以欧洲为中心的阿拉伯国家分析,未能认识到,大多数阿拉伯国家及其边界,其实与长期的(殖民前)历史先例密切相关,国家的命名也是如此。就巴勒斯坦而言,与大多数其他阿拉伯政治实体的情况一样,在传统上以及整个中世纪,"Filastin"这一名称既指明了一个确切的地理位置,也标示了(主要但并非唯一的)阿拉伯穆斯林居民的身份。此外,现代巴勒斯坦的历史常常是从欧洲、奥斯曼和犹太复国主义殖民者的视角来研究的,并与之一同书写;巴勒斯坦及巴勒斯坦人自身的自主能动性与发声则鲜少被承认。在这种帝国主义和殖民主义的思维模式下,现代中东史学者也往往聚焦于奥斯曼帝国和"奥斯曼改革",这也是西方长期以来热衷于近东帝国编年体系的传统的一部分:亚述、波斯、希腊、罗马、奥斯曼、英国等等。然而,"dawlah al-qutriyyah"(地方国家/国家,阿拉伯语"qutr"即"国家"之意),作为一种超越时代的存在,无论传统上以苏丹国、埃米尔国、王国、汗国、酋长国、wilayat、哈里发国或其他任何名称出现,都是穆斯林历史上以及穆斯林占多数的国家中最常见的国家形态之一;这种国家形态往往享有实际的主权。科尔多瓦哈里发国(公元929至1031年)、格拉纳达埃米尔国(1230至1492年)、中亚诸汗国、阿曼苏丹国(1741年至今)、突尼斯贝伊国(1705至1957年)、黎巴嫩山埃米尔国(1516至1841年)、第一沙特国(迪里耶埃米尔国,1744至1818年)以及埃及穆罕默德·阿里帕夏的wilayat(1805至1948年),仅是其中几例,足见这种国家形态在穆斯林历史上分布之广。 一些地方性的"دولة قطرية"（民族国家/地区国家），例如埃及的马穆鲁克苏丹国（1250–1517年），在11至13世纪时的实力远超巴格达的穆斯林哈里发国。这种"دولة قطرية"并非异常现象，而是在整个阿拉伯和伊斯兰世界中普遍存在，尤其是在9世纪下半叶阿拔斯哈里发国衰落之后。许多这些独立的国家都享有相当的繁荣，并取得了惊人的文化发展。

The Eurocentric analysis of the Arab states has failed to recognise that most of the Arab countries and their borders are closely based on long (pre-colonial) historical precedents, including the naming of states. In the case of Palestine, as in the case of most other Arab political entities, traditionally and throughout the Middle Ages the name Filastin had indicated both an exact geographic location and the identity of the (predominantly, but not exclusively) Arab Muslim population. Moreover, the history of modern Palestine is often studied from and with European, Ottoman and Zionist-settler perspectives; the autonomous agency and voice of Palestine and the Palestinians themselves are seldom recognised. With this imperial and colonial mindset, historians of the modern Middle East also tend to focus on the Ottoman Empire and ‘Ottoman reforms’, which is also part of a long Western tradition of preoccupation with imperial chronologies of the Near East: Assyrian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Ottoman, British etc. Yet the dawlah al-qutriyyah, or the country/state – the Arabic term qutr being a ‘country’ – as a parachronism, and whether traditionally in the form of sultanate, emirate, kingdom, khanate, shaykhdom, wilayat, caliphate or any other name, was one of the most common forms of statehood throughout Muslim history and in Muslim-majority countries; a statehood which often enjoyed practical sovereignty. The Caliphate of Córdoba (929 to 1031 AD), the Emirate of Granada (1230‒1492), the Khanates of Central Asia, the Sultanate of Oman (1741 to the present), the Beys of Tunis (1705‒1957), the Emirate of Mount Lebanon (1516‒1841), the first Saudi state (the Emirate of Dir’iyah, 1744‒1818) and the Wilayat of Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha of Egypt (1805‒1948) are only a few examples of how incredibly widespread this form of statehood was throughout Muslim history. Some dual qutriyyah, such as the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt (1250–1517), were far more powerful than the Muslim Caliphate of Baghdad during the 11th‒13th centuries. Far from being an aberration, the dawlah qutriyyah became common throughout the Arab and Islamic worlds, especially after the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate in the second half of the 9th century AD and many of these independent states enjoyed a great deal of prosperity and spectacular cultural developments.

