1.
Kibbutz
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A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania, today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism, in recent decades, some kibbutzim have been privatized and changes have been made in the communal lifestyle. A member of a kibbutz is called a kibbutznik, in 2010, there were 270 kibbutzim in Israel. Their factories and farms account for 9% of Israels industrial output, worth US$8 billion, some Kibbutzim had also developed substantial high-tech and military industries. For example, in 2010, Kibbutz Sasa, containing some 200 members, the kibbutzim were founded by members of the Bilu movement who emigrated to Palestine. The first kibbutz was Degania Alef, founded in 1909, joseph Baratz, one of the pioneers of the kibbutz movement, wrote a book about his experiences. We were happy enough working on the land, but we knew more and more certainly that the ways of the old settlements were not for us. This was not the way we hoped to settle the old way with Jews on top and Arabs working for them, anyway, we thought that there shouldnt be employers. There must be a better way, though Baratz and others wanted to farm the land themselves, becoming independent farmers was not a realistic option in 1909. Ottoman Palestine was a harsh environment, the Galilee was swampy, the Judaean Mountains rocky, and the south of the country, the Negev, was a desert. To make things more challenging, most of the settlers had no farming experience. The sanitary conditions were also poor, malaria, typhus and cholera were rampant. Bedouins would raid farms and settled areas, sabotage of irrigation canals and burning of crops were also common. Living collectively was simply the most logical way to be secure in an unwelcoming land, finally, the land had been purchased by the greater Jewish community. From around the world, Jews dropped coins into Jewish National Fund Blue Boxes for land purchases in Palestine, in 1909, Baratz, nine other men, and two women established themselves at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee near the Arab village of Umm Juni/Juniya. These teenagers had hitherto worked as day laborers converting wetlands for human development, as masons and their dream was now to work for themselves, building up the land. They called their community Kvutzat Degania, now Degania Alef, the founders of Degania endured backbreaking labor, The body is crushed, the legs fail, the head hurts, the sun burns and weakens, wrote one of the pioneers
2.
Gezer (kibbutz)
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Gezer is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located in the Shephelah between Modiin, Ramle and Rehovot, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gezer Regional Council, in 2015 it had a population of 273. The kibbutz was established in 1945 on land purchased by the Ancient Order of Maccabeans in England, the pioneers were immigrants from Europe, who named the kibbutz after the biblical city of Gezer, identified as a tell located nearby. This was defended by 68 Haganah soldiers, after four hours of battle, the kibbutz fell. 39 defenders were killed, a dozen escaped, and the remaining were taken prisoner, at the evening, the kibbutz abandoned to the irregulars was taken back by two Palmach squads. After the war it was rebuilt, but came apart in 1964 due to social difficulties, the current kibbutz was founded on 4 July 1974, by a Garin from North America. Kibbutz Gezer Field is one of the few regulation baseball fields in Israel, construction of the field in 1983, funded by American donors, took six weeks. The first game was played within a few months, a backstop, covered benches for players and a refreshment stand were added at a later date. In 1989, a scoreboard and outfield fence were erected for the Maccabiah Games, alon Leichman, baseball player and coach Gezer and the Sack of Gezer Gezer calendar - ancient artifact Israel Baseball League The Israel Baseball League and the Jewish Diaspora
3.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
6.
Judaean Mountains
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The Judaean Mountains, or Judaean Hills, is a mountain range in Israel and the West Bank where Jerusalem and several other biblical cities are located. The mountains reach a height of 1,026 metres, the Judean Mountains can be separated to a number of sub-regions, including the Mount Hebron ridge, the Jerusalem ridge and the Judean slopes. These mountains formed the heartland of the Kingdom of Judah, where the earliest Jewish settlements emerged, the range runs in a north south direction from Galilee to the Negev with an average height of 900 metres. The Judaean mountains encompass Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem and Ramallah, the range forms a natural division between the Shephelah coastal plains to the west and the Jordan Rift Valley to the east. The northern section, in the Ramallah area, is known as Samarian Hills. The Judaean Mountains were heavily forested in antiquity, the range is mostly composed of terra rossa soils over hard limestones. The Judaean Mountains are the expression of a series of monoclinic folds which trend north-northwest through Israel. The folding is the expression of the Syrian Arc belt of anticlinal folding that began in the Late Cretaceous Period in northeast Africa. The Syrian Arc extends east-northeast across the Sinai, turns north-northeast through Israel, the Israeli segment parallels the Dead Sea Transform which lies just to the east. In prehistoric times, animals no longer found in the Levant region were found here, including elephants, rhinoceri, giraffes, in ancient times the Judean mountains were the allotment of the Tribe of Judah and the heartland of the former Kingdom of Judah. An Israel Railways line runs from Beit Shemesh along the Brook of Sorek, media related to Judaean Mountains at Wikimedia Commons Pictures Judaean Mountains & Jerusalem Symbolism and Landscape, The Etzion Bloc in the Judaean Mountains, Yossi Katz and John C
7.
Shfela
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The Shfela, or Shephelah, is a transitional region of soft-sloping hills in south-central Israel stretching over 10–15 km between the Judean Mountains and the Coastal Plain. Today the Shfela is largely rural with many farms, the Bible assigned land in the Shephelah to the tribes of Judah and Dan. The Shfela is mentioned many times in the Hebrew Bible The Shfela was the site of many biblical battles, during the Bar Kokhba revolt, hollowed out hills were connected to form elaborate bunker systems for the combat with the Romans. The Shephelah consists of rolling hills. Topographically it represents the transition from the higher and more rugged Jerusalem and Hebron Mountains, whose foothills it forms, and the Coastal Plain. In the upper part the valleys descending from the Judean Mountains are deeper, where they reach the Shephelah, the rivers can flow over substantial distances along the border between the mountains and the hills, forming longitudinal valleys. Passage between the east-west and north-south valleys has dictated the communication routes throughout history, typical to the Shephelah are the Senonian-Eocene chalky formations. Apart from using the rock, they also utilised the generated underground hollows for different purposes. One of the characteristics are hills formed of marl-covered soft chalk, as opposed to the Judean Hills which are made of hard chalk. The valleys and lower areas contain soil with a high sand content, seasonal swamps can develop during the rainy season. The southern part is made up of loess, while north of Ashkelon consists of clay, the Shfela has a temperate Mediterranean to semi-arid climate. A series of east-west valleys cuts the Shfelah into districts, from north to south, they are, the Valley of Ayalon, Sorek Valley, Valley of Elah, Guvrin Valley, Valley of Lachish, and Valley of Adorayim. The biblical towns established there guarded settlements of the interior and took advantage of passing along this route. Ayalon was the access corridor to Jerusalem along the ascent of Horon. Caves are a feature of the southern part of the Shfela. Archaeological surveys in the Shfela have found evidence of habitation during the Late Bronze period, the Shephelah was a border region between the Iron Age Kingdom of Judah and the Philistines. During the decline and ultimate destruction of Judah by the Assyrians and Babylonians, the Shepehelah flourished during the Hellenistic period, was strongly affected by the First Jewish-Roman War and was largely depopulated of Jews as a result of the Bar Kochba revolt. It flourished again in the Byzantine period and was the scene of one of the battles during the Muslim Arab conquest of the 7th century
8.
Jerusalem
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Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old Citys boundaries. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, the sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesuss crucifixion there, in Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. As a result, despite having an area of only 0, outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, one of Israels Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the countrys undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset, the residences of the Prime Minister and President, the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of importance, such as the Hebrew University. In 2011, Jerusalem had a population of 801,000, of which Jews comprised 497,000, Muslims 281,000, a city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba, the name Jerusalem is variously etymologized to mean foundation of the god Shalem, the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city. The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, according to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yireh and the town Shalem. The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states, I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem, or as other scholars suggest, the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem
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Tel Aviv
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Tel Aviv-Yafo is a major city in Israel, located on the countrys Mediterranean coastline. It is the center and the technology hub of Israel, with a population of 432,892. Tel Aviv is the largest city in the Gush Dan region of Israel, Tel Aviv is also a focal point in the high-tech concentration known as the Silicon Wadi. Tel Aviv is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, headed by Ron Huldai, Tel Aviv is a global city, and is the thirty eighth most important financial center in the world. Tel Aviv is known to have the third-largest economy of any city in the Middle East after Abu Dhabi and Kuwait City, the city receives over a million international visitors annually. Known as The City that Never Sleeps and a party capital, it has a lively nightlife, the city was founded in 1909 by Jewish immigrants on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa. It is named after the Hebrew translation of Theodor Herzls 1902 novel, Altneuland, the modern citys first neighbourhoods had already been established in 1886, the first being Neve Tzedek. Immigration by mostly Jewish refugees meant that the growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffas, Tel Aviv and Jaffa were merged into a single municipality in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Avivs White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, Tel Aviv is the Hebrew title of Theodor Herzls Altneuland, translated from German by Nahum Sokolow. The name was chosen in 1910 from several suggestions, including Herzliya and it was found fitting as it embraced the idea of a renaissance in the ancient Jewish homeland. Aviv is Hebrew for spring, symbolizing renewal, and tel is a man-made mound accumulating layers of civilization built one over the other and symbolizing the ancient. Although founded in 1909 as a settlement on the sand dunes North of Jaffa. The marketing pamphlets advocating for its establishment in 1906, wrote, In this city we will build the streets so they have roads and sidewalks and electric lights. Every house will have water wells that will flow through pipes as in every modern European city. Since 1886, Jewish settlers had founded new neighborhoods outside Jaffa on the current territory of Tel Aviv, the first was Neve Tzedek, built on lands owned by Aharon Chelouche and inhabited primarily by Mizrahi Jews. Other neighborhoods were Neve Shalom, Yafa Nof, Achva, Ohel Moshe, Kerem HaTeimanim, once Tel Aviv received city status in the 1920s, those neighborhoods joined the newly formed municipality, now becoming separated from Jaffa. The Second Aliyah led to further expansion, in 1906, a group of Jews, among them residents of Jaffa, followed the initiative of Akiva Aryeh Weiss and banded together to form the Ahuzat Bayit society. The societys goal was to form a Hebrew urban centre in an environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics
10.
