A Historic Look at The Middle East

A Historic Look at the Middle East
A Study Guide to this vital Region

Presentation of sources by author Frank Nic. Bazsika ©2011
Middle East Map
Presentation of the regions history;-
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TIME PERIOD: Introduction
"For about two thousand years the name Palestine has been used internationally for the
lands on both sides of the Jordan River... The name Palestine will here be used...to refer to
the area from southern Syria (the Beqa Valley) to Egypt and the Sinai, and from the
Mediterranean to the Arabian Desert.
The Greek historian Herodotus called Cisjordan [the land west of the Jordan River] the
Palestinian Syria or sometimes only Palaestina. Thus, there is a tradition from at least the
fifth century B.C. for the use of this name...
Another well-known name for Palestine, which is the most common one in the Bible, is
Canaan. The earliest known reference to this name, read as 'Canaanites', is in a letter from
[the kingdom of] Mari (on the Euphrates) [see 700 mile radius map] to Iasmah-Adad from
the eighteenth century B.C... The letter does not give any information about the territory of
these Canaanites... In many Egyptian texts Canaan refers to southern Syria and
Palestine...
The Sinai Peninsula is not part of Palestine, but because of its geographical location
between Egypt proper and Palestine it has a place in a history of Palestine."
Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 56-66, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993
TIME PERIOD: 3200 - 1850 BCE
"It was the destiny of the Holy Land, situated at
the south-west end of the Fertile Crescent,

to be a bridge between the two cradles of civilization, Mesopotamia (Babylonia-Assyria)
and Egypt, at its extremities [see 700 mile radius]. It lay astride the principal land routes
between the great powers of antiquity...
Two international caravan routes bisected the country. One was the Via Maris, 'Way of the
Sea', running from Egypt along the coastal plain up to the Phoenician coast, with inland
branches from the Plain of Sharon, the Jezreel Valley through the Lebanese Beqa', or the
oasis of Damascus to Mesopotamia.
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The other, the 'King's Way', cut right across the desert to Kadesh-barnea or to the Arava
and ran through the Transjordan plateau and Damascus to Mesopotamia."
Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200 - 332 BCE)," A History of Israel and
the Holy Land, 2001
"Evidence of Egyptian involvement in the affairs of Palestine and Syria during the 1st and
2nd Dynasties [3080 - 2687 BCE] is unmistakable. In the surviving fragments of annals
from the reigns of the immediate successors of Menes [1st ruler of unified Egypt], one
often encounters an entry such as 'smiting the Asiatics,' or 'first occasion of smiting the
east,' as an identifying event by which to designate a year."
Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992
"The Egyptians could, and frequently did, resort to naked force in gaining their ends in
Palestine...The few surviving texts from the Old Kingdom [3rd-6th Dynasties 2688 - 2191
B.C.] that deal with the subject do not equivocate. The most common verb used is 'to
smite,' referring to mortal combat. The enemy are 'slaughtered,' 'put to flight,' or 'cowed,'
and the survivors brought off to Egypt as prisoners."
"In place of the semi-industrialized society of Early Bronze III [2688 - 2191 B.C.], which
could indulge in international trade, naught is left but rustic pastoralism in which
stockbreeding looms large at the expense of agriculture...The increase of nonurban,
transhumant economy in post-Early Bronze III Palestine could be put down in large
measure to the depredations of the Egyptian armed forces."
"Following the impoverished Middle Bronze I [2200 - 1950 BCE], with its sparse population
of elusive transhumants, there comes the birth of a new cultural phase, which is not
descended from Middle Bronze I. Middle Bronze IIA [1950 - 1750 BCE] represents the
introduction into the Levant of a culture with contacts with the north [Amorite states]."
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"By the mid-nineteenth century Amorite communities were in the ascendancy...Hazor
dominated southern Syria and northern Palestine from its optimum position in the Upper
Jordan Valley...
One gains the distinct impression that by the end of MBIIA [Middle Bronze 2A c.1750 B.C.]
Palestine and southern Syria had been irrevocably drawn into the ambit of the warring
Amorite states of the north and east, and hence obliged to adopt a more hostile stance
toward Egypt."
"Around 1650 an Asiatic military leader and his group seized power at Avaris [Egypt]...
This is the beginning of the Hyksos rule first over the [Egyptian] Delta and then extending
south, making also Thebes a vassal to the ruler at Avaris [see 700 mile radius]."
Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, 1993
"Whether anything more than a sphere of interest should be postulated beyond the Sinai
for the Hyksos dynasty is difficult to say at present…The Hazor regime [Amorites] would
have maintained its powerful position through most, if not all, the Hyksos period…We can
only assume Hazor's continued hegemony would have blocked Hyksos attempts to
expand their control northward [into Palestine]."
"Unfortunately no cache of texts has been unearthed to date that could shed light on the
Political history and demographic shifts of the second half of the sixteenth century, and
one has the sinking feeling in approaching this period that a most significant page is
missing in the record... The gap in our written sources is doubly maddening in view of the
upheaval attested in the archaeological record. Nearly every major town in Palestine and
southern Syria is found, upon excavation, to have undergone a violent destruction
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sometime after the close of Middle Bronze IIC [1600 - 1550 BCE] -- that is, the cultural
phase roughly contemporary with the last stage in the Hyksos occupation of Egypt."
"The expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt marks the end of the Middle Bronze Age. With
the emergence of the Mitanni kingdom as well as the growing power of the Egyptian
Eighteenth Dynasty, a new era began in the history of Syria-Palestine."
"Egypt's chief rival in the struggle for hegemony over Syria at this time was the country of
the Mitanni, in north-west Mesopotamia. The contest between the two powers was only
decided in 1490 B.C. when [Egyptian ruler] Thutmose III (1504 - 1452 BCE) defeated a
confederation of kings of 'Huru' (Canaan and Syria), allies of Mitanni, at Megiddo... Canaan
and Syria became a province of the Kingdom of the Nile."
Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 BCE)," The History of Israel and
the Holy Land, 2001
"The immediate aftermath of the Egyptian conquest involved the intentional demolition of
Canaanite towns and the deportation of a sizable segment of the population. Thutmose III
[1504 - 1452 BCE] carried off in excess of 7,300, while his son Amenophis II [1454 - 1419
BCE] uprooted by his own account 89,600."
"Ever since the great deportations of Thutmose III and Amenophis II, the northern empire
and Palestine especially had suffered a weakening brought on by under population. Not
only did the 'apiru banditry now take advantage of the vacuum in the highlands, but
nomads from Transjordan [land east of the Jordan river] also began to move north into
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Galilee and Syria and west across the Negeb to Gaza, Ashkelon, and the highway linking
Egypt with Palestine."
"The 'apiru and the nomads (Shasu) are the people that the Egyptians, according to the
inscriptions of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties, met in Palestine. These are
therefore the ancestors of many of the 'tribes' of the central hill country that we later meet
in the biblical narratives about the period of the so-called Judges."
"In the sixty-year period, from about 1320 to 1260 B.C., the Shasu are chronicled as
continuing to foment trouble in their native habitat of the steppe, and as pressing
westward through the Negeb toward major towns along the Via Maris. It is not, in my
opinion, an unrelated phenomenon that a generation later under Merneptah [1237-1226] an
entity called 'Israel' with all the character of a Shasu enclave makes its appearance
probably in the Ephraimitic highlands."
"No one can prove (or disprove, for that matter) that the tribal federation 'Israel' originated
on Palestinian soil. No one can prove that the major components of that federation had
always existed on Palestinian soil. All that is known for certain is that, some time during
the fourth quarter of the thirteenth century B.C., Egypt knew of a group, or political entity,
called 'Israel' and occupying part of the land of the land of Canaan; but whether the group
had recently arrived or taken shape is not stated in our sources. That the Hebrew language
is closely related to the West Semitic dialect (s) that we subsume under the catchall
'Canaanite' is a fact; but then, it is equally closely related to the dialects of Transjordan as
well."
"After 1200 B.C. when the Sea Peoples overwhelmed the coast, and 'Israel' is firmly
attested, the Canaanites as a political force were dead. And so, effectually, was the
Egyptian empire of the New Kingdom."
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"After the Sea Peoples stormed the Levant around 1200 B.C., a catastrophe which is still
not clear in many of its details, all traditions were extinguished for a long time. For
Palestine we are thrown back almost exclusively on the historical books of the Old
Testament, which provide only incomplete information on the newly immigrated Israelite
tribes and their more cultured opponents in the land."
Wolfram von Soden, The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East, p.
55, William B. Eardmans Publishing Co, 1994
"With the collapse of the sociopolitical system during the upheavals at the end of the Late
Bronze period [c. 1200 B.C.], including the fall of the Egyptian empire with its control over
Palestine and the trade routes, several nomadic clans changed their lifestyle and settled in
the hills."
Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 350, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993
"The Shasu settlement in the Palestinian highlands, or nascent Israel as we should

