Additional Information
Book Details
Abstract
This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine's millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history.
Starting with the earliest references in Egyptian and Assyrian texts, Nur Masalha explores how Palestine and its Palestinian identity have evolved over thousands of years, from the Bronze Age to the present day. Drawing on a rich body of sources and the latest archaeological evidence, Masalha shows how Palestine’s multicultural past has been distorted and mythologised by Biblical lore and the Israel–Palestinian conflict.
In the process, Masalha reveals that the concept of Palestine, contrary to accepted belief, is not a modern invention or one constructed in opposition to Israel, but rooted firmly in ancient past. Palestine represents the authoritative account of the country's history.
Professor Nur Masalha is a Palestinian writer, historian and academic. He is currently a member of the Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS, University of London. He is editor of the Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies. His books include: Expulsion of the Palestinians (1992); A Land Without a People (1997); The Politics of Denial (2003); The Bible and Zionism (Zed 2007); The Palestine Nakba (Zed 2012); and An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba (with Nahla Abdo, Zed 2018).
‘It is the first true history of Palestine, and should be read by anyone with an interest in the Middle East.'
Karl Sabbagh, author of Palestine: A Personal History
‘A significant contribution to the restoration of the history of ancient Palestine, written by a prolific indigenous historian of international repute. Brilliantly explicating the relationship between history and colonial ideology in Palestine, with this book Masalha puts Palestinian history back on track.’
Hamdan Taha, archaeologist and former Deputy Minister for Tourism and Antiquities, Palestine
‘An amazing book, long overdue. A tour de force which demystifies the distortions and fabrications around Palestine and the people living in it.’
Ilan Pappé, author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
‘A masterpiece of history writing. It serves to set the record straight, methodically and rigorously debunking the myth that Palestine is a new concept.’
Mazin Qumsiyeh, Founder and Director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History
‘This erudite, comprehensive study of Palestine explodes many myths. Essential reading for a proper understanding of the efforts to deny the deep historical rootedness of this name, and of its indigenous people.’
Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University
‘A work of broad and impressive scholarship. It fills a critical gap in our knowledge of Palestinian history and provides a long overdue corrective to traditional histories.’
Ghada Karmi, author of Return: A Palestinian Memoir
‘Masalha’s meticulous and multifaceted coverage of the history of Palestine from the late Bronze Age to modern times is essential reading for all who hope to understand its people’s irrepressible struggle against occupation and exile.’
Rosemary Sayigh, author of The Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries
‘This book by Nur Masalha is the fullest and richest text he has produced to date, bringing together his decades of work as a historian to produce a master narrative on Palestine.’
Haim Bresheeth, SOAS, University of London
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover | Cover | ||
| Half title | i | ||
| About the Author | ii | ||
| Title Page\r | iii | ||
| Copyright | iv | ||
| Contents | v | ||
| Acknowledgements | vii | ||
| Introduction: Palestine as a name commonly used throughout ancient history\r | 1 | ||
| Palestine as an official Administrative entity\r | 5 | ||
| From Palestine-focused biblical orientalism to the new histories of Israel\r | 18 | ||
| Political autonomy, independence and statehood in Palestine over the last three millennia | 34 | ||
| From the geo-political term Palestine to the concept of Palestine: cartography, place names and social memory | 42 | ||
| Locating Palestine: the methodological and intellectual framework | 52 | ||
| 1. The Philistines and Philistia as a distinct geo-political entity: Late Bronze Age to 500 BC\r | 55 | ||
| The Philistines as indigenous people: epigraphic and archaeological evidence for Peleset and the Philistines | 55 | ||
| The name ‘Cana’an’ in the late Bronze period\r | 57 | ||
| The name Palestine takes over from the Late Bronze Age onwards | 58 | ||
| The names Piliste and Philistia in Assyrian sources | 60 | ||
| Iron age Philistia as a distinct polity: the country of the Peleset from Gaza to Tantur (1200–712 BC) | 62 | ||
| The highly developed cities of Philistia | 64 | ||
| The ‘Way of the Philistines’: Palestine as a transit country and the historic road of Via Maris | 68 | ||
