Israel (name) in the context of "Jacob in Islam"

The Land of Israel (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל, Modern: Éretz Yisra'él, Tiberian: ʾEreṣ Yīsrāʾēl, land of Jacob, later known as Israel) is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious, and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definitions of the limits of this territory vary between passages in the Hebrew Bible, with specific mentions in Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47. Nine times elsewhere in the Bible, the settled land is referred as "from Dan to Beersheba", and three times it is referred as "from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt" (1 Kings 8:65, 1 Chronicles 13:5 and 2 Chronicles 7:8).

These biblical limits for the land differ from the borders of established historical Israelite and later Jewish kingdoms, including the United Kingdom of Israel, the two kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah, the Hasmonean kingdom, and the Herodian kingdom. At their heights, these realms ruled lands with similar but not identical boundaries.

Judea or Judaea (/dʒuːˈdiːə, dʒuːˈdeɪə/; Hebrew: יהודה, Modern: Yəhūda, Tiberian: Yehūḏā; Arabic: يهودا, Yahūdā; Greek: Ἰουδαία, Ioudaía; Latin: Iudaea) is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Israel and the West Bank. The name's usage is historic, having been used in antiquity and still into the present day; it originates from Yehudah, the Hebrew name of the tribe, called Juda(h) in English. Yehudah was a son of Jacob, later known as 'Israel,' whose sons collectively headed the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Yehudah's progeny among the Israelites formed the Tribe of Judah, with whom the Kingdom of Judah is associated. Related nomenclature continued to be used under the rule of the Babylonians (the Yehud province), the Persians (the Yehud province), during the Hellenistic period (Hasmonean Judea), and under the Romans (the Herodian Kingdom and the Provincia Iudaea, or Province of Judaea). Under the Hasmoneans, the Herodians, and the Romans, the term was applied to an area larger than the Judea of earlier periods. In the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt (c. 132–136 CE), the Roman province of Judaea was renamed Syria Palaestina.

The term Judea was used by English speakers for the hilly internal part of Mandatory Palestine. Judea roughly corresponds to the southern part of the West Bank (Arabic: الضِفَّة الغَرْبِيَّة, romanized: aḍ-ḍiffa al-gharbiya), a territory Israel has occupied since 1967 and administered as the "Judea and Samaria Area"(מחוז יהודה ושומרון, Makhoz Yehuda VeShomron). Usage of the term "Judea and Samaria" is associated with the right wing in Israeli politics.

The Twelve Tribes of Israel (Hebrew: שִׁבְטֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל, romanized: Šīḇṭēy Yīsrāʾēl, lit. 'Staffs of Israel') are described in the Hebrew Bible as being the descendants of Jacob, a Hebrew patriarch who was a son of Isaac and thereby a grandson of Abraham. Jacob, later known as Israel, had a total of twelve sons, from whom each tribe's ancestry and namesake is derived: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. Collectively known as the Israelites, they inhabited a part of Canaan—the Land of Israel—during the Iron Age. Their history, society, culture, and politics feature heavily in the Abrahamic religions, especially Judaism.

In the biblical narrative, after Moses oversaw the Israelites' departure from Egypt, he died and was succeeded by Joshua, who led the conquest of Canaan and subsequently allotted territory for all but the Tribe of Levi, which was instead dedicated 48 cities. This development culminated in the establishment of Israel and Judah, purportedly beginning with a Kingdom of Israel and Judah before splitting into the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south.

El is a Northwest Semitic word meaning 'god' or 'deity', or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. A rarer form, 'ila, represents the predicate form in the Old Akkadian and Amorite languages. The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil-.

Originally a Canaanite deity known as 'El, 'Al or 'Il was the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in the Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia (c. 2900 – c. 2350 BCE). Among the Hittites, El was known as Elkunirša (Hittite: 𒂖𒆪𒉌𒅕𒊭 Elkunīrša). Although El gained different appearances and meanings in different languages over time, it continues to exist as El-, -il or -el in compound proper noun phrases such as Elizabeth, Ishmael, Israel, Samuel, Daniel, Michael, Gabriel (Arabic: Jibra'il), and Bethel.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, the dominant religious practice was that of Arab polytheism, which was based on the veneration of various deities and spirits, such as the god Hubal and the goddesses al-Lāt, al-‘Uzzā, and Manāt. Worship was centred on local shrines and temples, most notably including the Kaaba in Mecca. Deities were venerated and invoked through pilgrimages, divination, and ritual sacrifice, among other traditions. Different theories have been proposed regarding the role of "Allah" (a word in Arabic that is now chiefly associated with God in Islam) in the Meccan religion. Many of the physical descriptions of the pre-Islamic gods and goddesses are traced to idols, especially near the Kaaba, which is said to have contained up to 360 of them.

Other religions—namely Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism—were also represented in the region. The influence of the Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Aksum enabled the nurturing of Christian communities in northwestern, northeastern, and southern Arabia. In the other areas of the Arabian Peninsula, Christianity did not have as much of a presence, though it did secure some converts, and with the exception of Nestorianism in the northeast and around the Persian Gulf, the dominant form of the religion was Miaphysitism. Since the beginning of the Roman era, Jewish migration into Arabia had become increasingly frequent, resulting in the establishment of a prominent Jewish diaspora community, which was supplemented by local converts. Over time, Judaism grew throughout southern Arabia and the northwestern Hejaz.