The Levant
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
- For other uses of the terms Levant, Levante or Levantine, see Levant (disambiguation).
The Levant (IPA: /lə'vænt/) is an imprecise geographical term historically referring to a large area in the Middle East south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and by the northern Arabian Desert and Upper Mesopotamia to the east.
The term became current in English in the 16th century, together 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).
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 or contemporary events, peoples, states, or parts of states in the same region, namely Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories.
[change] Regions
[change] See also
- Canaan
- Palestine
- Land of Israel
- Mesopotamia
[change] References
- Braudel, Fernand, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II
- http://www.levantine.plus.com/index.htm. Levantine Heritage Site. Includes many oral and scholarly histories, and genealogies for some Levantine Turkish families.
