(Ugarit religions)
170-601: Baalbek ( / ˈ b ɑː l b ɛ k , ˈ b eɪ ə l b ɛ k / ; Arabic : بَعْلَبَكّ , romanized : Baʿlabakk ; Syriac : ܒܥܠܒܟ ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon 's Beqaa Valley , about 67 km (42 mi) northeast of Beirut . It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate . In 1998, the city had a population of 82,608. Most of the population consists of Shia Muslims , followed by Sunni Muslims and Christians ; in 2017, there
340-734: A Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
510-560: A c. 435 life of Rabbula , bishop of Edessa . It was pronounced as Baʿlabakk ( Arabic : بَعْلَبَكّ ) in Classical Arabic . In Modern Standard Arabic , its vowels are marked as Baʿlabak ( بَعْلَبَك ) or Baʿlabekk . It is Bʿalbik ( بْعَلْبِك , is [ˈbʕalbik] ) in Lebanese Arabic . The etymology of Baalbek has been debated since the 18th century. Cook took it to mean " Baʿal (Lord) of
680-473: A centurion 's vine staff , broken to pieces. In AD 193, Septimius Severus granted the city ius Italicum rights. His wife Julia Domna and son Caracalla toured Egypt and Syria in AD ;215; inscriptions in their honour at the site may date from that occasion; Julia was a Syrian native whose father had been an Emesan priest "of the sun" like Elagabalus . The town became a battleground upon
850-517: A kaymakam . Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany and his wife passed through Baalbek on 1 November 1898, on their way to Jerusalem. He noted both the magnificence of the Roman remains and the drab condition of the modern settlement. It was expected at the time that natural disasters, winter frosts, and the raiding of building materials by the city's residents would shortly ruin the remaining ruins. The archaeological team he dispatched began work within
1020-530: A " wonder of the world ", credited most of the complex to the 2nd-century Antoninus Pius , but it is uncertain how reliable his account is on the point.) By that time, the complex housed three temples on Tell Baalbek: one to Jupiter Heliopolitanus (Baʿal), one to Venus Heliopolitana (Ashtart), and a third to Bacchus . On a nearby hill, a fourth temple was dedicated to the third figure of the Heliopolitan Triad , Mercury (Adon or Seimios). Ultimately,
1190-403: A "treaty partner" in covenants, where the clan is seen as the "kin" of the deity. Eventually, El's cult became central to the ethnogenesis of Iron Age Israelites but so far, scholars are unable to determine how much of the population were El worshippers. It is more likely that different locales held different views of El. The Egyptian god Ptah is given the title ḏū gitti 'Lord of Gath ' in
1360-638: A 4-month siege in 1174. Having taken control of Damascus on the invitation of its governor Ibn al-Muqaddam , Saladin rewarded him with the emirate of Baalbek following the Ayyubid victory at the Horns of Hama in 1175. Baldwin , the young leper king of Jerusalem , came of age the next year, ending the Crusaders' treaty with Saladin. His former regent, Raymond of Tripoli , raided the Beqaa Valley from
1530-532: A Roman garrison. From 15 BC to AD 193, it formed part of the territory of Berytus . It is mentioned in Josephus , Pliny , Strabo , and Ptolemy and on coins of nearly every emperor from Nerva to Gallienus . The 1st-century Pliny did not number it among the Decapolis , the "Ten Cities" of Coelesyria, while the 2nd-century Ptolemy did. The population likely varied seasonally with market fairs and
1700-624: A base to recruit and train men for attacks against Israeli forces. Hezbollah continues to hold immense political inflience and popular support in Baalbek. In the 2022 Lebanese general election the Amal -Hezbollah list won 9 out of 10 seats in the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. Israel has conducted numerous airstrikes and raids against military and civilian targets in the Baalbek area in the past decades. For instance, in 2006 during
1870-417: A brief study suggesting most of the large blocks could have been moved on rollers with machines using capstans and pulley blocks, a process which he theorised could use 512 workers to move a 557 tonnes (614 tons) block. "Baalbek, with its colossal structures, is one of the finest examples of Imperial Roman architecture at its apogee", UNESCO reported in making Baalbek a World Heritage Site in 1984. When
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#17327761203002040-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
2210-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
2380-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
2550-533: A large presence of Christians and Sunni Muslims. Many of the city's mayors have been Shia, but since 2022, Baalbek has had a Sunni mayor. In 1978, Israel invaded south Lebanon, forcing hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims to flee. As a result of the invasion, when Hassan Nasrallah returned to Lebanon from his studies in Najaf , he was unable to return to his hometown in the south , and instead settled in Baalbek. Abbas al-Musawi also moved to Baalbek. In 1982, at
2720-625: A large temple dedicated to Dagon and another to Hadad, there was no temple dedicated to El. El had a variety of epithets and forms. He is repeatedly referred to as ṯr il ("Bull El" or "the bull god") and 'il milk ("El the King"). He is bny bnwt ("Creator of creatures"), ' abū banī 'ili ("father of the gods"), and ab adm ("father of man"). The appellations of "eternal", "creator" and "eternal" or "ancient creator" are "characteristic designations of 'El in Canaanite myths and liturgies". He
2890-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
3060-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
3230-536: A month. Despite finding nothing they could date prior to Baalbek's Roman occupation, Otto Puchstein and his associates worked until 1904 and produced a meticulously researched and thoroughly illustrated series of volumes. Later excavations under the Roman flagstones in the Great Court unearthed three skeletons and a fragment of Persian pottery dated to the 6th–4th centuries BC. The sherd featured cuneiform letters. In 1977, Jean-Pierre Adam made
3400-596: A parasitic h, and ʾl may be an abbreviated form of ʾlh . In Ugaritic the plural form meaning "gods" is ʾilhm , equivalent to Hebrew ʾ lōhîm "powers". In the Hebrew texts this word is interpreted as being semantically singular for "god" by biblical commentators. However, according to the documentary hypothesis , at least four different authors – the Jahwist (J), Elohist (E), Deuteronomist (D), and Priestly (P) sources – were responsible for editing stories from