例如,独立的阿勒颇埃米尔国涵盖了叙利亚北部大部分地区以及杰兹拉西部的部分地区,于944年由哈木丹王子建立,并成为赛夫·道莱(Sayf al-Dawlah)统治下的独立埃米尔国都城。它曾享有一段极为繁荣的时期,诗人艾布·泰伊卜·穆坦奈比(al-Mutanabi)——阿拉伯最伟大的诗人——以及伊斯兰最伟大的哲学家之一、博学多才的法拉比(al-Farabi)都曾在此生活。法拉比是《善良城邦居民的见解》一书的作者,该书亦称《完美国家》(al-Farabi 1985)。

For instance, the independent Emirate of Aleppo, which encompassed most of northern Syria and parts of western al-Jazirah, was founded in 944 by the Hamdanid princes and became the seat of an independent emirate under Sayf al-Dawlah. It enjoyed a period of great prosperity and became home to the greatest Arab poet, al-Mutanabi, and one of the greatest philosophers of Islam, the polymath al-Farabi, the author of The Opinions of the People of the Virtuous City, also known as The Perfect State (al-Farabi 1985).

这种源远流长的历史遗产——即"地域国家"（dawlah qutriyyah），其现代对应物为"民族国家"（dawlah wataniyyah）——是20世纪初阿拉伯世界及穆斯林占多数的巴勒斯坦地区形成并建构双层次"地方—民族主义"（watani‒qawmi）的一个因素。

This rich historical legacy of the dawlah qutriyyah, whose modern equivalent is the dawlah wataniyyah or national state, was a factor in the emergence and construction of a two-tier watani‒qawmi nationalism in the Arab world and in Muslim-majority Palestine in the early 20th century.

今天，阿拉伯世界由二十一个国家组成，不包括巴勒斯坦。泛阿拉伯民族主义的理论家常常主张，阿拉伯统一方案的失败，以及阿拉伯世界中民族国家（al-dawlah al-qutriyyah）的主导地位与持久存在，主要是殖民遗产的产物。但这种论点忽视了伊斯兰统治下的国家历史传统、阿拉伯本土的能动性、各地独特的地方与区域传统，以及许多阿拉伯社会古老的本土根源和历史自主性。事实上，正如我们将在下文看到的，欧洲殖民主义阻止了在巴勒斯坦建立民族国家（dawlah qutriyyah）。

Today the Arab world consists of twenty-one states, or dual qutriyyah, excluding Palestine. Pan-Arab nationalist ideologues often argue that the failure of Arab unity schemes and the predominance and durability of al-dawlah al-qutriyyah in the Arab world are primarily the product of the colonial legacy. But this argument is made in disregard of the historical legacy of statehood under Islam, Arab indigenous agency, the distinct local and regional traditions and the ancient local roots and historical autonomy of many Arab societies. In fact, as we shall see below, European colonialism prevented the creation of a dawlah qutriyyah in Palestine.

此外,阿拉伯地名,如巴勒斯坦/菲拉斯廷(Filastin)、埃及、叙利亚、利比亚、伊拉克和也门,都有深远而古老的历史渊源,并拥有合法的本土自我界定权。再者,18世纪巴勒斯坦的达希尔·阿尔-乌马尔酋长国(Emirate of Dhaher al-ʿUmar)便是一个明证:它是一个本土主导的地方政权(dawlah qutriyyah),其建立过程体现了巴勒斯坦国家身份形成的本土动力。古老地名如巴勒斯坦/菲拉斯廷在现代的复兴与传播,源于该名称在古代历史中(自青铜时代晚期起)的普遍使用。

Moreover, Arabic toponyms such as Palestine/Filastin, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Iraq or the Yemen all have deep and ancient historical roots and indigenous legitimacy of self-definition. Furthermore, the indigenous agency behind the creation of Palestinian statehood, the Emirate of Dhaher al-ʿUmar, in 18th century Palestine, which was a form of dawlah qutriyyah, is a case in point. The revival and spread of ancient toponyms such as Palestine/Filastin in the modern era was derived from the common use of the name in ancient history (from the Late Bronze Age onwards)

……在整个古典时代、拜占庭基督教和中世纪伊斯兰时期都是如此。尽管殖民遗产以及欧洲关于“民族国家”的观念促成了阿拉伯世界两层式（watani‒qawmi）民族主义的兴起，但地方根源和地区历史遗产也必须被纳入促成dawlah qutriyyah在整个阿拉伯世界出现并占据主导地位的诸多因素之中。

and throughout Classical Antiquity, Byzantine Christianity and Medieval Islam. Although the colonial legacy and influence of European ideas about the ‘nation-state’ contributed to the rise of a two-tier (watani‒qawmi) form of nationalism in the Arab world, local roots and regional historical legacies must be part of the mix of factors for the emergence and domination of the dawlah qutriyyah throughout the Arab world.