Levant

The Levant (/ləˈvænt/) is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, it is equivalent to the historical region of Syria, which included present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine and most of Turkey south-east of the middle Euphrates. In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the Eastern Mediterranean with its islands;[3] that is, it included all of the countries along the Eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece to Cyrenaica in eastern Libya.[2][4]

For Latin Catholics in the Ottoman Empire, see Levantines (Latin Christians). For other uses, see Levantine and Levant (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Levante or Levent.

Levant
  Countries and regions of the Levant in the broad, historic meaning (equivalent to the Eastern Mediterranean)[1]
  Countries of the Levant in 20th century usage[2]
  Countries and regions sometimes included in the 21st century
Countries and regionsNarrow definition:
 Cyprus
 Israel
 Jordan
 Lebanon
 Palestine
 Syria
 Turkey (Hatay Province)
Broad definition may also include:
 Egypt
 Greece
 Iraq
 Libya (Cyrenaica)
 Turkey (whole country)
PopulationNarrow definition: 44,550,926[lower-alpha 1]
DemonymLevantine
LanguagesArabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Circassian, Armenian, Kurdish, Turkish, Domari, Greek
Time ZonesUTC+02:00 (EET) and UTC+03:00 (FET/AST)
Largest cities

The term entered English in the late 15th century from French.[3] It derives from the Italian Levante, meaning "rising", implying the rising of the Sun in the east,[2][4] and is broadly equivalent to the term al-Mashriq (Arabic: ٱلْمَشْرِق‎, [ʔal.maʃ.riq]),[5] meaning "the eastern place, where the Sun rises".[6]

In the 13th and 14th centuries, the term levante was used for Italian maritime commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean, including Greece, Anatolia, Syria-Palestine, and Egypt, that is, the lands east of Venice.[2] Eventually the term was restricted to the Muslim countries of Syria-Palestine and Egypt.[2] In 1581, England set up the Levant Company to monopolize commerce with the Ottoman Empire.[2] The name Levant States was used to refer to the French mandate over Syria and Lebanon after World War I.[2][4] This is probably the reason why the term Levant has come to be used more specifically to refer to modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Cyprus.[2] Some scholars mistakenly believed that it derives from the name of Lebanon.[2] Today the term is often used in conjunction with prehistoric or ancient historical references. It has the same meaning as "Syria-Palestine" or Ash-Shaam (Arabic: ٱلشَّام‎, /ʔaʃ.ʃaːm/), the area that is bounded by the Taurus Mountains of Turkey in the North, the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and the north Arabian Desert and Mesopotamia in the east.[7] Typically, it does not include Anatolia (also called Asia Minor), the Caucasus Mountains, or any part of the Arabian Peninsula proper. Cilicia (in Asia Minor) and the Sinai Peninsula (Asian Egypt) are sometimes included.

As a name for the contemporary region, several dictionaries consider Levant to be archaic today.[8][9][10] Both the noun Levant and the adjective Levantine are now commonly used to describe the ancient and modern culture area formerly called Syro-Palestinian or Biblical: archaeologists now speak of the Levant and of Levantine archaeology;[11][12][13][14] food scholars speak of Levantine cuisine;[15][16] and the Latin Christians of the Levant continue to be called Levantine Christians.[17]

The Levant has been described as the "crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, and northeast Africa",[18] and the "northwest of the Arabian plate".[19] The populations of the Levant[20][21] share not only the geographic position, but cuisine, some customs, and history. They are often referred to as Levantines.[22]

Etymology
See also: Names of the Levant
French medal commemorating the Franko-Turkish War in Cilicia, circa 1920

The term Levant appears in English in 1497, and originally meant the East or "Mediterranean lands east of Italy".[23] It is borrowed from the French levant "rising", referring to the rising of the sun in the east,[23] or the point where the sun rises.[24] The phrase is ultimately from the Latin word levare, meaning 'lift, raise'. Similar etymologies are found in Greek Ἀνατολή (Anatolē, cf. Anatolia), in Germanic Morgenland (literally, "morning land"), in Italian (as in "Riviera di Levante", the portion of the Liguria coast east of Genoa), in Hungarian Kelet, in Spanish and Catalan Levante and Llevant, ("the place of rising"), and in Hebrew (Hebrew: מִזְרָח‎, mizrah, "east"). Most notably, "Orient" and its Latin source oriens meaning "east", is literally "rising", deriving from Latin orior "rise".[25]

The notion of the Levant has undergone a dynamic process of historical evolution in usage, meaning, and understanding. While the term "Levantine" originally referred to the European residents of the eastern Mediterranean region, it later came to refer to regional "native" and "minority" groups.[26]

The term became current in English in the 16th century, along with the first English merchant adventurers in the region; English ships appeared in the Mediterranean in the 1570s, and the English merchant company signed its agreement ("capitulations") with the Ottoman Sultan in 1579.[27] The English Levant Company was founded in 1581 to trade with the Ottoman Empire, and in 1670 the French Compagnie du Levant was founded for the same purpose. At this time, the Far East was known as the "Upper Levant".[2]

Postcard bearing a French stamp inscribed Levant

In early 19th-century travel writing, the term sometimes incorporated certain Mediterranean provinces of the Ottoman empire, as well as independent Greece (and especially the Greek islands). In 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference the place instead of any one culture. The French mandate of Syria and Lebanon (1920–1946) was called the Levant states.[2][4]

Geography and modern-day use of the term
Satellite view of the Levant including Cyprus, Syria, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and the Northern Sinai

Today, "Levant" is the term typically used by archaeologists and historians with reference to the history of the region. Scholars have adopted the term Levant to identify the region due to it being a "wider, yet relevant, cultural corpus" that does not have the "political overtones" of Syria-Palestine.[lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3] The term is also used for modern events, peoples, states or parts of states in the same region,[28] namely Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey are sometimes considered Levant countries (compare with Near East, Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia). Several researchers include the island of Cyprus in Levantine studies, including the Council for British Research in the Levant,[29] the UCLA Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department,[30] Journal of Levantine Studies[31] and the UCL Institute of Archaeology,[18] the last of which has dated the connection between Cyprus and mainland Levant to the early Iron Age. Archaeologists seeking a neutral orientation that is neither biblical nor national have used terms such as Levantine archaeology and archaeology of the Southern Levant.[32][33]

While the usage of the term "Levant" in academia has been restricted to the fields of archeology and literature, there is a recent attempt to reclaim the notion of the Levant as a category of analysis in political and social sciences. Two academic journals were recently launched: Journal of Levantine Studies, published by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Levantine Review, published by Boston College.

The word Levant has been used in some translations of the term ash-Shām as used by the organization known as ISIL, ISIS, and other names, though there is disagreement as to whether this translation is accurate.[34]

History
Main articles: History of the Middle East, Prehistory of the Levant, History of the ancient Levant, History of Palestine, and History of Israel

Politics and religion
Old Levantine Custom, Syrian and Lebanese men.

The largest religious group in the Levant are the Muslims and the largest cultural-linguistic group are Arabs, due to the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century and subsequent Arabization of the region.[35][36] Other large ethnic groups in the Levant include Jews, Kurds, Turks, Turkmens, Assyrians and Armenians.[37]

The majority of Muslim Levantines are Sunni with Alawi and Shia minorities. There are also Jews, Christians, Yazidi Kurds, Druze, and other smaller sects. [38]

Until the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948, Jews lived throughout the Levant alongside Muslims and Christians; since then, almost all have been expelled from their homes and sought refuge in Israel.

There are many Levantine Christian groups such as Greek, Oriental Orthodox (mainly Syriac Orthodox, Coptic, Georgian, and Maronite), Roman Catholic, Nestorian, and Protestant. Armenians mostly belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church. There are Levantines or Franco-Levantines who are mostly Roman Catholic. There are also Circassians, Turks, Samaritans, and Nawars. There are Assyrian peoples belonging to the Assyrian Church of the East (autonomous) and the Chaldean Catholic Church (Catholic).[39]

In addition, this region has a number of sites that are of religious significance, such as Al-Aqsa Mosque,[40] the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,[41] and the Western Wall[42] in Jerusalem.

