Waingereza waliikalia Yerusalemu mnamo Desemba 1917, na wanahistoria mara nyingi hubishana kwamba Palestina haikuwepo kama kitengo rasmi cha kiutawala hadi kuundwa kwa Palestina ya Mandati na Waingereza mwaka 1918. Kwa kweli, kama tutakavyoona hapa chini, Palestina ilikuwepo kama kitengo tofauti cha kiutawala na mkoa rasmi kwa zaidi ya karne moja. Hapo awali ilikuwa mkoa wa pamoja wa Kirumi wa 'Syria Palaestina' (135‒390 BK), na baadaye, kama mkoa uliotengwa na Syria, katika mfumo wa mikoa mitatu ya kiutawala ya Palestina ya Byzantium: Palaestina Prima (Палестина Прима), au Palaestina I, Palaestina Secunda (Палестина Секунда) na Palaestina Salutaris au Palaestina Tertia (Палестина Терция). Zaidi ya hayo, mikoa hii mitatu ilitawaliwa kwa ufanisi kisiasa, kijeshi na kidini kutoka Palaestina Prima kama dola moja ya "tatu-katika-moja" kuanzia karne ya 4 hadi mwanzoni mwa karne ya 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.

Na tena Palestina ilikuwepo kama chombo tofauti cha kiutawala kwa namna ya mkoa wa kiutawala wa Kiarabu wa Kiislamu wa Jund Filastin. Mkoa huu wa kiutawala wa Jund Filastin (Kiarabu: جند فلسطين ) ulikuwepo kwa karibu miaka mia nne na nusu, kuanzia ushindi wa Kiislamu wa Palestina mwaka 637‒638 hadi uvamizi wa Wakrusadi wa Kilatini mwaka 1099 AD.

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.

Kwa karibu nusu milenia, kuanzia miaka ya 630 hadi uvamizi wa Wakrusedi wa Palestina mwaka 1099, na kuundwa kwa Ufalme wa kwanza wa Kilatini wa Wakrusedi wa Yerusalemu (1099‒1187), mkoa rasmi wa kiutawala wa Kiarabu-Kiislamu wa Jund Filastin ulikuwepo ndani ya eneo kubwa zaidi la al-Sham. Katika jiografia na ramani za Kiislamu, al-Sham (‘Kaskazini’) lilikuwa eneo la kijiografia (iqlim: al-Maqdisi 2002: 135‒162), eneo kubwa lililojumuisha maeneo ya Syria ya leo, Palestina/Israeli, Lebanoni, Yordani na kusini mwa Uturuki. Kwa karne kadhaa, al-Sham lilikuwa na mikoa kadhaa ya kiutawala ya Kiislamu, ikiwemo Palestina. Mnamo mwaka 1890 Guy Le Strange (1854‒1933), msomi wa Kiarabu na Kiajemi katika Chuo Kikuu cha Cambridge, alichapisha kazi muhimu iitwayo: Palestine under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from AD 650 to 1500, iliyochapishwa London na Kamati ya Palestine Exploration Fund. Akitafsiri kwa kina kutoka kazi za wanajiografia wa Kiarabu wa zama za kati, Le Strange kwa urahisi na kwa makosa alitafsiri marejeo yote ya kijiografia ya Kiarabu ya ‘al-Sham’ kuwa ‘Syria’. Baadaye, mkanganyiko zaidi uliongezeka kutokana na muunganiko huu wa kiotomatiki wa eneo la al-Sham na Syria ya kisasa, kwa baadhi ya wanahistoria wa Mashariki ya Kati ya kisasa, na pia kwa ukweli kwamba mji wa Dameski, mji mkuu wa Syria ya leo, pia ulijulikana kihistoria kama al-Sham. Mji huu wa kihistoria wa al-Sham ukawa sawa na mji mkuu wa mkoa wa Kiislamu wa Dimashq (Dameski) katika Zama za Kati.

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.

Historia ya Palestina, tofauti na masimulizi ya hadithi-mythi ya Agano la Kale, ina mwanzo mwingi, na wazo la Palestina limebadilika kwa muda kutoka katika mwanzo huo mwingi kuwa dhana ya kijiografia-kisiasa na taasisi ya kipekee ya kieneo. Dhana ya Palestina mara nyingi hushughulikiwa kwa njia ya kidhahania au isiyo ya kihistoria, badala ya kama uwakilishi wa muktadha wa chombo ambacho mipaka yake (ya kimwili, ya kiutawala, ya kieneo na ya kitamaduni) imebadilika na kubadilika katika kipindi cha miaka elfu tatu.

