Palestine (region): Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Geographic region in West Asia}}

{{About|the region|the country|State of Palestine|other uses of Palestine|Palestine (disambiguation)}}

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{{Infobox country

| conventional_long_name = Palestine

| name =

| image_map = 1750 map of Palestine published by Homannsche Erben.jpg

| capital =

| membership_type = Countries

| languages_type = Languages

| languages = [[Levantine Arabic|Arabic]], [[Modern Hebrew|Hebrew]]

| ethnic_groups = [[Arabs]], [[Jews]], [[Samaritans]]

}}

 

 

The first written records referring to Palestine emerged in the 12th-century BCE [[Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt]], which used the term ''[[Peleset]]'' for a neighboring people or land. In the 8th century BCE, the [[Assyria]]ns referred to a region as ''Palashtu'' or ''Pilistu''. In the [[Hellenistic period]], these names were carried over into Greek, appearing in the ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' of [[Herodotus]] in 5th century BCE as ''Palaistine''. The [[Roman Empire]] conquered the region and in 6 CE established the province known as [[Judaea (Roman province)|Judaea]], then in 132 CE in the period of the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]] the province was expanded and renamed [[Syria Palaestina]].{{sfn|Lehmann|1998}} In 390, during the [[Byzantine]] period, the region was split into the provinces of [[Palaestina Prima]], [[Palaestina Secunda]], and [[Palaestina Salutaris|Palaestina Tertia]]. Following the [[Muslim conquest of the Levant]] in the 630s, the military district of [[Jund Filastin]] was established. While Palestine's boundaries have changed throughout history, it has generally comprised the southern portion of regions such as [[Southern Syria|Syria]] or the Levant.

As the birthplace of [[Judaism]] and [[Christianity]], Palestine has been a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics. In the [[Bronze Age]], it was home to [[Canaan]]ite city-states; and the later [[Iron Age]] saw the emergence of [[History of ancient Israel and Judah|Israel and Judah]]. It has since come under the sway of various empires, including the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]], the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]], the [[Achaemenid Empire]], the [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonian Empire]], and the [[Seleucid Empire]]. The brief [[Hasmonean dynasty]] ended with its gradual incorporation into the Roman Empire, and later the Byzantine Empire, during which Palestine became a center of Christianity. In the 7th century, Palestine was conquered by the [[Rashidun Caliphate]], ending Byzantine rule in the region; Rashidun rule was succeeded by the [[Umayyad Caliphate]], the [[Abbasid Caliphate]], and the [[Fatimid Caliphate]]. Following the collapse of the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]], which had been established through the [[Crusades]], the population of Palestine became predominantly [[Muslims|Muslim]]. In the 13th century, it became part of the [[Mamluk Sultanate]], and after 1516, spent four centuries as part of the [[Ottoman Empire]].

 

 

