Names of the Levant

Over recorded history, there have been many names of the Levant, a large area in the Middle East, or its constituent parts. These names have applied to a part or the whole of the Levant. On occasion, two or more of these names have been used at the same time by different cultures or sects. As a natural result, some of the names of the Levant are highly politically charged. Perhaps the least politicized name is Levant itself, which simply means "where the sun rises" or "where the land rises out of the sea", a meaning attributed to the region's easterly location on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Ancient Egyptian texts (c. 14th century BC) called the entire coastal area along the Mediterranean Sea between modern Egypt and Turkey rṯnw (conventionally Reṯenu). In the Amarna letters, written in Akkadian cuneiform, Reṯenu is subdivided into five regions: kꜣnꜥnꜥ (Kanana) or Canaan proper (Idumea, Judea, Samaria); pꜣ-kꜣnꜥnꜥ (pa-Kanana), city of Gaza; name used in reference to being the administrative centre of Canaan. Ḏahy (ḏꜣhy;Ṯahi, Ḏahi), roughly Galilee and coastal plain to Ashkelon dominated by Hazor; Rmnn, coast of Lebanon; Amurru, (the Amurru kingdom of the Amorites); Kharu (ḥꜣrw), the chief city of which was Ugarit. Akkadian: 𒆳𒆠𒈾𒄴𒈾 (Kinaḫnu) کَنْعَان kanʕaːn Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 (Knʿn) Χαναάν or Χνᾶ (Khanaán or Khna) Hebrew Israeli כנען ˈkna.an Tiberian כְּנַעַן kəˈnaʕan (Kænaan) Canaan Kenan Prior to (and for some time after) the formation of the Israelite/Hebrew identity and polities in the region, the land was referred to natively as Canaan (first attested in Assyrian Akkadian as Kinaḫnu). Though it was once thought that the Hebrews were foreign settlers in Canaan, the modern consensus of most scholars is that Hebrew identity developed in situ as a direct indigenous evolution of earlier Canaanite tribes; the continuity from Bronze Age Canaanite civilization to Iron Age Israelite/Judean civilization is indeed so seamless that many scholars stress that any dichotomy between the two is essentially arbitrary—with culture, language, etc.