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76-505: The text is largely an account of Merneptah's victory over the ancient Libyans and their allies, but the last three of the 28 lines deal with a separate campaign in Canaan , then part of Egypt's imperial possessions. It is sometimes referred to as the "Israel Stele" because a majority of scholars translate a set of hieroglyphs in line 27 as " Israel ". Alternative translations have been advanced but are not widely accepted. The stele represents

152-763: A Libuan king invaded Egypt from the west in alliance with various northern peoples. Merneptah achieved a great victory in the summer of that year , and the inscription is mainly about this. The final lines deal with a separate campaign in the East, where some of the Canaanite cities had revolted. Traditionally the Egyptians had concerned themselves only with cities, so the problem presented by Israel must have been something new – possibly attacks on Egypt's vassals in Canaan. Merneptah and Ramesses III fought off their enemies, but it

228-785: A Muslim majority in the Levant is presumed to have been reached by the 13th century. The majority of Levantine Muslims are Sunnis adhering to the four madhhabs ( Hanafi , Shafi'i , Hanbali and Maliki ). Islamic minorities include the Alawites and Nizari Ismailis in Syria, and Twelver Shiites in Lebanon . Levantine Christian groups include Greek Orthodox ( Antiochian Greek ), Syriac Orthodox , Eastern Catholic ( Syriac Catholic , Melkite and Maronite ), Roman Catholic ( Latin ), Nestorian , and Protestant . Armenians mostly belong to

304-483: A battle in open hilly country against an enemy shown as Canaanite. Yurco suggested that this scene was to be equated with the Israel of the stele. While the idea that Merneptah's Israelites are to be seen on the walls of the temple has had an influence on many theories regarding the significance of the inscription, not all Egyptologists accept Yurco's ascription of the reliefs to Merneptah. Ancient Libya During

380-489: A catastrophic change reduced the vast body of fresh water to a seasonal lake or marsh. Ibn Khaldun and Herodotus distinguish the Libyans on the basis of their lifestyles rather than ethnic background, those practicing agriculture, and the others nomadic pastoralism. Modern historians tend to follow Herodotus's classical distinctions. Examples include Oric Bates in his book The Eastern Libyans . Some other historians have used

456-745: A common pedestal that supports a huge transverse beam. In the Terrgurt valley, Cowper says: "There had been originally no less than eighteen or twenty megalithic trilithons, in a line, each with its massive altar placed before it". In ancient times, the Phoenicians / Carthaginians , the Neo-Assyrian Empire , the Persian Achaemenid Empire ( see Libya (satrapy) ), the Macedonian Empire of Alexander

532-427: A fixed city-state home, thus implying a seminomadic or rural status for 'Israel' at that time". The phrase "wasted, bare of seed" is formulaic, and often used of defeated nations – it implies that the grain-store of the nation in question has been destroyed, which would result in a famine the following year, incapacitating them as a military threat to Egypt. According to James Hoffmeier, "no Egyptologists would ever read

608-626: A speculative territory west of Egypt. Modern Arabic uses Libya . The Lwatae, the tribe of Ibn Battuta , as the Arabs called it, was a Berber tribe that mainly was situated in Cyrenaica. This tribe may have ranged from the Atlantic Ocean to modern Libya , however, and was referred to by Corippius as Laguatan ; he linked them with the Maures . Ibn Khaldun 's Muqaddimah states Luwa

684-528: A variety of Arabic descended from the pre-Islamic Arabic dialects of Syria and Hejazi Arabic , but retaining significant influence from Western Middle Aramaic . Levantine Arabic is usually classified as North Levantine Arabic in Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Turkey, and South Levantine Arabic in Palestine and Jordan. Each of these encompasses a spectrum of regional or urban/rural variations. In addition to

760-540: Is a term used to define the historical and geographical subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west and core West Asia , or by the political term, Middle East to the east . In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is equivalent to Cyprus and a stretch of land bordering the Mediterranean Sea in western Asia: i.e.