undoubtedly call it, and whatever related group had begun to coalesce in the Judaean hills
to the south, led a life of such rustic simplicity at the outset that it has scarcely left an
imprint on the archaeological record... After the close of the thirteenth century B.C. they
began to develop village life... Artifacts from cultural assemblages show a continuum
throughout the thirteenth and twelfth centuries."
Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 298, Princeton University
Press, 1992
"There...emerges a delineation of the boundaries and extent of Israelite settlement. Its

principal strength was in the sparsely peopled hill regions. The parts that the Israelites
could not subdue...encompassed most of the fertile valleys and still left a number of
enclaves in Israelite territory... The territorial division of the country in this period had four
principal centers of Israelite settlement, cut off from one another by areas inhabited by
hostile populations. These were: Galilee, the central mountain region, the Judaean Hills
and the Negev, and Transjordan."
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Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 B.C.)," A History of Israel and the
Holy Land, p. 56, G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House Ltd., 2001
"The Philistine menace put Israelite survival into constant jeopardy at the time of the
judges. The Philistines were one of the 'Peoples of the Sea' which had invaded the Fertile
Crescent from the north, along the coast of Anatolia, and descended through Syria and
Canaan all the way to Egypt...In addition to them, a people called the Tjeker or Tjekel, but
belonging to the same 'Peoples of the Sea', settled along the coast of Dor in the northern
Sharon."
Holy Land, p. 67, G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House Ltd., 2001
"Along the southern coast, from Gaza to Mount Carmel, enclaves of the Philistines and
Teukrians (now partly Semitized) maintained a firm hold of the broad coastal plains and,
as the Egyptians had done before them, exercised a tentative but preemptive influence
over the inland mountains. In response to the Philistine presence, Israel and Judah in the
uplands were moving toward the creation of a state."
Press, 1992
"The Hebrew-Philistine rivalry for the possession of the land provided the occasion for the
creation of the Hebrew monarchy... Saul's anointment (c. 1020 B.C.) as the first king was
tantamount to a challenge to Philistine suzerainty."
Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 96, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961
"With most of Transjordan and the central hills of Cisjordan [land west of the Jordan river]
north of the Jebusite city state of Jerusalem under his control, Saul had created a
territorial state that the greater Palestinian region had never seen before. Saul can
therefore be regarded as the first state-builder in Palestine."
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"The real founder of the monarchy was David (c. 1004 - 960 B.C.)... David inaugurated a
series of campaigns which lifted the Philistine yoke from Hebrew necks, brought Edom,
Moab and Ammon under his rule and what is more amazing, netted him Aramaean Hollow
Syria [Aram]... His conquest of Edom brought under his control the great trade route
between Syria and Arabia."
Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 187, Macmillan & Co. LTD., 1951
"Palestine was not a country that encouraged the creation of larger political unites...
David's kingdom represents an exception, a parenthesis in the history of the ancient Near
East. The achievements of David were possible because there was a power vacuum at this
time. The Hittite kingdom went out of existence around 1200 B.C. Egypt's rule over
Palestine ended sometime in the mid-twelfth century B.C. and was itself split into two
kingdoms... Their 'successors' in Palestine, the Philistines, had filled the power gap for a
short time, until David put an end to their political and economic hegemony... David's
kingdom, was, however, short-lived. It dissolved naturally when Solomon died."
Press, 1992
"Upon Solomon's death at about 923 B.C., the
united monarchy split into a northern

kingdom, Israel, based on ten tribes and having Shechem (near the modern village of al-
Balatah) as its capitol [and later Samaria c. 880], and a southern one, Judah, based on the
remaining two tribes and using Jerusalem as capital."
Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 97, 99, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961
"The little southern state [Judah] was more or less limited to the tribal portions of Judah,
Simean and Benjamin, with some possessions in Edom in the east and along the coastal
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plain in the west. In the north there was the kingdom of Israel, with Shechem as its fist
capital, larger than Judah both in population and in size. Encompassing the portions of a
majority of the tribes and the most fertile parts of the country, including the Sharon, it
retained Moab, and apparently Ammon as well, as vassal-states."
Holy Land, p. 81, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc. 2001
"The two tiny kingdoms fell into the complex political and belligerent developments of the
general area and became rivals, at times enemies. Repeated uprisings and mounting
intrigues in both states contributed to their final undoing. Israel experienced nine dynastic
changes, involving nineteen kings, in its two-century existence. The throne of Judah was
occupied by twenty kings, but the southern kingdom out lived the northern by about a
century and a third. The way was paved for their final destruction one by Assyria and the
other by Neo-Babylonia."
Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 97, 99, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961
Background: "The year 745 B.C. marks one of those major turning points in history the
significance of which is often lost on layman and scholar alike…For it was in 745 that a
civil war in Assyria unseated the royal family and catapulted a general named 'Pul' known
to history as
Tiglath-pileser III, to the throne of the empire. This usurper proved to be an organizational
genius and a master strategist, worthy of comparison with Hannibal or Scipio. By
relentless campaigning and indiscriminate use of mass deportation, he encompassed the
destruction of Damascus and Israel and by 732 B.C."
Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 340-341, Princeton University
Press, 1992
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"Tiglath-pileser III aimed at nothing less than the liquidation of all states in the Levant to
the border of Egypt... He descended upon Phoenicia in the spring of 734 B.C., capturing
Sumur, Arka, and Byblos, and forcing Tyre to pay tribute and suffer partial deportation.
Accho was assaulted and reduced to ashes, the territory of Naphtali annexed, and the
Assyrians were able to march clean through Philistia."
Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 340-341, Princeton University
Press, 1992
"The political situation was stable for almost a decade after 732 B.C., and Tiglath-pileser
never had to return to this area. However, when he died in 727 and was followed by
Shalmaneser V, some vassals rebelled as usual, and it is possible that Hosea of Israel did
the same…This brought about the subjugation of the country. Most of the cities were
'probably overrun and destroyed quickly' during the early part of Shalmaneser's campaign
(724 B.C.), and the king, Hosea, was taken prisoner. After a three year siege the capital of
Samaria was finally taken (722 B.C.)… The nation Israel ceased to exist. Its territory was
incorporated within Assyria as a province under the name of Samerina."
"The [brief] Assyrian conquest of Egypt [mid-7th century B.C.] was made possible largely
through the support of the Arabs. The trade routes from Arabia and Transjordan through
the Negev to the Philistine coast and to Egypt were under the control of Arab rulers...
The conquest of Egypt can be labeled the beginning of the end of the Assyrian Empire.
With this victory Assyria had reached its limits. It had over extended itself...The end of the
seventh century B.C. saw the rapid fading away of the Assyrian power structure and the
attempts of the Egyptians to fill the vacuum."
Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 747-748, 763, Sheffield Academic Press,
1993
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"In 609 B.C. Pharaoh Necho tried to march through Palestine, to help the survivors of the
Assyrian empire to defend themselves, in their last stronghold on the Euphrates, against
the newly rising empire of Babylon under Nabopolassar. Necho hoped to prevent the
emergence of a Babylonian power in Mesopotamia and at the same time to achieve
suzerainty over Syria and Palestine... All that lay west of the Euphrates was now ruled by
Egypt."
Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 B.C.)" The History of Ancient
Palestine, p. 101, the Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001
"The picture quickly changed, however...Nebuchadrezzar, was given command over the
Babylonian forces in the west. Necho and his forces were completely defeated at
Carchemish, and those who managed to escape were pursued and killed in the territory of
Hamath...
The battle at Carchemish, like the fall of Nineveh, changed the political picture of the Near
East. A new imperial ruler had emerged: Babylonia."
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"Nebrchadrezzar terminated the Egyptian supremacy over Palestine after the battle at
Carchemish in 605 B.C.... In the following year Nebuchadrezzar, who in September of 605
had succeeded his father on the throne, marched with his army through Syria-Palestine
(Hatti) down to the Philistine coast without any military opposition. It is easy to imagine
the fear and shattered illusions of the petty rulers of Syria-Palestine in the aftermath of the
battle at Carchemish. With the Egyptian army destroyed, they had no other choice than to
accept Babylon's rule."
"Nebuchadrezzar's strategy is chillingly clear; he was intent upon wholly neutralizing and
reducing the Philistine plain and the coastal highway to Egypt by utter destruction and
depopulation. Gaza fell we may be sure, and shortly an exiled community of Gazaeans
turns up in Babylonia. Philistia was barren, its kings and population in exile: the road lay
open to Egypt.
The affect of these overwhelming victories and the 'Babylonian fury' on Judah can easily
be imagined. Nebuchadrezzar had not yet turned his attention to the hinterland - his
overall strategy demanded reduction of the Via Maris and a direct attack on Egypt - by
Jehoiakim [King of Judah] could not doubt that sooner or later the Babylonian siege
engines would be dragged eastward up into the mountains toward Jerusalem."
Press, 1992
"In 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, in the course of a series of wars of
conquest, captured Jerusalem, destroyed the kingdom of Judah and the Jewish Temple,
and, in accordance with the custom of the time, sent the conquered people into captivity in
Babylonia."
Bernard Lewis, the Middle East, p. 27, Scribner, 1995
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"With the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, the kingdom of Judah went out of
existence. The land was devastated, and several of the leading classes of the population
were killed either in the war or after the capture of Jerusalem."
"The greater Palestinian area during the period of 582-539 B.C. is poorly documented.
Babylonian inscriptions do not provide much insight. The Palestinian material is either
fragmentary, such as that provided by archaeological remains, or it presents a religio-
politically tendentious picture, such as that contained in the biblical books of Ezra and
Nehemiah and 2 Chron. 36.17-23...The history of this country in the period after
Nebuchadrezzar's campaigns and until the Persian takeover comprises a dark age."
"The end of that rule [Babylonian] came in 538 B.C., when a new people farther east, the
Persians, rose under Cyrus and attacked their neighbor Babylon...The blow fell on
Babylon in 539 B.C. but the citadel and royal palace held out until March 538. Thereupon
the whole Babylonian empire, including Syria-Palestine, acknowledged the new Persian
rule."
Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 217-218, Macmillan & Co. LTD., 1951
"When Cyrus had taken Babylon he declared
himself its new king. He proclaimed

