CANAAN, kii'nan (Heb. Kana'an, Gk. X(ii aav, Chanaan, perhaps from Hell. hana, to he low). According to Hebrew tradition, a son of Ilam, Gen. x. 6. The curious story is told of him in Gen. ix. 22-27, that he was cursed because of a wrong done not by him. but by Ham to Noah. The latter, becoming drunk with wine, lay un covered in his tent. Ham saw his father's naked ness. and told his brothers. Sheen and Japheth. who covered their father with a garment, walking backward so that they might not see their father in an exposed state. Since it was Canaan who is cursed, and not Ham, it is claimed by many Bible critics that the story was originally told of the former, and the story itself is said to illustrate the opposition to agriculture, of which there are other traces (see article ABEL) in the Old Testament traditions, and also reflects the hostility of the Hebrews to their bitter ene mies. the Canaanites. It is also claimed that in an older tradition, woven into the Pentateuch, the three of Noah were Jiipheth, and Canaan. the first representing the Hebrews, the second a people adjacent to the Hebrews (per haps the Phomicians). and Canaan the Canaan ites. Subsequently, when the tradition became enlarged to represent all peoples known to Ile brew writers, Ham took the place of Canaan and became the general designation for nations hostile to the Hebrews. (See HAM; JAPIIETIL) Canaan. in reality, is merely the eponymous an cestor of the Canaanites. and is also the common designation in the t /Id Testament for the laud to the west of tit:. Jordan. conquered by the Hebrews between the Thirteenth and the Eleventh cam turies B.C. It should, however, he stated that the term is used rather indefinitely, and is some times made to include territory to the east of the Jordan. since that too was in part settled by the Hebrew clans. To the vest of the Jordan the term is extended to include Philistia (e.g. Zeph. ii, 5) and Phaulicia (e.g. kn. though in general it is limited to the territory actually occupied by Ilebre• settlements. that is. the later khwdoms of Judah and Israel.
Front the Egyptian inscriptions. in which the name Ka-n-na appears as early as B.C. ISM. It is evident that Canaan was originally applied to the Phamician coast (including Philistia) and from the coast came to be extended to the in terior. The etymology of Canaan is not eertain, but it is just possible that it designated the low' land, since in Egyptian inscriptions the article is attached to the tern), and in some Semitic languages the stem Kano has the sense of low. There are good reasons for believing that already at a very early period the of Palestine represented a mixture of races. The oldest known to us are the Amorites, the Ana kin). and the Rephafin. These seem to have pre ceded the Canaanites proper, whom the Hebrews encountered. They were powerful warriors and later tradition represents them as endowed with gigantic strength and of great stature. At the time that the Egyptian rulers began their cam paigns for the possession of western Asia (B.C. IS00), the country is already well settled and the existence of numerous towns points to the presence of a civilized population, such as we find at the time of the Hebrew conquest. For several centuries Egypt remained in control, hut prior to this period Babylonian influence bad been dominant in the country. Whether the
country was actually controlled by Babylonian or Assyrian monarchs or not, it is noteworthy that the script and language used by the governors stationed in Palestinian towns in corresponding with Egypt, as is shown by the Amarna cunei form documents (about n.e. 1400), was the Baby lonian. From the letters that passed between Egyptian officials and their royal masters we learn, among other things, that such towns as Jerusalem, Beirut, Byblos, Sidon. Simyre, etc., were already in existence, and there are also in dications that in the Fifteenth Century B.C. some of the clans which afterwards were included in the confederacy of the Ilene Israel were al ready in the land, showing, what we know from other sources, that not all of the Ilebrew tribes had proceeded to Egypt. In the Fifteenth Con tiny. however, the Egyptian control, as these Amarna tablets show, was beginning to show signs of weakness and the rise of Assyria proved a seri ous menace to Egyptian supremacy. The internal disturbances in Egypt were another factor which led to the loss of Palestine and Syria, so that when the Hebrew confederacy came into existence about the middle of the Thirteenth Century and the plan was formed to drive the Cana :1 nitt.; out of their possessions, Egypt neither offered any resistance, nor do we hear of their coming to the aid of the Canaanite:. The conquest was not accomplished at one stroke. It was a gradual displacement of the agricultural population, who were reduced to the grade of dependent serfs where they were not driven out. By the Eleventh Century the may be regarded as com plete and for the succeeding three centuries Israel remains in undisputed possession, though threatened at times by Egypt and involved in more or less constant warfare with the Philis tines to the west. and with Aloal). the Ammonites, and Edomites to the cast and south.
From the Ninth Century the Assyrian rulers pursue a more energetic policy, and as a result, the northern kingdom of Israel falls into their hand: ( about n.e. 722) together with the Plneni chin coast, while the southern portion of Canaan becomes tributary to the great A century later the new Babylonian Kingdom the legacy of Assyria, and in 597 Canaan passes into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar II. Persia succeeds Bahylonia as a world power and Canaan remains in a position of dependence. or is the situation improved with Alexander the Great. The Ile brews, while permitted to exercise certain author ity, are under the control of the. Greek satraps, and when Greece yields to Rome, Canaan. now known as Palestine from the designation Philis tia, given to the southern seacoast, becomes a Iloman province. From the beginning of our era to the present time, Canaan has been one of the great battle-fields of the world, on which the conflicts between the ((Heat and the occident for sulyremacy have been waged.
Sec CA NAANITES ; CRUSADES: ARABIA ; TUB KEY ; SYRIA : and for the geography, fauna, and flora of Canaan. the article PALESTINE.
itIBLIUGRAPIt Y. Consult the histories of the Hebrews by Stade, Ewald, Wellhausen, Piepen bring. Guthe, and others: also, G. A. Smith. //i.s. torical Geography of the Holy Land (New York, 1000 ) .