Palestine

Early History until the 19th Century

The name Palestine is a derivative of Philistine, from the people that migrated to that region, which was originally known as Canaan. The Kingdom of Israel was established in this area after the Jews conquered the other inhabitants of the region, including the Canaanites and the Philistines. The unified Kingdom of Israel fractured in approximately 927 BCE. At this point, it divided into a northern and southern kingdom. The northern kingdom, Israel, was captured in 722 BCE by the Assyrians and the southern kingdom, Judah, in 586 by the Babylonians. During these periods, most of the Jewish population was forced to migrate out of the area. After the Babylonians fell to the Persian Achaemenids in 539 BCE, many of the exiled Jews from Babylon were allowed to return to the region. They were permitted to rebuild their temple, marking the start of the Second Temple period in Jewish history. There was a relative peace during this time in Palestine, until 140 BCE, when a Seleucid ruler rededicated the Temple to Zeus, triggering the Revolt of the Maccabbees, which was followed by nearly another 100 years of Jewish control over the region, until the Roman conquest in 63 BCE.

Palestine became a part of the Roman Empire, though it was granted autonomous status. During the period of Roman control, there was some degree of Jewish resistance, which came to an initial climax in 70 CE, when Roman forces razed the temple in Jerusalem. A second resistance culminated during the Bar Kokhba revolts of 132 to 135 CE, which resulted in the revocation of Jewish autonomy in the region, which then became an official Roman colony known as Syria Palestina. Though the restrictions were reduced shortly thereafter and the Jews were granted increased self-government following the revolt, they were still banned from Jerusalem. As Rome became Christianized, Palestine, as the home of Jesus, became a prominent holy site to the Christian population, and under Byzantine rule, the remaining Jews in the region were subjected to further restrictions. There was a short intermission in Byzantine rule in 617 CE when the Sassanids captured Jerusalem, but the Byzantine emperor Heraclius restored imperial control of the city.

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