Place names of Palestine

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In 1639, Thomas Fuller's The Historie of the Holy Warre included "A table shewing the varietie of place names in Palestine", comparing the historical names of key Biblical locations.

Many place names in Palestine were Arabized forms of ancient Hebrew and Canaanite place-names used in biblical times or later Aramaic formations.[1][2][3][4][5] Most of these names have been handed down for thousands of years though their meaning was understood by only a few. The cultural interchange fostered by the various successive empires to have ruled the region is apparent in its place names. Any particular place can be known by the different names used in the past, with each of these corresponding to a historical period.[6] For example, the city of Beit Shean, today in Israel, was known during the Israelite period as Beth-shean, under Hellenistic rule and Roman rule as Scythopolis, and under Arab and Islamic rule as Beisan.

The importance of toponymy, or geographical naming, was first recognized by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), a British organization who mounted geographical map-making expeditions in the region in the late 19th century. Shortly thereafter, the British Mandatory authorities set out to gather toponymic information from local fellahin, who had been proven to have preserved knowledge of the ancient place names which could help identify archaeological sites.[7]

Since the establishment of the State of Israel, many place names have since been Hebraicized, and are referred to by their revived biblical names.[6] In some cases, even sites with only Arabic names and no pre-existing ancient Hebrew names or associations have been given new Hebrew names.[8][6] Place names in the region have been the subject of much scholarship and contention, particularly in the context of the Arab–Israeli conflict. Their significance lies in their potential to legitimize the historical claims asserted by the involved parties, all of whom claim priority in chronology, and who use archaeology, cartography, and place names as their proofs.[9]

History

The local population of Palestine used Semitic languages, such as Hebrew, Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Samaritan Aramaic and Arabic for thousands of years.[10] Almost all place names in the region have Semitic roots, with only a few place names being of Latin origin, and hardly any of Greek or Turkish origins.[10] The Semitic roots of the oldest names continued to be used by the indigenous population, though during classical antiquity, many names underwent modifications due to the influence of local ruling elites well versed in Greek and Latin.[6]

In his 4th-century work, the Onomasticon, Eusebius of Caesarea provides a listing of the place-names of Palestine with geographical and historical commentary, and his text was later translated into Latin and edited and corrected by Jerome.[11]

Following the Arab conquest of the Levant, many of the pre-classical Semitic names were revived, though often the spelling and pronunciation differed. Of course, for places where the old name had been lost or for new settlements established during this period, new Arabic names were coined.[6] Though often visited by European travelers in the centuries to follow, many of whom composed travel accounts describing its topography and demography, towards the end of Ottoman imperial rule, there was still much confusion over the place names in Palestine.[12] Existing Turkish transliterations of the Arabic and Arabicized names made identification and study into the etymology of the place names even more challenging.[12]

Edward Robinson identified more than 100 biblical place names in Palestine, by pursuing his belief that linguistic analysis of the place names used by the Arab fellahin would reveal preserved traces of their ancient roots.[13][14] The PEF's Names and Places in the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha, with their Modern Identifications (1895) lists more than 1,150 place names related to the Old Testament and 162 related to the New, most of which are located in Palestine.[15] These surveys by Robinson the PEF, and other Western biblical geographers in late 19th and early 20th centuries, also eventually contributed to the shape of the borders delineated for the British Mandate in Palestine, as proposed by the League of Nations.[13]

With the establishment of Israel, in parts of Palestine, many place names have since been Hebraized or are referred to by their revived Biblical names.[6] In some cases, even sites with only Arabic names and no pre-existing ancient Hebrew names or associations have been given new Hebrew names.[8]

The preservation of place names "with amazing consistency" is noted by Yohanan Aharoni in The Land of the Bible (1979).[16] He attributes this continuity to the common Semitic background of Palestine's local inhabitants throughout the ages, and the fact that place names tended to reflect extant agricultural features at the site in question.[16] According to Uzi Leibner, this preservation of names is "a function of continuity of settlement at the site itself, or at least in the immediate region", and most of the sites in question were inhabited during the Byzantine and Middle Islamic[clarification needed] periods.[17]

