Region east of the Mediterranean Sea
This article is about the region of Syria also called "Greater Syria" or "Syria-Palestine". For the modern country, see
Syria
. For other uses, see
Syria (disambiguation)
.
Place
Syria
(
Hieroglyphic Luwian
:
????
Sura/i
;
Greek
:
Συρ?α
;
Classical Syriac
:
?????
) or
Sham
(
Arabic
:
???????
,
romanized
:
Ash-Sh?m
) is a
historical region
located east of the
Mediterranean Sea
in
West Asia
, broadly synonymous with the
Levant
.
[3]
Other synonyms are
Greater Syria
or
Syria-Palestine
.
[2]
The region boundaries have changed throughout history. However, in modern times, the term "Syria" alone is used to refer to the
Syrian Arab Republic
.
The term is originally derived from
Assyria
, an ancient civilization centered in northern
Mesopotamia
, modern-day
Iraq
.
[4]
[5]
During the
Hellenistic period
, the term Syria was applied to the entire Levant as
Coele-Syria
. Under
Roman rule
, the term was used to refer to the
province of Syria
, later divided into
Syria Phoenicia
and
Coele Syria
, and to the province of
Syria Palaestina
. Under the Byzantines, the provinces of
Syria Prima
and Syria Secunda emerged out of Coele Syria. After the
Muslim conquest of the Levant
, the term was superseded by the Arabic equivalent
Sh?m,
and under the
Rashidun
,
Umayyad
,
Abbasid
, and
Fatimid caliphates
,
Bilad al-Sham
was the name of a metropolitan province encompassing most of the region. In the 19th century, the name Syria was revived in its modem Arabic form to denote the whole of Bilad al-Sham, either as
Suriyah
or the modern form
Suriyya
, which eventually replaced the Arabic name of Bilad al-Sham.
[6]
After
World War I
, the boundaries of the region were last defined in modern times by the proclamation of and subsequent definition by French and British mandatory agreement. The area was passed to French and British Mandates following
World War I
and divided into
Greater Lebanon
, various states under
Mandatory French rule
, British-controlled
Mandatory Palestine
and the
Emirate of Transjordan
. The term Syria itself was applied to several mandate states under French rule and the contemporaneous but short-lived
Arab Kingdom of Syria
. The Syrian-mandate states were gradually unified as the
State of Syria
and finally became the independent Syria in 1946. Throughout this period,
pan-Syrian nationalists
advocated for the creation of a Greater Syria.
Etymology and evolution of the term
[
edit
]
Several sources indicate that the name
Syria
itself is derived from
Luwian
term "Sura/i", and the derivative
ancient Greek
name:
Σ?ριοι
,
Syrioi
, or
Σ?ροι
,
Syroi
, both of which originally derived from A???r?yu (
Assyria
) in northern
Mesopotamia
, modern-day
Iraq and greater Syria
[4]
[5]
[7]
[8]
For
Herodotus
in the 5th century BC, Syria extended as far north as the Halys (the modern
Kızılırmak River
) and as far south as Arabia and Egypt. For
Pliny the Elder
and
Pomponius Mela
, Syria covered the entire
Fertile Crescent
.
In
Late Antiquity
, "Syria" meant a region located to the east of the
Mediterranean Sea
, west of the
Euphrates River
, north of the
Arabian Desert
and south of the
Taurus Mountains
,
[9]
thereby including modern
Syria
,
Lebanon
,
Jordan
,
Israel
,
Palestine
, and parts of Southern Turkey, namely the
Hatay Province
and the western half of the
Southeastern Anatolia Region
. This late definition is equivalent to the region known in
Classical Arabic
by the name
ash-Sh?m
(
Arabic
:
????????
/?a?-?aːm/
,
[10]
which means
the north [country]
[10]
(from the root
??m
Arabic
:
?????
"left, north")). After the
Islamic conquest of Byzantine Syria
in the 7th century
CE
, the name
Syria
fell out of primary use in the region itself, being superseded by the Arabic equivalent
Sh?m
, but survived in its original sense in Byzantine and Western European usage, and in Syriac Christian literature.
[6]
In the 19th century the name Syria was revived in its modern Arabic form to denote the whole of
Bilad al-Sham
, either as
Suriyah
or the modern form
Suriyya
, which eventually replaced the Arabic name of Bilad al-Sham.
[6]
After
World War I
, the name Syria was applied to the
French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon
and the contemporaneous but short-lived
Arab Kingdom of Syria
.
Geography
[
edit
]
In the most common historical sense, 'Syria' refers to the entire northern
Levant
, including
Alexandretta
and the Ancient City of
Antioch
or in an extended sense the entire Levant as far south as
Roman Egypt
, including
Mesopotamia
. The area of "Greater Syria" (
?????????? ???????????
,
S?r?yah al-Kubr?
); also called "Natural Syria" (
?????????? ???????????????
,
S?r?yah a?-?ab???yah
) or "Northern Land" (
?????? ???????
,
Bil?d ash-Sh?m
),
[1]
extends roughly over the
Bilad al-Sham
province of the medieval Arab
caliphates
, encompassing the
Eastern Mediterranean
(or Levant) and Western Mesopotamia. The
Muslim conquest of the Levant
in the seventh century gave rise to this province, which encompassed much of the region of Syria, and came to largely overlap with this concept. Other sources indicate that the term Greater Syria was coined during
Ottoman rule
, after 1516, to designate the approximate area included in present-day
Palestine
, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel.