==Etymology==

The first clear use of the term Palestine to refer to the entire area between [[Phoenicia]] and [[Late Period of ancient Egypt|Egypt]] was in 5th century BCE [[ancient Greece]],{{efn-lr|"The earliest occurrence of this name in a Greek text is in the mid-fifth century B.C., Histories of Herodotus, where it is applied to the area of the Levant between Phoenicia and Egypt." ...&nbsp;"The first known occurrence of the Greek word Palaistine is in the Histories of Herodotus, written near the mid-fifth century B.C. Palaistine Syria, or simply Palaistine, is applied to what may be identified as the southern part of Syria, comprising the region between Phoenicia and Egypt. Although some of Herodotus' references to Palestine are compatible with a narrow definition of the coastal strip of the Land of Israel, it is clear that Herodotus does call the whole land by the name of the coastal strip." ...&nbsp;"It is believed that Herodotus visited Palestine in the fifth decade of the fifth century B.C." &nbsp;..."In the earliest Classical literature references to Palestine generally applied to the Land of Israel in the wider sense." {{harv|Jacobson|1999}}}}{{efn-lr|"As early as the Histories of Herodotus, written in the second half of the fifth century BCE, the term Palaistinê is used to describe not just the geographical area where the Philistines lived, but the entire area between Phoenicia and Egypt—in other words, the Land of Israel. Herodotus, who had traveled through the area, would have had firsthand knowledge of the land and its people. Yet he used Palaistinê to refer not to the Land of the Philistines, but to the Land of Israel" {{harv|Jacobson|2001}}}} when [[Herodotus]] wrote of a "district of Syria, called ''Palaistinê''" ({{lang-grc|Συρίη ἡ Παλαιστίνη καλεομένη}}){{sfn|Herodotus 3:91:1}} in ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|The Histories]]'', which included the [[Judean mountains]] and the [[Jordan Rift Valley]].{{sfn|Jacobson|1999|p=65}}{{efn-lr|In ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|The Histories]]'', Herodotus referred to the practice of [[History of male circumcision|male circumcision]] associated with the Hebrew people: "the [[Colchis|Colchians]], the [[Egyptians]], and the [[Ethiopians]], are the only nations who have practised circumcision from the earliest times. The [[Phoenicia]]ns and the Syrians of Palestine themselves confess that they learnt the custom of the Egyptians&nbsp;... Now these are the only nations who use circumcision." {{harv|Herodotus|1858|pp=Bk ii, Ch 104}}}} Approximately a century later, [[Aristotle]] used a similar definition for the region in ''[[Meteorology (Aristotle)|Meteorology]]'', in which he included the [[Dead Sea]].{{sfn|Jacobson|1999|pp=66–67}} Later Greek writers such as [[Polemon of Athens|Polemon]] and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] also used the term to refer to the same region, which was followed by Roman writers such as [[Ovid]], [[Tibullus]], [[Pomponius Mela]], [[Pliny the Elder]], [[Dio Chrysostom]], [[Statius]], [[Plutarch]] as well as [[History of the Jews in the Roman Empire|Romano-Jewish]] writers [[Philo of Alexandria]] and [[Josephus]].<ref name=Robinson /><ref>Louis H. Feldman, whose view differs from that of Robinson, thinks that Josephus, when referring to ''Palestine'', had in mind only the coastal region, writing: "Writers on geography in the first century [CE] clearly differentiate Judaea from Palestine. ...&nbsp;Jewish writers, notably [[Philo]] and [[Josephus]], with few exceptions refer to the land as ''Judaea'', reserving the name ''Palestine'' for the coastal area occupied [formerly] by the Philistines." (END QUOTE). See: p. 1 in: {{harv|Feldman|1990|pp=1–23}}.</ref> The term was first used to denote an official province in c.&nbsp;135&nbsp;CE, when the [[Roman Empire|Roman authorities]], following the suppression of the [[Bar Kokhba Revolt]], renamed the province of Judaea "[[Syria Palaestina]]". There is [[circumstantial evidence]] linking [[Hadrian]] with the name change,{{sfn|Feldman|1996|p=553}} but the precise date is not certain.{{sfn|Feldman|1996|p=553}}

 

 

The Septuagint instead used the term "allophuloi" (άλλόφυλοι, "other nations") throughout the Books of Judges and Samuel,{{sfn|Jobling|Rose|1996|p=404a}}<ref name=Drews49>{{harvnb|Drews|1998|p=49}}: "Our names 'Philistia' and 'Philistines' are unfortunate obfuscations, first introduced by the translators of the LXX and made definitive by Jerome's Vg. When turning a Hebrew text into Greek, the translators of the LXX might simply—as Josephus was later to do—have Hellenized the Hebrew פְּלִשְׁתִּים as Παλαιστίνοι, and the toponym פְּלִשְׁתִּ as Παλαιστίνη. Instead, they avoided the toponym altogether, turning it into an ethnonym. As for the ethnonym, they chose sometimes to transliterate it (incorrectly aspirating the initial letter, perhaps to compensate for their inability to aspirate the sigma) as φυλιστιιμ, a word that looked exotic rather than familiar, and more often to translate it as άλλόφυλοι. Jerome followed the LXX's lead in eradicating the names, 'Palestine' and 'Palestinians', from his Old Testament, a practice adopted in most modern translations of the Bible."</ref> such that the term "Philistines" has been interpreted to mean "non-Israelites of the Promised Land" when used in the context of Samson, Saul and David,<ref name=Drews51>{{harvnb|Drews|1998|p=51}}: "The LXX's regular translation of פְּלִשְׁתִּים into άλλόφυλοι is significant here. Not a proper name at all, allophyloi is a generic term, meaning something like 'people of other stock'. If we assume, as I think we must, that with their word allophyloi the translators of the LXX tried to convey in Greek what p'lištîm had conveyed in Hebrew, we must conclude that for the worshippers of Yahweh p'lištîm and b'nê yiśrā'ēl were mutually exclusive terms, p'lištîm (or allophyloi) being tantamount to 'non-Judaeans of the Promised Land' when used in a context of the third century BCE, and to 'non-Israelites of the Promised Land' when used in a context of Samson, Saul and David. Unlike an ethnonym, the noun פְּלִשְׁתִּים normally appeared without a definite article."</ref> and Rabbinic sources explain that these peoples were different from the Philistines of the [[Book of Genesis]].{{efn-lr|"Rabbinic sources insist that the Philistines of Judges and Samuel were different people altogether from the Philistines of Genesis. ([[Midrash Tehillim]] on Psalm 60 (Braude: vol. 1, 513); the issue here is precisely whether Israel should have been obliged, later, to keep the Genesis treaty.) This parallels a shift in the Septuagint's translation of Hebrew pelistim. Before Judges, it uses the neutral transliteration phulistiim, but beginning with Judges it switches to the pejorative allophuloi. [To be precise, Codex Alexandrinus starts using the new translation at the beginning of Judges and uses it invariably thereafter, Vaticanus likewise switches at the beginning of Judges, but reverts to phulistiim on six occasions later in Judges, the last of which is 14:2.]" {{harv|Jobling|Rose|1996|p=404}}}}

