Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha. Pages 458. 2018. Zed Books. Hard Back. £22.70
The book by Nur Masalha explores the evolution of the concept, history, identity, languages, and cultures of Palestine from the Late Bronze Age to the modern era. Masalha argues that Palestine’s history is often taught in the West as a history of a land, not as a Palestinian history or a history of a people.
“This book challenges the colonial approach to Palestine and the pernicious myth of a land without a people and argues for reading the history of Palestine with the eyes of the indigenous people of Palestine.” (p1)
The book demonstrates how the name ‘Palestine’ was most commonly and formally used in ancient history. Israelis treat the very notion of Palestine as a modern invention, which the author destroys by drawing on a rich body of sources and the latest archaeological evidence.
Masalha, the concept of Palestine, can be traced to the beginning of recorded history and is grounded in a distinctive Palestinian culture that long predates the Old Testament narrative of the Israelite conquest. In the process, this magisterial work uncovers the true depth and complexity of Palestine’s millennia-old heritage and represents an authoritative account of the country’s history.
In the process, this rich and magisterial work uncovers the true depth and complexity of Palestine’s millennia-old heritage and represents an authoritative account of the country’s history.
“The name Palestine is the most commonly used from the Late Bronze Age onwards. The name is evident in countless histories: ‘Abbasid inscriptions from the province of Jund Filastin, Islamic numismatic evidence maps, Philistine coins from the Iron Age and Antiquity, vast quantities of Umayyad and Abbasid Palestine coins bearing the mint name of Filastin.
The manuscripts of medieval al-Fustat (Old Cairo) Genizah also referred to the Arab Muslim province of Filastin…..Furthermore, in the course of the Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods, the conception and political geography of Palestine acquired official administrative status.” (p2)
So this book sets out to explain and contextualise the multiple beginnings and evolutions of the concept of Palestine, geographically, culturally, politically, and administratively.
The British occupied Jerusalem in December 1917, and historians often argue that Palestine did not exist as an official administrative unit until the creation of Mandatory Palestine by the British in 1918. The author proves that Palestine “existed as a distinct administrative unit and a formal province for over a millennium.”
Masalha’s brilliant book on Palestine history has done a huge service to a better understanding of the modern Israel-Palestine conflict and destroys the Israeli and Western myth that Palestine did not exist, justifying the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories. An essential reading for anyone interested in the real history of Palestine.
Abdul Adil
