Levant

Region in the Eastern Mediterranean

This article is about the historical geographical region in the Eastern Mediterranean. 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 its broad, historical meaning (equivalent to the Eastern Mediterranean)[1][2]

Countries of the Levant in 20th-century usage[3]

Countries and regions sometimes included in 21st-century usage

Countries and regions| Narrow definition:

* Akrotiri and Dhekelia
* Cyprus
* Hatay Province
* Israel
* Jordan
* Lebanon
* Palestine
* Syria

Broad definition:

* Egypt
* Greece
* Iraq
* Libya
* Turkey

Population| Narrow definition: 57,681,876[a]
Demonym| Levantine
Languages| Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Circassian, Domari, Greek, Hebrew, Kurdish, Turkish
Time Zones| UTC+02:00 (EET) and UTC+03:00 (TRT/AST)
Largest cities|

List

* Amman
Aleppo
Beirut
Damascus
Jerusalem

The Levant (/ləˈvænt/ lə-VANT) is a subregion of West Asia that borders the Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west and forms the core of the Middle East. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is equivalent to Cyprus and a stretch of land bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Western Asia[4][5] that is, the historical region of Syria ("Greater Syria"), which includes present-day Syria, as well as Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and the southern part of Cilicia (modern-day Turkey). Its overwhelming characteristic is that it represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia.[5] In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the Eastern Mediterranean with its islands;[6] that is, it included all of the countries along the Eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece in Southern Europe to Egypt and Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya) in Northern Africa.[3][2][7]

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.[3] Eventually the term was restricted to the Muslim countries of Syria-Palestine and Egypt.[3] The term entered English in the late 15th century from French.[6] It derives from the Italian levante, meaning "rising", implying the rising of the Sun in the east,[3][2] and is broadly equivalent to the term al-Mashriq (Arabic: ٱلْمَشْرِق, [ʔal.maʃ.riq]),[8] meaning "the eastern place, where the Sun rises".[9]

In 1581, England set up the Levant Company to trade with the Ottoman Empire.[3] The name Levant States was used to refer to the French mandate over Syria and Lebanon after World War I.[3][2] 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 the island of Cyprus.[3] Some scholars mistakenly believed that it derives from the name of Lebanon.[3] Today the term is often used in conjunction with prehistoric or ancient historical references.

Another term for "Syria-Palestine" is 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, the north Arabian Desert and Mesopotamia in the east, and Sinai in the south (which can be fully included or not).[10][5] Typically, it does not include Anatolia (also known as 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.[11][12][13] 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,[14][15][16] food scholars speak of Levantine cuisine,[4] 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 in geological (tectonic) terms as the "northwest of the Arabian Plate".[19] The populations of the Levant[20][21] share not only geographic position, but cuisine, customs, and history. They are often referred to as Levantines.[22]

## Etymology

[edit]

See also: Names of the Levant

French medal commemorating the Franco-Turkish War in Cilicia, c. 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 'the direction of sunrise'), in Germanic Morgenland (lit. 'morning land'), in Italian (as in Riviera di Levante, the portion of the Liguria coast east of Genoa), in Hungarian Kelet ('east'), in Spanish and Catalan Levante and Llevant, ('the place of rising'), and in Hebrew מִזְרָח mizraḥ ('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 [fr] was founded for the same purpose. At this time, the Far East was known as the "Upper Levant".[3]

1909 postcard depicting Ottoman Constantinople and 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.[3][2]

## Geography and modern-day use of the term

[edit]

Satellite view of the Levant including Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and the Northern Sinai (Egypt)

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 its being a "wider, yet relevant, cultural corpus" that does not have the "political overtones" of Syria-Palestine.[b][c] The term is also used for modern events, peoples, states or parts of states in the same region, 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 West Asia).[citation needed] Several researchers include the island of Cyprus in Levantine studies, including the Council for British Research in the Levant,[28] the UCLA Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department,[29] Journal of Levantine Studies[30] 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.[31][32]

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 launched in the early 2010s using the word: the Journal of Levantine Studies, published by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute[33] and The Levantine Review, published by Boston College.[34]

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.[35]

### In archaeology: a definition

[edit]

In The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: c. 8000–332 BCE (OHAL; 2013), the definition of the Levant for the specific purposes of the book is synonymous to that of the Arabic "bilad al-sham, 'the land of sham [Syria]'", translating in Western parlance to greater Syria.[10] OHAL defines the boundaries of the Levant as follows.[10][5]

