History of the Southern Levant

The History of Palestine is the account of events in the geographic area called Palestine, from ancient times to the present. For the history of the use of the term "Palestine", see Boundaries and name of the region of Palestine. For the archeology of this region, see Archaeology of Israel.

Prehistoric Period

Paleolithic Period

The Mousterian Neanderthals were the earliest inhabitants of the area known to archaeologists, and have been dated to c. 200,000 BCE. The first anatomically modern humans to live in the area were the Kebarans (conventionally c. 18,000 - 10,500 BCE, but recent paleoanthropological evidence suggests that Kebarans may have arrived as early as 75,000 BCE and shared the region with the Neanderthals for millennia before the latter died out).

Epipalaeolithic Period

They were followed by the Natufian culture (c. 10,500 BCE - 8500 BCE). (This and the other prehistoric cultures are named after archeological sites, in the absence of any indication of what they called themselves.)

Neolithic Period 8500-4300 BCE

The Yarmukians (c. 8500 - 4300 BCE).

Calcholithic Period 4300-3300 BCE

The Semitic culture followed the Ghassulians (carbon dated c. 4300 - 3300 BCE). People became urbanized and lived in city-states, including Jericho. The area's location at the center of routes linking three continents made it the meeting place for religious and cultural influences from Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor. It was also the natural battleground for the great powers of the region and subject to domination by adjacent empires, beginning with Egypt in the late 3rd millennium BCE.

Biblical Period

Canaanite Period (Bronze Age) 3300-1200 BCE

A Semitic speaking culture followed the Ghassulian culture. Archaeologists refer to the culture as Canaanite Period, corresponding to the Bronze Age. This usage differs from that of the Bible and related literature where the term is used in a more narrow sense for one group within the wider culture. Some historians regard it as part of a wave of migration of semitic-speaking peoples out of the Arabian Peninsula, while others suggest that they had been there ever since the original Semitic emigration from Africa.

Late Canaanite Period (Late Bronze Age) 1550-1200 BCE

13th century BCE: Ancient Egyptian Merneptah Stele records the "people" of "Israel" (not a city nor a region) among its notable enemies

Israel enters history

During the Late Canaanite Period (Late Bronze Age), the Israelites appear in history, mentioned in the Merneptah Stele of Ancient Egypt in the 13th century BCE. Eventually, the twelve tribes of Israel will emerge as a dominant cultural presence during the Israelite Period (Iron Age).

During the Late Canaanite and Early Israelite Periods, the emerging Israelites are part of Canaanite culture in language and customs. They are virtually indistinguishable from their neighbors. Archeologists have not yet reached a consensus about the precise origins of the Israelites. Some archeologists regard them as an outgrowth of the Canaanite culture, who were perhaps displaced during the unusually turbulent [1] Late Canaanite Period, living as semi-nomads, until settling the hill areas of Samaria and Judah during the Early Israelite Period.

Alternatively, Israelites are ancient Aramean immigrants from Aram-Naharaim (around the Syro-Turkish area of Mesopotamia). Genetic testing has shown that throughout the world, modern "Jews [are genetically] more closely related to groups from the north of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks and Armenians) than to their Arab neighbors." [2] These ancient immigrants from Aram-Naharaim to the Land of Israel lived a semi-nomadic life of commerce and herding with periodic stops for raising crops. [3] They lived on the fringes of the unstable Canaanite society for centuries, acquiring the Canaanite language and material culture, before finally urbanizing across the hill areas of modern Israel.

According to the ancient traditions in the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites descended from Abraham who is called a "wandering Aramean", whose family is associated with Aram-Naharaim, including the ancient places there, such as Haran and Teran in Turkey. After Abraham, the Israelites are said to descend through Isaac, born in the land of Israel, and then through their eponymous ancestor Jacob who is also known as Israel. Israel's sons often took Canaanite wives, adopting Canaanite customs. The Bible also describes a time when the Israelites relocated to Egypt, and following the Exodus back from Egypt, a time when they conquered (sometimes exterminating and sometimes absorbing) the ethnic groups there, reclaiming the land God promised them.