3570-480: A period when Yahweh held a place in theology comparable to that of Hadad at Ugarit; or as late henotheistic /monotheistic applications to Yahweh of deeds more commonly attributed to Hadad; or simply as examples of eclectic application of the same motifs and imagery to various different gods. Similarly, it is argued inconclusively whether Ēl Shaddāi, Ēl 'Ôlām, Ēl 'Elyôn, and so forth, were originally understood as separate divinities. Albrecht Alt presented his theories on
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#17327761203003740-419: A polytheistic religion into those of a monotheistic religion. These sources were joined together at various points in time by a series of editors or "redactors". Inconsistencies that arise between monotheism and polytheism in the texts are reflective of this hypothesis. The stem ʾl is found prominently in the earliest strata of east Semitic, northwest Semitic, and south Semitic groups. Personal names including
3910-580: A prism from Tel Lachish which has on its opposite face the name of Amenhotep II ( c. 1435 – c. 1420 BCE). The title ḏū gitti is also found in Serābitṭ text 353. Frank Moore Cross (1973, p. 19) points out that Ptah is often called the Lord (or one) of eternity and thinks it may be this identification of El with Ptah that lead to the epithet ' olam 'eternal' being applied to El so early and so consistently. Yet another connection
4080-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
4250-587: A role as father of the gods, of creation, or both. However, because the word el sometimes refers to a god other than the great god El, it is frequently ambiguous as to whether El followed by another name means the great god El with a particular epithet applied or refers to another god entirely. For example, in the Ugaritic texts , ʾil mlk is understood to mean "El the King" but ʾil hd as "the god Hadad ". The Semitic root ʾlh ( Arabic ʾilāh , Aramaic ʾAlāh , ʾElāh , Hebrew ʾelōah ) may be ʾl with
4420-603: A school in the Wavel Palestinian refugee camp next to the city, wounding 150 school children. On 24/25 June 1999, following elections in Israel and the new administration undecided, the IAF launched two massive air raids across Lebanon. One of the targets was the al Manar radio station's offices in a four-storey building in Baalbek which was completely demolished. The attacks also hit Beirut's power stations and bridges on
4590-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
4760-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
4930-579: A traveller unaccompanied by an armed guard. Upon the pasha's death in 1804, chaos ensued until Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt occupied the area in 1831, after which it again passed into the hands of the Harfushes. In 1835, the town's population was barely 200 people. In 1850, the Ottomans finally began direct administration of the area, making Baalbek a kaza under the Damascus Eyalet and its governor
5100-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
5270-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
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5440-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
5610-595: Is ḥātikuka ("your patriarch"). El is the grey-bearded ancient one, full of wisdom, malku ("King"), ab šnm ("Father of years"), ' El gibbōr ("El the warrior"). He is also called lṭpn ʾil d pʾid ("the Gracious One, the Benevolent God") and lṭpn wqdš ("the Gracious and Holy One"). "El" (Father of Heaven / Saturn) and his major son: "Hadad" (Father of Earth / Jupiter), are symbolized both by
5780-510: Is Yahweh who is prophesied to one day battle Leviathan the serpent, and slay the dragon in the sea in Isaiah 27:1 . The slaying of the serpent in myth is a deed attributed to both Ba'al Hadad and ' Anat in the Ugaritic texts, but not to El. But some scholars argue that "El Shadday" reflects a conception of El as a storm god. Such mythological motifs are variously seen as late survivals from
5950-527: Is a Northwest Semitic word meaning 'god' or ' deity ', or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. A rarer form, ' ila , represents the predicate form in the Old Akkadian and Amorite languages. The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil- . Specific deities known as ' El , ' Al or ' Il include the supreme god of
6120-598: Is a generic word for god that could be used for any god, including Hadad , Moloch , or Yahweh . In the Tanakh , ' lōhîm is the normal word for a god or the great God (or gods, given that the 'im' suffix makes a word plural in Hebrew). But the form ' El also appears, mostly in poetic passages and in the patriarchal narratives attributed to the Priestly source of the documentary hypothesis . It occurs 217 times in
6290-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
6460-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
6630-483: Is also said to have left Baalbek in this period to avoid expropriation by the Harfushes, establishing itself as one of the premier commercial households of Sidon and later even serving as consuls of Iran. From the 16th century, European tourists began to visit the colossal and picturesque ruins. Donne hyperbolised "No ruins of antiquity have attracted more attention than those of Heliopolis, or been more frequently or accurately measured and described." Misunderstanding
6800-545: Is attested to in approximately 1350 BCE in one of the Amarna Letters EA333, found in Tell-el-Hesi from the ruler of Lachish to 'The Great One' A Phoenician inscribed amulet of the seventh century BCE from Arslan Tash may refer to El. The text was translated by Rosenthal (1969, p. 658) as follows: An eternal bond has been established for us. Ashshur has established (it) for us, and all
6970-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
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7140-587: Is called ' il brt and ' il dn , which Cross (p. 39) takes as 'El of the covenant' and 'El the judge' respectively. For the Canaanites and the ancient Levantine region as a whole, ʼĒl or ʼIl was the supreme god, the father of mankind and all creatures. He also fathered many gods, most importantly Baal , Yam , and Mot , each sharing similar attributes to the Greco-Roman gods: Zeus , Poseidon , and Hades respectively. As recorded on
7310-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
7480-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
7650-599: Is made particularly prominent; a marble stela at Massilia in Transalpine Gaul shows a similar arrangement but enlarges Mercury into a full figure. Local cults also revered the Baetylia , black conical stones considered sacred to Baʿal . One of these was taken to Rome by the emperor Elagabalus , a former priest "of the sun" at nearby Emesa , who erected a temple for it on the Palatine Hill . Heliopolis
7820-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
7990-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
