Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History
Author: Nur Masalha
Publisher: Zed Books
Year of Publication: 2018
Print Length: 458 pages
Genre: Non-Fiction/History
Area: Palestine, Middle East, The Levant
Topic: Palestine, History & Origin, History, Cultural Heritage / Legacy, Culture & Society, Refugees & Forced Migration, Movement of People and Ideas, Civilization, Governance, Freedom, Independence & Liberation, Politics & Power, Zionism
This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine’s millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history.
Starting with the earliest references in Egyptian and Assyrian texts, Nur Masalha explores how Palestine and its Palestinian identity have evolved over thousands of years, from the Bronze Age to the present day. Drawing on a rich body of sources and the latest archaeological evidence, Masalha shows how Palestine’s multicultural past has been distorted and mythologised by Biblical lore and the Israel–Palestinian conflict.
In the process, Masalha reveals that the concept of Palestine, contrary to accepted belief, is not a modern invention or one constructed in opposition to Israel, but rooted firmly in ancient past. Palestine represents the authoritative account of the country’s history.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Palestine as A Name Commonly Used Throughout Ancient History
1. The Philistines and Philistia as a distinct geo-political entity: Late Bronze Age to 500 BC
2. The conception of Palestine in Classical Antiquity and during the Hellenistic Empires (500-135 BC)
3. From Philistia to Provincia ‘Syria Palaestina’ (135 AD – 390 AD): the administrative province of Roman Palestine
4. The (Three in One) Provincia Palaestina: the three administrative provinces of Byzantine Palestine (4th – early 7th centuries AD)
5. Arab Christian Palestine: the pre-Islamic Arab kings, bishops and poets and tribs of Provincia Palaestina (3rd – early 7th centuries AD)
6. The Arab province of Jund Filastin (638 – 1099 AD): continuities, adaption and transformation of Palestine under Islam
7. Between Egypt and al-Sham: Palestine during the Ayyubid, Mamluk and early Ottoman periods
8. Palestinian statehood in the 18th century: early modernities and practical sovereignty in Palestine
9. Being Palestine, becoming Palestine: rediscovery and new representations of modern Palestine and their impact on Palestinian national identity
10. Settler-colonialism and disinheriting the Palestinians: the appropriation of Palestinian place names by the Israeli state
Bibliography
Notes
Index
Nur Masalha is a Palestinian historian and formerly Director of the Centre for Religion and History at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham. He is Editor of “Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies”: http://www.euppublishing.com/journal/hls, published by Edinburgh University Press. He is the author of many books on Palestine-Israel. His current work focuses on religion and politics in the Middle East, oral history and social memory theory, subaltern studies, new Palestinian and Israeli historiography, the Bible and Zionism, Holy Land toponymy, Jerusalem archaeology, theologies of liberation in Palestine and Life-Long Learning in Palestine.
Source: https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/nur-masalha
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