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Habiru or Apiru (Egyptian: ''ˁpr.w'') was the name given by various Sumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Mitanni, and Ugaritic sources (dated, roughly, between 1800 BC and 1100 BC) to a group of people living as nomadic invaders in areas of the Fertile Crescent from Northeastern Mesopotamia and Iran to the borders of Egypt in Canaan.〔(William H McNeil and Jean W Sedlar, in "The Ancient Near East" discuss the etymology of the name habiru and references to it in the Amarna letters and Egyptian campaign literature.)〕 Depending on the source and epoch, these Habiru are variously described as nomadic or semi-nomadic, rebels, outlaws, raiders, mercenaries, and bowmen, servants, slaves, migrant laborers, etc. The Habiru are often identified as the early Hebrews.〔http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/habiru〕〔http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Habiru〕 The names Habiru and Apiru are used in Akkadian cuneiform texts. The corresponding name in the Egyptian script appears to be ''ʕpr.w'', conventionally pronounced ''Apiru'' (W,or u-vowel "quail-chick" being used as the Egyptian plural suffix). In Mesopotamian records they are also identified by the Sumerian logogram ''SA.GAZ''. The name ''Habiru'' was also found in the Amarna letters to Egyptian pharaohs, along with many names of Canaanite peoples written in Akkadian. ==The sources== As more texts were uncovered throughout the Near East, it became clear that the ''Habiru'' were mentioned in contexts ranging from unemployed agricultural workers and vagrants, to mounted mercenary bowmen. The context differed depending upon where the references were found. Though found throughout most of the Fertile Crescent, the arc of civilization "extending from the Tigris-Euphrates river basins over to the Mediterranean littoral and down through the Nile Valley during the Second Millennium, the principal area of historical interest is in their engagement with Egypt."〔Carol A. Redmount, 'Bitter Lives: Israel in and out of Egypt' in The Oxford History of the Biblical World, ed: Michael D. Coogan, (Oxford University Press: 1999), p.98〕 Carol Redmount, who wrote 'Bitter Lives: Israel in and out of Egypt' in ''The Oxford History of the Biblical World'', concluded that the term "Habiru" had no common ethnic affiliations, that they spoke no common language, and that they normally led a marginal and sometimes lawless existence on the fringes of settled society.〔Redmount, p.98〕 She defines the various Apiru/Habiru as "a loosely defined, inferior social class composed of shifting and shifty population elements without secure ties to settled communities" who are referred to "as outlaws, mercenaries, and slaves" in ancient texts.〔 In that vein, some modern scholars consider the Habiru to be more of a social designation than an ethnic or a tribal one. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Habiru」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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