Golan
Golan (Hebrew: גּוֹלָן, romanized: Gōlān; Arabic: جولان, romanized: Jawlān) is the name of a biblical town, later known from the works of Josephus (first century CE) and Eusebius (Onomasticon, early 4th century CE).[1] Archaeologists localize the biblical city of Golan at Sahm el-Jaulān,[2] a Syrian village east of Wadi ar-Ruqqad in the Daraa Governorate, where early Byzantine ruins were found.[2] Israeli historical geographer, Zev Vilnay, tentatively identified the town of Golan with the Goblana (Gaulan) of the Talmud[3] which he thought to be the ruin ej-Jelêbîne on the Wâdy Dabûra, near the Lake of Huleh, by way of a corruption of the site's original name.[4]
Etymology
[edit]In the Bible, Golan is mentioned as a city of refuge in the Bashan (Deuteronomy 4:43, Joshua 20:8 and 1 Chronicles 6:71).[5] The name derives from the Semitic root g-w-l "to move in circle" with the suffix -ān commonly used to form toponyms, with the sense "surrounded".[6][7]
The shift in the meaning of Golan, from a town to a broader district or territory, is first attested by the Jewish historian Josephus. His account likely reflects Roman administrative changes implemented after the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE).[8] The name Golan Heights was not used before the 19th century.[5]
The Greek name for the region is Gaulanîtis (Γαυλανῖτις).[9] In the Grecized form Gaulanitis (Ancient Greek: Γαυλανῖτις, romanized: Gaulanîtis), it is the name of the region apparently named for the town of Golan.[1] During much of the Hellenistic period, the region was part of the Seleucid Empire.[1] In Roman times it was shared between the Roman provinces of Judaea and Phoenice.[10]
In the Mishnah the name is Gablān similar to Aramaic language names for the region: Gawlāna, Guwlana and Gublānā.[9] The Arabic name is Jawlān,[9] sometimes romanized as Djolan, which is an Arabized version of the Canaanite and Hebrew name.[11] Arab cartographers of the Byzantine period referred to the area as a mountain, though the region is a plateau.[12] According to Vilnay, the village took its name from the district Gaulanitis (Golan). The ruin is not far from the Daughters of Jacob Bridge. The traces of the town were described by G. Schumacher in the late 19th-century as being "a desert ruin", having "no visible remains of importance, but [having] the appearance of great antiquity."[13]
Hebrew Bible
[edit]The area is referred to in the Hebrew Bible as the territory of Manasseh in the conquered territory of Bashan: Golan was the most northerly of the three cities of refuge east of the Jordan River (Deuteronomy 4:43). Manasseh gave this Levitical city to the Gershonite Levites (Joshua 21:27; 1 Chronicles 6:71). According to the Bible, the Israelites conquered Golan, taking it from the Amorites.
Persian period
[edit]During the Persian period (c. 539–332 BCE) the Golan region, together with the Bashan, formed the satrapy of Karnaim.[1]
Hellenistic and Early Roman periods
[edit]Now named Gaulanitis, the area formed a district all by itself during the early Hellenistic period.[1] Once the Seleucid Empire started its gradual collapse, the Golan became a target for Iturean and other Arab tribes.[14] At the same time it was enveloped by the regional wars fought by Hasmonean ruler Alexander Jannaeus (r. 103-76 BCE) against the Nabatean kings Obodas I and Aretas III between ca. 93–80 BCE, leading to the conquest of the Golan by Jannaeus.[14]
In 63 BCE the entire former Seleucid realm was conquered by Roman general Pompey,[14] and the Golan is settled by the Itureans.[1] In 23 BCE the Jewish king Herod the Great, a client ruler loyal to Rome, receives the rule over the wider Hauran region. He leaves it to his heirs, who hold it until the death of Agrippa II at the end of the first century CE.[1][14]
The city of Golan was known to Josephus. It formed the eastern boundary of Galilee and was part of the tetrarchy of Philip. It was described by Eusebius in his Onomasticon as a large village that gave its name to the surrounding country.
Late Roman and Byzantine periods
[edit]The region was prosperous between the 2nd and the 7th century CE when pagan communities were step by step replaced by Christian ones.[10] A different view is that the Christians of the Golan were Ghassanids, an Arab tribe originally from Yemen, used by the Byzantines as frontier guards since the end of the 5th century.[1] An important Jewish presence was attested by archaeology since the Roman period in the Golan, and by the 6th century the population of the Byzantine Golan was made up by Jews and Christian Ghassanids.[1]
The Golan was prosperous during the Roman and Byzantine periods, but had a purely rural character and lacked any larger towns.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Avraham Negev & Shimon Gibson (2001). Golan; Gaulanitis; Jaulan. New York and London: Continuum. pp. 206–208. ISBN 0-8264-1316-1.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ a b Rami Arav; Richard A. Freund (2004). Bethsaida: A City by the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee, vol. 3 (v. 3) (Paperback ed.). Truman State University Press. p. 42. ISBN 1-931112-39-8.
- ^ Jerusalem Talmud (Avodah Zarah chapter 2; Megillah, chapter 3)
- ^ Vilnay, Z. (1954). "Identification of Talmudic Place Names". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 45 (2). University of Pennsylvania Press: 133–134. doi:10.2307/1452901. JSTOR 1452901.
- ^ a b E. A. Myers (2010). The Ituraeans and the Roman Near East: Reassessing the Sources (Hardcover ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-521-51887-1.
- ^ "Ancient faiths embodied in ancient names: or, An attempt to trace the religious belief ... of certain nations", by Thomas Inman, 1872 History, page 551
- ^ Hastings, James (October 2004). A Dictionary of the Bible: Volume II: (Part I: Feign – Hyssop). The Minerva Group. ISBN 978-1-4102-1724-0.
- ^ Urman, Dan (1 January 1998), "Jews in the Golan—Historical Background", Ancient Synagogues, Volume 2, Brill, pp. 380–385, doi:10.1163/9789004532366_009, ISBN 978-90-04-53236-6, retrieved 10 September 2024
- ^ a b c Moshe Sharon (2004). Corpus inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 211. ISBN 978-90-04-13197-2.
- ^ a b The history and antiquities of al-Golan - International Conference Archived 2020-02-01 at the Wayback Machine, Al-Bassel Center for Archaeological Research and Training, 2007-2008.
- ^ John Lewis Burchhardt (1822). Travels in Syria and the Holy Land. Association for the promoting the discovery of the interior parts of Africa. p. 286.
- ^ Shahîd 1995, pp. 87, 89.
- ^ Schumacher, G. (1888). The Jaulân: surveyed for the German Society for the Exploration of the Holy Land. London: Richard Bentley & Son. pp. 162–163. OCLC 1142389290.
- ^ a b c d Shimon Dar of Bar Ilan University (2003). Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom (ed.). The Nabateans in the Hauran. Haifa: Hecht Museum, University of Haifa. pp. 45–46. ISBN 965-7034-12-4.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help)