[11]
The uncertainty in the definition of the extent of "Syria" is aggravated by the etymological confusion of the similar-sounding names
Syria
and
Assyria
. The question of the etymological identity of the two names remains open today, but regardless of etymology, both were thought of as interchangeable around the time of Herodotus.
[12]
However, by the time of the
Roman Empire
, 'Syria' and 'Assyria' began to refer to two separate entities,
Roman Syria
and
Roman Assyria
.
Killebrew and Steiner, treating the Levant as the Syrian region, gave the boundaries of the region as such: the
Mediterranean Sea
to the west, the
Arabian Desert
to the south, Mesopotamia to the east, and the
Taurus Mountains
of
Anatolia
to the north.
[3]
The Muslim geographer
Muhammad al-Idrisi
visited the region in 1150 and assigned the northern regions of
Bilad al-Sham
as the following:
In the Levantine sea are two islands:
Rhodes
and Cyprus; and in Levantine lands: Antarsus,
Laodice
,
Antioch
,
Mopsuhestia
,
Adana
,
Anazarbus
,
Tarsus
,
Circesium
, ?amrtash,
Antalya
, al-Batira, al-Mira,
Macri
, Astroboli; and in the interior lands:
Apamea
,
Salamiya
,
Qinnasrin
, al-Castel,
Aleppo
,
Resafa
,
Raqqa
, Rafeqa, al-Jisr,
Manbij
,
Mar'ash
,
Saruj
,
?arran
,
Edessa
,
Al-?adath
,
Samosata
,
Malatiya
, ?usn Mansur, Zabatra, Jersoon, al-Leen, al-Bedandour, Cirra and Touleb.
For
Pliny the Elder
and
Pomponius Mela
, Syria covered the entire
Fertile Crescent
. In
Late Antiquity
, "Syria" meant a region located to the east of the
Mediterranean Sea
, west of the
Euphrates River
, north of the Arabian Desert, and south of the
Taurus Mountains
,
[9]
thereby including modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the State of Palestine, and the
Hatay Province
and the western half of the
Southeastern Anatolia Region
of southern Turkey. This late definition is equivalent to the region known in
Classical Arabic
by the name
ash-Sh?m
(
???????
/?a?-?aːm/
),
[10]
which means
the north [country]
[10]
(from the root
??m
?????
"left, north"). After the
Islamic conquest of Byzantine Syria
in the seventh century, the name
Syria
fell out of primary use in the region itself, being superseded by the Arabic equivalent
Bil?d ash-Sh?m
("Northern Land'"), but survived in its original sense in Byzantine and Western European usage, and in
Syriac Christian
literature. In the 19th century, the name Syria was revived in its modern Arabic form to denote the whole of Bilad al-Sham, either as
Suriyah
or the modern form
Suriyya
, which eventually replaced the Arabic name of Bilad al-Sham.
[6]
After
World War I
, the name 'Syria' was applied to the
French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon
, and the contemporaneous but short-lived
Arab Kingdom of Syria
.
Today, the
largest metropolitan areas in the region
are
Amman
,
Tel Aviv
,
Damascus
,
Beirut
,
Aleppo
and
Gaza City
.
Rank
|
City
|
Country
|
Metropolitan
Population
|
City
Population
|
Image
|
1
|
Amman
|
Jordan
|
4,642,000
|
4,061,150
|
|
2
|
Tel Aviv
|
Israel
|
3,954,500
|
438,818
|
|
3
|
Damascus
|
Syria
|
2,900,000
|
2,078,000
|
|
4
|
Beirut
|
Lebanon
|
2,200,000
|
361,366
|
|
5
|
Aleppo
|
Syria
|
2,098,210
|
2,098,210
|
|
6
|
Gaza City
|
Palestine
|
2,047,969
|
590,481
|
|
Etymology
[
edit
]
Syria
[
edit
]
Several sources indicate that the name
Syria
itself is derived from
Luwian
term "Sura/i", and the derivative
ancient Greek
name:
Σ?ριοι
,
Syrioi
, or
Σ?ροι
,
Syroi
, both of which originally derived from A???r?yu (
Assyria
) in northern
Mesopotamia
, modern-day
Iraq
[4]
[5]
However, during the
Seleucid Empire
, this term was also applied to
The Levant
, and henceforth the Greeks applied the term without distinction between the
Assyrians
of Mesopotamia and
Arameans
of the Levant.
[4]
[7]
[8]
The oldest attestation of the name 'Syria' is from the 8th century BC in a bilingual inscription in
Hieroglyphic Luwian
and
Phoenician
. In this inscription, the Luwian word
Sura/i
was translated to Phoenician
??r
"
Assyria
."
[4]
For
Herodotus
in the 5th century BC, Syria extended as far north as the Halys (the modern
Kızılırmak River
) and as far south as Arabia and Egypt.
The name 'Syria' derives from the
ancient Greek
name for Assyrians,
Greek
:
Σ?ριοι
Syrioi
, which the Greeks applied without distinction to various Near Eastern peoples living under the rule of
Assyria
. Modern scholarship confirms the Greek word traces back to the cognate
Greek
:
?σσυρ?α
,
Assyria
.
[13]
The classical Arabic pronunciation of Syria is
S?riya
(as opposed to the
Modern Standard Arabic
pronunciation
S?rya
). That name was not widely used among Muslims before about 1870, but it had been used by Christians earlier. According to the
Syriac Orthodox Church
, "Syrian" meant "Christian" in
early Christianity
.