Linguistic roots

Water sources

Agricultural features are common to roots of place names in Palestine. For example, some place names incorporate the Semitic root for "spring" or "cistern", such as Beersheba or Bir as'Saba, ("be'er" and "bir" meaning "well" in Hebrew and Arabic respectively) and En Gedi or 'Ayn Jeddi ("en" and "'ayn" meaning "spring" in Hebrew and Arabic respectively).[18]

Features

Some place names are derived from Hebrew or Aramaic names for local features, as in for 'fort' (Hebrew: טירה, romanized: Tira, as in At-Tira, Al-Tira and others) or 'castle' (Hebrew: בירה, romanized: Bira). Some of these place names were later confounded with the Arabic for tair (bird) or bir (well).[19]

Deities

Other place names preserve the names of Semitic gods and goddesses from ancient times. For example, the name of the goddess Anat survives in the name of the village of 'Anata, believed to be site of the ancient city of Anathoth.[20]

Direct translations

In some cases the original name was simply translated, such as the ancient city of Dan (Hebrew: דן, "judge") which turned into the Arabic Tell el-Qadi, "mound of the judge".[19] However, the original name of the city was preserved in the nearby source of the Jordan river, which had the name "Dhan" (Arabic: ضان).[21]

Linguistic conversion

The Hebrew suffix t (ת) tends to drop from Hebrew to Arabic, as in Ḥammat > al-Ḥamme (for Hamma), ‛Aqrabat > ‛Aqraba (for Aqraba), and Nāṣrat > en-Nāṣre (for Nazareth).[22]

Identification methods

The vast majority of place-name identifications are made upon their similarity to existing Palestinian Arabic place names, or else upon the assessment of other geographical information provided by the Biblical texts.[23]

James B. Pritchard wrote in 1959 that of the thousands of ancient places throughout Palestine known by name from the Hebrew Bible and historical sources, only four had then been identified based on inscriptions found during archaeological excavations at the respective locations:[23] Gezer (boundary stones near Tell el-Jazari), Beit She'an (an Egyptian stela of Seti I found at Beisan), Lachish (the Lachish lettersfound at Tell ed-Duweir) and Gibeon (the Al Jib jar handles). Hershel Shanks wrote in 1983 that Gezer was the first of these, and that Tel Arad and Tel Hazor have also been identified in this manner.[24] In 1996, the location of Ekron was supported with the discovery of the Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription.

