History of the ancient Levant
It stretches roughly 400 mi (640 km) north to south, from the Taurus Mountains to the Sinai desert and Hejaz,[1] and east to west between the Mediterranean Sea and the Khabur river.
[3][4][5] Previously regarded as a peripheral region in the ancient Near East, modern academia largely considers the Levant as a center of civilization on its own, independent of Mesopotamia and Egypt.
As of July 2018,[update] the oldest remains of bread were discovered c. 12,400 BC at the archaeological site of Shubayqa 1, once home of the Natufian hunter-gatherers, roughly 4,000 years before the advent of agriculture.
By 8500–7500 BC, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) culture developed out of the earlier local tradition of Natufian, dwelling in round houses, and building the first defensive site at Tell es-Sultan (ancient Jericho) (guarding a valuable fresh water spring).
During the period of 8500–7500 BC, another hunter-gatherer group, showing clear affinities with the cultures of Egypt (particularly the Outacha retouch technique for working stone) was in Sinai.
Some of the Akkadian literature of this era speaks disparagingly of the Amorites and implies that the urbanized people of Mesopotamia viewed their nomadic and primitive way of life with disgust and contempt.
[39]The Amorites came to politically and culturally dominate much of the ancient Near East for centuries, and founded multiple kingdoms throughout the region including the Old Babylonian Empire.
[50][51][52] In northern Mesopotamia, the era ended with the defeat of the Amorite states by Assyrian kings Puzur-Sin and Adasi between in 1740–1735 BC, and the rise of the native Sealand Dynasty further south.
The political vacuum paved way for the rise of Mitanni, a mixed Semitic and Hurrian-speaking kingdom whose names of the ruling family bore influence from Indo-Aryan languages.
[55][56][57] The Shasu grew so powerful that they were able to cut off Egypt's northern routes through Palestine and Transjordan, prompting a vigorous punitive campaigns by Ramesses II and his son Merneptah.
Chaos ensued throughout the region, and many urban centers were burnt to the ground by famine-struck natives[59] and an assortment of raiders known as the Sea Peoples, who eventually settled in the Levant.
[60][61][62][63] Urban centers which survived Hittite and Egyptian expansions in 1600 BC, including Alalakh, Ugarit, Megiddo and Kadesh, were razed to the ground and were never rebuilt.
The early Iron Age in Syria and Mesopotamia saw a dispersal of settlements and ruralization, with the appearance of large numbers of hamlets, villages, and farmsteads.
[66] In northern Syria, the dispersal of the Hittites and expansion of Aramaeans gave rise to a conglomeration of West Semitic and Anatolian-speaking kingdoms known as the Syro-Hittite states.
[66] Assyrian texts of the 9th century BC further mention the Arabs (Aribi), who inhabited swaths of land in the Levant and in Babylonian border region in a similar suit to the Aramaeans, their presence seemingly intermingled.
[77][78][66] In Laqe near Terqa, a mix of Arab and Aramaean tribes settled the lower Khabur valley in 12th century BC, forming a confederation comparable to other tribal leagues of the time.
[66] Along the coast of northern Canaan, the Phoenician city-states managed to escape the destruction that ensued in the Late Bronze Age collapse and developed into commercial maritime powers with established colonies across the Mediterranean Sea.
[30][79] One prominent colony, Carthage (from Punic qrt-ḥdšt, meaning 'New City'), would eventually become an independent city-state which quarrelled with the Roman Republic over control of the Mediterranean.
[66] In 842, Hazael invaded the northern parts of the Kingdom of Israel and reportedly penetrated into the coastal planes as far as Asdod, seizing Gilead and eastern Jordan in the process.
[66] Hazael survived Assyrian attempts to subjugate Aram-Damascus and also expanded his influence in northern Syria, where he reportedly crossed the Orontes river and seized territories as far as Aleppo.
[98][66][99][100][101][90][102][103] Consolidation of Assyrian rule was followed by numerous revolts throughout the Levant, including division along pro- and anti-Assyrian axes, and intra-Levantine conflict in the Syro-Ephraimite War.
[98] After the Battle of Carchemish, which effectively annihilated Assyrian resistance and Egyptian intervention, Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple (597 BC), starting the period of the Babylonian captivity, which lasted about half a century.
However, Alexander did not live long enough to consolidate his realm, and soon after his death in 323 BC, the greater share of the east eventually went to the descendants of Seleucus I Nicator.
[110] Use of Koine Greek was largely confined to administration and trade while Aramaic remained the lingua franca in much of the rural areas, whereas Hellenistic urban centers were for the most part bilingual.
[122][123][124][125] The Palmyrene monarch fell upon the retreating Persian army between Samosata and Zeugma, west of the Euphrates, in late summer 260, defeating and expelling them.
In 270, Zenobia detached from Roman authority and declared the Palmyrene Empire, rapidly conquering much of Syria, Egypt, Arabia Petraea and large parts of Asia Minor, reaching present-day Ankara.
Archaeological and historical evidence strongly suggest there was smooth population continuity and no large-scale abandonment of major sites and regions of the Levant after the Muslim conquest.
[141] The Umayyads also relied on the native Syrian Arab tribes for their military, who oversaw a recruitment policy that resulted in considerable numbers of tribesmen and frontier peasants filling the ranks of the regular and auxiliary forces.
[144] The growing Isma'ili dawah moved to the town of Salamiyah as its headquarters in 765, binding missionaries over to Iraq, Khuzestan, Yemen, Egypt and Maghreb.
[145] From Salamiyah, Isma'ili Imam Abd Allah al-Mahdi Billah moved to Sijilmasa in Morocco in 904, where his missionaries were active in proselytizing Berber tribes, eventually establishing the Fatimid empire by 909.