himself the protector of the peoples of the kingdom and announced freedom for the
prisoners. After this he gave an order that the gods that had been taken to Babylon as
prisoner or those Babylonian gods that Nabuna'id had taken there should be returned to
their home cities. Their temples should be restored. Together with the gods, their people
were also allowed to return to their countries."
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"The administrative organization of the empire into satrapies (provinces) started under
Cyrus…What is of interest here is the fifth satrapy, Babylonia-Abr Nahara. Palestine was
part of this satrapy, which included Mesopotamia and the Babylonian holdings west of the
Euphrates. Cyprus was also included in this satrapy…The Persian king often appointed as
satraps a member of the country's royal family or some high official well acquainted with
the administration and laws of the former nation. The king could also appoint a special
commissioner or 'sub-governor' for a certain district, something that happened for Judah.
Zerubbabel is an example, and so are Ezra and Nehemiah."
"The leader of the restored Jews was Zerubbabel, a descendant of King Jehoiachin.
Zerubbabel brought back the Temple treasures looted by Nebuchadnezzar and became for
a time the recognized governor of the restored community. After many difficulties the
rebuilding of the Temple was completed about 515 B.C. under [Persian King] Darius."
Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 222, Macmillan & Co. LTD., 1951
"Increased Arab presence, especially in the southern parts of the country, can be
discerned in Palestine in the later Persian period. It should be remembered that Arabs in
Palestine were nothing new... Nevertheless, the great influx of Arabs into Transjordan and
southern Palestine belongs rather to the so-called Hellenistic period. When the Persian
Empire collapsed, the Nabateans of Transjordan and other Arab tribes had the opportunity
to expand, and the Nabateans did so, replacing the Edomites."
"The remaining years of the Persian Empire were marked by a series of court intrigues and
the murders of two puppet kings followed by that of the murderer, leaving Darius III on the
throne in 336, the same year that his eventual conqueror, Alexander, came to the throne of
Macedonia."
Andrew Duncan, War in the Holy Land, p. 25, Sutton Publishing Limited, 1998
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"In the spring of 334 B.C. a twenty-one-year-old Macedonian, at the head of some 30,000
foot and 5000 horse...routed the Persian satrap near the mouth of the Granicus
River...setting off a chain reaction destined to change the course of Near Eastern history.
Western Asia and Egypt were ushered into the European sphere of political and cultural
influence -- Macedonian, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine -- and there remained until the rise
of Islam a thousand years later."
Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History p.113, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961
"The decisive battle was at Issus (333 B.C.) [see map 700 mile radius], where after the
victorious Greeks occupied Damascus, the Persian headquarters west of the Euphrat.
Alexander was, it is true, held up for several months by the obstinate resistance of Tyre,
but the pause only gave local rulers an opportunity to pay homage to the conqueror.
Among them were the Jewish High Priest, Juddua, and Sanballat, leader of the
Samaritans. Alexander does not seem himself to have visited the inland cities, legends to
the contrary notwithstanding.
After the capitulation of Tyre, and after it had overcome the briefer resistance of Gaza, the
Macedonian army advanced directly on Egypt. It returned the following spring on its way
to Mesopotamia, where the Persians were finally vanquished. Within two, years, power had
changed hands completely."
Michael Avi-Yonah, "The Second Temple (332 B.C. - 70 A.D.)," A History of Israel and the Holy
Land, p. 116-117, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001
"After Alexander's death, his generals divided -- and subsequently fought over -- his
empire. In 301 B.C., Ptolemy I took direct control of the Jewish homeland but made no
serious efforts to intervene in its religious affairs. Ptolemy's successors were in turn
supplanted by the Seleucids [c.200 B.C.], and in 175 B.C. Antiochus IV seized power. He
launched a campaign to crush Judaism, and in 167 B.C. he sacked the [Jewish] Temple.
The violation of the Second Temple, which had been built about 520-515 B.C., provoked a
successful Jewish rebellion under the generalship of Judas (Judah) Maccabaeus."
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Country Studies Handbook, Israel, Library of Congress Federal Research Division, Helen Chapin
Metz, Editor, 1988
"In Judas of the priestly Hasmonaean family, the
Jews found a hero-rebel who, with his

brothers, succeeded in capturing Jerusalem and cleansing the temple. Judas was
surnamed Maccabeus, which probably means 'the hammerer,' in allusion to the telling
blows he inflicted on the Syrian army. In 164 the Jewish community attained religious
freedom and in 140 political independence. Under the Maccabean dynasty of priest-kings,
the realm expanded and lasted until the advent of the Romans about eighty years later."
"Alexander Jannaeus (Jonathan)...in the course of his long reign (130-76 B.C.), he realized
the almost complete unification of the Holy Land for the first time since King David, an
achievement for which he had to battle practically without interruption. In a series of
expeditions directed north-west, north-east, south-west and south-east, the Jewish State
was extended to encompass the Carmel and its coast, the Jordan Valley up to the sources
at Dan and Paneas, and nearly the whole of the Transjordan mountains, excepting
Rabbath-Ammon.
In order to extinguish Nabataean economic competition, Jannaeus occupied the eastern