| Philisto-Arabian coins: currency, power an dautonomy in Philistia (6th–4th centuries BC) | 69 | ||
| 2. The conception of Palestine in Classical Antiquity and during the Hellenistic Empires (500–135 BC)\r | 71 | ||
| The greek name ΠΑΛΑΙΣΤΊΝΗ in classical and foundational Greco-Hellenic sources\r | 72 | ||
| The conception of Palaistinê by the founding father of history | 72 | ||
| The name Palestine in Aristotle’s meteorology | 76 | ||
| Palaestina on the world map of Ptolemy: the use of the term Palaestina by Greek geographers and historians during the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires\r | 77 | ||
| 3. From Philistiato Provincia ‘Syria Palaestina’ (135 AD–390 AD): the administrative province of Roman Palestine\r | 81 | ||
| The upgrading of Palestine by Hadrian: the official designation of the province of ‘Syria Palaestina’ (135–390 AD) in Roman time | 82 | ||
| Further developments: from ‘Syria Palaestina’ to Palaestina | 87 | ||
| The 1st century geography of Palaestina by Strabo, Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela\r | 87 | ||
| The official designation of Palaestina by classical Jewish scholars | 90 | ||
| The rise of Caesarea-Palaestina | 93 | ||
| 4. The (Three in one) Provincia Palaestina: the three administrative provinces of Byzantine Palestine (4th‒early 7th centuries AD)\r | 95 | ||
| Caesarea Maritima as a Mediterranean capital of culture: the city’s metropolitan elite | 99 | ||
| Nicaea and historical ecclesiastical representations of Palestine: the Archiepiscopal See of Caesarea | 106 | ||
| The emergence of independent Palestinian church: political versus religious capitals in Palestine\r | 107 | ||
| Latin Palestine | 113 | ||
| Religio-cultural and institutional memories of Provincia Palaestina and modern Palestine\r | 116 | ||
| Material evidence and powerful symbols of Byzantine Palaestina (ΠΑΛΑΙΣΤΙΝΗ): the 1884 archaeological discovery of the Madaba Mosaic Map | 118 | ||
| The ‘Athens of Asia’ in Palaestina: Gaza as a Mediterranean centre of classical literature and rhetoric | 119 | ||
| Popular religion and the relaxed setting of Gaza: the rose festival of Gaza | 126 | ||
| Monastic school of Gaza and the monasteries of Palaestina: the Desert Fathers and Mothers and their worldwide impact\r | 128 | ||
| 5. Arab Christian Palestine: the pre-Islamic Arab kings, bishops, poets and tribes of Provincia Palaestina (3rd‒early 7th centuries AD)\r | 135 | ||
| Arabic classical poetry and Byzantine Palestine: al-Nabighaha adh-Dhubyani (535‒604 AD)\r | 144 | ||
| 6. The Arab province of Jund Filastin (638‒1099 AD): continuities, adaption and transformation of Palestine under Islam | 151 | ||
| Palestinian Syriac Aramaic, Palestinian Arabic and Palestinian toponyms\r | 151 | ||
| The continuities and transformation of the province of Jund Filastin\r | 153 | ||
| The extent of the Arab province of Jund Filastin: from Marj Ibn ‘Amer to the Red Sea | 158 | ||
| The secular and sacred capitals of the province of Filastin: the grandeur of Ilya (Bayt al-Maqdis) and al-Ramla under the Umayyads\r | 161 | ||
| Jund Filastin as the richest province of al-Sham region | 171 | ||
| Coins minted ‘In-Filastin’: Palestine currency, monetary autonomy and numismatic evidence from Arab Islamic Palestine\r | 178 | ||
| Reconfiguration of Palestine under the Fatimids: the province of Jund Filastin and the Military Governor of Palestine (11th century)\r | 183 | ||
| 7. Between Egypt and al-Sham: Palestine during the Ayyubid Mamluk and early Ottoman periods\r | 189 | ||
| Palestine on Arab and Venetian world maps (12th‒15th centuries): the maps of Muhammad al-Idrisi (1154), Pietro Vesconte, Marino (1450) | 189 | ||
| Ayyubid Palestine and the re-establishment of Islamic Jerusalem in post-crusade Palestine: the decline of Palestine’s coastal cities and rise of the interior urban centres\r | 193 | ||
| The leading role of al-Quds under the Mamluks: the capital of Mamluk Palestine and the ‘city without walls’ (1260‒1517) | 197 | ||
| The sea versus the mountain: Safad as a new regional capital of the Galilee\r | 201 | ||
| The social memory of Palestine during the Mamluk and early Ottoman periods: Filastin in local Muslim social memory\r | 204 | ||
| The mosaics of historic Palestine, continuities and transformation: the Palestinian glasswork industry of al-Khalil and the school of mosaics of al-Quds, | 206 | ||
| 8. Palestinian statehood in the 18th century: early modernities and practical sovereignty in Palestine\r | 211 | ||
| Revivalism and rediscovery under Ottoman rule: the Arab Islamic jurisprudence of Palestine and indigenous memories of Filastin under the Ottomans (1517‒1860s) | 213 | ||
| Al-dawlah al-qutriyyah: Palestinian statehood and the regimes of Dhaher al-ʿUmar and Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar in the 18th century | 218 | ||