[
citation needed
]
In English, "Syrian" historically meant a
Syrian Christian
such as
Ephrem the Syrian
. Following the declaration of Syria in 1936, the term "Syrian" came to designate citizens of that state, regardless of ethnicity. The adjective "Syriac" (
sury?ni
??????????
) has come into common use since as an
ethnonym
to avoid the ambiguity of "Syrian".
Currently, the Arabic term
S?riya
usually refers to the modern state of Syria, as opposed to the historical region of Syria.
Shaam
[
edit
]
Greater Syria has been widely known as
Ash-Sh?m
. The term etymologically in Arabic means "the left-hand side" or "the north", as someone in the Hejaz facing east, oriented to the sunrise, will find the north to the left. This is contrasted with the name of Yemen (
?????????
al-Yaman
), correspondingly meaning "the right-hand side" or "the south". The variation
? ? ?
(
?-?-m
), of the more typical
? ? ?
(
?-m-l
)
, is also attested in
Old South Arabian
,
??????
(
s²?m
), with the same semantic development.
[10]
[14]
The root of
Shaam
,
? ? ?
(
?-?-m
) also has connotations of unluckiness, which is traditionally associated with the left-hand and with the colder north-winds. Again this is in contrast with Yemen, with felicity and success, and the positively-viewed warm-moist southerly wind; a theory for the etymology of
Arabia Felix
denoting Yemen, by translation of that sense.
[
citation needed
]
The Shaam region is sometimes defined as the area that was dominated by
Damascus
, long an important regional center.
[
citation needed
]
In fact, the word
Ash-S?m
, on its own, can refer to the city of
Damascus
.
[15]
Continuing with the similar contrasting theme,
Damascus
was the commercial destination and representative of the region in the same way
Sanaa
held for the south.
Quran 106:2
alludes to this practice of caravans traveling to Syria in the summer, to avoid the colder weather, and to likewise sell commodities in Yemen in the winter.
[16]
[17]
There is no connection with the name Shem, son of Noah, whose name usually appears in Arabic as
????
S?m
, with a different initial consonant and without any internal
glottal stop
. Despite this, there has been a long-standing folk association between the two names and even the region, as most of the claimed Biblical descendants of Shem have been historically placed in the vicinity.
[
citation needed
]
Historically,
Baalshamin
(
Imperial Aramaic
:
??? ????
,
romanized:
Ba'al ?amem
,
lit.
'Lord of Heaven(s)'),
[18]
[19]
was a
Semitic
sky god
in
Canaan
/
Phoenicia
and ancient
Palmyra
.
[20]
[21]
Hence, Sham refers to (
heaven
or
sky
). Moreover; in the
Hebrew language
,
sham
(
?????)
is derived from
Akkadian
?amu
meaning "sky".
[22]
For instance, the Hebrew word for the
Sun
is
shemesh
, where "shem/sham" from
shamayim
[note 1]
(Akkadian:
?amu
) means "sky" and
esh
(Akkadian:
i??tu
) means "fire", i.e. "sky-fire".
[
citation needed
]
Demographics
[
edit
]
Historical population of the region of Syria
Year
| Pop.
| ±%
|
---|
14
| 4,300,000
| ?
|
---|
164
| 4,800,000
| +11.6%
|
---|
500
| 4,127,000
| ?14.0%
|
---|
900
| 3,120,000
| ?24.4%
|
---|
1200
| 2,700,000
| ?13.5%
|
---|
1500
| 1,500,000
| ?44.4%
|
---|
1700
| 2,028,000
| +35.2%
|
---|
1897
| 3,231,874
| +59.4%
|
---|
1914
| 3,448,356
| +6.7%
|
---|
1922
| 3,198,951
| ?7.2%
|
---|
Source:
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
|
The largest religious group in the Levant are
Muslims
and the largest ethnic group are
Arabs
. Levantines predominantly speak
Levantine Arabic
, who derive their ancestry from the many
ancient Semitic-speaking peoples
who inhabited the
ancient Near East
during the
Bronze
and
Iron Ages
.
[27]
Others such as
Bedouin
Arabs inhabit the
Syrian Desert
and Naqab, and speak a dialect known as
Bedouin Arabic
that originated in
Arabian Peninsula
. Other minor ethnic groups in the Levant include
Circassians
,
Chechens
,
Turks
,
Turkmens
,
Assyrians
,
Kurds
,
Nawars
and
Armenians
.
Islam
became the predominant religion in the region after the
Muslim conquest of the Levant
in the 7th century.
[28]
[29]
The majority of Levantine Muslims are
Sunni
with
Alawite
and
Shia
(
Twelver
and
Nizari Ismaili
) minorities. Alawites and Ismaili Shiites mainly inhabit
Hatay
and the
Syrian Coastal Mountain Range
, while Twelver Shiites are mainly concentrated in parts of
Lebanon
.
Levantine Christian groups are plenty and include
Greek Orthodox
(
Antiochian Greek
),
Syriac Orthodox
,
Eastern Catholic
(
Syriac Catholic
,
Melkite
and
Maronite
),
Roman Catholic
(
Latin
),
Nestorian
, and
Protestant
.
Armenians
mostly belong to the
Armenian Apostolic Church
. There are also
Levantines or Franco-Levantines
who adhere to
Roman Catholicism
. There are also
Assyrians
belonging to the
Assyrian Church of the East
and the
Chaldean Catholic Church
.
[30]
Other religious groups in the Levant include
Jews
,
Samaritans
,
Yazidis
and
Druze
.
