Syria has long been one of the most trouble-prone and politically volatile regions of the Near and Middle Eastern world. This book looks back beyond the troubles of the present to tell the 3000-year story of what happened many centuries before. Trevor Bryce reveals the peoples, cities, and kingdoms that arose, flourished, declined, and disappeared in the lands that now constitute Syria, from the time of it's earliest written records in the third millennium BC until the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian at the turn of the 3-4th century AD. Across the centuries, from the Bronze Age to the Rome Era, we encounter a vast array of characters and civilizations, enlivening, enriching, and besmirching the annals of Syrian history: Hittite and Assyrian Great Kings; Egyptian pharaohs; Amorite robber-barons; the biblically notorious Nebuchadnezzar; Persia's Cyrus the Great and Macedon's Alexander the Great; the rulers of the Seleucid empire; and an assortment of Rome's most distinguished and most infamous emperors. All swept across the plains of Syria at some point in her long history. All contributed, in one way or another, to Syria's special, distinctive character, as they imposed themselves upon it, fought one another within it, or pillaged their way through it. But this is not just a history of invasion and oppression. Syria had great rulers of her own, native-born Syrian luminaries, sometimes appearing as local champions who sought to liberate their lands from foreign despots, sometimes as cunning, self-seeking manipulators of squabbles between their overlords. They culminate with Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, whose life provides a fitting grand finale to the first three millennia of Syria's recorded history. The conclusion looks forward to the Muslim conquest in the 7th century AD: in many ways the opening chapter in the equally complex and often troubled history of modern Syria.

The three-thousand year story of ancient Syria, from Bronze Age to Imperial Rome: the essential back-story to one of the world's most trouble-prone and volatile regions

The historical and cultural role of the Aramaeans in ancient Syria can hardly be overestimated. Thus The Aramaeans in Ancient Syria gives precise and up-to-date information on different aspects of Aramaean culture. To that end, history, society, economy and law, language and script, literature, religion, art and architecture of the Aramaean kingdoms of Syria from their beginnings in the 11 century B.C. until their end at approximately 720 B.C. are covered within the handbook. The wide survey of Aramaean culture in Syria is supplemented by overviews on the Aramaeans in Assyria, Babylonia, Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, North Arabia and on the Aramaean heritage in the Levant.

Table of contents

This book, derived from the acclaimed Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages, describes the ancient languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia, for the convenience of students and specialists working in that area. Each chapter of the work focuses on an individual language or, in some instances, a set of closely related varieties of a language. Providing a full descriptive presentation, each of these chapters examines the writing system(s), phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon of that language, and places the language within its proper linguistic and historical context. The volume brings together an international array of scholars, each a leading specialist in ancient language study. While designed primarily for scholars and students of linguistics, this work will prove invaluable to all whose studies take them into the realm of ancient language.

Beginning with Deut. 18:9ff and its condemnation of magicians and diviners, this book explores the window that this text gives us into magic and divination in Ancient Palestine and Syria. Investigating the wealth of language combined with the archaeological and historical evidence, it seeks to place the influence of these factors in the emerging Israelite religion. An integral part of Ancient Near Eastern cosmology and culture, magic and divination are never completely eradicated despite the ideological warfare led by the Old Testament writers. The first part examines the function of various magicians and diviners. This is followed by a chapter on dreams and visions. The third chapter looks at the techniques and devices used by the oracular practitioners. Other subjects covered include magic in warfare, in the treatment of diseases, and blessing and cursing.

The tragic war in Syria along with the plight of the Christians there remains among the most misunderstood situations in the world today. Syria Crucified seeks to contribute to better understanding in the West by giving a voice to individual Syrian Christians living in exile from their homeland. These men and women have undergone horrific trauma and loss without losing their faith in God or the ability to forgive their persecutors. Their first-person accounts, framed by the authors' narration for historical, cultural, and geopolitical context, are both edifying and inspiring.

First Published in 1983, Syria: Modern State in an Ancient Land presents a concise profile of Syria in which the author depicts the factors that shaped modern Syria, introducing its land, people, and culture and explaining how it moved from being the coup - prone cockpit of inter-Arab politics to the relative stability in the 1980s. He discusses how its political system functions, the development of its moderate socialist economy, the nation's external affairs (particularly within the Middle East), and issues for the future-the last of particular interest because Syria is in a process of change in its politics, society, and international relationships. Throughout he provides a framework within which to understand and assess the developments in Syria in the 1980s. This is a must read for students of Middle East studies and Middle East history.

The Iron Age, i.e. the period between c. 1200 and 300 B.C., is a crucial period in Mediterranean and Near Eastern history. Syria especially saw one of the most flourishing moments of its history in the early first millennium B.C. New kingdoms emerged which developed an intense cultural life and took advantage of their geographical location to gain a dominant position in interregional relations. As a consequence, Syria became the main target of Assyrian expansion. It also became an intermediary between Asia and the Mediterranean world. Twenty-two essays, aiming to reflect essential aspects of on-going research, review major historical, archaeological and linguistic aspects of Syria in the Iron Age. Interaction between Neo-Hittites and Arameans, new forms of art, changes in political and social structures, linguistic conservatism and innovation, regional particularism, impact of Assyrian expansion are some op the topics dealt with in the volume.