Joshua
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Joshua /ˈdʒɒʃuə/ or Jehoshua is the central figure in the Hebrew Bibles Book of Joshua. According to the books of Exodus, Numbers and Joshua, he was Moses assistant and his name was Hoshea the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, but Moses called him Yehoshua the name by which he is commonly known. The name is shortened to Yeshua in Nehemiah, according to the Bible he was born in Egypt prior to the Exodus. According to the Hebrew Bible, Joshua was one of the spies of Israel sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan. In Numbers 13, 1–16, and after the death of Moses, he led the Israelite tribes in the conquest of Canaan, according to Biblical chronology, Joshua lived between 1355 and 1245 BCE, or sometime in the late Bronze Age. According to Joshua 24,29, Joshua died at the age of 110, Joshua also holds a position of respect among Muslims. According to Islamic tradition, he was, along with Caleb, all Muslims also see Joshua as the leader of the Israelites, following the death of Moses. Some Muslims also believe Joshua to be the attendant of Moses mentioned in the Qurān, before Moses meets Khidr, the English name Joshua is a rendering of the Hebrew language Yehoshua, meaning Yahweh is salvation. The vocalization of the second name component may be read as Hoshea—the name used in the Torah before Moses added the divine name, Jesus is the English of the Greek transliteration of Yehoshua via Latin. In the Septuagint, all instances of the word Yehoshua are rendered as Ἰησοῦς, thus, in Greek, Joshua is called Jesus son of Naue to differentiate him from Jesus Christ. This is also true in the Slavic languages following the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Joshua was a major figure in the events of the Exodus. He was charged by Moses with selecting and commanding a group for their first battle after exiting Egypt, against the Amalekites in Rephidim. He later accompanied Moses when he ascended biblical Mount Sinai to commune with God, visualize Gods plan for the Israelite tabernacle and receive the Ten Commandments. Joshua was with Moses when he descended from the mountain, heard the Israelites celebrations around the Golden Calf, and broke the tablets bearing the words of the commandments. However, when Moses returned to the mountain to re-create the tablets recording the Ten Commandments, Joshua was not present, according to Joshua 1, 1-9, God appointed Joshua to succeed Moses as leader of the Israelites along with giving him a blessing of invincibility during his lifetime. The first part of the book of Joshua covers the period when he led the conquest of Canaan, at the Jordan River, the waters parted, as they had for Moses at the Red Sea. The first battle after the crossing of the Jordan was the Battle of Jericho, Joshua led the destruction of Jericho, then moved on to Ai, a small neighboring city to the west. However, they were defeated with thirty-six Israelite deaths, the defeat was attributed to Achan taking an accursed thing from Jericho, and was followed by Achan and his family and animals being stoned to death to restore Gods favor
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Solomon
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Solomon, also called Jedidiah, was, according to the Bible, Quran, hadith and Hidden Words a fabulously wealthy and wise king of Israel and a son of David, the previous king of Israel. The conventional dates of Solomons reign are circa 970 to 931 BC and he is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, which would break apart into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah shortly after his death. Following the split, his descendants ruled over Judah alone. According to the Talmud, Solomon is one of the 48 prophets, in the Quran, he is considered a major prophet, and Muslims generally refer to him by the Arabic variant Sulayman, son of David. Solomon was, according to the Quran, a king of ancient Israel as well as the son of David, the Hebrew Bible credits him as the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem. It portrays him as great in wisdom, wealth, and power any of the previous kings of the country. His sins included idolatry, marrying foreign women, and ultimately turning away from Yahweh, Solomon is the subject of many other later references and legends, most notably in the 1st-century apocryphal work known as the Testament of Solomon. Solomon was born in Jerusalem, the second child of David and his wife Bathsheba. The first child, a son conceived adulterously during Uriahs lifetime, had died before Solomon was conceived as a punishment on account of the death of Uriah by Davids order. Solomon had three named full brothers through Bathsheba, Nathan, Shammua, and Shobab, besides six known older half-brothers through as many mothers, according to the First Book of Kings, when David was old, he could not get warm. So they sought a young woman throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite. The young woman was very beautiful, and she was of service to the king and attended to him, while David was in this state, court factions were maneuvering for power. Solomon greatly expanded his military strength, especially the cavalry and chariot arms and he founded numerous colonies, some of which doubled as trading posts and military outposts. Trade relationships were a focus of his administration, Solomon is considered the most wealthy of the Israelite kings named in the Bible. Solomon also built the First Temple, beginning in the year of his reign. Solomon was the Biblical king most famous for his wisdom, in 1 Kings he sacrificed to God and prayed for wisdom. God personally answered his prayer, promising him great wisdom because he did not ask for self-serving rewards like long life or the death of his enemies. Perhaps the best known story of his wisdom is the Judgment of Solomon, Solomon easily resolved the dispute by commanding the child to be cut in half and shared between the two
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Via Maris
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In Latin, Via Maris means way of the sea. It is a road that runs along the Israeli Mediterranean coast. It was the most important route from Egypt to Syria which followed the coastal plain before crossing over into the plain of Jezreel and its earlier name was Way of the Philistines, a reference to a passageway through the Philistine Plain. The name Via Maris is not ancient and academic researchers prefer other names, together with the Kings Highway, the Via Maris was one of the major trade routes connecting Egypt and the Levant with Anatolia and Mesopotamia. The Via Maris was crossed by other trading routes, so one could travel from Africa to Europe or from Asia to Africa. It began in al-Qantara and went east to Pelusium, following the northern coast of Sinai through el-Arish, again turning northward along the shore, the Via Maris passed through Migdal, Capernaum, and Hazor. From Hazor it crossed the northern River Jordan at Jacobs Daughters Bridge then climbed sharply over the Golan Heights, here travellers could continue on the Kings Highway as far as the Euphrates River or proceed northward into Anatolia. According to Anson Rainey, Via Maris is not the name of any road. The phrase rather originates as the Latin translation of Isaiah 9,1 – by the way of the sea. The prophet was probably referring to the road from Dan to the sea at Tyre, passing through Abel-beth-maachah, the road mentioned in the traditional description is better listed as the Great Trunk Road. Carl G. Rasmussen in the Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, p.32, also notes the traditional misnomer, Rasmussen, basically in agreement with Langfur and Rainey, suggests that the Via Maris was the road that connected Tyre with Damascus. Beitzel, in contrast, denotes the Via Maris as a road from Ptolemais to Kedesh in the Galilee - also leading west to east, but slightly further south and not reaching so far inland
13.
Levitical city
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The Levitical cities were 48 cities in ancient Israel set aside for the tribe of Levi, who were not allocated their own territorial land when the Israelites entered the Promised Land. Numbers 35, 1-8 relates Gods command to Moses to establish 48 cities for the Levites, the land for the cities was to be donated by the host tribe and was allocated to the Levites according to their tribal sub-divisions. 13 cities were for the Aaronite priestly division,13 cities were for the Gershonite division. 10 cities were for the Kohathite division,12 cities were for the Merarite division. The six cities which were to be Cities of Refuge were Golan, Ramoth, and Bezer, on the east of the Jordan River, and Kedesh, Shechem, joshua 21 recounts the fulfilment of Gods command at the request of the Levite leaders. A further list is provided in 1 Chronicles 6, 54-81 and it is apt to happen, every one being so attentive in looking after his own affairs that even brethren are forgotten. It was certainly disgraceful to the people that required to be pulled by the ear. However, the writer of the Pulpit Commentary disagreed, We are not to suppose, with Calvin, the delay in appointing to the Levites their cities arose from the nature of the arrangement which had to be made for the Levitical cities. This arrangement was the fulfilment of Jacobs prophecy in Genesis 49, 5-7 - I will scatter them in Israel - which was a punishment for Simeon and Levis massacre of the men of Shechem. The Levites could not be scattered amongst the cities of the other tribes until the tribes had all been appointed to their territories after the entry into the Promised Land. Matthew Henry commented that Jacobs condemnation of Levi became a blessing for Israel and this tribe performed an acceptable service in their zeal against the worshippers of the golden calf. Being set apart to God as priests, they were in that character scattered through the nation of Israel
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Biblical archaeology
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For the movement associated with William F. Albright and also known as biblical archaeology, see Biblical archaeology school. The principal location of interest is what is known in the relevant religions as the Holy Land, the scientific techniques used are the same as those used in general archaeology, such as excavation and radiocarbon dating. Biblical archaeology is polemical as there are a number of points of view regarding the nature of its purpose, a number of points of view from important archaeologists are included in the section on Expert Commentaries. In order to understand the significance of biblical archaeology it is first necessary to understand two basic concepts, archaeology as a framework and the Bible as an object for research. Archaeology is a science, not in the Aristotelian sense of cognitio certa per causas and it might be thought that archaeology would have to disregard the information contained within religions and many philosophical systems. This contemporary perception of the myth, mainly developed by Bultmann, has encouraged scientists such as archaeologists to examine the areas indicated by the biblical tales. Other authors prefer to talk about the archaeology of Palestine and to define the relevant territories as those to the east and west of the River Jordan and this indicates that biblical archaeology or that of Palestine is circumscribed by the territories that were the backdrop to the biblical stories. The raison d’etre of biblical archaeology derives from the fact that it allows an understanding of the peoples that inhabited the Holy Land and it allows an understanding of their history, culture, identity and movements. This makes it possible to know the location of the stories. Albright, G. Ernest Wright and Yigael Yadin, using this approach, introduced by P. Biblical archaeology lends fundamental support to exegetical studies, the geographical area that circumscribes the area of interest for biblical archaeology is obviously the biblical lands, also known as the Holy Land. Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and Rome have greater connections with the stories from the New Testament, in the same way that the spatial criteria vary according to the various points of view of the different researchers, there are also a variety of dates that are of interest. This time period is considered by authorities to be too wide. The term Apostolic Church is taken to mean the period when Jesuss apostles were alive. This period ends with the death of John the Evangelist, the date of his death is not known. However, some consider that the authors of the Fourth Gospel. 8500–4300 BC Pre-Pottery Neolithic = c, 8500–6000 BC Pre-Pottery Neolithic A = c. The most important historical sources include Josephus, Origen, Eusebius, Egeria or Aetheria, was a Spanish woman who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land between 381 and 384
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Canaan
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Canaan was a Semitic-speaking region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. The name Canaan occurs commonly in the Hebrew Bible, in particular, the references in Genesis 10 and Numbers 34 define the Land of Canaan as extending from Lebanon southward to the Brook of Egypt and eastward to the Jordan River Valley. References to Canaan in the Bible are usually backward-looking, referring to a region that had something else. The term Canaanites serves as an ethnic catch-all term covering various indigenous populations—both settled, the Amarna Letters and other cuneiform documents use Kinaḫḫu, while other sources of the Egyptian New Kingdom mention numerous military campaigns conducted in Ka-na-na. Canaan had significant geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna period as the area where the spheres of interest of the Egyptian, Hittite, Mitanni and Assyrian Empires converged. Much of the knowledge about Canaan stems from archaeological excavation in this area at sites such as Tel Hazor, Tel Megiddo. The English term Canaan comes from the Hebrew כנען, via Greek Χαναάν Khanaan and it appears as KUR ki-na-ah-na in the Amarna letters, and knʿn is found on coins from Phoenicia in the last half of the 1st millennium. It first occurs in Greek in the writings of Hecataeus as Khna, scholars connect the name Canaan with knʿn, Kanaan, the general Northwest Semitic name for this region. An early explanation derives the term from the Semitic root knʿ to be low, humble, purple cloth became a renowned Canaanite export commodity which is mentioned in Exodus. The dyes may have named after their place of origin. The purple cloth of Tyre in Phoenicia was well known far, however, according to Robert Drews, Speisers proposal has generally been abandoned. The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, Jonathan Tubb states that the term ga-na-na may provide a third millennium reference to Canaanite while at the same time stating that the first certain reference is in the 18th century BC. See Ebla-Biblical controversy for further details, Mari letters A letter from Mutu-bisir to Shamshi-Adad I of the Old Assyrian Empire has been translated, It is in Rahisum that the brigands and the Canaanites are situated. It was found in 1973 in the ruins of Mari, an Assyrian outpost at that time in Syria, additional unpublished references to Kinahnum in the Mari letters refer to the same episode. Alalakh texts A reference to Ammiya being in the land of Canaan is found on the Statue of Idrimi from Alalakh in modern Syria. After a popular uprising against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mothers relatives to seek refuge in the land of Canaan, the other references in the Alalakh texts are, AT154 AT181, A list of Apiru people with their origins. All are towns, except for Canaan AT188, A list of Muskenu people with their origins, the letters are written in the official and diplomatic East Semitic Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, though Canaanitish words and idioms are also in evidence. May the king ask Yanhamu about these matters, may the king ask his commissioner, who is familiar with Canaan EA151, Letter from Abimilku to the Pharaoh, The king, my lord wrote to me, write to me what you have heard from Canaan
16.