banks of the Dead Sea, making it a domestic -- and very valuable -- lake of Judaea; he took
Gaza and the lands as far as the River of Egypt (Wadi el-Arish)."
Michael Avi-Yonah, "The Second Temple (332 B.C. - 70 A.D.)," A History of Israel and the Holy
Land, p. 140, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001
"The intrusion of Arabian tribes into Syria and Palestine reduced the Seleucid empire to a
local state in north Syria...From their multicolored rock-hewn capital-fortress Petra, these
Arabians extended their sway as far north as Damascus."
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"After the death of Jannaeus in 76 his widow Alexandra reigned until 67 when her two
sons fought each other until the Romans under Pompey intervened."
Andrew Duncan, War in the Holy Land, p. 35, Sutton Publishing Limited, 1998
TIME PERIOD: 63 BCE - 330 CE
"Under the reign of the Hasmoneans the Jewish state was largely composed of Jews. But
in 63 B.C. when Pompey came to Jerusalem he began to reverse this process. He allowed
the Jews to rule the south and Galilee, but non-Jews ruled the rest of the kingdom...Julius
Caesar was Pompey's rival, and when Pompey was killed in 48 B.C. Caesar prepared new
territorial arrangements. He left Antipater, an Idumean, as administrator of the Jewish
state...But Caesar's new arrangements did not last for long. He was assassinated on the
Ides of March 44 B.C...In Rome the Senate proclaimed Herod King of Judea."
John Wilkinson, "Jerusalem Under Rome and Byzantium 63-637 A.D.," Jerusalem in History, p.
78, Olive Branch Press, 2000
"Herod was confirmed by the Roman Senate as king of Judah in 37 B.C. and reigned until
his death in 4 B.C. Nominally independent, Judah was actually in bondage to Rome, and
the land was formally annexed in 6 B.C. as part of the province of Syria Palestina. Rome
did, however, grant the Jews religious autonomy and some judicial and legislative rights
through the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin, which traces its origins to a council of elders
established under Persian rule (333 B.C. to 165 B.C.) was the highest Jewish legal and
religious body under Rome."
Metz, Editor, 1988
"In 70 A.D., the Romans captured Jerusalem and destroyed the second Temple, which had
been built [1515 B.C.] by the exiles returning from Babylon. Even this did not end Jewish
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resistance. After the revolt of Bar-Kokhba in 135 A.D., the Romans...like the Babylonians
before them, sent a large part of the Jewish population into captivity and exile...Even the
historic nomenclature of the Jews was to be obliterated. Jerusalem was renamed Aelia
Capitolina, and a temple to Jupiter built on the site of the destroyed Jewish Temple. The
names Judea and Samaria were abolished, and the country renamed Palestine, after the
long-forgotten Philistines."
Bernard Lewis, The Middle East, p. 31, Scribner, 1995
"The process of urbanization which had begun in the Hellenistic period went on under
Herod and the Romans, until, by the end of the second century, practically the whole
coastal region, and almost all of the central mountain ridge of the lands east of the Jordan,
had been transformed into municipal areas. Only, Upper Galilee, the Golan, Bashan and
Hauran, in which there was a preponderance of Jews, proved intractable and resistant to
city culture."
Michael Avi-Yonah, "Jews, Romans and Byzantines (70-633)," A History of Israel and the Holy
"The Jews gave up their attempts to throw off the Roman yoke, while the Roman
government acknowledged Judaism as a religio licita, its communities enjoying the right
to certain exemptions (from military service, for example) and being allowed to exist as
juridical entities, to own property, to have their own courts (disguised as tribunals of
arbitration), to levy taxes and so on. But, despite these concessions, on two points there
was no giving way: the Romans still declined to permit Jews to live in Jerusalem, although
restrictions on visits were relaxed, and proselytizing was frowned upon. Within this
loosely outlined nexus of official relations, normative Judaism could go on developing."
"The last century of Roman rule in Palestine was marked, as elsewhere in the Roman
world, by a political and economic crisis which shook Roman society to its
foundations...The crisis in that empire was settled by the energetic measures of Diocletian,
a rough soldier who put an end to civil wars and reorganized the
administration...Diocletian was the last emperor to see in Christianity an enemy of Rome."
Land, p. 178 - 179, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001
TIME PERIOD: 330 - 636 CE
19
"Emperor Constantine (ca. 280-337) shifted his capital from Rome to Constantinople in 330
and made Christianity the official religion. With Constantine's conversion to Christianity, a
new era of prosperity came to Palestine, which attracted a flood of pilgrims from all over
the empire."
Metz, Editor, 1988
"Constantine's policy was the same as Hadrian's towards the Jews. They were not allowed
to live in Jerusalem, but they made pilgrimage to the western wall of the Temple, and once
a year on 'The ninth of Ab' they were allowed into the Temple site to lament its
destruction."
John Wilkinson, "Jerusalem under Rome and Byzantium," Jerusalem in History, p. 94-95, Olive
Branch Press, 2000
"Politically, the country was affected by the trend, which began with Diocletian, towards
splitting up the provinces. In his time, the whole southern part of the old Provincia
Palaestina was joined to southern Transjordan to form a separate province. In the
beginning of the fifth century, the remaining province was split up that there were
thenceforth Palaestina Prima, Secunda and Tertia.
The fist included Judaea and Samaria, with a part of Transjordan, the second Galilee and
the Golan and Bashan regions, while the whole of the Negev, Sinai and Nabataea now
became Palestinia Tertia. This civil division, to which, as elsewhere in the Roman Empire,
the ecclesiastical organization was made to correspond, lasted till the end of Byzantine
rule and even beyond."
Land, p. 180, 182, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001
"The adoption of Christianity as the dominant religion of the empire changed the status of
Palestine radically. No longer just a tiny province, it became the Holy Land, on which
20
emperors and believers lavished untold wealth; the former claimants to it, the Jews, were
powerless to establish their right and were quickly relegated to second-class citizenship.
The principal aim of Byzantium was to make Jerusalem Christian. Pilgrimages were
encouraged by the provision of hospices and infirmaries, churches rose on every spot
connected in one way or another with Christian traditions. The building activity that
ensued was one of the causes of the country's uprising prosperity at that time, which is
evident from archaeological surveys. There were three to five times as many inhabited
places in the fifth-sixth centuries A.D. as in any of the preceding periods."
Land, p. 179-180, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001
"In 610, Heraclius was crowned emperor... Many world-shaking events took place during
his reign: the Persian victories, which also led to their temporary conquest of Palestine,
changes within the empire, and the Muslim conquests, which deprived Byzantium of much
of its Mediterranean lands."
Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 5, Cambridge University Press, 1992
"On a hot day of August 636, the two opposing armies faced each other on the banks of
the Yarmuk, a Jordan tributary. The Arabians, 25,000 strong, were commanded by Khalid;
the Byzantine army, twice as numerous and composed mostly Armenian and other
mercenaries, was led by a brother of Emperor Heraclius. The day was an excessively hot
one clouded by wind-blown dust and presumably purposely chosen for the encounter by
the Arabian generalship. The Byzantine fighters were cleverly maneuvered into a position
where the dust storm struck them in the face. Only a few managed to escape with their
lives. The fate of Syria, on the fairest of the Eastern Roman provinces, was decided.
'Farewell, O Syria,' were Heraclius' parting words, 'and what an excellent country this is for
the enemy!'"
21
"By the end of the reign of the second caliph, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (634-44), the whole of
Arabia, part of the Sasanian Empire, and the Syrian [including Palestine] and Egyptian
provinces of the Byzantine Empire had been conquered; the rest of the Sasanian lands
were occupied soon afterwards."
Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 22-23, Warner Books Edition, 1991
"After completing the occupation of Syria and Palestine the Arabs turned to organizing the
administration of the newly occupied territories. As they were exclusively fighters and did
not have any administrators capable of fitting themselves into the well-developed
bureaucracy that the Byzantines had left behind them, they decided to leave the existing
system of administration to carry on its work as in the past, with the same local
functionaries...
Most of Palestine, up to the border of the valley of Jezreel and Beth-shean, belonged to
one district known as 'Jund [Military District] Filastine' which was, in fact, the Palaestina
Prima of the Byzantine era together with part of Palaestina Tertia [see 330 A.D.]. Galilee,
the southern part of Lebanon and parts of the Golan fell within Jund Urdunn, which
constituted the Palaestina Secunda of the Byzantines."
Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099),"
A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 207, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001
"The people of Madina saw power being drawn northwards towards the richer and more
populous lands of Syria and Iraq, where governors tried to make their power more
independent. Such tensions came to the surface in the reign of the third caliph, 'Uthman
ibn 'Affan (644-56)...A movement of unrest in Madina, supported by soldiers from Egypt,
led to 'Uthman's murder in 656. This opened the first period of civil war in the community.
The claimant to the succession, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (656-661) was...a cousin of Muhammad
and married to his daughter Fatima. 'Ali's alliance grew weaker, and finally he was
assassinated in his own city of Kufa. Mu'awiya [the first Umayyad] proclaimed himself
caliph and 'Ali's elder son, Hasan, acquiesced in it."
22
"The coming to power by Mu'awiya (661-80) has always been regarded as marking the end
of one phase and the beginning of another. The first four caliphs, from Abu Bakr to 'Ali,
are known to the majority of Muslims as the Rashidun or 'Rightly Guided'. Later caliphs
were seen in a rather different light. From now on the position was virtually hereditary.
Although some idea of choice, or at least formal recognition, by the leaders of the
community remained, in fact from this time power was in the hands of a family, known
from an ancestor, Umayya, as that of the Umayyads...
The change was more than one of rulers. The capital of the empire moved to Damascus, a
city lying in a countryside abler to provide the surplus needed to maintain a court,
government and army, and in a region from which the eastern Mediterranean coastlands
and the land to the east of them could be controlled more easily than from Madina."
"In the 690s there was erected the first great building which clearly asserted that Islam
was distinct and would endure. This was the Dome of the Rock, built on the site of the
Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, now turned into a Muslim Haram; it was to be an ambulatory
for pilgrims around the rock where, according to Rabbinic tradition, God had called upon
Abraham to sacrifice Isaac."
Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 28, Warner Books Edition, 1991
"Throughout the Umayyad period Palestine played no significant political role. Its
population was partly composed of Jews and Christians, whose families had always lived
there and towards whom the caliphs adopted a tolerant and lenient attitude. It is true that
special taxes were imposed upon both Jews and Christians, but they were moderately
light at the beginning. The government recognized the religious communities as socio-
political entities and the rabbis and priests were responsible to the authorities for the
members of their communities."
23
"Not least amongst the various causes which contributed to the downfall of the Umayyads
was the fundamental split within Islam, which produced the two dominant sects known as
the Sunna (Orthodox) and the Shi'a. The Shiites, who maintained that the Prophet's cousin
'Ali and his descendants were the only legitimate candidates for the caliphate, rose many
times in rebellion against Umayyad rule. Although these revolts proved to be abortive in
themselves, they did help to undermine the strength of the empire from within."
"During the first decades of the eighth century, Umayyad rulers made a series of attempts
to deal with movements of opposition...Then in the 740s their power suddenly collapsed in
the face of yet another civil war and a coalition of movements with different aims but
united by a common opposition to them... The Umayyads were defeated in a number of
battles in 749-750, and the last caliph of the house, Marwan II, was pursued to Egypt and
killed. In the meantime, the unnamed leader was proclaimed in Kufa [present day Iraq]; he
was Abu'l-Abbas, a descendant not of 'Ali but of 'Abbas."
"Syria was replaced as center of the Muslim caliphate by Iraq. The power of Abu'l-'Abbas
(749-54) and his successors, known from their ancestor as 'Abbasids, lay less in the
eastern Mediterranean countries, or in Hijaz which was an extension of them, than in the
former Sasanian territories: southern Iraq and the oases and plateaux of Iran, Khurasan
and the land stretching beyond it into central Asia."
24
"With the transfer of the political centre to Iraq they [the Abbasids] succeeded in
completing the slower, but major, process of shifting the international trade routes
connecting the Middle East and the Far East from Syria to the valleys of the Tigris and the
Euphrates. Almost overnight Palestine became a marginal land and began to deteriorate."
"The first sign of internal decay in the Abbasid regime was the rise of the Turkish
bodyguard under the immediate successors of al-Ma'mun (d. 833)...Except for short
intervals thereafter the Abbasid power was steadily on the decline...As it was
disintegrating petty dynasties, mostly of Arab origin, were parceling out its domains in the
west...First among those with which Syria [including Palestine] was concerned was the
Tulunid dynasty."
Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 557, Macmillan & Co. LTD. 1951
"In 868 an officer called Ahmad ibn-Tulun, the
son of a freed Turkish slave, was sent to

