The Arameans, or Aramaeans^{[pronunciation?]} (Aramaic: ארמיא‎; ʼaramáyé) were a Northwest Semitic semi-nomadic and pastoralist people who originated in what is now modern Syria (Biblical Aram) during the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Large groups migrated to Mesopotamia where they intermingled with the native Akkadian (Assyrian and Babylonian) population.

The Arameans never had a unified nation; they were divided into small independent kingdoms across parts of the Near East, particularly in what is now modern Syria. After the Bronze Age collapse, their political influence was confined to a number of Syro-Hittite states, which were entirely absorbed into the Neo-Assyrian Empire by the 8th century BC.

By contrast, the Aramaic language came to be the lingua franca of the entire Fertile Crescent, by Late Antiquity developing into the literary languages such as Syriac and Mandaic. Scholars even have used the term "Aramaization" for the process by which the Akkadian/Assyro-Babylonian peoples became Aramaic-speaking during the later Iron Age.

The Hidden Pearl: The Syrian Orthodox Church And Its Ancient Aramaic Heritage is a 2001 documentary published by TransWorld Film Italia commissioned by the Syriac Orthodox community. The documentary was published in the form of three videos together with three printed volumes.

Volume 1, The Ancient Aramaic Heritage, deals with the Aramaic heritage as the cradle of civilization. It covers the pre-Christian Old Aramaic period, covering the Aramaean city states, the Neo-Assyrian, Achaemenid and Seleucid periods, including the kingdoms of Palmyra, Petra, Edessa and Hatra.

Volume 2, The Heirs of the Ancient Aramaic Heritage, addresses Middle Aramaic tradition and literature, the Aramaic of Jesus and classical Syriac literature.

Volume 3, At the Turn of the Third Millennium: the Syrian Orthodox Witness, focuses on and describes the current situation of the Syriac Orthodox Church and its history in Tur Abdin, on Seyfo and the Syriac diaspora.

Saint Gabriel or Mor Gabriel (Aramaic: ܡܪܝ ܓܒܪܐܝܠ; Saint Gabriel) (634– 23 December 668) was the 7th bishop of Mor Gabriel Monastery and Tur Abdin in Southeastern Turkey.

Saint Gabriel was born in Alagöz. There he attended a local school and learned how to read and write in a relatively short time. His Parents wanted him to get married and build a family, but he chose to become a monk. When he was 15 years of age he left his parents' house while they were sleeping, and went to a cloister. There he met a man called Gewargis. Gabriel asked Gewargis to let him stay in the cloister and later the same year Gabriel became a monk.

He was sleeping just two hours daily and the rest of the time he spent it praying God and reading books. He was so humble and he always walked barefoot and tortured himself, sometimes until he started to bleed. After seven years of staying at Gewargis' cloister, he decided to leave the area because of the pressure his parents were applying on him. So he went to Saint Simon's monastery, the same monastery was renamed Mor Gabriel Monastery as a tribute to Saint Gabriel.