Palestine between the romans and modern times

P F Tinmore

Diamond Member
Dec 6, 2009
76,879
4,125
1,815
As a geographic unit, Palestine extended from the Mediterranean on the west to the Arabian Desert on the east and from the lower Litani River in the north to the Gaza Valley in the south. It was named after the Philistines, who occupied the southern coastal region in the twelfth century B.C. The name Philistia was used in the second century A.D. to designate Syria Palestina, which formed the southern third of the Roman province of Syria.

Emperor Constantine (ca. 280-337) shifted his capital from Rome to Constantinople in 330 and made Christianity the official religion. With Constantine's conversion to Christianity, a new era of prosperity came to Palestine, which attracted a flood of pilgrims from all over the empire. Upon partition of the Roman Empire in 395, Palestine passed under eastern control. The scholarly Jewish communities in Galilee continued with varying fortunes under Byzantine rule and dominant Christian influence until the Arab-Muslim conquest of A.D. 638. The period included, however, strong Jewish support of the briefly successful Persian invasion of 610-14.

The Arab caliph, Umar, designated Jerusalem as the third holiest place in Islam, second only to Mecca and Medina. Under the Umayyads, based in Damascus, the Dome of the Rock was erected in 691 on the site of the Temple of Solomon, which was also the alleged nocturnal resting place of the Prophet Muhammad on his journey to heaven. It is the earliest Muslim monument still extant. Close to the shrine, to the south, the Al Aqsa Mosque was built. The Umayyad caliph, Umar II (717-720), imposed humiliating restrictions on his non-Muslim subjects that led many to convert to Islam. These conversions, in addition to a steady tribal flow from the desert, changed the religious character of the inhabitants of Palestine from Christian to Muslim. Under the Abbasids the process of Islamization gained added momentum as a result of further restrictions imposed on non-Muslims by Harun ar Rashid (786-809) and more particularly by Al Mutawakkil (847-61).

The Abbasids were followed by the Fatimids who faced frequent attacks from Qarmatians, Seljuks, and Byzantines, and periodic beduin opposition. Palestine was reduced to a battlefield. In 1071 the Seljuks captured Jerusalem. The Fatimids recaptured the city in 1098, only to deliver it a year later to a new enemy, the Crusaders of Western Europe. In 1100 the Crusaders established the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, which remained until the famous Muslim general Salah ad Din (Saladin) defeated them at the decisive Battle of Hattin in 1187. The Crusaders were not completely evicted from Palestine, however, until 1291 when they were driven out of Acre. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were a "dark age" for Palestine as a result of Mamluk misrule and the spread of several epidemics. The Mamluks were slave-soldiers who established a dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria, which included Palestine, from 1250 to 1516.

In 1516 the Ottoman Turks, led by Sultan Selim I, routed the Mamluks, and Palestine began four centuries under Ottoman domination. Under the Ottomans, Palestine continued to be linked administratively to Damascus until 1830, when it was placed under Sidon, then under Acre, then once again under Damascus. In 1887-88 the local governmental units of the Ottoman Empire were finally settled, and Palestine was divided into the administrative divisions (sing., mutasarrifiyah) of Nabulus and Acre, both of which were linked with the vilayet (largest Ottoman administrative division, similar to a province) of Beirut and the autonomous mutasarrifiyah of Jerusalem, which dealt directly with Constantinople.

For the first three centuries of Ottoman rule, Palestine was relatively insulated from outside influences. At the end of the eighteenth century, Napoleon's abortive attempt to establish a Middle East empire led to increased Western involvement in Palestine. The trend toward Western influence accelerated during the nine years (1831-40) that the Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali and his son Ibrahim ruled Palestine. The Ottomans returned to power in 1840 with the help of the British, Austrians, and Russians. For the remainder of the nineteenth century, Palestine, despite the growth of Christian missionary schools and the establishment of European consulates, remained a mainly rural, poor but self-sufficient, introverted society. Demographically its population was overwhelmingly Arab, mainly Muslim, but with an important Christian merchant and professional class residing in the cities. The Jewish population of Palestine before 1880 consisted of fewer than 25,000 people, two-thirds of whom lived in Jerusalem where they made up half the population (and from 1890 on more than half the population). These were Orthodox Jews (see Glossary), many of whom had immigrated to Palestine simply to be buried in the Holy Land, and who had no real political interest in establishing a Jewish entity. They were supported by alms given by world Jewry.

