In Chapter 2, The Syriac Tradition in the Early Islamic Era
Syriac Aramaic began to develop as a literary language in the 2nd century AD; as a result of the Hellenization of the Near East it was subjected to the influence of Greek (Brock 1996 [*19]). As the language of Hellenized Christians, it became a vehicle for the assimilation of Greek concepts, which were transmitted orally, but increasingly also via Greek-Syriac translations of theological and philosophical treatises (Brock 1982 [*18]). An eloquen…