Learn Aramaic

Darius the Great or Dārayavahuš in Old Persian was ruler of  the Persian Empire (Achaemenid) at its hight in the 5th century B.C.His name is mentioned in varius Aramaic documents like the Petition to Bagoas-a letter from the Elephantine Papyri . Two versions of his name are known in Aramaic ,the first-Daryush (drywsh) -meaning 'possesor' and the longer version Daryawahush (Darius) meaning 'holding firm the good'.In the video below you can see them written in the Imperial Aramaic script . דָּֽרְיָ֥וֶשׁ   מַלְכָּ֖א Ezra 6 Aramaic  א בֵּאדַ֛יִן דָּֽרְיָ֥וֶשׁ מַלְכָּ֖א שָׂ֣ם טְעֵ֑ם וּבַקַּ֣רוּ | בְּבֵ֣ית סִפְרַיָּ֗א דִּ֧י גִנְזַיָּ֛א מְהַֽחֲתִ֥ין תַּמָּ֖ה בְּבָבֶֽל Transcription 1 ʾbēʾdayin dārǝyāweš malkāʾ śām ṭǝʿēm ûbaqqarû | bǝbêt siprayyāʾ dî ginzayyāʾ mǝhaḥătîn tammâ bǝbābel.  Translation 1.Then King Darius gave an order, and they searched in the library in which the archives were stored in Babylon.

The Elephantine papyri is a body of texts from 5 B.C. mostly written in Imperial Aramaic from Elephantine-a Jewish fortress on an island in the Upper Nile near Aswan in Persian-ruled Egypt.The name Elephantine is what Greek called it.Jews called it Yebu. These texts are manuscripts of Jewish soldiers and their community who were settled there by the Persians to defend the borders with Nubia. What are the Elephantine manuscripts about. The manuscripts number hundreds and most of them are written in the Aramaic language,apparently the mother tongue of the local Jews.Though some of them are in Ancient Egyptian (Demotic and Hieratic) ,Coptic and Greek.These are mostly documents of the local Jewish community concerning many matters  such as legal,marriage,commerce,religion and politics.Some are letters,like the letter below from the local Jewish community to Persian king Bagoas-governor of Judaea asking him to rebuild the Jewish temple in Yebu-Elephantine which Egyptian troops wit...

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 bet...

 Ālap   /ʔ/ ; /aː/ , /eː/ Handwritten form 𐡀 ‎ This is the first letter of the Imperial Aramaic alphabet the modern version.