Levant

Examples of Levant in the following topics:

• Post-Byzantine Egypt

  • Before the Muslim conquest of Egypt had begun, the Byzantines had already lost the Levant and its Arab ally, the Ghassanid Kingdom, to the Muslims.
  • At its height, the Caliphate controlled an empire from the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant, to the Caucasus in the north, North Africa from Egypt to present-day Tunisia in the west, and the Iranian plateau to Central Asia in the east.
  • At its height the caliphate included in addition to Egypt varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz.
  • Within the span of 24 years of conquest, a vast territory was conquered comprising Mesopotamia, the Levant, parts of Anatolia, and most of the Sasanian Empire.

• The Hittites

  • The Hittite Empire reached its height during the mid-14th century BCE under Suppiluliuma I, when it encompassed an area that included most of Asia Minor as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia.
  • After 1180 BCE, amid general turmoil in the Levant associated with the sudden arrival of the Sea Peoples, the kingdom disintegrated into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states.

• Italian Trade Cities

  • The Crusades had built lasting trade links to the Levant, and the Fourth Crusade had done much to destroy the Byzantine Roman Empire as a commercial rival to the Venetians and Genoese.
  • Luxury goods bought in the Levant, such as spices, dyes, and silks were imported to Italy and then resold throughout Europe.

• Elizabeth I and English Patriotism

  • Diplomatic relations were also established with the Ottoman Empire with the chartering of the Levant Company and the dispatch of the first English ambassador to the Porte, William Harborne, in 1578.
  • Diplomatic relations were also established with the Ottoman Empire with the chartering of the Levant Company and the dispatch of the first English ambassador to the Porte, William Harborne, in 1578.

• The New Kingdom

  • Possibly as a result of the foreign rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom saw Egypt attempt to create a buffer against the Levant and attain its greatest territorial extent.

• The Achaemenid Empire

  • Between c. 500-400 BCE, Darius the Great and his son, Xerxe I, ruled the Persian Plateau and all of the territories formerly held by the Assyrian Empire including Mesopotamia, the Levant and Cyprus.

• Ancient Carthage

  • Carthaginian religion was based on Phoenician religion (derived from the faiths of the Levant), a form of polytheism.

• Greek Dark Ages

  • It was previously believed that all contact had been lost between mainland Hellenes and foreign powers during this period; however, artifacts from excavations at Lefkandi in Euboea show that significant cultural and trade links with the east, especially the Levant coast, developed from approximately 900 BCE onward.

• The Phoenicians

  • Archeology has identified cultural elements of the Phoenician zenith as early as the 3rd millennium BCE.The league of independent city-state ports, with others on the islands and along other coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, was ideally suited for trade between the Levant area, which was rich in natural resources, and the rest of the ancient world.

• Babylon

  • To the west, Hammurabi enjoyed military success against the Semitic states of the Levant (modern Syria), including the powerful kingdom of Mari.Hammurabi also entered into a protracted war with the Old Assyrian Empire for control of Mesopotamia and the Near East.