Countries and regions located in the Levant

region. (Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan,

Cyprus and Hatay)
Countries and regions generally included in
the Levant region. (Sinai and Iraq)
Entire territory of countries whose regions are
included in the Levant region. (Turkey and Egypt)
Countries
and regions
Cyprus
Turkey (only Hatay
Province)
Israel
Jordan
Lebanon
Palestine
Syria
Population
47,129,325
[1]
Languages Levantine Arabic, Aramaic,
Armenian, Circassian, Greek,
Hebrew, Kurdish, Ladino,
Turkish.
Time Zones UTC+02:00 (EET) (Turkey and
Cyprus)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Levant (/lvnt/), also known as the Eastern
Mediterranean, is a geographic and cultural region
consisting of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between
Anatolia and Egypt".
[2]
The Levant today consists of the
island of Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine,
and part of southern Turkey (the former Aleppo Vilayet).
Precise definitions have varied over time, and the term
originally had a broader and less well-defined usage.
[3]
The
Levant has been described as the "crossroads of western
Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and northeast Africa".
[4]
1 Etymology
1.1 Early European usage
1.2 Since World War I
1.3 Since World War II
2 People
3 Language
4 Culture
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links
The term Levant, which first appeared in English in 1497,
originally meant the East in general or "Mediterranean lands
east of Italy".
[5]
It is borrowed from the French levant
'rising', that is, the point where the sun rises,
[6]
ultimately
from Latin levare 'lift, raise'. Similar etymologies are found
in Greek (Anatol, cf. Anatolia), in Germanic
Morgenland (which means, literally, "morning land"), in
Italian (as in "Riviera di Levante", the portion of the Liguria coast east of Genoa), in the Hungarian Kelet,
Spanish "Levante" and Catalan "Llevant" (the place of rising). Most notably, "Orient" and its Latin source
oriens meaning "east", is literally "rising", deriving from Latin orior "rise".
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The notion of the Levant has undergone a dynamic process of historical evolution in usage, meaning, and
understanding. While the term "Levantine" originally referred to the European residents of the eastern
Mediterranean region, it later came to refer to regional "native" and "minority" groups.
[7]
Early European usage
The term became current in English in the 16th century, along with the first English merchant adventurers in the
region; English ships appeared in the Mediterranean in the 1570s, and the English merchant company signed its
agreement ("capitulations") with the Grand Turk in 1579 (Braudel). The English Levant Company was founded
in 1581 to trade with the Ottoman Empire, and in 1670 the French Compagnie du Levant was founded for the
same purpose. At this time, the Far East was known as the "Upper Levant".
[3]
In 19th-century travel writing, the term incorporated eastern regions under then current or recent governance of
the Ottoman empire, such as Greece. In 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this
region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference the place instead of any one culture.
Since World War I
The French mandates of Syria and Lebanon (19201946) were called the Levant states.
Since World War II
Today "Levant" is typically used by archaeologists and historians with reference to the prehistory and the
ancient and medieval history of the region, as when discussing the Crusades. The term is also occasionally
employed to refer to modern events, peoples, states or parts of states in the same region, namely Cyprus, Israel,
Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria (compare with Near East, Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and
Western Asia). Several researchers include the island of Cyprus in Levantine studies, including the Council for
British Research in the Levant,
[8]
the UCLA Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department,
[9]
Journal of
Levantine Studies
[10]
and the UCL Institute of Archaeology,
[4]
the last of which has dated the connection
between Cyprus and mainland Levant to the early Iron Age. Currently, a dialect of Levantine Arabic, Cypriot
Maronite Arabic, is the most-spoken minority language in Cyprus. Archaeologists seeking a neutral orientation
that is neither biblical nor national have used terms such as Syro-Palestinian archaeology and archaeology of the
southern Levant.
[11][12]
While the usage of the term "Levant" in academia has been relegated to the fields of archeology and literature,
there is a recent attempt to reclaim the notion of the Levant as a category of analysis in political and social
sciences. Two academic journals were recently launched: Journal of Levantine Studies (http://www.levantine-
journal.org), published by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Levantine Review, published by Boston
College.
The largest religious group in the Levant are the Muslims and the largest ethnic group are the Arabs, but there
are also many other groups. Until the establishment of Israel in 1948, Jews lived throughout the southern
Levant;
[13]
since then, excepting those living in Israel proper, only a few hundred remain.
[14]
There are many
Christian Levantine groups belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch (Orthodox Christianity),
Maronites belonging to the Eastern Catholic and Oriental Orthodoxy churches. There are Assyrian peoples
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belonging to the Assyrian Church of the East (autonomous) and the Chaldean Catholic Church (Catholic). There
are Sunni Muslim and Yazidi Kurds. There are Shia Muslims, Alawites, Twelvers, Nizari, Druze and Ismailis.
There are Armenians, mostly belonging to the Armenian Apostolic Church. There are a few Arab and Armenian
Protestant Christians. There are Latin Catholics called Levantines or Franco-Levantines. There are also
Circassians, Turks, Samaritans, and Nawars.
The Levantine Muslims, Christians, Circassians and Christian Maronite Cypriot populations speak Levantine
Arabic, also known as Mediterranean Arabic (). Small Greek and Armenian communities have retained
their own languages and customs based usually on their religion. In Israel, the primary language is Hebrew. In
Cyprus, the primary languages are Greek and Turkish.
The populations of the Levant
[15][16][17][18]
share not only the geographic position, but cuisine, some customs,
and a very long history. The Levant Muslims, Christians, Circassians and Christian Maronite Cypriots
populations speak Levantine Arabic also known as Mediterranean. In Israel Hebrew, English and Russian are
spoken by the Jews who also observe laws, traditions and customs of Judaism. Greek and Armenian
communities have retained their own languages and customs based usually on their religion mainly. Greeks
constitute the majority of the population on the island of Cyprus and form groups in Lebanon, Syria and Israel,
with majority of Greeks in Cyprus and Israel being Greek Orthodox Christians, whereas Lebanon and Syria
have Greek Muslim populations.
Overlapping regional designations
Fertile Crescent
Mashriq
Mesopotamia
Near East and Middle East
Western Asia
Sub-regional designations
Southern Levant and History of the Southern Levant
Other
French post offices in the Ottoman Empire ("Levant" stamps)
History of the Levant
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Levantines (Latin Christians), Catholic Europeans in the Levant
Levantine Sea
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^ Population found by adding all the countries'
populations (Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel,
Palestine and Hatay Province)
1.
^ Harris, William W. The Levant: a Fractured Mosaic 2.
^
a

