The history of Syria goes back to the earliest human civilizations, from the beginning of the Bronze Age, thanks to its abundant water; from Syria came the beginnings of agriculture and the domestication of animals, and this was the foundation of human activity there. Many civilizations arose there, from the people of the Stone Age down through the civilizations that succeeded one another in Syria across thousands of years and into modern times. "When we are in Syria we find ourselves merging with history itself, for it is the gateway of history, as some historians and researchers call it; every grain of its soil is a shining letter in the eternal book of humanity": these were the words of the head of the American archaeological mission that worked to uncover the Kingdom of Kana in a region near the confluence of the Euphrates and the Khabur rivers in the Syrian Jazira. It may be said that the rich history Syria witnessed made it a homeland for many cultures and civilizations, so that it became the heir to, and the custodian of, this ancient history. Syria owes its name to the ancient peoples who inhabited it, namely the Syriacs.

In Syria arose the most venerable and important civilizations in human history. There is the ancient Kingdom of Kana, which flourished in the second millennium BC near the confluence of the Euphrates and the Khabur, and which was among the first agricultural civilizations more than ten thousand years ago. Copper was likewise discovered and the bronze alloy invented at Tell Halaf on the banks of the Khabur river as early as the third millennium BC. In the Kingdom of Mari (Tell Hariri) on the Euphrates there were palaces and paintings that bore witness to a cultural and commercial flourishing along the middle Euphrates and between East and West. In the Kingdom of Ugarit, near the port of Latakia on the Mediterranean, an alphabetic system of writing developed, one of the oldest alphabets in the world. As for the Kingdom of Ebla (Tell Mardikh), a large documentary library was discovered in its royal palace, containing thousands of tablets and manuscripts regulating the affairs of administration, trade, diplomacy, and industry, and the relations of war and peace with the other civilizations of its era. The peoples of the kingdoms that lay on the land of modern Syria were known as the Amorites (third millennium BC), the Canaanites and Phoenicians (inhabitants of the Syrian coast), the Arameans (inhabitants of the highlands and the south) in the Syrian interior, the Nabateans (some of the inhabitants of the south), and in the north the kingdoms of the Hittites.

Many other civilizations also arose on the land of Syria, such as the civilization of the Greeks and Romans. Roman ruins and cities are spread abundantly across various regions of Syria and are counted among the most important Roman archaeological cities in the world. Across its lands passed the Silk Road coming from China, whose first Syrian station was Dura-Europos (al-Salihiyya), then famous Palmyra, Bosra, Homs, and Aleppo, until it reached the harbors of the Mediterranean, setting out from the Syrian coasts and ports.

Archaeologists consider Syria a center of one of the oldest civilizations on the face of the earth. Nor should we forget the archaeological kingdom of Ebla in northern Syria, which built an empire that stretched from the Red Sea in the south to Turkey in the north and to the Euphrates in the east, enduring from the year 2500 to 2400 BC. Many civilizations arose on the land of Syria, and it was inhabited by diverse peoples, who may be enumerated in order: the Canaanites, the Hebrews, the Arameans, the Hittites, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Nabateans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, and partly the Crusaders, and finally it was under the control of the Ottoman Turks, and it also came under the French Mandate between the years 1921 and 1946.

Syria is of special importance to Christians, who make up 10% of its population. From it the Apostle Paul set out to spread Christianity in Europe, and in it are the most important holy sites and the earliest churches, monasteries, shrines, and sacred places, such as the Church of Saint Ananias in Damascus, the Church of Qalb Lozeh, the Church of Umm al-Zunnar, the Monastery of Saint Simeon, the Monastery of Mar Musa, the Monastery of al-Yaʿqubiyya, the Monastery of Mar Elian al-Rih, the Monastery of Our Lady, the Monastery of Mar Georges, the Patriarchal Monastery of Saint Thecla, and the Cathedral of Saint Sergius [?], and towns that still speak the language of the Lord Christ to this day, such as Maaloula, which contains monasteries and churches and whose houses are carved into the rock, and Jubb'adin, Saidnaya, and Bosra.