8160-634: Is seen with the Mandaean angel Ptahil , whose name combines both the terms Ptah and Il. Wyatt, however, notes that in Ugaritic texts, Ptah is seemingly identified with the craftsman god Kothar-wa-Khasis, not El. In an inscription in the Proto-Sinaitic script , William F. Albright transcribed the phrase ʾL Ḏ ʿLM , which he translated as the appellation "El, (god) of eternity". The name Raphael or Rapha-El, meaning 'God has healed' in Ugarit,
8330-576: Is that in much of the Hebrew Bible the name El is an alternative name for Yahweh, but in the Elohist and Priestly traditions it is considered an earlier name than Yahweh. Mark Smith has argued that Yahweh and El were originally separate, but were considered synonymous from very early on. The name Yahweh is used in Genesis 2:4 , while Genesis 4:26 says that at that time, people began to "call upon
8500-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
8670-590: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
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#17327761203008840-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
9010-672: Is unquestioned, but sometimes exacted through threat or roundly mocked. He is "both comical and pathetic" in a "role of impotence." But this is arguably a misinterpretation since El had complementary relationships with other deities. Any "differences" they had pertained to function. For example, El and Baal were divine kings but El was the executive whilst Baal was the sustainer of the cosmos. The Hebrew form ( אל ) appears in Latin letters in Standard Hebrew transcription as El and in Tiberian Hebrew transcription as ʾĒl. ʼel
9180-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
9350-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
9520-569: The 1975–1990 civil war , the ongoing Syrian civil war since 2011, and the Israel–Hezbollah conflict (2023–present). Baalbek has been a stronghold of the militant organization Hezbollah since the 1980s. During the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon (1982–2000), the group managed to overpower the Lebanese army in Baalbek and gain control of city. The settlement was susequently used as
9690-778: The Asi (the upper Orontes ) flow, Baalbek may be the same as the manbaa al-nahrayn ("Source of the Two Rivers"), the abode of El in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle discovered in the 1920s and a separate serpent incantation. Baalbek was called Heliopolis during the Roman Empire , a latinisation of the Greek Hēlioúpolis ( Ἡλιούπολις ) used during the Hellenistic period , meaning "Sun City" in reference to
9860-635: The Beirut–Damascus Railway but—because that line was built to a 1.05-meter gauge —all traffic had to be unloaded and reloaded at Riyaq. Just before the First World War , the population was still around 5000, about 2000 each of Sunnis and Shia Mutawalis and 1000 Orthodox and Maronites . The French general Georges Catroux proclaimed the independence of Lebanon in 1941 but colonial rule continued until 1943. Baalbek still has its railway station but service has been discontinued since
10030-447: The Beka " and Donne as "City of the Sun". Lendering asserts that it is probably a contraction of Baʿal Nebeq (" Lord of the Source" of the Litani River ). Steiner proposes a Semitic adaption of " Lord Bacchus", from the classical temple complex. Nineteenth-century Biblical archaeologists proposed the association of Baalbek with the town of Baalgad in the Book of Joshua ; the town of Baalath , one of Solomon 's cities in
10200-450: The Byzantine defeat at Yarmouk in 637 ( AH 16), either peacefully and by agreement or following a heroic defense and yielding 2,000 oz (57 kg) of gold, 4,000 oz (110 kg) of silver, 2000 silk vests, and 1000 swords. The ruined temple complex was fortified under the name al-Qala' ( lit. " The Fortress ") but was sacked with great violence by the Damascene caliph Marwan II in 748, at which time it
10370-412: The Canaanite deities Hadad , Atargatis . Local influences are seen in the planning and layout of the temples, which differ from classic Roman design. The name BʿLBK appears in the Mishnah , a second-century rabbinic text, as a kind of garlic , shum ba'albeki (שום בעלבכי). It appears in two early 5th-century Syriac manuscripts, a c. 411 translation of Eusebius 's Theophania and
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#173277612030010540-409: The Christianization period and the subsequent rise of Islam following the Arab conquest in the 7th century . In later periods, the city was sacked by the Mongols and faced a series of earthquakes, resulting in a decline in importance during the Ottoman and modern periods. In the modern era, Baalbek enjoys economic advantages as a sought-after tourist destination. It is known for the ruins of
10710-417: The First Book of Kings ; Baal-hamon , where Solomon had a vineyard ; and the "Plain of Aven" in Book of Amos . The hilltop of Tell Baalbek, part of a valley to the east of the northern Beqaa Valley ( Latin : Coelesyria ), shows signs of almost continual habitation over the last 8–9000 years. It was well-watered both from a stream running from the Rās-el-ʿAin spring SE of the citadel and, during
10880-411: The Iran Iraq War . The following year the Iranians established their headquarters in the Sheikh Abdullah barracks in Baalbek. Ultimately there were between 1,500 and 2,000 Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, with outposts further south in the Shia villages, such as Jebchit . In 1984, Israel launched raids on Baalbek, killing 100 Lebanese civilians and wounding hundreds inside the city. Israel also bombed
11050-411: The Masoretic Text : seventy-three times in the Psalms and fifty-five times in the Book of Job , and otherwise mostly in poetic passages or passages written in elevated prose. It occasionally appears with the definite article as hā'Ēl 'the god' (for example in 2 Samuel 22:31,33–48 ). The theological position of the Tanakh is that the names ʼĒl and ' Ĕlōhîm , when used in the singular to mean
11220-424: The Operation Sharp and Smooth , Israeli commandos raided a hospital and bombed multiple houses, killing two Hezbollah fighters and at least eleven civilians. In 2024, during the Israel–Hezbollah conflict, Israel sent forced displacement calls for the entire city. Shortly after, Israeli airstrikes killed 19 people, including 8 women. A few kilometres from the swamp from which the Litani (the classical Leontes) and
11390-478: The Semitic languages . They include Ugaritic ʾilu , pl. ʾlm ; Phoenician ʾl pl. ʾlm ; Hebrew ʾēl , pl. ʾēlîm ; Aramaic ʾl ; Akkadian ilu , pl. ilānu . In northwest Semitic use, ʼel was a generic word for any god as well as the special name or title of a particular god who was distinguished from other gods as being "the god". El is listed at the head of many pantheons. In some Canaanite and Ugaritic sources, El played
11560-467: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
