jaffa city history
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name sources
Jaffa (or Yaffo) is one of the most ancient port cities in the world. Some claim that Jaffa was named after Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah, who built it after the Great Flood. A Hebrew etymology indicates that the city is called Jaffa because of its beauty (yofi in Hebrew). The Hellenist tradition links the name to "Iopeia", which is Cassiopeia, the mother of Andromeda. However the Hellenist accounting for the name dates from hundreds of years after the original naming.
Jaffa (Hebrew יָפוֹ, Standard Hebrew Yafo, Tiberian Hebrew Yāpô; Arabic يَافَا Yāfā; also Japho, Joppa; also, ~1350 B.C.E. Amarna Letters, Yapu), is an ancient city located in Israel. It is now part of the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo in the Tel Aviv District, where the tell ("mound") of ancient Jaffa in “Old Jaffa” is now part of a park in south-western Tel Aviv. Jaffa is a port city on the Mediterranean Sea and the historic gateway into Israel. It is mentioned twice in the Hebrew Bible, once as the port-of-entry for the cedars of Lebanon for Solomon's Temple and once as the place from where the prophet Jonah embarked for Tarshish (Book of Jonah 1:3). It was an important city in the Arab Middle East before Israel was established. During the Crusades it was the County of Jaffa, a stronghold of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
ancient period
The ancient site of Jaffa is now a 40-meter (130 ft.) high hill (Tel Yafo, or "Jaffa Hill"). The hill is suitable for fortifications and defense, and at its foot lie springs which supply fresh water. The accumulation of debris and landfill has over time increased the original strategic advantage of the hill by augmenting its wide field of view over the adjacent coastline.
Jaffa's natural harbor has been occupied since the Bronze Age. It is mentioned in an Ancient Egyptian letter from 1470 BC, glorifying its conquest by Pharaoh Thutmose III, who hid armed warriors in large baskets and gave the baskets as a present to the Canaanite city's governor. The city is also mentioned in the Amarna letters under its Egyptian name Ya-Pho, ( Ya-Pu, EA 296, l.33 ). In 1991, a replica of the Egyptian gate lintels, bearing the titles of Pharaoh Ramesses II, was re-erected on its original site. The city was under Egyptian rule until around 800 BC.
Jaffa is mentioned in the Book of Joshua as the border of the Tribe of Dan's territory. It appears that many of the descendants of Dan, for whom the entire coastal plain is named (Gush Dan), lived along the shore and earned their living from shipmaking and sailing. This is mentioned in the "Song of Deborah" the prophetess, in her complaint "דן למה יגור אוניות": "Why will Dan dwell in ships?", for Dan did not help Judge Barak Ben Avinoam in their war.
King David and his son King Solomon conquered Jaffa and ruled it, and via its port the cedars which were used in the construction of the First Temple arrived from Tyre. The city remained in Jewish hands even after the split of the Kingdom of Israel. In 701 BC the city port was used by Sennacherib, king of Assyria, to invade Israel in the time of King Hezekiah (חזקיהו).
Jaffa was a Seleucid port until the Maccabean rebel princes took it (Maccabees x.76, xiv.5). During the Jewish Revolt, Jaffa was taken and burned by Cestius and eight thousand inhabitants were massacred (according to Josephus). Pirates operating from the rebuilt port incurred the wrath of Vespasian, who razed the city and erected a citadel in its place. Vespasian placed a Roman garrison in the citadel.
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For complete definitions, footnotes, and citations, please read the entire article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffa).
