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el-arish
El-Amarna (1915); idem, in: OLZ, 20 (1917), 105–6; F. Thureau-Dangen,
in: Revue d’assyriologie, 19 (1922), 91–108; P. Dhorme, in: RB, 33
(1924), 5–32; G. Dossen, in: Revue d’assyriologie, 31 (1934), 125–36;
S.A.B. Mercer, The Tell el-Amarna Tablets, 1–2 (1939); C.H. Gordon,
in: Orientalia, 16 (1947), 1–21; A.P. Millard, in: PEQ (1965), 140–3; A.F.
Rainey, El Amarna Tablets (1970), 359–79; R. Borger, Handbuch der
Keilschriftliteratur (1967), 237–40; W. Reidel, Untersuchungen zu den
Tell el-Amarna Briefen, 1–2 (1920); F. Bilabel, Geschichte Vorderasiens
und Aegyptien vom 16–11 Jahrhunderten… (1927); Maisler, Untersuchungen,
43–46; idem, in: JPOS, 9 (1929), 80–87; W.F. Albright, in: JEA,
23 (1937), 190–203; idem, in: BASOR, 87 (1942), 32–38; 89 (1943), 7–17;
104 (1946), 25–26; idem, in: JNES, 5 (1946), 5–25; idem, in: Pritchard,
Texts, 483–90; idem, in: CAH2, 2 (1966), ch. 20 (incl. bibl.); W. von
Soden, in: Orientalia, 21 (1952), 426–34; Y. Aharoni, in: IEJ, 3 (1953),
153–61; Aharoni, Land, 87, 157–64; idem, in: VT, 19 (1969), 137–45; Alt,
Kl Schr, 3, 158–75; E.F. Campbell, in: BA, 23 (1960), 2–22; idem, in:
G.E. Wright (ed.), Shechem (1965), 191–207; D.O. Edzard, in: Journal
of Economic and Social History of the Orient, 3 (1960), 38–55; M.L. Verani,
Storia di Ugarit (1962), 18–30; idem, in: Revista degli studio Orientalo,
40 (1965), 267–77; idem, in: Revue d’assyriologie, 61 (1967), 1–18;
Ph. H.J. Houwink Ten Cate, in: BOR, 20 (1963), 270–76; M.C. Astour,
in: For Max Weinreich (1964), 7–17; H. Klengel, in: MIO, 10 (1964),
57–83; P. Artzi, in: Revue d’assyriologie, 58 (1964), 159–66; idem, in:
JNES, 27 (1968), 63–71; idem, in: Bar-Ilan Decennary Volume, 2 (1969);
idem, in: Proceedings of the 27th International Congress of Orientalists
(1969); A. Goetze, in: CAH2, 2 (1965), ch. 17; H. Klengel, Geschichte
Syriens, 1–2 (1965–68); A.F. Rainey, Christian News from Israel, 2
(1966), 30–38; 3 (1966), 23–24; idem, in: IEJ, 18 (1968), 1–14. LINGUIS-
TIC STUDIES: F.-M. Th. Boehl, Die Sprache der Amarnabriefe (1909);
E. Ebeling, Das Verbum der El-Amarna Briefe (1910); E. Dhorme, in:
RB, 10 (1913), 369–93; 11 (1914), 37–59, 344ff.; O. Schroeder, in: OLZ,
18 (1915), 105–6; S. Smith and C.J. Godel, in: JEA, 11 (1925), 230–40;
J. Friedrich, Kleina siatische Sprachdenkmaeler (1932), 8–32; W.F. Albright,
in: BASOR, 86 (1942), 28–31; idem and W.L. Moran, in: JCS, 4
(1950), 163ff.; B. Landsberger, ibid., 8 (1954), 55–61; W.L. Moran, in:
Orientalia, 29 (1960), 1–19; idem, in: G.E. Wright (ed.), The Bible and
the Ancient Near East (1961), 54–72; idem, in: Eretz Israel, 9 (1969),
94–99; R. Youngblood, in: BASOR, 168 (1962), 24–27; E. Salonen, Die
Gruss-und Hoeflichkeitsformeln in babylonisch-assyrischen Briefen
(1967), 61–70; P. Artzi, in: Bar-Ilan, 1 (1963), 27–57; idem, in: JNES,
28 (1969), 261ff. CHRONOLOGY: A. Kitchen, Suppiluliuma and the
Amarna Pharaohs (1962); E.F. Campbell, Jr., The Chronology of the
Amarna Letters (1963); D.B. Redford, History and Chronology of the
Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (1967). STUDIES ON THE HISTORICAL,
POLITICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND: B. Maisler, Toledot Ereẓ
Yisrael (1938), 125–52; H. Reviv, in: BIES, 27 (1963), 270–5; P. Artzi, in:
Eretz Israel, 9 (1969), 22–28; Z. Kalai and H. Tadmor, ibid., 138–47.
