Azor
{{Other uses}}
{{Infobox settlement
| name = Azor
| native_name = {{Hlist
| {{Lang|he|{{Script/Hebrew|אָזוֹר}}|rtl=yes}}
| {{Lang|ar|{{Lang|ar|أزور}}|rtl=yes}}
}}
| settlement_type = Local council (from 1951)
| translit_lang1 = Hebrew
| translit_lang1_type1 = ISO 259
| translit_lang1_info1 = ʔazor
| image_skyline = Azor-S-747.jpg
| pushpin_map_alt =
| pushpin_map = Israel center ta#Israel
| pushpin_mapsize = 250
| pushpin_label_position = right
| pushpin_map_caption =
| coordinates = {{coord|32|1|20.03|N|34|48|40.47|E|region:IL|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
| subdivision_type = Country
| subdivision_name = {{flag|Israel}}
| subdivision_type1 = District
| subdivision_name1 = {{flag|Tel Aviv District|name=Tel Aviv}}
| established_title = Founded
| established_date = 1948
| leader_title = Head of Municipality
| leader_name = Arie Pechter
| unit_pref = dunam
| area_total_dunam = {{formatnum:2415|R}}
| population_footnotes = {{Israel populations|reference}}
| population_total = 13,593
| population_as_of = 2022
| population_density_km2 = auto
| website = [http://www.azor.muni.il www.azor.muni.il]
}}
Azor ({{langx|he|אָזוֹר}}) is a local council in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, on the old Jaffa-Jerusalem road southeast of Tel Aviv. Established in 1948, Azor was granted local council status in 1951.{{cite web|url=http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/il-lcazr.html |title=Azur (Israel) |work= |publisher= |date=|accessdate=2 April 2015 }} In {{Israel populations|Year}} it had a population of {{Israel populations|Azor}},{{Israel populations|reference}} and has a jurisdiction of {{convert|2,415|dunam|km2 sqmi}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.cbs.gov.il/publications/local_authorities2005/pdf/320_0565.pdf |title=Local Authorities in Israel 2005, Publication #1295 - Municipality Profiles - Azor |publisher=Israel Central Bureau of Statistics |accessdate=2008-04-17 |language=Hebrew |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233800/http://www.cbs.gov.il/publications/local_authorities2005/pdf/320_0565.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-03 |url-status = dead}}
Etymology
The earliest occurrence of the name is Babylonian A-zu-ru (in a Neo-Assyrian text from 701 B.C.E.) which is compatible with the Septuagint form Άζωρ (Joshua 19:45). According to scholars, the name may derive from Semitic root ’-Z-R “to gird, encompass, equip”, but "this derivation is highly hypothetical as this root is so far not productive in the toponymy."{{Cite journal |last=Marom |first=Roy |last2=Zadok |first2=Ran |date=2023 |title=Early-Ottoman Palestinian Toponymy: A Linguistic Analysis of the (Micro-)Toponyms in Haseki Sultan’s Endowment Deed (1552) |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0cs6f5k5 |journal=Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins |language=en |volume=139 |issue=2}}
The council of the new village named it Mishmar HaShiv'a ('Guardian of the Seven') in honour of seven Israelis soldiers killed near there in 1948, but the government committee in charge of assigning names forced them to change it to Azor on the grounds that preserving Biblical names was more important.{{cite book |author= Meron Benvenisti |title= Sacred Landscape |pages=32–33 |publisher= University of California Press |year=2002 }} However, another new village nearby was later named Mishmar HaShiv'a.
History
The tel of the ancient city is situated in the northern part of modern Azor.
the 16th century, Haseki sultan endowed the lands of Azor to its Jerusalem soup kitchen.{{Cite journal |last=Marom |first=Roy |date=2022-11-01 |title=Jindās: A History of Lydda's Rural Hinterland in the 15th to the 20th Centuries CE |url=https://www.academia.edu/90931976/Jind%C4%81s_A_History_of_Lyddas_Rural_Hinterland_in_the_15th_to_the_20th_Centuries_CE |journal=Lod, Lydda, Diospolis |volume=1 |pages=8-9}} During the 18th and 19th centuries, the area belonged to the Nahiyeh (sub-district) of Lod that encompassed the area of the present-day city of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut in the south to the present-day city of El'ad in the north, and from the foothills in the east, through the Lod Valley to the outskirts of Jaffa in the west. This area was home to thousands of inhabitants in about 20 villages, who had at their disposal tens of thousands of hectares of prime agricultural land.{{Cite journal |last=Marom |first=Roy |date=2022 |title=Lydda Sub-District: Lydda and its countryside during the Ottoman period |url=https://www.academia.edu/79946175/Lydda_Sub_District_Lydda_and_its_countryside_during_the_Ottoman_period_%D7%A0%D7%A4%D7%AA_%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%93_%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%93_%D7%95%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%97%D7%91_%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%A4%D7%99_%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%94_%D7%91%D7%AA%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%94_%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%AA%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%AA |journal=Diospolis - City of God: Journal of the History, Archaeology and Heritage of Lod |volume=8 |pages=103-136}}
Notable residents
- Shelly Krolitzky (born 1999), tennis player
- Matvey Natanzon, backgammon player{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/05/13/130513fa_fact_khatchadourian|title=The Chaos of the Dice|magazine=The New Yorker|author=Raffi Khatchadourian|date=May 13, 2013|accessdate=May 14, 2013}}
- Margalit Tzan'ani, singer and tv personality[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118249.html Don't mess around with me], Haaretz
Main sights
- {{Interlanguage link|Azor Museum|he|מוזיאון אזור}}, archaeological museum
References
{{Commons category-inline}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Tel Aviv District}}
{{Authority control}}