* To the north: the Taurus Mountains[10] or the Plain of 'Amuq[5]
* To the east: the eastern deserts, i.e. (from north to south) the Euphrates and the Jebel el-Bishrī area for the northern Levant, followed by the Syrian Desert east of the eastern hinterland of the Anti-Lebanon range (whose southernmost part is Mount Hermon), and Transjordan's highlands and eastern desert (also discussed at Syrian Desert, also known as the Badia region).[5] In other words, Mesopotamia and the North Arabian Desert.[10]
* To the south: Wadi al-Arish in Sinai[5]
* To the west: the Mediterranean Sea[10]

Subregions

A distinction is made between the main subregions of the Levant, the northern and the southern:[5]

* The Litani River marks the division between the Northern Levant and the Southern Levant.[5]

The island of Cyprus is also included as a third subregion in the archaeological region of the Levant:[5]

* Cyprus, geographically distinct from the Levant, is included due to its proximity and natural resources (copper in particular), which induced close cultural ties.[5]

## History

[edit]

Further information: Prehistory of the Levant, History of the ancient Levant, and Canaan

See also: History of the Middle East, History of Israel, History of Jordan, History of Lebanon, History of Palestine, and History of Syria

## Demographics

[edit]

See also: Demographics of the Middle East and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population

The region is inhabited by Levantine Arabs, Bedouins, Jews, Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians, Chechens and Circassians. The population of the modern Levant border is approximately 57.6 million consisting of the populations of Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Palestine.

State  | Population (2023)  | Density/km2 (2018)  | Life expectancy (2018)

|
|
|

Israel  | 10,094,000  | 458  | 82.5 years
Jordan  | 11,484,805  | 114  | 74.8 years
Lebanon  | 5,364,482  | 513  | 78.7 years
Palestine  | 5,483,450  | 731  | 73.4 years
Syria  | 25,255,139  | 118.3  | 74.8 years
Total | 57,681,876 | 184.2 | 76.4

### Religious and ethnic groups

[edit]

Historical population of the LevantYear| 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%
1700| 2,028,000| −24.9%
1897| 3,231,874| +59.4%
1914| 3,448,356| +6.7%
1922| 3,198,951| −7.2%
Source:[36][37][38][39]

The vast majority of Levantines are Muslims. After the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century,[40] Islam was first introduced into the region. However, a Muslim majority in the Levant is presumed to have been reached by the 13th century.[41] The majority of Levantine Muslims are Sunnis adhering to the four madhhabs (Hanafi, Shafi'i, Hanbali and Maliki). Islamic minorities include the Alawites and Nizari Ismailis in Syria, and Twelver Shiites in Lebanon.

Levantine Christian groups 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.[42]

Other religious groups in the Levant include Jews, Samaritans, Yazidis and Druze.[43]

### Languages

[edit]

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

Most populations in the Levant speak Levantine Arabic (شامي, Šāmī), a variety of Arabic descended from the pre-Islamic Arabic dialects of Syria and Hejazi Arabic, but retaining significant influence from Western Middle Aramaic.[44] Levantine Arabic is usually classified as 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 (by Bedouins) and Mesopotamian Arabic (in eastern Syria).[45]

Of the languages of Cyprus, the two official languages are Turkish and Greek. The most used languages by population are Greek in the south 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 Turkish and Greek, spoken by approximately 1,000 people.[46]

In Israel, the official language is Hebrew, which is spoken by the majority of its population. Its Arab minority speaks the Arabic language.

Western Neo-Aramaic is additionally spoken in three villages in Syria: Maaloula, Jubb'adin and Bakhah.[47][48][49][50][51][52][53]

Among diaspora communities based in the Levant, Greek, Armenian and Circassian are also spoken.

### Genetics

[edit]

Further information: Genetic history of the Middle East

Ancient DNA analysis has confirmed the genetic relationship between Natufians and other ancient and modern Middle Easterners. The presence of Neolithic Anatolian and Neolithic Iranian ancestry among modern Levantines can be attributed to migrations during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.[54]

According to recent ancient DNA studies, Levantines derive most of their ancestry from ancient Semitic-speaking peoples of the Bronze and Iron age Levant.[55] Other Arabs include the Bedouins of Syrian Desert, Naqab and eastern Syria, who speak Bedouin Arabic. Non-Arab minorities include Circassians, Chechens, Turks, Jews, Turkmens, Assyrians, Kurds, Nawars and Armenians.