[31]
History
[
edit
]
Ancient Syria
[
edit
]
Herodotus
uses
Ancient Greek
:
Συρ?α
to refer to the stretch of land from the Halys river, including
Cappadocia
(The Histories, I.6) in today's Turkey to the Mount Casius (The Histories II.158), which Herodotus says is located just south of Lake Serbonis (The Histories III.5). According to Herodotus various remarks in different locations, he describes Syria to include the entire stretch of Phoenician coastal line as well as cities such Cadytis (Jerusalem) (The Histories III.159).
[12]
Hellenistic Syria
[
edit
]
In Greek usage,
Syria
and
Assyria
were used almost interchangeably, but in the
Roman Empire
,
Syria
and
Assyria
came to be used as distinct geographical terms. "Syria" in the Roman Empire period referred to "those parts of the Empire situated between Asia Minor and Egypt", i.e. the western
Levant
, while "Assyria" was part of the
Persian Empire
, and only very briefly came under Roman control (116?118 AD, marking the historical peak of
Roman expansion
).
Roman Syria
[
edit
]
In the Roman era, the term Syria is used to comprise the entire northern Levant and has an uncertain border to the northeast that
Pliny the Elder
describes as including, from west to east, the
Kingdom of Commagene
,
Sophene
, and
Adiabene
, "formerly known as Assyria".
[32]
Various writers used the term to describe the entire Levant region during this period; the New Testament used the name in this sense on numerous occasions.
[33]
In 64 BC,
Syria
became a province of the Roman Empire, following the conquest by
Pompey
. Roman Syria bordered
Judea
to the south, Anatolian Greek domains to the north, Phoenicia to the West, and was in constant struggle with Parthians to the East. In 135 AD, Syria-Palaestina became to incorporate the entire Levant and Western Mesopotamia. In 193, the province was divided into Syria proper (
Coele-Syria
) and
Phoenice
. Sometime between 330 and 350 (likely c. 341), the province of
Euphratensis
was created out of the territory of Syria Coele and the former realm of Commagene, with
Hierapolis
as its capital.
[34]
After c. 415 Syria Coele was further subdivided into Syria I, with the capital remaining at
Antioch
, and Syria II or Salutaris, with capital at
Apamea
on the
Orontes River
. In 528,
Justinian I
carved out the small coastal province
Theodorias
out of territory from both provinces.
[35]
Bilad al-Sham
[
edit
]
The
region was annexed
to the
Rashidun Caliphate
after the Muslim victory over the
Byzantine Empire
at the
Battle of Yarmouk
, and became known as the province of
Bilad al-Sham
. During the
Umayyad Caliphate
, the Sh?m was divided into five
junds
or military districts. They were
Jund Dimashq
(for the area of Damascus),
Jund ?im?
(for the area of
Homs
),
Jund Filas??n
(for the area of
Palestine
) and
Jund al-Urdunn
(for the area of Jordan). Later
Jund Qinnasrin
was created out of part of Jund Hims. The city of Damascus was the capital of the Islamic Caliphate, until the rise of the
Abbasid Caliphate
.
[36]
[37]
[38]
Ottoman Syria
[
edit
]
In the later ages of the
Ottoman
times, it was divided into
wilayahs
or sub-provinces the borders of which and the choice of cities as seats of government within them varied over time. The vilayets or sub-provinces of Aleppo, Damascus, and Beirut, in addition to the two special districts of
Mount Lebanon
and
Jerusalem
. Aleppo consisted of northern modern-day Syria plus parts of southern Turkey, Damascus covered southern Syria and modern-day Jordan, Beirut covered Lebanon and the Syrian coast from the port-city of
Latakia
southward to the
Galilee
, while Jerusalem consisted of the land south of the Galilee and west of the
Jordan River
and the
Wadi Arabah
.
Although the region's population was dominated by
Sunni Muslims
, it also contained sizable populations of
Shi'ite
,
Alawite
and
Ismaili
Muslims,
Syriac Orthodox
,
Maronite
,
Greek Orthodox
,
Roman Catholics
and
Melkite
Christians, Jews and
Druze
.
-
1803
Cedid Atlas
, showing Ottoman Syria in yellow
-
An 1810 map of the Ottoman Empire in Asia, showing the region of Ottoman Syria
-
Ethnic groups in the Middle East shown in a pre-World War I British government map. The primary population of the region of Syria is described as "Arabs (settled)" and inland as "Arabs (nomadic)"
Arab Kingdom and French occupation
[
edit
]
The
Occupied Enemy Territory Administration
(OETA) was a British, French and Arab military administration over areas of the former Ottoman Empire between 1917 and 1920, during and following
World War I
. The wave of
Arab nationalism
evolved towards the creation of the first modern Arab state to come into existence, the Hashemite
Arab Kingdom of Syria
on 8 March 1920. The kingdom claimed the entire region of Syria whilst exercising control over only the inland region known as OETA East. This led to the acceleration of the declaration of the French
Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon
and British
Mandate for Palestine
at the 19?26 April 1920
San Remo conference
, and subsequently the
Franco-Syrian War
, in July 1920, in which French armies
defeated
the newly proclaimed kingdom and
captured
Damascus, aborting the Arab state.
[39]
Thereafter, the French general
Henri Gouraud
, in breach of the conditions of the mandate, subdivided the
French Mandate of Syria
into six states. They were the states of
Damascus
(1920),
Aleppo
(1920),
Alawite State
(1920),
Jabal Druze
(1921), the autonomous
Sanjak of Alexandretta
(1921) (modern-day
Hatay
in Turkey), and
Greater Lebanon
(1920) which later became the modern country of Lebanon.
