Tunayo huko [Palestina] ardhi yenye rutuba nyingi na yenye historia tele, lakini karibu bila mkazi hata mmoja – nchi isiyo na watu, na tazama! Watu waliotawanyika ulimwenguni kote, bila nchi. (Lord Shaftesbury, Mwenyekiti wa Palestine Exploration Fund, Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement kwa mwaka 1875, London, 1875, uk. 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)

Katika uamsho wa "kiamani" wa Kikrusedi wa Kivictoria wa karne ya 19, na katika kufanikiwa kwa "Ardhi Takatifu" kufunguliwa kwa upenyezaji wa kijiografia-kisiasa na wa kitamaduni-kidini wa Ulaya, kitovu kilikuwa Mfuko wa Uchunguzi wa Palestina wa Uingereza na "Ramani ya Kijeshi ya Palestina ya Magharibi" kati ya mwaka 1871 na 1877. Maendeleo ya kisayansi na kiteknolojia ya Uingereza katika uchoraji wa ramani na upimaji wa ardhi kwa ajili ya kodi yalitumiwa kikamilifu kwa ajili ya himaya na upanuzi wa kifalme katika Mashariki ya Kati.

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) ni shirika la kitaifa la upimaji ramani la Uingereza na ni mojawapo ya wazalishaji wakubwa wa ramani duniani. Jina la shirika hili rasmi la Uingereza linaonyesha madhumuni yake ya awali ya kijeshi na kimkakati, na asili yake inarejea kwenye upimaji wa Scotland baada ya uasi wa Jacobite wa mwaka 1745, wakati ramani za kijeshi na maarifa ya kina kuhusu Nyanda za Juu za Scotland hazikuwepo. Waingereza hawakuwa wa kwanza kufanya upimaji wa kimkakati wa kiala kwa vyombo vya Palestina. Ramani za kisasa za kwanza za Palestina, zilizotokana na upimaji wa kiala na kutumia vyombo vya kisayansi vilivyoendelea zaidi wakati huo, zilikuwa tayari zimetengenezwa na Kanali Pierre Jacotin, mtengenezaji wa ramani wa Kifaransa na Mkurugenzi wa Kikosi cha Upimaji wa Kijeshi cha Ufaransa wakati wa safari ya Napoleon huko Misri na Palestina. Mwaka 1799, kwa amri ya Napoleon, alitayarisha ramani kadhaa za siri za Misri, Sinai na Palestina. Ramani sita kati ya hizo zinaonyesha sehemu za Palestina, hasa sehemu za nchi ambazo jeshi la Napoleon lilipitia kati ya Februari na Juni 1799. Jacotin aliendelea kufanya kazi kwenye ramani hizi baada ya kurejea Ufaransa, na hatimaye zilichapishwa mwaka 1826, na kujulikana sana kama ‘Jacotin Atlas’, zikiitambulisha Palestina kwa Kifaransa na Kiarabu kama ‘Palestine or Holy Land’/‘land of al-Quds’ فلسطين أو أرض قدس) ) (pia 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).

Ramani hii ya mwanajiografia ya Palestina iliyochorwa na Wafaransa pia ingeonekana tena kwa nguvu katika kuanzishwa na kupewa jina kwa mkoa wa utawala wa kujitegemea wa al-Quds: متصرفية القدس الشريف (Mutasarrifate of Noble Jerusalem), uliowekwa na Waothmani miaka hamsini baadaye, mnamo mwaka 1872 (angalia kurasa 259-260). ‘Ramani ya Jacotin ya Palestina’, iliyopimwa wakati wa kampeni ya Napoleon mwaka 1799, pia ilichapishwa baadaye na Palestine Exploration Fund (Kallner 1944). Matarajio ya kikoloni ya Uingereza huko Palestina mwishoni mwa karne ya 19, pamoja na ukosefu wa ramani za kina za kijeshi za Uingereza za eneo hilo, yalikuwa mambo mawili muhimu yaliyosababisha kuundwa kwa British Palestine Exploration Fund na ‘British Ordnance Survey of Western Palestine’ katika miaka ya 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.

Kama tutakavyoona katika sura ya kumi, miradi ya Waisraeli ya majina ya mahali katika kipindi cha baada ya 1948 ilikuwa na msingi wake katika shughuli za kuondoa Uarabu za James Finn na katika uchunguzi wa Biblia wa miaka ya 1870 uliofanywa na wanachama wa Palestine Exploration Fund, ambao kazi yao, Names and Places in the Old and New Testament and Apocrypha: with their modern identifications (iliyoandaliwa na George Armstrong; iliyorekebishwa na Sir Charles W. Wilson na Major C. R.

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), kilikuwa kiini cha miradi ya majina ya mahali ya kikoloni ya Uingereza huko Palestina katika mwishoni mwa karne ya 19 na nusu ya kwanza ya karne ya 20.

