Origin of Phoenicians

First of all, the name “Phoenician” is an exonym of Greek origin. The Greeks thus designated the Mediterranean peoples originating from the current Levant who produced the color purple and displayed it on their ships and outfits. “It is the Greek texts which designate this people by the term Phoinikes, and the region where they live as Phoinike, Phenicia, since the time of Homer.” and so thus the so-called Phoenicians did not designate themselves in this way. The Phoenician civilization is an eminently Semitic civilization:

Indeed, despite the fact that some try to use terms which seem to oppose the Phoenician civilization to a Semitic civilization:

1. In the same way as the Nabataean (Arabic) civilization or even the Aramaic civilization (from Arabia). On the subject of Phoenician genealogy (nassab) it is well known and informed and it is admitted that the Phoenicians descend from Canaan son of Ham son of Noah as mentioned in Christian sources. Phoenicia (and Palestine) were otherwise known as “the land of Canaan”. “The Greeks called “Phoinike”, the Phoenician, the constellation of the Little Bear, because it was on her that they were guided the pilots of Tire and Sidon in their race towards the columns of Hercules. “Phoinikos” will be translated into “Punicus” by the Romans”. The Semitic origin of the Phoenicians is debated due to the fact that some argue that they were not sons of Shem.
2. [8:07 PM]It should be noted that from the 4th century BC the intensity of exchanges was such that it was impossible to make a distinction between Hamite and Semite. So much so that the discriminating factor used between them was language.
3. [8:07 PM]It is therefore the language which defines belonging to a Semitic civilization according to common acceptance.
4. [8:07 PM]Classical medieval sources, however, report a Semitic origin of the Cananéns like ibn Kathir in his Qisas al Anbiya, relying on the opinion of Mujahid: