Considering the development of the Aramaic-speaking population of Iraq during the late Sassanid and Islamic Empires, this extract from Michael G. Morony’s Iraq After the Muslim Conquest presents a brief yet through presentation of the complex language and political history of the Aramaeans of that region. The interaction of the Aramaeans and the Arabs during the period of the Islamic conquest is sketched out, citing the important families and individuals that stand out in this situation. The life of Aramaeans under the Muslim governance is presented as fairly positive, although not entirely so; they were the majority of the rural agricultural population of the region. Even Arabs settled outside of cities spoke Aramaic and had become identified with them. While place names reflected Aramaic naming conventions transposed into Arabic, the sense of cultural superiority remained intact among many of the Aramaeans. Arabs also had an uneasy outlook upon the status and background of the Aramaeans after the Muslim conquest.

Michael G. Morony teaches in the History Department at the University of California, Los Angeles. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley and earned his Ph.D. at UCLA. He has written several books on West Asian social and economic history.