Samaria

Not to be confused with Samarium, Samarra, Samara, Shimron, Sumeria, or Simeria.
This article is about the geographic region. For the city, see Samaria (ancient city). For the Israeli administration over West Bank settlements, see Judea and Samaria Area. For other uses, see Samaria (disambiguation).
Samaria
Region
Hills near the ruins of Samaria
Hills near the ruins of Samaria
Map
Coordinates: 32°16′30″N 35°11′24″E / 32.275°N 35.190°E / 32.275; 35.190
Part of
Highest elevation1,016 m (3,333 ft)
(Tall Asur (Ba'al Hazor))
Designation السامرة, שֹׁומְרוֹן‎

Samaria (/səˈmæriə, -ˈmɛəriə/), the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron (Hebrew: שֹׁמְרוֹן‎),[1] is used as a historical and biblical name for the central region of the Land of Israel. It is bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north.[2][3] The region is known to the Palestinians in Arabic under two names, Samirah (Arabic: السَّامِرَة‎, as-Sāmira), and Mount Nablus (جَبَل نَابُلُس, Jabal Nābulus).

The first-century historian Josephus set the Mediterranean Sea as its limit to the west, and the Jordan River as its limit to the east.[3] Its territory largely corresponds to the biblical allotments of the tribe of Ephraim and the western half of Manasseh. It includes most of the region of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, which was north of the Kingdom of Judah. The border between Samaria and Judea is set at the latitude of Ramallah.[4]

The name "Samaria" is derived from the ancient city of Samaria, capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel.[5][6][7] The name Samaria likely began being used for the entire kingdom not long after the town of Samaria had become Israel's capital, but it is first documented after its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which incorporated the land into the province of Samerina.[5]

Samaria was used to describe the northern midsection of the land in the UN Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947. It became the administrative term in 1967, when the West Bank was defined by Israeli officials as the Judea and Samaria Area,[8] of which the entire area north of the Jerusalem District is termed as Samaria. In 1988, Jordan ceded its claim of the area to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).[9] In 1994, control of Areas 'A' (full civil and security control by the Palestinian Authority) and 'B' (Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli–Palestinian security control) were transferred by Israel to the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority and the international community do not recognize the term "Samaria"; in modern times, the territory is generally known as part of the West Bank.[10]

  1. ^ "Samaria". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. HarperCollins Publishers. 2022. Archived from the original on 23 November 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  2. ^ "Samaria - historical region, Palestine". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 18 December 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  3. ^ a b Josephus Flavius. "Jewish War, book 3, chapter 3:4-5". Fordham.edu. Archived from the original on 29 April 2023. Retrieved 31 December 2012 – via Ancient History Sourcebook: Josephus (37 – after 93 CE): Galilee, Samaria, and Judea in the First Century CE.
  4. ^ The New Encyclopaedia Britannica: Macropaedia, 15th edition, 1987, volume 25, "Palestine", p. 403
  5. ^ a b Mills & Bullard 1990.
  6. ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Archived from the original on 2023-02-08. Retrieved 2014-01-28.
  7. ^ "Open Collections Program: Expeditions and Discoveries, Harvard Expedition to Samaria, 1908–1910". ocp.hul.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 2023-02-08. Retrieved 2012-02-25.
  8. ^ Emma Playfair (1992). International Law and the Administration of Occupied Territories: Two Decades of Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Oxford University Press. p. 41. On 17 December 1967, the Israeli military government issued an order stating that "the term 'Judea and Samaria region' shall be identical in meaning for all purposes ... to the term 'the West Bank Region'". This change in terminology, which has been followed in Israeli official statements since that time, reflected a historic attachment to these areas and rejection of a name that implied Jordanian sovereignty over them.
  9. ^ Kifner, John (1 August 1988). "Hussein surrenders claims on West Bank to the P.L.O.; U.S. peace plan in jeopardy; Internal Tensions". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 6 December 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  10. ^ Neil Caplan (19 September 2011). The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 18–. ISBN 978-1-4443-5786-8.