Classical Syriac

Overview

Classical Syriac is an Aramaic dialect that originated from the ancient city of Edessa (present-day Urfa in southeast Turkey) in the 1^st century AD. In the course of the 1^st millennium,  Classical Syriac became a major literary language of the Near East and the common language of the historically Aramaic-speaking churches where it is still used today as the language of liturgy and prayer. Boasting a wealth of original texts encompassing theology, literature and the sciences, Classical Syriac spread during its heyday to Christian communities in places as remote as China and South India, before its decline in the 13^th century. A vast linguistic corpus and intellectual treasure trove, Classical Syriac is an indispensable tool for the study of Near Eastern history in general and Near Eastern Christianity in particular, and holds the key to accessing other, less well-documented and accessible variants of Aramaic.