Israelite Period (Iron Age) 1200-539 BCE

The tribes of Israel emerge as the dominant culture of the Land of Israel

Judges Period (Iron Age I) 1200-1000 BCE

Israel urbanizes across the hill area of Judea and Samaria

Successive waves of migration brought other groups onto the scene. Around 1200 BCE the Hittite empire was conquered by allied tribes from the north. The Phoenicians (who are the Canaanites of Lebanon, not the ones conquered by the Israelites) were temporarily displaced, but returned when the invading tribes showed no inclination to settle. The Egyptians called the horde that swept across Asia Minor and the Mediterranean Sea the Sea Peoples. The Philistines (whose traces disappear before the 5th century BCE) are presently considered to have been among them, giving the name Philistia to the region in which they settled.

For further discussion on the very early ethnic history of the region, see:

Monarchy Period (Iron Age II) 1000-586 BCE

10th century BCE: The Land of Israel, including the United Kingdom of Israel

United Monarchy of Israel (Iron Age IIA) 1000-925 BCE

King David rules the United Monarchy of Israel from Jerusalem the capital city, King Solomon builds the Temple in Jerusalem

Eventually, the Israelites established the United Kingdom of Israel, with King David of the tribe of Judah eventually ruling from Jerusalem around 1000 BCE. The reign of King David and his son King Solomon expanded the Kingdom of Israel to include most of modern Israel (with the Negev, West Bank, and Golan) and parts of western Lebanon, eastern Jordan and southern Syria. It did not rule the area of the Gaza Strip, where the Philistines lived.

Divided Monarchies of Judah and Israel (Iron Age IIB) 925-722 BCE

Civil war shisms into Kingdoms of Judah and Israel

With the death of King Solomon around 925 BCE, the Israelites fell into civil war, and the kingdom split into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom was far more wealthy and politically influencial, but its monarchy was unstable with frequent intreague and dynastic changes.

In the relative backwaters of the southern Kingdom of Judah, the Davidic Dynasty alone ruled Judah and its vicinities for centuries until the Persian Period, proving remarkably stable. Several factors contrubuted to the stability of the southern monarchy. Its kings made a frequent practice of ruling alongside a son in a period of coregency. Gradually, the kings centralized all religious authority to Jerusalem the capital city: to the Temple located next to the king's palace. Unlike El that was perceived as a universal deity in the north, Yhwh was perceived in the south as a patron deity of the nation of Israel, thus worship of other gods equated to treason. Throughout the Davidic Dynasty of the Kingdom of Judah, religious loyalty and loyalty to the king consolidated.

Monarchy of Judah/Neo-Assyrian Period (Iron Age IIC) 722-856 BCE

Neo-Assyrian Empire terminates the northern kingdom, but the southern Kingdom of Judah stays strong

In 722 BCE, the northern Kingdom of Ephraim (commonly referred to as Israel, sometimes as Samaria) was destroyed by the Assyrians, the elite amongst its inhabitants were deported (giving rise to the legend of "the Lost Tribes") and replaced by settlers from elsewhere in the Assyrian Empire. Many however fled to their southern Israelite sister kingdom, and many stayed behind; they (mixed with deportees from Mesopotamia) became the Samaritans.

Neo-Babylonian Period (Iron Age III) 586-539 BCE

Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem

The Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar conquered the (southern) Kingdom of Judah in 597-586 BCE, and deported the middle and upper classes of the Jews to Babylonia in the Babylonian captivity, where they flourished. Most regard the collapse of the Israelite kingdoms as the beginning of the Jewish diaspora.

Persian Period 539-333 BCE

Rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem

Cyrus II of Persia conquered the Babylonian Empire by 539 BCE and incorporated Palestine into the Persian Empire. Cyrus organized the empire into provincial administrations called satrapies. The administrators of these provinces, called satraps, had considerable independence from the emperor. The Persians allowed Jews to return to the regions that the Bablyonians had exiled them from.

