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The 8th century in the Fertile Crescent saw both processes of consolidation a fragmentation. To the southwest, in the Holy Land named so by the Christians, for that was the area where the Messaiah lived, Kemet has established a foothold in Gaza, and its control extended to the neighboring coastal plain.

The Ebionite kingdom of Jerusalem was conquered in the early 8th century by Ghassanids in Syria; and the Banu Judham nobility fled across the Jordan river to the oasis cities of Tayma and Tabouk, where they maintained their faith and customs. The suzerainty of the Ghassanids was a welcome step for the Miaphysites, yet a large number of Jews quit Palestine and settled either in Kemet or in the Hejaz (others settled in Mesopotamia). By the year 800, there were more Samaritans in the area than Jews.

In linguistic terms, the various communities living side-by-side developped their very own dialects, descended from common western Aramaic - the well known written varieties are Christian Palestinian Aramaic , Jewish Palestinian Aramaic and Samaritan Aramaic, in Gaza, the local Aramaic language was full of Greek, Coptic and to a lesser extent even Arabic loanwords, passed from the Misri Arabic of Fustat as well as from the Bedawi dialect spoken in the Sinai desert.

In Oultrejordain, or Arabia Petraea, the ancient kingdom of Nabatea, the Arabic and Aramaic dialects of the area, merged together, spreading the tongue also to the urban inhabitants, who previously spoke a Hellenic tongue; the area had become incorporated into the Ghassanid Kingdom, where the ruling elite was Arabic, yet used Syriac in liturgy. This diglossia prevailed also in Oultrejordain, where the populace was mostly Monophysite, with Melkites living in urban communities (1). Furthermore, in the Oultrejordain took refuge believers of Ebionitism, but also other Gnostic or parajudaic sects, who had been tolerated by the Banu Judham, but feared of persecution from the Ghassanids.

The Oultrajordain and Judea at this profit from their position, being on the major caravan routes between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and the caravans travelled on the frankincense route to Himyar and even further to India; for such trade, sea travel was used more often, and most often were used the ports near the Gulf of Aqaba.

The Ghassanid kingdom however experienced major setbacks and losses - after Constantine V. of the Rhomaic empire regained Antioch and environs (2), Edessa and Cilicia, it was attacked by Armenians who took Amida, and Adiabene (3), which took the lower Osroene and the Euphrates valley (4). This domino effect continued, for the cities on the Phoenician coast, previously tributary to Damascus, asserted full independence.

The most importation were Tyre, Sidon, Berytos and Tripoli (whose hinterland extended far inland), in the south, also Acre became a selfgoverning county. For the most part, these cities were independent oligarchic republics, interested in profit and trade; the valleys provided them with cedar wood, and they were left mostly independent. The city of Beirut had shifted before from Latin to Greek, yet now once more it shifted its languge to Aramaic. That language developed a specific variety on the Phoenician coast, sometimes called Medieval Maronite Aramaic, for its speakers were mostly Maronites, a Christian sect named after Mar Maron; they recognized the authority of neither patriarch but their own, who claimed to be the Patriarch of Antioch, yet he dwellt in Bkerke in one of the valleys of the Lebanon mountains.
Yet in Phoenicia dwellt also Melkites, most importantly in the area between Tripoli and Beirout, but they have adopted the local Aramaic variety for their daily use.

The Ghassanid kingdom was thus reserved to Judea, Oultrejordain, Auranitis (5), the Beqaa valley, Aram- Damascus and the Middle Orontes. Even the oasis-city of Palmyra reaserted its independence. Similarly, the Kurds of the Kurdish mountain at Afrin asserted independence, and Aleppo becomes a city state untio itselfThe rump state was a Semitic Christian one, and the ruling elite were preserving their own Arabic idioms, while preserving Aramaic as language of state administration. The border between the two languages can be seen as the border between the bedouin and the sedentary populations, pushed a little further in the direction of the latter - thus the entire Iturea, including the Auranitis and Trachonitis took up Arabic, and Aramaic retreated to the eastern foothills of the Antilebanon mountains, so that the city of Damascus and its environs were the last Aramophone cities on the border... and linguistic border from there continued from there roughly along the road that leads to the city of Emessa (6) and from there the straightest way to reach the bend of the Euphrates. The Arabic rule have Coelo-Syrian Aramaic a strong mark. The language was cultivated chiefly in Damascus, where many historians, churchmen and poets used the Damascene variety to write down the facts or their thoughts

