58 HORMUZD KASSAM, ESQ., ON BIBLICAL LANDS, THEIR 



rendering for Aram. This proves that when the Old Testa- 

 ment was translated into Greek, the word Tyre was under- 

 stood to have no connection whatever with that of Syria, 

 they being two distinct words. Moreover in Hebrew there 

 is no such word as Syria, but the proper name is D")i^» 

 Aram, which has been erroneously translated into Greek, 

 English, and other European languages, into that misnomer, 

 having no similarity either in the composition of the letters 

 or the sound. It was very natural of the Greeks to call the 

 Aramaic language Syria c, which was a corruption of 

 Assyrian by omitting the first letter A, seeing that their 

 language was the same as that used in Aram of Damascus 

 and Tyre. Even the late Sir Henry Rawlinson considered 

 that the word Syria was a corruption of Assyria, as it will 

 be seen from his remark upon his brother's note below in 

 Book i of Herodotus, chapter 6, wherein Canon Rawlinson 

 tries to define the questionable geographical limits of what 

 is called Syria. His words are these : " Herodotus regards 

 the words Syria and Assyria, Syrians and Assyrians, as 

 in reality the same (vii, 63) ; in his use of them, however, 

 as ethnic appellations he always carefully distinguishes. 

 Syria is the tract bounded on the north by the Euxine ; on 

 the west by the Halys, Cilicia and the Mediterranean ; on 

 the east by Armenia* and the desert, and on the south by 

 Egypt. Assyria is the upper portion of the Mesopotamian 

 valley, bounded on the north by Armenia, on the west by 

 the desert, on the south by Babylonia, and on the east by 

 the Modes and Muteeni." [The only true word is Assyria, 

 from Asshur. Syria is a Greek corruption of the genuine 

 term.— H. C. R.] 



The language which is used by the Chaldeans is known in 

 Europe by the name of Syriac, but they themselves term it 

 Chaldean, as it is called in the Targum, Daniel, and Ezra. The 

 word Syriac or Siryanee is applied by them to the characters 

 used by the so-called Syrians or Jacobites. It is true there 

 is very little difference between the Chaldean and Syriac, 

 but the diff"erence is noticeable both in the formation of the 

 letters and the pronunciation of certain words which no 

 man can mistake. 



Formerly the Syrians of Mesopotamia who were of the 

 same stock as the Chaldeans had a like style of writing, but 



* This is a mistake ; the correct geographical position is Mesopotamia. 

 H. R. 