High place
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High place, in English-language versions of the Old Testament, literally translates the Hebrew במה. In old Israel many towns and villages had their own places of sacrifice and it has been suggested that the plural of the word referred to places of sacred prostitution and of pagan worship. From the Old Testament and from existing remains a good idea may be formed of the appearance of such a place of worship. The building of YHWHs singular Temple at Jerusalem, which had a patent on sacrifices, hosea stigmatizes the whole cultus as pure heathenism—Canaanite baal-worship adopted by apostate Israel. The rule of the Law of Moses that sacrifice can be offered to Yahweh only at the Temple in Jerusalem was never established in fact. In Jewish synagogues, the High Place is the platform from which the Torah is read. It traditionally had its origin from the platform erected in the Temple in Jerusalem at which the king would read the Torah during the Hakhel ceremony every seven years at the Feast of Tabernacles. The bemah is located in the center of Orthodox synagogues, in larger temples there may be a literal elevation, but there is often not room for this in smaller temples. The cathedral is surrounded on both sides by the synthronos, a set of seats or benches for the use of the priests. Every Orthodox temple and Eastern Catholic church has such a High Place even if it is not a cathedral, the term High Place also refers to the central portion of the Holy Table, where the antimension and Gospel Book are normally kept. The only other objects that are permitted to occupy this place on the altar are the chalice, on Good Friday, the Epitaphion is set on the Holy Table until it is taken to the tomb in the center of the nave for veneration by the faithful. During the Paschal Vigil, this Epitaphion is taken through the Holy Doors and placed again on the High Place of the Holy Table, where it will remain until the Ascension. Altar Baudissin, Hohendienst, Protestantische Realencyklopadie A. van Hoonacker, Le Lieu du culte dans la legislation rituelle des Hebreux V Gall and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed. Orthodox bishop seated at the High Place Synthronon ancient church in Paros
17.
Megalith
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A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. The word megalithic describes structures made of large stones without the use of mortar or concrete. For later periods, the monolith, with an overlapping meaning, is more likely to be used. The word megalith comes from the Ancient Greek μέγας and λίθος, megalith also denotes an item consisting of rock hewn in definite shapes for special purposes. It has been used to describe buildings built by people from parts of the world living in many different periods. A variety of stones are seen as megaliths, with the most widely known megaliths not being sepulchral. The construction of these took place mainly in the Neolithic and continued into the Chalcolithic. At a number of sites in eastern Turkey, large ceremonial complexes from the 9th millennium BC have been discovered and they belong to the incipient phases of agriculture and animal husbandry. Large circular structures involving carved megalithic orthostats are a feature, e. g. at Nevalı Çori. Although these structures are the most ancient megalithic structures known so far, at Göbekli Tepe, four stone circles have been excavated from an estimated 20. Some measure up to 30 metres across, as well as human figures, the stones carry a variety of carved reliefs depicting boars, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions. Dolmens and standing stones have been found in areas of the Middle East starting at the Turkish border in the north of Syria close to Aleppo. They can be encountered in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Israel, Jordan, the largest concentration can be found in southern Syria and along the Jordan Rift Valley, however they are being threatened with destruction. They date from the late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age, megaliths have also been found on Kharg Island and pirazmian in Iran, at Barda Balka in Iraq, and at Jaintapur in Bangladesh. A semicircular arrangement of megaliths was found in Israel at Atlit Yam and it is a very early example, dating from the 7th millennium BC. The most concentrated occurrence of dolmens in particular is in an area on both sides of the Jordan Rift Valley, with greater predominance on the eastern side. They occur first and foremost on the Golan Heights, the Hauran, and in Jordan, in Saudi Arabia, only very few dolmen have been identified so far in the Hejaz. They seem, however, to re-emerge in Yemen in small numbers, the standing stone has a very ancient tradition in the Middle East, dating back from Mesopotamian times
18.
Menhir
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A menhir, standing stone, orthostat, lith or masseba/matseva is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found solely as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones and their size can vary considerably, but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top. Menhirs are widely distributed across Europe, Africa and Asia, however, they are most numerous in Western Europe, in particular in Ireland, Great Britain and Brittany. There are about 50,000 megaliths in these areas, while there are 1,200 menhirs in northwest France alone, standing stones are usually difficult to date, but pottery, and/or pottery shards found underneath some in Atlantic Europe connects them with the Beaker people. They were constructed during different periods across pre-history as part of a larger megalithic culture that flourished in Europe. Some menhirs have been erected next to buildings that often have an early or current religious significance, one example is the South Zeal Menhir in Devon, which formed the basis for a 12th-century monastery built by lay monks. The monastery later became the Oxenham Arms hotel, at South Zeal, where menhirs appear in groups, often in a circular, oval, henge or horseshoe formation, they are sometimes called megalithic monuments. These are sites of ancient religious ceremonies, sometimes containing burial chambers, the exact function of menhirs has provoked more debate than practically any other issue in European pre-history. Until the nineteenth century, antiquarians did not have knowledge of prehistory. The developments of radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology have done much to knowledge in this area. The word menhir was adopted from French by 19th-century archaeologists and it is a combination of two words of the Breton language, maen and hir. In modern Welsh, they are described as maen hir, or long stone, in modern Breton, the word peulvan is used, with peul meaning stake or post and van which is a soft mutation of the word maen which means stone. Almost nothing is known of the organization or religious beliefs of the people who erected the menhirs. There is not even any trace of these language, however we do know that they buried their dead and had the skills to grow cereal, farm and make pottery, stone tools. Until recently, menhirs were associated with the Beaker people, who inhabited Europe during the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age — later third millennium BC, ca.2800 –1800 BC. However, recent research into the age of megaliths in Brittany strongly suggests a far older origin, many menhirs are engraved with megalithic art. This often turned them into anthropomorphic stelae, although images of such as stone axes, ploughs, shepherd crooks. With the exception of the axe, none of these motifs are definite
19.
Tel Hazor
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In the Middle Bronze Age and the Israelite period, Hazor was the largest fortified city in the country and one of the most important in the Fertile Crescent. It maintained commercial ties with Babylon and Syria, and imported large quantities of tin for the bronze industry, in the Book of Joshua, Hazor is described as “the head of all those kingdoms”. The Hazor expedition headed by Yigal Yadin in the mid-1950s was the most important dig undertaken by Israel in its years of statehood. Tel Hazor is the largest archaeological site in northern Israel, featuring an upper tell of 30 acres, in 2005, the remains of Hazor were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as part of the Biblical Tels - Megiddo, Hazor, Beer Sheba. However, EA148 specifically reports that Hasuras king had gone over to the Habiru, in these documents, Hazor is described as an important city in Canaan. Hazor is also mentioned in the Execration texts, that pre-date the Amarna letters, and in 18th century BC documents found in Mari on the Euphrates River. According to the Book of Joshua, Hazor was the seat of Jabin, a powerful Canaanite king who led a Canaanite confederation against Joshua, but was defeated by Joshua, who burnt Hazor to the ground. According to the Book of Judges, Hazor was the seat of Jabin, the king of Canaan, whose commander, Sisera, led a Canaanite army against Barak, but was ultimately defeated. Israel Finkelstein claims that the Israelites emerged as a subculture within Canaanite society, in this view, the Book of Joshua conflates several independent battles between disparate groups over the centuries, and artificially attributes them to a single leader, Joshua. Amnon Ben-Tor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem believes that recently unearthed evidence of violent destruction by burning verifies the Biblical account, the archaeological remains suggest that after its destruction, the city of Hazor was rebuilt as a minor village within the territory of Naphtali. According to the Books of Kings, the town, along with Megiddo, some archaeologists conclude that they were constructed in the tenth century by King Solomon, others date these structures to the early 9th century BC, during the reign of the Omrides. However, Yadins dating was based on the assumption that the layer connected with the gates, archaeological remains indicate that towards the later half of the 9th century BC, when the king of Israel was Jehu, Hazor fell into the control of Aram Damascus. Some archaeologists suspect that subsequent to this conquest Hazor was rebuilt by Aram, subsequently, the town, along with the remainder of the kingdom of Israel, entered a period of great prosperity, particularly during the rule of Jeroboam II. Some archaeologists attribute the later large scale constructions at Hazor, Megiddo, despite the defences, in 732 BC Hazor was captured, its population deported, and the city was burnt to the ground. The site of Hazor is around 200 acres in area, with a city making up about 1/8 of that. The upper mound has a height of about 40 meters, initial soundings were carried out by John Garstang in 1926. Major excavations were conducted for 4 seasons from 1955 to 1958 by a Hebrew University team led by Yigael Yadin, Yadin returned to Hazor for a final season of excavation in 1968. The excavations were supported by James A. de Rothschild, and were published in a five volume set of books by the Israel Exploration Society
20.
Tel Megiddo
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Megiddo is an ancient city whose remains form a tell, situated in northern Israel near Kibbutz Megiddo, about 30 km south-east of Haifa. Megiddo is known for its historical, geographical, and theological importance, during the Bronze Age, Megiddo was an important Canaanite city-state and during the Iron Age, a royal city in the Kingdom of Israel. Excavations have unearthed 26 layers of ruins, indicating a period of settlement. Megiddo is strategically located at the head of a pass through the Carmel Ridge overlooking the Jezreel Valley from the west, evangelical Christians believe it will be the site of the final battle between Jesus Christ and Satan, as outlined in the Book of Revelation. The site is now protected as Megiddo National Park and is a World Heritage Site, the Book of Revelation mentions an apocalyptic battle at Armageddon, a Greek name of the site, derived from the Hebrew Har Megiddo, meaning Mount of Megiddo. Armageddon has become a byword for the end of the world, Megiddo was a site of great importance in the ancient world. It guarded the western branch of a pass on the most important trade route of the ancient Fertile Crescent, linking Egypt with Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Because of its location, Megiddo was the site of several historical battles. The site was inhabited from approximately 7000 BCE to 586 BCE though the first significant remains date to the Chalcolithic period, the first wall was constructed in the Early Bronze Age II or III period. However, the experienced a decline in the Early Bronze-Age IV period. Following massive construction, the town reached its largest size in the Middle Bronze Age, though the city was subjugated by Thutmose III, it still prospered, and a massive and incredibly elaborate palace was constructed in the Late Bronze Age. The city was destroyed around 1150 BCE, and the area was resettled by what some scholars have identified as early Israelites, however, its importance soon dwindled, and it was finally abandoned around 586 BCE. Since that time it has remained uninhabited, preserving ruins pre-dating 586 BCE without settlements ever disturbing them, instead, the town of al-Lajjun was built up near to the site, but without inhabiting or disturbing its remains. Kibbutz Megiddo is nearby, less than 1 kilometre to the south, today, Megiddo Junction is on the main road connecting the center of Israel with lower Galilee and the north. It lies at the entrance to Wadi Ara, an important mountain pass connecting the Jezreel Valley with Israels coastal plain. In 1964, during Pope Paul VIs visit to the Holy Land, Megiddo was the site where he met with Israeli dignitaries, including Israeli President Zalman Shazar and Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. Famous battles include, Battle of Megiddo, fought between the armies of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition led by the rulers of Megiddo, Battle of Megiddo, fought between Egyptian pharaoh Necho II and the Kingdom of Judah, in which King Josiah fell. Battle of Megiddo, fought during World War I between Allied troops, led by General Edmund Allenby, and the defending Ottoman army, Megiddo has been excavated three times and is currently being excavated yet again
21.
