Editing Sarepta (section)

== History ==
[[File:Sarepta April 27th 1839 - David Roberts, R.A. LCCN2002717517 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Sarepta in ''[[The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia]]'']]
Sarepta is mentioned for the first time in the voyage of an [[ancient Egypt]]ian in the 14th century BCE.<ref>[[Francois Chabas|Chabas]], ''Voyage d'un Egyptien'', 1866, pp 20, 161, 163</ref> [[Obadiah]] says it was the northern boundary of [[Canaan]]: “And the exiles of this host of the sons of Israel who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath ({{lang|he|צרפת}}), and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the south.”<ref>{{Bibleverse|Obadiah|1:20|HE}}</ref> The medieval lexicographer [[David ben Abraham al-Fasi]] identified ''Zarephath'' with the city of Ṣarfanda ({{langx|jrb|צרפנדה}}).<ref>The Hebrew-Arabic Dictionary known as "Kitāb Jāmi' Al-Alfāẓ (Agron)," p. xxxviii, pub. by Solomon L. Skoss, 1936 Yale University</ref> Originally [[Sidon]]ian, the town passed to the [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyrians]] after the invasion of [[Shalmaneser IV]], 722 BCE. It fell to [[Sennacherib]] in 701 BCE.

[[1 Kings 17]]:8-24 describes the city as being subject to Sidon in the time of [[Ahab]] and says that the prophet [[Elijah]], after leaving the [[Chorath|wadi Kerith]] ({{langx|he|נַחַל כְּרִית|naḥal Kəriṯ}}, multiplied the meal and oil of the widow of Zarephath and [[raising of the son of the widow of Zarephath|resurrected her son]], an incident also referred to by [[Jesus]] in [[Luke 4]]:26.

Zarephath ({{lang|he|צרפת}} ''ṣārĕfáṯ'') became the [[eponym]] in Hebrew for any [[smelter]] or [[forge]], or [[metalworking]] shop. In the [[1st century]], the Roman port of Sarepta about {{convert|1|km|abbr=on}} to the south,<ref>Designated Area I, it was excavated in 1969-70.</ref> is mentioned by [[Josephus]]<ref>[[Antiquities of the Jews]], Book VIII, 13:2</ref> and by [[Pliny the Elder]].<ref>''[[Pliny's Natural History|Natural History]]'', Book V, 17</ref>

Sarepta is the location of a [[Shia Islam|Shi'i]] shrine to [[Abu Dharr al-Ghifari]], a [[companion of Muhammad]]. The shrine is believed to have been built several centuries after Abu Dharr's death.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Mohammad |last1=Rihan |title=The Politics and Culture of an Umayyad Tribe: Conflict and Factionalism in the Early Islamic Period |year=2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9780857736208 |page=195 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WraODwAAQBAJ |via=books.google.com}}</ref>

After the Islamization of the area, in 1185, the [[Byzantine Greece|Byzantine]] [[monk]] Phocas, making a gazetteer of the [[Holy Land]] (''De locis sanctis'', 7), found the town almost in its ancient condition. A century later, according to [[Burchard of Mount Sion]], it was in ruins and contained only seven or eight houses.<ref>Monachus Borchardus, Descriptio Terrae sanctae, et regionum finitarum, vol. 2, pp. 9, 1593</ref> Even after the [[Crusader states]] had collapsed, the [[Catholic Church]] continued to appoint purely [[titular bishop]]s of Sarepta, the most noted being Thomas, the auxiliary Bishop of Wrocław, who held the post from 1350 until 1378.<ref>Piotr Górecki, Parishes, Tithes and Society in Earlier Medieval Poland c. 1100-c. 1250, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, vol. 83, no. 2, pp. i-ix+1-146, 1993</ref>