Editing Levant (section)

==Etymology==
{{See also|Names of the Levant}}

[[File:Médaille commémorative de Syrie-Cilicie.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Orders, decorations, and medals of France|French medal]] commemorating the [[Franco-Turkish War#Cilicia Campaign|Franco-Turkish War]] in [[Cilicia]], {{Circa|1920}}]]

The term ''Levant'' appears in English in [[1497]], and originally meant 'the [[East]]' or 'Mediterranean lands east of Italy'.<ref name=dictionary>{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/levant| title=Levant | work=Dictionary.com| author=Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary| access-date=2012-07-27 }}</ref> It is borrowed from the French {{lang|fr|levant}} 'rising', referring to the rising of the sun in the east,<ref name=dictionary /> or the point where the sun rises.<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition''</ref> The phrase is ultimately from the Latin word {{lang|la|levare}}, meaning 'lift, raise'. Similar etymologies are found in Greek {{lang|grc|Ἀνατολή}} ''Anatolē'' (''cf.'' [[Anatolia#Etymology|Anatolia]] 'the direction of sunrise'), in [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] ''Morgenland'' ({{lit|morning land}}), in Italian (as in ''Riviera di Levante'', the portion of the Liguria coast east of [[Genoa]]), in [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] ''Kelet'' ('east'), in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[Catalan language|Catalan]] ''Levante'' and ''Llevant'', ('the place of rising'), and in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] {{lang|he|מִזְרָח}} ''[[mizrah|mizraḥ]]''  ('east'). Most notably, "Orient" and its [[Latin]] source ''oriens'' meaning 'east', is literally "rising", deriving from [[Latin]] ''orior'' 'rise'.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Balme |first1=Maurice |last2=Morwood |first2=James |title=Oxford Latin Course Part III |chapter=Chapter 36 |page=19 |edition=2nd}}</ref>

The notion of the Levant has undergone a dynamic process of historical evolution in usage, meaning, and understanding. While the term "Levantine" originally referred to the European residents of the eastern Mediterranean region, it later came to refer to regional "native" and "minority" groups.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.levantine-journal.org/AboutJLS.aspx|title=Journal of Levantine Studies|publisher=The [[Van Leer Jerusalem Institute]]|access-date=30 January 2014}}</ref>

The term became current in [[English language|English]] in the 16th century, along with the first English merchant adventurers in the region; English ships appeared in the Mediterranean in the 1570s, and the English merchant company signed its agreement ("[[Capitulation (treaty)|capitulations]]") with the [[Ottoman Sultan]] in 1579.<ref>{{harvnb|Braudel|1974|p={{page needed|date=April 2017}} }}.<!--Not enough to identify the source, or the page from the source, if cited in something else then [[WP:SAYWHEREYOUREADIT]]--></ref> The English [[Levant Company]] was founded in 1581 to trade with the [[Ottoman Empire]], and in 1670 the French {{ill|Compagnie du Levant|fr|Compagnie du Levant}} was founded for the same purpose. At this time, the [[Far East]] was known as the "Upper Levant".<ref name=OEAGR/>

[[File:Constantinople c. 1909.jpg|thumb|1909 postcard depicting Ottoman [[Constantinople]] and bearing a French stamp inscribed "Levant"]]
In early 19th-century [[travel writing]], the term sometimes incorporated certain Mediterranean provinces of the [[Ottoman Empire]], as well as independent [[Greece]] (and especially the [[Greek islands]]). In 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference the place instead of any one culture. The [[French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|French mandate of Syria and Lebanon]] (1920–1946) was called the Levant states.<ref name=OEAGR/><ref name=Encarta/>