Evolution of names, a selection

  • 'Aīd el Mâ (`Eîd el Mieh): Recognized by modern archaeologists, historical geographers and cartographers as the biblical site of Adullam, mentioned in 1 Samuel 22:2.
  • Battir: During the Bar Kokhba revolt, this site was known as Betar.[25] Its Arabic name Battir is evidently related to the ancient name. The village was also identified by an ancient mound in the vicinity called Khirbet el-Yahud ("ruin of the Jews").
  • Beit Guvrin: a modern kibbutz in the Lakhish region, which was built near the site of Bayt Jibrin, an Arab village depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. This village was originally known by the Aramaic name Beth Gabra ("house of the strong men").[26] The Romans gave it the Greek name of Eleutheropolis ("city of the free") but it is nonetheless listed in the Tabula Peutingeriana of 393 CE as Beitogabri.".[27][28] In the Talmud, its name is transcribed as Beit Gubrin (or Guvrin). The Crusaders referred to it as Bethgibelin or simply Gibelin.[29] Its Arabic name Beit Jibrin ("house of the powerful") is derived from the original Aramaic name.[30]
  • Beit Ur al-Fauqa (Arabic: بيت عور الفوقة, "Upper house of straw") and Beit Ur al-Tahta (Arabic: بيت عور التحتى, "Lower house of straw") preserve parts of the original Canaanite names for these sites: Bethoron Elyon ("Upper Bethoron"), and Bethoron Tahton ("Lower Bethoron"). Bethoron means the "House of Horon", named for the Egypto-Canaanite deity Horon mentioned in Ugaritic literature and other texts.[31][32][33]
  • Dayr Aban: Literally, "Monastery of Aban," thought by historical geographers to be the biblical Abenezer, mentioned in 1 Samuel 4:1, and located 2 miles east of `Ain Shems (Beit Shemesh).
  • El-Azariyeh: The town of Bethany, so-called because of its most notable citizen, Lazarus.
  • Indur: Depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, this village preserves the name of the ancient Canaanite city of Endor.[34] Though the precise location of the ancient site remains a source of debate, the preferred candidate lies 1 kilometer northeast of Indur, a site known as Khirbet Safsafa.[35]
  • Jenin: Jenin is identified with the biblical towns of Ein Ganim and Beth-Haggan.[36][37] Its name was changed to Ginat or Ginae.[38][39] The Arabicized name Jenin derived from the original.
  • Jericho: Known among the local inhabitants as Ariha (Ar-riha, meaning "fragrance"), it is described in the 10th century Book of Josippon, as "Jericho: City of Fragrance" (ir hareah).[40] It is thought that the current name is derived from the Canaanite name Yareah, meaning "moon".[41]
  • Jib: Jib preserves the name of its ancient predecessor, Gibeon.
  • Kafr 'Ana: The Arabicized form of the name Ono, a Canaanite town mentioned in 1 Chronicles 8:12.
  • Hebron: The ancient town of Hebron is known in Arabic as "al-Khalil", so-called after Abraham the Patriarch who was called the "friend" (Ar. "khalil") of God.
  • Lifta: Recognized by modern archaeologists and historical geographers as the biblical site of Nephtoah, mentioned in the Book of Joshua (15:9; 18:15).
  • Nablus: Originally named Flavia Neapolis since it was founded in 72 CE by the Romans; in 636 CE, it was conquered by the Arabs, who Arabicized its name to Nablus.
  • Qal'at Ras el-'Ain: Literally, "the Castle of the Fountain-head," or what was formerly called Antipatris (a site near Rosh HaAyin), at the source of the Yarkon River, also known as Nahr Abū Fuṭrus (a corruption of Antipatris).
  • Qamun: A tell near Mount Carmel. Qamun's original name was the Israelite Yokneam, from which the Arabic Qamun (meaning "cumin") was derived. Before Israelite times the Canaanite city was probably called En-qn'mu' as it appears in Egyptian sources. The Romans called it Cammona and Cimona, while the Crusaders called it Caymont and also Cains Mon ("Cain's Mountain") reflecting a popular local tradition that Cain was slain nearby.
  • Jebel Quruntul: Originally a Semitic name (possibly Dagon) preserved in the Hellenistic fortress name Dok, renamed Quarantana & related names in Latin to reflect the belief that St Helena had identified a cave there as the place Jesus fasted for 40 days, preserved as Arabic Quruntul and Hebrew Qarantal.
  • Ramallah: Founded in the mid-16th century, its original name was Arabic, as it is today.
  • Seilun, Kh.: A Middle and Late Bronze Age Canaanite city, called Shiloh in the canonical books of the Hebrew Bible (Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, and Psalms). The tell comprising the ruins of the ancient town is known is Modern Hebrew as Tel Shiloh.
  • Tulkarm: Founded in the 3rd century CE as Berat Soreqa, its name in Aramaic was Tur Karma, meaning "mount of the vineyards". This name was then Arabicized to Tul Karem.
  • Tuqu: The Arabicized form of the name Tekoa, mentioned in 2 Chronicles 20:20, and Amos 1:1.
  • Yahudiya (known as Al-'Abbasiyya since 1932) means "the Jewish (city)" and is thought to be related to the biblical town of Yahud, mentioned in the Book of Joshua.
  • Yalo: Destroyed during the 1967 war, this village was originally known by the Canaanite name Aijalon. The Arabic name Yalu, by which it was known for centuries, is derived from the Canaanite original.[42]
  • Yazur: Depopulated prior to the 1948 war, the village's name in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE is recorded in Assyrian texts as Azuru.[43]
  • Yodfat: A Galilean town destroyed in the First Jewish-Roman War, when it was known as Jotapata (Yodfat). Before the establishment of Israel, its site was known as Shifat, Kh.

Use of place names as personal names

Since the exodus of 1948, Arab Palestinians have begun a tradition of naming their daughters after destroyed Arab villages.[44]

See also

References

  1. ^ Conder, C. R. (1881). Palmer, E. H. (ed.). "Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists". Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund: iv–v. To determine the exact meaning of Arabic topographical names is by no means easy. Some are descriptive of physical features, but even these are often either obsolete or distorted words. Others are derived from long since forgotten incidents, or owners whose memory has passed away. Others again are survivals of older Nabathean, Hebrew, Canaanite, and other names, either quite meaningless in Arabic, or having an Arabic form in which the original sound is perhaps more or less preserved, but the sense entirely lost. Occasionally Hebrew, especially Biblical and Talmudic names, remain scarcely altered.
  2. ^ Rainey, 1978, p.230: “What surprised western scholars and explorers the most was the amazing degree to which biblical names were still preserved in the Arabic toponymy of Palestine”
  3. ^ Swedenburg, Ted (31 December 2014). Memories of Revolt: The 1936–1939 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past. p. 49. ISBN 9781610752633. Robinson concluded that the surest way to identify biblical place names in Palestine was to read the Bible conjointly with existing Arab nomenclature, and during a three-month stay in Palestine during 1839 used this method to identify over a hundred biblical sites.
  4. ^ Rainey, 1978, p.231: “In the majority of cases, a Greek or Latin name assigned by Hellenistic or Roman authorities enjoyed an existence only in official and literary circles while the Semitic- speaking populace continued to use the Hebrew or Aramaic original. The latter comes back into public use with the Arab conquest. The Arabic names Ludd, Beisan, and Saffurieh, representing original Lod, Bet Se’an and Sippori, leave no hint concerning their imposing Greco-Roman names, viz., Diospolis, Scythopolis, and Diocaesarea, respectively”
  5. ^ Mila Neishtadt. 'The Lexical Substrate of Aramaic in Palestinian Arabic,' in Aaron Butts (ed.) Semitic Languages in Contact, BRILL 2015 pp.281-282:'As in other cases of language shift, the supplanting language (Arabic) was not left untouched by the supplanted language (Aramaic) and the existence of an Aramaic substrate in Syro-Palestinian colloquial Arabic has been widely accepted. The influence of the Aramaic substrate is especially evidence in many Palestinian place names, and in the vocabularies of traditional life and industrials: agriculture, flora, fauna, food, tools, utensils etc.'
  6. ^ a b c d e f Miller and Hayes, 1986, p. 29.
  7. ^ Benvenisti and Kaufman-Lacusta, 2000, p. 16.
  8. ^ a b Swedenburg, 2003, p. 50.
  9. ^ Kramer and Harman, 2008, pp. 1–2
  10. ^ a b Ellenblum, 2003, p. 256.
  11. ^ Richard, 2003, p. 442.
  12. ^ a b Kramer and Harman, 2008, p. 128.
  13. ^ a b Swedenburg, 2003, p. 49.
  14. ^ Davis, 2004, p. 6.
  15. ^ Macalister, 1977, p. 79.
  16. ^ a b Cansdale, 1997, p. 111.
  17. ^ Leibner, 2009, pp. 395–396.
  18. ^ Rast, 1992, p. 25.
  19. ^ a b Conder, C. R. (Claude Reignier); Palestine Exploration Fund; Kitchener, Horatio Herbert Kitchener; Palmer, Edward Henry (1881). The survey of Western Palestine : Arabic and English name lists collected during the survey. Robarts - University of Toronto. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. pp. 5–7.
  20. ^ Hitti, 2002, p. 120.
  21. ^ Burckhardt, John Lewis (1822). Travels in Syria and the Holy Land. J. Murray. ISBN 978-1-4142-8338-8. The source of the Jordan, or as it is here called, Dhan (ضان), is at an hour and a quarter N. E. from Banias.