As for religious landscape, the region was predominantly Miaphysite, yet the Syriac Orthodox Church was weaker in the Middle and Upper Orontes valley, which were dominated by the Melkites, that is Orthodox Christians.



Further east lay the already mentioned kingdom of Adiabene, which built many fortifications and castles in this period. Adiabene conquers Edessa from the Rhomaic empire in the last decade of the century, a place considered by many to be the cradle of the Church of the East. The Adiabene continues in campaigns against the Kurdish tribes of the Zagros, to secured most of the Tigris watershed. Its southern border was not far from the gates of Qtespon.

The kingdom of Adiabene however did not care only for military power. Within its borders were the universities of Nisibis, of Edessa, and of Harran , gathering many scholars and translators, who translated the works of Greek classics, of scientists and philosophers, to Syriac. This was so to rival the Academy of Gundeshapur which lay in the neighbouring Sawad.
Many new monasteries have been founded during this period; not only becoming places of meditation, but also of research and transcription. Amongst some of the better known scholars were Marutha of Tagrit and Youhanan bar Penkaye.

(Mar Ellia monastery)

As mentioned previously the kingdom of Adiabene, which renamed itself to kingdom of Assyria in the later 8th century, trying to continue the tradition (and being a good- sounding name, for Adiabene was known to most people as a mere satrapy, yet Assyrians once forged one of the greatest empires covering the entire Fertile Crescent) was a multireligious realm, and after conquering large parts of the middle Euphrates valley, the ratio between Nestorians and Miaphysites was almost 1 : 1. The western regions are mostly Miaphysite, as well as the city of Tagrit. Else, the entire Tigris valley was predominantly Nestorian
The surrounding highlander tribes are being Christianised, and new churches were built in the mid-eight century in most of the Kurdish villages, yet the more remote tribes stuck to their tribal faiths

Further downstream lay the Kingdom of Sawad, where the authority of the kings was gradually decreasing. The feudal nobles eventually became the true rulers of their lands; and in the eastern province of Khuzestan or Maishan, there was the Academy of Gundeshapur, one of the greatest hospitals in the world, which was the center of medical research. The best known were Masawai and the Bakhtishtu family, a dynasty of high skilled physicians. A number of Sabian scholars (Thabit ben Khura) have resettled to the more tolerant Sawad to avoid religious persecution on the basis of their nonchristian religion.

For Sawad until the 780s were a rather tolerant realm, and while the dominant Nestorian Christians would be the majority, other religions have been present in the area.
Manicheans had their religious head, the Kahna (Syriac word for leader) seated in Qtespon, and the Manicheans would compete with Nestorians in proselytizing along the Silk Road.
The Manicheans dwellt mainly in the south of the ancient area of Veh Kavad (7); after the beginning of the persecution in the 780s, some would move to Persia, others flee to the Arabian desert and to Hormuz. The Patriarch himself was allowed to remain, but most of the followers outside of the capital province were targetted by the local landlords; in Qtespon the mayor declared that no Manicheans are allowed to settle.
The Jews of Sawad remain a rather secretive people, and are forbidden to hold arable land outside the province west of Qtespon (8).

The dominant vernacular language thus becomes Babilian Aramaic, while Syriac continues to be used as an official, a liturgical and literary language. The Mandeans and Jews continue to use Mandaic Aramaic and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic respectively, also in their literary forms. The presence of a Manichean dialect is known , for the liturgical literature remained in classical Syriac
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