The history of Palestine is one of immense richness; it was host to numerous prophets over the centuries and the home of many great civilisations. Palestine's location at the centre of various routes linking three continents made it the melting pot for many religious and cultural influences, from Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor.

When exactly, Palestine was first inhabited, is yet to unfold but archaeological discoveries found south of the Lake of Tabariyya have dated human remains to as far back as 600,000 B.C.! One of the earliest communities to be unearthed was at ancient Jericho, nestled in the Jordan river valley, comprising several hundred villagers forming part of what is known as Natufian culture (roughly 10,500-8500 B.C.E.). Unfortunately not much is known of Palestine during such epochs so we begin our journey from a land once known as Canaan....

Land of Canaan, 2000 B.C.E.--

Even before 3000 B.C.E., West Semitic tribal groups speaking variations of the Canaanite tongue inhabited much of what is now the modern Middle East. Many settled in the Syria-Canaan lands of Ancient Palestine. Early Mesopotamian documents refer to both nomadic shepherds and to traders. One such group, the Habiru {or Hapiru} migrated into Palestine perhaps as early as 2000 B.C.E. from northern Mesopotamia; later elements from among them formed the ancient Hebrews. As they entered Ancient Palestine, the Phoenicians in the north and the Philistines in the south occupied definite areas. "Phoenicia" is the Greek translation of "Canaan,"--the land of purple merchants," referring perhaps to the dye they used to colour cloth. Indeed, it is from the time of Canaan that Bethlehem is believed to have derived its name, Bethlehem - Beit Lahem in Arabic ("The house of Lahman - a Canaanite God").

The Canaanites, were a Semitic people speaking a language remarkably close to Hebrew. They were farmers, some were nomads, but they were also civilized. They used the great Mesopotamian cities as their model and had built modest imitations of them. They had also learned military technology and tactics from the Mesopotamians, as well as law. Thus when the Hebrews arrived at Canaan, they began the long, painful, and disappointing process of settling the land, but being uncivilized, tribal, and nomadic, they faced a formidable enemy. Even the accounts of this period in the Hebrew bible, the books of Joshua and Judges paint a pretty dreary picture of the occupation. They are eventually driven from the coastal plains and forced to settle in the central hill country and a few places in the Jordan River valley. They also faced another looming enemy, the Philistines, who overwhelmed everyone in their path. They had chariots and iron weapons and few could stand against these new technologies.

Thus it was that the Hebrews found themselves living in the worst areas of Canaan, spread thinly across the entire region, with the balance of power constantly shifting as local kingdoms would grab and then lose territory, finding themselves first under one and then another master.

The Monarchy, 1020 - 920 B.C.

Reign of Saul, 1020-1000 BC
After two hundred years of only marginal success in occupying and holding lands in Palestine, the Hebrews, who were initially a loosely coordinated series of tribes linked by the Ark of the Covenant, united for a century under a series of powerful kings, beginning with Saul, a farmer from the tribe of Benjamin. Saul's goal was to retake territory lost to the Philistines. He is eventually succeeded by David of Bethlehem (Prophet Daud, p.b.u.h.) who continued Saul's consolidation and established his capital at Jerusalem.

Reign of David, 1000-961 BC
Prophet David has been etched in time for his famous defeat of the Philistines' Goliath. The Philistines had established an independent state along the southern coast inflicting relentless damage on the Hebrews through their superior military organization and iron weapons. After centuries of losing conflict, the Hebrews finally defeat the Philistines unambiguously under the brilliant military leadership of David. David was a raw youth at the time with no arms or armour. He was not even in the Israelite camp, and the gian Goliath mocked him. When Saul offered his own armour and arms to David he declined for his shepherd's sling and staff were well tried implements. Using five smooth pebbles he knocked down Goliath and then used his own sword to slay him. There was consternation in the Philistine army: they broke and fled, and were pursued and cut to pieces. (Source: Ali, Yusuf commentary on the Quran) His military campaigns transform the new Hebrew kingdom into a Hebrew empire.