  22. ^ Elitzur, Ancient Place Names, 339
  23. ^ a b Pritchard, James B. (2015). "Gibeon's History in the Light of Excavation". Congress Volume Oxford 1959. Vetus Testamentum, Supplements. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-27530-0. ... identification of Gibeon with el-Jib has been made certain... The unusual circumstance of finding the ancient name of a city in the debris of occupation has occurred in only three other excavations in Palestine. An Egyptian stela of Seti I which was found at Beisan contains the name of Beth-shan; 3) the name Lachish appears in the text of one of the sixth-century letters found at Tell ed-Duweir; 4) and boundary stones found on the outskirts of Tell el-Jazari are inscribed with the name Gezer. 5) All other identifications of ancient sites are based either upon the assumption that the ancient name has preserved itself in the modern Arabic place name or upon geographic references in biblical or other ancient texts which are supported by the evidence of occupation during the periods to which the texts allude.
  24. ^ Shanks, Hershel. “The Sad Case of Tell Gezer.” Biblical Archaeology Review, Jul/Aug 1983, 30-35, 38-42: "Gezer also has special significance in the history of archaeology. Gezer was the first Biblical city to be identified by an inscription found at the site. Even today only a handful of sites — Beth Shean, Arad, Hazor — have been so identified. In 1873, the great French scholar Clermont-Ganneau found a boundary inscription dating from the Herodian period which reads in Hebrew script, “boundary of Gezer.”"
  25. ^ Glass, 2005, p. 279.
  26. ^ Sharon, 1997, p. 109.
  27. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1856, p. 67.
  28. ^ Macalister 1911, p. 263.
  29. ^ Richard, 1921, p. 140.
  30. ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 209–210.
  31. ^ Eugenio Alliata (2000-12-19), Bethoron (Bayt Ur), Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, archived from the original on 2008-08-29, retrieved 2007-09-12
  32. ^ William Albright (December 1941), "The Egypt-Canaanite God Haurôn", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 84 (84): 7–12, JSTOR 1355138
  33. ^ John Gray (January 1949), "The Canaanite God Horon", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 8 (1): 27–34, doi:10.1086/370902, JSTOR 542437, S2CID 162067028
  34. ^ Negev and Gibson, 2005, p. 166.
  35. ^ Freedman et al., 2006, p. 406.
  36. ^ Tzori, Nehemia (1972-07-01). "New Light on En-Gannim". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 104 (2): 134–138. doi:10.1179/peq.1972.104.2.134. ISSN 0031-0328.
  37. ^ Tzori, Nehemia (1972-07-01). "New Light on En-Gannim". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 104 (2): 134–138. doi:10.1179/peq.1972.104.2.134. ISSN 0031-0328.
  38. ^ Safrai, Zeev (2018). Seeking out the Land: Land of Israel traditions in ancient Jewish, Christian and Samaritan literature (200 BCE-400 CE). Leiden. ISBN 978-90-04-33482-3. OCLC 1022977764.
  39. ^ Josephus Flavius. "Jewish War, Book 3, Chapter 3:4-5". Fordham.edu. Retrieved 2012-12-31 – via Ancient History Sourcebook: Josephus (37 – after 93 CE): Galilee, Samaria, and Judea in the First Century CE. Now as to the country of Samaria, it lies between Judea and Galilee; it begins at a village that is in the great plain called Ginea, and ends at the Acrabbene toparchy, and is entirely of the same nature with Judea
  40. ^ Milgrom, 1995, p. 127.
  41. ^ Bromiley, 1995, p. 1136.
  42. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1860, p. 253–254.
  43. ^ Maspero et al., 1900, p. 288.
  44. ^ Sylomovics, 1998, p. 202.

Bibliography

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