During the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine period]], the region of Palestine within [[Syria Palaestina]] was subdivided into [[Palaestina Prima]] and [[Palaestina Secunda|Secunda]],{{sfn|Kaegi|1995|p=41}} and an area of land including the [[Negev]] and [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]] became [[Palaestina Salutaris]].{{sfn|Kaegi|1995|p=41}} Following the [[Muslim conquest of the Levant|Muslim conquest]], [[Place names of Palestine|place names]] that were in use by the Byzantine administration generally continued to be used in Arabic.{{sfn|Sharon|1988|p=4}}<ref name=Marshallp559>Marshall Cavendish, 2007, p. 559.</ref> The use of the name "Palestine" became common in [[Early Modern English]],{{sfn|Krämer|2011|p=16}} was used in English and Arabic during the [[Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem]]{{sfn|Büssow|2011|p=5}}{{sfn|Abu-Manneh|1999|p=39}}{{efn-lr|For example, the 1915 ''Filastin Risalesi'' ("Palestine Document"), an Ottoman army ([[VIII Corps (Ottoman Empire)|VIII Corps]]) country survey which formally identified Palestine as including the sanjaqs of [[Acre Sanjak|Akka (the Galilee)]], the [[Nablus Sanjak|Sanjaq of Nablus]], and the [[Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem|Sanjaq of Jerusalem (Kudus Sherif)]]<ref name=Risalesi>{{harvnb|Tamari|2011|pp=29–30}}: "Filastin Risalesi, is the salnameh type military handbook issued for Palestine at the beginning of the Great War... The first is a general map of the country in which the boundaries extend far beyond the frontiers of the Mutasarflik of Jerusalem, which was, until then, the standard delineation of Palestine. The northern borders of this map include the city of Tyre (Sur) and the Litani River, thus encompassing all of the Galilee and parts of southern Lebanon, as well as districts of Nablus, Haifa and Akka—all of which were part of the Wilayat of Beirut until the end of the war."</ref>}} and was revived as an official place name with the [[Mandate for Palestine|British Mandate for Palestine]].

 

 

==History==

===Overview===

{{main list|Time periods in the Palestine region}}

{{Timeline of Palestine Sovereign Powers}}

 

{{multiple image

| align = left

| image1 = British Mandate Palestinian passport.jpg

| caption1 =

==Boundaries==

===Pre-modern period===

 