Language
Map representing the distribution of the Arabic dialects in the area of the Levant.

Most populations in the Levant speak Levantine Arabic (شامي, Šāmī), usually classified as the varieties North Levantine Arabic in Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Turkey, and South Levantine Arabic in Palestine and Jordan. Each of these encompasses a spectrum of regional or urban/rural variations. In addition to the varieties normally grouped together as "Levantine", a number of other varieties and dialects of Arabic are spoken in the Levant area, such as Levantine Bedawi Arabic and Mesopotamian Arabic.[43]

Among the languages of Israel, the official language is Hebrew; Arabic was until July 19, 2018, also an official language.[44] The Arab minority, in 2018 about 21% of the population of Israel,[44] speaks a dialect of Levantine Arabic essentially indistinguishable from the forms spoken in the Palestinian territories.

Of the languages of Cyprus, the majority language is Greek, followed by Turkish (in the north). Two minority languages are recognized: Armenian, and Cypriot Maronite Arabic, a hybrid of mostly medieval Arabic vernaculars with strong influence from contact with Greek, spoken by approximately 1000 people.[45]

Some communities and populations speak Aramaic, Greek, Armenian, Circassian, French, or English.

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See also

Overlapping regional designations

Subregional designations

Others

Other places in the east of a larger region

Notes
  1. Population of 44,550,926 found by adding all the countries' populations (Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Hatay Province)
  2. "Nevertheless, despite such a well-reasoned basis for the identification of Levantine archaeology, the adoption of this term by many scholars has been, for the most part, simply the result of individual attempts to consider a wider, yet relevant, cultural corpus than that which is suggested by the use of terms like Canaan, Israel, or even Syria-Palestine. Regardless of the manner in which the term has come into common use, for a couple of additional reasons it seems clear that the Levant will remain the term of choice. In the first place scholars have shown a penchant for the term Levant, despite the fact that the term ‘Syria-Palestine’ has been advocated since the late 1970s. This is evident from the fact that no journal or series today has adopted a title that includes ‘Syria-Palestine’. However, the journal Levant has been published since 1969 and since 1990, Ägypten und Levante has also attracted a plethora of papers relating to the archaeology of this region. Furthermore, a search through any electronic database of titles reveals an overwhelming adoption of the term ‘Levant’ when compared to ‘Syria-Palestine’ for archaeological studies. Undoubtedly, this is mostly due to the fact that ‘Syria-Palestine’ was a Roman administrative division of the Levant created by Hadrian (Millar 1993). The term ‘Syria-Palestine’ also carries political overtones that inadvertently evoke current efforts to establish a full-fledged Palestinian state. Scholars have recognized, therefore, that—for at least the time being—they can spare themselves further headaches by adopting the term Levant to identify this region" (Burke 2010)
  3. "At the beginning of this Introduction I have indicated how difficult it is to choose a general accepted name for the region this book deals with. In Europe we are used to the late Roman name 'Palestine,' and the designation 'Palestinian Archaeology' has a long history. According to Byzantine usage it included CisJordan and TransJordan and even Lebanon and Sinai. In modern times, however, the name 'Palestine' has exclusively become the political designation for a restricted area. Furthermore, in the period this book deals with a region called 'Palestine' did not yet exist. Also the ancient name 'Canaan' cannot be used as it refers to an older period in history. Designations as: 'The Land(s) of the Bible' or 'the Holy Land' evoke the suspicion of a theological bias. 'The Land of Israel' does not apply to the situation because it never included Lebanon or the greater part of modern Jordan. Therefore I have joined those who today advocate the designation 'Southern Levant.' Although I confess that it is an awkward name, it is at least strictly geographical." (Geus 2003, p. 6)