Ayalon Valley
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The place may have been the site of several battles between invaders and the natives. Ajalon is mentioned in the accounts of an invasion of Palestine by the Egyptian king Sheshonk I of Egypt in the 10th century BCE and this event may have been connected to an attack of the Amorites, before the arrival of the Israelites under Joshua. But since the valley stretches as far to the west as to a point halfway between Shaalvim and Latrun, the city referenced in these letters may have been any settlement in the valley. The Valley of Ajalon was first mentioned in the Book of Joshua as where Joshua defeated five Amorite kings, Joshua 10, 11-14 records that the sun cooperated with Joshuas request. Following the conquest, the city of Ajalon was apportioned to the Tribe of Dan and was designated as one of the Levitical cities given to the Kohathites, in spite of Joshua’s initial victory in the Valley of Ajalon, the Amorites continued to live in the city of Ajalon. Constant Philistine pressure to control the valleys of the Shephelah forced the tribe of Dan to retreat westward, reducing the extent of their territory. Eventually, the Danites abandoned their initial inheritance in the Aijalon area and moved to the northern part of Israel, settling in the city of Laish. The location was also the site of a victory over the Philistines by King Saul. After a daring attack by Jonathan on the Philistine garrison at Michmash, they pursued the Philistines to Aijalon, in later years, Aijalon was inhabited by Ephraimites and Benjamites. After the kingdom divided, Ajalon became the boundary between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, rehoboam, the first king of Judah, fortified the city of Aijalon, supplying officers, weapons and food provisions. Ajalons identification with Yalo was made by Edward Robinson during his travels in Palestine in 1838, the antiquities and tourist attractions that exist are Ayalon-Canada Park, as well as Yad La-Shiryon, the International Center for the Study of Bird Migration and the Latrun Monastery. The kibbutz at Ajalon in Mandatory Palestine had a bullet factory. The factory was moved above ground after the war and this kibbutz was near Rehovot and not in Ajalon valley. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Easton. Biblical Researches in Palestine and Adjacent Regions, A Journal of Travels in the Year 1838, later Biblical Researches in Palestine and Adjacent Regions, A Journal of Travels in the Year 1852
22.
Bible
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The Bible is a collection of sacred texts or scriptures that Jews and Christians consider to be a product of divine inspiration and a record of the relationship between God and humans. Many different authors contributed to the Bible, what is regarded as canonical text differs depending on traditions and groups, a number of Bible canons have evolved, with overlapping and diverging contents. The Christian Old Testament overlaps with the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Septuagint, the New Testament is a collection of writings by early Christians, believed to be mostly Jewish disciples of Christ, written in first-century Koine Greek. These early Christian Greek writings consist of narratives, letters, among Christian denominations there is some disagreement about the contents of the canon, primarily the Apocrypha, a list of works that are regarded with varying levels of respect. Attitudes towards the Bible also differ amongst Christian groups and this concept arose during the Protestant Reformation, and many denominations today support the use of the Bible as the only source of Christian teaching. With estimated total sales of over 5 billion copies, the Bible is widely considered to be the book of all time. It has estimated sales of 100 million copies, and has been a major influence on literature and history, especially in the West. The English word Bible is from the Latin biblia, from the word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin. Medieval Latin biblia is short for biblia sacra holy book, while biblia in Greek and it gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as a singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe. Latin biblia sacra holy books translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ta biblia ta hagia, the word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of paper or scroll and came to be used as the ordinary word for book. It is the diminutive of βύβλος byblos, Egyptian papyrus, possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician sea port Byblos from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece, the Greek ta biblia was an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books. Christian use of the term can be traced to c.223 CE, bruce notes that Chrysostom appears to be the first writer to use the Greek phrase ta biblia to describe both the Old and New Testaments together. The division of the Hebrew Bible into verses is based on the sof passuk cantillation mark used by the 10th-century Masoretes to record the verse divisions used in oral traditions. The oldest extant copy of a complete Bible is an early 4th-century parchment book preserved in the Vatican Library, the oldest copy of the Tanakh in Hebrew and Aramaic dates from the 10th century CE. The oldest copy of a complete Latin Bible is the Codex Amiatinus and he states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. In Christian Bibles, the New Testament Gospels were derived from traditions in the second half of the first century CE. Riches says that, Scholars have attempted to reconstruct something of the history of the oral traditions behind the Gospels, the period of transmission is short, less than 40 years passed between the death of Jesus and the writing of Marks Gospel. This means that there was time for oral traditions to assume fixed form
23.
Hebrew
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
24.
Aramaic
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Aramaic is a language or group of languages belonging to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic language family. More specifically, it is part of the Northwest Semitic group, the Aramaic alphabet was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to the Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic alphabets. During its approximately 3000 years of history, Aramaic has served variously as a language of administration of empires, therefore, there is not one singular, static Aramaic language, each time and place rather has had its own variation. The Aramaic languages are now considered endangered, Aram is used as a proper name of several people in the Torah including descendants of Shem, Nahor, and Jacob. Ancient Aram, bordering northern Israel and now called Syria, is considered the epicenter of Aramaic. The language is often considered to have originated within Assyria. Interestingly, the Christian New Testament, for which the constituent texts are written in Koine Greek. The Hellenized Jewish community of Alexandria instead translated Aramaic to the Syrian tongue, a related language, Mlahsô, has recently become extinct. Mandaeans living in the Khuzestan Province of Iran and scattered throughout Iraq and it is quite distinct from any other Aramaic variety. Central Neo-Aramaic consists of Turoyo and the recently extinct Mlahsô, very little remains of Western Aramaic. All these speakers of Modern Western Aramaic are fluent in Arabic, Jewish Palestinian Aramaic and Samaritan Aramaic are preserved in liturgical and literary usage. Each dialect of Aramaic has its own pronunciation, and it would not be feasible here to go into all these properties. Aramaic has a palette of 25 to 40 distinct phonemes. The open vowel is an open near-front unrounded vowel and it usually has a back counterpart, and a front counterpart. There is much correspondence between these vowels between dialects, there is some evidence that Middle Babylonian dialects did not distinguish between the short a and short e. In West Syriac dialects, and possibly Middle Galilean, the long a became the o sound, the open e and back a are often indicated in writing by the use of the letters א alaph or ה he. The close front vowel is the long i and it has a slightly more open counterpart, the long e, as in the final vowel of café. Both of these have shorter counterparts, which tend to be pronounced more open
25.
Tell (archaeology)
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In archaeology, a tell or tel is an artificial mound formed from the accumulated remains of people living on the same site for hundreds or thousands of years. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a top and sloping sides. Tells are most commonly associated with the archaeology of the ancient Near East, within the Near East, they are concentrated in less arid regions, including Upper Mesopotamia, the Southern Levant, Anatolia and Iran. A tell is a hill created by many generations of people living and rebuilding on the same spot. Over time, the level rises, forming a mound, the single biggest contributor to the mass of a tell are mud bricks, which disintegrate rapidly. Excavating a tell can reveal buried structures such as government or military buildings, religious shrines and homes and they often overlap horizontally, vertically, or both. Archaeologists excavate tell sites to interpret architecture, purpose, and date of occupation, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press – via Internet Archive
26.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
27.
Thutmose III
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Thutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the first 22 years of Thutmoses reign he was co-regent with his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut, while he was shown first on surviving monuments, both were assigned the usual royal names and insignia and neither is given any obvious seniority over the other. He served as the head of her armies, during the final 2 years of his reign, he appointed his son and successor, Amenhotep II, as his junior co-regent. His firstborn son and heir to the throne, Amenemhat, predeceased Thutmose III, when Thutmose III died, he was buried in the Valley of the Kings as were the rest of the kings from this period in Egypt. Thutmose III was the son of Thutmose II by a secondary wife and his fathers great royal wife was Queen Hatshepsut. Her daughter Neferure was Thutmoses half-sister, Thutmosis III had little power over the empire while Hatshepsut exercised the formal titulary of kingship. Her rule was quite prosperous and marked by great advancements, when he reached a suitable age and demonstrated the capability, she appointed him to head her armies. Thutmosis III had several wives, Satiah, She may have been the mother of his firstborn son, an alternative theory is that the boy was the son of Neferure. Thutmoses successor, the prince and future king Amenhotep II, was the son of Merytre-Hatshepsut. Additional children include Menkheperre and daughters named Nebetiunet, Meryetamun, Meryetamun, Merytre-Hatshepsut was the daughter of the divine adoratrice Huy. Nebtu, she is depicted on a pillar in Thutmose IIIs tomb, menwi, Merti, Menhet three foreign wives. Neferure, Thutmose III may have married his half-sister, but there is no evidence for this marriage. It has been suggested that Neferure, instead of Satiah, may have been the mother of Amenemhat, Thutmose III reigned from 1479 BC to 1425 BC according to the Low Chronology of Ancient Egypt. This has been the conventional Egyptian chronology in academic circles since the 1960s and this document has no note of the place of observation, but it can safely be assumed that it was taken in either a Delta city such as Memphis or Heliopolis, or in Thebes. These two latitudes give dates 20 years apart, the High and Low chronologies, respectively, the length of Thutmose IIIs reign is known to the day thanks to information found in the tomb of the military commander Amenemheb-Mahu. Amenemheb-Mahu records Thutmose IIIs death to his masters 54th regnal year, widely considered a military genius by historians, Thutmose III made 16 raids in 20 years. He was an active expansionist ruler, sometimes called Egypts greatest conqueror or the Napoleon of Egypt and he is recorded to have captured 350 cities during his rule and conquered much of the Near East from the Euphrates to Nubia during seventeen known military campaigns. He was the first Pharaoh after Thutmose I to cross the Euphrates and his campaign records were transcribed onto the walls of the temple of Amun at Karnak, and are now transcribed into Urkunden IV
28.
