"A can muna akwai wata ƙasa a Falasdin mai cike da albarka da wadatar tarihi, amma kusan babu mazauna a cikinta – ƙasa ba tare da al'umma ba, sannan ga shi, warwatse a ko'ina cikin duniya, akwai al'umma ba tare da ƙasa ba." (Lord Shaftesbury, Shugaban Palestine Exploration Fund, Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement for 1875, London, 1875, shafi na 116)

We have there [in Palestine] a land teeming with fertility and rich in history, but almost without an inhabitant – a country without a people, and look! Scattered over the world, a people without a country. (Lord Shaftesbury, Chairman of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement for 1875, London, 1875, p. 116)

Muhimmin abu a cikin farfaɗowar Crusader ta Victoria mai "lumana" ta karni na 19, da kuma nasarar buɗe "Ƙasar Mai Tsarki" ga shigar siyasa da al'adu-addini ta Turai, shi ne Asusun Binciken Falasdinu na Birtaniya da "Binciken Yanki na Yammacin Falasdinu" tsakanin 1871 da 1877. Ci gaban kimiyya da fasaha na Birtaniya a fannin taswira da taswirar mallakar ƙasa an yi amfani da su gaba ɗaya don mulkin mallaka da faɗaɗa daular a Gabas ta Tsakiya.

Central to the Victorian ‘peaceful’ Crusader revivalism of the 19th century and the successful opening of the ‘Holy Land’ to Europe’s geo-political and cultural-religious penetration was the British Palestine Exploration Fund and ‘Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine’ between 1871 and 1877. British scientific and technological advances in cartography and cadastral mapping were fully harnessed for empire and imperial expansionism in the Middle East.

Ordnance Survey (OS) ita ce hukumar taswirar ƙasa ta Birtaniya, kuma tana ɗaya daga cikin manyan masu samar da taswira a duniya. Sunan hukumar na Birtaniya yana nuna asalin manufofinta na soja da dabarun yaƙi, kuma asalinta ya koma ga taswirar Scotland bayan tawayen Jacobite na 1745, lokacin da babu taswirorin soja da ingantaccen sani game da tsaunukan Scotland na Highlands. Birtaniya ba ita ce ta farko da ta gudanar da taswirar dabarun yaƙi ta hanyar ma'auni a Falasɗinu ba. Taswirorin zamani na farko na Falasɗinu, waɗanda aka yi bisa binciken ma'auni da kayan aikin kimiyya mafi ci gaba na lokacin, Kanal Pierre Jacotin ne, wani mai yin taswira ɗan Faransa kuma Darakta na Rundunar Binciken Soja ta Faransa a lokacin balaguron Napoleon zuwa Masar da Falasɗinu. A shekarar 1799, bisa umarnin Napoleon, ya shirya taswirori sirri da yawa na Masar, Sinai da Falasɗinu. Shida daga cikin waɗannan taswirori suna nuna sassan Falasɗinu, musamman sassan ƙasar da sojojin Napoleon suka bi ta cikinsu daga Fabrairu zuwa Yuni 1799. Jacotin ya ci gaba da aikin kan waɗannan taswirori bayan ya koma Faransa, kuma daga baya an buga su a shekarar 1826, inda suka shahara da suna 'Jacotin Atlas', suna lakabta Falasɗinu da Faransanci da Larabci a matsayin 'Palestine or Holy Land'/'land of al-Quds' فلسطين أو أرض قدس) ) (kuma Khatib 2003; Karmon 1960: 155–173, 244–253).

Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency of Britain and is one of the largest producers of maps in the world. The British official agency’s name indicates its original military and strategic purposes and its origins go back to the mapping of Scotland in the aftermath of the Jacobite uprising of 1745 and the absence of military maps and detailed knowledge of the Scottish Highlands. The British were not the first to conduct instrumental strategic mapping of Palestine. The first modern maps of Palestine, based on an instrumental survey and using the most developed scientific instruments of the time, had already been produced by Colonel Pierre Jacotin, a French map-maker and Director of the French Survey Military Corps during Napoleon’s expedition in Egypt and Palestine, who in 1799, on Napoleon’s orders, prepared dozens of secret maps of Egypt, Sinai and Palestine. Six of those maps show parts of Palestine, especially the parts of the country through which Napoleon’s army marched in February to June 1799. Jacotin continued to work on these maps after he returned to France and they were eventually published in 1826, and became widely known as the ‘Jacotin Atlas’, labelling Palestine in French and Arabic as ‘Palestine or Holy Land’/‘land of al-Quds’ فلسطين أو أرض قدس) ) (also Khatib 2003; Karmon 1960: 155–173, 244–253).