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.

Lakini hakuna mawazo safi wala dhana bora ya Palestina yenyewe; ushahidi wa kimajaribio na uzoefu wa binadamu ni msingi wa kuunda mawazo na maarifa kuhusu Palestina. Muhimu zaidi, hatuijui Palestina tu 'kutoka nje' kupitia mitazamo na jumla, bali pia 'kutoka ndani' kupitia uzoefu wa mwili na hisia. Wanazuoni wa kale wa Kigiriki – ambao walikuwa miongoni mwa wa kwanza kueneza dhana ya Palestina – walifikiria wakati kwa njia mbili tofauti: khronos, njia ambayo binadamu hupima wakati kwa kiasi na kwa mpangilio: siku, miezi, miaka, karne; na kairos, njia ambayo binadamu hupitia na kukumbuka matukio au nyakati maalumu kutoka na kwa mtazamo fulani. Kwa kufuata tofauti hii kati ya dhana mbili za wakati, kazi hii inachunguza mabadiliko ya mstari mwingi wa dhana ya Palestina na uzoefu wa Palestina kupitia wakati na katika vipindi mbalimbali vya wakati. Huku ikithamini zaidi upande wa wakati mmoja (wa kisasa)

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)

Huko Palestina, fahamu ya pamoja ya wenyeji na istilahi za Kiarabu za "watu wa Palestina" (Ahl Filastin, Abnaa Filastin au Abnaa al-Balad) zilitangulia kwa muda mrefu, lakini pia zimefuatiwa na, istilahi za kisasa za kitaifa za Kiarabu Sha’b Filastin (“watu wa Palestina”) au al-Sha’b al-Filastini (“taifa la Kipalestina”). Bila shaka, maana halisi za maneno na uwakilishi wa utambulisho wa kijamii na wa pamoja umebadilika na kubadilika kihistoria, na mageuzi ya utambulisho wa kitamaduni mbalimbali wa watu wa Palestina si ubaguzi. Rejeo la Kiislamu kwa neno la Kiarabu sha’b, watu au taifa, limo katika Qur'ani, na neno hilo linaelezwa kwa namna chanya na ya kuheshimu wingi wa mitazamo: “Enyi watu! Tumekuumbeni … na tukakufanyeni mataifa [pl. shu‘ub] na makabila [qabail], ili mpate kutambuana.”

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’.

Kwa hiyo, wingi wa kijamii ukawa msingi wa jinsi utambulisho wa pamoja ulivyoundwa katika historia yote ya Kiislamu. Kwa umuhimu hasa katika mabadiliko ya dhana asilia ya Palestina ni jinsi watu wa Palestina walivyojiwakilisha katika maandishi asilia ya Kiarabu ya Palestina kati ya karne ya 15 na 20. Uwakilishi huu umeundwa kama ifuatavyo: maneno ya Kiarabu Ahl Filastin na Ard Filastin ('watu wa Palestina' na 'ardhi ya Palestina') yalitumiwa mara kwa mara na waandishi asilia Waarabu wa Palestina katika karne ya 10 hadi 18, muda mrefu kabla ya kuibuka kwa harakati changa ya kitaifa ya Palestina mwishoni mwa karne ya 19 na mwanzoni mwa karne ya 20. Katika nusu ya pili ya karne ya 19, neno la Kiarabu Ahl Filastin lilibadilika kuwa Abnaa Filastin na Abnaa al-Balad, yaani 'wana na binti wa Palestina' (asilia) na 'wana na binti wa nchi' mtawalia; na maneno haya yalibadilika kuwa Sha'b Filastin, yaani taifa au watu wa Palestina, mwanzoni mwa karne ya 20; kisha tena kuwa al-Sha'b al-Filastini na al-Kiyan al-Filastini, yaani watu/taifa la Kipalestina na chombo cha Kipalestina, katika nusu ya pili ya karne ya 20. Maneno yote haya (Sha'b Filastin, al-Sha'b al-Filastini na al-Kiyan al-Filastini) yanarejelea uundaji na uimarishaji wa utambulisho wa pamoja wa taifa la Palestina chini ya athari ya utaifa wa kieneo wa kisasa wa Kipalestina; lakini, yakisomwa kwa kubadilika na si kihalisi, maneno haya ya pamoja pia yana mizizi mirefu katika fahamu ya pamoja ya kiasili ya kabla ya kisasa iliyojikita katika Ahl Filastin, Ard Filastin na Abnaa al-Balad.