Carmel was an ancient

Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

town in

Judea Judea or Judaea (; ; , ; ) is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel. The name's usage is historic, having been used in antiquity and still into the pres ...

, lying about from

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

, on the southeastern frontier of Mount Hebron.Amit (n.d.), pp. 226–228 Conder & Kitcherner (1883), p
312
/ref> According to the Bible,

Saul Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh c ...

erected a victory monument in Carmel to memorialize his triumph over

Amalek Amalek (; ) is described in the Hebrew Bible as the enemy of the nation of the Israelites. The name "Amalek" can refer to the descendants of Amalek, the grandson of Esau, or anyone who lived in their territories in Canaan, or North African descend ...

. The site is generally identified with the Arab village of al-Karmil.

In the Hebrew Bible

There are several references to Carmel in the Bible. Carmel is mentioned as a city of Judah in the

Books of Samuel The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Book of Joshua, Joshua, Book of Judges, Judges, Samuel, and Books of ...

and also in . It is mentioned as the place where

erects a monument after the expedition against the Amalekites (). Carmel is mentioned in as the place of Nabal's possessions, who was the husband of

Abigail Abigail () was an Israelite woman in the Hebrew Bible married to Nabal; she married the future King David after Nabal's death (1 Samuel ). Abigail was David's third wife, after Ahinoam and Saul's daughter, Michal, whom Saul later married to ...

. Beside the agricultural importance of the site, Carmel had also a strategic importance because of it containing the only reliable natural spring of water in the immediate area, which waters are collected in a man-made pool. Carmel, in relation to Maon, lies directly to its north, within close proximity.

Roman and Byzantine period

Mentioned in

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

' '' Onomasticon'' as a village "10 milestones east of

," the village housed a Roman garrison after the

Bar Kochba revolt The Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 AD) was a major uprising by the Jews of Judaea against the Roman Empire, marking the final and most devastating of the Jewish–Roman wars. Led by Simon bar Kokhba, the rebels succeeded in establishing an ind ...

. The Jewish settlement is thought to have prospered until the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

army of Chosroes forced the Roman garrison of

Heraclius Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas. Heraclius's reign was ...

' army to leave Palestine. With a lack of market for their wine, the Jewish settlement declined, with the synagogue finally being abandoned in the 9th century. In the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

era, around the 6th or 7th century CE, a church was built here, on the western side of the remains. Outlines of a further two churches were uncovered to the immediate north and south. The abandoned synagogue, which still stands in the Palestinian town now known as al-Karmil, is one of the best preserved ancient synagogues in the West Bank. Avigail-Tel-Maon-Karmil-645

Crusader period

During the period of the Crusades in the 12-century CE, a

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

was built at Carmel under the command of Renaud of Châtillon. Ellenblum (2007), pp. 108, 254, 309

William of Tyre William of Tyre (; 29 September 1186) was a Middle Ages, medieval prelate and chronicler. As Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tyre, archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from his predecessor, William I of Tyr ...

mentions Carmel as the camp of King Amalric in 1172.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * Kuhnen, H-P., ''Studien zur Chronologie und Siedlungsarchaologie des Karmel (Israel) zwischen Hellenismus und Spatantike'' (Wiesbaden, 1989). * Lozovyy, Joseph. (2006)
''Saul, Doeg, Nabal and the "Son of Jesse": Readings in 1 Samuel 16-25.''
Ph.D. Thesis at the University of Edinburgh * * * *

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 21:
IAAWikimedia commons
(''el-Kurmul'' shown on bottom part of map) {{DEFAULTSORT:Carmel (biblical settlement) Hebrew Bible cities District of Hebron Judea (Roman province) Ancient Jewish settlements of Judaea Crusade places Biblical geography Ancient Jewish history Saul