## See also

[edit]

Overlapping regional designations

* Bilad al-Sham
* Fertile Crescent
* Levantine corridor
* Mashriq
* Mesopotamia
* Middle East
* Near East
* West Asia

Subregional designations

* Southern Levant

Others

* French post offices in the Ottoman Empire ("Levant" stamps)
* History of the Levant
* Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Referred to in current events as ISIL or ISIS)
* Levantine Sea
* Levantines (Latin Christians), Catholic Europeans in the Levant
* Wildlife of the Levant

Other places in the east of a larger region

* Levante, Spain
* Riviera di Levante, Italy

## Explanatory notes

[edit]

1. ^ Total population by adding the populations of Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey's 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)[page needed]
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)

## Citations

[edit]

1. ^ Gagarin 2009, p. 247; Oxford Dictionaries 2015.
2. ^ a b c d e Encarta 2009, "Levant"
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Gagarin 2009, p. 247
4. ^ a b Gasiorowski, Mark (2016). The Government and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa. p. 5: "... today the term Levantine can describe shared cultural products, such as Levantine cuisine or Levantine archaeology". ISBN 081334994X.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Steiner & Killebrew, p. 9 Archived 1 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine: "The general limits ..., as defined here, begin at the Plain of 'Amuq in the north and extend south until the Wâdī al-Arish, along the northern coast of Sinai. ... 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."
6. ^ a b Oxford Dictionaries 2015.
7. ^ Pierre-Louis Gatier, E. Gubel, Philippe Marquis. The Levant History and Archaeology in the Eastern Mediterranean, Könemann, Page 7
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Naim 2011, p. 921.
10. ^ a b c d e f Steiner & Killebrew, p. 2 Archived 1 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine.
11. ^ LEVANT archaic The eastern part of the Mediterranean with the islands and neighbouring countries. New Oxford Dictionary of English, 2nd ed., revised, 2005.
12. ^ "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.
13. ^ 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.).
14. ^ 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"
15. ^ 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."
16. ^ Steiner & Killebrew (2013). p. 1-2.
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. ^ a b The Ancient Levant, UCL Institute of Archaeology, May 2008
19. ^ Egyptian Journal of Geology, Volume 42, Issue 1, p. 263, 1998
20. ^ "Ancient Ashkelon – National Geographic Magazine". Ngm.nationalgeographic.com. 17 October 2002. Archived from the original on 28 February 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
21. ^ "The state of Israel: Internal influence driving change". BBC News. 6 November 2011. Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
22. ^ Orfalea, Gregory (2006). The Arab Americans: A History. Olive Branch Press. Northampton, MA. Page 249.
23. ^ a b Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary. "Levant". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. 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. Archived from the original on 30 January 2016. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
27. ^ Braudel 1974, p. [page needed].
28. ^ Sandra Rosendahl (28 November 2006). "Council for British Research in the Levant homepage". Cbrl.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2 June 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
29. ^ Biblical and Levantine studies Archived 6 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine, UCLA
30. ^ "About JLS". Journal of Levantine Studies. 2022. Archived from the original on 30 January 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
31. ^ Dever, William G. "Syro-Palestinian and Biblical Archaeology", pp. 1244–1253.
32. ^ Sharon, Ilan "Biblical archaeology" in Encyclopedia of Archaeology Elsevier.
33. ^ Anat Lapidot-Firilla, "Editor's Note", Journal of Levantine Studies 1:1:5-12 (Summer 2011) full text Archived 19 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine
34. ^ Franck Salameh, "From the Editors", The Levantine Review 1:1:1-6 (Spring 2012), doi:10.6017/lev.v1i1.2154, full text Archived 28 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine
35. ^ Irshaid, Faisal (2 December 2015). "Isis, Isil, IS or Daesh? One group, many names". BBC. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
36. ^ Mutlu, Servet. "Late Ottoman population and its ethnic distribution". pp. 29–31. Corrected population M8.
37. ^ 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.
38. ^ 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.
39. ^ "Syria Population - Our World in Data". www.ourworldindata.org. Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
40. ^ 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.
41. ^ 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.
