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).

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Offerings

    • In individual pre-Christian ethnic religions, terms translated as "sacrifice" include the Indic yajna, the Greek thusia, the Germanic blōtan, the Semitic qorban/qurban, etc.

  • The Changing Definitions of Race

    • Medieval models of race mixed Classical ideas with the notion that humanity as a whole was descended from Shem, Ham and Japheth, the three sons of Noah, producing distinct Semitic, (Asian), Hamitic (African), and Japhetic (European) peoples.

  • Babylon

    • The Amorites, unlike the Sumerians and Akkadian Semites, were not native to Mesopotamia, but were semi-nomadic Semitic invaders from the lands to the west.

  • Genocide

    • Helen Fein showed that pre-existing anti-Semitism and systems that maintained anti-Semitic policies was related to the number of Jews killed in different European countries during the Holocaust.

  • 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.