Wannan taswirar Falasɗinu da Faransawa suka yi za ta kuma sami kamanni mai ƙarfi a kafa da sunan lardin gudanarwa mai cin gashin kansa na al-Quds: متصرفية القدس الشريف (Mutasarrifate of Noble Jerusalem), wanda Daular Usmaniyya ta kafa shekaru hamsin bayan haka, a shekarar 1872 (duba shafi na 259-260). An kuma buga "Taswirar Jacotin ta Falasɗinu", wadda aka yi wa binciken fili a lokacin yaƙin Napoleon a shekarar 1799, daga baya Asusun Binciken Falasɗinu ya buga ta (Kallner 1944). Burin mulkin mallaka na Birtaniya a Falasɗinu na ƙarshen karni na 19 da rashin cikakkun taswirorin soji na Birtaniya game da yankin na ɗaya daga cikin manyan dalilan kafa Asusun Binciken Falasɗinu na Birtaniya da "Binciken Ordnance na Birtaniya na Yammacin Falasɗinu" a shekarun 1870.

This cartographer representation of Palestine by the French would also find strong echoes in the establishment and naming of the autonomous administrative province of al-Quds: متصرفية القدس الشريف (Mutasarrifate of Noble Jerusalem) by the Ottomans fifty years later, in 1872 (see pp. 259-260). The ‘Jacotin Map of Palestine’, surveyed during Napoleon’s campaign in 1799, was also later published by the Palestine Exploration Fund (Kallner 1944). British colonial ambitions in late 19th century Palestine and the lack of detailed British military maps of the area were two of the key factors behind the formation of the British Palestine Exploration Fund and ‘British Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine’ in the 1870s.

Kamar yadda za mu gani a babi na goma, ayyukan sauya sunayen wurare zuwa Ibrananci a Isra'ila bayan shekarar 1948 sun samo asali ne daga ayyukan kawar da tasirin Larabci na James Finn, da kuma binciken Littafi Mai Tsarki da membobin Asusun Binciken Falasdinu (Palestine Exploration Fund) suka yi a shekarun 1870, wanda aikinsu, Names and Places in the Old and New Testament and Apocrypha: with their modern identifications (wanda George Armstrong ya tattara; Sir Charles W. Wilson da Major C. R. suka sake dubawa), ya ...

As we shall see in chapter ten, the Israeli toponymic projects in the post-1948 period had their foundations in the de-Arabisation activities of James Finn and the biblical explorations in the 1870s by members of the Palestine Exploration Fund whose work, Names and Places in the Old and New Testament and Apocrypha: with their modern identifications (compiled by George Armstrong; revised by Sir Charles W. Wilson and Major C. R.

Conder 1889), wanda yake da muhimmanci a ayyukan sunayen wurare na mulkin mallaka na Birtaniya a Falasdinu a ƙarshen karni na 19 da rabin farko na karni na 20.

Conder 1889), was central to British colonial toponymic projects in Palestine in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century.

Ayyukan taswira, auna filaye da sanya sunayen wurare na tsari, waɗanda suka kai kololuwa a lokacin Binciken Taswirar Ƙasa na Birtaniya na Yammacin Falasdinu tsakanin 1871 zuwa 1877, galibi suna da manufar dabaru. Tsarkin Falasdinu ba shi ne dalili mai gamsarwa ba ga Birtaniya don shirya da ba da kuɗin irin waɗannan binciken. Babban dalilin taswirar ƙasar baki ɗaya shi ne muhimmancinta na dabaru da na siyasa a fagen duniya ga Daular Birtaniya, wadda a lokacin take cikin gwagwarmayar ƙasa da ƙasa a kan Gabas ta Tsakiya (Goren 2002:

The systematic mapping, surveying and place-naming projects, which reached their peak with the British Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine between 1871 and 1877, were largely strategic. The sacredness of Palestine was not a sufficiently convincing reason for the British to organise and finance such surveys. The main motive for mapping the country as a whole was its strategic and geo-political importance for the British Empire, which was then engaged in international struggles over the Middle East (Goren 2002:

87–110). Duk da haka, bincike da taswirar da Royal Engineering Corps na Burtaniya ya yi a shekarun 1870 ne suka haifar, daga baya, da bunƙasar Zionism na farko na Yahudawa.

