Palestine A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha

The changes in the political/religious regime under Islam contrasted with the continuity of Palaestina/Filastin as territory/country and the stability of its economic prosperity and its mainly farming people is striking. For over three centuries the province of Jund Filastin under Islam was a larger and even more prosperous country than the combination of Palaestina Prima and Palaestina Salutaris under the Byzantines, in contradistinction to various ideological histories presenting this period as one of decline.

Throughout early Islam the administrative province of Filastin maintained its economic prosperity partly by being strategically located at the centre of regional and distant trade and partly by developing its own distinct monetary system, within the wider monetary zone of Islam. Under Islam, dinar coins were minted in gold, dirham coins in silver, while fals (plural fulus)

was a copper coin first produced by the Umayyads in the late 7th century.

The name fals derives from follis, a Roman/Byzantine copper coin. Various Islamic copper fals were in production until the 19th century. Today the word fulus (or flus) is still used in Palestinian Arabic vernacular as a generic term for money and the term has also given rise to the modern Arabic terms iflas (bankruptcy) and muflis (bankrupt). In the Middle Ages, the monetary system of the province of Palestine included dinars, dirhams and fals, which were minted in several Palestinian cities.

Furthermore, in the 9th century, during Abbasid rule, the province of Jund Filastin was described as the most fertile province in the region of al-Sham. Commenting on the annual tax revenues raised in the province, 9th century Abbasid postmaster and geographer ibn Khordadbeh, the author of the earliest surviving Arabic book of administrative and descriptive geography, The Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Kitab al-Masalik was Mamalik, c. 870) recorded in about 864: 500,000 gold dinars of taxes from Filastin province. By comparison with other provinces of al-Sham, the Damascus province raised 400,000 dinars, the Hims province 340,000, the Jordan province 350,000 and the two provinces of Qinnasrin and ‘Awasim 400,000 dinars (Le Strange 1890: 46; Röhricht 1890: 17; Ibn Khordadbeh 1865). For another comparison, the tax revenues raised in the whole of Palestine (the two provinces of Filastin and al-Urdun) in 864

(850,000 dinars) amounted to more than half of (mainly land) taxes raised in the whole of Abbasid Mesopotamia in 818/819 (Christensen 1993: 42).

These annual revenues of the province of Palestine is also evident from the tax figures and revenues collected during this era from the Filastin province both in absolute terms and in comparison with those taxes collected from the other ajnad, including the much smaller Jund al-Urdun and the much larger Jund Dimashq (the Damascus province), which included much of present-day Lebanon and territories east of the River Jordan known as al-Balqa region (Le Strange 2010: 43‒48; Blankinship 1994:

47‒48, 292, note 7). Indeed, Filastin is accounted, by tax figures given in certain sources, to have been the richest province of al-Sham throughout the late Umayyad period (Blankinship 1994: 48).

The works of Arab historians and geographers of the Middle Ages are central to our understanding of the evolving reconfiguration of Palestine and its environs and of the relatively immense wealth and prosperity of the province of Filastin throughout much of the Umayyad and Abbasid periods. Local Palestinian historians and geographers such al-Maqdisi — who uses not just the term Palestine ( فلسطين ) repeatedly but also ‘Palestinian’ فلسطيني ) — also began to develop an embryonic sense of regional Palestinian identity. In 985 AD al-Maqdisi, in his work The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions (Ahsan al-Taqasim Fi Ma’rifat al-Aqalim), gives us a detailed account of all the place names, cities and towns he had visited in Palestine (al-Maqdisi 1994, 2002). Describing in detail his native country and the fertility of its land, al-Maqdisi comments in the 10th century on the agricultural produce and manufactured goods of Palestine:

within the province of Palestine may be found gathered together 36

products that are not found thus united in any other land ... From Palestine come olives, dried figs, raisins, the carob-fruit, stuffs of mixed silk and cotton, soap and kerchiefs. From Jerusalem come cheeses, cotton, the celebrated raison of the species known as ‘Ainuni and Duri, excellent apples, bananas – which same is a fruit in the form of a cucumber, but when the skin is peeled off, the interior is not unlike the water-melon – only finer flavoured and more luscious – also pine-nuts known as ‘Kuraish-bite,’ and their equal is not found elsewhere; further mirrors, lamp-jars and needles. From Jericho is brought excellent indigo. From Sughar and Baisan came indigo and dates [and rice], also the treacle called Dibs. From ‘Amman –grain, lambs and honey. From Tiberias – carpet stuffs, paper, and cloth. From Kadas – clothes of the stuff called Munayyir and Bal’isiyyah, also ropes. (Cited in Le Strange 2014: 18‒19; also Le Strange 1890: 16‒19; al-Maqdisi 1994)7

The economy of Palestine was boosted by the country’s strategic location and its international trade, including its long-distance trade with India, China and Europe. An extensive long-distance silk trade from China to the Near East existed from Antiquity. Silk fabric, a natural fibre produced by silkworms, was first developed in ancient China and, because of its texture and lustre, silk rapidly became a popular luxury fabric in the Near East. It was made accessible by both Chinese and Arab traders in Antiquity.