11730-427: The clay tablets of Ugarit , El is the husband of the goddess Asherah . Three pantheon lists found at Ugarit (modern Ras Shamrā — Arabic : رأس شمرا , Syria ) begin with the four gods ' il-'ib (which according to Cross; is the name of a generic kind of deity, perhaps the divine ancestor of the people), El, Dagnu (that is Dagon ), and Ba'l Ṣapān (that is the god Haddu or Hadad ). Though Ugarit had
11900-401: The its 2024 invasion of Lebanon , Israel bombed a restaurant frequented by tourists and damaged the historic Hotel Palmyra . Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] ) is
12070-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
12240-489: The rise of Christianity . Early Christian writers such as Eusebius (from nearby Caesarea ) repeatedly execrated the practices of the local pagans in their worship of the Heliopolitan Venus. In AD 297, the actor Gelasinus converted in the middle of a scene mocking baptism ; his public profession of faith provoked the audience to drag him from the theater and stone him to death . In the early 4th century,
12410-602: The solar cult there. The name is attested under the Seleucids and Ptolemies . However, Ammianus Marcellinus notes that earlier Assyrian names of Levantine towns continued to be used alongside the official Greek ones imposed by the Diadochi , who were successors of Alexander the Great . In Greek religion , Helios was both the sun in the sky and its personification as a god . The local Semitic god Baʿal Haddu
12580-501: The spring , from numerous rills formed by meltwater from the Anti-Lebanons . Macrobius later credited the site's foundation to a colony of Egyptian or Assyrian priests. The settlement's religious, commercial, and strategic importance was minor enough, however, that it is never mentioned in any known Assyrian or Egyptian record, unless under another name. Its enviable position in a fertile valley, major watershed, and along
12750-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
12920-962: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. El (god) El ( / ɛ l / EL ; also ' Il , Ugaritic : 𐎛𐎍 ʾīlu ; Phoenician : 𐤀𐤋 ʾīl ; Hebrew : אֵל ʾēl ; Syriac : ܐܺܝܠ ʾīyl ; Arabic : إل ʾil or إله ʾilāh ; cognate to Akkadian : 𒀭 , romanized: ilu )
13090-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
13260-464: The 18th century, the western approaches were covered with attractive groves of walnut trees , but the town itself suffered badly during the 1759 earthquakes , after which it was held by the Metawali , who again feuded with other Lebanese tribes. Their power was broken by Jezzar Pasha , the rebel governor of Acre , in the last half of the 18th century. All the same, Baalbek remained no destination for
13430-575: The 1970s, originally owing to the Lebanese Civil War . In March 1974, Musa al-Sadr announced the launching of the " Movement of the Deprived " in front of a rally in Baalbek attended by 75,000 men. Its objective was to stand up for Lebanon's neglected Shia community. In his speech he listed grievances with the Lebanese government, including Baalbek's lack of a secondary school, Shia communities receiving disproportionately less funds from
13600-596: The 2006 war, conservation work at Lebanon's historic sites began in October that year. The ruins at Baalbek were not directly hit by Israeli bombing but the effects of blasts during the conflict toppled a block of stones at the Roman ruins and existing cracks in the temples of Jupiter and Bacchus were feared to have widened. Frederique Husseini, director-general of Lebanon's Department of Antiquities, requested $ 550,000 from Europeans to restore Baalbek's souk and another $ 900,000 for repairs to other damaged structures. Starting in
13770-557: The 2006 war. During the Syrian civil war , the UK FCO designated areas close to the Syrian border, including Baalbek and the rest of Beqaa valley, as "red zone" – advising against all travel. The US State Department made a similar designation. These designations, prompted by perceived proximity to Syria and clashes between Sunnis and Alawites , discouraged international tourism. During
13940-571: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
14110-834: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
14280-587: The Byzantines under John I in 974, raided by Basil II in 1000, and occupied by Salih ibn Mirdas , emir of Aleppo , in 1025. In 1075, it was finally lost to the Fatimids on its conquest by Tutush I , Seljuk emir of Damascus . It was briefly held by Muslim ibn Quraysh , emir of Aleppo , in 1083; after its recovery, it was ruled in the Seljuks' name by the eunuch Gümüshtegin until he
14450-553: The English expression [by] God awful ). It is possible also that the expression ' ēlîm in both places descends from an archaic stock phrase in which ' lm was a singular form with the m -enclitic and therefore to be translated as 'sons of El'. The m -enclitic appears elsewhere in the Tanakh and in other Semitic languages. Its meaning is unknown, possibly simply emphasis. It appears in similar contexts in Ugaritic texts where
14620-514: The God of Gods ( ' El 'Elîm ) he will speak outrageous things, and will prosper until the indignation is accomplished: for that which is decided will be done. There are a few cases in the Tanakh where some think ' El is not equated with Yahweh. One example is found in Ezekiel 28:2 , in the taunt against a man who claims to be divine, in this instance, the leader of Tyre : Son of man, say to
14790-592: The God of the Jews evolved gradually from the Canaanite El, who was in all likelihood the "God of Abraham" ... If El was the high God of Abraham—Elohim, the prototype of Yahveh—Asherah was his wife, and there are archaeological indications that she was perceived as such before she was in effect "divorced" in the context of emerging Judaism of the 7th century BCE. (See 2 Kings 23:15 .) The apparent plural form ' Ēlîm or ' Ēlim "gods" occurs only four times in
14960-571: The Great 's conquest of Persia in the 330s BC, Baalbek (under its Hellenic name Heliopolis ) formed part of the Diadochi kingdoms of Egypt & Syria . It was annexed by the Romans during their eastern wars. The settlers of the Roman colony Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Heliopolitana may have arrived as early as the time of Caesar but were more probably the veterans of the 5th and 8th Legions under Augustus , during which time it hosted
15130-522: The Hamadas, the Harfush emirs were involved on more than one occasion in the selection of Church officials and the running of local monasteries. Tradition holds that many Christians quit the Baalbek region in the eighteenth century for the newer, more secure town of Zahlé on account of the Harfushes' oppression and rapacity, but more critical studies have questioned this interpretation, pointing out that