The exiled Jews who returned to their traditional home encountered the Jews that had remained, surrounded by a much larger non-Jewish majority. One group of note (that exists up until this day) were the Samaritans, who adhered to most features of the Jewish rite and claimed to be descendants of the Assyrian Jews; they were not recognized as Jews by the returning exiles for various reasons (at least some of which seem to be political). The return of the exiles from Babylon reinforced the Jewish population, which gradually became more dominant and expanded significantly.

Classical Period

Helenistic Period 333-165 BCE

Cultural legacy of the empire of Alexander the Great

In the early 330s BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the region, beginning an important period of Hellenestic influence in Palestine.

After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, his empire was partitioned, and the competing Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires occupied various portions of the eastern Mediterranean, including different parts of Palestine.

Maccabean/Hasmonean Period 165-63 BCE

Jews restore their sovereignty over their ancient homeland

The Jews were divided between the Hellenists who supported the adoption of Greek culture, and those who believed in keeping to the traditions of the past, which resulted in the Maccabean revolt of the 2nd century BCE. Jews achieved sovereignty in their homeland throughout the Maccabean Period, and their Kingdom of Judea controlled most of the region of modern Israel (without the Negev but with the West Bank, Golan, and parts of the Gaza Strip) and parts of eastern Jordan.

Roman Period 63 BCE-330 CE

Early Roman Period 63 BCE-70 CE

Civil war among Jews eventually destroys Jewish sovereignty

Following the Roman conquest in 63 BCE, parts of Palestine - first a client kingdom of the Roman Empire, after year 6 CE Iudaea Province, after year 135 CE province Syria Palaestina - was in nearly constant revolt (see Jewish-Roman Wars).

'Middle' Roman Period 70-135 BCE

Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem

The 'Middle Roman' Period is sometimes called 'Early Roman' and sometimes 'Late Roman'.

The Great Jewish Revolt in 66-73 resulted in the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem (70) and the sacking of the entire city by the Roman army led by Titus Flavius and the estimated death toll of 600,000 to 1,300,000 Jews (see Josephus Flavius).

Late Roman Period 135-330 BCE

Romans rename the province of Iudaea (Judea) as Syria Palaestina

In 135 CE, the costly victory in Bar Kokhba's revolt by Hadrian resulted in 580,000 Jews killed (according to Cassius Dio) and an effort to ethnically cleanse Judea of Jews, including the establishment of the pagan polis Aelia Capitolina on the site of the ruins of Jerusalem, in which Jews were forbidden to set foot. Hundreds of thousands were taken as slaves throughout the Empire.

As part of a program of ethnic cleansing, the Romans tried to erase the Jewish connection to the land of Judea, and so renamed it Syria Palaestina.^[1] Until then, the province of Iudaea (Judea) included all of Samaria, while the coastal area of Palaestina (Philistia) was a separate province. The Romans redrew the borders to merge Iudaea and Palaestina into "Syria Palaestina" and split Samaria off into a separate province.

A number of events with far-reaching consequences took place, including religious schisms, such as Christianity branching off of Judaism.

Over several centuries, the Jewish Diaspora grew even further. In addition to the large Jewish community in Babylon, large numbers of Jews settled in Egypt, and in other parts of the Hellenistic world and in the Roman Empire.

The frequent conflict contributed to Jewish emigration, both as refugees, through deportation, and by reducing economic opportunities in the region. It also led to many deaths among the Jewish population - deaths in battles with the Romans and others, deaths due to massacres, and deaths due to the famine and disease that so often accompany armed conflict. However, the Jewish population in the north of Palestine remained large for several centuries.

Byzantine Period 330-638 CE

Byzantines rename the entire geographic area as Palaestina ("Palestine")

The Land of Israel became part of the Byzantine Empire after the division of the Roman Empire into east and west (a fitful process that did not finalize until 395 CE).

Around year 390 CE, the Byzantines redrew the borders of the Land of Israel. The various Roman provinces (Syria Palaestina, Samaria, Galilaea, and Peraea) were reorganized into two diocese of Palaestina.

The Nabataeans Arabized the Negev by the Roman Period, and by the Byzantine Period dominated the sparsely populated deserts from the Sinai to the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula, in a swath that the Byzantines called Palaestina Salutoris (meaning something like "near Palestine"). The precise origins of these Arabs remains obscure.

