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, colloquially also Falasṭīn, an Arabic adaptation of the classical Palestine (Greek Παλαιστίνη Latin Palaestina), the land of the Philistines. The name was used by Herodotus (i, 105; ii, 106; iii, 91; iv, 39) and other Greek and Latin authors to designate the Philistine coastlands and sometimes also the territory east of it as far as the Arabian desert. After the suppression of the Jewish revolts in 70 and 132-5 A.D. and the consequent reduction in the Jewish population the name Syria Palaestin…

(a.) (P. muhr ), seal, signet, signet-ring, the impression (also k̲h̲atm ) as well as the actual seal-matrix; it is applied not only to seals proper, engraved in incuse characters with retrograde inscriptions, but also in the very common seal-like objects with regular inscriptions of a pious or auspicious character; for the latter, which are amulets and further readily distinguished from seals by the absence of a personal name, see ṭilsam ; indeed anything with an inscription stamped upon it may be called k̲h̲ātam . Here we are only concerned with seals in…