Late Ottoman Period - Palestine

The monograph From Ambivalence to Hostility focuses on writings on Zionism published in the Arabic newspaper Filasṭīn (ʻPalestineʼ) in the pre-WWI period (1911–1914). It covers a broad range of subjects treated by the periodical including Jewish land purchases in and immigration to Palestine, violent incidents between the Jewish and the Arab communities, Zionist boycott and Zionist Congresses. The second chapter of the book offers a detailed analysis of the gradual yet profound transformation of Filasṭīnʼs editorial policy vis-à-vis Zionism before World War I.

Educating Palestine, through the story of education and the teaching of history in Mandate Palestine, reframes our understanding of the Palestinian and Zionist national movements. It argues that Palestinian and Hebrew pedagogy could only be truly understood through an analysis of the conscious or unconscious dialogue between them. The conflict over Palestine, the study shows, shaped the way Arabs and Zionists thought, taught, and wrote about their past. British rule over Palestine promised the Jews a national home, but had no viable policy towards the Palestinians and established an education system that lacked a sustainable collective ethos. Nevertheless, Palestinian educators were able to produce a national pedagogy that knew how to work with the British and simultaneously promoted an ideology of progress and independence that challenged colonial rule.

Russian commemoration book (pomyannik), dated to the early 20th c. discovered in Aceldama, Jerusalem, during the excavations of disturbed burials near the Greek Monastery of St. Onuphrius the Great. The original archaeological context of the find, a Medieval charnel-house, is discussed, together with possible identification of the book owner, a woman pilgrim from Russia.

Yusuf al-‘Isa was an early pioneer of modern
journalism in Palestine which began to flourish
during the second Ottoman constitutional
period. During the years 1911–14 he worked
as the editor-in-chief of the Arabic newspaper
Filastin (Palestine). The texts written by him
reflect his broad cultural horizon, progressive
modernist thinking, open-mindedness, and
aversion to dogmatism. These writings also
manifest his commitment to secularism,
Ottoman and Palestinian patriotism, and
religious tolerance, as well as a respect for
and inclusive approach to other religious
and ethnic communities within the Ottoman
Empire.

http://reichert-verlag.de/autor/r/ritter_markus/9783895006791_der_umayyadische_palast_des_8_jahrhunderts_in_hirbat_al_minya_am_see_von_tiberias-detail

The book provides an archaeological and art historical study of the architecture and the architectural decoration of the remarkable palatial residence in Khirbat al-Minya at Lake Tiberias in northern Palestine, modern Israel. It constitutes the first monograph publication of finds from German excavations at the site in 1932–39 and their archaeological record, and it contributes to the discussion on Umayyad art and its relation to Early Byzantine and Late Antique art in the Bilad ash-Sham.

The paper aims to offer a wide and dynamic overview of the development of the Melkite Catholic Church during the late Ottoman Empire up to extension of the Mandate system. The analysis will focus on detailing the relationship between ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ through specific cases and examples of the relations between the Melkite Church and the Holy See. This dynamic exerted a great influence on the ecclesial identity of the Melkite Catholic Church and its position and role within both the late Ottoman Empire and the Middle East of the Mandate system, offering a complementary explanation of the vicissitudes experienced by Ottoman Arab Christians during those decades. The paper analyses this issue through the archival documents, part of the Siria, Greci Melchiti and Melkiti series, preserved in the Congregations de propaganda fide and pro Ecclesia Orientali Archives.

The Beilis affair is one of many examples showing the dangerous consequences of fanaticism coupled with hatred and ignorance in conjunction with political interests and manipulation by the media. It also shows how fragile and insecure the position of minorities can become, especially at times of radical social, economic, and political
changes like those taking place in Russia after the 1905 Revolution. On the other hand, the coverage of the trial and its context by Filastin is also a demonstration of the strong character of its editors and especially its editor-in-chief. Despite his openly anti-Zionist stance, Yusuf al-‘Isa unfalteringly defended Judaism, the Jewish community, and Beilis
as an individual against the accusation of blood libel and unequivocally condemned what he called “the disgrace of the twentieth century.”