Karnak
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The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak, comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings. Building at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I in the Middle Kingdom and continued into the Ptolemaic period, the area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut and the main place of worship of the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the city of Thebes. The Karnak complex gives its name to the nearby, and partly surrounded, the complex is a vast open-air museum, and the second largest ancient religious site in the world, after the Angkor Wat Temple of Cambodia. It is believed to be the second most visited site in Egypt. It consists of four parts, of which only the largest is currently open to the general public. The term Karnak often is understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Ra only, the three other parts, the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Montu, and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV, are closed to the public. There also are a few temples and sanctuaries connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amun-Re. The Precinct of Mut is very ancient, being dedicated to an Earth and creation deity, the original temple was destroyed and partially restored by Hatshepsut, although another pharaoh built around it in order to change the focus or orientation of the sacred area. Many portions of it may have carried away for use in other buildings. The key difference between Karnak and most of the temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times, approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the features of Karnak are unique, but the size. The deities represented range from some of the earliest worshiped to those worshiped much later in the history of the Ancient Egyptian culture and it also contains evidence of adaptations, using buildings of the Ancient Egyptians by later cultures for their own religious purposes. One famous aspect of Karnak is the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re,122 of these columns are 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter of over three meters. The architraves on top of columns are estimated to weigh 70 tons. These architraves may have been lifted to these heights using levers and this would be an extremely time-consuming process and also would require great balance to get to such great heights. A common alternative theory regarding how they were moved is that large ramps were constructed of sand, mud, brick or stone, if stone had been used for the ramps, they would have been able to use much less material
29.
Amarna letters
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The letters were found in Upper Egypt at Amarna, the modern name for the ancient Egyptian capital of Akhetaten, founded by pharaoh Akhenaten during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. The Amarna letters are unusual in Egyptological research, because they are written in Akkadian cuneiform. The written correspondence spans a period of at most thirty years, the Amarna letters are of great significance for biblical studies as well as Semitic linguistics, since they shed light on the culture and language of the Canaanite peoples in pre-biblical times. These Canaanisms provide valuable insights into the proto-stage of those languages several centuries prior to their first actual manifestation and they had originally been stored in an ancient building that archaeologists have since called the Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh. Once the location where they were found was determined, the ruins were explored for more, the first archaeologist who successfully recovered more tablets was Flinders Petrie, who in 1891 and 1892 uncovered 21 fragments. Émile Chassinat, then director of the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, since Knudtzons edition, some 24 more tablets, or fragments, have been found, either in Egypt, or identified in the collections of various museums. The initial group of letters recovered by local Egyptians have been scattered among museums in Germany, England, Egypt, France, Russia, the archive contains a wealth of information about cultures, kingdoms, events and individuals in a period from which few written sources survive. It includes correspondence from Akhenatens reign, as well as his predecessor Amenhotep IIIs reign, the tablets consist of over 300 diplomatic letters, the remainder comprise miscellaneous literary and educational materials. These tablets shed light on Egyptian relations with Babylonia, Assyria, Syria, Canaan, and Alashiya as well as relations with the Mitanni. The letters have been important in establishing both the history and the chronology of the period, letters from the Babylonian king, Kadashman-Enlil I, anchor the timeframe of Akhenatens reign to the mid-14th century BC. Specifically, the letters include requests for help in the north against Hittite invaders. Note, Many assignments are tentative, spellings vary widely, william L. The Amarna archive, it is now generally agreed, spans at most about thirty years, perhaps only fifteen or so. Moran notes that scholars believe one tablet, EA16. However, this speculation appears improbable because the Amarna archives were closed by Year 2 of Tutankhamun, a small number of the Amarna letters are in the class of poetry. EA153, entitled, Ships on hold, from Abimilku of Tyre is a short, lines 6-8, and 9-11 are parallel phrases, each ending with. before the troops of the king, my lord. -. Both sentences are identical, and repetitive, with only the subject statement changing, the entire corpus of Amarna letters has many standard phrases. It also has some phrases, and quotations used only once, some are parables, A bird in a cage —Rib-Hadda subcorpus of letters. A brick may move from under its partner, still I will not move from under the feet of the king, my lord. —Used in letters EA266,292, EA292 by Adda-danu of Gazru
30.
Akkadian
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Akkadian is an extinct East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the writing system, which was originally used to write the unrelated Ancient Sumerian. The language was named after the city of Akkad, a centre of Mesopotamian civilization during the Akkadian Empire. The mutual influence between Sumerian and Akkadian had led scholars to describe the languages as a sprachbund, Akkadian proper names were first attested in Sumerian texts from around the mid 3rd-millennium BC. From the second half of the third millennium BC, texts written in Akkadian begin to appear. By the second millennium BC, two variant forms of the language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively, for centuries, Akkadian was the native language in Mesopotamian nations such as Assyria and Babylonia. However, it began to decline during the Neo-Assyrian Empire around the 8th century BC, by the Hellenistic period, the language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. The last known Akkadian cuneiform document dates from the 1st century AD, Akkadian belongs with the other Semitic languages in the Near Eastern branch of the Afroasiatic languages, a family native to East Africa, which then spread to West, Northwest and Northeast Africa. Within the Near Eastern Semitic languages, Akkadian forms an East Semitic subgroup and this novel word order is due to the influence of the Sumerian substratum, which has an SOV order. Additionally Akkadian is the only Semitic language to use the prepositions ina and ana, other Semitic languages like Arabic and Aramaic have the prepositions bi/bə and li/lə. The origin of the Akkadian spatial prepositions is unknown, in contrast to most other Semitic languages, Akkadian has only one non-sibilant fricative, ḫ. Akkadian lost both the glottal and pharyngeal fricatives, which are characteristic of the other Semitic languages, until the Old Babylonian period, the Akkadian sibilants were exclusively affricated. Old Akkadian is preserved on clay tablets dating back to c.2500 BC and it was written using cuneiform, a script adopted from the Sumerians using wedge-shaped symbols pressed in wet clay. As employed by Akkadian scribes, the cuneiform script could represent either Sumerian logograms, Sumerian syllables, Akkadian syllables. For this reason, the sign AN can on the one hand be a logogram for the word ilum, additionally, this sign was used as a determinative for divine names. Another peculiarity of Akkadian cuneiform is that many signs do not have a phonetic value. Certain signs, such as AḪ, do not distinguish between the different vowel qualities, nor is there any coordination in the other direction, the syllable -ša-, for example, is rendered by the sign ŠA, but also by the sign NĪĜ. Both of these are used for the same syllable in the same text
31.
Cartouche
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In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche /kɑːrˈtuːʃ/ is an oval with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. They came into use during the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu, while the cartouche is usually vertical with a horizontal line, it is sometimes horizontal if it makes the name fit better, with a vertical line on the left. The Ancient Egyptian word for it was shenu, and it was essentially an expanded shen ring, in Demotic, the cartouche was reduced to a pair of brackets and a vertical line. Of the five royal titularies it was the prenomen, the name, and the Son of Ra titulary, the so-called nomen name given at birth. At times amulets were given the form of a cartouche displaying the name of a king, such items are often important to archaeologists for dating the tomb and its contents. Cartouches were formerly worn by Pharaohs. The oval surrounding their name was meant to them from evil spirits in life. The cartouche has become a symbol representing good luck and protection from evil, egyptians believed that one who had their name recorded somewhere would not disappear after death. A cartouche attached to a coffin satisfied this requirement, there were periods in Egyptian history when people refrained from inscribing these amulets with a name, for fear they might fall into somebodys hands conferring power over the bearer of the name. In the Rosetta Stone, the hieroglyph is used for the word name. For the cartouche cut in half, the half-cartouche hieroglyph, Gardiners sign listed no, v11, is used in the Egyptian language for words meaning, to cut, to divide, to separate. It was the use of cartouches on the Rosetta Stone that was the biggest clue allowing Jean-François Champollion to decipher hieroglyphics, cartouche Serekh, a predecessor to the cartouche Shen ring General Budge. The Rosetta Stone, E. A. Wallis Budge, c, archived from the original on June 15,2011
32.
Amenhotep III
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Amenhotep III, also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC, or from June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC, Amenhotep III was Thutmoses son by a minor wife, Mutemwiya. His reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity and artistic splendour, when he died in the 38th or 39th year of his reign, his son initially ruled as Amenhotep IV, but then changed his own royal name to Akhenaten. The son of the future Thutmose IV and a minor wife Mutemwiya and he was a member of the Thutmosid family that had ruled Egypt for almost 150 years since the reign of Thutmose I. Amenhotep III was the father of two sons with his Great Royal Wife Tiye and their first son, Crown Prince Thutmose, predeceased his father and their second son, Amenhotep IV, later known as Akhenaten, ultimately succeeded Amenhotep III to the throne. Amenhotep III also may have been the father of a third child—called Smenkhkare, Amenhotep III and Tiye may also have had four daughters, Sitamun, Henuttaneb, Isis or Iset, and Nebetah. They appear frequently on statues and reliefs during the reign of their father, Nebetah is attested only once in the known historical records on a colossal limestone group of statues from Medinet Habu. Amenhotep III elevated two of his four daughters—Sitamun and Isis—to the office of royal wife during the last decade of his reign. Evidence that Sitamun already was promoted to office by Year 30 of his reign, is known from jar-label inscriptions uncovered from the royal palace at Malkata. The goddess Hathor herself was related to Ra as first the mother and later wife, hence, Amenhotep IIIs marriage to his two daughters should not be considered unlikely based on contemporary views of marriage. Amenhotep III is known to have married several women, Gilukhepa. Tadukhepa, the daughter of his ally Tushratta of Mitanni, Around Year 36 of his reign, a daughter of Kurigalzu, king of Babylon. A daughter of Kadashman-Enlil, king of Babylon, a daughter of Tarhundaradu, ruler of Arzawa. A daughter of the ruler of Ammia, Amenhotep III has the distinction of having the most surviving statues of any Egyptian pharaoh, with over 250 of his statues having been discovered and identified. Since these statues span his life, they provide a series of portraits covering the entire length of his reign. Their lengthy inscribed texts extol the accomplishments of the pharaoh, for instance,123 of these commemorative scarabs record the large number of lions that Amenhotep III killed with his own arrows from his first regnal year up to his tenth year. Similarly, five other state that the foreign princess who would become a wife to him, Gilukhepa. She was the first of many such princesses who would enter the pharaohs household, another eleven scarabs record the excavation of an artificial lake he had built for his Great Royal Wife, Queen Tiye, in his eleventh regnal year, Regnal Year 11 under the Majesty of
33.