87–110). However, the surveys and mapping of the British Royal Engineering Corp in the 1870s led subsequently to the growth of proto-Jewish Zionism.

Asusun Binciken Falasdinu na Birtaniya (British Palestine Exploration Fund) an kafa shi ne a shekarar 1865 ta wani rukuni na masana Littafi Mai Tsarki, masana ƙasa bisa nazarin Nassi, jami'an soja da na leƙen asiri, da kuma malaman Furotesta, musamman Shugaban Cocin Westminster Abbey, Arthur P. Stanley. Binciken "kimiyya" da yake gudanarwa an daidaita shi sosai da hukumar siyasa da soja ta Birtaniya da kuma al'ummar leƙen asiri, waɗanda suke marmarin shiga Falasdinu ta Ottoman, ƙasar da wata Muslim "marar lafiya ta Turai" ke mulki. Asusun yana da ofisoshi a tsakiyar Landan, kuma a yau yana ci gaba da aiki, inda yake buga wata mujalla ta ilimi mai suna Palestine Exploration Quarterly. Bugu da ƙari, yana gabatar da laccoci ga jama'a kuma yana ba da kuɗi ga ayyukan bincike a Gabashin Kusa. A cewar shafin yanar gizonsa, "Tsakanin 1867 da 1870 Captain Warren ya gudanar da binciken a Falasdinu wanda ya zama tushen iliminmu game da yanayin ƙasar tsohon Urushalima da kuma ilimin kayan tarihi na Dutsen Haikali/Haram al-Sherif [sic]"; "Baya ga binciken da ya yi a kan, ƙarƙashi, da kewayen Dutsen Haikali/al-Haram al-Sherif, Warren ya yi taswirar Filin Filistiya kuma ya gudanar da wani bincike mai matuƙar muhimmanci na soja a tsakiyar Jordan". Captain (daga baya General Sir) Charles Warren (1840–1927) na Royal Engineers na Birtaniya, ɗaya daga cikin manyan jami'an Asusun, wanda aka aika don yin taswirar "yanayin ƙasar Nassi" na Urushalima da kuma binciken "wurin haikalin", ya lura:

The British Palestine Exploration Fund was founded in 1865 by a group of biblical scholars, scriptural geographers, military and intelligence officers and Protestant clergymen, most notably the Dean of Westminster Abbey, Arthur P. Stanley. Its ‘scientific exploration’ was coordinated very closely with the British politico-military establishment and intelligence community anxious to penetrate Ottoman Palestine, a country ruled by the Muslim ‘sick man of Europe’. With offices in central London, the PEF today is an active organisation which publishes an academic journal, the Palestine Exploration Quarterly. In addition, the PEF presents public lectures and funds research projects in the Near East. According to its website, ‘Between 1867 and 1870 Captain Warren carried out the explorations in Palestine which form the basis for our knowledge of the topography of ancient Jerusalem and the archaeology of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sherif [sic]’; ‘In addition to his explorations on, under, and around the Temple Mount/ al-Haram al-Sherif, Warren surveyed the Plain of Philistia and carried out a very important [military] reconnaissance of central Jordan’.7 Captain (later General Sir) Charles Warren (1840–1927) of the British Royal Engineers, one of the key officers of the PEF, who was sent to map the ‘scriptural topography’ of Jerusalem and investigate ‘the site of the temple’, noted:

