From: faris@sarcasm.trl.OZ.AU (Aziz Faris)
Subject: Re: ERETZ YISRAEL (was Re: deportation)
Keywords: canaanites
Reply-To: a.Faris@trl.oz.au 
Organization: Telecom Research Labs, Melbourne,Australia
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 01:13:49 GMT

In article <1993Jan8.161829.203446@uctvax.uct.ac.za>, naturman@uctvax.uct.ac.za writes:
|> 
|> Actually the only people who can claim descent from the Canaanites are the Jews
|> since all the ancient tribes living in Israel eventually assimilated into the
|> Jewish people.

 
|> 
|> The Canaanites were not a nation of people. The term as used in the Bible
|> refers to the people who controled the cities of Western Israel (Canaan) as 
|> servants of the Egyptians during the period c. 1400 - 1200 when this area was
|> under Egyptian rule. They fell into three racial groups Hurrian, Hittite
|> and West Semitic/Levantine. The first two of these were invaders from 
|> the area which is now Turkey. As for the West Semitic people the Hebrews were
|> also West Semitic. The archeological evidence shows that  Israel was the 
|> birthplace of West Semitic/Levantine civilization. Thus the Hebrews had a
|> strong claim to this land. Today the Jews are the only people descended from 
|> the ancient West Semites, the earliest inhabitants of Israel.

The Canaanites are people who occupied what is now called Syria, Lebanon, 
Palestine, and parts of Iraq. It is also beleived that Babylon (Bab-El) was
actually founded by Canaanites, since they were the first people to name city
gates after their Gods. It is also beleived that the Phoenicians who at one
time occupied the coasts of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and parts of turkey are
part of the Canaanite tribes.

The Hebrew tribes were Nomads who are thought to have originated in the Arabian
Peninsula and who have migrated into Iraq originally. The tribes were called
the Hebrews which is a semitic word meaning "those who crossed". They were
named as such because they crossed the two great rivers, Tigris and Eupharates.
They have continued their migration path through Syria and eventually have
settled in Palestine. In the process they aquired some of the Sumerian,
Babylonian, and Canaanites culture and religious beleif. The Archaeological
excavations at Ebla and Ugarit (both in Syria) have lead most biblical scholars
to conclude that the Jewish old testaments are based on the litrature of the
Canaanite-Phoenician culture. Excavations at the ancient city of Mari (presently
called Abu-Camal in Syria) has shown a letter by the king of Mari who was even
refering to a nomadic tribe called "Ben-Jaminites", which were located on the
outskirts of his kingdom at that time. 

The Canaanite culture and language were replaced by that of the Aramaics. The
Aramaic language at that time was the simplest semitic language, hence it became
widely accepted and was the official political language of the M.E. during the
rise of the Hebrew civilisation. Later on, Aramaic was replaced by the Arabic
language which was the language of the Quraish tribe of Arabia. At the begining
of the Islamic conquest that language was not suitable enough, and most people
had not converted to Islam. Arabic replaced Aramaic about 50 years into the
Ummayd dynasty.

|> 
|> Not only are the modern Palestinians not related to the Canaanites, they do
|> not seem to be related to the Arabs who invaded Israel in the 7th century CE
|> since those Arabs assimilated into the Seljuk Turks.

How do you know that?. are you saying that the Hebrew tribes has comitted
massive genocide to eliminate those Canaanites?. The Islamic conquest did
eliminate the native people of the M.E. Hence, the people speak the Arabic
language, however, it does not mean that every one has his roots in Arabia.

A.Faris
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish