At its height the Persian Empire was huge stretching from Macedonia and Thrace to the Indian Subcontinent.
Occupation of Upper Mesopotamia.
In the 6th century B.C.E. the Persian Empire devastated the lands of Mesopotamia incorporating them into the Empire. These lands formerly belonged to the Median and Neo-Babylonian Empires which themselves in turn took them after destroying the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
Adoption of Aramaic.
The Achaemenids after capturing Upper Mesopotamia- the land of the Arameans- adopted the Aramaic language as a means of communication,trade and official purposes for the entire Empire.
This language was called retrospectively Imperial Aramaic or Official Aramaic and served as a very important means of running and keeping the vast Empire together.
Imperial Aramaic was written in the Imperial Aramaic alphabet which dates from the 5th century B.C when Aramaic was adopted as the lingua franca -the language of trade, official documents and communication between the various peoples of the western Persian Empire.It is still used for literary purposes and to write some Neo-Aramaic languages.
Sample text in Imperial Aramaic.
A Jewish letter to Bagoas-the governor of Judaea requesting the help for rebuilding the temple of Yahweh in Elephantine (408BC) written in the Imperial Aramaic alphabet.The temple was looted snd destroyed after a conspiracy of a temple of the Egyptian god Khnub.More about this letter read here.
The following video shows the handwritten forms of the Imperial Aramaic alphabet.
Some Persian history.
Imperial Aramaic was written in the Imperial Aramaic alphabet which dates from the 5th century B.C when Aramaic was adopted as the lingua franca -the language of trade, official documents and communication between the various peoples of the western Persian Empire.It is still used for literary purposes and to write some Neo-Aramaic languages.
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| The Persian Empire at its height stretched from India to Thrace. |
Characteristics of Imperial Aramaic.
Imperial Aramaic was a highly standardized language. It is hard to tell where a document in Imperial Aramaic comes from due to this standardization.This standardization is mostly due to Imperial Aramaic not based on one dialect but rather historical roots of words were used.
This means that a form of Aramaic diglossia existed like in Arabic and Greek-the official Aramaic used throughout the Empire and the local Aramaic dialect.
As a natural result ,being the language of the Persian Empire, many elements of Old Persian were introduced to this formal language.
The Imperial Aramaic alphabet.
| Ālaph |  | /ʔ/; /aː/, /eː/ |
| Bēth |  | /b/, /v/ |
| Gāmal |  | /ɡ/, /ɣ/ |
| Dālath |  | /d/, /ð/ |
| Hē |  | /h/ |
| Waw |  | /w/; /oː/, /uː/ |
| Zain |  | /z/ |
| Ḥēth |  | /ħ/ |
| Ṭēth |  | emphatic /tˤ/ |
| Yudh |  | /j/; /iː/, /eː/ |
| Kāph |  | /k/, /x/ |
| Lāmadh |  | /l/ |
| Mim |  | /m/ |
| Nun |  | /n/ |
| Semkath |  | /s/ |
| ‘Ē |  | /ʕ/ |
| Pē |  | /p/, /f/ |
| Ṣādhē |  ,  | emphatic /sˤ/ |
| Qoph |  | /q/ |
| Rēsh |  | /r/ |
| Shin |  | /ʃ/ |
| Tau |  | /t/, /θ/ |
A Jewish letter to Bagoas-the governor of Judaea requesting the help for rebuilding the temple of Yahweh in Elephantine (408BC) written in the Imperial Aramaic alphabet.The temple was looted snd destroyed after a conspiracy of a temple of the Egyptian god Khnub.More about this letter read here.
Imperial Aramaic was used up to 3rd century BCE and it gradually evolved into Biblical Aramaic.
The following video shows the handwritten forms of the Imperial Aramaic alphabet.
Some Persian history.
Hebrew letters for Imperial Aramaic.
Nowadays the Hebrew alphabet (square Aramaic alphabet) is preferred to write Imperial Aramaic as well as Biblical Aramaic instead of the Aramaic alphabet of the Achaemenids (Persian dynasty) for ease of use. So,learning the Hebrew would be a great help and make things easier.
Also note that the Hebrew letters have different handwritten forms than the typed ones. I will deal with this is other posts.For now take a look at the Hebrew handwritten Alef to get an idea.
Read also
Learn to write the Imperial Aramaic alphabet.
Alap
The Elephantine Papyri
Elephantine Papyri fonts
Letter to Bagoas
Alap
The Elephantine Papyri
Elephantine Papyri fonts
Letter to Bagoas
External links