Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 15.djvu/295

PALESTINE. Syria and captured Jerusalem in B.C. G3. He deprived the Jews of the greater part of their territory except Judea proper and transferred . the remainder to' the government of the new- Roman province of Syria, of which it renmined a part from B.C. 03 to A.u. G7. During most oftiiis time Judea and other districts were under the control of Herod the Great and his successors. (See Herod.) The greater part of the country was included in the four dis- tricts, Judea, Samaria, Galilee, and Pcrea, east of the .Jordan, south of the Jabbok. The territory north of the .laljbok was broken up into miiior divisions, Gaulanitis, Auranitis, Tra- ehonitis, Uatana-a, etc., under petty tetrarchs or governors. At the breaking out of the Jewish War (A.D. OO-GT) Palestine was made a separate province under charge of Vespasian. The great struggle against Rome was closed by the capture and ruin of Jerusalem in a.d. 70 and the destruc- tion of the Jewish State. New cities now si)rang up under Roman protection, and apart from Je- rusalem the country was prosperous. In 132- 13.5 occurred the rising of the Jews under Bar- Coehba. This rebellion was crushed out with fearful bloodshed and devastation, and the Em- peror Hadrian in rebuilding Jerusalem changed its name to -Elia Capitolina, and absolutely for- bade any Jew to dwell in it. Never since has Jerusalem been a Jewish city, or Palestine a Jewish land. Greeks, Romans, Arabians, and large elements of the fundamental Aramean (Syrian) stock with the remnant of the Jews made up its population then, and of these the Aral)ian and Syrian are dominant to-day.

Palestine remained an integral part of the Roman Emjiire, and afterwards of the ISyzantine lOmpire until the invasion of the Persian King Khosru II. in 014. Up to the era of Constantine the condition -was especially flourishing. Re- mains of buildings and cities in now absolutely deserted places are a wonderful testimony to the great prosperity. After Constantine and the division of the Empire Greek ("hrislianity became dominant and Palestine became a Chris- tian land. It was now the ha1)it to s])eak of it as divided into I'alcstiiia Prima (.Judea and iSamaria), t^ccuiidn (Galilee), and Tertia or iSalutaris ( Iduniea and Moab). Each of these districts was divided ecclesiastically into vari- ous bishoprics. See also the article Jews for Palestine during the Roman period.

The Persian control was transient, but that of ^Mohammedanism, licgiiining in 03."), proved to lie permanent. Since then, apart from the er.i of the Crusades, the history of Palestine contains little of general importance. Partly under the inlUiencc of Islam, but inueli more from other general causes, the culture of the Gra>co-Roman period passed away, the beautiful cities, temples, and churches fell into decay and ruin, and no new developments took their place. The era of degeneration had set in. The Latin Kingdom of .Jerusalem (sec .Jerusalem) founded by the Crusaders in 1009, and overthrown liy Saladin in 11S7. was only an episode of no ])ermanent value, though the Crusaders left their im])rint in church- es, monasteries, etc., all over the land. After the conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1.516 the condition of Palestine became only worse. In the nineteenth century, however, mainly as a result of the labors of the mission- ary societies, the beginning of new activity and a better era began to manifest themselves. The large influ.K of Jews from Europe under the Zionist movement, and above all the opening of the country to railway enterprise, promise a better future.

Jlodern Palestine is broken up into a number of administrative districts. The Mutesarrif of the Sanjak (province) of Jerusalem governs the southern part west of Jordan. The remainder of Western Palestine with the Pelka is a part of tlic Vilayet of Beirut. East of the Jordan, all north of the Jabbok belongs to the Sanjak of Hauran. The population of the Sanjak of Jerusalem is about 320,000; that of the remainder of the coun- try is variously estimated, but exact iigurcs cannot be obtained. The total is probably near 050,000. It has increased more rapidly in later years. Under a good government and with more "thorough cultivation, several times this number could be easily supported.

BiiiLiOGKAPiiT. The literature on Palestine is enormous and wil^ be found fully registered down to 1878 in Rohrichfs BMiothccu (Icograph- ka I'ulcslina; (Berlin, 1890). Outside of the Bible and Josephus the older works of impor- tance are few. The Onoinasticon of Eusebius (Latin trans, by Jerome) and the various ac- counts of pilgrimages from Jerome to the Cru- saders are valuable as contemporary witnesses, but not reliable fiu' identification of ancient sites or for ancient history. The great works of Reland, Putcsthia (Utrecht, 1714), and Ritter, Erillciindr, vols, xiv.-.xvii. (Berlin, 1848-54), are still of great value, especially for the notices hy early writ- ers. The results of modern exploration are given in Robinson, Biblical I'csearchcs (Boston, 1841 and 1850); id.. Physical Geography (Boston, 1805); the various works of Titus Tobler, from 1849 to 1808; Guerin, Description dc la Palesiine (7 vols., Paris, 1808-89); the Quarterly State- ments of the Palestine Exploration Fund (Lon- don, 1809 et seq.); the seven quarto volumes of the Survey of Palestine, published by the Fund; and in the publications of the (ierman Paliislina- ]'errin (Leipzig, 1878 et seq.). To these, as of special value, may be added: The I/ihrary of the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society ( 13 vols., Pales- tine Exploration Fund); Schumacher, The Jaulan. Across the Jordan, and Ajlun (London, 1888,1889, and 1890): Hull, The Surrey of West- ern Palestine (ib,, 188G); Le Strange, Pales- tine Under the Moslems (ib., 1890); Tris- tram, The Fauna and Flora of Palestine (ib,, 1S84); and other works published by the Palestine Exploration Fund. Comprehensive general treatises on Palestine are the guiile books of Baedeker and Murray; G. A. Smith, The His- torical Geography of the Holy hand (London, 1897); and Buhl, Geographic Palestina (Leipzig, 1890), most excellent. For the most ancient jieriod, consult Paton, Early History of Syria and Palestine (New York, 1901), where a full bibliog- raphy will be found. The standard histories of Israel and the areha?ologies of Benzinger ami Nowack (both 1804) are valuable for the Old Testament period. For the era from B.C. 175 to A.D. 135. Schiirer, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesns Christ (Eng. trans., Edin- burgh, 1880-90), is the most relialile work. An excellent map is that of Smith and Bartholomew (Edinburgh, 1902); the maps of Kiepert and of the Palestine Exploration Fund are also to be recommended.