Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA) was a Western Aramaic dialect used by the Melkite Christian community in Palestine and Transjordan between the fifth and thirteenth centuries. It is preserved in inscriptions, manuscripts (mostly palimpsests, less papyri in the first period) and amulets. All the medieval Western Aramaic dialects are defined by religious community. CPA is closely related to its counterparts, Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (JPA) and Samaritan Aramaic (SA). CPA shows a specific vocabulary that is often not paralleled in the adjacent Western Aramaic dialects. Name No source gives CPA a name as a distinct dialect or language and all such names are modern scholarly inventions. Names like "Palestinian Syriac" and "Syropalestinian Aramaic" reflect the fact that Palestinian Aramaic speakers often referred to their language as Syriac and made use of an alphabet based on the northern Syriac ʾEsṭrangēlā script. Egeria, in the account of her pilgrimage to Palestine at the end of the 4th century, refers to Syriac, which was probably what is now Christian Palestinian Aramaic. The term syrica Hierosolymitana was introduced by J. D. Michaelis based on the appearance of the Arabic name of Jerusalem, al-Quds, in the colophon of a Gospel lectionary of 1030 AD (today Vat. sir. 19). It was also used in the first edition by Miniscalchi Erizzo. The term "Jerusalem Syriac" is sometimes said to emphasise the location where most of the first inscriptions were found, although most of them come today from Transjordan. The terms "Christian Palestinian Aramaic" and "Melkite Aramaic" emphasise the confessional identity of the speakers and the distinctness from any Syriac variety of Aramaic. History CPA is preserved in inscriptions, manuscripts (mostly palimpsests in the early period) and amulets. The history of CPA writing can be divided into three periods: early (5th–7th/8th centuries), middle (8th–9th) and late (10th–13th). The existence of a middle period has only recently come to light. Only inscriptions, fragmentary manuscripts and the underwriting of palimpsests survive from the early period. Of the inscriptions, only one can be dated with any precision. The fragments are both Biblical and Patristic. The oldest complete (non-fragmentary) manuscript dates to 1030. All the complete manuscripts are liturgical in nature. CPA declined as a spoken language because of persecution and gradual Arabization following the early Islamic conquests. From the tenth century onwards it was mainly a liturgical language in the Melkite churches and the Melkite community mainly spoke Arabic. Even as a written