PALESTINE 



Kor 150-200 year* tin- ll.l.i.u, 

 acknowledged nocentral auihonu . 

 they warred aguinM the Canaan- 

 itos, and against the I.. i,l. i 

 Ueduin peoples. During this 

 period, that of .indues, there was 

 " mi knii: in Israel." 



At... lit MINI IK . thr I'hilistines 



me across t<> tin 

 Ionian. Tin- Hcl.ivws, fused with 

 tin- ( 'anaanitcH l>y this coininoii 

 attli. ih.n. revolted against the 

 I'lplistincs. They felt the need 

 of central authority and unity. 

 The period of " kings " began. 

 t'ntler Saul the ridge of hills was 

 freed as far as Oilbon. David 

 drove the Philistines right down 

 to the coastal plain, united Pales, 

 tine, centralised government in 

 Jerusalem, and smote the desert 

 tribes across Jordan eastwards, 

 even as far N. as Damascus. The 

 Philistines and the Phoenicians on 

 the coast remained independent. 



This was the greatest rule ever 

 exercised in all history by and 

 from Palestine itself. There was 

 rapid decline of power under Solo- 

 mon. After his death the king- 

 dom was divided into Judah or, 

 roughly, Palestine, and Ephraim 

 or, roughly, Syria. 



From the 9th to the 6th century 

 B.C., Assyria and Babylonia in 

 their expansions and in their con- 

 flicts with one another and with 

 Egypt continually won and lost 

 and re-won the control of Pales- 

 tine. Judah rebelled sporadically 

 against the successive imperial 

 tyrannies. Often the rebellion 

 (e.g. against Assyria) was f<>- 

 | mented by a rival power (e.g. 

 I Egypt). Yet Judah never secured 

 ! real freedom ; and the kingdom 

 was destroyed in 58fi B.C. 



From Palestine to Babylon 

 Outstanding and dramatic events 

 in this kaleidoscope of conflict be- 

 tween empires over the Pales- 

 tinian hills were : (a) the amazing 

 escape of Judah in 701 B.C.. when 

 the Egyptians were defeated near 

 Ekron. and Sennacherib's stupen- 

 dous forces, which threatened to 

 engulf the tiny kingdom, were de- 

 fled in immortal scorn by Isaiah 

 (Isaiah 10), and were swept out 

 of existence (probably by pesti- 

 lence) on the Philistine plain ; (b) 

 the Egyptian victory on the plain 

 of Megiddo (607 B.c ), with tin- 

 death of King Josiah of Judah, 

 followed swiftly by the counter- 

 defeat of the Egyptians by Nebu- 

 chadrezzar ; and (c) the deporta- 

 tions of the Hebrews from Pales- 

 tine to Babylon (usually called 

 the exile). 



From the 6th century to the 

 4th, Persia, which under Cyrus 

 captured Babylon in 539 B.C., 



5937 



nun. mil of the province* of 



llal'\|o|i, in< ludint/ I'alcstn .. 

 .-el the exiles ill Hal>\|oii ft. 



back and rebuild Jeruitalem. Alex- 

 ander the Creat in turn overcame 



the I'eisi.m empire (.{.{:{ II. <. on- 

 lii- death and th 



division of his einpne 1'alcMine fell 

 to Kgypt and the dynasty of the 

 I'tol, nnes. w |,,, [ought the Seleu- 

 cids controllin.- N Syria across the 

 i to body of Palestine. As 

 these powers were enfeebled by 



the dloux of Koine, the .lews, 



thrilled with patriotic arid religious 

 zeal, rose in revolt. The M 

 bean family led them, 168 B.C., 

 and the Jews won complete free- 

 dom in U:{ n.r. 



Palestine and Monotheism 

 During these centuries of con- 

 flict and exile, ideas and ideals 

 were wrought out, personalities 

 sprang up, and literature was 

 written which make Palestine of 

 greater historical importance than 

 even the vast empires of Bain Ion, 

 Assyria, and Egypt. The little 

 city of Jerusalem could have been 

 hidden within the walls of one 

 palace of Nelnichadre/./.ar, and it 

 was repeatedly reduced to ruin. 

 The hills of Judea were not much 

 larger than Sussex, and they were 

 hardly ever free from tyranny. 