Merneptah Stele
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The stele is sometimes referred to as the Israel Stela because a majority of scholars translate a set of hieroglyphs in line 27 as Israel. Alternative translations have been advanced but are not widely accepted, if this consensus is assumed, the stela represents the earliest textual reference to Israel and the only reference from ancient Egypt. It is one of four inscriptions that mention and date to the time of ancient Israel, the others being the Mesha Stele, the Tel Dan Stele. As a result, some consider the stele to be Flinders Petries most famous discovery, the stele was discovered in 1896 by Flinders Petrie in the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes, and first translated by Wilhelm Spiegelberg. Owing to the surface, and the poor cutting, the readings in many places require careful examination. The scene at the top retains its original colouring of yellow, red, amen is shown giving a sword to the king, who is backed by Mut on one side and by Khonsu on the other. Now in the collection of the Egyptian Museum at Cairo, the stele is a granite slab, over 3 meters high. Egypt was the dominant power in the region during the reign of Merneptahs predecessor, Ramesses the Great. The problems began in Merneptahs 5th year, when a Libyan king invaded Egypt from the west in alliance with various northern peoples, Merneptah achieved a great victory in the summer of that year, and the inscription is mainly about this. The final lines deal with a separate campaign in the East. Traditionally the Egyptians had concerned only with cities, so the problem presented by Israel must have been something new – possibly attacks on Egypts vassals in Canaan. Petrie called upon Wilhelm Spiegelberg, a German philologist in his archaeological team, Spiegelberg was puzzled by one symbol towards the end, that of a people or tribe whom Merneptah had victoriously smitten—I. si. ri. ar. Petrie quickly suggested that it read Israel, Spiegelberg agreed that this translation must be correct. At dinner that evening, Petrie who realized the importance of the find said, the news of its discovery made headlines when it reached the English papers. As early as 1955, John A and this sentiment was subsequently built upon by other scholars. Lastly, according to James Hoffmeier, no Egyptologists would ever read the signs of an ethnic entity as indicating a foreign land. The use of the determinative for a rather than land implies that Israel had neither a king nor a kingdom at this time. The other Canaanite groups fought by Egypt, Ashkelon, Gezer and it is not clear, however, just who this Israel was or where they were located. e
34.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
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The Neo-Assyrian Empire was an Iron Age Mesopotamian empire, in existence between 911 and 612 BC. The Assyrians perfected early techniques of imperial rule, many of which became standard in later empires, the Neo-Assyrian Empire succeeded the Old Assyrian Empire, and the Middle Assyrian Empire of the Late Bronze Age. During this period, Aramaic was also made a language of the empire. Upon the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC, the empire began to due to a brutal. In 616 BC, Cyaxares king of the Medes and Persians made alliances with Nabopolassar ruler of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, Assyria was originally an Akkadian kingdom which evolved in the 25th to 24th centuries BC. The urbanised Akkadian speaking nation of Assyria emerged in the mid 21st century BC, during the 20th century BC, it established colonies in Asia Minor, and under the 20th century BC King Ilushuma, Assyria conducted many successful raids against the states of the south. Ashur-uballit extended Assyrian control over the farming lands of Nineveh. Tiglath-Pileser controlled the caravan routes that crossed the fertile crescent from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Much campaigning by Tiglath-Pileser and succeeding kings was directed against Aramaean pastoralist groups in Syria, by the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the Aramaean expansion had resulted in the loss of much Assyrian territory in Upper Mesopotamia. After the death of Tiglath-Pileser I in 1076 BC, Assyria was in decline for the next 150 years. The period from 1200 BC to 900 BC was an age for the entire Near East, North Africa, Caucasus, Mediterranean and Balkan regions, with great upheavals. Adad-nirari II and his successors campaigned on a basis for part of every year with an exceptionally well-organized army. He subjugated the areas previously under only nominal Assyrian vassalage, conquering and deporting Aramean and Hurrian populations in the north to far-off places. Adadinirari II then twice attacked and defeated Shamash-mudammiq of Babylonia, annexing an area of land north of the Diyala river. He made further gains over Babylonia under Nabu-shuma-ukin I later in his reign and he was succeeded by Tukulti-Ninurta II in 891 BC, who further consolidated Assyrias position and expanded northwards into Asia Minor and the Zagros Mountains during his short reign. The next king, Ashurnasirpal II, embarked on a vast program of expansion, during his rule, Assyria recovered much of the territory that it had lost around 1100 BC at the end of the Middle Assyrian period. Ashurnasirpal II also campaigned in the Zagros Mountains in modern Iran, repressing a revolt against Assyrian rule by the Lullubi, the Assyrians began boasting in their ruthlessness around this time. Ashurnasirpal II also moved his capital to the city of Kalhu, the palaces, temples and other buildings raised by him bear witness to a considerable development of wealth and art
35.
Tiglath-Pileser III
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Tiglath-Pileser III was a prominent king of Assyria in the eighth century BCE who introduced advanced civil, military, and political systems into the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Tiglath-Pileser III seized the Assyrian throne during a war and killed the royal family. He made sweeping changes to the Assyrian government, considerably improving its efficiency, the Assyrian army, already the greatest fighting force in the world since the time of Ashur-uballit I, now became Assyrias first professional standing army. In the south west, Israel, Judah, Philistia, Samarra, Moab, Edom, in the west, the Greeks of Cyprus and Aram, and the Mediterranean City States of Phoenicia/Caanan were subjugated. To the east he subjugated Persia, Media, Gutium, Mannea, Cissia and Elam, Tiglath-Pileser III discouraged revolts against Assyrian rule with the use of forced deportations of thousands of people all over the empire. He is one of the most successful commanders in world history. Formerly the governor of Kalhu and a general, the usurper Pulu assumed his Assyrian throne-name from two more-legitimate predecessors and he described himself as a son of Adad-nirari III in his inscriptions, but the accuracy of this claim remains uncertain. He seized the throne in the midst of war on 13 Ayaru,745 BCE. A mutilated brick inscription states that he is the son of Adad-nirari, however and this is quite a discrepancy for the King list places Adad-nirari III four monarchs before Tiglath-pilesers reign and depicts Ashur-nirari as both his father and immediate predecessor upon the throne. The list goes on to relate that Shalmaneser III, and Ashur-dan III were brothers, Ashur-nirari is also said to be a son of Adad-nirari, implying brotherhood with Shalmaneser III, and Ashur-dan III. The Assyrian records contain very little information concerning Adad-nirari and nothing about Shalmaneser III or Ashur-dan III, more so it was in Babylon that he was referred to as Pulu and his son as Ululayu. Pulu and both his sons taking up Assyrian names is another suggestion that they were foreigners who had usurped the crown of Assyria at the revolt of Kalhu, Assyrian power in the Near East greatly increased as the result of Tiglath-Pilesers military reforms and of his campaigns of conquest. Upon ascending the throne, he claimed to have annexed Babylonia, from Dur-galzu, the cities bylonia up to the Uqnu river wer, and subsequently placed his eunuch over them as governor. He also defeated the Medes before making war on and conquering the Neo-Hittites and he took Arpad in 740 BCE after three years of siege, annexed it as a province, and subjected Hamath to tribute. Assyrian inscriptions record in 740 BCE, the year of his reign. He also subjugated Damascus, the Arabs under Queen Zabibe, Menahem of Israel and Samals king Azriyau, in 737 and 736 BCE he turned his attention again to Iran, conquering the Medes and Persians and occupying a large part of Iran. According to the inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser many of the inhabitants were enslaved and deported to other parts of the Assyrian empire. At sieges, captives were slaughtered, and their bodies raised on stakes, in October 729 BCE, Tiglath-Pileser assumed total control of Babylon, capturing the Babylonian king Nabu-mukin-zeri and having himself crowned as King Pulu of Babylon
36.
Cuneiform script
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Cuneiform script, one of the earliest systems of writing, was invented by the Sumerians. It is distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus, the name cuneiform itself simply means wedge shaped. Emerging in Sumer in the fourth millennium BC, cuneiform writing began as a system of pictograms. In the third millennium, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use grew smaller, the system consists of a combination of logophonetic, consonantal alphabetic and syllabic signs. Cuneiform writing was replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire. By the second century CE, the script had become extinct, between half a million and two million cuneiform tablets are estimated to have been excavated in modern times, of which only approximately 30,000 –100,000 have been read or published. Most of these have lain in these collections for a century without being translated, studied or published, the cuneiform writing system was in use for more than three millennia, through several stages of development, from the 34th century BC down to the second century CE. Ultimately, it was replaced by alphabetic writing in the course of the Roman era. It had to be deciphered as an unknown writing system in 19th-century Assyriology. Successful completion of its deciphering is dated to 1857, the cuneiform script was developed from pictographic proto-writing in the late 4th millennium BC. Mesopotamias proto-literate period spans roughly the 35th to 32nd centuries, the first documents unequivocally written in Sumerian date to the 31st century at Jemdet Nasr. Originally, pictographs were either drawn on clay tablets in vertical columns with a reed stylus or incised in stone. This early style lacked the characteristic shape of the strokes. Proper names continued to be written in purely logographic fashion. The earliest known Sumerian king whose name appears on contemporary cuneiform tablets is Enmebaragesi of Kish, from about 2900 BC, many pictographs began to lose their original function, and a given sign could have various meanings depending on context. The sign inventory was reduced from some 1,500 signs to some 600 signs, determinative signs were re-introduced to avoid ambiguity. Cuneiform writing proper thus arises from the more primitive system of pictographs at about that time, by adjusting the relative position of the tablet to the stylus, the writer could use a single tool to make a variety of impressions. Cuneiform tablets could be fired in kilns to provide a permanent record, many of the clay tablets found by archaeologists were preserved because they were fired when attacking armies burned the building in which they were kept
37.
Nimrud
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It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1350 BC and 610 BC. The city is located in a strategic position 10 kilometres north of the point that the river Tigris meets its tributary the Great Zab, the city covered an area of 360 hectares. The ruins of the city were found one kilometre of the modern-day Assyrian village of Noomanea in Nineveh Province. This is some 30 kilometres southeast of Mosul, archaeological excavations at the site began in 1845, and were conducted at intervals between then and 1879, and then from 1949 onwards. Many important pieces were discovered, with most being moved to museums in Iraq, archaeologists believe that the city was given the name Nimrud in modern times after the Biblical Nimrod, a legendary hunting hero. In 2015, the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant announced its intention to destroy the site because of its un-Islamic Assyrian nature, in March 2015, the Iraqi government reported that ISIL had used bulldozers to destroy excavated remains of the city. A video released in the month showed a lamassu statue in the city being attacked by a terrorist with a sledgehammer. Another video posted online by the group in April 2015 showed the site being destroyed by bulldozers, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser I built up Kalhu into a major city during the Middle Assyrian Empire. However, the ancient city of Assur remained the capital of Assyria, psychologist Julian Jaynes believe that the Biblical figure Nimrod was inspired by the deeds of the real king of Assyria Tukulti-Ninurta I, the son of Shalmaneser I, and a powerful conqueror. Others believe the name derived from the Assyrian god Ninurta, who had a cultic centre at Nimrud. The city gained fame when king Ashurnasirpal II of the Neo Assyrian Empire made it his capital at the expense of Assur. He built a palace and temples in the city that had fallen into a degree of disrepair during the Dark Ages of the mid 11th to mid 10th centuries BC. A grand opening ceremony with festivities and an opulent banquet in 879 BC is described in a stele discovered during archeological excavations. The city of king Ashurnasirpal II housed perhaps as many as 100,000 inhabitants, and contained botanic gardens and his son, Shalmaneser III, built the monument known as the Great Ziggurat, and an associated temple. However, in 706 BC Sargon II moved the capital of the empire to Dur Sharrukin, the Nineveh Province in which the ruins of Nimrud lie, is still the major center of Iraqs indigenous Assyrian population to this day. King Ashurnasirpal II, who reigned from 883 to 859 BC, thousands of men worked to build an 8-kilometre-long wall surrounding the city and a grand palace. Beasts of the mountains and of the seas, of limestone and alabaster I fashioned. The inscriptions also described great feasts he had to celebrate his conquests, however his victims were horrified by his conquests
38.
