What is the Levant? Where is it located and which countries does it include? And why is the Levant often called the cradle of world civilization? This will be discussed in our article.
What is the Levant? The meaning and origin of the toponym
Perhaps many have heard this word, met it in the media. What is the Levant? Let's try to figure this out.
It’s worth mentioning right away that the Arabs call this region “Al-Sham”. The term "Levant" is used (and was used earlier) to refer to the territory in the Eastern Mediterranean - a section conditionally located between modern Turkey and the Red Sea. For the first time this toponym is found in documents of the late 15th century. At that time, the Levant indicated all the lands on the map east of Italy. And the word itself came from the French language and translates as "sunrise", or "rising". In other words, the Levant is the land where the Sun rises (of course, from the point of view of Europeans).
The territory of the Levant today covers parts of several states. These are Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan.
Levant population
The peoples of the Levant are united not only by a common geographical location. They have one story, similar cuisine and customs. In addition, almost all of them, with the exception of Jews, speak the same language - Levantine-Arabic.
Most residents of the Levant are Arabs, as well as Muslims (on religious grounds). Jews differ in the compactness of their residence: outside the state of Israel, there are only a few hundred. Adherents of other religions also live here - Catholics, Yezidi Kurds, Protestants and others.
Is the Levant the cradle of world civilization?
“Fertile Crescent” - this is what this region of the planet is often called. And it is not at all accidental, because it was here that agriculture was "invented". The first centers of cultivation of cereal crops in the Levant, according to the results of archaeological excavations of 2013, arose almost ten thousand years ago.
The Levant is called one of the possible places of origin of human civilization as a whole (along with the Indus Valley, Mesoamerica and Peru). True, such statements are very often speculative and pseudo-scientific in nature.
Levant and ISIS
The toponym "Levant" is also present in the name of the largest terrorist organization in the modern world. We are talking about the so-called "Islamic State" or in abbreviated form - ISIS. The full decoding of this abbreviation is: "The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant."
For the first time, ISIS was talked about in 2011. Then the terrorists successfully took advantage of the beginning of the civil war in Syria: they seized weapons, a number of oil wells and some settlements. Today, they control significant territories of Syria, Iraq, as well as Libya and Lebanon. The total population of the “Islamic State” as of the end of 2015 is almost 80 thousand people. Of these, about 15% are in the armed forces of a quasi-state. In 2014, terrorists even began to mint their own coins - dinars.
The main sources of replenishment of the "budget" of a terrorist state are robberies, the sale of oil and captured historical relics on the black market, extortion of cash ransoms for hostages. The main enemies of ISIS are the USA and Israel. But the main goal of the organization is to restore the historical borders of the defunct Ottoman Empire.
Conclusion
Now you know what the Levant is, and you have an idea of ​​where it is. Unfortunately, many people associate this geographical term with the name of the largest terrorist organization that operates in this territory.