Reign of Solomon, 961-922 BC
"To David We gave Solomon (for a son), how excellent in Our service! Ever did he turn (to Us)" <Qur'an Sad 38:30> Peace and prosperity continued under David's son and successor, Solomon. It is was this third and final king of a united Hebrew state that turned the Hebrew monarchy into something comparable to the opulent monarchies of the Middle East and Egypt. Solomon's reign was a peaceful one. He did not expand his territory any further; rather he built alliances with surrounding countries and developed trade. Of all of Solomon's accomplishments, the building of the temple and the palace were significant. They were milestones for the Hebrews who felt like they were finally becoming a nation on the scale of other nations. It is estimated 80,000 men worked for seven years on the temple and thirteen years on the palace. Solomon exported wheat and oil in exchange for the lumber and gold required for these projects. But at his death the country was divided: the north remained Israel and the south became Judah. The great empire of David and Solomon was no more and never to return; in its place were two mighty kingdoms which lost all the territory of David's once proud empire within one hundred years of Solomon's passing.

The Two Kingdoms, 920 - 597 B.C.

When Solomon died, his kingdom split in two: in the north, Israel, and in the south, Judah. The Israelites formed their capital in the city of Samaria, and the Judeans kept their capital in Jerusalem. These kingdoms remained separate states for over two hundred years. The Hebrew empire soon collapses; Moab soon successfully revolts against Judah, and Ammon successfully secedes from Israel. Within a century of Solomon's death, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah are tiny little states. Located directly between the Mesopotamian kingdoms in the northeast and the powerful state of Egypt in the southwest, Israel and Judah were of the utmost commercial and military importance to all these warring powers. Being small and weak was a liability, and Israel was the first to learn this lesson.

"When the first of Our warnings came to pass, We sent against you Our servants given to terrible warfare: they entered the very inmost parts of your homes; and it was a warning (completely) fulfilled" < Qur'an Bani Israel 17:5>

The Conquest of Israel
A weakened and divided country could not sustain its independence indefinitely; consequently, Israel fell to Assyria in about 722 B.C. and the Babylonians ultimately conquered Judah in 586 BC. The Assyrians were a Semitic people living in the northern reaches of Mesopotamia; they were aggressive and effective; the history of their dominance over the Middle East is a history of constant warfare. In order to assure that conquered territories would remain pacified, the Assyrians would force many of the native inhabitants to relocate to other parts of their empire. They almost always chose the upper and more powerful classes, for they had no reason to fear the general mass of a population. They would then send Assyrians to relocate in the conquered territory. When they conquered Israel, the Assyrians did not settle the Israelites in one place, but scattered them in small populations all over the Middle East. When the Babylonians later conquered Judah, they, too, relocate a massive amount of the population.

The Conquest of Judah
Judah, barely escaped the Assyrian menace, but would eventually be conquered by the Chaldeans or "New Babylonians" about a century later. In 701, the Assyrian Sennacherib gained territory from Judah, and the Jews would have suffered the same fate as the Israelites, but by 625 BC, the Babylonians, under Nabopolassar, would reassert control over Mesopotamia, and the Jewish king Josiah aggressively sought to extend his territory in the power vacuum that resulted. But Judah soon fell victim to the power struggles between Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. When Josiah's son, Jehoahaz, became king, the king of Egypt, Necho (put into power by the Assyrians), rushed into Judah and deposed him, and Judah became a tribute state of Egypt. When the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians in 605 BC, then Judah became a tribute state to Babylon. But when the Babylonians suffered a defeat in 601 BC, the king of Judah, Jehoiakim, defected to the Egyptians. So the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, raised an expedition to punish Judah in 597 BC. The new king of Judah, Jehoiachin, handed the city of Jerusalem over to Nebuchadnezzar, who then appointed a new king over Judah, Zedekiah. In line with Mesopotamian practice, Nebuchadnezzar deported around 10,000 Jews to his capital in Babylon; all the deportees were drawn from professionals, the wealthy, and craftsmen. Ordinary people were allowed to stay in Judah. This deportation was the beginning of the Exile.

The story should have ended there. However, Zedekiah defected from the Babylonians one more time. Nebuchadnezzar responded with another expedition in 588 and conquered Jerusalem in 586. Nebuchadnezzar caught Zedekiah and forced him to watch the murder of his sons; then he blinded him and deported him to Babylon and again, Nebuchadnezzr deported the prominent citizens. Thus in 586 BC, Judah itself ceased to be an independent kingdom.

Exile, 597 - 538 B.C.

This period of deportation which began in 597 BC, when the Chaldeans deported the Jews after conquering Jerusalem, is traditionally dated as 586 BC in Jewish history and is called the Exile. It ends in 538 when the Persians overthrow the Chaldeans.

Only the most prominent citizens of Judah were deported: professionals, priests, craftsmen, and the wealthy. The "people of the land" were allowed to stay. So history refers to: the Jews in Babylon and the Jews who remain in Judah. Almost nothing, of the Jews in Judah after 586 BC, is known. Judah seems to have been wracked by famine, according to the biblical book, Lamentations, which was written in Jerusalem during the exile. The entire situation seemed to be one of infinite despair.

The salient feature of the exile, however, was that the Jews were settled in a single place, by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Chaldeans. While the Assyrian deportation of Israelites in 722 BC resulted in the complete disappearance of the Israelites, the deported Jews formed their own community in Babylon and retained their religion, practices, and philosophies. Some, it would seem, adopted the Chaldean religion (for they name their offspring after Chaldean gods), but for the most part, the community remained united in its common faith.

Persian Rule, 538 - 332 B.C.

"Then did We grant you the Return as against them.........." < Quran Bani Israel 17:6>

In 539 - 538 B.C. Cyrus the Persian (580-529 BC) conquered Mesopotamia, allowing the Jews to return home. This was no ordinary event, as Cyrus sent them home specifically to worship Yahweh—what was once only a kingdom would become a nation of Yahweh.

Cyrus conquered Mesopotamia and the whole of the Middle East, and unlike any conqueror before him, Cyrus set out to conquer the entire world he and he did so for religious reasons. Barely a century before, the Persians were a rag-tag group of tribes living north of Mesopotamia. They were Indo-European—they spoke a language from the Indo-European family, which includes Greek, German, and English. To the Mesopotamians, they were little better than animals and so went largely ignored. But in the middle of the seventh century BC, a supposed prophet, Zarathustra, appeared among them and preached a new religion. This religion would become Zoroastrianism (in Greek, Zarathustra is called "Zoroaster"). The Zoroastrians believed that the universe was dualistic, one was good and light and the other evil and dark and that at the end of time, a climactic battle would decide once and for all which of the two would dominate the universe.

Cyrus believed that the final battle was approaching, and that Persia would bring about the triumph of good. To this end, he sought to conquer all peoples and create the stage for the final triumph of good. At his death, his empire was exponentially larger than any other empire that had ever existed, the Persians, it seemed at the time, were on their way to world domination. Although Zoroastrianism involved two gods—one good and one evil—all other gods were ranged on one side or the other of this equation. Cyrus believed Yahweh was one of the good gods, claiming that Yahweh had visited him one night. In that vision, Yahweh commanded him to re-establish Yahweh worship in Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple. Cyrus ordered the temple to be rebuilt and to this end, he ordered the Jews in Babylon to return to Jerusalem. In fact, Cyrus sent many people back to the native lands in order to worship the local gods there, so the situation with the Jews was not unique. Not all of the Jews went home; a large portion stayed in Babylon and some had converted to Babylonian religions.

Before the Exile, Judah and Israel were merely kingdoms; now Judah was a theological state. The shining symbol of this new state dedicated to Yahweh was the temple of Solomon, which had been burned to the ground by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. Thus it was that the temple was rebuilt along with the walls of the city.

During the Exile, the Jews set about "purifying" their religion. They blamed the disaster of the Exile on their own impurity and believed it to be proof of Yahweh's displeasure, for betraying Him and allowing the Mosaic laws and cultic practices to become corrupt, attempting to return their laws and cultic practices to their Mosaic originals. This newfound concern with cultic purity and the Mosaic laws, combined with the re-establishment of Judah as a theological state, produced a different society. Hebrew society was almost solely concerned with religious matters in the Persian period; foreign religions were not tolerated as they had been before. Non-Jews were persecuted, and foreign religious expelled. During the Persian period and later, Judah was the state where Yahweh and only Yahweh was worshipped. Both the Persians and the Greeks respected this exclusivity, but the Romans would greatly offend the Jews when they introduced foreign gods.

For the next two hundred years, Persia dominated all of the Middle East and Egypt, and came within a hair's breadth of conquering Greece. During all this time Palestine was a tribute state of Persia. However, in the late fourth century BC, another was intent on conquering the world and set about doing it with ruthless efficiency. He was a Greek: Alexander of Macedon. When he conquered Persia in 332 BC, Palestine became a Greek state.