Meanwhile, Palestine was increasingly Christianized and probably had a Christian majority by the time of Diocletian.^{[citation needed]} Some areas, like Gaza, were well known as pagan holdouts, remained attached to the worship of Daqon and other deities as their ancestors had done for thousands of years.^{[citation needed]} Gaza was probably an Arabic-speaking city by this time: it is referred to as an Arab city by 430 BCE.

Under Byzantine rule, the region became a center of Christianity, while retaining significant Jewish and Samaritan communities (although the Samaritans were greatly reduced following Julianus ben Sabar's revolt.) During a protracted conflict with the Byzantine Empire, the Sassanian Empire under Khosrau II briefly wrested control of the region from the Byzantines. An invasion of Mesopotamia by Byzantine Emperor Heraclius forced the Sassanians to withdraw.

Islamic Period

Arab Caliphate Period 638-1099 CE

Umayyad Period 638-750 CE

After 634, the Caliphate (Islamic Empire) conquered the Byzantine Diocese of Palestine, calling it Filastin in Arabic name. Initially, the "Rightly Guided" caliphs, but soon the Umayyads did. The conquerors colonized Palestine, and over the centuries it acquired a Muslim, Arabic-speaking majority, through immigration, language shift and conversion.

Abbasid Period 750-1099 CE

The Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads in 750.

In the 900s, the Fatimids, a self-proclaimed Shia caliphate, took control. In the next century, Seljuk Turks invaded large portions of West Asia, including Asia Minor and Palestine.

Crusader Period 1099-1244 CE

Note: After the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 CE, Crusader Kingdom survived throughout Ayyubid Period until 1291 CE well into Mamluk Period

Kingdom of Jerusalem Period 1099-1187 CE

The proximate cause of the Crusades, following 1095, by the Christian European powers was the desire to reconquer the birthland and holy land of Christianity, which had been lost to the Islamic Arab invasion of the byzantine Roman empire in the 7th century. It was also to protect non muslim lands from the 200 years of prior warfare from Muslims on all non Muslim peoples. The Christian forces established the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which lasted from 1099 until 1291, though Saladin reconquered the city of Jerusalem in 1187.

Ayyubid Period 1187-1244 CE

Saladin conquers Jerusalem

The Ayyubid Sultanate, founded by Saladin, controlled Jerusalem and some but not all of the region until 1250, when it was defeated by the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.

Mamluk Period 1244-1517 CE

The Mamluk Sultanate ultimately became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, in the wake of campaigns waged by Selim I in the 16th century.

Ottomon Period 1517-1917 CE

In 1516 the Ottoman Turks occupied Palestine. The country became part of the Ottoman Empire. Constantinople appointed local governors. Public works, including the city walls, were rebuilt in Jerusalem by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1537. Napoleon of France briefly waged war against the Ottoman Empire (allied then with Great Britain). His forces conquered and occupied cities in Palestine, but they were finally defeated and driven out by 1801. Turkish rule lasted until World War I.

Jewish immigration to Palestine, particularly to the "four sacred cities" (Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Hebron) which already had significant Jewish communities, increased particularly towards the end of Ottoman rule; Jews of European origin lived mostly off donations from off-country, while many Sephardic Jews found themselves a trade.

Modern Period

British Mandate Period 1917-1948 CE

The rise of Zionism, a political movement seeking to have Jews return to their ancient homeland in Palestine, in Europe and Russia in the 19th century increased the trend. By 1920, the Jewish population of Palestine had reached 11% of the population.^[2]

File:BritishMandatePalestine1920.jpg

Cisjordan and Transjordan Palestine were incorporated (under different legal and administrative arrangements) into the British Mandate of Palestine, issued by the League of Nations to Great Britain on 29 September, 1923.

In World War I, Turkey sided with Germany. As a result, it was embroiled in a conflict with Great Britain, leading to the British capture of Palestine in a series of battles led by General Allenby. (See Third Battle of Gaza and Battle of Beersheba). Allenby famously dismounted from his horse when he entered captured Jerusalem as a mark of respect for the Holy City. He was greeted by the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic leaders of the city with great honor.

At the subsequent 1919 Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles, Turkey's loss of its Middle East empire was formalized. The British had in the interim made two agreements. In the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence there was an undertaking to form an Arab state in exchange for the Great Arab Revolt and in the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to "favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" while respecting the rights of the indigeneous majority.

McMahon's promises are seen by Arab nationalists as a pledge of immediate Arab independence, an undertaking violated by the region's subsequent partition into British and French League of Nations mandates under the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 1916 which became the real cornerstone of the geopolitics structuring the entire region. Prior to the conference Emir Faisal, British ally and son of the king of the Hijaz, had agreed in the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement to support the immigration of Jews into Palestine as part of a larger Arab state. When the conference did not produce that Arab state, Faisal called instead for Palestine to become part of his new Arab Syrian kingdom.

In 1920 the Allied Supreme Council meeting at San Remo offered a Mandate for Palestine to Great Britain, but the borders and terms under which the mandate was to be held were not finalised until September 1922. Article 25 of the mandate specified that the eastern area (then known as Transjordan or Transjordania) did not have to be subject to all parts of the Mandate, notably the provisions regarding a Jewish national home. This was used by the British as one rationale to establish an Arab state, which it saw as at least partially fulfilling the undertakings in the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence. On 11 April 1921 the British passed administration of the eastern region to the Hashemite Arab dynasty from the Hejaz what later became part of Saudi Arabia as the Emirate of Transjordan and on 15 May 1923 recognized it as a state.

Under the Mandate, Jewish immigration to Cisjordan Palestine increased substantially with a rise in Jewish nationalism, which encouraged Zionism, a return to the ancient land of the Jews. Between 1922 and 1946, Jews went from less than 11% to 33% ^[2] of the rapidly expanding population, due in part to an influx of Jewish refugees from Nazism in Europe and the refusal of the USA, France, Britain and other countries to allow Jewish immigration.

Palestinian Arab leaders strongly opposed the immigration. In 1936 the British Peel Commission advised that the western part of Palestine be divided between Arabs and Jews. The Arabs then launched the Great Uprising against British rule in an effort to end the immigration. The Jews, for their part, organized milita groups like the Irgun and Lehi to fight the British and the Haganah and Palmach to fight the Arabs. By the time order was restored in March of 1939, more than 5,000 Arabs, 400 Jews, and 200 Britons were killed.

Israeli Period 1948 CE-Present

Jews restore their sovereignty over their ancient homeland

Soon after World War II, the British decided to leave Palestine. The United Nations attempted to solve the dispute by putting forward the 1947 UN Partition Plan, dividing the land area between the two populations, on November 29, 1947; the Jewish Agency accepted the plan, while the Palestinian Arabs, along with their allies elsewhere in the Arab world, rejected it as inadequate. The Arab-Jewish fighting within Palestine escalated to full-scale war right after the UN partition plan was approved, and on May 14, 1948, the Jewish population declared independence as the state of Israel. The armies of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria then invaded, but did not succeed even in holding onto much of the areas reserved in the UN partition plan for the Arab state. (For a more detailed account, see 1948 Arab-Israeli War). Large numbers of Palestinian Arabs left or were expelled from their homes during the fighting and to this day most have not been allowed to return (see Palestinian exodus). Israel managed to maintain its independence and even expand its borders, but a new refugee problem, this one of Palestinian Arabs, was created, and was compounded by Jewish exodus from Arab lands.

What remained of the territories allotted to the Arab state in Palestine was annexed by Jordan (the West Bank) or occupied by Egypt (the Gaza Strip) from 1948 to 1967.

Following threats by Egypt and Syria, backed by Egyptian president Nasser's request to UN to remove its peace-keeping troops from the Egyptian-Israeli border, in June 1967 Israeli forces went to action against Egypt and Syria, and, after failing to persuade it to stay out of the conflict, Jordan, in what has come to be known as the Six-Day War. As a result of that war, the Israel Defense Forces occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula bringing them under military rule. The United Nation's Security Council passed Resolution 242, promoting the "land for peace" formula, which called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 in return for the end of all states of belligerency. Since that time, the Palestinians refugees have struggled to assert their own independence, either in all the territories of Palestine or in the West Bank and Gaza Strip particularly. In the course of 1973 Yom Kippur War, the invading forces of Egypt and Syria were pushed back. Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt as part of the 1978 Camp David Peace Accords between Egypt and Israel.

