Palestine A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha

In modern times Palestine Studies as a scholarly discipline has grown phenomenally across several continents and has continued to expand in recent decades – although some of the recently founded centres focus largely on modern Palestine and the Arab‒Israeli conflict. Furthermore, when referring to the ancient history of this region, modern European scholarship (and early Zionist scholarly societies such as the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, founded in 1914) universally and unanimously talk about ‘Palestine’, even when referring to Jewish history.

The opening of the ‘Holy Land’ to Europe’s political, cultural-religious penetration in the 19th century resulted in mountains of publications on Palestine. To cite some of the scholarly societies/centres/projects/museums/ journals relevant to Palestine Studies and the ancient history and heritage of Palestine:

• The Palestine Exploration Fund, founded in London in the 1860s with a focus on ancient Palestine; it published the Palestine Exploration Quarterly.

• The Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society: an organisation established in 1884, the society operated for eleven years and published translations of medieval texts relevant to the history of pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Particular attention was given to accounts containing geographical or topographical information in a variety of languages, including Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Old French, Russian and German. Its publications included Guy Le Strange’s translation from Arabic and annotation of al-Muqaddasi’s (al-Maqdisi’s) work under the title: Description of Syria, including Palestine by Mukaddasi (1986), Nasir-I-Khusrau’s Diary of a Journey Through Syria and Palestine (1888).

• Deutscher Verein für die Erforschung Palästinas (German Society for the Exploration of Palestine). The Society’s annual publication was Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins (Journal of the German Society for the Exploration of Palestine).

• The Deutscher Verein zur Erforschung Palästinas (German Association for the Study of Palestine) was established in 1877 at the initiative of the Swiss geographer Carl Zimmermann’s association for the promotion of Bible Studies and research on the history and culture of Palestine. From 1877 it regularly published Zimmermann’s Zeitschrift.

• Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (Russian: Императорское православное палестинское общество) was founded in 1882 as a scholarly and political organisation for the study of Palestine. Following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 the society was renamed the Russian Palestine Society (Russian: Российское Палестинское Общество)

and was attached to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Its original Russian name was restored in 1992.

• Zeitschrifl des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins (Journal of the German Society for Exploration of Palestine) is the official bulletin of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in the Holy Land (Deutsches Evangelisches Institut für Altertumswissenschaften des Heiligen Landes), founded in 1900. It covers topics such as archaeology, topography, iconography, religion, social anthropology, philology and literature.

• Palestine Archaeological Museum (al-Quds/Jerusalem), was initiated in 1918 and officially opened in 1938; it was renamed ‘Rockefeller Museum’ by Israel after the 1967 occupation.

• Palestine Folklore Museum (al-Quds/Jerusalem) was set up in al-Qala’a in the 1930s.

• Jewish Palestine Exploration Society was founded in 1914 with a focus on ancient Palestine; it was renamed after 1948 as the Israel Exploration Society.

• The Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society was published in Jerusalem by the Palestine Oriental Society from 1920 to 1948 and focused on ancient history and antiquities.

• The Institute for Palestine Studies, founded in Beirut in 1963, publishes the Journal of Palestine Studies.

• Palestine Research Centre was founded by the PLO in Beirut in 1965; it published a periodical entitled Palestinian Affairs (Shu’un Filastiniyah).

• Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies was founded in 2002; it is published by Edinburgh University Press.

• The European Centre for Palestine Studies, Exeter University was established in 2009.

• Center for Palestine Studies, Columbia University, New York.

• Centre for Palestine Studies (SOAS, London) was established in 2012.

• The Palestinian Museum opened in Birzeit in May 2016.