The present volume is a comprehensive study of some 1724 Lebanese place-names in the districts of Mount Lebanon and North Lebanon. The aim has bee... n 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% ara 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.