In pan-Syrian nationalism
[
edit
]
The boundaries of the region have changed throughout history, and were last defined in modern times by the proclamation of the short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria and subsequent definition by French and British mandatory agreement. The area was passed to French and British Mandates following
World War I
and divided into
Greater Lebanon
, various Syrian-mandate states,
Mandatory Palestine
and the
Emirate of Transjordan
. The Syrian-mandate states were gradually unified as the
State of Syria
and finally became the independent Syria in 1946. Throughout this period,
Antoun Saadeh
and his party, the
Syrian Social Nationalist Party
, envisioned "Greater Syria" or "Natural Syria", based on the
etymological connection between the name "Syria" and "Assyria"
, as encompassing the
Sinai Peninsula
, Cyprus, modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, the
Ahvaz
region of Iran, and the
Kilikian
region of Turkey.
[40]
[41]
Religious significance
[
edit
]
The region has sites that are significant to
Abrahamic religions
:
[1]
[42]
[43]
Place
|
Description
|
Image
|
Acre
|
Acre is home to the
Shrine of Baha?u'llah
, which is the holiest site for the
Baha?i Faith
.
[44]
[45]
|
|
Aleppo
|
Aleppo is home to a
Great Mosque
, which is believed to house the remains of
Zechariah
,
[46]
who is revered in both
Christianity
[47]
and
Islam
.
[48]
[49]
|
|
Bethlehem
|
Bethlehem has sites which are significant for
Jews
,
Christians
and
Muslims
. One of these is
Rachel's Tomb
, which is revered by members of all three faiths. Another is the
Church of the Nativity
(of Jesus),
[50]
revered by Christians, and nearby, the
Mosque of Omar
, revered by Muslims.
[51]
|
|
Damascus
|
The
Old City
has a
Great Mosque
[52]
[53]
[54]
which is considered to be one of the largest and best preserved mosques from the
Umayyad era
. It is believed to house the remains of Zechariah's son
John the Baptist
,
[36]
[55]
who is revered in
Christianity
[47]
and
Islam
, like his father.
[49]
The city is also home to the
Sayyidah Zainab Mosque
, the shrine of
Zaynab bint Ali
the grand-daughter of the
Islamic prophet
Muhammad
, and
Sayyidah Ruqayya Mosque
, the shrine of
Ruqayya
the daughter of
Husayn
, both sites holy to
Shia Muslims
.
[56]
|
|
Haifa
|
Haifa is where the
Shrine of the Bab
is located. It is holy to the Baha?i Faith.
[42]
[57]
Nearby is
Mount Carmel
. Being associated with the Biblical figure
Elijah
, it is important to Christians,
Druze
, Jews and Muslims.
[58]
|
|
Hebron
|
The
Old City
is home to the
Cave of the Patriarchs
, where the
Biblical
figures
Abraham
, his wife
Sarah
, their son
Isaac
, his wife
Rebecca
, their son
Jacob
, and his wife
Leah
are believed buried, and thus revered by followers of the Abrahamic faiths, including Muslims and Jews.
[59]
[60]
|
|
Hittin
|
Hittin is near what is believed to near the
shrine
of
Shuaib
(possibly
Jethro
). It is holy to Druze and Muslims.
[61]
[62]
|
|
Jericho
/ An-
Nabi Musa
|
Near the city of Jericho in the West Bank is the shrine of
Nabi
Musa
(literally:
Prophet
Moses), which is considered by Muslims to be the burial place of
Moses
.
[43]
[63]
[64]
|
|
Jerusalem
|
The
Old City
is home to many sites of seminal
religious importance
for the three major Abrahamic religions?
Judaism
,
Christianity
, and
Islam
. These sites include the
Temple Mount
,
[65]
[66]
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
,
[67]
[68]
Al-Aqsa
and the
Western Wall
.
[69]
It is regarded as the holiest city in Judaism,
[70]
and the third-holiest in Sunni Islam.
[71]
|
|
Mount Gerizim
|
In
Samaritanism
, Mount Gerizim is the holiest site on earth, and the location chosen by God to build a temple. In their tradition, it is the oldest and most central mountain in the world, towering above the
Great Flood
and providing the first land for
Noah
’s disembarkation.
[72]
In their belief, it is also the location where
Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac
.
[73]
|
|
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
In the Hebrew language, mayim (?????) means "water". In
Genesis 1:6
Elohim
separated the "water from the water". The area above the earth was filled by sky-water (
sham-mayim
) and the earth below was covered by sea-water (
yam-mayim
).
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
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.
- ^
a
b
Pfoh, Emanuel (22 February 2016).
Syria-Palestine in The Late Bronze Age: An Anthropology of Politics and Power
.
Routledge
.
ISBN
978-1-3173-9230-9
.
- ^
a
b
Killebrew, A. E.; Steiner, M. L. (2014).
The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: C. 8000?332 BCE
. OUP Oxford. p. 2.
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-Bishr? 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.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Rollinger, Robert (2006). "The terms "Assyria" and "Syria" again".
Journal of Near Eastern Studies
.
65
(4): 284?287.
doi
:
10.1086/511103
.
S2CID
162760021
.
- ^
a
b
c
Frye, R. N. (1992). "Assyria and Syria: Synonyms".
Journal of Near Eastern Studies
.
51
(4): 281?285.
doi
:
10.1086/373570
.
S2CID
161323237
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Salibi, Kamal S.
(2003).
A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered
. I.B.Tauris. pp. 61?62.
ISBN
978-1-86064-912-7
.