836-544: Is also used for modern events, peoples, states or parts of states in the same region, namely Cyprus , Egypt , Iraq , Israel , Jordan , Lebanon , Palestine , Syria , and Turkey are sometimes considered Levant countries (compare with Near East , Middle East , Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia ). Several researchers include the island of Cyprus in Levantine studies, including the Council for British Research in

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912-582: Is based on the ethnonym Libu ( Ancient Greek : Λίβυες Líbyes , Latin : Libyes ). The name Libya (in use since 1934 for the modern country formerly known as Tripolitania and Barca ) was the Latin designation for the region of the Maghreb, from the Ancient Greek ( Attic Greek : Λιβύη Libúē , Doric Greek : Λιβύᾱ Libúā ). In Classical Greece , the term had a broader meaning, encompassing

988-512: Is literally "rising", deriving from Latin orior 'rise'. 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. The term became current in English in

1064-521: Is the Libyans who taught Greeks how to ride chariots , this is further shown when Mastanbal the prince of Numidia who is well versed in Greek literature. A sportsman in his youth, the prince took part in chariot races and the Panathenaic Games which only populations whom the greeks considered equal to them culturally and religiously were allowed to participate. Mastanbal was a sportsman who

1140-502: Is the daughter of Poseidon and Tritonis a Libyan lake nymph. .in another version of the story in the same source, they say that she was daughter of Poseidon and Lake Tritonis, and that, being for some reason angry at her father, she gave herself to Zeus , who made her his own daughter, on the other hand some say that she sprang from the forehead of her father Zeus in the same location in North Africa. According to Herodotus , it

1216-969: Is ultimately from the Latin word levare , meaning 'lift, raise'. Similar etymologies are found in Greek Ἀνατολή Anatolē ( cf. Anatolia 'the direction of sunrise'), in Germanic Morgenland ( lit.   ' morning land ' ), in Italian (as in Riviera di Levante , the portion of the Liguria coast east of Genoa ), in Hungarian Kelet ('east'), in Spanish and Catalan Levante and Llevant , ('the place of rising'), and in Hebrew מִזְרָח mizraḥ ('east'). Most notably, "Orient" and its Latin source oriens meaning 'east',

1292-618: The Armenian Apostolic Church . There are also Levantines or Franco-Levantines who adhere to Roman Catholicism . There are also Assyrians belonging to the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church . Other religious groups in the Levant include Jews , Samaritans , Yazidis and Druze . Most populations in the Levant speak Levantine Arabic ( شامي , Šāmī ),

1368-670: The Berbers (El-Barbar or El-Barabera(h)). There were many tribes in ancient Libya, including the now extinct Psylli , with the Libu being the most prominent. The ancient Libyans were mainly pastoral nomads, living off their goats, sheep and other livestock. For subsistence, milk, meat, hides and wool were gathered from their livestock for food, pitching tents and as clothing. Ancient Egyptian sources describe Libyan men with long hair, braided and bearded, neatly parted from different sides and decorated with feathers attached to leather bands around

1444-719: The Caucasus Mountains, or any part of the Arabian Peninsula proper. Cilicia (in Asia Minor) and the Sinai Peninsula (Asian Egypt) are sometimes included. As a name for the contemporary region, several dictionaries consider Levant to be archaic today. Both the noun Levant and the adjective Levantine are now commonly used to describe the ancient and modern culture area formerly called Syro-Palestinian or Biblical: archaeologists now speak of

1520-685: The Egyptians . The nation of Egypt contains the Siwa Oasis , which is bordering Libya at the Western Desert . The Siwi language , a Berber language , is still spoken in the area by around 21,000 people. Their Ancient Egyptian neighbors referred to the various Libyan tribes as the Temehu, Tehenu, Rebu and Meshwesh . Homer names Libya, in the Odyssey (IX.95; XXIII.311). Homer used

1596-694: The Iron Age and Classical antiquity , Libya (from Greek Λιβύη : Libyē , which came from Berber : Libu ) referred to modern-day Africa west of the Nile river . Greek and Roman geographers placed the dividing line between Libya/Africa and Asia at the Nile. In contrast, the areas of Sub-Saharan Africa were known as Aethiopia . More narrowly, Libya could also refer to the country immediately west of Egypt, viz Marmarica ( Libya Inferior ) and Cyrenaica ( Libya Superior ). The Libyan Sea or Mare Libycum