b
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and
Rome, Volume 1, p247, "Levant"
(http://books.google.com/books?id=lNV6-
HsUppsC&pg=RA3-PA247)
3.
^
a

b
The Ancient Levant (http://www.ucl.ac.uk
/archaeology/events/conferences/ancient-levant-
2008/AncLevFINAL.doc.), UCL Institute of
Archaeology, May 2008
4.
^ Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary.
"Levant" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse
/levant). Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2012-07-27.
5.
^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition 6.
^ "Journal of Levantine Studies"
(http://www.levantine-journal.org/AboutJLS.aspx).
The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. Retrieved 30
January 2014.
7.
^ Sandra Rosendahl (2006-11-28). "Council for
British Research in the Levant homepage"
(http://www.cbrl.org.uk/). Cbrl.org.uk. Retrieved
2010-07-05.
8.
^ Biblical and Levantine studies
(http://www.nelc.ucla.edu
/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&
id=70&Itemid=98), UCLA
9.
^ "About JLS" (http://www.levantine-journal.org
/AboutJLS.aspx). Journal of Levantine Studies.
10.
^ Dever, William G. "Syro-Palestinian and Biblical
Archaeology", pp. 1244-1253.
11.
^ Sharon, Ilan "Biblical archaeology" in
Encyclopedia of Archaeology Elsevier.
12.
^ Old Yishuv 13.
^ Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries 14.
^ "Eastern Mediterranean Political Map - National
Geographic Store"
(http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/product
/maps/wall-maps/countries-and-region-maps/eastern-
mediterranean-political-map).
Shop.nationalgeographic.com. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
15.
^ "Ancient Ashkelon - National Geographic
Magazine" (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com
/features/world/asia/israel/ashkelon-text.html).
Ngm.nationalgeographic.com. 2002-10-17. Retrieved
2011-10-17.
16.
^ "The state of Israel: Internal influence driving
change" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-
east-15479879). BBC News. 2011-11-06.
17.
^ Orfalea, Gregory The Arab Americans: A History.
Olive Branch Press. Northampton, MA, 2006. Page
249
18.
Braudel, Fernand, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II
Julia Chatzipanagioti: Griechenland, Zypern, Balkan und Levante. Eine kommentierte Bibliographie der
Reiseliteratur des 18. Jahrhunderts. 2 Vol. Eutin 2006. ISBN 3-9810674-2-8
Levantine Heritage (http://www.levantineheritage.com/) site. Includes many oral and scholarly histories,
and genealogies for some Levantine Turkish families.
Philip Mansel, Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean, London, John Murray, 11
November 2010, hardback, 480 pages, ISBN 978-0-7195-6707-0, New Haven, Yale University Press, 24
Levant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levant
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May 2011, hardback, 470 pages, ISBN 978-0-300-17264-5
Coelho, Paulo The Alchemist (Levant as wind originating from the Levant)
France and the Levant (http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11769/)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Levant&oldid=609673318"
Categories: Levant Fertile Crescent Mediterranean Near East Western Asia Geography of Syria
Geography of Lebanon Geography of Palestine Geography of Israel Geography of Jordan
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