Egypt to serve as lieutenant to the governor of the province. A year later he himself
became the governor of the province, declared its independence [from the Abbasids] and
put a stop to the remittance of annual taxes to the Baghdad treasury. In 877, exploiting the
deaths of the governors of Syria and Palestine, he was able, without difficulty, to extend
his authority over these provinces as well...
With the rule of ibn-Tulun a period of renewed political, social and cultural activity began
in Palestine, after the long period of neglect that marked the hundred years of direct
Abbasid rule..."
25
"When ibn-Tulun died in 884 his son Khumawayh seized the reins of power. The Abbasid
caliph made an attempt to regain control over Syria and Palestine, and dispatched a
strong expeditionary force from Iraq, which invaded Palestine in 892. Khumawayh, who
was an able statesman as well as a very talented general, scored a decisive victory over
this army in a battle near Abu Futrus. After this battle the Abbasids abandoned for a time
their attempts to take Palestine from the Tulunids. However within a few years of the death
of Khumawayh [904] they had managed to regain it with ease."
A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 226-227, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001
"For the following thirty years (906-935) Palestine remained under Abbasid rule. We have
very little information as to what occurred there during that generation."
"In the year 935 a new independent dynasty was
founded in Egypt by Muhammad ibn-Tughi

(935-946 A.D.), a Turk who had been granted the ancient Persian princely title Ikhshid by
the Abbasid caliph in 939. The new dynasty took its name from this title. Following in the
footsteps of the Tulunids, Muhammad the Ikhshid made himself independent in Egypt and
within a short time controlled not only Syria and Palestine but even Mecca and Medina, the
two holy cities of Islam."
"The Ikhshidid dynasty (935-969), like its predecessor the Tulunid (868-905), had an
ephemeral existence. They followed the same pattern of behavior, the patter that typifies
the case of many other states which, in this period of disintegration, broke off from the
imperial government. Both made lavish use of state moneys to curry favor with their
subjects and thereby ruined the treasuries."
Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 564, Macmillan & Co. LTD. 1951
26
"A series of preparatory incursions into Egypt, which had gravely deteriorated under the
rule of the Ikhshids, paved the way for a decisive attack, led by the Fatimid general
Jawhar, in 969. Egypt was conquered easily and the Fatimid forces, sustaining the
momentum of the attack, went on to take Syria and Palestine."
"At the beginning of summer of 970, the Fatimid army under Ja'far ibn al-Fallah, turned
towards Palestine... Theoretically, this was the outset of about a century of Fatimid rule in
Palestine. In fact, the Fatimids were compelled to join battle with not a few of the enemies
who stood in their way: the Arabs, led by the Banu Tayy', who in turn were headed by the
Banu'l-Jarrah family; the Qarmatis; a Turkish army under the command of Alptakin, who
was based in Damascus; Arab tribes in Syria with the Banu Hamdan at their head; and in
the background, the Byzantines were lurking, and about to continue their attempts to
spearhead southward to Jerusalem. This war was waged in several stages and the
enemies changed, but all in all, it was an almost unceasing war which destroyed
Palestine."
"The year 1030 was the first year of peace in the country... Comparative calm and political
and military stability existed in Palestine under Fatimid rule for only some forty years. The
invasion of the Turkish tribes put an end to this near-stability at one blow."
Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 397, 420, Cambridge University Press, 1992
27
"By 1079, the Seljuks wrested Syria and Palestine from local rulers and from the declining
Fatimids."
Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 89 Scribner paperback, 1995
"We have very little knowledge of what happened in Palestine during the period of
Turcoman [Seljuk] rule... By and large, however, the Turcoman period, which lasted less
than thirty years, was one of slaughter and vandalism, of economic hardship and the
uprooting of populations."
Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 414, 420, Cambridge University Press, 1992
"After the death of the third Great Sultan [of the Seljuk Empire] Malikshah, in 1092, civil
war broke out between his sons, and the process of political fragmentation, which had
been interrupted by the Seljuk conquest, was resumed... It was during this period of
weakness and dissension that, in 1096, the Crusaders arrived in the Levant."
28
"In a speech delivered at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II gave a grim description of
the plight of the Christians of the East under the Seljuk yoke. He called on the nobility of
Europe to wrest the Holy Land, the Holy City and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, cradle
of Christianity and its rightful and eternal heritage, from beleaguerment by usurping
infidels who sullied them by their very presence, if not by their deeds. Those who
answered the call would be fighting a bellum sacrum, a holy war."
Emmanuel Sivan, "Palestine During the Crusades (1099-1291)," A History of Israel and the Holy
Land p. 240, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001
"For the first thirty years, the disunity of the Muslim world made things easy for the
invaders, who advanced speedily down the coast of Syria into Palestine, and established a
chain of Latin feudal principalities, based on Antioch [1098-1268], Edessa [1098-1146],
Tripoli [1102-1146] and Jerusalem [1099-1187]. But even in this first period of success the
Crusaders were limited in the main to the coastal plains and slopes, facing the
Mediterranean and the Western world."
In the interior, looking eastwards to the desert and Iraq, the reaction was preparing. The
Seljuk princes who held Aleppo and Damascus were unable to accomplish very much. In
1127, Zangi, a Turkish officer in the Seljuk service, seized Mosul, and in the following
years gradually built up a powerful Muslim state in northern Mesopotamia and Syria. His
son, Nur al-Din, took Damascus in 1154, creating a single Muslim power in Syria and
confronting the Crusaders for the first time with a really formidable adversary. The issue
before the two sides was now the control of Egypt, where the Fatimid caliphate was
tottering towards final collapse."
Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 90-91 Scribner paperback, 1995
29
"In Egypt, the Fatimids continued to rule until 1171, but were then replaced by Salah al-Din
(Saladin) a military leader of Kurdish origin. The change of rulers brought with it a change
of religious alliance. The Fatimids had belonged to the Isma'ili branch of the Shi'is, but
Salah al-Din was a Sunni, and he was able to mobilize the strength and religious fervor of
Egyptian and Syrian Muslims in order to defeat the European Crusaders who had
established Christian states in Palestine and on the Syrian coast at the end of the eleventh
century. The dynasty founded by Salah al-Din, that of the Ayyubids, ruled Egypt from 1169
to 1252, Syria to 1260, and part of western Arabia to 1229."
Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 84 Warner Books Edition, 1991
"A Kurdish officer called Salah al-Din -- better known in the West as Saladin -- launched a
jihad against the Crusaders in 1187. By his death in 1193, he had recaptured Jerusalem
and expelled the Crusaders from all but a narrow coastal strip. It was only the break-up of
Saladin's Syro-Egyptian empire into a host of small states under his successors which
permitted the Crusading states to drag out an attenuated existence for another century,
until the reconstitution of a Syro-Egyptian state under the Mamluks in the thirteenth
century brought about their final extinction."
30
"In the middle of the thirteenth century the power
of the Turkish Mamluks in Cairo was

