The Shriner s..............................the organization with all its symbols and codes..................called "the mystic temple".................from Arabic origins.............................the interior architecture of the Tom Jefferson library of Congress here in DC...............is very Arabic......................the Shriners hospitals..............................

Geographic distribution[edit]

Although once a major language in the Fertile Crescent and Bahrain, Syriac is now limited to its place of origin, in ethnic Assyrian enclaves, towns and villages in the Nineveh plains, Tur Abdin, the Khabur plains, in and around the cities of Mosul, Irbil andKurkuk, and around the Syriac-Aramean town ofMa'loula^{[citation needed]}

An 11th-century Syriac manuscript.

Syriac was originally a 5th century BC local Assyrian-Akkadian influenced^[12] Aramaic dialect of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia that evolved under the influence ofAssyrian Church of the East and Syriac Orthodox Church into its current form. Before Arabic became the dominant language, Syriac was a major language among Christian communities in the Middle East, Central Asia and Kerala, and remains so among the Assyrians and Syriac-Arameans to this day. It has been found as far afield as Hadrians Wall in Ancient Britain, with inscriptions written by Assyrian and Aramean soldiers of the Roman Empire.^[13]

History[edit]

Isho or Eesho, the Aramaic name ofJesus

The history of Syriac can be divided into three distinct periods:

• Old Syriac/Old Aramaic (the language of Assyria/Athura/Assuristan, and the Neo-Assyrian kingdoms of Assur, Adiabene, Osroene and Hatra).
• Middle Syriac/Middle Syriac Aramaic (ܟܬܒܢܝܐ Kṯāḇānāyā, "Literary Syriac"), which is divided into:
  • Eastern Middle Syriac/Eastern Middle Syriac Aramaic (the literary and ecclesiastical language of the ethnic Assyrian Christians of the Assyrian Church of the East,Chaldean Catholic Church, Ancient Church of the East and Assyrian Pentecostal Church),
  • Western Middle Syriac/Western Middle Syriac Aramaic (the literary and ecclesiastical language of the largely Syriac members of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Syriac Catholic Church and Maronite Church).
• "Modern Syriac"/"Modern Syriac Aramaic" is a term occasionally used to refer to the modern Eastern Aramaic languages (see e.g. Lipinski 2001:70^[14]). Even if they can't be positively identified as the direct descendants of attested Middle Syriac, they must have developed from closely related dialects belonging to the same branch of Aramaic, and the varieties spoken in Christian communities have long co-existed with, and been influenced by, Middle Syriac as a liturgical and literary language. In this terminology, Modern Syriac is divided into:
  • Modern Western Syriac Aramaic (Turoyo and Mlahsô). Note however that these are sometimes excluded from the category of "Modern Syriac".^[14]
  • Modern Eastern Syriac Aramaic (Northeastern Neo-Aramaic, including Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and so called Chaldean Neo-Aramaic (the dialects of the Assyrian people) - but the term usually is not used in reference to Neo-Mandaic, another variety of Eastern Aramaic spoken by Mandaeans).

The name "Syriac", when used with no qualification, generally refers to one specific dialect of Middle Aramaic, but not to Old Aramaic nor to the various present-day Eastern and Central Neo-Aramaic languages that are descended from it or from close relatives. The modern varieties are, therefore, not discussed in this article.