Aram is the name of a region mentioned in the Bible located in central Syria, including where the city of Aleppo (aka Halab) now stands.
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The etymology is uncertain. One standard explanation is an original meaning of "highlands". This has been interpreted to be in contrast with Canaan, or "lowlands".[1]
Aram stretched from the Lebanon mountains eastward across the Euphrates, including the Khabur River valley in northwestern Mesopotamia. The name is traditionally derived from Aram, son of Shem, a grandson of Noah in the Bible.[2]
Two medium-sized Aramaean kingdoms, Aram-Damascus and Hamath, along with several smaller kingdoms and independent city-states, developed in the region during the first millennium BCE.
An inscription of Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2250 BC) provides the earliest reference to Aram as a place name, but scholars have disagreed as to its actual location and significance. Other early references to a place or people of Aram have appeared at the archives of Mari (c. 1900 BC) and at Ugarit (c. 1300 BC). The indisputable presence of the Aramaeans (speakers of Aramaic) in the region dates to the late 12th century BC.
Arameans began to settle in Mesopotamia and south eastern Anatolia from the 13th century BC. They eventually intermingled with the indigenous Akkadian Semites of Assyria and Babylonia. Aramaic became the main spoken language of the Neo Assyrian Empire and Babylonia from the 9th century BC, gradually replacing Akkadian.
A few stele that name kings of this period have been found (see, for example, the Zakkur stele). The Chaldeans who settled in southern Babylonia around 1000 BCE were founders of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 625 BCE are also believed to have been an Akkadianized Aramaean tribe.[3] However, this is not certain and some dispute the alleged Aramaean ethnicity among the Chaldean dynasty.[4]
Some Maltese tales refer to Aram as the original homeland of the Maltese.
As the indigenous Arameans of Mesopotamia Syria began to adopt Christianity a dialect of Aramaic, Syriac, developed in Upper Mesopotamia. Hence Syriac has been associated with the Syriac Christians.
Today in this same area, there are several Eastern Catholic Churches that are distinct from the Latin Rite. Two of these are the Maronite Church and the Melkite Greek-Catholic Church, both common to Syria and Lebanon. The Syriac Orthodox Church is also extant, and there are also members of the Assyrian Church of the East, Ancient Church of the East and Chaldean Catholic Church, followers of these churches are ethnic Arameans, and still speak Aramaic as a native tongue. Some of these live in north east Syria, Iran and south east Turkey, but the majority are indigenous to Iraq.
Today, many Christians from Syria, particularly those living outside Syria, designate themselves as Syriac in order to distinguish themselves from the Arab identity of modern Syria. Many inside and outside of Syria however are increasingly advocating an Aramean identity.