User:Lemonbalm1990/sandbox/History of the Jews in Syria

Timeline of History and Context of the Jews in Greater Syria

This is a timeline of the history and context of the Jews in the region of Syria (al-Sham), comprising important historical context, religious symbolism, legal and territorial changes, and political events in the history of the Jews in ancient, historical, and contemporary Syria. The borders of the territory known as "Syria" or "Assyria" have fluctuated greatly since the name's first usage by Assyrians as an ethnonym in 2500 BCE. In the Levant, territory referred to as "Syria" has at times covered portions of contemporary Syria, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. For this reason, the timeline covers the following regions as is relevant to the history of Jews and Judaism:


 * 1) Prehistoric Near East
 * 2) Neolithic Levant and Mesopotamia
 * 3) Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age Canaan
 * 4) The territory of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the United Kingdom of Israel, the Kingdom of Judea, and the Kingdom of Israel
 * 5) Assyria and the Kingdom of Aram-Damascus, the Babylonian and Persian province of Yehud, the Macedonian province of Coele-Syria, the Seleucid occupation of Judah, and the Roman Province of Syria Palestina
 * 6) The Arab Caliphates and the Ottoman Sultanates of Greater Syria (al-Sham)
 * 7) The French mandate of Syria and British Mandatory Palestine
 * 8) Contemporary Syria

To read about the background of the following events, see History of the ancient Levant, Canaan, Ancient Canaanite religion, Origins of Judaism, Jewish History, and Syrian Jews.

A Note on Historical eras and the Torah The history of Jewish presence in Syria dates to the beginnings of Judaism, and the specific geography of what is now modern-day Syria is first mentioned in the Torah in the book of Genesis. It is generally agreed upon by historians that, unlike later sections of the Torah, the time period in Genesis is allegorical and not a reference to one discrete historical era or singular historical figures.

Thus, the first reference to a specific location in Syria within the Torah cannot be dated. It occurs in Genesis, when the Jewish patriarch Abraham passes through Ḥalab (Aleppo) on his initial journey from Ur to Canaan. Abraham pastures his sheep on the mountain of Aleppo and distributes their milk (ḥalav) to the poor on its slopes. The connection between Abraham and Aleppo can be best understood as a testament to the importance of Canaanite culture to proto-Judaism, specifically Judaism's evolution out of and early coexistence with Ancient Canaanite religion, starting in the late Bronze Age.

Scope of the Timeline

Given the organic emergence of Israelite culture out of Canaanite culture, the beginning of this article can be considered a timeline of the direct cultural ancestors of the Jewish Israelite tribes. The timeline begins with the entry of humans into the Levant, and narrows to focus on the Ghassulian proto-Canaanites in the coastal Levant during the Chalcolithic era before transitioning to a discussion of the emergence of the proto-Israelite tribes out of the Canaanite culture.

As both secular archaeologists and Reconstructionist Jewish scholars have identified, Jewish cosmology and religion shows a clear imprint from cultures that predated or coexisted with the proto-Canaanites, such as the influence of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh on the Book of Genesis. For this reason, this timeline could begin with the Neolithic period in the Near East and the beginnings of agriculture in the Levant and Mesopotamia.

Due to the referential nature of Jewish cosmology and creation myth, which builds upon Sumerian and Ancient Egyptian creation stories, which in turn reference the cosmology and mythology of earlier cultures and peoples, this timeline begins at the true beginning of this period of human settlement in the region: c. 25,000 BCE at the waning of the Last Glacial Maximum, or ice age, when Homo sapiens began re-entering the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant from North Africa.

Millennia: 3rd BC ·2nd BC ·1st BC ·1st–2nd·3rd Centuries: 1st·2nd·3rd·4th·5th·6th·7th·8th·9th·10th·11th·12th·13th·14th·15th·16th·17th·18th·19th·20th·See also·Further reading

2nd millenium BCE, the Israelite Judges and Kings
All dates in this timeline related to the period of the biblical judges are speculative and approximate, as there is not current consensus on dates for much of the Old Testament prior to the Books of Samuel. Dates regarding the biblical judges in this timeline are based on research by historians and biblical scholars J.P. Payne, Kenneth Kitchen, and the website Biblehub.

1st millenium CE, under the Byzantines
See History of the Byzantine Empire and History of the Jews in the Byzantine Empire for more information.

1st millenium CE, under the Arabs
See History of Jews in Syria for more information.

1st millenium CE, under the Ottomans
See Ottoman Syria, Timelines of Ottoman Syria, and History of the Jews in Syria for more information.

21st century CE
See Syrian Civil War and History of the Jews in Syria for more information.