supreme and a new regime emerged, the Mamluk Sultanate, which ruled Egypt and Syria
until 1517. In 1260, after a period of confusion following the death of the last Ayyubid, a
Qipchaq Turk called Baybars became Sultan. His career in many ways forms an interesting
parallel with that of Saladin. He united Muslim Syria/Palestine and Egypt into a single
state, this time more permanently. He defeated the external enemies of that state,
repulsing Mongol invaders from the east and crushing all but the last remnants of the
Crusaders in Syria."
Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 169-170 Oxford University Press, 1993
"Palestine was divided mainly between two of the six provinces of Syria, the province of
Damascus and that of Safed. Mameluk officers, appointed as governors, were independent
of each other and directly responsible to the sultan, in Cairo... No details exist of the size
and composition of Palestine's population under the Mameluk."
Moshe Sharon, "Palestine under the Mameluks and the Ottoman Empire (1291-1918)," The
History of Israel and the Holy Land p. 278, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001
"In the 15th century, instability plagued Mamluk rule: internal corruption, the continued
Mongol threat, Bedouin incursions, and bad economic policies all combined to deliver a
blow to the Mamluk economy and military, from which they were not able to recover."
Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 172 Oxford University Press, 1993
"In a short, sharp war in 1516-1517, the Ottomans overthrew the tottering Mamluk
sultanate which had dominated Egypt, Syria, and western Arabia for two and a half
centuries and brought these lands under their rule."
TIME PERIOD: 1517 – 1918
31
"In 1517 the Ottomans won their final victory over the Mamluks, and for four hundred
years Syria and Egypt formed part of the Ottoman Empire. Soon the Barbary States
[Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli] as far as the frontiers of Morocco accepted Ottoman
suzerainty [overlord-ship], and with the Ottoman conquest of Iraq from Iran in 1534, almost
the whole Arabic-speaking world was under Ottoman rule."
Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 176 Oxford University Press, 1993
"In the early seventeenth century the country was divided into the three Ottoman
Pashaliks of Damascus, Aleppo, and Tripoli, to which a fourth, Sayda [Sidon], was added
in 1660. Each was under a Pasha who bought his post and enjoyed a large measure of
local freedom of action, varying according to circumstances and personality... Most of the
land was divided among fief-holders, mainly, but not exclusively, Turks. The fiefs were
semi-hereditary and carried the obligation of paying annual dues and rendering military
service with retainers."
Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 178, Oxford University Press, 1993
"In the last third of the 16th century serious cracks began to appear in the structure of the
Ottoman empire. The empire embarked on a retrogressive movement which was to
continue for more than two centuries. The decline gained momentum towards the end of
the 17th century, and depended in the 18th and 19th centuries. The feudal system, with the
sipahis -- the feudal landlords -- as its prop was gradually deteriorating. As the wars of
expansion came to an end and spoils diminished, the landlards turned with increasing
interest to the land, and tried to recoup the loss of spoils by merciless exploitation of the
peasants. This naturally led to a sharp drop in agricultural production and ushered in the
whole crisis of the empire."
Kamil J. Asali, "Jerusalem under the Ottomans"Jerusalem in History, p. 207-208, Olive Branch
Press, 2000
"The Ottoman Empire entered WWI in November 1914 on the side of Germany and Austria,
and against England, France and Russia."
32
Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 315, Warner Books Inc, 1991
"On 28 June 1917, General Allenby was appointed commander of the British Army in the
Middle East, and he mounted an attack aimed at breaking the Turkish lines in Palestine
and Syria and arriving at the rear of the Turks in Anatolia. On 31 October 1917, he captured
Beersheba and moved northwards, whilst the Germans and Turks were attempting to
create a line of defense around Jerusalem. Allenby quickly pressed forward towards the
north in two columns passing through the Judaean desert. He engaged the joint Turkish-
German army in a fierce battle which took place to the west of Jerusalem on 8 and 9
December 1917 and, having defeated them, he approached Jerusalem, dismounted from
his horse and entered the Holy City on foot, to be welcomed by its inhabitants. In
September 1918 the other parts of Palestine were occupied.
A new era then began in Palestine. Taken out of Ottoman hands, it entered into the British
Mandate period, which continued for the next thirty years."
Moshe Sharon, "Palestine under the Mameluks and the Ottoman Empire (1291-1918)," A History
of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 322, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001
33
"The League of Nations divided the territory [formerly under Ottoman rule] into new
entities, called mandates. The mandates would be administered like trusts by the British
and French, under supervision of the League, until such time as the inhabitants were
believed by League members to be ready for independence and self-government...
The mandate territories were Syria and Lebanon, awarded to France; Iraq, awarded to
Britain; and a new entity called Palestine, which was also placed under British control.
Palestine, as defined for the first time in modern history...included the land on both sides
of the Jordan River and encompassed the present-day countries of Israel and Jordan."
Ian J. Bickerton & Carla L. Klausner, A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict p. 43-44, fourth
edition, Prentice Hall, 2002
34
"Out of the broad region known as Palestine, Britain carved two political entities in 1921.
One entity consisted of the area of Palestine east of the Jordan River; it was named the
'Emirate of Transjordan,' and later simply 'Jordan'... In the western half of Palestine,
between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, Palestinian Arabs and Zionist Jews
wrestled for control under the British umbrella."
Thomas L. Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, p. 14, Anchor Books, 1995
"On 2 April, 1947 the British government informed the United Nations, as successor to the
defunct League of Nations, that it would relinquish the Palestine Mandate on Saturday, 15
May 1948, leaving it to the U.N. to decide the further fate of the mandated territory...
The United Nations, after long and intricate discussions and negotiations, adopted a
formal resolution [181] on 29 November 1947 for the partition of the mandated territory
into three -- a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a corpus separatum under international
jurisdiction for the city of Jerusalem."
Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History, p. 196-197, Oxford University Press, 1993
35
"On November 29, 1947, the United Nations
General Assembly voted 33 to 13 with 10