‘[Birtaniya] Jakada [James Finn] ne ke mulki gaba ɗaya, ba bisa 'yan asalin birnin ba, sai bisa baƙi; amma waɗannan baƙin mafi yawansu ne masu haƙƙin mallaka na gaskiya, yayin da 'yan asalin, mafi yawansu, masu kwace ne’ (Shepherd 1987: 127–128). Duka Warren da Konsul Finn, wanda ya daɗe yana aiki kuma sananne ne (wanda aka ambata a sama), wanda kuma Kirista ne mai goyon bayan dawo da Yahudawa Isra'ila (Christian Zionist) kuma yana cikin ‘Mission to the Jews’ (Shepherd 1987: 110), sun yi ta tona ƙasa a ƙarƙashin wuraren ibadar Musulmi a Urushalima don zana ainihin girman ‘Dutsen Haikali’. Ayyukan binciken ilimin kayan tarihi na Littafi Mai Tsarki da sunayen wuraren da Warren da Royal Engineers suka yi sun kasance tushe na asali ga masana ilimin kayan tarihi na Isra'ila, masana ƙasa da masu tsara dabaru na yau (Shepherd 1987: 195; Benvenisti 2002: 11–27).

‘[British] King Consul [James Finn] rules supreme, not over the natives of the city, but over strangers; but yet these strangers for the most part are the rightful owners, the natives, for the most part, are usurpers’ (Shepherd 1987: 127–128). Both Warren and the (above-mentioned) long-serving and famous British Consul, Finn, who was a restorationist Christian Zionist involved with the ‘Mission to the Jews’ (Shepherd 1987: 110), apparently ‘literally burrowed’ beneath the Muslim shrines in Jerusalem to chart the ‘original dimensions’ of the ‘Temple Mount’. The biblical archaeology and toponymic projects of Warren and the Royal Engineers have remained basic data for many Israeli archaeologists, geographers and strategic planners of today (Shepherd 1987: 195; Benvenisti 2002: 11–27).

Biyo bayan irin tafarkin da PEF ta bi, hukumomin Burtaniya na mulkin wakilci (Mandate) a Falasdinu suka fara tattara bayanai kan sunayen wurare daga hannun al'ummar Falasdinawa na gida. Matsin lambar Burtaniya na gabatar da mulkin mallakar Turai a matsayin ci gaba da mallakar mutanen Yahudawa na dā a kan wannan ƙasa ya sa sunayen wurare a Falasdinu suka zama fagen gwabzawa mai zafi tsakanin ’yan mamayar Zionist na Turai da Falasɗinawan ƴan asali. Sunayen Larabawan Falasdinu sun kasance (kuma sun ci gaba da kasancewa) ana ‘kawar da su’, Zionistoci kuma suna mayar da su Ibrananci, suna amfani da dabarar mulkin mallaka da ta dogara da sunayen Tsohon Alkawari.

Following in the footsteps of the PEF, the British Mandatory authorities in Palestine set out to gather toponymic information from the local Palestinian population. The British drive to present European colonialism as a continuation of an ancient Jewish ownership of the land meant that place names in Palestine became a site of fierce contest between the European Zionist settler-colonisers and the indigenous Palestinians. Palestinian Arab names were (and continued to be) ‘unnamed’ and Hebraicised by the Zionists using a colonising strategy based on Old Testament names.

Sunayoyin wuraren Falasdinu na asali an dauke su a matsayin "wadanda aka fansa" kuma aka 'yantar da su a lokacin da aka mayar da su daga Larabci zuwa Ibrananci (Slyomovics 1998, 2002). Asalin kwamitocin sunayen wuraren da turawan mulkin mallaka na Birtaniya suka kafa da kuma aikin sauya suna zuwa Ibrananci na kungiyar Sihiyoniyawa, wadanda suka fara a karni na 19, sun ci gaba da wanzuwa a karkashin tsarin mulkin mallaka na Birtaniya a Falasdinu (al-Shaikh 2010), kuma an hanzarta su sosai bayan Nakba da fadada sassan nazarin Littafi Mai Tsarki da binciken kayan tarihi a jami'o'in Isra'ila.

Local Palestinian place names were deemed ‘redeemed’ and liberated when they were rendered from Arabic into Hebrew (Slyomovics 1998, 2002). The genealogy of British colonial name commissions and the Zionist Hebrew renaming project, which began in the 19th century, lingered under the British colonial system in Palestine (al-Shaikh 2010) and were accelerated dramatically after the Nakba and the expansion of biblical and archaeological departments at Israeli universities.