| Summary: | The present volume covers some 1724 Lebanese place-names in the districts of Mount Lebanon and North Lebanon. The aim has been to: a) establish a database of place-names based on fieldwork; b) present the etymologies of these names based on the latest findings in Semitic lexicography, onomastics and dialectology; and c) plot the results across the Lebanese territory. The present volume presents a glimpse of Lebanon's yesterday. An analysis of the place-names, focusing on language, geography and society, tends to confirm that language and religion shifts in Lebanon were gradual. Nearly 49% of the place-names are Arabic, 36% are Aramaic, while some 6% are Phoenician. The traditional dividing lines between religious groups are only slightly reflected in place-names. These groups seem to have had a similar sociocultural development. The landscape holds a central position in Lebanese place-names. Water, human occupation, religion and the family also hold a prominent position.
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