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

Miradi ya utaratibu ya upimaji wa ardhi, uchoraji wa ramani na kutoa majina ya mahali, ambayo ilifikia kilele chake kati ya mwaka 1871 na 1877 kupitia Utafiti wa Ordnance wa Uingereza wa Palestina ya Magharibi, ilikuwa ya kimkakati kwa kiasi kikubwa. Utakatifu wa Palestina haukuwa sababu inayoshawishi vya kutosha kwa Waingereza kupanga na kufadhili tafiti kama hizo. Sababu kuu ya kuchora ramani ya nchi nzima ilikuwa umuhimu wake wa kimkakati na kijiografia-kisiasa kwa Dola ya Uingereza, ambayo wakati huo ilikuwa ikishiriki katika mapambano ya kimataifa kuhusu Mashariki ya Kati (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). Hata hivyo, tafiti na upimaji wa ramani uliofanywa na Kikosi cha Wahandisi cha Kifalme cha Uingereza katika miaka ya 1870 baadaye ulipelekea kukua kwa Uzayuni wa awali wa Kiyahudi.

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.

Mfuko wa Uchunguzi wa Palestina wa Uingereza (British Palestine Exploration Fund) ulianzishwa mwaka 1865 na kundi la wanazuoni wa Biblia, wataalamu wa jiografia ya Maandiko, maafisa wa jeshi na wa idara ya ujasusi, pamoja na viongozi wa kanisa la Kiprotestanti, hasa Mkuu wa Westminster Abbey, Arthur P. Stanley. "Uchunguzi wake wa kisayansi" uliratibiwa kwa karibu sana na taasisi ya kisiasa na kijeshi ya Uingereza pamoja na jumuiya ya ujasusi, zilizokuwa na shauku ya kupenya Palestina ya Kiothmani, nchi iliyotawaliwa na "mgonjwa wa Ulaya" Mwislamu. Likiwa na ofisi katikati ya London, PEF leo ni shirika hai linalochapisha jarida la kitaaluma, Palestine Exploration Quarterly. Aidha, PEF huandaa mihadhara ya umma na hufadhili miradi ya utafiti Mashariki ya Karibu. Kwa mujibu wa tovuti yake, "Kati ya mwaka 1867 na 1870 Kapteni Warren alifanya uchunguzi nchini Palestina ambao ndio msingi wa ujuzi wetu wa topografia ya Yerusalemu ya kale na akiolojia ya Mlima wa Hekalu/Haram al-Sherif [sic]"; "Mbali na uchunguzi wake juu, chini, na karibu na Mlima wa Hekalu/al-Haram al-Sherif, Warren alipima Uwanda wa Filistia na kufanya upelelezi wa [kijeshi] wenye umuhimu mkubwa katikati ya Yordani". Kapteni (baadaye Jenerali Sir) Charles Warren (1840–1927) wa Kikosi cha Wahandisi cha Kifalme cha Uingereza, mmoja wa maafisa muhimu wa PEF, aliyetumwa kuchora ramani ya "topografia ya Maandiko" ya Yerusalemu na kuchunguza "eneo la hekalu", aliandika:

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:

‘[Mfalme wa Uingereza] Balozi James Finn [Konseli Mkuu] anatawala kikamilifu, si juu ya wenyeji wa mji huo, bali juu ya wageni; lakini wageni hawa wengi wao ndio wamiliki halali, na wenyeji wengi wao ni wanyang'anyi’ (Shepherd 1987: 127–128). Warren na Balozi Finn (aliyetajwa hapo juu), Konseli wa Uingereza aliyehudumu kwa muda mrefu na maarufu, ambaye alikuwa Mkristo Msionisti wa kurejesha Israeli na alihusika na ‘Mission to the Jews’ (Shepherd 1987: 110), inaonekana walichimba chini kabisa ya maeneo ya ibada ya Waislamu huko Yerusalemu ili kuchora ‘vipimo halisi’ vya ‘Mlima wa Hekalu’. Miradi ya kiakiolojia ya kibiblia na ya majina ya mahali ya Warren na Royal Engineers imebaki kuwa msingi wa data kwa wanaakiolojia, wataalamu wa jiografia na wapangaji mikakati wengi wa Israeli wa leo (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).

Kufuatia nyayo za PEF, mamlaka ya Uingereza iliyokuwa na mamlaka ya kutawala (British Mandatory) huko Palestina zilianza kukusanya taarifa za majina ya mahali kutoka kwa wakazi wa asili wa Palestina. Juhudi za Uingereza za kuonyesha ukoloni wa Ulaya kama mwendelezo wa umiliki wa kale wa Wayahudi katika ardhi hiyo zilifanya majina ya mahali huko Palestina kuwa uwanja wa mzozo mkali kati ya walowezi wakoloni wa Kizayuni kutoka Ulaya na Wapalestina wenyeji. Majina ya Kiarabu ya Kipalestina yalifutwa (na yaliendelea kufutwa) na kubadilishwa kuwa ya Kiebrania na Wazayuni, kwa kutumia mkakati wa kikoloni uliotegemea majina kutoka Agano la Kale.

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.

Majina ya kienyeji ya maeneo ya Kipalestina yalichukuliwa kuwa "yamekombolewa" na kurejeshwa huru yalipotafsiriwa kutoka Kiarabu kwenda Kiebrania (Slyomovics 1998, 2002). Asili ya tume za kutaja majina za kikoloni za Uingereza na mradi wa Kizayuni wa kubadilisha majina kuwa Kiebrania, ulioanza katika karne ya 19, ziliendelea kuwepo chini ya mfumo wa kikoloni wa Uingereza huko Palestina (al-Shaikh 2010), na zilikuzwa kwa kasi kubwa baada ya Nakba na upanuzi wa idara za Biblia na akiolojia katika vyuo vikuu vya Israeli.

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.