The capital of Syria is Damascus, which is known to have been inhabited from 8,000 to 10,000 BC, making it the very oldest continuously inhabited capital and the oldest city in the world; it is as ancient as humanity itself, a capital of many kingdoms, civilizations, empires, and states throughout history, a metropolis standing since the most ancient ages. All the civilizations that arose in the East and the most important empires in the West passed through it and knew it. It was a home of the Arameans in the late second millennium BC; its rule passed successively to the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Romans, and the Persians; and it fell into the hands of Alexander the Great in 333 BC. After his death, Damascus became part of the Seleucid Kingdom. The Roman emperor Pompey the Great occupied it in 64 BC, and it became one of the most important cities of the Roman era. Christianity entered Damascus in the first years of its spread, and it later became an important Christian center that lit up the world with civilization; from it the saints and apostles set out to spread and preach the Christian religion, among them Saint Paul. The history of Damascus was bound to the Greek world for a period estimated at about ten centuries, during which the city knew the flourishing of Hellenistic civilization, where the elements of Greek culture blended with the Eastern Syrian civilization and its culture, as well as all the civilizations that passed through the city in ancient times. Damascus came under Muslim rule in the year 636 AD. Shortly thereafter the city reached the height of its flourishing, after it became the capital of the Umayyads and of their empire, which stretched from Spain to the borders of China in the period from 661 to 750 AD, forming the largest Islamic state in history (the Umayyad state), which holds great importance in all ages. It was a capital of several kingdoms and states, and for thousands of years upon its soil all the cultures, arts, literature, and industries of the peoples flourished; from it set out the famous figures of history—scholars, thinkers, writers, poets, astronomers, men of religion, jurists, saints, and apostles—to spread civilization, science, and knowledge and to preach creeds and religions everywhere, and it was the seat and starting point of commanders, sultans, rulers, princes, and kings.

The Roots of the Term "Syriac"

The Syriac Orthodox are a venerable Eastern Christian denomination whose roots go back to the first apostles of the Lord Christ, for the line of this denomination's patriarchs begins with Saint Peter, the chief of the Lord Christ's disciples. The name "Syriac," for the historians of the Syriac Church, includes in a broader sense most of the Christians of the Levant and Mesopotamia regardless of their doctrinal beliefs. The Rum Orthodox, for example, are also called the Melkite Syriacs, because they chose to follow the doctrine of the Byzantine emperor Marcian after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD. Likewise the Maronite Catholics, whose church is called the Syriac Maronite Church, and likewise the Chaldean Catholics, and so on for the rest of the churches of the region, except for the two churches of the Armenian Orthodox and the Armenian Catholics, who are of course Armenians. The Syriacs, then, are the original inhabitants of the land and the descendants of the builders of the successive civilizations of Syria and Mesopotamia before the coming of the Arab Islamic conquest.

There are many hypotheses about the origin of the word "Syriac" (Suryani) or "Syriacs" (Suryan). Some believe that the Syriacs were named thus after Syria, their historical homeland—Syria, Syrian—for in the Syriac language a Syriac person is called Suryoyo, that is, "Syrian." The Arabs, for their part, used the same term the Byzantines used to denote this people, namely Suryan (Syrian), and they still use it to this day. Another hypothesis indicates that the Syriacs and the Syriac language derive from King Surus, who appeared shortly before the Prophet Moses; he was of Aramean stock and seized the lands of Syria and Mesopotamia, and after his name these lands were called Syria and their people Sursiyyin in the Aramean language, then the "s" was dropped and they became Suriyyin; likewise Cilicia was named after Cilicus, the brother of Surus. Based on the writings of the historian Albert Abouna, which rely in turn on the commentary of Elias (974–1046), the Nestorian metropolitan of Nisibis, there is near-consensus that "Syriac" is a religious name for the Antiochene Church, carrying no political or national connotation; never at any time did the name "Syriac" refer to a nation, but rather to the Christian religion, nothing more.

According to Metropolitan Louis Sako, professor of theology at the University of Baghdad and holder of a doctorate in ancient Christian history, the terms "Syriac" and "Syriac language" were applied from the second and third centuries AD to the Arameans and to the Aramaic language—that is, to the language and culture that prevailed in the region—while the old Aramean name remained disliked and associated with paganism. Consequently, the Syriacs regard themselves as the direct heirs of the Arameans. Meanwhile some, such as the Aramean Democratic Organization, hold that "the Syriacs are a national minority living in the countries of the Middle East, especially in Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Jordan, without being granted the right to practice their national existence and without the states of the world recognizing their rights." The Shuraya Party, by contrast, holds that the Syriacs are, nationally and politically, the Assyrians, and that the followers of the Syriac Church are members of the Assyrian people.

The Syriacs had a great role in the Islamic intellectual and scientific renaissance, especially in the era of the Abbasid Caliphate, where Syriac writers were renowned for their precision in translation, particularly the translation of the philosophy of Aristotle and Plato. These translations had a great influence on the beginnings of Islamic philosophy, for it was in the era of al-Ma'mun specifically that the golden age of translation began, transferring Greek and Hellenistic sciences into Arabic, which paved the way for the wide spread of Greek philosophical thought. The most widespread philosophical school during the Hellenistic era was Neoplatonism, which had the greatest influence on the Islamic scene at that time.

To be continued in the next issue.