Rich in historical details and artistic illustrations of the Near East and the Holy Land, the selected accounts of journeys and pilgrimages written by European and American Christians (Catholic and Protestant) provide numerous and broad sets of views, landscapes, sketches and scenarios. This article analyses them in order to define and point out the structure and the ratio of organizing and cataloguing these “epic” stories, and their relationship and connection with the socio-political dimension of the time. In particular, this article analyses the concept and the image produced by Christian missionaries and travelers of various affiliations, thus identifying similarities and differences between their visions of the Holy Land and pointing out to what extent they contributed to the creation of an univocal “Christian” image of the Holy Land during the 19th century and/or there were perceptible and significant divergences.

This article explores the evolution of attitudes
toward Zionism expressed by the editors of
the Jaffa-based newspaper Filastin in the
first years of its publication, 1911–1914.
During this short time span, the opinions
published by the editors showed a profound
metamorphosis. At the beginning, their stance
could be described as cautious neutrality
with a guardedly favorable perception of
Zionist colonization. However, in the months
leading to World War I, Filastin had become
an unequivocally anti-Zionist newspaper
that warned its readers about the political
ambitions of the Zionists and the looming
threat of losing Palestine to them.

The relatively short period at the turn
of the year 1910–1911 was of profound
importance for the development of political
opposition to Zionism in Palestine and its
neighboring Arab regions. During a period
of about a year, several important events
and incidents occurred; a number of Arab
journalists, notables, and officers became
involved in anti-Zionist activities and
campaigns; and the quantity of articles
critical of Zionism published in the Arabic
press markedly increased. Based on these
and other reasons, we are convinced that
the months at the end of 1910 and the first
half of 1911 represent the turning point in
the attitudes of the educated Arab public
toward Jewish land purchases in Palestine,
Jewish immigration, and the Zionist
movement.

Translating Late Ottoman Modernity in Palestine is the most comprehensive scholarly book on the late-Ottoman newspaper Filasṭīn. This book demonstrates the potential of newspapers to fill the gaps regarding our knowledge of crucial issues of late Ottoman Palestine, including Zionism, the tensions within the Greek Orthodox community and ethno-religious relations in the mutaṣarrifīya. Its scholarship is innovative and it contains informed and sophisticated analyses of various aspects of ethno-religious coexistence in a crucial period of Palestine’s history. It is highly recommended reading for scholars interested in the history of Palestine and the Arabic press and offers many relevant insights.

The article presents the current understanding of the antiquities collections assembled by archimandrite Antonin Kapustin during his years as a head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, in the decades 70–80-s of the 19th century. The collection, typical for the 19th century Holy Land assemblages, contained numerous epigraphic and numismatic finds and various archaeological objects, mainly dated to the Roman and Byzantine periods. Certain parts of the collection are exhibited today in Russian and Israel state museums. The pearls of the Russian collection were long ago identified and published; other disappeared or remain unavailable for contemporary research. However, photos and archival documentation of the finds may help to reconstruct the outline of the collection and to create a sort of its “virtual catalog”. Centenarian enhancement of archaeological research of the Holy Land facilitates the contemporary attribution of the finds, their merging into historical and cultural context, and discerning the forgeries. It seems that in its contemporary state of preservation, the collection does not represent considerable scientific value. Nevertheless, its finds may serve future exhibitions, and the future study of the collection could be used as an educational basis for a new generation of Russian scholars, willing to take a part in its research.

in Hebrew
in: Research on the Magreb, Festscrift in Honor of Rabbi Prof. Moshe Amar, edited by Moshe Bar-Asher, Elimelch Weistreich and Shimon Sharvit, Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University, 2018, pp. 286-307   
", בתוך: מ' בר-אשר, א' וסטרייך וש' שרביט (עורכים), מחקרי המגבר, ספר לכבוד הרב פרופ' משה עמאר, רמת גן וירושלים, אוניברסטית בר-אילן ומוסד ביאליק,תשע"ח/2018, עמ' 307-286.

This article explores the relations between European Zionists, Sephardim, and Oriental Jews in late Ottoman Palestine by narrating the story of A. Yehudai, a Bulgarian Jewish teacher in the Sephardi community of Gaza in 1913. Reading through Yehudai’s ambitions, deliberations, and frustrations, the article makes two main arguments: First, it challenges the inclusivity often attributed in scholarly literature to the category of “Sephardi,” suggesting that as a practical category used by historical figures, especially in the context of national discourses, it was regarded as much more bounded and rigid. Second, the article points to the period before European Zionist domination over Middle Eastern Jews. Through the case of late Ottoman Gaza, the article shows that Jewish communities in Palestine were essential for institutional Zionist bodies, were aware of their situation, and even used this power structure for their own gain. Taken together, both arguments testify to the fact that communal demarcations are essential for human society in the sense that the crossing of boundaries always entails the delineation of new ones.