To the
Arabs
, this same territory, which the Roman Empire considered Arabian, formed part of what they called Bilad al-Sham, which was their own name for Syria. From the classical perspective, however, Syria, including Palestine, formed no more than the western fringes of what was reckoned to be Arabia between the first line of cities and the coast. Since there is no clear dividing line between what is called today the
Syrian
and
Arabian deserts
, which actually form one stretch of arid tableland, the classical concept of what actually constituted Syria had more to its credit geographically than the vaguer Arab concept of Syria as Bilad al-Sham. Under the Romans, there was actually a province of Syria, with its capital at Antioch, which carried the name of the territory. Otherwise, down the centuries, Syria, like Arabia and Mesopotamia, was no more than a geographic expression. In Islamic times, the Arab geographers used the name arabicized as Suriyah, to denote one special region of Bilad al-Sham, which was the middle section of the valley of the Orontes River, in the vicinity of the towns of
Homs
and
Hama
. They also noted that it was an old name for the whole of Bilad al-Sham which had gone out of use. As a geographic expression, however, the name Syria survived in its original classical sense in
Byzantine
and Western European usage, and also in the
Syriac literature
of some of the
Eastern Christian churches
, from which it occasionally found its way into
Christian Arabic
usage. It was only in the nineteenth century that the use of the name was revived in its modern Arabic form, frequently as Suriyya rather than the older Suriyah, to denote the whole of Bilad al-Sham: first of all in the Christian Arabic literature of the period, and under the influence of Western Europe. By the end of that century it had already replaced the name of Bilad al-Sham even in
Muslim
Arabic usage.
- ^
a
b
Herodotus.
The History of Herodotus (Rawlinson)
.
- ^
a
b
Joseph, John (2008).
"Assyria and Syria: Synonyms?"
(PDF)
.
- ^
a
b
Taylor & Francis Group (2003).
The Middle East and North Africa 2004
. Psychology Press. p. 1015.
ISBN
978-1-85743-184-1
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Article "AL-SH?M" by
C.E. Bosworth
,
Encyclopaedia of Islam
, Volume 9 (1997), page 261.
- ^
Thomas Collelo, ed.
Lebanon: A Country Study
Washington, Library of Congress, 1987.
- ^
a
b
Herodotus
.
"Herodotus VII.63"
.
Fordham University
. Archived from
the original
on 20 February 1999
. Retrieved
28 May
2013
.
VII.63: The Assyrians went to war with helmets upon their heads made of brass, and plaited in a strange fashion which is not easy to describe. They carried shields, lances, and daggers very like the Egyptian; but in addition they had wooden clubs knotted with iron, and linen corselets. This people, whom the Hellenes call Syrians, are called Assyrians by the barbarians. The Chaldeans served in their ranks, and they had for commander Otaspes, the son of Artachaeus.
- ^
First proposed by
Theodor Noldeke
in 1881; cf.
Harper, Douglas (November 2001).
"Syria"
.
Online Etymology Dictionary
. Retrieved
22 January
2013
.
.
- ^
Younger, K. Lawson Jr. (7 October 2016).
A Political History of the Arameans: From Their Origins to the End of Their Polities (Archaeology and Biblical Studies)
. Atlanta, GA: SBL Press. p. 551.
ISBN
978-1589831285
.
- ^
Tardif, P. (17 September 2017).
"
'I won't give up': Syrian woman creates doll to help kids raised in conflict"
.
CBC News
. Retrieved
6 March
2018
.
- ^
Ali, Maulana Muhammad
(2002).
The Holy Quran Arabic Text with English Translation, Commentary and comprehensive Introduction
(in English and Arabic). The Ahmadiyyah Anjuman Ish'at Islam. p. 1247.
ISBN
978-0913321058
.
- ^
"Their protection during their trading caravans in the winter and the summer."
[
Quran
106:2
(
Translated
by
Shakir
)]
- ^
Teixidor, Javier (2015).
The Pagan God: Popular Religion in the Greco-Roman Near East
. Princeton University Press. p. 27.
ISBN
9781400871391
. Retrieved
14 August
2017
.
- ^
Beattie, Andrew; Pepper, Timothy (2001).
The Rough Guide to Syria
. Rough Guides. p. 290.
ISBN
9781858287188
. Retrieved
14 August
2017
.
- ^
Dirven, Lucinda (1999).
The Palmyrenes of Dura-Europos: A Study of Religious Interaction in Roman Syria
. BRILL. p. 76.
ISBN
978-90-04-11589-7
. Retrieved
17 July
2012
.
- ^
J.F. Healey (2001).
The Religion of the Nabataeans: A Conspectus
. BRILL. p. 126.
ISBN
9789004301481
. Retrieved
14 August
2017
.
- ^
Caplice, Richard I.; Snell, Daniel C. (1988).
Introduction to Akkadian
. Gregorian Biblical BookShop. p. 6.
ISBN
9788876535666
. Retrieved
14 August
2017
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
Mutlu, Servet.
"Late Ottoman population and its ethnic distribution"
. pp. 29?31.
Corrected population M8.
- ^
Frier, Bruce W. "Demography", in Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, and Dominic Rathbone, eds.,
The Cambridge Ancient History XI: The High Empire, A.D. 70?192
, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 827?54.
- ^
Russell, Josiah C. (1985). "The Population of the Crusader States". In
Setton, Kenneth M.
; Zacour, Norman P.; Hazard, Harry W. (eds.).
A History of the Crusades, Volume V: The Impact of the Crusades on the Near East
. Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 295?314.
ISBN
0-299-09140-6
.