| History of urban elites versus history ‘from below’: new leadership, Palestine’s cotton trade with Europe and the industrial revolution | 219 | ||
| Hourani’s ‘urban’ elites paradigm? | 225 | ||
| Taxation, frontier provinces and the rise of autonomous power in 18th century Palestine | 226 | ||
| Nominal sovereignty versus practical sovereignty | 228 | ||
| Reading the history of modern Palestine through the eyes of the indigenous people | 236 | ||
| 9. Being Palestine, becoming Palestine: rediscovery and new representations of modern Palestine and their impact on Palestinian national identity\r | 241 | ||
| New representations of Palestine, 1805‒1917\r | 242 | ||
| Western travelogues of Palestine: the distinction between Palestine/Holy land and Syria\r | 242 | ||
| Palestine-focused russian orientalism in the late ottoman period | 249 | ||
| Strategic ambitions and the british peaceful crusade: science, empire and the mapping of Palestine by the Palestine exploration fund (1865–1877) | 255 | ||
| The historic and geographic maps of Palestine: the national geographic | 258 | ||
| Paradigm shift in late Ottoman Palestine (1872‒1917): historical continuities and administrative division of Palestine | 259 | ||
| The reimagining of Palestinian territorial identity and proto-nationalism in late Ottoman Palestine: Khalil Beidas and Palestinian cultural nationalism\r | 268 | ||
| ‘Being Palestine, becoming Palestine’ in Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry\r | 276 | ||
| Vernacularisation, indigeneity and modern representations of Palestine in the Palestinian Arab press: the newspaper Falastin (1911–1967)\r | 278 | ||
| The term Filastin in Ruhi al-Khalidi’s unpublished manuscript | 283 | ||
| Historic continuities and colonial transformation: Palestine as a single official administrative and territorial entity under the British (1918‒May 1948) | 287 | ||
| Self-determination and the proliferation of Palestinian nationalist organisations: the Palestinian national movement during the mandatory period\r | 290 | ||
| The short-lived newspaper newspaper Suriyya al-Janubiyyah (1919‒1920) | 293 | ||
| From Palestine to the land of Israel: the Palestine communist party (Palestinishe Komunistishe Partei)\r | 299 | ||
| Palestinian national institutions and organisations in the post-Nakba period: the revolutionary politics of the PLO\r | 301 | ||
| Studia Palaestina: Palestine studies and the proliferation of modern research societies and institutions | 304 | ||
| 10. Settler-Colonialism and disinheriting the Palestinians: The appropriation of Palestinian place names by the Israeli state\r | 307 | ||
| Hebrewisation: antecedents to Zionist toponymy\r | 319 | ||
| From Karm al-Khalili to Kerem Avraham (1855): James Finn’s colony\r | 320 | ||
| Disappearing Palestinian villages and place names before 1948\r | 323 | ||
| Appropriation of Arabic place names, indigenisation of the European settlers and hybridisation strategies | 323 | ||
| Appropriation, hybridisation and indigenisation: the appropriation of Palestine place names by European Zionist settlers\r | 328 | ||
| The pure Zionist settler colony and a monolingual mindset: from Palestinian Arab Masha and Sajara to Israeli Kfar Tavor and Ilaniya\r | 333 | ||
| Judaisation, Hebraicisation and biblicisation strategies | 335 | ||
| Zionist toponymic methods and strategies in the post-Nakba period: key features of the Israeli place names projects\r | 336 | ||
| The Israeli Army’s Hebrew names committee of 1949: indigenising the European Settlers and self-renaming\r | 337 | ||
| Hybridity, Hebraicising and the myth of restoration: Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the committee of the Hebrew language and founding myths of modern Hebrew\r | 338 | ||
| Hybridisation and patterns of early Zionist borrowing from, and modelling on, Arabic and Aramaic | 340 | ||
| Self-invention, self-indigenisation and self-antiquation: personal name changing by members of the predatory Zionist Ashkenazi elite of Israel\r | 343 | ||
| Toponyms ‘from above’ and state-supervised projects: the Israeli governmental names committee | 355 | ||
| The legendary toponymy of Zionist settlers and the Latin medieval Crusaders\r | 358 | ||
| The creation of a usable past: the power/knowledge nexus | 369 | ||
| Israeli biblical archaeology as a secular religion: Judaisation strategies and the assertion of ownership: the superimposition of biblical, Talmudic and Mishnaic names | 372 | ||
| From Palestinian Majdal-'Aasqalan to biblical Ashkelon | 378 | ||
| The new Israeli place names and landscape: fashioning a European landscape as a site of amnesia and erasure | 380 | ||
| From Yerushalayim to Orshalim: the transliteration of new Hebrew toponyms and road signs into English and Arabic | 382 | ||
| Epilogue: the Palestinian multi-layered identity, toponymic memory and the diverse heritage of the land\r | 383 | ||
| Bibliography | 387 | ||
| Notes | 421 | ||
| Index | 433 |