Hellenistic period
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It is often considered a period of transition, sometimes even of decadence or degeneration, compared to the enlightenment of the Greek Classical era. The Hellenistic period saw the rise of New Comedy, Alexandrian poetry, the Septuagint, Greek science was advanced by the works of the mathematician Euclid and the polymath Archimedes. The religious sphere expanded to include new gods such as the Greco-Egyptian Serapis, eastern deities such as Attis and Cybele, the Hellenistic period was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa. This resulted in the export of Greek culture and language to new realms. Equally, however, these new kingdoms were influenced by the cultures, adopting local practices where beneficial, necessary. Hellenistic culture thus represents a fusion of the Ancient Greek world with that of the Near East, Middle East and this mixture gave rise to a common Attic-based Greek dialect, known as Koine Greek, which became the lingua franca through the Hellenistic world. Scholars and historians are divided as to what event signals the end of the Hellenistic era, Hellenistic is distinguished from Hellenic in that the first encompasses the entire sphere of direct ancient Greek influence, while the latter refers to Greece itself. The word originated from the German term hellenistisch, from Ancient Greek Ἑλληνιστής, from Ἑλλάς, Hellenistic is a modern word and a 19th-century concept, the idea of a Hellenistic period did not exist in Ancient Greece. Although words related in form or meaning, e. g, the major issue with the term Hellenistic lies in its convenience, as the spread of Greek culture was not the generalized phenomenon that the term implies. Some areas of the world were more affected by Greek influences than others. The Greek population and the population did not always mix, the Greeks moved and brought their own culture. While a few fragments exist, there is no surviving historical work which dates to the hundred years following Alexanders death. The works of the major Hellenistic historians Hieronymus of Cardia, Duris of Samos, the earliest and most credible surviving source for the Hellenistic period is Polybius of Megalopolis, a statesman of the Achaean League until 168 BC when he was forced to go to Rome as a hostage. His Histories eventually grew to a length of forty books, covering the years 220 to 167 BC, another important source, Plutarchs Parallel Lives though more preoccupied with issues of personal character and morality, outlines the history of important Hellenistic figures. Appian of Alexandria wrote a history of the Roman empire that includes information of some Hellenistic kingdoms, other sources include Justins epitome of Pompeius Trogus Historiae Philipicae and a summary of Arrians Events after Alexander, by Photios I of Constantinople. Lesser supplementary sources include Curtius Rufus, Pausanias, Pliny, in the field of philosophy, Diogenes Laertius Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is the main source. Ancient Greece had traditionally been a collection of fiercely independent city-states. After the Peloponnesian War, Greece had fallen under a Spartan hegemony, in which Sparta was pre-eminent but not all-powerful
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Maccabees
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The Maccabees, also spelled Machabees, were the leaders of a Jewish rebel army that took control of Judea, which at the time had been a province of the Seleucid Empire. They founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 164 BCE to 63 BCE and they reasserted the Jewish religion, partly by forced conversion, expanded the boundaries of Judea by conquest and reduced the influence of Hellenism and Hellenistic Judaism. In the 2nd century BCE, Judea lay between the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Seleucid empire, monarchies which had formed following the death of Alexander the Great, Judea had come under Ptolemaic rule, but fell to the Seleucids around 200 BCE. Judea at that time had been affected by the Hellenization begun by Alexander, some Jews, mainly those of the urban upper class, notably the Tobiad family, wished to dispense with Jewish law and to adopt a Greek lifestyle. According to the historian Victor Tcherikover, the motive for the Tobiads Hellenism was economic. The Hellenizing Jews built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, competed in international Greek games, removed their marks of circumcision, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes, became ruler of the Seleucid Empire in 175 BCE, Onias III held the office of High Priest in Jerusalem. Jason, the brother of Onias, bribed Antiochus to make him High Priest instead of Onias, Jason abolished the traditional theocracy and received from Antiochus permission to convert Jerusalem into a Greek polis called Antioch. In turn, Menelaus then bribed Antiochus and was appointed High Priest in place of Jason, Menelaus brother Lysimachus stole holy vessels from the Temple, the resulting riots led to the death of Lysimachus. Menelaus was arrested for Onias murder, and was arraigned before Antiochus, Jason subsequently drove out Menelaus and became High Priest again. Antiochus pillaged the Temple, attacked Jerusalem and led captive the women and children, from this point onwards, Antiochus pursued a zealous Hellenizing policy in the Seleucid satrapies of Coele Syria and Phoenicia. The author of the First Book of Maccabees regarded the Maccabean revolt as a rising of pious Jews against the Seleucid king, the author of the Second Book of Maccabees presented the conflict as a struggle between Judaism and Hellenism, concepts which he coined. In the conflict over the office of High Priest, traditionalists with Hebrew/Aramaic names like Onias contested with Hellenizers with Greek names like Jason, some scholars point to social and economic factors in the conflict. What began as a war took on the character of an invasion when the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria sided with the Hellenizing Jews against the traditionalists. As the conflict escalated, Antiochus prohibited the practices of the traditionalists, thereby, in a departure from usual Seleucid practice, other scholars argue that, while the rising began as a religious rebellion, it was gradually transformed into a war of national liberation. It is said that an idol of Olympian Zeus was placed on the altar of the Temple and this may, however, have represented an exaggerated view of Antiochus support for the Hellenizing party in Judaea. Mattathias killed a Hellenistic Jew who stepped forward to offer a sacrifice to an idol in Mattathias place and he and his five sons fled to the wilderness of Judah. The Maccabees destroyed pagan altars in the villages, circumcised boys, the term Maccabees as used to describe the Jewish army is taken from the Hebrew word for hammer. The revolt involved many battles, in which the Maccabean forces gained notoriety among the Seleucid army for their use of guerrilla tactics
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Hasmonean dynasty
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The Hasmonean dynasty was the ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the Seleucids in the region of Judea, some modern scholars refer to this period as an independent kingdom of Israel. In 63 BCE, the kingdom was conquered by the Roman Republic, broken up, the dynasty had survived for 103 years before yielding to the Herodian dynasty in 37 BCE. Even then, Herod the Great tried to bolster the legitimacy of his reign by marrying a Hasmonean princess, Mariamne, the dynasty was established under the leadership of Simon Maccabaeus, two decades after his brother Judah the Maccabee defeated the Seleucid army during the Maccabean Revolt. However, the power vacuum that enabled the Jewish state to be recognized by the Roman Senate c. 139 BCE was later exploited by the Romans themselves. Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, Simons great-grandsons, became pawns in a war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. The deaths of Pompey and Caesar, and the related Roman civil wars temporarily relaxed Romes grip on Israel and this short independence was rapidly crushed by the Romans under Mark Antony and Octavian. The installation of Herod the Great as king in 37 BCE made Israel a Roman client state, in AD6, Rome joined Judea proper, Samaria and Idumea into the Roman province of Iudaea. In AD44, Rome installed the rule of a Roman procurator side by side with the rule of the Herodian kings, an alternative view posits that the Hebrew name Hashmonai is linked with the village of Heshbon, mentioned in Joshua 15,27. Gott and Licht attribute the name to Ha Simeon, a reference to the Simeonite Tribe. Between 319 and 302 BC. Under Antiochus III the Seleucids wrested control of Israel from the Ptolemies for the final time and it was in Antioch that the Jews first made the acquaintance of Hellenism and of the more corrupt sides of Greek culture, and it was from Antioch that Judea henceforth was ruled. The books are considered part of the Biblical canon by the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and apocryphal by most Protestants, the books include historical and religious material from the Septuagint that was codified by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. The other primary source for the Hasmonean dynasty is the first book of The Wars of the Jews by the Jewish historian Josephus, Josephus account is the only primary source covering the history of the Hasmonean dynasty during the period of its expansion and independence between 110 to 63 BCE. The books of Maccabees use the names Judea and Israel as geographical descriptors throughout for both the land and people over whom the Hasmoneans would rule, the Talmud includes one of the Hasmonean kings under the description Kings of Israel. Scholars refer to the state as the Hasmonean Kingdom to distinguish it from the kingdoms of Israel. The Hellenization of the Jews in the period was not universally resisted. Generally, the Jews accepted foreign rule when they were required to pay tribute. Nevertheless, Jews were divided between those favoring Hellenization and those opposing it, and were divided over allegiance to the Ptolemies or Seleucids, when the High Priest Simon II died in 175 BCE, conflict broke out between supporters of his son Onias III and his son Jason
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Vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
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The Crusader state of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, created in 1099, was divided into a number of smaller seigneuries. There were also a number of independent seigneuries, and some land held under royal control, such as Jerusalem itself. Sidon appears to have rather small, whereas Galilee covered a disproportionate number of sub-vassals. Edessa was perhaps the most closely tied to the Kingdom, despite its distance and its first two Counts became kings of Jerusalem, and the county was bestowed as a royal gift on Joscelin I. The County of Tripoli, the nearest of them, is considered to have been a vassal lordship under the kings suzerainty. Antioch was almost independent, for it was founded already before the kingship and its first holder was a rival of kings, later in its history, it would at times recognize Byzantine or Armenian suzerainty, or none at all. Firstly, in the years of the kingdom, lords sought out their own territories. Secondly, the lifespan of male lords in Palestine was rather low, due to the constant state of warfare and violence. Succession from father to son happened more rarely than in more countries in Europe. A typical succession pattern was a followed by a daughter, sister, or niece, who was then married to a man worthy of some reward. This made the succession unpredictable and caused the family holding a territory to change once or perhaps even more often in a generation. Sometimes families became extinct, or escaped from Syria, and either a distant relative came to claim their land, or more usually, sometimes a lord was condemned for treason, rebellion or some other reason, and he and possibly his descendants were disinherited from the lordship. Occasionally, vacant lordships were put into the domain, but more often. Jaffa, on the Mediterranean coast, was fortified after the First Crusade, afterwards, it was usually held directly by the royal family or one of their relatives. After 1153 it was the double County of Jaffa and Ascalon and it passed in and out of direct royal control, and became titular after the fall of Acre in 1291. The castle of Ibelin happened to be located quite near Ramla and it was later a part of the Ibelin possessions, inherited from Helvis of Ramla, daughter of Baldwin of Ramla and wife of Barisan of Ibelin. The Lordship of Ibelin was also created out of Jaffa, the lordship was given as a reward to Barisan of Ibelin, whose wife Helvis of Ramla already owned lands in the vicinity. The castle of Ramla, the familys other inheritance, was nearby, lord Balian of Ibelin married Maria Comnena, widow of King Amalric I, and the Ibelins became the most powerful noble family of the kingdom, later ruling also over Beirut
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Battle of Montgisard
