Turawan Ingila sun mamaye Qudus a watan Disamba na shekara ta 1917, kuma masana tarihi sukan yi jayayya cewa Falasdin ba ta wanzu a matsayin wani yanki na gwamnati a hukumance ba sai bayan kafuwar Falasdin ta Mandate da Turawan Ingila suka yi a shekara ta 1918. A gaskiya, kamar yadda za mu gani a ƙasa, Falasdin ta wanzu a matsayin wani yanki na daban na gwamnati kuma lardi na hukuma tsawon sama da shekaru dubu. Da farko ta kasance lardin Romawa na haɗin gwiwa mai suna ‘Syria Palaestina’ (shekara ta 135 zuwa 390 bayan haihuwar Annabi Isa), sannan daga baya, a matsayin lardi daban da Syria, a cikin lardunan gwamnati guda uku na Falasdin ta Byzantine: Palaestina Prima (Палестина Прима), ko Palaestina I, Palaestina Secunda (Палестина Секунда) da Palaestina Salutaris ko Palaestina Tertia (Палестина Терция). Haka kuma, an mulki waɗannan lardunan uku a zahiri ta fuskar siyasa, soja da addini daga Palaestina Prima a matsayin ƙasa guda mai lardi uku daga karni na 4 har zuwa farkon karni na 7.

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. In fact, as we shall see below, Palestine existed as a distinct administrative unit and a formal province for over a millennium. This was first as the joint Roman province of ‘Syria Palaestina’ (135‒390 AD) and subsequently, as a province separate from Syria, in the form of the three administrative provinces of Byzantine Palestine: Palaestina Prima (Палестина Прима), or Palaestina I, Palaestina Secunda (Палестина Секунда) and Palaestina Salutaris or Palaestina Tertia (Палестина Терция). Moreover, these three provinces were effectively governed politically, militarily and religiously from Palaestina Prima as a ‘three-in-one’ polity from the 4th century until the early 7th century.

Kuma sake, Filastinu ta wanzu a matsayin wata cibiyar gudanarwa daban a cikin yanayin lardin gudanarwa na Larabawa Musulmi na Jund Filastin. Wannan lardin gudanarwa na Jund Filastin (Larabci: جند فلسطين) ya wanzu kusan shekaru dari huɗu da rabi, tun daga cin nasarar Musulunci na Filastinu a shekara ta 637‒638 har zuwa mamayar Crusaders na Latin a shekara ta 1099 miladiyya.

And once again Palestine existed as a separate administrative entity in the form of the administrative Arab Muslim province of Jund Filastin. This administrative province of Jund Filastin (Arabic: جند فلسطين ) existed for nearly four and half centuries from the Muslim conquest of Palestine in 637‒638 until the Latin Crusader invasion of 1099 AD.

Tsawon kusan rabin ƙarni, tun daga shekara ta 630 har zuwa mamayar Crusaders a Falasdinu a shekara ta 1099, da kuma kafa Masarautar Latin ta farko ta Crusaders a Urushalima (1099‒1187), lardin gwamnatin Larabawa Musulmi na Jund Filastin ya wanzu a cikin babban yankin ƙasa na al-Sham. A cikin ilimin ƙasa da taswirar Musulunci, al-Sham ('Arewa') yanki ne na ƙasa (iqlim: al-Maqdisi 2002: 135‒162) – babban yanki wanda ya haɗa da ƙasashen Siriya ta yau, Falasdinu/Isra'ila, Lebanon, Jordan da kudancin Turkiyya. Tsawon ƙarni da dama, al-Sham ta ƙunshi lardunan Musulmi na gwamnati da dama, ciki har da Falasdinu. A shekara ta 1890, Guy Le Strange (1854‒1933), masani a harshen Larabci da Farisanci a Jami'ar Cambridge, ya buga wani muhimmin aiki mai suna: Palestine under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from AD 650 to 1500, wanda Kwamitin Palestine Exploration Fund ya buga a London. Yayin da yake fassara sosai daga ayyukan masana ilimin ƙasa Larabawa na zamanin tsakiya, Le Strange ya fassara duk wani nassi na Larabci game da 'al-Sham' zuwa 'Syria', kuskure da gangan ba. Daga baya, wannan haɗakar al-Sham da Siriya ta zamani ta yi ta haifar da ƙarin rudani daga wasu masana tarihin Gabas ta Tsakiya ta zamani, da kuma gaskiyar cewa birnin Damascus, babban birnin Siriya ta yau, shi ma an kira shi al-Sham a tarihi. Wannan birni mai tarihi na al-Sham ya zama daidai da babban birnin lardin Musulmi na Dimashq (Damascus) a zamanin tsakiya.

