The term lingua franca (LING-wah FRANK-uh), meaning "common language," is derived from Latin. Latin, like Aramaic before it and English afterward, would become a language that allowed people of different native tongues to communicate. In the modern world, for instance, if a pilot from Korea is landing a plane in Germany, it is likely that he or she will speak to the control tower in English.
In the Middle Ages (a. d. c. 500-1500), Latin served a similar function. Learned men from England, Germany, Spain, and other parts of Europe could all communicate in the language, which by then was no longer spoken by common people. Even in the twentieth century, Latin is still often used in the High Mass (church service) of the Catholic Church. (The term Catholic, incidentally, means "universal.") Likewise Latin terms are used by doctors and scientists all over the world.
Aramaic became established in the Middle East long before the rise of the Roman Empire and its Latin language. to its adoption by the Babylonians,
Aramaic spread from Palestine to Persia. It offered a useful means of communication in the empires that covered those widely separated lands. Jesus Christ, who brought a universal message of salvation and who commanded his disciples to "go into the world and preach the Gospel," spoke in Aramaic.
Icant problem in Syria: the kingdom of Palmyra (pal-MEER-uh). The latter was actually just a city-state on the edge of the Syrian desert, but under Queen Zenobia (zeh-NOH-bee-uh) between a. d., 267 and 272 Palmyra began building an empire at a time when Rome was troubled by a long series of bad emperors. The emperor Aurelian finally captured Zenobia and partially destroyed the city in 273.
Nomads travelling through the desert.
AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.
Syria would remain a part of the Roman and Byzantine empires until its capture by the Sassanians of Persia in 611. Less than 25 years later, however, it fell under a new force sweeping the Middle East. That force was Islam, and its origins lay to the south, in barren Arabia.
World History
