Levant

The Levant (/ləˈvænt/; Arabic: المشرق /ʔal-maʃriq/) is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the eastern Mediterranean. In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the eastern Mediterranean with its islands, that is, it included all of the countries along the eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece to Cyrenaica.^[1][2] The term Levant 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.^[1][2]As such, it is broadly equivalent to the Arabic term Mashriq,^[5] 'the land where the sun rises'. The western counterpart in Arabic is theMaghreb,^[5] and Ponente in Italian, meaning 'west, where the sun sets'.^[11] 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.^[1] Eventually the term was restricted to the Muslim countries of Syria-Palestine and Egypt.^[1] In 1581 England set up the Levant Company to monopolize commerce with the Ottoman Empire.^[1] The name Levant States was used to refer to the French mandate over Syria and Lebanon after World War I.^[1][2] This is probably the reason why the term Levant has come to be used synonymously with Syria-Palestine.^[1] Some scholars misunderstood the term thinking that it derives from the name of Lebanon.^[1] Today the term is typically used in conjunction with prehistoric or ancient historical references. It has the same meaning as Syria-Palestine or the region of Syria (Arabic: الشام /ʔaʃ-ʃaːm/), that is, it means an area 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.^[12] It does not includeAnatolia (the former Asia Minor, now Asian Turkey; although at times Cilicia may be included), the Caucasus Mountains, or any part of theArabian Peninsula proper. The Sinai Peninsula (Asian Egypt) is sometimes included, though more considered an intermediate, peripheral or marginal area forming a land bridge between the Levant and northern African Egypt.^{[citation needed]} The Levant has been described as the "crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and northeast Africa",^[13] and the "northwest of the Arabian plate".

- The Land of Israel (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל ʼÉreṣ Yiśrāʼēl,Eretz Yisrael) is the traditional Jewish name for an area of indefinite geographical extension in the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (q.v. Israel (disambiguation)). The definitions of the limits of this territory vary between passages in the Hebrew Bible, with specific mentions in Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47. Nine times elsewhere in the Bible, the settled land is referred as "from Dan to Beersheba, and three times it is referred as "from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt” (1 Kings 8:65, 1 Chronicles 13:5 and 2 Chronicles 7:8).". These biblical limits for the land differ from the borders of established historical Israelite and later Jewish kingdoms; over time these have included the United Kingdom of Israel, the two separated kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah, the Hasmonean Kingdom, and theHerodian Kingdom, which at their heights ruled lands with similar but not identical boundaries.

- levantine arabs

• https://www.quora.com/Why-are-the-Gulf-Arabs-darker-than-the-Levantine-Arabs

The Maghreb (/ˈmæɡrɪb/^[1] or /ˈmʌɡrəb/; literally "sunset";^[1] Arabic: المغرب العربي‎‎ al-Maghrib al-ʻArabī, "the Arab West"; Berber:ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵖⴰ Tamazgha; previously known as Barbary Coast),^[2][3] or the Greater Maghreb (Arabic: المغرب الكبير‎‎ al-Maghrib al-Kabīr), is usually defined as much or most of the region of western North Africa or Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. The traditional definition as the region including the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plains of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, was later superseded, especially following the 1989 formation of the Arab Maghreb Union, by the inclusion of Mauritania and of the disputed territory of Western Sahara(mostly controlled by Morocco). During the Al-Andalus era in Spain (711–1492), the Maghreb's inhabitants, Maghrebis, were known as "Moors";^[4] the Muslim areas of Spain in those times were usually included in contemporary definitions of the Maghreb—hence the use of "Moorish" or "Moors" to describe the Muslim inhabitants of Spain in Western sources. Historical terms for the region or various portions of it include Mauretania, Numidia, Libya, and Africa in classical antiquity. The termmaghrib is Arabic for "west", from the verb gharaba (غرب, "to depart, withdraw"). In the strict sense, the definite form al-maghrib denotes the country of Morocco in particular.^[5][6] It identified the westernmost territories that fell to the Islamic conquests of the 7th century.^[7]Today, it is a proper noun for the present region of the Maghreb, also known politically as al-maghrib al-ʻarabīy (المغرب العربي ‘the Arab Maghreb’) or al-maghrib al-kabīr (المغرب الكبير "the great Maghreb"). The Berber language's alternative term for the region, Tamazgha(‘land of the Berbers’), has been popularized by Berber activists since the second half of the 20th century. Before the establishment of modern nation states in the region during the mid-20th century, Maghreb most commonly referred to a smaller area between the Atlas Mountains in the south and the Mediterranean Sea, often also including eastern Libya, but not modern Mauritania. As recently as the late 19th century it was used to refer to the Western Mediterranean region of coastal North Africa in general, and to Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia in particular.^[7] Partially isolated from the rest of the continent by the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara desert, inhabitants of the northern parts of the Maghreb have long had commercial and cultural ties to the inhabitants of the Mediterranean countries of Southern Europe and Western Asia, going back at least to the Phoenicians in the 1st millennium BC (the Phoenician colony of Carthagehaving been founded, according to tradition, in what is now Tunisia circa 800 BC).

- The term Moors refers to the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta during the Middle Ages, who initially were Berber and Arab peoples of North African descent. Moors are not a distinct or self-defined people,^[3] and mainstream scholars observed in 1911 that "The term 'Moors' has no real ethnological value."^[4]Medieval and early modern Europeans variously applied the name to Arabs, Berber North Africans and Muslim Europeans.^[5] The term has also been used in Europe in a broader, somewhat derogatory sense to refer to Muslims in general,^[6] especially those of Arab or Berber descent, whether living in Spain or North Africa.^[7] During the colonial era, the Portuguese introduced the names "Ceylon Moors" and "Indian Moors" in Sri Lanka, and theBengali Muslims were also called Moors.^[8] In 711 the Moors invaded the Iberian Peninsula from North Africa and called the territory Al-Andalus, which at its peak included most of modern-daySpain, Portugal, and Septimania. The Moors occupied Mazara on Sicily in 827, developing it as a port,^[9] and they eventually consolidated the rest of the island and some of southern Italy. Differences in religion and culture led to a centuries-long conflict with the Christian kingdoms of Europe, which tried to reclaim control of Muslim areas; this conflict was referred to as the Reconquista. In 1224 the Muslims were expelled from Sicily to thesettlement of Lucera, which was destroyed by European Christians in 1300. The fall of Granada in 1492 marked the end of Muslim rule in Iberia, although a Muslim minority persisted until their expulsion in 1609. 

• note the variations in different lanuguages eg moro , mauri (slovenian) 

•  razzia is a hostile raid for purposes of conquest, plunder, and capture of slaves, especially one carried out by Moors in North Africa. 

•  Moresque is an obsolete alternative term to "Moorish" in English, and in the arts has some specific meanings. By itself the word is used of stylized plant-based forms of tendrils and leaves found in ornament and decoration in the applied arts in Renaissance Europe that are derived from the arabesque patterns of Islamic ornament. Like their Islamic ancestors, they differ from the typical European plant scroll in being many-branched and spreading rather than forming a line in one direction. The use of half-leaves with their longest side running along the stem is typical for both. First found in 15th-century Italy, especially Venice, moresques continue in the Mannerist and Northern Manneriststyles of the 16th century.

• [manuscript hunter] church in rabinal has moresque dome  

- Shakshouka (Arabic: شكشوكة‎, also spelled shakshuka or chakchouka) is a Maghrebi dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion and garlic, and commonly spiced with cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. Egg shakshouka evolved from an Ottoman meat stew, also called shakshouka, into a vegetarian egg-based dish.The word shakshouka (Arabic: شَكْشُوكَةٌ‎) is Maghrebi Arabic^[3] for "a mixture".

• 一家位 於 阿 提 斯 動 物 園 旁 邊 的 Cafe-Restaurant de Plantage 也 值得一試。地中海流傳了幾個世紀的美食沙 卡蔬卡（Shakshuka），濃郁的番 茄、洋葱和大蒜等多種醬料的混合燉 蛋與肉配上烤餅真是一絕。 http://paper.takungpao.com/resfile/PDF/20210301/PDF/b3_screen.pdf

The Samaritans (/səˈmærɪtənz/; Samaritan Hebrew: ࠔࠠࠌࠝࠓࠩࠉࠌ, translit. Shamerim(שַמֶרִים‬), "Guardians/Keepers/Watchers (of the Torah)") are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant originating from the Israelites (or Hebrews) of the Ancient Near East. Ancestrally, Samaritans claim descent from the tribe of Ephraim and tribe of Manasseh(two sons of Joseph) as well as from the Levites,^[1] who have links to ancient Samaria(now constituting the majority of the territory known as the West Bank) from the period of their entry into Canaan, while some Orthodox Jews suggest that it was from the beginning of the Babylonian captivity up to the Samaritan polity under the rule of Baba Rabba. Samaritans used to include descendants who ascribed to the Benjamin tribe, but this line became extinct in the 1960s.^[8] According to Samaritan tradition, the split between them and the Judean-led Southern Israelites began during the biblical time of the priest Eli when the Southern Israelites split off from the central Israelite tradition, as they perceive it.