For nearly half a millennium from the 630s until the Crusader invasion of Palestine in 1099, and the creation of the first Crusader Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099‒1187), the official Arab Islamic administrative province of Jund Filastin existed within the wider geographic region of al-Sham. In Muslim geography and cartography, al-Sham (‘the North’) was a geographic region (iqlim: al-Maqdisi 2002: 135‒162) – a vast region which included the territories of present-day Syria, Palestine/Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and south Turkey. For several centuries, al-Sham consisted of several administrative Muslim provinces, Palestine included. In 1890 Guy Le Strange (1854‒1933), a scholar of Arabic and Persian at Cambridge University, published an important work entitled: Palestine under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from AD 650 to 1500, published in London by the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Translating extensively from the works of the medieval Arab geographers, Le Strange conveniently and mistakenly rendered all geographic Arabic references to ‘al-Sham’ into ‘Syria’. Subsequently further confusion was added to this automatic conflation of the al-Sham region with modern Syria by some historians of the modern Middle East and by the fact that the city of Damascus, the capital of present-day Syria, was also historically called al-Sham. This historic city of al-Sham became synonymous with the capital city of the Muslim province of Dimashq (Damascus) in the Middle Ages.

Tarihin Falasɗinu, ba kamar labaran tatsuniya na Tsohon Alkawari ba, yana da farko-farko da yawa, kuma ra'ayin Falasɗinu ya bunƙasa a kan lokaci daga waɗannan farko-farko da yawa zuwa wani ra'ayin siyasa-yanki da kuma wata ƙasa mai iyakar yanki ta musamman. Sau da yawa ana tunkarar ra'ayin Falasɗinu ta hanyar zato ko kuma ba tare da la'akari da tarihi ba, maimakon a matsayin wani abu da aka bayyana cikin mahallinsa, wanda iyakokinsa (na zahiri, na gudanarwa, na yanki da na al'adu) suka sauya suka kuma canja tsawon shekaru dubu uku.

The history of Palestine, unlike the myth-narratives of the Old Testament, has multiple ‘beginnings’ and the idea of Palestine has evolved over time from these multiple ‘beginnings’ into a geo-political concept and a distinct territorial polity. The concept of Palestine is often approached in an abstract or ahistorical way, rather than as a contextualised representation of an entity whose (physical, administrative, territorial and cultural) boundaries have evolved and changed across three millennia.

Amma babu wasu tunani tsantsa ko ra'ayi mai cikakke na Falasdinu kamar yadda take. Shaidar zahiri da kwarewar ɗan adam suna da muhimmanci wajen samuwar tunani da ilimi game da Falasdinu. Abin da ya fi muhimmanci shi ne, ba mu san Falasdinu kawai "daga waje" ta hanyar fahimta da ɗaukar abubuwa gabaɗaya ba, har ma "daga ciki" ta hanyar abubuwan da muka fuskanta da jiki da kuma ji. Malaman Girkanci na dā – waɗanda suka kasance cikin na farko da suka yaɗa ra'ayin Falasdinu – sun fahimci lokaci ta hanyoyi biyu daban-daban: khronos, hanyar da ɗan adam ke auna lokaci a adadi da tsari na lokaci: kwanaki, watanni, shekaru, ƙarni; da kuma kairos, hanyar da ɗan adam ke fuskanta da tuna takamaiman lokuta ko abubuwan da suka faru daga kuma tare da wani takamaiman mahangar. Bisa wannan bambanci tsakanin ma'anoni biyu na lokaci, wannan aiki ya binciki juyin halittar ra'ayin Falasdinu ta hanyoyi da dama da kuma gogewar Falasdinu ta cikin lokaci da kuma ta tsawon lokaci. Yayin da yake ba da mafi girman daraja ga nazarin zamani (na yanzu)