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1672-582: The Levant Company to trade with the Ottoman Empire . The name Levant States was used to refer to the French mandate over Syria and Lebanon after World War I . This is probably the reason why the term Levant has come to be used more specifically to refer to modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and the island of Cyprus . Some scholars mistakenly believed that it derives from

1748-688: The Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt , during the 13th century BC. LBW appears as an ethnic name on the Merneptah Stele to designate Libyans. Menelaus had travelled there on his way home from Troy ; it was a land of wonderful richness, where the lambs have horns as soon as they are born, where ewes lamb three times a year and no shepherd ever goes short of milk, meat or cheese. When the Ancient Greeks actually settled in Libya,

1824-660: The Pentapolis of the Roman era on the current west Italian coast. The exact boundaries of the whole of ancient Libya are unknown, but it likely constituted the western regions of Ancient Egypt , and was known as "Tjehenu" to the Egyptians. Ibn Khaldun, who dedicated the main part of his book Kitab el'ibar , which is known as "The history of the Berbers", did not use the names Libya and Libyans , but instead used Arabic names: The Old Maghreb , ( El-Maghrib el-Qadim ), and

1900-735: The Southern Levant . While the usage of the term "Levant" in academia has been restricted 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 launched in the early 2010s using the word: the Journal of Levantine Studies , published by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Levantine Review , published by Boston College . The word Levant has been used in some translations of

1976-477: The desertification of the area is provided by megalithic remains, which occur in great variety of form and in vast numbers in presently arid and uninhabitable wastelands: dolmens and circles akin to Stonehenge , cairns, underground cells excavated in rock, barrows topped with huge slabs, and step-pyramid-like mounds. Most remarkable are the trilithons , some still standing, some fallen, which occur isolated or in rows, and consist of two squared uprights standing on

2052-481: The history of Egypt , historians know little about the history of Libya, as there are few surviving written records. Information on ancient Libya comes from archaeological evidence and historic sources written by Egyptian scribes, as well as the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines , and later from Arabs of Medieval times. Since the Neolithic, the climate of North Africa has become drier over time. A reminder of

2128-649: 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 Ottoman Sultan in 1579. The English Levant Company was founded in 1581 to trade with the Ottoman Empire , and in 1670 the French Compagnie du Levant  [ fr ]

2204-471: The Berbers for themselves, such as Imazighen . Late period sources give more detailed descriptions of Libya and its inhabitants. The ancient historian Herodotus describes Libya and the Libyans in his fourth book, known as The Libyan Book . Writers such as Pliny the Elder , Diodorus Siculus , and Procopius also contributed to what is now primary source material on ancient Libya and the Libyans. The name

2280-535: The Egyptian ones, but probably, some tribes were named in the Egyptian sources and the later ones as well. The Meshwesh -tribe documented by the Ancient Egyptians represents this assumption. Moreover, scholars believe it would be the same tribe called Mazyes by Hektaios and Maxyes by Herodotus, while it was called "Mazaces" and "Mazax" in Latin sources. All those names are similar to the name used by

2356-402: The Egyptians used to refer to their enemies; the actual enemies varied according to time and circumstance. Hatti and Ḫurru represented the entirety of Syro-Palestine , Canaan and Israel were smaller units within the region, - Canaan might here refer to the city of Gaza ,- and Asqaluni , Gezer and Yanoam were cities within the region. Based on their determinatives, Canaan referred to

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2432-728: The Great and his Ptolemaic successors from Egypt ruled variously parts of Libya. With the Roman conquest, the entire region of present-day Libya became part of the Roman Empire . Following the fall of the Empire, Vandals , and local representatives of the Byzantine Empire also ruled all or parts of Libya. The territory of modern Libya had separate histories until Roman times, as Tripoli and Cyrenaica . Cyrenaica , by contrast,

2508-576: The Israelites were an urban people at this time, nor does it provide information about the actual social structure of the people group identified as Israel. As for its location, most scholars believe that Merneptah's Israel must have been in the hill country of central Canaan. The stele was found in Merneptah's funerary chapel in Thebes, the ancient Egyptian capital on the west bank of the Nile. On