In recent years the study of national and civic identities in the later Ottoman period has revealed huge degrees of complexity among previously homogenised groups, none more so that the Jewish population of the Sublime State. Those Jews who moved to the Ottoman Empire from the 1880s as part of a burgeoning expression of Jewish nationalism developed a complex relationship with an Ottomanist identity that requires further consideration. Through an examination of the Hebrew-language press in Palestine, run largely by immigrant Zionist Jews, complemented by the archival records of the Ottoman state and parliament, this paper aims to show the complexities of the engagement between Ottoman and Jewish national identities. The development of Jewish nationalism by largely foreign Jews came with an increase in suspicion from the Ottoman elites, sometimes manifesting itself in outright anti-Semitism, and strong expressions of nationalism in the Hebrew press were denounced both by Ottoman and non- and anti-nationalist Jewish populations. The controversy over immigrant Jewish land purchases in Palestine from the 1890s led to a number of discussions over how far foreign Jews could and should embrace an Ottoman cultural and political identity, with cultural, labour, and political Zionists taking different positions. The issue of Ottomanisation should also be taken in the context of the post-1908 political landscape in the Ottoman Empire, with separatist nationalisms increasingly under the spotlight, and the debates among the different forms of Jewish nationalism increasingly focusing on the limits of performative and civic Ottoman nationalism.

The first century inscription on relocation of the bones of the Judean King Uzziah was found by E.L. Sukenik in the Russian collection of antiquities in Jerusalem, in 1931. Recent archival finds help to establish the provenance of the tablet and to shed light on the circumstances of its discovery in 1887.

This article explores the endeavour to purchase a large tract called "the lands of as-Sirr" (Arab. aradi as-Sirr) by two prominent Gazans al-Hajj Sa´id Effendi ash-Shaww and Ahmad ´Arif Effendi al-Husayni. These lands were located in the recently established sub-district of Beersheba (Arab. Biʼr as-Sab´). The ´Azazima and Tarabin tribes attempted unsuccessfully to regain the ownership of the lands after these had been previously temporarily seized by the government. Their return to them was conditioned upon reaching an agreement between the tribes on the division of the lands. In the summer of 1914 the sons of the two above-mentioned Gazan notables offered the Bedouins to arrange with the authorities the return of the lands into their possession in exchange for their subsequent sale for a heavily discounted price. It was rumoured at the time that they intended to sell these lands to the Zionists. In the contemporary Palestinian Arabic press (the newspapers Filastin from Jaffa and al-Karmal 2 from Haifa) this matter was extensively discussed and the notables were criticized for their lack of patriotism and for acting as middlemen for the Zionists. Furthermore, the editor-in-chief of Filastin, Yusuf al-´Isa, scolded the notables for taking advantage of the vulnerability of the poverty-stricken Bedouins.

in Hebrew
in: Haim Saadoun (ed.), Algeria (series: Jewish Communities in the East in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries), Jerusalem:  Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East of Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi & the Ministry of Education, p. 194

בתוך: חיים סעדון (עורך), אלג'ריה (סדרה: קהילות ישראל במזרח במאות התשע-עשרה והעשרים), ירושלים, מכון בן-צבי ומשרד החינוך, תשע"א, עמ' 194.

Les réformes ottomanes du xix e avaient pour objet la modernisation de l'État dans un contexte de constitution des empires coloniaux par les puissances en voie d'industrialisation et d'émergence de mouvements nationaux. C'est le temps de la formation d'un nouvel ordre mondial au lendemain de la victoire sur la Russie lors de la guerre de Crimée (1855) mis en évidence par le Traité de Paris. Nous proposons une lecture articu-lée de ces deux événements, l'affirmation par les puissances du respect de la souveraineté de l'Empire étant la contrepartie de la promulgation du rescrit impérial de 1856. Cette lecture s'appuie sur la correspondance des consuls de France à Jérusalem. L'objectif ouvertement affiché en est la recherche de l'élargissement de l'influence française ¢ en rivalité avec les autres puissances ¢ par le biais de la protection des lieux saints tout en oeuvrant en vue d'une éventuelle tutelle sur le pouvoir provincial et local. Les diverses facettes de ces enjeux se révèlent dans un foisonnement de courriers consulaires à propos d'un fait divers appelé à l'époque « les événements de Naplouse » (printemps 1856). Mots-clés : Empire ottoman, Palestine, consuls de France, rescrit impé-rial de 1856. Abstract The 19 th century reforms were implemented in order to modernize the Ottoman State. This is done against a global context in which the powers already engaged in the process of industrialization enlarge their colonial empires and in which national movements emerge. In this new era, marked by the aftermath of the victory over Russia during the Crimean War (1855) sealed with the Treaty of Paris, a new world order is installed.We propose a reading reflecting two elements: the powers' assertion to respect the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire being the counterpart of the promulgation of the imperial rescript of 1856 (Hatti Humayun). This reading leans on the correspondence of the French consuls in Jerusalem.Their openly shown mission is the search for the extension of French influence ¢ in