References
  1. Gagarin 2009, p. 247; Encarta 2009, "Levant"; Oxford Dictionaries 2015.
  2. Gagarin 2009, p. 247
  3. Oxford Dictionaries 2015.
  4. Encarta 2009, "Levant"
  5. Gagarin 2009, p. 247; Naim 2011, p. 921;
    • Amy Chua (2004), World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability p. 212;
    • Mandyam Srinivasan, Theodore Stank, Philippe-Pierre Dornier, Kenneth Petersen (2014), Global Supply Chains: Evaluating Regions on an EPIC Framework – Economy, Politics, Infrastructure, and Competence: “EPIC” Structure – Economy, Politics, Infrastructure, and Competence, p. 3;
    • Ayubi, Nazih N. (1996), Over-stating the Arab State: Politics and Society in the Middle East p. 108;
    • David Thomas, Alexander Mallett (2012), Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Volume 4 (1200-1350), p. 145;
    • Jeff Lesser (1999), Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil p. 45
  6. Naim 2011, p. 921.
  7. Margreet L. Steiner; Ann E. Killebrew (2014). The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: C. 8000-332 BCE. OUP Oxford. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-19-921297-2. The western coastline and the eastern deserts set the boundaries for the Levant... The Euphrates and the area around Jebel el-Bishrī mark the eastern boundary of the northern Levant, as does the Syrian Desert beyond the Anti-Lebanon range's eastern hinterland and Mount Hermon. This boundary continues south in the form of the highlands and eastern desert regions of Transjordan
  8. LEVANT archaic The eastern part of the Mediterranean with the islands and neighbouring countries. New Oxford Dictionary of English, 2nd ed., revised, 2005.
  9. LEVANT, THE. A general term formerly given to the E shores of the Mediterranean Sea from W Greece to Egypt. The Penguin Encyclopedia, revised 2nd ed., 2004.
  10. LEVANT, (vieilli) Le Levant: les pays, les régions qui sont au levant (par rapport à la France) et spécialt. les régions de la Méditerrranée orientale. Le Nouveau Petit Robert de la langue française, (1993 revised ed.).
  11. Thomas Evan Levy, Historical Biblical Archaeology and the Future: The New Pragmatism, Routledge, 2016 ISBN 1134937466. Thomas E. Levy, "The New Pragmatism", p. 8: "after 1994, it is possible to see an increase in the use of the less geographically specific and more political [sic] neutral words 'Levant' or 'Levantine' in scholarly citations.... It is important to highlight the pedigree of the term 'Syro-Palestinian' and its gradual replacement by the term 'Levant' or 'Levantine' because the latter is a more culturally and politically neutral term that more accurately reflects the tapestry of countries and peoples of the region, without assuming directionality of cultural influence.". Aaron A. Burke, "The Archaeology of the Levant in North America: The Transformation of Biblical and Syro-Palestinian Archaeology" p. 82ff: "A number of factors account for the gradual emergence during the past two decades of what is now widely identified as Levantine archaeology in North America... a growing consensus regarding the appropriate terminology... archaeological field research in the Levant"
  12. William G. Dever, The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel: When Archaeology and the Bible Intersect, 2012, ISBN 0802867014, p. 249: "Today, however, the discipline is often called Palestinian, Syro-Palestinian, or Levantine archaeology."
  13. Ann E. Killebrew, Margreet Steiner, The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: c. 8000-332 BCE (title), 2013 ISBN 9780199212972 doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199212972.001.0001
  14. ""levantine archaeology" - Google Search". www.google.com.
  15. Mark Gasiorowski, The Government and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa, 2016 ISBN 081334994X, p. 5: "...today the term Levantine can describe shared cultural products, such as Levantine cuisine or Levantine archaeology"
  16. ""levantine cuisine" - Google Search". www.google.com.
  17. Michel Elias Andraos, "Levantine Catholic Communities in the Diaspora at the Intersection of Many Identities and Worlds", in Michael L. Budde, Scattered and Gathered: Catholics in Diaspora, 2017 ISBN 1532607091 p. 24: "The word 'Levantine' in the title is used on purpose instead of the 'Middle East' or the 'Near East'.... I use 'Levantine' more than the two other designations, because this is the term being used more often nowadays by Christian communities in the Middle East to describe their shared identity as al-maseeheyoun al-mashriqeyoun, Levantine Christians"
  18. The Ancient Levant, UCL Institute of Archaeology, May 2008
  19. Egyptian Journal of Geology - Volume 42, Issue 1 - Page 263, 1998
  20. "Ancient Ashkelon - National Geographic Magazine". Ngm.nationalgeographic.com. 17 October 2002. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
  21. "The state of Israel: Internal influence driving change". BBC News. 6 November 2011.
  22. Orfalea, Gregory The Arab Americans: A History. Olive Branch Press. Northampton, MA, 2006. Page 249
  23. Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary. "Levant". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  24. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition
  25. Balme, Maurice; Morwood, James. "Chapter 36". Oxford Latin Course Part III (2nd ed.). p. 19.
  26. "Journal of Levantine Studies". The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  27. Braudel, p. .
  28. e.g., "The Levant Crisis: Syria, Iraq, and the Region", Australian National University ; Center for Strategic and International Studies, "Egypt and the Levant", 2017 ; Michael Kerr, Craig Larkin, eds., The Alawis of Syria, 2015 ISBN 9780190458119
  29. Sandra Rosendahl (28 November 2006). "Council for British Research in the Levant homepage". Cbrl.org.uk. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
  30. Biblical and Levantine studies, UCLA
  31. "About JLS". Journal of Levantine Studies.
  32. Dever, William G. "Syro-Palestinian and Biblical Archaeology", pp. 1244-1253.
  33. Sharon, Ilan "Biblical archaeology" in Encyclopedia of Archaeology Elsevier.
  34. Irshaid, Faisal (2 December 2015). "Isis, Isil, IS or Daesh? One group, many names". BBC. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  35. Kennedy, Hugh N. (2007). The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In. Da Capo Press. p. 376. ISBN 978-0306817281.
  36. Lapidus, Ira M. (13 October 2014) [1988]. A History of Islamic Societies (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-0521514309.
  37. Shoup, John A (31 October 2011). Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia. ISBN 9781598843620. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  38. "Levant (al-Shaam) - Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan Religious Composition". The Gulf/2000 Project, School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University. 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  39. "Christian Population of Middle East in 2014". The Gulf/2000 Project, School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University. 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  40. Mustafa Abu Sway. "The Holy Land, Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Qur'an, Sunnah and other Islamic Literary Source" (PDF). Central Conference of American Rabbis. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011.
  41. "Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem". Jerusalem: Sacred-destinations.com. 21 February 2010. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  42. Frishman, Avraham; Kum Hisalech Be’aretz, Jerusalem, 2004
  43. "Jordan and Syria". Ethnologue. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  44. "Israeli Law Declares the Country the 'Nation-State of the Jewish People'". Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  45. Versteegh, Kees (2011). Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Brill. p. 541. ISBN 978-90-04-14976-2.

