Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/667

 ARAL ARAM 631 onies introduced into Russia under Alexander, were created and organized by Araktcheyeff amid bloodshed and cruelties. During the last years of the czar's reign Araktcheyeff became virtual ruler of the empire, issuing laws and ukases on blanks with the imperial signature. Soon after Alexander's death he was ordered to confine his residence to his estates at Gru- zino. He left the bulk of his large fortune to a military school founded by him in Gruzino, and $20,000 to serve, with the accumulated inter- est, as a prize for the best history of the reign of Alexander, 100 years after his death. It is supposed that this part of the will was an- nulled by Nicholas. ARAL, Sea of, a large inland sea or lake of Asiatic Russia and Turkistan, between lat. 42 30' and 47 N., and Ion. 57 30' and 61 30' E. It lies about 40 feet above the ocean, and more than 100 feet above the Caspian sea, from which it is 200 m. distant at the nearest point, and with which Humboldt and others suppose it to have been formerly connected. The Aral, covering an area of about 24,000 sq. m., is, next to the Caspian, the largest inland sea of the eastern hemisphere. It is shallow, with many islands. It has no outlet, but the Sir Darya or Sihoon (the Jaxartes of the ancients), the Amu Darya or Jihoon (the Oxus), and several smaller rivers flow into it. The water is brackish, but is freely drunk by horses, and is used for culi- nary purposes. Fish are abundant. The navi- gation of the sea of Aral is exceedingly difficult for sailing vessels; perfect calms alternate with violent and sudden storms, oftenest com- ing from the northeast. The harbors and anchorages are few and insecure. The shores are generally low and sandy, but on the north- ern side are small hills of clay. Its borders are generally uninhabited in summer, but in whiter they are frequented by nomadic tribes from the Kirghiz steppes. The sea of Aral is in the power of the Russian empire. The Rus- sians explored and made a map of it as early as 1740, and they sent occasional expeditions to its borders till 1847, when they built a fort at the mouth of the Sir, and began to take military possession of the principal islands of the lake. Colonies were soon afterward founded, and Russian vessels began the regular navigation which they have since continued. ARAM (Latinized Aramcea), the Hebrew name of the region lying N. and E. of Pales- tine and Phoenicia, and extending to the Tigris, the northern and southern boundaries never having been accurately defined. It correspond- ed generally to Syria and Mesopotamia of the Greeks and Romans, and included parts of Chal- dea and Assyria. In the Septuagint the name is usually rendered by Syria. It means high- lands, for, although most of the region is a low plain, the part which immediately borders upon Palestine is elevated. That portion between the Tigris and Euphrates is specially designated as Aram-naharaim, "Aram of the two rivers," answering to the Greek M.aoTroTapia. Here was the original home of Abraham, whence he migrated to Canaan. From this migra- tion dates the long separation between the He- brews and their Aramaean kindred. The Ara- maic language remained in a rude state after the separation, while the Hebrew, which was undoubtedly at first identical with it, became greatly developed; so that in the time of Hezekiah the former was unintelligible to the mass of the Jews. "When the ten tribes of Israel were carried away, their place was partly supplied by various Aramaean immigrants, who gradually formed a patois designated as Gali- lean or Samaritan. The exiles from Judah, du- ring their residence in Babylonia, abandoned their own language and adopted the Aramaic, which they brought back with them to Judea. This formed the current language in Palestine until it was partially superseded, after the Ma- cedonian conquest, by the Greek. Christ and his principal disciples probably spoke both lan- guages ; they certainly spoke Aramaic. In the 7th century the Moslem invasion of Syria in- troduced the Arabic language, which gradu- ally took the place of the Aramaic ; and the latter has become nearly extinct, existing now as a living tongue only among the Syrian Christians near Mosul. Properly speaking, the Aramaic has no literature of its own. As a written language it has been used in its two branches, the Chaldee and Syriac, only by the Hebrews and eastern Christians, and by them only in treating of religious subjects. The ca- nonical books of the Old Testament contain two extended passages in Chaldee (Ezra vii. 12-26 ; Dan. ii. 4 to vii. 28). Several of the apocry- phal books were written in Aramaic, although they now exist only in the Greek translation. The versions of Hebrew Scriptures known as Targums are written in Aramaic. It is not unlikely that the Gospel of Matthew was origi- nally written in it, although we have it authen- tically only in its Greek form. The Talmud, as a whole, is written in Aramaic, but with such variations from the main dialects that some have proposed to give the name Talmudic to the idiom in which it is composed. (See CHAL- DEE LANGUAGE AND LITEEATUEE, and SYRIAO LANGUAGE.) ARAM, Engene, an English scholar, born at Ramsgill, Yorkshire, in 1704, executed at York for murder, Aug. 6, 1759. Aram enjoyed a remarkable reputation for extensive scholar- ship acquired under the greatest difficulties, his father having been a poor gardener. After his marriage he established himself as a school- master in his native district of Netherdale. In 1734 he removed his school to Knaresborough, where in 1745 he became implicated in a rob- bery committed by Daniel Clark, a shoemaker of Knaresborough; and being discharged for want of evidence, he went to London. Clark disappeared mysteriously at the same time. Aram, while employed as school usher in vari- ous towns, and in an academy at Lynn in Norfolk, pursued his favorite studies, and was