abstentions [Resolution 181] to partition western Palestine into two states -- one for the
Jews, which would consist of the Negev Desert, the coastal plain between Tel Aviv and
Haifa, and parts of the northern Galilee, and the other for the Palestinian Arabs, which
would consist primarily of the West Bank of the Jordan, the Gaza District, Jaffa, and the
Arav sectors of the Galilee. Jerusalem, cherished by both Muslims and Jews as a holy city,
was to become an international enclave under U.N. trusteeship."
Thomas L. Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, p. 14, Anchor Books, 1995
"The United Nations made no provision for the execution and enforcement of these
decisions. Very soon after, on 17 December, the Council of the Arab League announced
that it would prevent the proposed partition of Palestine by force. The U.N. plan was
accepted by the Jewish leadership, who...set up a state which they called Israel. It was
rejected by both the Palestinian leadership and the Arab states, which went to war to
prevent its implementation."
Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History, p. 196-197, Oxford University Press, 1993
"In a situation where there were no fixed frontiers or clear divisions of population, fighting
took place between the new Israeli army and those of the Arab states [Syria, Lebanon,
Jordan, Egypt & Iraq], and in four campaigns interrupted by cease-fires Israel was able to
occupy the greater part of the country."
Albert Hourani A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 359-360, Warner Books, 1991
36
"The essential reality of Israeli-Arab relations
during 1949-1956 was...unremitting, if

generally low-key, conflict. Leaders and news media on both sides regularly voiced
propaganda and traded threats, and the Arab world closed ranks in waging massive
political warfare against Israel, regarding it as a pariah state and attempting to persuade
the rest of the world to follow suit. The Arabs refused to recognize Israel's existence or
right to exist -- leaders and writers avoided using the word 'Israel'; maps left its area blank
or called it Palestine...
A comprehensive Arab economic boycott was imposed, including the closure by Egypt of
the Suez Canal [July 26, 1956] and the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping and to specific
goods (such as oil) bound for Israel, carried on third-country vessels, and a ban on deals
with companies doing business with Israel.
The most grinding and visible expressions of animosity were border clashes. Most of the
tension along the frontiers resulted from Arab infiltration. The daily trespassing and
shooting incidents, the occasional murder of Israelis, and the retaliations generated fresh
hostility which gradually built up to a crescendo in the second Arab-Israeli war of 1956."
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 269, Vintage Books Edition, 2001
37
"In October [29-30, 1956] Israeli forces invaded Egypt and moved towards the Suez Canal.
In accordance with their previous agreement, Britain and France sent an ultimatum to both
Israel and Egypt to withdraw from the Canal Zone, and [Egyptian President] Abdel Naser's
refusal gave a pretext for British and French forces to attack and occupy part of the zone...
Under American and Soviet pressure, and faced with worldwide hostility and the danger of
financial collapse, the three forces [Britain, France and Israel] withdrew."
Albert Hourani A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 367-368, Warner Books Edition, 1991
"Britain and France completed their withdrawal by 23 December... Though Israel agreed to
withdraw on 8 November it did not actually do so until 8 March 1957 -- and then only after
the United States committed itself to standing by Israel's right of passage through the Gulf
of Aqaba, ensuring that Gaza was not used again for launching guerrilla attacks against
it."
Dilip Hiro, The Essential Middle East, p. 498, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2000
38
"As of 8 March 1957, the UNEF [United Nations Emergency Forces] were deployed along
the western side of the Armistice Demarcation Line along the Gaza Strip, along the
international frontier between the Sinai and Israel, as well as in the Sharm el Sheikh area.
While quiet prevailed along the Egyptian-Israeli borders after November 1956, there was
continued tension in other sectors of the Middle East, particularly on the Israel-Jordan and
Israel-Syria fronts.
After the creation, in 1964, of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its main group, El
Fatah, there appeared to be a new level of organization and training of Palestinian
commandos. Palestinian raids against Israel, conducted mainly from Jordanian and Syrian
territory, became a regular occurrence, and the Israeli forces reacted with increasingly
violent retaliation. There was a marked contrast between the quiet along the Egyptian
border and the confrontation situation in other sectors...
In the evening of 16 May [1967], the UNEF Commander received a request from the
Egyptian Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces for withdrawal of 'all UN troops which
installed OP's [observation posts] along our borders'. The General who handed the
message to the Force Commander told him that UNEF must order immediate withdrawal
from El Sabha and Sharm el Sheikh, commanding the Strait of Tiran and therefore access
to the Red Sea and southern Israel...
The Government of Israel made it known to [U.N. Secretary General] U Thant that it would
exercise restraint but would consider a resumption of terrorist activities along the borders,
or the closure of the Strait of Tiran to Israeli shipping, as casus belli... [Egyptian] President
Nasser announced the closure of the Strait of Tiran. With this decision the die was cast,
and, on 5 June, full-fledged war erupted."
UNEF "Full Text" Background, online, 2003
39
"In June 1967, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, after
[Egyptian President] Nasser had declared his intention to annihilate the Jewish state and
forged military alliances with Syria and Jordan for that purpose, building up troop
concentrations along his border with Israel and blockading shipping to the Israeli port of
Eilat. The six-day war that followed Israel's surprise attack ended with the Israeli army
occupying Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Syria's Golan Heights, and Jordan's West Bank."
Thomas L. Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, p. 15-16, Anchor Books Edition, 1995
"On October 6,1973 the Egyptian Army "launched a sudden attack upon the Israeli forces
on the east bank of the Suez Canal; at the same moment, and by agreement, the Syrian
army attacks the Israelis from the Golan Heights. In the first rush of fighting, the Egyptian
army succeeded in crossing the [Suez] canal and establishing a bridgehead, and the
40
Syrians occupied part of the Golan Heights; weapons supplied by the Russians enabled
them to neutralize the Israeli air force, which had won the victory of 1967. In the next few
days, however, the military tide turned. Israeli forces crossed the canal and established
their own bridgehead on the west bank [of the Suez Canal] and drove the Syrians back
towards Damascus."
Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 418, Warner Books Inc, 1991
"[U.S. Secretary of State] Henry Kissinger persuaded Egypt and Israel to sign a
disengagement accord, whereby Israel withdrew from the western bank of the Suez Canal,
to about twenty miles from the east bank of the canal. Egypt agreed to a major reduction
of troops east of Suez, the establishment of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone, defensive missile
emplacements only west of Suez, and the allowing of nonmilitary Israeli shipping through
the canal (though not in Israeli vessels)."
Ian J. Bickerton & Carla L. Klausner, A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict p. 185, fourth
Henry Kissinger achieved a disengagement accord between Israel and Syria regarding the
Golan Heights. Israel agreed to withdraw from some occupied territory in the Heights in
return for the establishment of a U.N. buffer zone and defensive Arab missile placements.
President Hafez al-Assad of Syria also agreed in a private memorandum to prevent any
Palestinian terrorist groups from launching attacks from Syria. In return, the United States
resumed diplomatic relations with Syria."
Ian J. Bickerton & Carla L. Klausner, A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict p. 185, fourth
41
"In the early 1970s, tension along the Israel-
Lebanon border increased, especially after

the relocation of Palestinian armed elements from Jordan to Lebanon [see Black
September Outcome]. Palestinian commando operations against Israel and Israeli
reprisals against Palestinian bases in Lebanon intensified. On 11 March 1978, a
commando attack in Israel resulted in many dead and wounded among the Israeli
population; the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) claimed responsibility for that
raid. In response, Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on the night of 14/15 March [1978], and in
a few days occupied the entire southern part of the country except for the city of Tyre and
its surrounding area."
UNIFIL, "Background," online, 2003
"On 15 March 1978, the Lebanese Government submitted a strong protest to the [U.N.]
Security Council against the Israeli invasion, stating that it had no connection with the
42
Palestinian commando operation. On 19 March [1978], the Council adopted resolutions
425 (1978) and 426 (1978), in which it called upon Israel immediately to cease its military
action and withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory. It also decided on the
immediate establishment of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The first
UNIFIL troops arrived in the area on 23 March 1978."
UNIFIL, "Background," online, 2003
"The Sinai Peninsula remained in Israeli hands [from 1967] until, in 1979, a peace
agreement was signed between Israel and Egypt -- the first with any Arab country -- under
the terms of which peace and normal diplomatic relations were established between the
two states and Israeli forces withdrew in agreed stages [completed in 1982] to the old
[1920] international frontier between mandatory Palestine and the Kingdom of Egypt."
Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 365, Scribner, 1995
TIME PERIOD: 1982 - 1985
43
"Israel invaded Lebanon in June [6,] 1982. The
invasion culminated in a long siege of the