15300-534: The Harfushes were closely allied to the Orthodox Ma'luf family of Zahlé (where indeed Mustafa Harfush took refuge some years later) and showing that depredations from various quarters as well as Zahlé's growing commercial attractiveness accounted for Baalbek's decline in the eighteenth century. What repression there was did not always target the Christian community per se. The Shiite 'Usayran family, for example,
15470-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
15640-690: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
15810-687: The Roman temple complex, which includes the Temple of Bacchus and the Temple of Jupiter , and was inscribed in 1984 as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Other tourist attractions are the Great Umayyad Mosque , the Baalbek International Festival , the mausoleum of Sit Khawla, and a Roman quarry site named Hajar al-Hibla . Baalbek's tourism sector has encountered challenges due to conflicts in Lebanon, particularly
15980-576: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
16150-505: The Tanakh. Psalm 29 , understood as an enthronement psalm, begins: A Psalm of David. Ascribe to Yahweh, sons of Gods ( b nê 'Ēlîm ), Ascribe to Yahweh, glory and strength Psalm 89 :6 (verse 7 in Hebrew) has: For who in the skies compares to Yahweh, who can be likened to Yahweh among the sons of Gods ( b nê 'Ēlîm ). Traditionally b nê 'ēlîm has been interpreted as 'sons of the mighty', 'mighty ones', for ' El can mean 'mighty', though such use may be metaphorical (compare
16320-621: The ancient Canaanite religion and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia . Among the Hittites , El was known as Elkunirsa ( Hittite : 𒂖𒆪𒉌𒅕𒊭 Elkunīrša ). Although El gained different appearances and meanings in different languages over time, it continues to exist as -il or -el in compound proper noun phrases such as Ishmael, Israel, Samuel, Daniel, Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel. Cognate forms of El are found throughout
16490-517: The area from Damascus on Nur ad-Din's behalf. In the mid-12th century, Idrisi mentioned Baalbek's two temples and the legend of their origin under Solomon; it was visited by the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela in 1170. Baalbek's citadel served as a jail for Crusaders taken by the Zengids as prisoners of war . In 1171, these captives successfully overpowered their guards and took possession of
16660-585: The bearers were the principal citizens of the town, who prepared for their role with abstinence, chastity, and shaved heads. In bronze statuary attested from Byblos in Phoenicia and Tortosa in Spain , he was encased in a pillarlike term and surrounded (like the Greco- Persian Mithras ) by busts representing the sun, moon, and five known planets . In these statues, the bust of Mercury
16830-472: The beginning of the account mention the goddess Athirat , who is otherwise El's chief wife and the goddess Raḥmayyu ("the one of the womb"). In the Ugaritic Ba'al cycle , El is introduced having an assembly of gods on Mount Lel (Lel possibly meaning "Night"), and dwelling on (or in) the fountains of the two rivers at the spring of the two deeps. He dwells in a tent according to some interpretations of
17000-529: The bombs. More than 250 houses and buildings were destroyed by Israel during the war. Reporters investigating the aftermath found these to be civilian houses and didn't find any evidence of military use. On the evening of 1 August 2006, hundreds of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers raided Baalbek and the Dar al-Hikma or Hikmeh Hospital in Jamaliyeh to its north (" Operation Sharp and Smooth "). Their mission
17170-401: The bull, and both wear bull horns on their headdresses. The mysterious Ugaritic text Shachar and Shalim tells how (perhaps near the beginning of all things) El came to shores of the sea and saw two women who bobbed up and down. El was sexually aroused and took the two with him, killed a bird by throwing a staff at it, and roasted it over a fire. He asked the women to tell him when the bird
17340-430: The car leaving the scene for the hospital. A Human Rights Watch investigation showed that none of those killed were combatants, it is likely none were members of Hezbollah, and none of the survivors had any knowledge of any military presence at place of the attack. On 14 August just before the ceasefire took effect, two Lebanese police and five Lebanese soldiers were killed by a drone strike while driving their van around
17510-414: The castle from its garrison. Muslims from the surrounding area gathered, however, and entered the castle through a secret passageway shown to them by a local. The Crusaders were then massacred. Three major earthquakes occurred in the 12th century, in 1139, 1157, and 1170. The one in 1170 ruined Baalbek's walls and, though Nur ad-Din repaired them, his young heir Ismaʿil was made to yield it to Saladin by
17680-411: The citadel until the 21st, when Unur surrendered upon a promise of safe passage. In December, Zengi negotiated with Muhammad, offering to trade Baalbek or Homs for Damascus, but Unur convinced the atabeg to refuse. Zengi strengthened its fortifications and bestowed the territory on his lieutenant Ayyub , father of Saladin . Upon Zengi's assassination in 1146, Ayyub surrendered the territory to Unur, who
17850-599: The city in late 1178 to maintain peace within his own family. An attempt to pledge fealty to the Christians at Jerusalem was ignored on behalf of an existing treaty with Saladin. The siege was maintained peacefully through the snows of winter, with Saladin waiting for the "foolish" commander and his garrison of "ignorant scum" to come to terms. Sometime in spring, Ibn al-Muqaddam yielded and Saladin accepted his terms, granting him Baʿrin , Kafr Tab , and al-Maʿarra . The generosity quieted unrest among Saladin's vassals through
18020-593: The city's still-extant fine mosque and fortress architecture dates to the reign of the sultan Qalawun in the 1280s. By the early 14th century, Abulfeda the Hamathite was describing the city's "large and strong fortress". The revived settlement was again destroyed by a flood on 10 May 1318, when water from the east and northeast made holes 30 m (98 ft) wide in walls 4 m (13 ft) thick. 194 people were killed and 1500 houses, 131 shops, 44 orchards, 17 ovens, 11 mills, and 4 aqueducts were ruined, along with
18190-507: The committee inscribed the site, it expressed the wish that the protected area include the entire town within the Arab walls, as well as the southwestern extramural quarter between Bastan-al-Khan, the Roman site and the Mameluk mosque of Ras-al-Ain. Lebanon's representative gave assurances that the committee's wish would be honoured. Recent cleaning operations at the Temple of Jupiter discovered
18360-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
