Sheep graze at Serjilla, one of Syria's Dead Cities. Photograph: Kevin Rushby
Posted on 01/14/2010 7:09:52 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The stone window ledge has two rows of seven shallow depressions cut into it, and I am sitting next to them, trying to remember where on earth I've seen this pattern before. Far away, beyond the massive fortifications and the moat, are the white-capped mountains of Lebanon. I had not expected to see so much snow around, but then Syria throws up surprises all the time. Even this 12th-century crusader castle, Krak des Chevaliers, a fabulous place long picked over by archaeologists and historians, is full of mysteries. Like the timeworn inscription I found tucked away in a corner: "Ceso: LT:Bor . . ." What did it mean? A cryptic message from one of the Knights Hospitallers during the final Muslim siege of 1271, perhaps? My otherwise excellent guidebook to the monuments of the country by Ross Burns makes no mention of it... From Damascus I had travelled north to Krak des Chevaliers, making one stop at the village of Ma'alula, a cluster of houses at the foot of a cliff and home to another surprise: it's the last place on earth where Aramaic, Jesus's mother tongue, is spoken. In the Greek Orthodox Church of St Sergius, Iranian tourists sat listening to the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic. The guide was not hopeful for the future survival of her native language. "If you come here in five or six years," she said sadly, "it will be a dead language. There are now about 50 families who speak it at home in Ma'alula." ...
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Sheep graze at Serjilla, one of Syria's Dead Cities. Photograph: Kevin Rushby
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I think that if you read the history of the area, in the era that he is talking about, the mystery he is talking about is mooselimbs.
Looks like detroit.
I was thinking suicide bomber training villages.
That’s kind of insulting to these mysterious dead cities, IMHO. ;’)
George Lamsa came from Assyria, raised in the Assyrian Church, and claimed, in his book on Bible idioms, that Aramaic was his people's language, as well as the church's language. That it was widespread in that region.
Also: Over 400,000 people of various communities from across the Middle East, and recent emigrants who have moved out of these communities, speak one of several varieties of Modern Aramaic (also called Neo-Aramaic) natively, including by religious adherence; Christians, Jews, Mandaeans and Muslims. Having lived in remote areas as insulated communities, the remaining modern speakers of Aramaic dialects escaped the linguistic pressures experienced by others during the large scale language shifts that saw the proliferation of other tongues among those who previously did not speak them, most recently the Arabization of the Middle East and North Africa by Muslim Arabians, during their spread of Islam. Most of the people of that region who converted to Islam, and many from the remaining unconverted population, also adopted Arabic as their first language. The Aramaic speakers have preserved their traditions with printing presses and now with electronic media.
Aramaic language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; scroll to: Modern Aramaic
I don’t think so - not the Christian Aramaic villages anyway.
“run into political difficulties”
The Brits can be so - polite.
The fact is, like the Armenians, the Assyrian Christians, the Zoroastrians and others, the muderering rat bastard followers of the desert paedophile bandit and his damnable Moon God, are destroying a people, a language, a society, a history.
INTERESTING that the face of the woman Aramaic speaker was not shown. Probably to protect her identity from the murdering rat bastard Muslims there.
“run into political difficulties”
The Brits can be so - polite.
The fact is, like they destroyed the Armenians, the Assyrian Christians, the Zoroastrians and others, the muderering rat bastard followers of the desert paedophile bandit and his damnable Moon God, are destroying a people, a language, a society, a history.
INTERESTING that the face of the woman Aramaic speaker was not shown. Probably to protect her identity from the murdering rat bastard Muslims there.
It was a joke...left off the sarc tag. I read the article and understood that they were historical ruins.
Sorry.
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