The Greeks, 332 - 63 BC

"..........We gave you increase in resources and sons, and made you the more numerous in man-power" < Quran Bani Israel 17:6>

After two centuries of serving as a vassal state to Persia, Judah suddenly found itself the vassal state of Macedonia, a Greek state. Alexander the Great had conquered Persia and had, in doing so, conquered most of the world, which was under Persian rule at the time; in a blink of an eye, it now fell to the Greeks.

This great Greek empire would last no longer than Alexander's brief life; after his death, altercations between his generals led to the division of his empire among three generals. One general, Antigonus and then later Ptolemy, inherited Egypt; another, Seleucus, inherited the Middle East and Mesopotamia. It was under the Seleucids that Hellenistic culture, an amalgam of Greek and early eastern cultures, grew dominant. After two centuries of peace under the Persians, the Hebrew state found itself once more caught in the middle of power struggles between two great empires: the Seleucid state with its capital in Syria to the north and the Ptolemaic state, with its capital in Egypt to the south. Once more, Judah would be conquered, first by one, and then another, as it shifted from being a Seleucid vassal state to a Ptolemaic vassal state. Between 319 and 302 BC, Jerusalem changed hands seven times.

The Greeks allowed the Jews a fair amount of autonomy; adopting Cyrus's policy, they allowed the Jews to run their own country, declared that the law of Judah was the Torah, and attempted to preserve Jewish religion. When the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV, desecrated the Temple in 168 BC, he touched off a Jewish revolt under the Maccabees; the next 80 years saw a period of Jewish political independence in Jerusalem.

The Greeks brought with them a brand new concept: the "polis," or "city-state." Among the revolutionary ideas of the polis was the idea of naturalization. In the ancient world, it was not possible to become a citizen of a state if you weren't born in that state. The Greeks, however, would allow foreigners to become citizens in the polis; it became possible all throughout the Middle East for Hebrews and others to become citizens of states other than Judah. Thus the rights of citizenship (or near-citizenship, called polituemata), allowed Jews to remain outside of Judea and still thrive. In many foreign cities throughout the Hellenistic world, the Jews formed unified and solid communities; Jewish women enjoyed more rights and autonomy in these communities rather than at home.

The most important event of the Hellenistic period, though, is the translation of the Torah into Greek in Ptolemaic Egypt. After the Exile, the Torah became the authoritative code of the Jews, recognized first by Persia and later by the Greeks as the Hebrew "law." In 458 BC, Artaxerxes I of Persia made the Torah the "law of the Judean king."

So the Greeks set about translating a copy, called the Septuagint after the number of translators it required ("septuaginta" is Greek for "seventy"). The Septuagint is a watershed in history, as this translation would make the Hebrew religion into a world religion. It would otherwise have faded from memory like the infinity of Semitic religions that have been lost to us. This Greek version made the Hebrew scriptures available to the Mediterranean world and to early Christians who were otherwise fain to regard Christianity as a religion unrelated to Judaism. Even with a Greek translation, the Hebrew Scriptures came within a hair's breadth of being tossed out of the Christian canon. From this Greek translation, the Hebrew view of God, of history, of law, and of the human condition, in all its magnificence would spread around the world. The dispersion, or Diaspora, of the Jews would involve ideas as well as people.

Eventually in the second century BC, the Jews revolted and established an independent state (141-63BC). This lasted until Pompey the Great conquered Palestine for Rome and made it a province of the Roman Empire ruled by Jewish kings.

Roman - Byzantine rule, 63 BC - 638 CE

...So when the second of the warnings came to pass, (We permitted your enemies) to disfigure your faces, and to enter your Temple as they had entered it before, and to visit with destruction all that fell into their power." < Quran Bani Israel 17:6>

In 63 BC, Romans incorporated Judah into their empire, as the province of Judea, and placed the Jewish lands under kings. The Herodian dynasty, a family of Jews who gained favour with the Romans, was appointed to these kingships. They ruled over Palestine from 40 BC until around 100 AD. The most famous member of this family was Herod the Great, who ruled from 37 to 4 BC. He rebuilt Jerusalem and many fortresses in the land and temples in Gentile territories and promoted Hellenistic culture. But his most notable achievement was the building a temple in Jerusalem, which was begun in 20/19 BC and finished in 63 AD, long after his death.

Herod was an ideal medium for the empire. His Jewish ancestry gave him identification both with Jewish culture, and through his close friendships with the Romans, the Romans as well. His rise to power came through many intricately designed connections to the Romans and was spurred on by his desire to be the "king of the Jews." It was during his rule that Jesus of Nazareth (Prophet Eesa, pbuh) was born between 6-4 BC, he would spread his message of monotheism up until around 30 AD when, according to Muslim tradition, he was raised up to heaven. After gathering apostles and supporters in the Galilee whose views often conflicted with the contemporary Jewish religious establishment - Jesus made his way to Jerusalem. As his teachings were judged subversive he was to be put to death. "......But they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for a surety they killed him not." <Quran, The Women 4:157> And so it was that the Jews who showed stiff-necked resistance to God's messenger, Jesus, brought about the inevitable doom which followed in the complete destruction of their Temple under Titus in 70 AD.

Following Herod's death, Roman oppression, and with it Jewish resistance, intensified. Although the Jews could still practice their religion, the Romans reserved the right to appoint priests and enforced regulations that seemed to violate the law given them by Yahweh. This led to subversion and rebelliousness, but the Romans were far too powerful to resist militarily. Subsequently the Judeans revolted in 70 AD, a desperate revolt that ended bloodily. The Romans crushed the Jewish revolt, destroying the temple and laying siege to Jerusalem. It took another three years and 10,000 Roman soldiers to destroy the last Jewish resistance at Masada, a mountain fort, with 960 men, women, and children inside. In desperation, the Jewish revolutionaries chose to commit mass suicide rather than surrender to the Romans. Between 132-135 AD there was a second Jewish revolt. Subsequently many Jews were executed and a large number were sold into slavery. The remainder were forbidden to visit Jerusalem and many were systematically driven out of Palestine or fled, but Jewish communities continued to exist in Galilee, the northernmost part of Palestine.

In 135 CE the Emperor Hadrian declared a new city on the site of Jerusalem, called Colonia Aelia Capitolina. A new municipal plan was introduced which bore hardly any resemblance to the former city. Indeed the Roman influence is felt to this day: the main streets of the Old City still follow the Roman grid. Jerusalem was no longer the country's capital nor its economic centre. Its religious status also declined: Jews were not permitted to enter, while Christianity was still a forbidden religion. In approximately 313 AD, however, Constantine's assumption of power as sole ruler of the Roman Empire wrought a transformation to the status of Christianity. No longer was it an outlawed and persecuted faith; in fact, it would soon become the Empire's official religion. These developments had a significant impact on Jerusalem. Churches were built on sites identified as sacred to Christianity, attracting large numbers of pilgrims from all corners of the Empire.

By order of the Emperor Constantine and under the auspices of his mother, the Empress Helena, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Resurrection were built in Jerusalem. Another great church, erected on Mount Zion and known as the "Mother of Churches" -- commemorated the site of the Last Supper and the"dormition" of Mary. A golden age of prosperity, security and culture followed and in in time Christianity spread with many Jews as well as Pagans converting to Christianity. It was also under Romans rule that the country was re-named Palaestina, from Philistia. The name Palaestina became Palestine in English. By the 5th Century, Jerusalem's official status within the church hierarchy was also enhanced. Coinciding with the appointment of the city's bishop, Juvenal, as Patriarch, Jerusalem was made a patriarchate, joining Rome, Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria.

Numerous influences thus laid claim to Palestine; Hellenistic, Christian and Byzantine during this period. And although Palestine fell briefly to the Persians in 614, fifteen years later, in 629, the Emperor Heraclius restored Byzantine rule. But within a decade, in 638, Jerusalem surrendered again, this time to the forces of a rising power on the stage of history -- the Muslim Arabs.

Muslim Palestine, 638-1099 CE

The Umayyads, 638-750 CE
With the rise of Islam, Palestine was soon acquired by Muslims under the Umayyads in 638 CE. For the first time in its long history, Jerusalem had been spared a bloodbath. Eager to be rid of their Byzantine overlords, whilst recognising the Muslims reputation for mercy and compassion, the people of Jerusalem handed over the city after a brief siege. Only one condition was made: that their terms of surrender be negotiated by the Caliph Umar (RA) in person. In return for surrender, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Sophronius, was granted a writ of privileges which guaranteed the right of Christians to maintain their holy places and pursue their customs unhindered. Umar entered Jerusalem on foot. There was no bloodshed. Those who wanted to leave were allowed to do so with all their goods, whilst those who chose to stay were guaranteed the protection of their lives, property and places of worship. Thus began 1300 years of Muslim presence in what became known as Filastin.

 The new rulers did not impose their religion upon the indigenous Palestinians but most of them converted to Islam in little over a century, whilst those Christians and Jews that chose not to, were allowed considerable autonomy their own affairs along with religious freedom and security. Under Muslim rule, the Jews were permitted back into Palestine with Jewish communities and were allowed to prosper. It was in this first century of Islamic rule in Jerusalem, that Abd Al-Malik ibn Al Marwan, a leading caliph of the dynasty, built the Dome of the Rock, inaugurated in 691.

Jerusalem was recognized as the third holiest city in Islam, after Mecca and Medina, and as a destination for pilgrimage. This was so because the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had first designated his followers to face Jerusalem when praying (which later changed to Mecca). It is also the site where the prophet Muhammed (pbuh) ascended to Heaven on his night journey (al-Miraj) from the area in Jerusalem where the Dome of the Rock was later built. The city was therefore, after Makkah and Medina, the third holiest city of Islam. Thus Palestine in being part of the expanding Muslim empire, ruled from Damascus by the Umayyads, profited from both trade and from its religious significance.

The Abbasids, 750-1099CE
The Umayyad Dynasty was and succeeded by the Abbasids (approximately 750 CE), who transferred their capital from nearby Damascus to distant Baghdad. Jerusalem's political and economic importance, which in part had derived from its proximity to the centre of power, thus declined. The population shrank and with it the size of the city. Jerusalem's importance as a religious centre, however, was still remained intact. Palestine shared in the golden age of Islam and all benefited from its message of tolerance with all three monotheistic religions perceiving Jerusalem as a holy city, yearned for it and pilgrimaging to the sacred sites within its walls.

The Crusades, 1099 CE

On 15 July 1099 Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders after a five-week siege and the victors proceeded to massacre the city's Muslims and Jews. After 460 years of Muslim rule the Crusaders restored Jerusalem to Christian hands, and declared the city the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The city's populations underwent a significant change. Western culture now took centre-stage, with French the day-to-day language and Latin the language of prayer. The Jewish and Muslim inhabitants were replaced by European and Eastern Christians, and Jerusalem once more assumed a Christian character, as Christian traditions were renewed and churches and monasteries rebuilt. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the prime destination of the Crusaders, was magnificently restored in stone, in Romanesque fashion.

The palace of the Patriarch ofJerusalem stood west of the church. To the south was the quarter occupied by the Hospitalers (warrior knights who initially undertook to protect and guide pilgrims, and to lodge them in their vast Jerusalem hospice, and eventually became part of the Kingdom's defences). The holy sites on the Temple Mount were declared Christian. The Temple Mount was the seat of the Templars, an order of monastic knights whose names derived from their location.

Muslim Rule, 1187-1917 CE

Salah al-Din ibn Ayyub, 1187 CE
In 1187 Jerusalem fell to Saladin (Salah-al-Din ibn Ayyub), putting an end to the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. The great golden cross that rose above the Dome of the Rock was toppled and shattered, to be replaced by the crescent, the symbol of Islam. The city was gradually restored by Saladin, who built numerous public structures. Saladin rebuilt the city fortifications and expanded them to include Mount Zion. In 1212 his nephew Al-Mu'azim Issa, ruler of Damscus, continued the building and added inscriptions in his honour in the walls. Seven years later, however, in 1219 he pulled down the walls, fearing that the Crusaders were liable to return to Jerusalem and make use of the fortifications. Jerusalem remained an unprotected, unwalled city until Sulayman the Magnificent rebuilt its defences. Following Saladin's victory Jews returned to Jerusalem, and were joined by immigrants from the Maghreb, France and Yemen.