18530-570: The deacon Cyril defaced many of the idols in Heliopolis; he was killed and (allegedly) cannibalised . Around the same time, Constantine , though not yet a Christian, demolished the goddess' temple, raised a basilica in its place, and outlawed the locals' ancient custom of prostituting women before marriage. Bar Hebraeus also credited him with ending the locals' continued practice of polygamy . The enraged locals responded by raping and torturing Christian virgins. They reacted violently again under
18700-651: The deep trench at its edge, whose study pushed back the date of Tell Baalbek's settlement to the PPNB Neolithic . Finds included pottery sherds including a spout dating to the early Bronze Age . In the summer of 2014, a team from the German Archaeological Institute led by Jeanine Abdul Massih of the Lebanese University discovered a sixth, much larger stone suggested to be the world's largest ancient block . The stone
18870-490: The divine beings and the majority of the group of all the holy ones, through the bond of heaven and earth for ever , ... However, Cross (1973, p. 17) translated the text as follows: The Eternal One ('Olam) has made a covenant oath with us, Asherah has made (a pact) with us. And all the sons of El, And the great council of all the Holy Ones. With oaths of Heaven and Ancient Earth. In some inscriptions,
19040-490: The early 2000s, Hezbollah organized permanent or temporary exhibitions called "Exposition of the Resistance" which commemorate what is considered to be Lebanese resistance to Israeli occupation. Spanning several hundred square meters, the exhibitions feature defused Israeli weapons, recreated scenes of war, and photos and videos of Lebanese people killed by Israel. Starting in 2009, Hezbollah setup an exhibition to commemorate
19210-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
19380-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
19550-684: The expression bn 'il alternates with bn 'ilm , but both must mean 'sons of El'. That phrase with m -enclitic also appears in Phoenician inscriptions as late as the fifth century BCE. One of the other two occurrences in the Tanakh is in the " Song of Moses ", Exodus 15:11a : Who is like you among the Gods ( ' ēlim ), Yahweh? The final occurrence is in Daniel 11:36 : And the king will do according to his pleasure; and he will exalt himself and magnify himself over every god ( ' ēl ), and against
19720-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
19890-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
20060-465: The freedom permitted to them by Julian the Apostate . The city was so noted for its hostility to the Christians that Alexandrians were banished to it as a special punishment. The Temple of Jupiter, already greatly damaged by earthquakes, was demolished under Theodosius in 379 and replaced by another basilica (now lost), using stones scavenged from the pagan complex. The Easter Chronicle states he
20230-401: The gods ( ' ilm ) in general or at least a large portion of them. The only sons of El named individually in the Ugaritic texts are Yamm ("Sea"), Mot ("Death"), and Ashtar , who may be the chief and leader of most of the sons of El. Ba'al Hadad is a few times called El's son rather than the son of Dagan as he is normally called, possibly because El is in the position of a clan-father to all
20400-406: The gods. The fragmentary text R.S. 24.258 describes a Marzēaḥ banquet to which El invites the other gods and then disgraces himself by becoming outrageously drunk and passing out after confronting an otherwise unknown Hubbay, "he with the horns and tail". The text ends with an incantation for the cure for a hangover . El's characterization in Ugarit texts is not always favorable. His authority
20570-514: The height of another Israeli invasion , Amal split into two factions over Nabih Berri 's acceptance of the American plan to evacuate Palestinians from West Beirut. A large number of dissidents, led by Amal's military commander Hussein Musawi moved to Baalbek. Once established in the town the group, which was to evolve into Hizbollah , began to work with Iranian Revolutionary Guards , veterans of
20740-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
20910-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
21080-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
21250-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
21420-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
21590-472: The most unwell patients having been transferred and the rest sent home. No Israelis were killed; Five civilians were abducted and interrogated by the Israelis, presumably because one shared his name with Hassan Nasrallah , the secretary general of Hezbollah; they were released on August 21. On August 7, Israel killed 9 civilians in an attack on Brital , just south of Baalbek, and by the subsequent attack on
21760-564: The name ' Ēl qōne 'arṣ ( Punic : 𐤀𐤋 𐤒𐤍 𐤀𐤓𐤑 ʾl qn ʾrṣ ) meaning "El creator of Earth" appears, even including a late inscription at Leptis Magna in Tripolitania dating to the second century. In Hittite texts, the expression becomes the single name Ilkunirsa , this Ilkunirsa appearing as the husband of Asherdu ( Asherah ) and father of 77 or 88 sons. In a Hurrian hymn to El (published in Ugaritica V , text RS 24.278), he
21930-582: The name of the LORD". El's title of " El Shadday ", which envisions him as the "god of the steppe", may also derive from the cultural beliefs of Upper Mesopotamian (i.e. Amurru ) immigrants, who were ancestors of the Israelites. In some places, especially in Psalm 29 , Yahweh is clearly envisioned as a storm god , something not true of El so far as scholars know (although true of his son, Ba'al Haddad). It
22100-498: The national budget, most of the homeless being Shia etc. The occasion was a religious one, and there was celebratory gunfire preceding it. He also announced the setting up of military training camps to train villagers in southern Lebanon to protect their homes from Israeli attacks. These camps led to the creation of the Amal Militia . By the 2000s, Baalbek was frequently described as a stronghold of Hezbollah, although it also has
22270-782: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
22440-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
22610-618: The original differences of such gods in Der Gott der Väter in 1929. But others have argued that from patriarchal times, these different names were generally understood to refer to the same single great god, El. This is the position of Frank Moore Cross (1973). What is certain is that the form 'El does appear in Israelite names from every period including the name Yiśrā'ēl ("Israel"), meaning "El strives". According to The Oxford Companion to World Mythology , It seems almost certain that
22780-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