- ^
"Syria Population - Our World in Data"
.
www.ourworldindata.org
.
- ^
Haber, Marc; Nassar, Joyce; Almarri, Mohamed A.; Saupe, Tina; Saag, Lehti; Griffith, Samuel J.; Doumet-Serhal, Claude; Chanteau, Julien; Saghieh-Beydoun, Muntaha; Xue, Yali; Scheib, Christiana L.; Tyler-Smith, Chris (2020).
"A Genetic History of the Near East from an aDNA Time Course Sampling Eight Points in the Past 4,000 Years"
.
American Journal of Human Genetics
.
107
(1): 149?157.
doi
:
10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.05.008
.
PMC
7332655
.
PMID
32470374
.
- ^
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
978-0-306-81728-1
.
- ^
Lapidus, Ira M.
(13 October 2014) [1988].
A History of Islamic Societies
(3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 70.
ISBN
978-0-521-51430-9
.
- ^
"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
.
- ^
Shoup, John A (31 October 2011).
Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia
. Abc-Clio.
ISBN
978-1-59884-362-0
. Retrieved
26 May
2014
.
- ^
Pliny (AD 77)
(March 1998). "Book 5 Section 66".
Natural History
. University of Chicago.
ISBN
84-249-1901-7
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
A commentary on the Bible
, quote "In the time of the Greek predominance it came into use. as it is employed to-day, as the name of the whole western borderland of the Mediterranean, and in the NT it is used several times in that sense (Mt. 4:24, Lk. 2:2, Ac. 15:23,41, 18:18, 21:3, Gal. 1:21)".
- ^
Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991).
Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
. Oxford University Press. p. 748.
ISBN
978-0-19-504652-6
.
- ^
Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991).
Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
. Oxford University Press. p. 1999.
ISBN
978-0-19-504652-6
.
- ^
a
b
Le Strange, G.
(1890).
Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500
. London: Committee of the
Palestine Exploration Fund
. pp.
30
?234.
OCLC
1004386
.
- ^
Blankinship, Khalid Yahya
(1994).
The End of the Jihad State: The Reign of Hish?m ibn ?Abd al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads
. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. pp. 47?50.
ISBN
0-7914-1827-8
.
- ^
Cobb, Paul M. (2001).
White Banners: Contention in 'Abb?sid Syria, 750?880
. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. pp. 12?182.
ISBN
0-7914-4880-0
.
- ^
Itamar Rabinovich
, Symposium: The Greater-Syria Plan and the Palestine Problem in The Jerusalem Cathedra (1982), p. 262.
- ^
Sa'adeh, Antoun
(2004).
The Genesis of Nations
.
Beirut
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
Translated and Reprinted
- ^
Ya'ari, Ehud (June 1987).
"Behind the Terror"
.
The Atlantic
.
- ^
a
b
World Heritage Committee (2 July 2007).
"Convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage"
(PDF)
. p. 34
. Retrieved
8 July
2008
.
- ^
a
b
O'Connor, J. M.
(1998).
The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700
.
Oxford University Press
. p. 369.
ISBN
978-0-1915-2867-5
.
- ^
National Spiritual Assembly of the United States (January 1966).
"Shrine of Baha'u'llah"
.
Baha?i News
(418): 4
. Retrieved
12 August
2006
.
- ^
UNESCO World Heritage Centre (8 July 2008).
"Baha?i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee"
. Retrieved
8 July
2008
.
- ^
"The Great Mosque of Aleppo | Muslim Heritage"
.
www.muslimheritage.com
. 24 March 2005
. Retrieved
30 June
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Gospel of Luke
,
1:5?79
- ^
Quran
19:2?15
- ^
a
b
Abdullah Yusuf Ali,
The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary
, Note.
905
: "The third group consists not of men of action, but Preachers of Truth, who led solitary lives. Their epithet is: "the Righteous." They form a connected group round Jesus. Zachariah was the father of John the Baptist, who is referenced as "Elias, which was for to come" (Matt 11:14); and John the Baptist is said to have been present and talked to Jesus at the Transfiguration on the Mount (Matt. 17:3)."
- ^
Strickert, Frederick M. (2007).
Rachel weeping: Jews, Christians, and Muslims at the Fortress Tomb
.
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. pp.
64
?84.
ISBN
978-0-8146-5987-8
. Archived from the original on 3 March 2020
. Retrieved
3 March
2020
.
{{
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}}
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)
- ^
Guidetti, Mattia (2016).
In the Shadow of the Church: The Building of Mosques in Early Medieval Syria
. Arts and Archaeology of the Islamic World (Book 8).
Brill
; Lam edition. pp. 30?31.
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978-9-0043-2570-8
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
Abu-Lughod, Janet L.
(2007).
"Damascus"
. In Dumper, Michael R. T.; Stanley, Bruce E. (eds.).
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.
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. pp. 119?126.
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.
- ^
Birke, Sarah (2 August 2013),
Damascus: What's Left
,
New York Review of Books
- ^
Totah, Faedah M. (2009). "Return to the origin: negotiating the modern and unmodern in the old city of Damascus".
City & Society
.
21
(1): 58?81.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1548-744X.2009.01015.x
.
- ^
Burns, 2005, p.88.
- ^
Sabrina MERVIN, ≪ Sayyida Zaynab, Banlieue de Damas ou nouvelle ville sainte chiite ? ≫, Cahiers d'Etudes sur la Mediterranee Orientale et le monde Turco-Iranien [Online], 22 | 1996, Online since 01 March 2005, connection on 19 October 2014. URL :
http://cemoti.revues.org/138
- ^
"Beauty of restored Shrine set to dazzle visitors and pilgrims"
. Baha?i World News Service. 12 April 2011
. Retrieved
12 April
2011
.