Under Islam, Palestine and al-Sham as a whole traded with India and China via Aylah (‘Aqabah) on the Red Sea, ‘a port of Palestine on China Sea’ (Ramadan 2010a, 2010b). In the Middle Ages, Arab merchants began importing Asian silkworms (Arabic: dudat al-qazz) and in Palestine the silk (harir) fabric was woven into textiles and helped develop the country’s own silk industry. Palestine produced a variety of silk fabrics – including one coarse type of silk fabric mixed with various types of wool and woven into coats, which became known as qazz silk, and ‘bi-harir’ – which were exported to Arabia and various Mediterranean and European countries (Gil, M. 1997: 238; Goitein 1983: 403, note 141; Lewandowski 2011: 243; Weir 1994: 288). In early modern England, the raw type of silk made in Palestine and known as qazz, became known as gauze or Gaza, the name of the Palestinian city; it was a thin, often transparent woven fabric used in clothing, drapery and surgical dressings (Cannon and Kaye 1994: 196).

Palestine’s foreign export and international trade were key contributors to the country’s economic prosperity and wealth under Islam. Palestine had begun exporting olive oil and wine to Egypt in the Chalcolithic Age and the export of Palestinian olive oil and liquores Palaestini (‘Palestinian wine’)

remained important commodities in Antiquity. Although the export of liquores Palaestini declined under Islam, exports continued throughout the Middle Ages and camel caravans transported olive oil from Palestine to the city of Medina in Arabia (Gil, M. 1997: 236). Also, various woven items and textiles and types of qazz silk mixed with rabbit wool made in Palestine were loaded onto ships and exported to Mediterranean markets, including Egypt (Gil, M. 1997: 238). Interestingly, many of these key manufactured and exported products, such as cotton, oil, soap, glassware, woven, embroidered and silk items, would still play a role in the Palestinian economy of the modern era.

Also under Islam the religiously autonomous, predominantly urban Arab-Jews of Palestine played an important part in the culture, commerce and manufacturing industries of the country. This was particularly evident in an important international export of Palestine: glassware. Glass-making in the region dates back to Phoenician times, and the mosaics of Hellenic and Roman buildings and Byzantine mosaic floors. In the Middle Ages, Acre, Tyre, al-Khalil (Hebron) and other localities in Palestine became famous for glass-making and the Arab Jews of the country and al-Sham as a whole became known as experts at making glass, which would be exported to various countries including some in Europe (Gil, M. 1997: 238). As we shall see in chapter seven, the industry of exquisite glass-making was further developed by Muslim industrialists in al-Khalil during the Mamluk period.

In one of the most famous encyclopaedic geo-political and geoethnographic works of the 10th century, al-Maqdisi describes some of the Mediterranean ports of the province of Jund Filastin:

All along the sea-coast of Filastin are the Watch-stations, called Ribat, where the levies assemble. The war-ships and galleys of the Greeks also come into these ports, bringing aboard of them the captives taken from the Muslims; these they offer for ransom – three for the hundred Dinars. And in each of these ports there are men who know the Greek tongue, for they have missions to the Greeks, and trade with them in divers wares. At the Stations, whenever a Greek vessel appears, they sound the horns; also, if it be night, they light a beacon there on the tower; or, if it be day, they make a great smoke. From every Watchstation on the coast up to the capital (Ar Ramlah), there are built, at intervals, high towers, in each of which is stationed a company of men. On the occasion of the arrival of the Greek ships the men, perceiving this, kindle the beacon on the tower nearest to the coaststation, and then on that lying next above it, and onwards, one after another, so that hardly is an hour is elapsed before the trumpets are sounding in the capital, and drums are beating in the towers, calling the people down to the Watch-stations by the sea. And they hurry out in force, with their arms, and the young men of the village gather together. Then the ransoming begins. Some will be able to ransom a prisoner, while others (less rich) will throw down silver Dirhams, or signet-rings, or contribute some other valuable, until at length all the prisoners who are in the Greek ships have been ransomed. Now the Watch-stations of this province of Filastin, where this ransoming of captives takes place, are these: Ghazzah, Mimas, ‘Askalan, Mahuz – (the port of ) Azdud, Mahuz – (the port) of Yubna, Yafah, and Arsuf.

