Palestinian Jasper
Jasper is a part of the hidden quartz; it is red or dark brown in colour and may be yellowish in colour or green, and rarely blue. Its common red colour is due to iron impurities as well as very fine grains.
Jasper appears under a microscope in the form of fine grains as well as small silica fibres or balls. In general, it can be said that the physical properties of jasper are very similar to those of quartz.
Jasper is used in decorative work, as man has used it since ancient times in the manufacture of carved wood and studded with jasper, and it has also been used in the manufacture of some cheap ornaments.
Nomenclature
It has been proven that the word has an ancient Arab origin, and it was revealed that Will Durant, when he mentioned that it was taken from Assyrian writing, and Iraqi archaeologists found that it was known as Babylonian (ayashbu), so it became known in modern Arabic as jasper, heal, or hurt. It seems that it entered the Persian language through Arabic and not vice versa, as it was believed; they said smell or heal, and made Hebrew heal him, and became in Greek Isapis. The Syriac is a joke that mimics the Greek, keeping it Ysbes, and others borrow from Arabic, adding Tanweenha, to make it Yesben. From Greek, it entered the other Latin and Germanic languages, becoming in Old and Modern French *Jaspe*, and Middle English *Jasspe* or jasper, to settle in modern on the last pronunciation in the language of these.