- ^
Breger, M. J.; Hammer, L.; Reiter, Y. (16 December 2009).
Holy Places in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Confrontation and Co-existence
.
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. pp. 231?246.
ISBN
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.
- ^
Emmett, Chad F. (2000).
"Sharing Sacred Space in the Holy Land"
. In Murphy, Alexander B.; Johnson, Douglas L.; Haarmann, Viola (eds.).
Cultural encounters with the environment: enduring and evolving geographic themes
.
Rowman & Littlefield
. pp. 271?291.
ISBN
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.
- ^
Gish, Arthur G. (20 December 2018).
Hebron Journal: Stories of Nonviolent Peacemaking
.
Wipf and Stock Publishers
.
ISBN
978-1-5326-6213-3
.
- ^
Firro, K. M. (1999).
The Druzes in the Jewish State: A Brief History
.
Leiden
, The Netherlands:
Brill Publishers
. pp. 22?240.
ISBN
90-04-11251-0
.
- ^
Dana, N. (2003).
The Druze in the Middle East: Their Faith, Leadership, Identity and Status
. Sussex Academic Press. pp. 28?30.
ISBN
978-1-9039-0036-9
.
- ^
Canaan, Tawfiq
(1927).
Mohammedan Saints and Sanctuaries in Palestine
. London: Luzac & Co.
- ^
Kupferschmidt, Uri M. (1987).
The Supreme Muslim Council: Islam Under the British Mandate for Palestine
.
Brill
. p. 231.
ISBN
978-9-0040-7929-8
.
- ^
Rivka, Gonen (2003).
Contested Holiness: Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Perspectives on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
. Jersey City, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, Inc. p. 4.
ISBN
0-88125-798-2
.
OCLC
1148595286
.
To the Jews the Temple Mount is the holiest place on Earth, the place where God manifested himself to King David and where two Jewish temples - Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple ? were located.
- ^
Marshall J., Breger; Ahimeir, Ora (2002).
Jerusalem: A City and Its Future
. Syracuse University Press. p. 296.
ISBN
0-8156-2912-5
.
OCLC
48940385
.
- ^
Strickert, Frederick M. (2007).
Rachel weeping: Jews, Christians, and Muslims at the Fortress Tomb
.
Liturgical Press
. pp.
64
?84.
ISBN
978-0-8146-5987-8
. Archived from the original on 3 March 2020
. Retrieved
3 March
2020
.
{{
cite book
}}
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link
)
- ^
"Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem"
. Jerusalem: Sacred-destinations.com. 21 February 2010
. Retrieved
7 July
2012
.
- ^
Frishman, Avraham (2004),
Kum Hisalech Be'aretz
, Jerusalem
{{
citation
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- ^
Since the 10th century BCE:
- "Israel was first forged into a unified nation from Jerusalem some 3,000 years ago, when
King David
seized the crown and united the
twelve tribes
from this city... For a thousand years Jerusalem was the seat of Jewish sovereignty, the household site of kings, the location of its legislative councils and courts. In exile, the Jewish nation came to be identified with the city that had been the site of its ancient capital. Jews, wherever they were, prayed for its restoration." Roger Friedland, Richard D. Hecht.
To Rule Jerusalem
, University of California Press, 2000, p. 8.
ISBN
0-520-22092-7
- "The centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism is so strong that even secular Jews express their devotion and attachment to the city, and cannot conceive of a modern State of Israel without it.... For Jews Jerusalem is sacred simply because it exists... Though Jerusalem's sacred character goes back three millennia...". Leslie J. Hoppe.
The Holy City: Jerusalem in the theology of the Old Testament
, Liturgical Press, 2000, p. 6.
ISBN
0-8146-5081-3
- "Ever since King David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago, the city has played a central role in Jewish existence." Mitchell Geoffrey Bard,
The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Middle East Conflict
, Alpha Books, 2002, p. 330.
ISBN
0-02-864410-7
- "Jerusalem became the center of the Jewish people some 3,000 years ago" Moshe Maoz, Sari Nusseibeh,
Jerusalem: Points of Friction ? And Beyond
, Brill Academic Publishers, 2000, p. 1.
ISBN
90-411-8843-6
- ^
Third-holiest city in Islam:
- Esposito, John L.
(2002).
What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam
. Oxford University Press. p.
157
.
ISBN
0-19-515713-3
.
The Night Journey made Jerusalem the third holiest city in Islam
- Brown, Leon Carl (2000). "Setting the Stage: Islam and Muslims".
Religion and State: The Muslim Approach to Politics
. Columbia University Press. p. 11.
ISBN
0-231-12038-9
.
The third holiest city of Islam?Jerusalem?is also very much in the center...
- Hoppe, Leslie J. (2000).
The Holy City: Jerusalem in the Theology of the Old Testament
. Michael Glazier Books. p. 14.
ISBN
0-8146-5081-3
.
Jerusalem has always enjoyed a prominent place in Islam. Jerusalem is often referred to as the third holiest city in Islam...
- ^
Anderson, Robert T., "Mount Gerizim: Navel of the World",
Biblical Archaeologist
Vol. 43, No. 4 (Autumn 1980), pp 217?218
- ^
UNESCO World Heritage Centre (11 October 2017).
"Mount Gerizim and the Samaritans"
. Retrieved
24 December
2020
.
Citations
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]