2584-513: The Levant share not only geographic position, but cuisine , some customs, and history . They are often referred to as Levantines . The term Levant appears in English in 1497 , and originally meant 'the East ' or 'Mediterranean lands east of Italy'. It is borrowed from the French levant 'rising', referring to the rising of the sun in the east, or the point where the sun rises. The phrase

2660-543: The Levant , the UCLA Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department, Journal of Levantine Studies and the UCL Institute of Archaeology, the last of which has dated the connection between Cyprus and mainland Levant to the early Iron Age . Archaeologists seeking a neutral orientation that is neither biblical nor national have used terms such as Levantine archaeology and archaeology of

2736-604: The Levant and of Levantine archaeology ; food scholars speak of Levantine cuisine ; and the Latin Christians of the Levant continue to be called Levantine Christians . The Levant has been described as the "crossroads of Western Asia , the Eastern Mediterranean, and Northeast Africa ", and in geological ( tectonic ) terms as the "northwest of the Arabian Plate ". The populations of

2812-690: The Mzata, were from the Qibt s (Egyptians). According to Ibn Khaldun, this claim is incorrect because Ibn Hazam had not read the books of the Berber scholars. Oric Bates , a historian, considers that the name Libu or LBW would be derived from the name Luwatah whilst the name Luwatah is a derivation of the name Libu. Furthermore, Bates considered all the Libyan tribes to be a single civilization united under central Libu and Meshwesh control. Compared with

2888-461: The Nine Bows. Desolation is for Tjehenu ; Hatti is pacified; Plundered is the Canaan with every evil; Carried off is Asqaluni ; Seized upon is Gezer ; Yanoam is made non-existent; Israel is laid waste—its seed is no more; Kharru has become a widow because of Egypt. All lands together are pacified. Everyone who was restless has been bound. The " nine bows " is a term

2964-526: The boundaries of the Levant as follows. A distinction is made between the main subregions of the Levant, the northern and the southern: The island of Cyprus is also included as a third subregion in the archaeological region of the Levant: The vast majority of Levantines are Muslims . After the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century, Islam was first introduced into the region. However,

3040-465: The continent that later (second century BC) became known as Africa , which, in antiquity, was assumed to constitute one third of the world's land mass, Europe and Asia combined making up the other two thirds. The Libu are attested since the Late Bronze Age as inhabiting the region ( Egyptian R'bw , Punic : 𐤋𐤁𐤉 ‎ lby ). The oldest known documented references to the Libu date to Ramesses II and his successor Merneptah , pharaohs of

3116-403: The countries along the Eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece in Southern Europe to Egypt and Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya) in Northern Africa . In the 13th and 14th centuries, the term levante was used for Italian maritime commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean, including Greece, Anatolia , Syria-Palestine , and Egypt , that is, the lands east of Venice . Eventually

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3192-531: The crown of the head while wearing thin robes of antelope hide , dyed and printed, crossing the shoulder and coming down until mid calf length to make a robe. Older men kept long braided beards, while women wore the same robes as men, plaited, decorated hair and both sexes wore heavy jewelry. Depictions of Libyans in Egyptian reliefs show prominent and numerous tattoos, very similar to traditional Berber tattoos still seen today. Their weapons included bows and arrows, hatchets, spears and daggers. The Libyan script that

3268-414: The determinative for a city – a throw stick plus three mountains – the hieroglyphs that refer to Israel instead employ the throw stick (the determinative for "foreign") plus a sitting man and woman (the determinative for "people") over three vertical lines (a plural marker): The determinative "people" has been the subject of significant scholarly discussion. As early as 1955, John A. Wilson wrote, of

3344-438: The earliest textual reference to Israel and the only reference from ancient Egypt. It is one of four known inscriptions from the Iron Age that date to the time of and mention ancient Israel by name, with the others being the Mesha Stele , the Tel Dan Stele , and the Kurkh Monoliths . Consequently, some consider the Merneptah Stele to be Petrie's most famous discovery, an opinion with which Petrie himself concurred. The stele

3420-433: The favorites of Apollo , and some ancient Greek writers regarded them as the mythical founders of Apollo's shrines at Delos and Delphi . Masinissa received a golden crown from the inhabitants of Delos as he had offered them several shiploads of grain to the temple of Apollo in Delos the famous birthplace of the sun god and his twin sister Artemis . Berbers have occupied North Africa for thousands of years alongside