The boundaries of Palestine have varied throughout history.{{efn-lr|According to the Jewish Encyclopedia published between 1901 and 1906:{{sfn|Jewish Encyclopedia|1906}} "Palestine extends, from 31° to 33° 20' N. latitude. Its southwest point (at Raphia, Tell Rifaḥ, southwest of Gaza) is about 34° 15' E. longitude, and its northwest point (mouth of the Liṭani) is at 35° 15' E. longitude, while the course of the Jordan reaches 35° 35' to the east. The west-Jordan country has, consequently, a length of about 150 English miles from north to south, and a breadth of about {{convert|23|mi|0|abbr=out}} at the north and {{convert|80|mi|0|abbr=out}} at the south. The area of this region, as measured by the surveyors of the English Palestine Exploration Fund, is about {{convert|6040|mi2|0|abbr=out}}. The east-Jordan district is now being surveyed by the German Palästina-Verein, and although the work is not yet completed, its area may be estimated at {{convert|4000|mi2|0|abbr=out}}. This entire region, as stated above, was not occupied exclusively by the Israelites, for the plain along the coast in the south belonged to the Philistines, and that in the north to the Phoenicians, while in the east-Jordan country, the Israelitic possessions never extended farther than the Arnon (Wadi al-Mujib) in the south, nor did the Israelites ever settle in the most northerly and easterly portions of the plain of Bashan. To-day the number of inhabitants does not exceed 650,000. Palestine, and especially the Israelitic state, covered, therefore, a very small area, approximating that of the state of Vermont." From the Jewish Encyclopedia}}{{efn-lr|According to the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition]] (1911), Palestine is:{{sfn|EB|1911}} "[A] geographical name of rather loose application. Etymological strictness would require it to denote exclusively the narrow strip of coast-land once occupied by the Philistines, from whose name it is derived. It is, however, conventionally used as a name for the territory which, in the Old Testament, is claimed as the inheritance of the pre-exilic Hebrews; thus it may be said generally to denote the southern third of the province of Syria. Except in the west, where the country is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, the limit of this territory cannot be laid down on the map as a definite line. The modern subdivisions under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire are in no sense conterminous with those of antiquity, and hence do not afford a boundary by which Palestine can be separated exactly from the rest of Syria in the north, or from the Sinaitic and Arabian deserts in the south and east; nor are the records of ancient boundaries sufficiently full and definite to make possible the complete demarcation of the country. Even the convention above referred to is inexact: it includes the Philistine territory, claimed but never settled by the Hebrews, and excludes the outlying parts of the large area claimed in Num. xxxiv. as the Hebrew possession (from the " River of Egypt " to Hamath). However, the Hebrews themselves have preserved, in the proverbial expression " from Dan to Beersheba " (Judg. xx.i, &c.), an indication of the normal north-and-south limits of their land; and in defining the area of the country under discussion it is this indication which is generally followed. Taking as a guide the natural features most nearly corresponding to these outlying points, we may describe Palestine as the strip of land extending along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea from the mouth of the Litany or Kasimiya River (33° 20' N.) southward to the mouth of the Wadi Ghuzza; the latter joins the sea in 31° 28' N., a short distance south of Gaza, and runs thence in a south-easterly direction so as to include on its northern side the site of Beersheba. Eastward there is no such definite border. The River Jordan, it is true, marks a line of [[delimitation]] between Western and [[Transjordan (region)|Eastern Palestine]]; but it is practically impossible to say where the latter ends and the Arabian desert begins. Perhaps the line of the pilgrim road from Damascus to Mecca is the most convenient possible boundary. The total length of the region is about {{convert|140|m|2|abbr=on}}; its breadth west of the Jordan ranges from about {{convert|23|m|2|abbr=on}} in the north to about {{convert|80|m|2|abbr=on}} in the south."}} The [[Jordan Rift Valley]] (comprising Wadi Arabah, the [[Dead Sea]] and [[River Jordan]]) has at times formed a political and administrative frontier, even within empires that have controlled both territories.{{sfn|Aharoni|1979|p=64}} At other times, such as during certain periods during the [[Hasmonean]] and [[Kingdom of Jerusalem|Crusader]] states for example, as well as during the [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|biblical period]], territories on both sides of the river formed part of the same administrative unit. During the [[Arab people|Arab]] [[Caliphate]] period, parts of southern [[Lebanon]] and the northern highland areas of Palestine and Jordan were administered as ''[[Jund al-Urdunn|Jund al-Urdun]]'', while the southern parts of the latter two formed part of ''[[Jund Dimashq]]'', which during the 9th century was attached to the administrative unit of ''[[Jund Filastin]]''.{{sfn|Salibi|1993|pp=17–18}}

 

===Modern period===

Nineteenth-century sources refer to Palestine as extending from the sea to the caravan route, presumably the [[Hejaz Railway|Hejaz-Damascus route]] east of the Jordan River valley.{{sfn|Biger|2004|pp=19–20}} Others refer to it as extending from the sea to the desert.{{sfn|Biger|2004|pp=19–20}} Prior to the [[Allies of World War I|Allied Powers]] victory in World War I and the [[Partition of the Ottoman Empire|partitioning of the Ottoman Empire]], which created the British mandate in the [[Levant]], most of the northern area of what is today Jordan formed part of the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[Vilayet of Damascus]] ([[Syria]]), while the southern part of Jordan was part of the [[Vilayet of Hejaz]].{{sfn|Biger|2004|p=13}} What later became [[Mandatory Palestine]] was in late Ottoman times divided between the [[Vilayet of Beirut]] ([[Lebanon]]) and the [[Sanjak of Jerusalem]].<ref name=Risalesi /> The [[World Zionist Organization|Zionist Organization]] provided its definition of the boundaries of Palestine in a statement to the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference in 1919]].{{sfn|Tessler|1994|p=163}}{{sfn|Biger|2004|pp=41–80}}

 

 

==See also==

* [[Levantine archaeology]] (a.k.a. Palestinian archaeology)

* [[Palestine Exploration Fund]]

 

==Notes==

| access-date = 4 September 2016

| ref = {{harvid|PCBoS: Estd Population|2016}}

}}

*{{cite book| title = The Negev: The Challenge of a Desert