22950-541: The rebuilt Hagia Sophia sometime between 532 and 537. Michael the Syrian claimed the golden idol of Heliopolitan Jupiter was still to be seen during the reign of Justin II (560s & 570s), and, up to the time of its conquest by the Muslims, it was renowned for its palaces, monuments, and gardens. Baalbek was occupied by the Muslim army in AD 634 ( AH 13), in 636, or under Abu ʿUbaidah following
23120-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
23290-560: The rest of his reign but led his enemies to attempt to take advantage of his presumed weakness. He did not permit Turan Shah to retain Baalbek very long, though, instructing him to lead the Egyptian troops returning home in 1179 and appointing him to a sinecure in Alexandria . Baalbek was then granted to his nephew Farrukh Shah , whose family ruled it for the next half-century. When Farrukh Shah died three years later, his son Bahram Shah
23460-405: The rest of the sanctuary raised to its level. In Islamic mythology , the temple complex was said to have been a palace of Solomon 's which was put together by djinn and given as a wedding gift to the Queen of Sheba ; its actual Roman origin remained obscured by the citadel's medieval fortifications as late as the 16th-century visit of the Polish prince Radziwiłł . After Alexander
23630-428: The roads to the south. An estimated $ 52 million damage was caused. Eleven Lebanese were killed as well as two Israelis in Kiryat Shmona . During the 2006 Lebanon war, many Israeli bombs fell inside the historic Roman town, and some fell as close as 300 meters from the temple of Baalbek. After the war, UNESCO stated that the cracks in the Roman temples had widened. The damage was thought to be due to shockwaves created by
23800-418: The route from Tyre to Palmyra should have made it a wealthy and splendid site from an early age. During the Canaanite period, the local temples were largely devoted to the Heliopolitan Triad : a male god ( Baʿal ), his consort ( Astarte ), and their son ( Adon ). The site of the present Temple of Jupiter was probably the focus of earlier worship, as its altar was located at the hill's precise summit and
23970-405: The same as the manbaa al-nahrayn ("Source of the Two Rivers"), the abode of El in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle discovered in the 1920s and a separate serpent incantation. In the episode of the "Palace of Ba'al", the god Ba'al Hadad invites the "seventy sons of Athirat" to a feast in his new palace. Presumably these sons have been fathered on Athirat by El; in following passages they seem to be
24140-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
24310-417: The schedules of the Indian monsoon and caravans to the coast and interior. During Classical Antiquity , the city's temple to Baʿal Haddu was conflated first with the worship of the Greek sun god Helios and then with the Greek and Roman sky god under the name " Heliopolitan Zeus " or " Jupiter ". The present Temple of Jupiter presumably replaced an earlier one using the same foundation; it
24480-422: The site vied with Praeneste in Italy as the two largest sanctuaries in the Western world. The emperor Trajan consulted the site's oracle twice. The first time, he requested a written reply to his sealed and unopened question; he was favorably impressed by the god's blank reply as his own paper had been empty. He then inquired whether he would return alive from his wars against Parthia and received in reply
24650-432: The solar cult is also attested in the name Biḳāʿ al-ʿAzīz borne by the plateau surrounding Baalbek, as it references an earlier solar deity named Aziz . In Greek and Roman antiquity , it was known as Heliopolis . Some of the best-preserved Roman ruins in Lebanon are located here, including one of the largest temples of the Roman empire. The gods worshipped there ( Jupiter , Venus , and Bacchus ) were equivalents of
24820-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
24990-498: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
25160-482: The stem ʾl are found with similar patterns in both the Amorite and Sabaic languages. There is evidence that the Canaanite/Phoenician and Aramaic conception of El is essentially the same as the Amorite conception of El, which was popularized in the 18th century BCE but has origins in the Pre- Sargonic period . Any "changes" in El's status can be explained by the randomness of available data. Tribal organizations in West Semitic culture also influenced El's portrayal as
25330-417: The still-damaged road through Jamaliyeh. The Roman ruins have been the setting for the long running Baalbek International Festival . Baalbek's tourism sector suffered significantly due to the Lebanese Civil war (1975-1990). After the civil war ended, tourism gradually saw a resurgence, including opera, orchestras. But it was once again disrupted by Israeli bombings of Baalbek during the 2006 war. After
25500-458: The supreme god, refer to Yahweh, beside whom other gods are supposed to be either nonexistent or insignificant. Whether this was a long-standing belief or a relatively new one has long been the subject of inconclusive scholarly debate about the prehistory of the sources of the Tanakh and about the prehistory of Israelite religion. In the P strand, Exodus 6:3 may be translated: I revealed myself to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai , but
25670-462: The temple of Bacchus as the "Temple of the Sun", they considered it the best-preserved Roman temple in the world. The Englishman Robert Wood 's 1757 Ruins of Balbec included carefully measured engravings that proved influential on British and Continental Neoclassical architects . For example, details of the Temple of Bacchus's ceiling inspired a bed and ceiling by Robert Adam and its portico inspired that of St George's in Bloomsbury . During
25840-444: The text which may explain why he had no temple in Ugarit. As to the rivers and the spring of the two deeps, these might refer to real streams, or to the mythological sources of the salt water ocean and the fresh water sources under the earth, or to the waters above the heavens and the waters beneath the earth. A few miles from the swamp from which the Litani (the classical Leontes) and the Asi (the upper Orontes ) flow, Baalbek may be
26010-451: The town's mosque and 13 other religious and educational buildings. In 1400, Timur pillaged the town, and there was further destruction from a 1459 earthquake. In 1516, Baalbek was conquered with the rest of Syria by the Ottoman sultan Selim the Grim . In recognition of their prominence among the Shiites of the Beqaa Valley , the Ottomans awarded the sanjak of Homs and local iltizam concessions to Baalbek's Harfush family . Like
26180-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
