Ci gaban birane da gina gine-ginen jama'a da coci-coci a Falasdinu ya kai kololuwarsa a zamanin mulkin Justinian (527 zuwa 565 AD).

Urban development and the construction of civil buildings and churches in Palestine reached a zenith in the reign of Justinian (527 to 565 AD)

(Burns da Eadie 2001; Walmsley 1996) kuma Taswirar Mosaic ta Madaba na ɗaya daga cikin manyan alamomin wannan birnin Falasɗinu a cikin wannan zamani mai ban mamaki na Late Antiquity. An gano ta a shekarar 1884, yayin gina sabuwar cocin Greek Orthodox a Madaba (Jordan ta yau) a wurin cocin Byzantine da ya gabace ta, cocin St George. Taswirar ita ce mafi shahara kuma daga cikin tsoffin shaidun kayan tarihi da suka tsira na amfani da sunan Palaestina a hukumance a Late Antiquity. Tun daga lokacin, an sake gano wasu coci-coci masu benaye na mosaic a Madaba waɗanda suka yi kama da waɗanda aka samu a Cocin Kabarin Mai Tsarki a Urushalima. Birnin yana ɗauke da ɗaya daga cikin manyan tarin mosaic daga zamanin Byzantine da Umayyad, kuma waɗannan mosaic ɗin suna nuna wa ƙwararriyar masana'antar mosaic ta Falasɗinu, ta dā, ta tsakiya da ta zamani (duba babi na bakwai). Taswirar tana nuna Falasɗinu, Masar da Tekun Bahar Rum, kuma tana ɗauke da cikakken bayanin birnin mai tsarki na Aelia Capitolina (Urushalima) a tsakiyarta. Wannan yana ɗaya daga cikin manyan binciken kayan tarihi a nazarin Falasɗinu ta zamanin Byzantine, sauran sassan taswirar kuma sun ƙunshi tsohuwar zanen taswira ta asali da ta tsira na Byzantine Palaestina.

(Burns and Eadie 2001; Walmsley 1996) and the Madaba Mosaic Map is one of the most powerful symbols of this urban Palestine during this spectacular era of Late Antiquity. Discovered in 1884, in the course of the construction of a new Greek Orthodox church in Madaba (present-day Jordan) on the site of its Byzantine predecessor, St George’s church, the map is the most famous and among the oldest surviving material evidence for the official use of the name Palaestina in Late Antiquity. Since then more churches with floor mosaics have been discovered in Madaba that are similar to those found in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The city contains one of the greatest concentrations of mosaics from the Byzantine and Umayyad periods and these mosaics are also testimony to the spectacular Palestine mosaic industry, ancient, medieval and modern (see chapter seven). Showing Palestine, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, and featuring a detailed description of the holy city of Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem) at its centre, being one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in the study of Byzantine Palestine, the remaining part of the map contains the oldest surviving original cartographical depiction of Byzantine Palaestina.

Wannan sashe ya ƙunshi bayanai game da wasu manyan garuruwan Palaestina Prima, ciki har da Aelia Capitolina, Gaza, Ascalon da Eleutheropolis (Beit Jibrin). An yi taswirar a shekara ta 560‒565 AD, a asali a babban girma (tsawon mita 15 da faɗin mita 6), kuma tana cikin shimfiɗar mosaic ta coci ta farko ta Byzantine ta St George, a Madaba, mai nisan kilomita 30 zuwa kudu maso yamma da ‘Amman. Masu fasaha Kiristoci na yankin ne suka yi shimfiɗar taswirar mosaic, kuma an yi ta ne don Kiristoci masu aikin hajji, matafiya da masana tauhidi. A lokacin, Madaba, wani ɓangare na lardin mulkin Byzantine na Palaestina Prima, ita ce mazaunin wani bishop Kirista.

This part also contains details of some of the key cities of Palaestina Prima including Aelia Capitolina, Gaza, Ascalon and Eleutheropolis (Beit Jibrin). Dated 560‒565 AD, the map was created originally on a large scale (measuring 15 by 6 metres) and was part of the mosaic floor of the early Byzantine church of St George, Madaba, 30 kilometres to the south-west of ‘Amman. The mosaic floor map was created by local Christian artists and was aimed at Christian pilgrims, travellers and theologians. At the time Madaba, part of the administrative Byzantine province of Palaestina Prima, was the seat of a Christian bishop.

Taswirar Madaba tana da wani sanannen rubutu da ke nuna 'οροι Αιγυπτου και Παλαιστινης' (wato 'iyakar Masar da Falasdiɗ'). Babu wani ambaton kalmomin 'Kan'ana' ko 'ƙasar Isra'ila' a wannan taswirar tarihi ta ƙarshen zamanin dā ta Falasdiɗ. Taswirar (mai iyakar 'Masar da Falasdiɗ') wata shaida ce mai ƙarfi cewa sunan Palaestina shi ne sunan hukuma na ƙasar a duk lokacin farkon Kiristanci da ƙarshen zamanin dā.

The Madaba Map has a famous extract showing ‘οροι Αιγυπτου και Παλαιστινης’ (the ‘border of Egypt and Palestine’). There is no mention of the terms ‘Cana’an’ or ‘land of Israel’ on this historic map of Late Antiquity Palestine. The map (with the ‘border of Egypt and Palestine’) is another powerful indication of the fact that the name Palaestina was the official name of the country throughout early Christianity and Late Antiquity.

Taswirar Madaba ta nuna Eleutheropolis a matsayin birni mai katanga mai hasumiya uku, da titin mai lanƙwasa mai jerin ginshiƙai a tsakiyarsa, da babban basilica. A karni na 4 miladiyya birnin yana da bishop Kirista mai babban yanki a Palaestina Prima. Bishop dinsa Maximus ya halarci Majalisar Nicaea ta Farko, wadda Sarki Constantine I ya kira a shekara ta 325. A watan Disamba na 1964, Gidauniyar Volkswagen ta ba da kuɗi ga Deutscher Verein für die Erforschung Palästinas (Ƙungiyar Jamus ta Binciken Falasdinu) don aiki a kan ceton Taswirar Madaba. Kuma, kamar yadda za mu gani a babi na tara, wannan gano mai ban mamaki kuma sananne sosai na 1884, wanda a lokacin ya shafi Cocin Orthodox na Girka na Dukkan Falasdinu a Urushalima, zai kuma taimaka wajen farfado da tunanin Falasdinu ta tarihi a tsakanin wasu masana Falasdinawa Larabawa Orthodox a ƙarshen zamanin Ottoman a Falasdinu.

The Madaba Map shows Eleutheropolis as a walled city with three towers, a curving street with a colonnade in the central part and a large basilica. In the 4th century AD the city had a Christian bishop with the largest territory in Palaestina Prima. Its bishop Maximus attended the First Council of Nicaea which was convened in 325 by the Emperor Constantine I. In December 1964, the Volkswagen Foundation provided funding to the Deutscher Verein für die Erforschung Palästinas (German Society for the Exploration of Palestine) to work on saving the Madaba Map. And, we shall see in chapter nine, this sensational and widely publicised discovery of 1884, which, at the time, also involved the All Palestine Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, would also contribute to reviving memories of historic Palestine among some Palestinian Arab Orthodox intellectuals in late Ottoman Palestine.