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, etc.,)
whose prejudice alone could prefer it to the Arabic.