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Article: Levant
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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LEVANT
LEVANT.
The Levant covers the eastern Mediterranean, its islands, including Crete, Cyprus, Rhodes, Chios, and Lesbos, and the lands it borders: modern-day Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Egypt. Around 1300, the region was under the control of a variety of different rulers, the Turco-Circassian Mamluk dynasty in Egypt and Syria, various Turkish states in western Anatolia, and the Byzantines. The Genoese controlled Chios and Lesbos and had established themselves on the Anatolian mainland and in Constantinople, while Venice controlled Crete, Negroponte, Naxos, Andros, Mykonos, Karpathos, and Santorini. The Hospitallers ruled Rhodes and, at the beginning of the ...