But there are no pure ideas or an ideal concept of Palestine per se; empirical evidence and human experience are fundamental to the formation of ideas and knowledge about Palestine. Crucially, we do not know Palestine only ‘from without’ through perceptions and generalisations but also ‘from within’ through embodied experiences and affections. The classical Greek scholars – who were among the first to popularise the concept of Palestine – conceived of time in two distinct ways: khronos, the way human beings measure time quantitatively and chronologically: days, months, years, centuries; and kairos, the way human beings experience and remember particular moments or events from and with a particular perspective. Following this distinction between the two different notions of time, this work explores the multi-linear evolution of the conception of Palestine and the experiences of Palestine through time and across time. While putting the highest value on synchronic (contemporary)

A Falasdinu, hankalin al'ummar asali na Falasdinu, da kalmomin Larabci da ake amfani da su wajen kiran 'mutanen Falasdinu' (Ahl Filastin, Abnaa Filastin ko Abnaa al-Balad), sun riga sun wanzu tun kafin kalmomin kishin kasa na zamani na Larabawa, Sha'b Filastin (mutanen Falasdinu) ko al-Sha'b al-Filastini (al'ummar Falasdinawa), amma kuma sun ci gaba bayan su. Hakika, ainihin ma'anonin kalmomi da yadda ake wakiltar al'adu da asalin al'umma sun canza kuma sun bunkasa a tarihi, kuma bunkasar asalin al'adu da dama ta mutanen Falasdinu ba ta banbanta ba. Maganar Musulunci game da kalmar Larabci sha'b, wato mutane ko al'umma, an tabbatar da ita a cikin Alkur'ani, kuma ana bayyana ta da kyau kuma a matsayin mai karbar banbance-banbance: "Ya ku mutane! Mun halicce ku ... kuma mun maishe ku al'ummomi [pl. shu'ub] da kabilu [qabail], domin ku san juna."

In Palestine, the indigenous collective consciousness of, and Arabic terminology for, ‘the people of Palestine’ (Ahl Filastin, Abnaa Filastin or Abnaa al-Balad) long preceded, but also followed, the modern Arabic nationalist terms Sha’b Filastin (the ‘people of Palestine’) or al-Sha’b al-Filastini (the ‘Palestinian people’). Of course, the actual connotations of terms and representations of social and collective identities have evolved and changed historically and the evolution of the multicultural identity for the people of Palestine is no exception. The Islamic reference to the Arabic term sha’b, people or nation, is enshrined in the Quran and the term is described positively and pluralistically: ‘O mankind! We created you … and made you into nations [pl. shu‘ub] and tribes [qabail], that ye may know each other’.

Saboda haka, bambancin al'umma ya zama ginshiƙi a yadda aka tsara ainihin al'umma a tsawon tarihin Musulunci. Dangane da juyin halittar ra'ayin asali na Falasdinu, abin da ya fi dacewa shi ne yadda mutanen Falasdinu suka bayyana kansu a rubuce-rubucen Larabci na 'yan asalin Falasdinu tsakanin karni na 15 zuwa na 20. Waɗannan bayanai an tsara su kamar haka: kalmomin Larabci Ahl Filastin da Ard Filastin ('mutanen Falasdinu' da 'kasar Falasdinu') marubuta 'yan asalin Falasdinu sun yi amfani da su akai-akai a karni na 10 zuwa na 18, tun kafin fitowar wata ƙungiyar kishin ƙasa ta Falasdinawa a ƙarshen karni na 19 da farkon na 20. A rabin na biyu na karni na 19, kalmar Larabci Ahl Filastin ta koma Abnaa Filastin da Abnaa al-Balad, ma'ana 'ya'yan Falasdinu' na asali da 'ya'yan ƙasar' bi da bi; waɗannan kalmomi kuma suka koma Sha'b Filastin, wato al'ummar Falasdinu, a farkon karni na 20; sannan suka sake komawa al-Sha'b al-Filastini da al-Kiyan al-Filastini, ma'ana al'ummar Falasdinawa da hukumar Falasdinawa, a rabin na biyu na karni na 20. Dukkan waɗannan kalmomi (Sha'b Filastin, al-Sha'b al-Filastini da al-Kiyan al-Filastini) suna nuna yadda aka bayyana tare da ƙarfafa ainihin al'ummar Falasdinawa ƙarƙashin tasirin kishin ƙasar Falasdinu na zamani; amma idan aka karanta su cikin sassauci ba tare da tsananin ma'ana ba, waɗannan kalmomi na gama-gari suna da tushe mai zurfi a wayewar al'umma ta asali ta zamanin baya, wadda ta ta'allaka da Ahl Filastin, Ard Filastin da Abnaa al-Balad.