western part of Beirut, mainly inhabited by Muslims and dominated by the PLO. The siege
ended with an agreement, negotiated through the U.S. government, by which the PLO
would evacuate west Beirut."
Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples p. 431, Warner Books Edition, 1991
"The PLO military infrastructure in southern Lebanon was destroyed, and the organization
was driven out of Beirut [September 2, 1982]. Many PLO fighters were killed, and it lost
most of its heavy equipment and ammunition stockpiles. Its headquarters was
reestablished in faraway Tunisia, and its military units were dispersed in camps around
the Middle East and North Africa, no longer posing a threat along or near Israel's borders.
The PLO and Arafat emerged from the fray considerably weakened."
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims p. 558, Vintage Books, 2001
"On 17 May 1983 Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement that formally terminated the
state of war and recognized the international border between them as inviolable. The
parties undertook to prevent the use of one country's territory for terrorist activity against
the other country. Israel was to withdraw its forces to a distance of forty to forty-five
kilometers from the international border to an area defined as a 'security zone.' The area
north of the security zone was to be under the control of the United Nations Interim Force
in Lebanon [UNIFIL]."
Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall p. 427, W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2001
44
"The withdrawal from Lebanon was carried out in stages between February and June
[1985]. The bulk of the troops returned to their bases inside Israel. Small forces remained
in the [U.N.] security zone and coordinated their activities with the SLA [South Lebanon
Army]."
Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall p. 427, W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2001
"The population of the territories under Israeli occupation, the West Bank and Gaza, had
erupted [1987] in a movement of resistance, almost universal, at times peaceful and at
times violent, although avoiding the use of firearms; the local leadership had links with the
P.L.O. [Palestine Liberation Organization] and other organizations. This movement, the
intifada, continued throughout 1988, changing the relationship of Palestinians with each
other and with the world outside in the occupied territories."
"In a somber broadcast, King Hussein announced that Jordan was severing its
'administrative and judicial' links with the West Bank, 'in deference to the will of the PLO' --
Jordan was washing its hands of the future of the territory and its inhabitants...Now
Hussein had indicated that if the West Bank could eventually be wrested from Israeli
control, it would become a PLO fief rather than revert to Jordan...Hussein's move was the
PLO's 'first political gain' in the Intifada."
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 605, Vintage Books, 2001
45
"The 'Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area' (usually referred to as 'the Cairo
agreement') was signed in the Egyptian capital [of Cairo] by [Israeli Prime Minister] Rabin
and Arafat, with American, Soviet, and Egyptian representatives as witnesses, on May 4,
1994...
The agreement effectively transferred control over the bulk of the Gaza Strip and a sixty-
five-square-kilometer area encompassing Jericho and its environs to PA [Palestinian
Authority] control, with Israel remaining in control of the borders between these now-
autonomous areas and the outside world and of the Jewish settlements in the Strip."
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 624-625, Vintage Books, 2001
46
"On 28 Sept 1995 the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip was signed in Washington by Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat in the presence of Bill
Clinton, Honi Mubarak, and King Hussein of Jordan. It became known popularly as Oslo
II...
Under the terms of this agreement, Israel yielded to the Palestinians civilian control over
nearly a third of the West Bank. Four percent of the West Bank (including the towns of
Jenin, Nablus, Kalkilya, Tulkarem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Hebron) was turned over to
exclusive Palestinian control and another 25 percent to administrative-civilian control. In
the Gaza Strip Israel retained control over 35 percent of the land, containing the Jewish
settlements and the roads leading to them, and the rest was turned over to the Palestinian
Authority."
Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall, p. 528, W.W. Norton & Co. 2001
"In September and October 1998, U.S. officials made a concerted effort to complete
implementation of the Interim Accord [Oslo II], culminating in the Wye River Memorandum
of October 23. The Israeli cabinet approved the Memorandum but said that redeployments
depended on the abrogation of Palestinian Charter articles; that a third redeployment
should not be from more than 1% of territory before a final agreement; and that if the
Palestinians unilaterally declare a state, then Israel reserves the right to apply Israeli law
to the rest of the West Bank. On November 20, Israel completed the first stage of the
second redeployment and released 250 Palestinian prisoners. On December 14, the PNC
and others voted to annul the Charter articles. On December 20, Israel froze Wye
implementation until the Palestinians abandoned their call for a state with Jerusalem as its
capital, curbed violence and incitement, accepted Israeli prisoner releases, collected and
destroyed illegal weapons, and resumed security cooperation."
Congressional Research Service (CRS), "The Middle East Peace Talks," Issue Brief for
Congress, 2002
TIME PERIOD: 2000-Present
47
"Barak and Arafat signed the Sharm al-Shaykh Memorandum on September 4, 1999. Israel
released prisoners, and transferred more of the West Bank to the Palestinians' civilian
control. Final status talks resumed ceremonially on September 13. The Palestinians gave
Israel 30,000 police officers' names. Israel released prisoners, opened a safe passage
between the West Bank and Gaza and a major road in Hebron, and redeployed from more
territory. On March 8, Barak and Arafat agreed to resume negotiations. Israel transferred
still more territory to complete the second redeployment. In May, Israeli soldiers fought
Palestinian demonstrators and police. Clinton, Barak, and Arafat held a summit at Camp
David, from July11 to July 24, to forge a framework accord on final status issues. They did
not succeed."
Congressional Research Service (CRS), "The Middle East Peace Talks," Issue Brief for
Congress, 2002
"On the night of May 23-24 [2000], in a well-orchestrated operation, backed by columns of
heavy Merkava tanks and helicopter gunships, the last Israeli troops pulled out [of
Lebanon] under sporadic Hezbollah fire."
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 656, Vintage Books, 2001
Credit acknowledgement for above data goes to ProCon.org from their work titled
“41 Maps Covering 5,000 Years of History”
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A Historic Look at The Middle East

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A Historic Look at The Middle East

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A Historic Look at the Middle East

A Study Guide to this vital Region

Middle East Map

Presentation of the regions history;-

TIME PERIOD: 3200 - 1850 BCE

"It was the destiny of the Holy Land, situated at

the south-west end of the Fertile Crescent,

TIME PERIOD: 1850 - 1500 BCE

TIME PERIOD: 1500 - 1200 BCE

TIME PERIOD: 1200 - 1020 BCE

"The Shasu settlement in the Palestinian highlands, or nascent Israel as we should

"There...emerges a delineation of the boundaries and extent of Israelite settlement. Its

TIME PERIOD: 1020 - 923 BCE

TIME PERIOD: 923 - 732 BCE

"Upon Solomon's death at about 923 B.C., the

united monarchy split into a northern

TIME PERIOD: 732 - 609 BCE

TIME PERIOD: 609 - 605 BCE

TIME PERIOD: 605 - 538 BCE

TIME PERIOD: 508 - 534 BCE

"When Cyrus had taken Babylon he declared

himself its new king. He proclaimed

TIME PERIOD: 334 - 140 BCE

TIME PERIOD: 140 - 63 BCE

"In Judas of the priestly Hasmonaean family, the

Jews found a hero-rebel who, with his

In order to extinguish Nabataean economic competition, Jannaeus occupied the eastern

TIME PERIOD: 63 BCE - 330 CE

TIME PERIOD: 330 - 636 CE

TIME PERIOD: 636 - 661 CE

TIME PERIOD: 661 - 749 CE

TIME PERIOD: 749 - 877 CE

TIME PERIOD: 877 - 935 CE

"In 868 an officer called Ahmad ibn-Tulun, the

son of a freed Turkish slave, was sent to

TIME PERIOD: 935 - 969 CE

"In the year 935 a new independent dynasty was

founded in Egypt by Muhammad ibn-Tughi

TIME PERIOD: 970 - 1079 CE

TIME PERIOD: 1098 - 1187 CE

TIME PERIOD: 1187 - 1260 CE

TIME PERIOD: 1260 - 1517 CE

of the Turkish Mamluks in Cairo was

TIME PERIOD: 1517 – 1918

TIME PERIOD: 1920 – 1921

TIME PERIOD: 1921 – 1947

TIME PERIOD: 1947 – 1948

General Assembly voted 33 to 13 with 10

TIME PERIOD: 1949 – 1956

during 1949-1956 was...unremitting, if

TIME PERIOD: 1956 – 1957

TIME PERIOD: 1957 – 1967

TIME PERIOD: 1967 – 1973

TIME PERIOD: 1973 – 1978

TIME PERIOD: 1978 – 1978

Lebanon border increased, especially after

TIME PERIOD: 1978 – 1982

TIME PERIOD: 1982 – 1982

TIME PERIOD: 1982 - 1985

invasion culminated in a long siege of the

TIME PERIOD: 1985 – 1994

TIME PERIOD: 1994 – 1995

TIME PERIOD: 1995 – 1999