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The Battle of Montgisard was fought between the Ayyubids and the Kingdom of Jerusalem on November 25,1177. The 16-year-old King Baldwin IV, seriously afflicted by leprosy, led an out-numbered Christian force against the army of Saladin, the Arab force was routed and their casualties were massive, and only a fraction managed to flee to safety. Meanwhile, Saladin planned his own invasion of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from Egypt and it is also uncertain whether the so-called knights included mounted sergeants or squires, or whether they were true knights. Just as uncertain are the numbers of their opponents, an 1181 review listed Saladins Mamluk forces at 6,976 Ghulams and 1,553 Qaraghulams. However, there would have been additional soldiers available in Syria and elsewhere, whether these would have added up to a total of 26,000 reported by William of Tyre is impossible to say. Saladin left part of his army to besiege Gaza and a force at Ascalon. Accompanying Baldwin was Raynald of Châtillon, lord of Oultrejordain, who had just been released from captivity in Aleppo in 1176, Raynald was a fierce enemy of Saladin and was King Baldwins second-in-command. Also with the army were Baldwin of Ibelin, his brother Balian, Reginald of Sidon, odo de St Amand, Master of the Knights Templar, came with 84 Templar knights. Another Templar force attempted to meet Baldwin at Ascalon, but they remained besieged at Gaza, Saladin continued his march towards Jerusalem, thinking that Baldwin would not dare to follow him with so few men. He attacked Ramla, Lydda and Arsuf, but because Baldwin was supposedly not a danger, he allowed his army to be spread out over a large area, pillaging and foraging. However, unknown to Saladin, the forces he had left to subdue the King had been insufficient, the Christians, led by the King, pursued the Muslims along the coast, finally catching their enemies at Mons Gisardi, near Ramla. The location is disputed, as Ramla was a region that included the town under the same name. Malcolm Barber equates Mons Gisardi with the mound of al-Safiya, al-Safiya means white and, indeed, the Es-Safi hill is white with the foundations of a Crusader castle recently found at the top, called Blanchegarde. Ibn Al-Athīr, one of the Arab chroniclers, mentions that Saladin intended to lay siege to a Crusader castle in the area, but Saladins baggage train had been apparently mired. There is a small north of Tell es-Safi bordering farmland that in November might have been plowed up. The Egyptian chroniclers agree that the baggage had been delayed at a river crossing, Saladin was taken totally by surprise. His army was in disarray, part had been held up by the baggage train while another part of his force had scattered into raiding parties across the countryside. The horses were tired from the long march, some men had to hurry to collect their weapons from the baggage train
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Crusades
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The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church. Some were hoping for apotheosis at Jerusalem, or forgiveness from God for all their sins, others participated to satisfy feudal obligations, gain glory and honour, or find opportunities for economic and political gain. Many modern Historians have polarised opinions of the Crusaders behaviour under Papal sanction, to some it was incongruous with the stated aims and implied moral authority of the papacy and the Crusades, to the extent that on occasions that the Pope excommunicated Crusaders. Crusaders often pillaged as they travelled, while their leaders retained control of captured territory rather than returning it to the Byzantines. During the Peoples Crusade thousands of Jews were murdered in what is now called the Rhineland massacres, Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade rendering the reunification of Christendom impossible. These tales consequently galvanised medieval romance, philosophy and literature, but the Crusades also reinforced the connection between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism. Crusade is not a term, instead the terms iter for journey or peregrinatio for pilgrimage were used. Not until the word crucesignatus for one who was signed with the cross was adopted at the close of the century was specific terminology developed. The Middle English equivalents were derived from old French, croiserie in the 13th–15th centuries, croisade appeared in English c1575, and continued to be the leading form till c1760. By convention historians adopt the term for the Christian holy wars from 1095, the Crusades in the Holy Land are traditionally counted as nine distinct campaigns, numbered from the First Crusade of 1095–99 to the Ninth Crusade of 1271/2. Usage of the term Crusade may differ depending on the author, pluralists use the term Crusade of any campaign explicitly sanctioned by the reigning Pope. This reflects the view of the Roman Catholic Church that every military campaign given Papal sanction is equally valid as a Crusade, regardless of its cause, justification, generalists see Crusades as any and all holy wars connected with the Latin Church and fought in defence of their faith. Popularists limit the Crusades to only those that were characterised by popular groundswells of religious fervour – that is, only the First Crusade, Medieval Muslim historiographers such as Ali ibn al-Athir refer to the Crusades as the Frankish Wars. The term used in modern Arabic, ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya حملات صليبية, campaigns of the cross, is a loan translation of the term Crusade as used in Western historiography. The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the resulting unified polity in the seventh and eighth centuries led to a rapid expansion of Arab power. This influence stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, tolerance, trade, and political relationships between the Arabs and the Christian states of Europe waxed and waned
44.
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem
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Baldwin IV, called the Leper, reigned as King of Jerusalem from 1174 until his death. He was the son of Amalric I of Jerusalem and his first wife, Baldwins father died in 1174 and the boy was crowned at the age of 13, on 15 July that year. In his minority the kingdom was ruled by two regents, first Miles of Plancy, though unofficially, and then Raymond III of Tripoli. In 1175, Raymond III, the king of Jerusalem. Sibylla was being raised by her great-aunt Ioveta in the convent of Bethany, while Isabella was at the court of her mother, Raymonds regency ended on the second anniversary of Baldwins coronation, the young king was now of age. He did not ratify Raymonds treaty with Saladin, but instead went raiding towards Damascus and he appointed his maternal uncle, Joscelin III, the titular count of Edessa, seneschal after he was ransomed. Joscelin was his closest male relative who did not have a claim to the throne, so he was judged a reliable supporter, indeed, William arrived in early October and became Count of Jaffa and Ascalon upon his marriage. In 1174, at the age of 13, Baldwin successfully attacked Damascus in order to draw the Muslim Sultan Saladin away from Aleppo. In 1176 he was leading men in the front in similar attacks at Damascus, Baldwin also planned an attack on Saladins power-base in Egypt. He sent Raynald of Châtillon to Constantinople as envoy to Manuel I Comnenus, Raynald had recently been released from captivity in Aleppo, Manuel paid his ransom, since he was the stepfather of the Empress Maria of Antioch. Manuel sought the restoration of the Orthodox patriarchate in the kingdom, Reynald returned early in 1177, and was rewarded with marriage to Stephanie of Milly, a widowed heiress. This made him lord of Kerak and Oultrejourdain, Baldwin tried to ensure that Reynald and William of Montferrat co-operated on the defence of the South. However, in June, William died at Ascalon after several weeks illness, in August the kings first cousin, Philip of Flanders, came to Jerusalem on crusade. Philip demanded to wed Baldwins sisters to his vassals, Philip, as Baldwins closest male kin on his paternal side, claimed authority superseding Raymonds regency. The Haute Cour refused to agree to this, with Baldwin of Ibelin publicly insulting Philip, offended, Philip left the kingdom, campaigning instead for the Principality of Antioch. The Ibelin family were patrons of the dowager queen Maria, in November, Baldwin and Raynald of Châtillon defeated Saladin with the help of the Knights Templar at the celebrated Battle of Montgisard. That same year, Baldwin allowed his stepmother the dowager-queen to marry Balian of Ibelin, with Marias patronage, the Ibelins tried to have the princesses Sibylla and Isabella married into their family as well. In 1179, the met with some military setbacks in the north
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Saladin
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An-Nasir Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known as Saladin, was the first sultan of Egypt and Syria and the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin led the Muslim military campaign against the Crusader states in the Levant, at the height of his power, his sultanate included Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen and other parts of North Africa. When Saladins uncle Shirkuh died in 1169, al-Adid appointed Saladin vizier, in the following years, he led forays against the Crusaders in Palestine, commissioned the successful conquest of Yemen, and staved off pro-Fatimid rebellions in Upper Egypt. Not long after Nur ad-Dins death in 1174, Saladin launched his conquest of Syria, by mid-1175, Saladin had conquered Hama and Homs, inviting the animosity of his former Zengid lords, who had been the official rulers of Syria. Soon after, he defeated the Zengid army at the Battle of the Horns of Hama and was proclaimed the Sultan of Egypt. Saladin made further conquests in northern Syria and Jazira, escaping two attempts on his life by the Assassins, before returning to Egypt in 1177 to address issues there. By 1182, Saladin completed the conquest of Muslim Syria after capturing Aleppo, although the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem continued to exist until the late 13th century, its defeat at Hattin marked a turning point in its conflict with the Muslim powers of the region. Saladin died in Damascus in 1193, having given away much of his wealth to his subjects. He is buried in an adjacent to the Umayyad Mosque. Saladin has become a prominent figure in Muslim, Arab, Turkish and Kurdish culture, Saladin was born in Tikrit in modern-day Iraq. His personal name was Yusuf, Salah ad-Din is a laqab and his family was of Kurdish ancestry, and had originated from the city of Dvin in medieval Armenia. The Rawadid tribe he hailed from had been assimilated into the Arabic-speaking world by this time. Ayyub provided ferries for the army and gave refuge in Tikrit. According to Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad, Saladin was born on the night his family left Tikrit. In 1139, Ayyub and his moved to Mosul, where Imad ad-Din Zengi acknowledged his debt. After the death of Zengi in 1146, his son, Nur ad-Din, became the regent of Aleppo, Saladin, who now lived in Damascus, was reported to have a particular fondness for the city, but information on his early childhood is scarce. About education, Saladin wrote children are brought up in the way in which their elders were brought up, several sources claim that during his studies he was more interested in religion than joining the military. Another factor which may have affected his interest in religion was that, during the First Crusade, in addition to Islam, Saladin had a knowledge of the genealogies, biographies, and histories of the Arabs, as well as the bloodlines of Arabian horses
46.
Ramla
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Ramla is a city in central Israel. The city is predominantly Jewish with a significant Arab minority, Ramla was founded circa 705–715 CE by the Umayyad governor and future caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik. Ramla lies along the route of the Via Maris, connecting old Cairo with Damascus, at its intersection with the road connecting the port of Jaffa with Jerusalem. It was conquered many times in the course of its history, by the Abbasids, the Ikhshidids, the Fatimids, the Seljuqs, the Crusaders, the Mameluks, the Turks, the British, and the Israelis. After an outbreak of the Black Death in 1347, which reduced the population. Under Arab and Ottoman rule the city became an important trade center, napoleons French Army occupied it in 1799 on its way to Acre. The town had an Arab majority before most of its Arab inhabitants were expelled or fled during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the town was subsequently repopulated by Jewish immigrants. In 2001, 80% of the population were Jewish and 20% Arab, in recent years, attempts have been made to develop and beautify the city, which has been plagued by neglect, financial problems and a negative public image. New shopping malls and public parks have been built, and a museum opened in 2001. A2013 Israeli police report documented that the Central District ranks fourth among Israels seven districts in terms of drug-related arrests, today, five prisons are located in Ramla, including the maximum-security Ayalon Prison. Its name was derived from the Arabic word raml, meaning sand, the early residents came from nearby Ludd. Ramla flourished as the capital of Jund Filastin, which was one of the five districts of the Syrian province of the Ummayad, Ramla was the principal city and district capital almost until the arrival of the Crusaders in the 11th century. In the 8th century, the Ummayads built the White Mosque, the remains of this mosque, flanked by a minaret added at a later date, can still be seen today. In the courtyard are underground water cisterns from this period, Ramla was sometimes referred to as Filastin, in keeping with the common practice of referring to districts by the name of their main city. The 10th-century geographer al-Muqaddasi describes Ramla at the peak of its prosperity, It is a fine city and it combines manifold advantages, situated as it is in the midst of beautiful villages and lordly towns, near to holy places and pleasant hamlets. Commerce here is prosperous, and the markets excellent. The bread is of the best, the lands are well favoured above all others, and the fruits are the most luscious. This capital stands among fields, walled towns and serviceable hospices. Ramlas economic importance, shared with the city of Lydda, was based on its strategic location
47.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
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