Note 110 The Syriac, which the natives revere as the primitive language, was divided into three dialects. 1. The Aramaean, as it was refined at Edessa and the cities of Mesopotamia. 2. The Palestine, which was used in Jerusalem, Damascus, and the rest of Syria. 3. The Nabathaean, the rustic idiom of the mountains of Assyria and the villages of Irak, (Gregor, Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 11.) On the Syriac, sea Ebed-Jesu, (Asseman. tom. iii. p. 326, &c.,) whose prejudice alone could prefer it to the Arabic.

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The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire —Fall In The East —Chapter 47