3496-443: The historical region of Syria ("Greater Syria"), which includes present-day Israel , Jordan , Lebanon , Syria , the Palestinian territories and most of Turkey southwest of the middle Euphrates . Its overwhelming characteristic is that it represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia . In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the Eastern Mediterranean with its islands; that is, it included all of

3572-455: The idea that this determinative means the "'ysrỉꜣr" were a people: "The argument is good, but not conclusive, because of the notorious carelessness of Late-Egyptian scribes and several blunders of writing in this stela". This sentiment was subsequently built upon by other scholars. According to The Oxford History of the Biblical World , this "foreign people ... sign is typically used by the Egyptians to signify nomadic groups or peoples, without

3648-585: The inscription says it was carved in the 5th year of Merneptah of the 19th dynasty. Most of the text glorifies Merneptah's victories over enemies from Libya and their Sea People allies. The final two lines mention a campaign in Canaan, where Merneptah says he defeated and destroyed Asqaluna , Gezer, Yanoam and Israel. Egypt was the dominant power in the region during the long reign of Merneptah's predecessor, Ramesses II , but Merneptah and one of his nearest successors, Ramesses III , faced significant invasions. The problems began in Merneptah's 5th year (1208 BCE), when

3724-445: The land whilst Israel referred to the people. Petrie called upon Wilhelm Spiegelberg, a German philologist in his archaeological team, to translate the inscription. Spiegelberg was puzzled by one symbol towards the end, that of a people or tribe whom Merneptah (also written Merenptah) had victoriously smitten – I.si.ri.ar? Petrie quickly suggested that it read " Israel! " Spiegelberg agreed that this translation must be correct. "Won't

3800-449: The majority of Egyptologists concur that the reference should indeed be understood as referring to Israel, and mainstream scholarship acknowledges a connection between the Israel mentioned and biblical Israel. The Merneptah stele is considered to be the first extra-biblical reference to ancient Israel in ancient history and is widely considered to be authentic and providing historical information. Michael G. Hasel, arguing that prt on

3876-460: The modern name of the Berbers in their works, such as the French historian Gabriel Camps . The Libyan tribes mentioned in these sources were: " Adyrmachidae ", " Giligamae ", " Asbystae ", " Marmaridae ", " Auschisae ", " Nasamones ", " Macae ", " Lotus-eaters (or Lotophagi)", " Garamantes ", " Gaetulians ", " Mauri ", and " Luwatae ", as well as many others. Syro-Palestine The Levant ( / l ə ˈ v æ n t / lə- VANT )

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3952-437: The name from Greek and the Punic languages. The Romans would have known them before their colonization of North Africa because of the Libyan role in the Punic Wars against the Romans. The Romans used the name Líbues , but only when referring to Barca and the Libyan Desert of Egypt. The other Libyan territories were called " Africa ", which were Roman provinces. Classical Arabic literature called Libya Lubya , indicating

4028-399: The name in a geographic sense, while he called its inhabitants " Lotus-eaters ". After Homer, Aeschylus , Pindar , and other ancient Greek writers used the name. Herodotus (1.46) used Λιβύη Libúē to indicate the African continent; the Líbues proper were the light-skinned North Africans, while those south of Egypt (and Elephantine on the Nile) were known to him as " Aethiopians "; this

4104-510: The name of Lebanon. Today the term is often used in conjunction with prehistoric or ancient historical references. Another term for "Syria-Palestine" is Ash- Shaam ( Arabic : ٱلشَّام , /ʔaʃ.ʃaːm/ ), the area that is bounded by the Taurus Mountains of Turkey in the north, the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the north Arabian Desert and Mesopotamia in the east, and Sinai in the south (which can be fully included or not). Typically, it does not include Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor),

4180-590: The north. Two minority languages are recognized: Armenian , and Cypriot Maronite Arabic , a hybrid of mostly medieval Arabic vernaculars with strong influence from contact with Turkish and Greek, spoken by approximately 1,000 people. Western Neo-Aramaic is additionally spoken in three villages in Syria: Maaloula , Jubb'adin and Bakhah . Among diaspora communities based in the Levant, Greek , Armenian and Circassian are also spoken. According to recent ancient DNA studies, Levantines derive most of their ancestry from ancient Semitic-speaking peoples of

4256-433: The old name taken from the Egyptians was applied by the Greeks of Cyrenaica , who may have coexisted with the Libu. Later, the name appeared in the Hebrew language , written in the Bible as Lehabim and Lubim , indicating the ethnic population and the geographic territory as well. In the neo-Punic inscriptions, it was written as Lby for the masculine noun, and Lbt for the feminine noun of Libyan . Latin absorbed

4332-432: The opposite bank is the Temple of Karnak, where a fragmentary copy was found. In the 1970s Frank J. Yurco announced that some reliefs at Karnak which had been thought to depict events in the reign of Ramesses II , Merneptah's father, in fact belonged to Merneptah. The four reliefs show the capture of three cities, one of them labelled as Asqaluni ; Yurco suggested that the other two were Gezer and Yanoam. The fourth shows

4408-441: The place instead of any one culture. The French mandate of Syria and Lebanon (1920–1946) was called the Levant states. Today, "Levant" is the term typically used by archaeologists and historians with reference to the history of the region. Scholars have adopted the term Levant to identify the region due to its being a "wider, yet relevant, cultural corpus" that does not have the "political overtones" of Syria-Palestine. The term

4484-475: The reverends be pleased?" remarked Petrie. At dinner that evening, Petrie, who realized the importance of the find, said: "This stele will be better known in the world than anything else I have found." The news of its discovery made headlines when it reached the English papers. The line which refers to Israel is below (shown in reverse to match the English translation; the original Egyptian is in right-to-left script ): While Asqaluni , Gezer and Yanoam are given

4560-450: The signs of a foreign ethnic entity as indicating a foreign land, but a people group". In contrast to this apparent Israelite statelessness, the other Canaanite groups fought by Egypt ( Asqaluni , Gezer, and Yano'am) are described in the stele as nascent states. Alternatives to the reading "Israel" have been put forward since the stele's discovery, the two primary candidates being as follows: However, these remain minority interpretations,

4636-461: The stele meant grain, suggested that "Israel functioned as an agriculturally based or sedentary socioethnic entity in the late 13th century BCE" and this in some degree of contrast to nomadic "Shasu" pastoralists in the region. Others disagree that prt meant grain, and Edward Lipinski wrote that "the 'classical' opposition of nomadic shepherds and settled farmers does not seem to suit the area concerned". Hasel also says that this does not suggest that

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4712-451: The temple of Merneptah. Owing to the rough surface, and the poor cutting, the readings in many places require careful examination... The scene at the top retains its original colouring of yellow, red, and blue. Amun is shown giving a sword to the king, who is backed by Mut on one side and by Khonsu on the other". Now in the collection of the Egyptian Museum at Cairo , the stele is a black granite slab, over 3 meters (10 feet) high, and

4788-468: The term ash-Shām as used by the organization known as ISIL, ISIS, and other names , though there is disagreement as to whether this translation is accurate. In The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: c. 8000–332 BCE (OHAL; 2013), the definition of the Levant for the specific purposes of the book is synonymous to that of the Arabic " bilad al-sham , 'the land of sham [Syria]'", translating in Western parlance to greater Syria . OHAL defines

4864-428: The term was restricted to the Muslim countries of Syria-Palestine and Egypt. The term entered English in the late 15th century from French. It derives from the Italian levante , meaning "rising", implying the rising of the Sun in the east, and is broadly equivalent to the term al-Mashriq ( Arabic : ٱلْمَشْرِق , [ʔal.maʃ.riq] ), meaning "the eastern place, where the Sun rises". In 1581, England set up

4940-400: The varieties normally grouped together as "Levantine", a number of other varieties and dialects of Arabic are spoken in the Levant area, such as Levantine Bedawi Arabic (by Bedouins ) and Mesopotamian Arabic (in eastern Syria). Of the languages of Cyprus , the two official languages are Turkish and Greek. The most used languages by population are Greek in the south followed by Turkish in

5016-431: Was Greek before it was Roman. It was also known as Pentapolis , the "five cities" being Cyrene (near the village of Shahat) with its port of Apollonia (Marsa Susa), Arsinoe (Tocra), Berenice (Benghazi) and Barca (Merj). From the oldest and most famous of the Greek colonies , the fertile coastal plain took the name of Cyrenaica. These five cities were also known as the Western Pentapolis ; not to be confused with