Oslo Peace Accords, Intifada, Separation Barrier, Road Map 1993 CE-Present

After the First Intifada, attempts at the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were made at the Madrid Conference of 1991. As the process progressed, in 1993 the Israelis allowed Chairman and President of the Palestine Liberation Organization Yassir Arafat to return to the region.

Following the historic 1993 Oslo Peace Accords between Palestinians and Israel (the "Oslo Accords"), which gave the Palestinians limited self-government in some parts of the Occupied Territories through the Palestinian Authority, and other detailed negotiations, proposals for a Palestinian state gained momentum. They were soon followed in 1994 by the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. An attempt was made to end the struggle at the Camp David 2000 Summit between Palestinians and Israel but no agreement was reached. To date, efforts to resolve the conflict have ended in deadlock, and the people of Palestine, Jews and Arabs, are engaged in a bloody conflict, called variously the "Arab-Israeli conflict" or "Israeli-Palestinian conflict".

From 1987 to 1993, the First Palestinian Intifada against Israel took place. After few years of on-and-off negotiations, the second Intifada erupted in 2000. This was known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada and began after a controverisial visit by Likud party chairman Ariel Sharon (who subsequently became Israel's Prime Minister) to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The events were highlighted by Palestinian suicide bombing in Israel that killed many civilians, and by Israeli Security Forces invasions and targeted killings of suspected Palestinian military leaders and organizers during which many Palestinian civilians were also killed or injured. Israel began building a complex separation barrier in the West Bank in 2002.

Also in 2002, the Road map for peace calling for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was proposed by a "quartet": The United States, European Union, Russia, and United Nations. U.S. President George W. Bush in a speech on June 24, 2002 called for an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace. Bush was the first U.S. President to explicitly call for such a Palestinian state.

The approved barrier route as of May 2005

According to Israel's unilateral disengagement plan of 2004, it withdrew all settlers and most of the military presence from the Gaza strip, but maintained control of the border with Egypt, the air space, coast and key ports. Israel also dismantled four settlements in northern West Bank in September 2005, declaring it would keep others. Following Israel's withdrawal, some Palestinian groups failed to abide by a 'calming' (de facto ceasefire) negotiated with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinian militia groups fired Qassam rockets into Israel and attempted to smuggle additional weapons and ammunition into Gaza from Egypt. See also List of massacres committed during the Al-Aqsa Intifada and Accusations against Israel of war crimes during the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

References

^ Lehmann, Clayton Miles (1998). "Palestine: History: 135-337: Syria Palaestina and the Tetrarchy". The On-line Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces. University of South Dakota. Retrieved 2006-07-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
^ ^a ^b "The Population of Palestine Prior to 1948". Population of Ottoman and Mandate Palestine: Statistical and Demographic Considerations. Mideastweb. 2005. Retrieved 2006-07-31.

External links

Zionism and its impact Article discussing the impact of Zionist Settlement in Palestine.
Population of Palestine in Ottoman and Mandate Times
A History of Zionism and the Creation of Israel Israeli-Arab relations during Ottoman and Mandatory times.
A brief history of Israel, Palestine and the Conflict Balanced and comprehensive history of Palestine and Israel from earliest times.
Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt by Colonel Sir Charles William Wilson, ed. (published 1881-1884) image gallery at New York Public Library

[1] Lehmann, Clayton Miles (1998). "Palestine: History: 135-337: Syria Palaestina and the Tetrarchy". The On-line Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces. University of South Dakota. Retrieved 2006-07-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

[palpop-2] "The Population of Palestine Prior to 1948". Population of Ottoman and Mandate Palestine: Statistical and Demographic Considerations. Mideastweb. 2005. Retrieved 2006-07-31.

[1]

[2]