The Mamelukes, 1250-1517 CE
In 1260 the Mameluke rulers of Egypt conquered Palestine and became the new masters of Jerusalem. While Mameluke Jerusalem bore prime religious importance, politically it was insignificant. The Mamelukes were soldiers who had been brought to Egypt as property of the ruler from the Central Asian steppes. Since they had been brought into the fold of Islam, they felt a deep commitment to that religion. This was reflected in intensive building in Jerusalem, which has left its mark on the Old City to this day, particularly around the Temple Mount.

The Ottomans, 1517-1917 CE
When the Ottoman Turks defeated the Mameluke forces in 1517, Palestine came under the rule of an empire that was to dominate the entire Near East for the next 400 years. At the outset, particularly during the reign of Sultan Sulayman, better known as Sulayman the Magnificent, Jerusalem flourished. Walls and gates, which had lain in ruins since the Ayyubid period, were rebuilt. The ancient aqueduct was reactivated and public drinking fountains were installed. After Sulayman's death, however, cultural and economic stagnation set in, Jerusalem again became a small, unimportant town. For the next 300 years its population barely increased, while trade and commerce were frozen; Jerusalem became a backwater.

The 19th century witnessed far-reaching changes, along with the gradual weakening of the Ottoman Empire. Political change in Jerusalem and indeed throughout the country was accelerated under a policy of Europeanization. European institutions in Jerusalem, particularly those of a religious character, enjoyed growing influence. Foreign consulates, merchants and settlers, grew in both numbers and power, which led to further innovations and modernizing in Palestine.

For the first time in more than a thousand years, settlement began outside the city walls with many Jewish and Muslim neighbourhoods taking springing up. The city's skyline portrayed a new Palestine at once depicting European influence: European-style buildings, bell towers, and monumental structures such as the Russian Compound and the Notre Dame de France Pilgrims' Hostel.

The British Mandate, 1917-1948 CE

In fact, the British had contracted three mutually contradictory promises for the future of Palestine. The Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 with the French and Russian governments proposed that Palestine be placed under international administration. The Husayn-McMohan Correspondence, 1915-1916, on whose basis the Arab revolt was launched, implied that Palestine would be included in the zone of Arab independence. In contrast, the Balfour Declaration encouraged the colonization of Palestine by Jews, under British protection. British officials recognized the irreconcilability of these pledges but hoped that a modus vivendi could be achieved, both between the competing imperial powers, France and Britain, and between the Palestinians and the Jews. Instead, these contradictions set the stage for the three decades of conflict-ridden British rule in Palestine.

Initially, many British politicians shared the Zionists' assumption that gradual, regulated Jewish immigration and settlement would lead to a Jewish majority in Palestine, whereupon it would become independent, with legal protection for the Arab minority .The assumption that this could be accomplished without serious resistance was shattered at the outset of British rule. Britain thereafter was caught in an increasingly untenable position, unable to persuade either Palestinians or Zionists to alter their demands and forced to station substantial military forces in Palestine to maintain security.

The Palestinians had assumed that they would gain some form of independence when Ottoman rule disintegrated; whether through a separate state or integration with neighbouring Arab lands. These hopes were bolstered by the Arab revolt, the entry of Faysal Ibn Husayn into Damascus in 1918, and the proclamation of Syrian independence in 1920. Their hopes were dashed, however, when Britain imposed direct colonial rule and elevated the yishuv to a special status. Moreover, the French ousted Faysal from Damascus in July 1920, and British compensation-in the form of thrones in Transjordan and Iraq for Abdullah and Faysal, respectively-had no positive impact on the Arabs in Palestine. In fact, the action underlined the different treatment accorded Palestine and its disadvantageous political situation. These concerns were exacerbated by Jewish immigration: the yishuv comprised 28 percent of the population by 1936 and reached 32 percent by 1947 (click here for Palestine's population distribution per district in 1946). The British umbrella was critically important to the growth and consolidation of the yishuv, enabling it to root itself firmly despite Palestinian opposition. Although British support diminished in the late 1930s, the yishuv was strong enough by then to withstand the Palestinians on its own. After World War II, the Zionist movement also was able to turn to the emerging superpower, the United States, for diplomatic support and legitimisation.

The Palestinians' responses to Jewish immigration, land purchases, and political demands were remarkably consistent. They insisted that Palestine remain an Arab country, with the same right of self-determination and independence as Egypt, Transjordan, and Iraq. Britain granted those countries independence without a violent struggle since their claims to self-determination were not contested by European settlers. The Palestinians argued that Palestinian territory could not and should not be used to solve the plight of the Jews in Europe, and that Jewish national aspirations should not override their own rights.

