Aram-Naharaim
36.53333333333342.433333333333Koordinaten: 36 ° 32 '0 "N, 42 ° 26' 0" E Aram - naharaim ( Aram between the rivers ), ( Syriac ܒ ܝ ܬ ܢ ܗ ܪ ܝ ܢ ), was the name of a small Asian region between the Balich and the Khabur, the above lay of the Euphrates in the area of the Kingdom of Mitanni.
Biblical references
Aram Nahrin is considered the home of the patriarch Abraham. According to the Bible, he comes from the area on the Euphrates and migrated to command God with his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot to Palestine ( Genesis 12:1-5 ). The area is especially five times mentioned in the Bible (Gen 24,10; Deut 23.5; Ri 3.8, 1 Chr 19,6; Ps 60.2 ).
Historical mentions
In three el-Amarna letters Nahrima is mentioned in connection with Naharin. Strabo used the term Mesopotamia was originally only for the northern part of the lowlands between the rivers, while he called the southern part of " Babylon ". The name " Mesopotamia " comes from the Hellenistic period, when the Greek geographer of the ancient time translated the settlement area between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, the land of Aram - naharaim into Greek. This south-eastern part of the country to the Khabur and Sinjar was wrested from the Parthians in 156 by L. Verus and made a Roman province and remained so in its main part (even after cession of Nisibis and Sinjar in the year 364 to the Persians ) until the Arab conquest a half a millennium. This was also a political and administrative significance in narrower than the one indicated above geographical limits of the name Mesopotamia. This was limited by the division of the larger province under Diocletian on the Armenian territories to the upper Tigris -reaching half.
The mash - Arameans lived on the mountain -mash or Masios, which was named after them. Since the Christian era, this place is called today Tur Abdin. In this narrow cultural zone, the area was the mach or Masios rivers, the Hirmas ( called by the Greeks Mygdonios ) is of great importance, which was the link between the East and the dominant in the West Nisibis.