Add. Bibliography: W. Moran, Les Lettres d’El Amarna (1987);
idem, The Amarna Letters (1992) (reviewed by A. Rainey, in: Biblica,
70 (1989), 568–72); idem, Amarna Studies (2003); R. Hess, Amarna
Personal Names (1993); A. Rainey, Canaanite in the Amarna Tablets
(1995). See also the bibliography under *Akhenaton.
[William L. Moran]
EL-ARISH (Ar. ﺶﻳﺮﻌﻟا, al-ʿArīsh), town on the Mediterranean
coast of the Sinai Peninsula, near where Wadi al-ʿArīsh (the
biblical Naḥal Miẓrayim: see Brook of *Egypt) reaches the sea.
It was Sinai’s principal center through most historic periods
due to a number of geographical assets: loess soil present in
patches along Wadi al-ʿArīsh and, on other stretches, loess
hidden beneath a thin cover of coarse, porous sand allowing
seepage of rainwater to the subsoil; an average yearly rainfall
of more than 100 mm. (4 in.) which exceeds that of the rest
of Sinai; an enrichment of its water supply by underground
seepage and by seasonal surface flow in Wadi al-ʿArīsh; land
communications leading to the east and west along the ancient
Via Maris (sea road) and to the south, southwest, and southeast
along the course of the wadi; and anchoring facilities on
the beach near the wadi mouth. From the first century, it was
known as a trade center by the name Rhinokoroura. Josephus
mentions the town as part of Judea (Ant. 13:395) and Titus prepared
his march on Palestine there (Wars 4:662). Until 1895 El-
Arish served as the border town between Egypt and Palestine.
Rabbi Judah *al-Ḥarizi passed through El-Arish in 1218 but
does not mention any Jews who might have been there.
El-Arish Project
In the early 20th century, El-Arish and its region were sparsely
settled. At that time, Davis *Trietsch proposed the El-Arish
project for northern Sinai as one of several alternatives for
Jewish settlement in the Middle East. On the basis of *Herzl’s
meeting in 1902 with Joseph *Chamberlain, the area, including
the Pelusian Plain, was designated to become an autonomous
Jewish settlement sponsored by the British government. Lord
Cromer, then the British consul-general in Egypt, requested
that a commission of experts explore the region on the prospects
of settlement and its findings were positive. Nevertheless,
the Egyptian government, on Cromer’s insistence, rejected the
report, declaring itself unable to allocate water from the Nile
for the settlement’s irrigation needs. Cromer’s refusal came in
spite of Herzl’s efforts to rescue the scheme by reducing the
project’s scope to the El-Arish vicinity and renouncing appropriation
of Nile waters for development.
From 1948
During the Israel War of Independence (1948), an Israeli army
unit under Operation Ayin temporarily took up positions just
south of El-Arish (December 1948). In the *Sinai Campaign,
El-Arish fell to Israeli forces on Oct. 31, 1956, and was evacuated
by them, according to the UN’s request, in February 1957.
In the *Six-Day War it was taken by an Israeli column on June
6, 1967, and remained under Israeli administration. Under the
terms of Israel’s peace agreement with Egypt, El-Arish was returned
to Egypt.
After World War I, the town expanded gradually, numbering
7,000 inhabitants in 1932 and, according to Egyptian
sources, 22,000 in 1956 and 45,000 in 1967. In the census conducted
by Israel in August 1967, El-Arish had a population of
29,973. The date-palm groves near the seashore continue to
constitute an important economic branch. Sea fishing and
trapping of quails are additional sources of income. Since
the 1950s, plantations of rhicinus bushes have gained ground
in the area between El-Arish and Rafiaḥ (Rafaḥ) and rhicinus
oil is produced in a factory in the town. Under Egyptian
rule, administrative services to the Sinai Peninsula and especially
services to the Egyptian army became important in El-
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