Palestinian opposition peaked in the late 1930s: the six-month general strike in 1936 was followed the next year by a widespread rural revolt. This rebellion welled up from the bottom of Palestinian society-unemployed urban workers, displaced peasants crowded into towns, and debt-ridden villagers. It was supported by most merchants and professionals in the towns, who feared competition from the yishuv. Members of the elite families acted as spokesmen before the British administration through the Arab Higher Committee, which was formed during the 1936 strike. However, the British banned the committee in October 1937 and arrested its members, on the eve of the revolt.
Only one of the Palestinian political parties was willing to limit its aims and accept the principle of territorial partition: The National Defence Party, led by Raghib al-Nashashibi (mayor of Jerusalem from 1920 to 1934), was willing to accept partition in 1937 so long as the Palestinians obtained sufficient land and could merge with Transjordan to form a larger political entity. However, the British Peel Commission's plan, announced in July 1937, would have forced the Palestinians to leave the olive- and grain- growing areas of Galilee, the orange groves on the Mediterranean coast, and the urban port cities of Haifa and Acre. That was too great a loss for even the National Defence Party to accept, and so it joined in the general denunciations of partition.

During the Palestine Mandate period the Palestinian community was 70 percent rural, 75 to 80 percent illiterate, and divided internally between town and countryside and between elite families and villagers. Despite broad support for the national aims, the Palestinians could not achieve the unity and strength necessary to withstand the combined pressure of the British forces and the Zionist movement. In fact, the political structure was decapitated in the late 1930s when the British banned the Arab Higher Committee and arrested hundreds of local politicians. When efforts were made in the 1940s to rebuild the political structure, the impetus came largely from outside, from Arab rulers who were disturbed by the deteriorating conditions in Palestine and feared their repercussions on their own newly acquired independence.

The Arab rulers gave priority to their own national considerations and provided limited diplomatic and military support to the Palestinians. The Palestinian Arabs continued to demand a state that would reflect the Arab majority's weight-diminished to 68 percent by 1947. They rejected the United Nations (U.N.) partition plan of November 1947, which granted the Jews statehood in 55 percent of Palestine, an area that included as many Arab residents as Jews. However, the Palestinian Arabs lacked the political strength and military force to back up their claim. Once Britain withdrew its forces in 1948 and the Jews proclaimed the state of Israel, the Arab rulers used their armed forces to protect those zones that the partition plans had allocated to the Arab state. By the time armistice agreements were signed in 1949, the Arab areas had shrunk to only 23 percent of Palestine. The Egyptian army held the Gaza Strip, and Transjordanian forces dominated the hills of central Palestine. At least 726,000 of the 1.3 million Palestinian Arabs fled from the area held by Israel. Emir Abdullah subsequently annexed the zone that his army occupied, renaming it the West Bank.

Dispossession and the State of Israel, 1948

After World War II, Britain was unable to maintain control over Palestine and transferred responsibility to the United Nations (UN). The UN decided that the only means of resolving the escalating conflict between Jews and Arabs was to partition the land into two states. Although Jews constituted only one-third of the population and owned less than 7 percent of the land, the UN partition plan assigned 55 percent of Palestine’s territory to the Jewish state. In March 1948, Zionist forces launched major operations throughout Palestine. Their attacks were brutal. Through terror, psychological warfare, and direct conquests, Palestine was dismembered, many of its villages destroyed, and many of its people expelled as refugees. By the time the British withdrawal had been completed, Palestinian resistance had been largely broken. British evacuation and the Zionist leaders’ proclamation of the Israeli state on 15 May 1948—forcibly created beyond the area allotted to the Jewish community in the UN partition plan—prompted military intervention by the neighboring Arab states, precipitating the first Arab-Israeli war.

Palestine was divided into three parts. The 1949 armistice agreements gave Israel control over 78 percent of the territory of British Mandate Palestine. Jordan occupied and annexed East Jerusalem and the hill country of central Palestine, thereafter known as the “West Bank” of the Jordan River. Egypt took temporary control of the coastal plain around the city of Gaza, later referred to as the Gaza Strip. Both Jordan and Egypt held on to these respective territories until the 1967 war, during which Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian Arab state provided for in the United Nations partition plan was never established.

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