Bibliography
  • Braudel, Fernand, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II
  • Burke, Aaron (2010), "The Transformation of Biblical and Syro-Palestinian Archaeology", in Levy, Thomas Evan (ed.), Historical Biblical Archaeology and the Future: The New Pragmatism, London: Equinox
  • "Levant", Encarta, Microsoft, 2009
  • Geus, C. H. J. de (2003), Towns in Ancient Israel and in the Southern Levant, Peeters Publishers, p. 6, ISBN 978-90-429-1269-4
  • Gagarin, Michael (31 December 2009), Ancient Greece and Rome, 1, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, p. 247, ISBN 978-0-19-517072-6
  • Naim, Samia (2011), "Dialects of the Levant", in Weninger, Stefan; et al. (eds.), The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook, Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, p. 921
  • "Levant", Oxford Dictionaries Online, Oxford University Press

Further reading
  • Julia Chatzipanagioti: Griechenland, Zypern, Balkan und Levante. Eine kommentierte Bibliographie der Reiseliteratur des 18. Jahrhunderts. 2 Vol. Eutin 2006. ISBN 3-9810674-2-8
  • Levantine Heritage site. Includes many oral and scholarly histories, and genealogies for some Levantine Turkish families.
  • Philip Mansel, Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean, London, John Murray, 11 November 2010, hardback, 480 pages, ISBN 978-0-7195-6707-0, New Haven, Yale University Press, 24 May 2011, hardback, 470 pages, ISBN 978-0-300-17264-5
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