The Etymology of Jerusalem
Jerusalem is among the oldest continuously attested place-names on earth. Egyptian execration texts of around 1850 BC mention a city called Rušalimum; Akkadian Amarna letters of the fourteenth century BC call it Urusalim. The Hebrew form Yərūšālayim, recorded from the Iron Age, is traditionally analysed as the foundation (yarah) of Shalem, a West Semitic deity associated with dusk and the evening star — a counterpart to the morning-star deity Shahar. Later Jewish tradition reinterpreted the second element through the unrelated but homophonous shalom, making the city the place of peace, and the etymology stuck. Greek-speaking Jews and early Christians wrote Hierousalēm; Latin Hierusalem and Ierusalem entered medieval Europe through the Vulgate Bible. Arabic prefers al-Quds, the holy. Each of the three Abrahamic traditions has shaped how Jerusalem is named, but every form ultimately traces to that Bronze Age foundation by the foothills of Judah.