Israel : Country Studies - Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
 
The land God gave to the hebrews, or jews, included Israel, Jordan, and good portions of Saudi Arabia and lebanon long before the satan worshiping hordes invaded and slaughtered innocent people. You cannot justify palestinian claims.
 
Palestine and Palestinians are Italian?
"Sir, would you like some cappuccino with your hummus?" :lol:

Jews lived in and ruled in Israel at least 500 years before Rome even existed and over 1000 years before the Roman occupation of Israel :lol:

Your history lesson for the day.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Writer Charles Krauthammer...
Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store.

PBS: Civilization and the Jews
The interaction of Jewish history and Western civilization successively assumed different forms. In the Biblical and Ancient periods, Israel was an integral part of the Near Eastern and classical world, which gave birth to Western civilization. It shared the traditions of ancient Mesopotamia and the rest of that world with regard to it’s own beginning; it benefited from the decline of Egypt and the other great Near Eastern empires to emerge as a nation in it’s own right; it asserted it’s claim to the divinely promised Land of Israel...
PBS - Heritage

University of Chicago Oriental Institute---Empires in the Fertile Crescent: : Israel, Ancient Assyria, and Anatolia
Visitors will get a rare look at one of the most important geographic regions in the ancient Near East beginning January 29 with the opening of "Empires in the Fertile Crescent: Ancient Assyria, Anatolia and Israel," the newest galleries at the Museum of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

The galleries showcase artifacts that illustrate the power of these ancient civilizations, including sculptural representations of tributes demanded by kings of ancient Assyria, and some sources of continual fascination, such as a fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls--one of the few examples in the United States.

"Visitors begin in Assyria, move across Anatolia and down the Mediterranean coast to the land of ancient Israel. The galleries also trace the conquests of the Assyrian empire across the Middle East and follow their trail to Israel."

The Israelites, who emerged as the dominant people of that region in about 975 B.C. are documented by many objects of daily life, a large stamp engraved with a biblical text and an ossuary (box for bones) inscribed in Hebrew.
Probably the most spectacular portion of the Megiddo gallery, however, is the Megiddo ivories. These exquisitely carved pieces of elephant tusks were inlays in furniture, and a particularly large piece was made into a game board.


Oriental Institute | Museum

Harvard Semitic Museum: The Houses of Ancient Israel
In archaeological terms The Houses of Ancient Israel: Domestic, Royal, Divine focuses on the Iron Age (1200-586 B.C.E.). Iron I (1200-1000 B.C.E.) represents the premonarchical period. Iron II (1000-586 B.C.E.) was the time of kings. Uniting the tribal coalitions of Israel and Judah in the tenth century B.C.E., David and Solomon ruled over an expanding realm. After Solomon's death (c. 930 B.C.E.) Israel and Judah separated into two kingdoms.
Israel was led at times by strong kings, Omri and Ahab in the ninth century B.C.E. and Jereboam II in the eighth. In the end, however, Israel was no match for expansionist Assyria. Samaria, the Israelite capital, fell to the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E.

The Houses of Ancient Israel § Semitic Museum

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology: Canaan and Ancient Israel
The first major North American exhibition dedicated to the archaeology of ancient Israel and neighboring lands, "Canaan and Ancient Israel" features more than 350 rare artifacts from about 3,000 to 586 B.C.E., excavated by University of Pennsylvania Museum archaeologists in Israel,
Artcom Museums Tour: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia PA

Yale Law School Faculty Scholarship Series: Ancient Land Law in Israel, Mesopotamia, Egypt
This Article provides an overview of the land regimes that the peoples of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Israel created by law and custom between 3000 B.C. and 500 B.C

A look at land regimes in the earliest periods of human history can illuminate debate over the extent to which human institutions can be expected to vary from time to time and place to place.
"Ancient Land Law: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel" by Robert C. Ellickson and Charles DiA. Thorland

Yale University Press: Education in Ancient Israel
In this groundbreaking new book, distinguished biblical scholar James L. Crenshaw investigates both the pragmatic hows and the philosophical whys of education in ancient Israel and its surroundings. Asking questions as basic as "Who were the teachers and students and from what segment of Israelite society did they come?" and "How did instructors interest young people in the things they had to say?" Crenshaw explores the institutions and practices of education in ancient Israel. The results are often surprising and more complicated than one would expect.

Education in Ancient Israel - Crenshaw, James L - Yale University Press

Yale University Press: The Archaeology of Ancient Israel
In this lavishly illustrated book some of Israel's foremost archaeologists present a thorough, up-to-date, and readily accessible survey of early life in the land of the Bible, from the Neolithic era (eighth millennium B.C.E.) to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E. It will be a delightful and informative resource for anyone who has ever wanted to know more about the religious, scientific, or historical background of the region.
The Archaeology of Ancient Israel - Ben-Tor, Amnon; Greenberg, R. - Yale University Press

Cambridge University Press: The World of Ancient Israel
The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press: Wisdom in Ancient Israel
Wisdom in Ancient Israel - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press

PBS Nova...
In the banks of the Nile in southern Egypt in 1896, British archaeologisit Flinders Petrie unearthed one of the most important discoveries in biblical archaeology known as the Merneptah Stele. Merneptah's stele announces the entrance on the world stage of a People named Israel.

The Merneptah Stele is powerful evidence that a People called the Israelites are living in Canaan over 3000 years ago

Dr. Donald Redford, Egyptologist and archaeologist: The Merneptah Stele is priceless evidence for the presence of an ethnical group called Israel in Canaan.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvg2EZAEw5c]1/13 The Bible's Buried Secrets (NOVA PBS) - YouTube[/ame]
 
Last edited:
For the first three centuries of Ottoman rule, Palestine was relatively insulated from outside influences.

Under 400 years of Ottoman rule, "Palestine" never existed.

Cambridge University Press...
In Ottoman times, no political entity called Palestine existed. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War, European boundary makers began to take greater interest in defining territorial limits for Palestine. Only since the 1920s has Palestine had formally delimited boundaries, though these have remained subject to repeated change and a source of bitter dispute.
Palestine Boundaries 1833–1947 - Cambridge Archive Editions

Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire...
Palestine did not exist in the geographical imagination of the Ottomans...[Before modern Israel], Jews referred to the territory as Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel. Throughout the Ottoman period, pilgrims and clergy from both religious traditions visited what they considered the "Holy Land" following a route from the port of Jaffa to Jerusalem.
 
Last edited:
The basic outline of jewish history in the land named Palestine by roman invaders----is essentially correct. Thruout the time encompassed by that history----jews maintained a presence----albeit decimated over the past 2000 years by Roman rule----from 1700 years ago until the arab theft of the land by Christian oppression ---made legal in the JUSTINIAN CODE. With the theft of palestine by invaders from arabia----the details of the Justinian code which legalized genocide of jews (and also of other non christians---but which impacted mostly on jews in palestine) had been incorporated into SHARIAH LAW and imposed in Palestine

Tinnnie has admitted that he supports the genocide of jews in Palestine -----and he even admits that jews continued to maintain the struggle for their homeland thruout that time Thus tinnie supports land acquisition by GENOCIDE-----even if the genocide ultimately fails to destroy the true indigenous peoples of that land -----and that indigenous population RE ESTABLISHES ITSELF
 
Last edited:

Forum List

Back
Top