42. ^ "Christian Population of Middle East in 2014". The Gulf/2000 Project, School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University. 2017. Archived from the original on 21 April 2023. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
43. ^ 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.
44. ^ Retsö, Jan. ""Aramaic in Levantine Dialects" in "Aramaic/Syriac Loanwords"". Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Brill Reference Online. Retrieved 7 February 2024. "The Arabic spoken in Syria and Mesopotamia has replaced Aramaic dialects there and it can be assumed that a bilingual situation existed for a long time and that numerous Aramaic lexemes found their way into Arabic during this period. The presence of Aramaic lexemes is well studied in Lebanese Arabic (Féghali 1918; Freyha 1973) and the dialects spoken in the Anti-Lebanon (Arnold and Behnstedt 1993) but can be found in dictionaries from the entire Syro-Palestinian area (cf. Barbot 1961). The material collected by Féghali and Freyha shows that, unlike in the ʿarabiyya, most borrowings preserve the Aramaic phonology… The Aramaic vocabulary is likely to be the largest foreign element in the Arabic lexicon even if the exact extent is difficult to define."
45. ^ "Jordan and Syria". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 30 July 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
46. ^ Versteegh, Kees (2011). Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Brill. p. 541\. ISBN 978-90-04-14976-2.
47. ^ Rafik Schami (25 July 2011). Märchen aus Malula (in German). Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Company KG. p. 151\. ISBN 9783446239005. "Ich kenne das Dorf nicht, doch gehört habe ich davon. Was ist mit Malula?‹ fragte der festgehaltene Derwisch. >Das letzte Dorf der Aramäer< lachte einer der…"
48. ^ Yaron Matras; Jeanette Sakel (2007). Grammatical Borrowing in Cross-Linguistic Perspective. De Gruyter. p. 185\. doi:10.1515/9783110199192. ISBN 9783110199192. Archived from the original on 26 May 2024. Retrieved 12 August 2024. "The fact that nearly all Arabic loans in Ma'lula originate from the period before the change from the rural dialect to the city dialect of Damascus shows that the contact between the Aramaeans and the Arabs was intimate…"
49. ^ Dr. Emna Labidi (2022). Untersuchungen zum Spracherwerb zweisprachiger Kinder im Aramäerdorf Dschubbadin (Syrien) (in German). LIT. p. 133\. ISBN 9783643152619. Archived from the original on 26 May 2024. Retrieved 12 August 2024. "Aramäer von Ǧubbˁadīn"
50. ^ Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold; P. Behnstedt (1993). Arabisch-aramäische Sprachbeziehungen im Qalamūn (Syrien) (in German). Harassowitz. p. 42\. ISBN 9783447033268. "Die arabischen Dialekte der Aramäer"
51. ^ Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold; P. Behnstedt (1993). Arabisch-aramäische Sprachbeziehungen im Qalamūn (Syrien) (in German). Harassowitz. p. 5\. ISBN 9783447033268. "Die Kontakte zwischen den drei Aramäer-dörfern sind nicht besonders stark."
52. ^ Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold (2006). Lehrbuch des Neuwestaramäischen (in German). Harrassowitz. p. 133\. ISBN 9783447053136. Archived from the original on 26 May 2024. Retrieved 12 August 2024. "Aramäern in Ma'lūla"
53. ^ Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold (2006). Lehrbuch des Neuwestaramäischen (in German). Harrassowitz. p. 15\. ISBN 9783447053136. "Viele Aramäer arbeiten heute in Damaskus, Beirut oder in den Golfstaaten und verbringen nur die Sommermonate im Dorf."
54. ^ Almarri, Mohamed A.; Haber, Marc; Lootah, Reem A.; et al. (2021). "The genomic history of the Middle East". Cell. 184 (18): 4612–4625\. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.013. PMC 8445022. PMID 34352227.
55. ^ 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.

## General and cited references

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* Braudel, Fernand (1974), "The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II", Geographical Review, 64 (4): 596, Bibcode:1974GeoRv..64..596S, doi:10.2307/213716, JSTOR 213716[full citation needed]
* 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: Routledge, ISBN 9781315539638
* "Levant", Encarta, Microsoft, 2009
* Gagarin, Michael (31 December 2009), Ancient Greece and Rome, vol. 1, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, p. 247, ISBN 978-0-19-517072-6
* 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
* 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
* Steiner, Margreet L.; Killebrew, Ann E. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: c. 8000–332 BCE. OUP Oxford. pp. 2, 9. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199212972.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-921297-2.

## Further reading

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* Julia Chatzipanagioti: Griechenland, Zypern, Balkan und Levante. Eine kommentierte Bibliographie der Reiseliteratur des 18. Jahrhunderts. 2 Vol. Eutin 2006. ISBN 978-3-9810674-2-2.
* 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.

## External links

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Levant at Wikipedia's sister projects

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