caucasus, Mediterranean and Balkan regions, with great upheavals and mass movements of people. The Arameans were attacked and conquered by Tiglath-Pileser I (1115- 1077 BC) of Assyria, and were incorporated into the Middle Assyrian Empire which encompassed much of the Near East. Two medium-sized Aramaean kingdoms, Aram-Damascus and Hamath, along with several smaller kingdoms and independent city-states, developed in the region during the early first millennium BCE. There was some synthesis with neo Hittite populations in northern Syria and south central Anatolia, and a number of small Syro-Hittite states arose in the region, such as Tabal.
During the period 1200 - 900 BC Arameans came to dominate most of what is now Syria. With the advent of the Neo Assyrian Empire (911 - 605 BC), the region fell fully under the control of Assyria. Large numbers of people living there were deported into Assyria and Babylonia. A few steles that name kings of this period have been found, such as the 8th century Zakkur stele.
In 332 BC the region was conquered by the Greek ruler, Alexander the Great. Upon his death in 323 BC this area became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire, at which point Greek replaced Aramaic as the official language of Empire. This area and other parts of former Assyria to the east were renamed Syria, a Hurrian, Luwian and Greek corruption of Assyria. It is from this period that the later Syria vs Assyria naming controversy arises, the Seleucids confusingly applied the name not only to inner Assyria itself, but also to the lands west of Euphrates which had been part of the Assyrian empire. When they lost control of Assyria itself to the Parthians, the name Syria survived and was applied only to the land west of Euphrates, that had once been part of the Assyrian empire, while inner Assyria went back to being called Assyria.
This area, by now called Syria, was fought over by Seleucids and Parthians during the 2nd century BC, and later still by the Romans and Sassanid Persians. Palmyra, a powerful kingdom arose during this period, and for a time it dominated the area and successfully resisted Roman and Persian attempts at conquest. The region eventually came under the control of the Byzantine Empire. Christianity began to take hold from the 1st to 3rd Centuries AD, and the Aramaic language gradually supplanted Canaanite in Phonecia and Hebrew in Israel/Palestine.
The Nabateans dominated the region between 100 BC and 100 AD, its most famous city being Petra. The Nabatean kingdom was eventually conquered by Rome.
In the mid 7th century AD the region fell to the Arab Islamic conquest. The Aramaic language and Christianity survived among a sizeable portion of the population of Syria, who resisted Arabization and Islamification.
Read more about this topic: Aram (biblical Region)
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