5092-721: Was also the understanding of later Greek geographers such as Diodorus Siculus , Strabo ...etc, amongst other writers. In the Hellenistic period , the native Berbers were known collectively as Libyans to the Greco-Roman world, a Greek term for the inhabitants of the Maghreb, they Identified the Massylii , the Masaessyli , the Gaetuli , The phareusiens and the Mauri . The libyans were believers of an ancestral religion known as Numitheism . The Libyans were known far and wide as glorious warriors with extra-ordinary physical strength, they were efficient in battle and were an effective force when combined with an army, they were either employed as mercenaries or were made part of an army as

5168-402: Was an ancestor of this tribe. He writes that the Berbers add an "a" and "t" to the name for the plural forms. Subsequently, it became rendered as Lwat . Conversely, the Arabs adopted the name as a singular form, adding an "h" for the plural form in Arabic. Ibn Khaldun disagrees with Ibn Hazam , who claimed, mostly on the basis of Berber sources, that the Lwatah, in addition to the Sadrata and

5244-407: Was discovered in 1896 by Flinders Petrie in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, and first translated by Wilhelm Spiegelberg . In his "Inscriptions" chapter of Petrie's 1897 publication "Six Temples at Thebes," Spiegelberg described the stele as "engraved on the rough back of the stele of Amenhotep III , which was removed from his temple and placed back outward, against the wall, in the forecourt of

5320-436: Was founded for the same purpose. At this time, the Far East was known as the "Upper Levant". In early 19th-century travel writing , the term sometimes incorporated certain Mediterranean provinces of the Ottoman Empire , as well as independent Greece (and especially the Greek islands ). In 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference

5396-444: Was passionate about horseback riding. He owned a stud farm of purebred horses. Around 168 BC or 164 BC, he won a gold medal for his people in Numidia at the Athens Hippodrome at the Panathenaic Games in the prestigious horse-drawn chariot racing event. In Pseudo-Apollodorus , the Greeks proceeded to write of Hyperborea as a place that existed in ancient Libya somewhere within or between the Atlas ranges of North Africa as that

5472-399: Was the beginning of the end of Egypt's control over Canaan – the last evidence of an Egyptian presence in the area is the name of Ramesses VI (1141–1133 BC) inscribed on a statue base from Megiddo . The bulk of the inscription deals with Merneptah's victory over the Libyans, but the closing lines shift to Canaan: The princes are prostrate, saying ' Peace !' Not one raises his head among

5548-559: Was the case with Numidian Cavalry in the ranks of both Roman Empire and Ancient Carthage , they completely overturned the tide of battle in Cannae for Hannibal and Battle of Zama for Scipio Africanus , Virgil speaks of the Libyans in this way: "The surrounding lands are Libyan , a race unbeatable in war" After the Egyptians, the Greeks; Romans; and Byzantines mentioned various other tribes in Libya. Later tribal names differ from

5624-464: Was the part of the Mediterranean Sea south of Crete , between Cyrene and Alexandria . In Greek mythology , Athena was believed to have been of Libyan origins and was therefore nicknamed Athene Tritogeneia ("born of Trito"), from her birth in Lake Tritonis in North Africa (Modern day Algeria and Tunisia) where she is considered native to the land, in this version of the story she

5700-415: Was the well-known dwelling place of Atlas as he was enduring punishment by Zeus, he was visited by Herakles as well as Perseus in North Africa . This coincides exactly with North Africans being well known for their worship of their sun god 'Tafukt' or commonly identified by the Greeks as Apollo they were believed to inhabit a sunny, temperate, and divinely-blessed land. The oldest myths portray them as

5776-525: Was used in Libya was mostly a funerary script . It is difficult to understand, and there are a number of variations. Ibn Khaldun divided the Berbers into the Batr and the Baranis . Herodotus divided them into Eastern Libyans and Western Libyans . Eastern Libyans were nomadic shepherds east of Lake Tritonis . Western Libyans were sedentary farmers who lived west of Lake Tritonis. At one point,

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