26350-470: The west in the summer, suffering a slight defeat at Ibn al-Muqaddam's hands. He was then joined by the main army, riding north under Baldwin and Humphrey of Toron ; they defeated Saladin's elder brother Turan Shah in August at Ayn al-Jarr and plundered Baalbek. Upon the deposition of Turan Shah for neglecting his duties in Damascus, however, he demanded his childhood home of Baalbek as compensation. Ibn al-Muqaddam did not consent and Saladin opted to invest
26520-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
26690-479: Was a noted oracle and pilgrimage site, whence the cult spread far afield, with inscriptions to the Heliopolitan god discovered in Athens , Rome , Pannonia , Venetia , Gaul , and near the Wall in Britain . The Roman temple complex grew up from the early part of the reign of Augustus in the late 1st century BC until the rise of Christianity in the 4th century . (The 6th-century chronicles of John Malalas of Antioch , which claimed Baalbek as
26860-502: Was acting as regent for Muhammad's son Abaq . It was granted to the eunuch Ata al-Khadim , who also served as viceroy of Damascus. In December 1151, it was raided by the garrison of Banyas as a reprisal for its role in a Turcoman raid on Banyas. Following Ata's murder, his nephew Dahhak , emir of the Wadi al-Taym , ruled Baalbek. He was forced to relinquish it to Nur ad-Din in 1154 after Ayyub had successfully intrigued against Abaq from his estates near Baalbek. Ayyub then administered
27030-420: Was also a large presence of Syrian refugees . Baalbek has a history that dates back at least 11,000 years, encompassing significant periods such as Prehistoric , Canaanite , Hellenistic , and Roman eras. After Alexander the Great conquered the city in 334 BCE, he renamed it Heliopolis ( Ἡλιούπολις , Greek for "Sun City"). The city flourished under Roman rule. However, it underwent transformations during
27200-479: Was also responsible for destroying all the lesser temples and shrines of the city. Around the year 400, Rabbula , the future bishop of Edessa , attempted to have himself martyred by disrupting the pagans of Baalbek but was only thrown down the temple stairs along with his companion. It became the seat of its own bishop as well. Under the reign of Justinian , eight of the complex's Corinthian columns were disassembled and shipped to Constantinople for incorporation in
27370-457: Was constructed during the mid- 1st century and probably completed around AD 60. His idol was a beardless golden god in the pose of a charioteer , with a whip raised in his right hand and a thunderbolt and stalks of grain in his left; its image appeared on local coinage and it was borne through the streets during several festivals throughout the year. Macrobius compared the rituals to those for Diva Fortuna at Antium and says
27540-529: Was deposed for conspiring against the usurper Toghtekin in 1110. Toghtekin then gave the town to his son Buri . Upon Buri's succession to Damascus on his father's death in 1128, he granted the area to his son Muhammad . After Buri's murder, Muhammad successfully defended himself against the attacks of his brothers Ismaʿil and Mahmud and gave Baalbek to his vizier Unur . In July 1139, Zengi , atabeg of Aleppo and stepfather of Mahmud, besieged Baalbek with 14 catapults. The outer city held until 10 October and
27710-404: Was dismantled and largely depopulated. It formed part of the district of Damascus under the Umayyads and Abbasids before being conquered by Fatimid Egypt in 942. In the mid-10th century , it was said to have "gates of palaces sculptured in marble and lofty columns also of marble" and that it was the most "stupendous" and "considerable" location in the whole of Syria. It was sacked and razed by
27880-520: Was found underneath and next to the Stone of the Pregnant Woman ("Hajjar al-Hibla") and measures around 19.6 m × 6 m × 5.5 m (64 ft × 20 ft × 18 ft). It is estimated to weigh 1,650 tonnes (1,820 tons). Baalbek was connected to the DHP , the French -owned railway concession in Ottoman Syria , on 19 June 1902. It formed a station on the standard-gauge line between Riyaq to its south and Aleppo (now in Syria ) to its north. This Aleppo Railway connected to
28050-459: Was fully cooked, and to then address him either as husband or as father, for he would thenceforward behave to them as they called him. They saluted him as husband. He then lay with them, and they gave birth to Shachar ("Dawn") and Shalim ("Dusk"). Again El lay with his wives and the wives gave birth to "the gracious gods", "cleavers of the sea", "children of the sea". The names of these wives are not explicitly provided, but some confusing rubrics at
28220-505: Was more often equated with Zeus or Jupiter or simply called the "Great God of Heliopolis", but the name may refer to the Egyptians' association of Baʿal with their great god Ra . It was sometimes described as Heliopolis in Syria or Coelesyria ( Latin : Heliopolis Syriaca or Syriae ) to distinguish it from its namesake in Egypt . In Catholicism , its titular see is distinguished as Heliopolis in Phoenicia , from its former Roman province Phoenice . The importance of
28390-432: Was murdered in 1250, al-Nasir Yusuf , the sultan of Aleppo , seized Damascus and demanded Baalbek's surrender. Instead, its emir did homage and agreed to regular payments of tribute. The Mongolian general Kitbuqa took Baalbek in 1260 and dismantled its fortifications. Later in the same year, however, Qutuz , the sultan of Egypt , defeated the Mongols and placed Baalbek under the rule of their emir in Damascus. Most of
28560-405: Was not known to them by my name, YHWH . However, it is said in Genesis 14:18–20 that Abraham accepted the blessing of El, when Melchizedek , the king of Salem and high priest of its deity El Elyon blessed him. One scholarly position is that the identification of Yahweh with El is late, that Yahweh was earlier thought of as only one of many gods, and not normally identified with El. Another
28730-423: Was only a child but he was permitted his inheritance and ruled til 1230. He was followed by al-Ashraf Musa , who was succeeded by his brother as-Salih Ismail , who received it in 1237 as compensation for being deprived of Damascus by their brother al-Kamil . It was seized in 1246 after a year of assaults by as-Salih Ayyub , who bestowed it upon Saʿd al-Din al-Humaidi . When as-Salih Ayyub's successor Turan Shah
28900-487: Was to rescue two captured soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev , who were abducted by Hezbollah on 12 July 2006. They were transported by helicopter and supported by Apache helicopters and unmanned drones , The IDF was acting on information that Goldwasser and Regev were at the hospital. al-Jazeera and other sources claimed the IDF was attempting to capture senior Hezbollah officials, particularly Sheikh Mohammad Yazbek . The hospital had been empty for four days,
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