Táto štúdia sa venuje analýze transformácie
postojov arabských novín Filastín voči
sionizmu pred prvou svetovou vojnou, ktorej
až doteraz bádatelia nevenovali dostatočnú
pozornosť. Noviny Filastín, vydávané
od roku 1911 v prístavnom meste Jaffa,
boli najvýznamnejším periodikom v Jeruzalemskej mutasarrifíji
v období pred prvou
svetovou vojnou a mali veľký vplyv na formovanie
názorov a postojov jej obyvateľov.

in Hebrew
This article analyzes a series of five nineteenth-century censuses carried out among the Jews of Eretz-Israel at the initiative of Sir Moses Montefiore. The terminology and methodology of the censuses are examined in depth in order to maximize their usage, not only for genealogical purposes, but particularly for historical research on sub-groups as North African Jews.
פעמים, רבעון לחקר קהילות ישראל במזרח, 107 (2006), עמ' 149-117.

The Holy Land has been an enduring magnet for visitors seeking to retrace the footsteps of biblical prophets, kings and saints and to glimpse the setting of events recorded in the Scriptures. This book offers a selection of over 350 early photographs, paintings, and drawings of the length and breadth of the Holy Land from the rich repository of images in the archives of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

This report is dedicated to a Greek funerary inscription of Ioanes the Armenian, dated to the Byzantine period that was discovered in Jerusalem in the last third of the 19th century and was later lost. The only documentation of the epitaph is a photography that survived in Russian collection and was never reproduced. The high quality of the photo allows to interpret the inscription and to determine the circumstances and place of its discovery.

in Hebrew
in:  Haim Sa'adon (ed.), Jerusalem Neighborhoods, the Contribution of Oriental Jews to the Development of the City, Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 1996, pp. 61-78

בתוך:  ח' סעדון (עורך), שכונות בירושלים, תרומתם של יהודי המזרח להתפתחות העיר, ירושלים, מכון בן-צבי לחקר קהילות ישראל במזרח, תשנ"ו, עמ' 61- 78.

in Hebrew
in:  Tova Cohen & Shaul Regev, Women in the East, Women from the East, The Story of the Oriental Jewish Woman, Ramat Gan, Bar Ilan University Press, 2005, pp. 193-205

בתוך:  ט' כהן וש' רגב (עורכים), אשה במזרח - אשה ממזרח, סיפורה של היהודייה בת המזרח, רמת גן, המרכז לחקר האשה ביהדות, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, תשס"ה, עמ' 205-193.

in: Marco Folin & Heleni Porfyriou (eds.), Controversial Heritage and Divided Memories from the Nineteenth Through the Twentieth Centuries,  volume 2: Multi-ethnic Cities in the Mediterranean World: History, Culture, Heritage, Routledge 2020, pp. 45-62

The Holy Land has been an enduring magnet for visitors seeking to retrace the footsteps of biblical prophets, kings and saints and to glimpse the setting of events recorded in the Scriptures. This book offers a selection of over 350 early photographs, paintings, and drawings of the length and breadth of the Holy Land from the rich repository of images in the archives of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

in Hebrew
in: Jewish Women in the Yishuv and in Zionism, A Gender Perspective, edited by Margalit Shilo, Ruth Kark & Galit Hazan-Rokam, Jerusalem: Yad Itzhak Ben-Zvi, 2001, pp. 63-83,

"בתוך:  מ' שילה, ר' קרק וג' חזן-רוקם (עורכות), העבריות החדשות, נשים ביישוב ובציונות בראי המגדר, ירושלים, יד יצחק בן-צבי, עמ' 63- 83.