- example of a modern day samaritan https://www.quora.com/Why-are-Arabs-so-pale-in-complexion

people

- Jean-Michel de Venture de Paradis (8 May 1739, Marseille – 16 May 1799, Acre, aged 60) was an 18th-century French orientalist.The son of a family of diplomats and military (King's interpreter in the Levant), he studied at the École des Jeunes de langues, in the premises of the collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris. After an internship at the Embassy of France in Constantinople, he held various positions of drogoman in Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunis and Algiers. He also participated as an interpreter to the inspection mission of the Levant, which was entrusted to baron de Tott, secretary and interpreter of the Embassy of France in Constantinople. He returned to Paris in 1797 to occupy the chair of Turkish language at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales. He was the oldest member of the Commission des sciences et des arts and was appointed first interpreter (military interpreter) of the Armée d'Orient. He became a member of the Institut d'Égypte 22 August 1798, in the art and literature section. Jean-Joseph Marcel, who was his pupil says he died from dysentery,^[1] while others speak of plague. Another hypothesis assumes that he died April 19, 1799 at Nazareth of illness following the Siege of Acre. Married June 14, 1774 in Cairo with Victoria Digeon, he had two daughters including Jeanne Venture de Paradis who in 1810 married the clockmaker Antoine Louis Breguet, son of the famous Abraham-Louis Breguet, who is an ascendant of actress Clémentine Célarié^[2] and the other daughter who married Joseph Sulkowski, Polish aristocrat favorite aide of Napoleon Bonaparte during the expedition of Egypt.

Religion

- Baal (/ˈbeɪəl/),^{[1][n 1]} properly Baʿal (Ugaritic: 𐎁𐎓𐎍;^[5] Phoenician: 𐤋𐤏𐤁; Biblical Hebrew: בעל‎‎, pronounced [ˈbaʕal]),^[6] was a title and honorificmeaning "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods.^[7] Scholars previously associated the theonym with solar cults and with a variety of unrelated patron deities, but inscriptions have shown that the name Baʿal was particularly associated with the storm and fertility god Hadad and his local manifestations.^[8] The Hebrew Bible, compiled and curated over a span of centuries, includes early use of the term in reference to their God Yahweh, generic use in reference to various Levantine deities, and finally pointed application towards Hadad, who was decried as a false god. This use was taken over into Christianity and Islam, sometimes under the opprobrious form Beelzebub.

Textile

- kiv levant taffeta

History

-[m&p] from 3500bc non-semitic and highly civilised sumerians from mesopotamia dominated syria for about a thousand years.They were defeated by semitic amorites, nomads from central arabia, but the sumerians taught their conquerors how to write and how to farm the land. Babylonians in middle of 3rd millennium were followed by egyptians, who first conquered syrian coastal plains at about the same time. Egyptians were frequently driven out by new invaders such as the warlike hittites from asia minor, who took all of syria in 1450bc, but just as often they returned and recovered control.The settled inhabitants of syria and palestine were known as canaanites from about 1600bc. Almost certainly they did not constitute a single race but were formed thru a mingling of peoples, some of whom came frommthe sea and some from desert. They never created a powerful imperial state of their own,they submitted to successive waves of conquerors, paid them tribune and traded with them.  They were skilful workers in metal.

arabs

- https://www.quora.com/Why-do-some-Arabs-from-the-Levant-look-like-Europeans

mongol empire

- Starting in the 1240s, the Mongols made repeated invasions of Syria or attempts thereof. Most failed, but they did have some success in 1260 and 1300, capturing Aleppo and Damascus and destroying the Ayyubid dynasty. The Mongols were forced to retreat within months each time by other forces in the area, primarily the Egyptian Mamluks. Since 1260, it had been described as the Mamluk-Ilkhanid War.Following the defeat of the Mongol ruler Ghazan and the progressive conversion of the Il-Khanate to Islam, the Mongols finally were amenable to ceasing hostilities. The first contacts to establish a treaty of peace were communicated via the slave trader al-Majd al-Sallami. After the initial communications, more formal letters and embassies were exchanged.^[38] Under the Ilkhanate ruler Abu Sa'id, who was following the advice of his custodian Chupan, the treaty with the Mamluks was ratified in 1322/1323.Following the treaty and a period of peace, the Il-Khanate further disintegrated, and effectively disappeared during the 14th century.

greece

- Zakynthos (also spelled Zakinthos; Greek: Ζάκυνθος, romanized: Zákynthos [ˈzacinθos]; Italian: Zacinto [dzaˈtʃinto]) or Zante (/ˈzænti/, US also /ˈzɑːnteɪ/,^[1][2] Italian: [ˈdzante]; Greek: Τζάντε, romanized: Tzánte [ˈdza(n)de]; from the Venetian form) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the third largest of the Ionian Islands. Zakynthos is a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and its only municipality. It covers an area of 405.55 km²(156.6 sq mi)^[3] and its coastline is roughly 123 km (76 mi) in length. The name, like all similar names ending in -nthos, is pre-Mycenaean or Pelasgian in origin. In Greek mythology the island was said to be named after Zakynthos, the son of the legendary Arcadian chief Dardanus. The island's nickname is "the Flower of the Levant", bestowed upon it by the Venetians who were in possession of Zakynthos from 1484 to 1797.ヴェネツィア語では Zacinto、英語ではザンテ島（Zante）と呼ばれた。

• Flag of Zakynthos, displaying an ancient depiction of the founding hero Zákynthos. The quote underneath reads: "Freedom requires virtue and bravery", a famous verse by 19th century Zakynthian poet Andreas Kalvos.