 But, robbed of all material power 

 and of external freedom, the peo- 

 ple received the conception of one 

 almighty, invisible, wise Creator 

 God, who was also Shepherd ; and 

 the ideal of theocracy, omnipotent 

 over all human rule, a rule of God 

 to whom even the all-highest of 

 Assyrian " frightfulness," Sen- 

 nacherib, was as Isaiah said an 

 axe or a wooden staff, the merest 

 tool of the invisible King, who was 

 to bring in His kingdom " under 

 a Prince of Peace." Those new 

 conceptions made Palestine the 

 source directly of two of the great 

 monotheistic religions of the world, 

 Judaism and Christianity, and 

 indirectly of the third, Islam. 



A new era began when Alex- 

 ander the Great had swung Pales- 

 tine out of the Asiatic into the 

 Greek orbit of thought ; an ab- 

 solutely new world of original ideas. 

 The centre of gravity of world 

 history swung from E. to W., from 

 Asia to Kurope. Rome, fully 

 armed, leapt into the Near East. 

 The Maccabees had shared Pales- 

 tine with an Arab tribe, the Na- 

 bateans. In 64 B.c. Poinpey in- 

 vaded the land, and in the follow- 

 hi'.: year reduced Jerusalem after 

 a three months' siege. The Pax 

 Hoiiinna now covered Pale--' inc. 

 but Herod the Great, as a prince 

 under Rome, held Jerusalem 

 .through a five months' siege in 

 37 ac. 



PALESTINE 



Then 111 Palestine Jeciu Thru'. 

 WON horn. li\ed, and wan crucified ; 

 and Hi follower* proclaimed HU 

 Gomel. It wu the Roman peace 

 and the Roman roads that made 

 the paths OJH-II foi the rapid itpread 

 of the Christian faith from I 1 



through the Kn ; 



The JewM still made political 

 trouble in Palentine. In A.D. To 

 Jerusalem wax practically de- 

 stroyed after a long xicge. After 

 the revolt of A.K. i:\~2 :< Jerusa- 

 lem was made a Roman colony. 

 Through six centuries the Roman 

 Km pi re held Palestine with a 

 gradually relaxing grasp. 



Then suddenly, out of Arabia, the 

 scimitar of Islam swept, and in 

 A.D. 635 the fall of Damascus 

 yielded Palestine to Mahomedan 

 rule. A fight of Heraclius against 

 the Arabs on Aug. 20, 636, ended 

 in his defeat. It was one of the 

 dei i-ive battles of the world's his- 

 tory, as it meant the clinching of 

 the power of Islam. From the 7th 

 till the llth century Palestine 

 was ruled by the Caliphs ; and in 

 the llth century the Turks, com- 

 ing from the N., became gradually 

 dominant. 



The next period, that of the 

 Crusades, 12th- 13th centuries, is 

 an involved and complicated story I 

 which ended in leaving the Turkish 

 power still dominant over Palestine. 

 Latin colonies in Palestine per- 

 sisted after the Crusades proper 

 were over. 



Industries and Education 



A new terror swept down from 

 the N. in the 13th century, in the 

 shape of the Tartars, and the Mame- 

 luke or Tartar sultans ruled till 

 the Ottoman Turks, in the 16th 

 century, gained the upper hand 

 and ruled Palestine continuously 

 thereafter until defeated and dis- 

 possessed in 1918. The rule was 

 similar to that all over the Turkish 

 Empire. The population decreased. 

 No progressive movements took 

 place. In 1799 Napoleon invaded 

 the country, mainly to defend 

 Egypt. He failed to secure any 

 real hold, though he crippled 

 Turkish resources. Again, in 1831, 

 Egypt, under Ibrahim Pasha, in- 

 vaded Palestine and occupied it 

 till 1840. 



The industries are : (a) agricul- 

 ture, in whieh the ancient wooden 

 ox-plough and reaping hook are 

 still used, though modem imple- 

 ments are being introduced where 

 the soil is suitable and capital 

 available. Grain harvests are 

 precarious, and the best results 

 come from combining grain agri- 

 culture (wheat and oarley) with 

 fruit growing (vines, apricots, al- 

 monds, oranges, and olives), as well 

 as sesame, tobacco, cotton, and 



IX 7 



