Semites

(noun)

Today, the word "Semite" may be used to refer to any member of any of a number of peoples of ancient Southwest Asian descent, including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews (Jews), Arabs, and their descendants.

Related Terms

Examples of Semites in the following topics:

  • The Phoenicians

    • Known for their alphabet, the Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic maritime trading culture in the Mediterranean which fell under both Persian and Hellenistic rule.
    • Phoenicia was an ancient Semitic civilization situated on the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent near modern-day Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Palestine and Syria.
    • However, in terms of archaeology, language, life style and religion, there is little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other Semitic cultures of Canaan.

  • The Assyrians

    • The Assyrians were a major Semitic empire of the Ancient Near East, who existed as an independent state for approximately nineteen centuries between c. 2500-605 BCE, enjoying widespread military success in its heyday.
    • The Assyrian Empire was a major Semitic kingdom, and often empire, of the Ancient Near East.
    • In the late 24th century BCE, Assyrian kings were regional leaders under Sargon of Akkad, who united all the Akkadian Semites and Sumerian-speaking peoples of Mesopotamia under the Akkadian Empire (c. 2334 BC-2154 BCE).

  • Babylon

    • The Sumerian "Ur-III" dynasty eventually collapsed at the hands of the Elamites, another Semitic people, in 2002 BCE.
    • Conflicts between the Amorites (Western Semitic nomads) and the Assyrians continued until Sargon I (1920-1881 BCE) succeeded as king in Assyria and withdrew Assyria from the region, leaving the Amorites in control (the Amorite period).
    • To the west, Hammurabi enjoyed military success against the Semitic states of the Levant (modern Syria), including the powerful kingdom of Mari.

  • The Sumerians

    • "Sumerian" is the name given by the Semitic-speaking Akkadians to non-Semitic speaking people living in Mespotamia.
    • However, the region was becoming more Semitic, and the Sumerian language became a religious language.

  • The Second Intermediate Period

    • It existed concurrently with the Thirteenth Dynasty, and its rulers seemed to be of Canaanite or West Semitic descent.
    • The Hyksos were of mixed Asiatic origin with mainly Semitic components, and their native storm god, Baal, became associated with the Egyptian storm god Seth.

  • Nebuchadnezzar and the Fall of Babylon

    • Following this military defeat, a terrible famine gripped Babylon, which invited attacks from Semitic Aramean tribes from the west.
    • However, Babylonia soon began to suffer repeated incursions from Semitic nomadic peoples migrating from the west, and large swathes of Babylonia were appropriated and occupied by these newly arrived Arameans, Chaldeans, and Suteans.

  • The Akkadian Empire

    • The Akkadian Empire was an ancient Semitic empire centered in the city of Akkad, which united all the indigenous Akkadian speaking Semites and Sumerian speakers under one rule.

  • The Rise of Egyptian Civilization

    • The Harifian culture migrated out of the Fayyum and the Eastern deserts of Egypt to merge with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B; this created the Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex, who invented nomadic pastoralism and may have spread Proto-Semitic language throughout Mesopotamia.

  • Empress Maria-Theresa

    • The empress was arguably the most anti-Semitic monarch of her time yet, as many of her contemporaries, she supported Jewish commercial and industrial activity.

  • Enlightened Despotism

    • While he protected and encouraged trade by Jewish citizens of the Empire, he repeatedly expressed strong anti-Semitic sentiments.