Tzarfat (, ) is a

Biblical placename Names play a variety of roles in the Bible. They sometimes relate to the nominee's role in a Books of the Bible, biblical narrative, as in the case of Nabal, a foolish man whose name means "fool". Names in the Bible can represent human hopes, d ...

that may refer to

Sarepta Sarepta (near modern Sarafand, Lebanon) was a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast between Sidon and Tyre, also known biblically as Zarephath. It became a bishopric, which faded, and remains a double (Latin and Maronite) Catholic titula ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. From Medieval Hebrew and into

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew (, or ), also known as Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the Standard language, standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It is the only surviving Canaanite language, as well as one of the List of languages by first w ...

, it has come to be identified with

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The modern term evolved from the medieval ''Zarfat'', as seen in Joseph ha-Kohen's ''Dibre ha-Yamim le-Malke Zarfat we-'Otoman'' (''Chronicles of the Kings of France and the Ottoman Empire''). The epithet ''tzarfati'' () was frequently applied in rabbinical literature to Jews of French birth or descent and it has become a surname variously spelled as Tzarfati, Sarfati, etc.

References

Sources

* * {{bible-stub Hebrew Bible places