Ministry of higher education decides to introduce the Syriac language at the university of Baghdad within the central admission
The ministry of higher education and scientific research decided introducing the Syriac language at the college of languages, university of Baghdad within its plan for the central admission this year in an attempt to allow students who don’t speak this language to enter this department after it was limited to the native speakers only. Head of department, Adnan shabib stated that in an interview with the website of the college, adding that Syriac is one of the semitic languages derived from Aramaic originated in the first millennium BC, to the family of the third part of the language family and from the 6th century BC it became the only spoken language spoken in the fertile Crescent until AC, later it acquired its new name “Syriac” in the 4th century coinciding with the spread of Christianity in the Levant. The Syriac department was founded on the recommendation of the Iraqi Academy of Sciences / Syriac body, whose vice-president, prof. Dr. Youssef Fawzi was commissioned to exert maximum efforts in order to achieve its core, then approved to open this department in the college of languages on 31 March 2004, began teaching in November 2004 and accepting high school graduates from scientific and humanity branches. This department graduates translators of Syriac to fit the needs of the times in collaboration with the Iraqi Academy of Sciences. Syriac is the native language of Assyrians, Syriacs, and Chaldeans who live in Iraq and Syria. It has a religious significance particularly in Christianity, since at first Jesus spoke Aramaic, so it is the mother tongue of the Syriac, secondly because many of the writings of the church fathers and the Christian heritage has preserved in Syriac along with Greek, as well as the Syriac churches still use this language daily in their divine liturgy and other worship services.