In the thirteenth century a. C. (around the year 1279), the king of Babylon complained about the bands of the akhlamu , that is to say, of the nomads who later, according to the name of one of their clans, would be called aramu or Aramaic , although it is also possible that these nomadic bands were made up of a group of different peoples with a common ethnic origin and with related Semitic dialects.
These akhlamu they were as soon as bands of mercenaries, necessary in the service of a power (such as the Hittites), as groups that operated on their own and it is also possible that they were dedicated to completely peaceful activities, employing themselves in isolated groups, as day laborers, on farms.
His perfect knowledge of the desert also meant that nomads in general (both the akhlamu like the suteos or others) were excellent guides for the great journeys.
Assyria, with Tiglat-Pileser I (1115-1077), had reached one of the peaks of its power, but also, the permanent threat that the nomads had weighed on all of Mesopotamia had been specified over it, many centuries before. fertile and rich, which by force would tempt them. Now pushed from west to east by the Invasion of the Peoples of the Sea and driven by the need to subsist, the desert nomads will transform into a defined political entity:The Arameans .
Tiglath-Pi-leser I of Assyria was forced to undertake fourteen military campaigns in an attempt to drive them east across the Euphrates to Kar-kemish, whence they dispersed south. to the Palmyra region.
After Tigiat-Pileser I, the Assyrian power suffered a period of stagnation, followed by an inevitable decline, since the sons and/or successors of this king were not up to his standards and the multiple alliances that the Assyrian had managed to establish with so much effort. great assyrian king will fall apart, one after another
During this time, in the southern plain of Mesopotamia. the Arameans were owners and lords of Babylon, where one of their chiefs had become king and approximately a century after Tiglath-Pileser I, the Arameans fought against the Israelite kings Saul and David for the hegemony of the area of Lebanon and Transjordan northern.
The Aramean migration
The occupation of Palestine by the Israelites is also part of this historic event of great repercussion that is the movement of the Semitic peoples.
Both Hebrew and Aramaic, Canaanite, Amorite and Arabic are Semitic languages of the western group, appearing at the same time in the border regions of Syria and Palestine and even in Mesopotamia, in the upper courses of the Euphrates and the Tigris. where we find them cited in the royal inscriptions of the Assyrian Middle Kingdom and with equal frequency in the Old Testament, where the Biblical tradition relates Arameans and Hebrews, making Jacob (Israel) a wandering Aramean, although from the time of Akad to the 14th century BC C. is found in the Mesopotamian, Assyrian and Egyptian texts, isolated references to countries, cities or people who are designated by the name of Aram or Arami, which could be simple homonyms and the first mention of the Arameans as such a group ethnic we find it in the inscriptions of Tiglar-Pileser I, in the form Ahlamú-Aramaia , which could be translated as the Ahlamú that they are Arameans, perhaps indicating that at this time, the Arameans were part of a vast group of tribes that had long been established in the Fertile Crescent.
Consequences
This Aramean migration constituted the most momentous event in the history of Near East Asia, from the 13th century BC. C. as an extension, in addition to causing a series of consequences:
It caused a terrible recession in Assyria and the country withdrew into itself. The dynastic continuity was maintained, but there was a great economic setback, since due to the convulsion caused by the migrations, the commercial relations on the Euphrates were lost and all commercial relations with Anatolia were also interrupted. especially of materials such as metals, fabrics and manufactured products. At the same time, industries were collapsing in Nineveh and Arbelas, the economic weakness produced great social upheavals, also producing the rise of new powers in Babylon, coming to dominate Syria.
Despite the fact that political vicissitudes were ultimately unfavourable, their language supplanted Hebrew in Palestine, becoming the official language of the Persian Empire and the Neo-Babylonian Empire. going back to the time of Jesus Christ.
In Mesopotamia, it produced a difficult time around the 11th to 10th centuries BC. C. that has as its common character instability and progressive economic decline, which degenerated into a social crisis.
All these circumstances produced in the Near East the birth of a situation around the year 900 BC. C. completely new to the one we knew with the appearance of an authentic mosaic of small States:the Aramean Principalities .
The Aramean principalities
These Principalities spread throughout Syria and northern Mesopotamia, to the South of the neo-Hittite Principalities, especially in five areas:
a) In Mesopotamia. in the valley of the Balikh and in the upper Khabur (or Habur), was the Aramean Principality of Bit-Bakhiani, whose capital was Guzana (today Tell Halaf).
b) Towards the lower course of the Tigris. south of the mouth of the Diyala. other Aramean tribes established the principalities of Litau, Puqudu, Gambulu, and Khindanu.
c) In northern Syria, the Arameans took the region of Aleppo and Arpad, founding the kingdoms of Bit-Agusi and Bit-Adini, despite the resistance of the neighboring neo-Hittite principalities:Karkemish (which remained independent until the reign of Sargon II of Assyria). Hamat, Aleppo and Khattina.
d) Other Aramean groups, during the 11th to 10th centuries, founded the kingdom of Sam'al (Zincirli capital) in the region to the northwest of Karkemish, towards the Karazu valley.
e) At the end of the 11th century, the entire Orantes valley and southern Syria were controlled by the Arameans, who fought with the first kings of Israel for supremacy in the region. Here were the principalities of Aram-Soba, Aram-Bet-Rehob, Aram-Ma'Ka, Geshur (around Mount Hermon) and the main one:Damascus, which exercised true political hegemony over the whole of this confederation.
In the long run, the Semitic element prevailed throughout this area. And Aramaic became the usual language of the three great empires that will form from now on in this region:The Neo-Assyrian. the Neo-Babylonian and the Persian