The Aramaic noun shelam is the counterpart to the Hebrew shalom, meaning peace, welfare, or wholeness. It appears in the Aramaic portions of Daniel and Ezra as a greeting formula.
Shelam in the Aramaic letters of Daniel and Ezra reflects the universal longing for peace and the Hebrew-Aramaic bridge of the exilic period. When King Darius writes to the peoples of every nation (Daniel 6:25-27), he uses shelam as a greeting before declaring the power of the God who rescued Daniel. This word testifies to the sovereignty of Israel's God even in exile — the very language of empire is pressed into service announcing the peace and power of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.