(Cited in Le Strange 2014: 23‒24)

Also in the 10th century, Arab geographer and chronicler Ibn Hawqal – who travelled extensively in Asia, Europe and Africa in 943‒969 AD and wrote The Face of the Earth – describes the Arab province of Filastin. Ibn Hawqal, who may well derive some of his information from earlier Arabic sources, describes the extent of the province of Filastin: from Rafah in the south to the region of al-Lajjun in the north and from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to ‘Amman in Transjordan (al-Maqdisi 2002: 138).

Located 16 kilometres north-west of Jenin and 1 kilometre south of Tell Megiddo (also called Tell al-Mutasallim), for many centuries al-Lajjun was an important strategic Palestinian district town, until the turn of the 19th century when it was annexed by the Ottomans to the new district of Jenin.

Depopulated and destroyed by Israel in 1948, al-Lajjun was identified with ancient Megiddo, which was one of the strongest and most important Palestinian city-states throughout the Bronze Age and housed one of the most monumental temples of its time in the whole Near East (Wiener, N.

2016). Under the Romans this region was treated as part of the Galilee and in the 18th century al-Lajjun became part of the practically independent Galilee-based Palestinian state ruled by Dhaher al-ʿUmar. The continuities between the ancient and medieval Arab heritage of al-Lajjun is symbolically present in the name of the medieval Palestinian Arab town Lajjun, which is derived from the Roman name Legio, meaning an early Roman legion camp in the province of ‘Syria Palestinia’. The site, a strategic point on Palestine’s Via Maris and known to Romans as Caparcotna, remained the base of the Legio Sexta Ferrata (Sixth Ironclad Legion), the 6th Roman Legion, between 120 and 300 AD. The Sixth Ironclad Legion was honoured by the Roman Arab Emperor, Philippus Arabs (244‒249), who took a close interest in the affairs of the provinces of ‘Syria Palaestina’ and Arabia and minted coins with the number of this legion.8

Under the Abbasids in the 8th‒9th centuries, al-Lajjun was an important district town, within the province of Jund Filastin. Throughout the long Mamluk period (1260‒1517) it served as an important station in the commercial and postal route and during the early Ottoman period it was the capital of the district (sanjak) in Palestine that bore its name.

According to some Arabic sources, the two major towns of Beisan (former Scythopolis) and al-Lajjun, were included in the province of Jund Filastin throughout early Islam (see Gil, M. 1997: 111), yet al-Maqdisi (2002: 138)

reports that Beisan, al-Lajjun, as well as Acre were part of Jund al-Urdun, something which lends further weight to the argument that, geographically and strategically, Jund al-Urdun remained for several centuries equivalent to the former Byzantine province of Palaestina Secunda.

In the 10th century Ibn Hawqal describes the administrative capital of the province of Jund Filastin, al-Ramla, as the largest town in the country, ‘but the Holy City (of Jerusalem) comes very near this last in size’ – something which also lends some weight to the two (political/religious) capitals notion existing in Palestine for three centuries under the Byzantines and for nearly four centuries under Islam from the early 8th century until 1099.

Ibn Hawqal writes:

Jund Filastin (Palestine) and its subdistricts. Subordinate to this district were those of the Tih [in north Sinai] and Al Jifar, both lying towards the Egyptian Frontier ... Filastin is the westernmost of the provinces of [al-Sham]. In its greatest length from Rafh [Rafah] to the boundary of Al Lajjun (Legio), it would take a rider two days to travel over; and the like time to cross the breadth from Yaffa (Jaffa) to Riha (Jericho)

... Filastin is watered by the rains and dew. Its trees and its ploughed lands do not need artificial irrigation; and it is only in Nabulus that you find the running waters applied to this purpose. Filastin is the most fertile of the Syrian provinces. Its capital and the largest town is Ar Ramlah, but the Holy City (of Jerusalem) comes very near this last in size. In the province of Filastin, despite its small extent, there are about twenty mosques, with pulpits for the Friday prayer. (Cited in le Strange 2014: 28; also Röhricht 1890: 18; Gil, M. 1997: 111)

Although the perception of the boundaries of the province of Filastin did change over the years, in 1226 the Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi, writing during the Ayyubid period, mentioned that the Arab town of al-Fuleh (present-day Israeli town of ‘Afula), which was at the heart of Marj ibn ‘Amer, about 12 kilometres to the north of al-Lajjun, as being ‘a town in Jund Filastin’ (Le Strange 1890: 441).