Encyclopedia of Islam

Israel

  

379  J

---

there is no Palestinian representation from the 

occupied territories.

Israel’s population is estimated to be 7.1 mil-

lion, including nearly 383,000 Israelis living in 

West Bank settlements, East Jerusalem, and the 

Golan (2008 estimate). It is 76.4 percent Jewish, 

mostly native-born, and 23.6 percent non-Jewish, 

mostly Arab (2004). Judaism is the religion of the 

majority, 16 percent are Muslims, about 2 percent 

are Christians, and 1.6 percent are followers of the 

d

rUze

 religion (2004). Although many of Israel’s 

citizens are practicing members of their religious 

communities, many have secular worldviews. The 

combined population of the West Bank and Gaza 

is approximately 3.5 million (2004 estimate). 

Islam is the religion of most citizens of the Pales-

tinian Authority: 90.1 percent in the West Bank 

and 98.7 percent in Gaza (2007 estimate). Most 

are Sunni Muslims historically affiliated with 

the  h

anaFi

  l

egal

  s

chool

. The size of the Arab 

Christian population has been declining steadily 

since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. They make up 

less than 10 percent of the population in the 

West Bank and Gaza and belong to a number of 

different denominations, including Greek, Syrian 

and Armenian Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Roman 

Catholic, and Protestant.

The land where modern Israel is now located 

was the setting for many of the stories and events 

related in the Bible. It lies at a major crossroads 

for the peoples of the Mediterranean region, the 

Nile Valley, Arabia, and beyond. The ancient Isra-

elites were but one of several different groups that 

lived there. They established kingdoms during 

the first half of the first millennium 

b

.

c

.

e

. known 

as Samaria and Judah. The former, the Northern 

Kingdom, was destroyed by the Assyrian Empire in 

721 

b

.

c

.

e

. Judah (later Judea), the Southern King-

dom, was brought to an end by the Babylonian 

Empire in 586 

b

.

c

.

e

. The Babylonians took Judah’s 

rulers into exile in Mesopotamia and destroyed 

the temple in Jerusalem. It was after this time that 

many of the books of the Hebrew Bible (Old Tes-

tament) were compiled. The religion of Judaism 

is also said to have appeared in this period, when 

it replaced ancient Israelite religion. Cyrus II (r. 

539–530 

b

.

c

.

e

.), Achaemenid emperor of Persia, 

defeated the Babylonians and allowed the captive 

Jews to return home. He also gave them permis-

sion to rebuild the Second Temple in Jerusalem. In 

the following centuries, the region became either 

a province or client of several powerful empires, 

including those of a

leXander

 

the

 g

reat

 and his 

successors (333–67 

b

.

c

.

e

), Rome (67 

b

.

c

.

e

–330 

c

.

e

.), and Byzantium, the continuation of the 

Roman Empire in the East (330–640).

Byzantine control over the province of Pales-

tine came to an end when Arab Muslim armies 

defeated the Byzantines in a series of battles 

between 632 and 637. Taking greater Palestine 

and Syria, where there were several large Arab 

tribal confederations, had been one of m

Uham

-

mad

’s top priorities, but it was not until the reign 

of the caliph U

mar

 

ibn

 

al

-k

hattab

 (r. 634–644) 

that the Muslim conquest occurred. In 638, 

he went to Jerusalem personally to accept the 

peaceful surrender of the city. Historical sources 

indicate that the new Muslim rulers did not 

encounter serious opposition, for the local popu-

lace and the region’s economy prospered. Jews 

were able to move back to Jerusalem after having 

been previously banned and restricted to living 

in the Galilee by the Romans and Byzantines. 

Both the region’s Christian majority and the Jews 

were obliged to accept 

dhimmi

 (protected) status, 

which granted them legal rights under Muslim 

law as long as they paid taxes and did not revolt, 

slander the Islamic religion, or attempt to convert 

Muslims.

From the q

Uran

, Muslims knew Israel more 

as a people rather than a land or kingdom. Jacob 

was a biblical figure who was also known as 

Israel. He is mentioned once in the Quran by 

this name. His offspring, the children of Israel, 

are mentioned 42 times as recipients of the 

t

orah

 of Moses. Kings d

avid

 and Solomon are 

both mentioned, but more as prophets than as 

rulers of a holy land. Later Quran commentaries 

K  380  

Israel

---

and Muslim stories about the biblical prophets 

attempted to identify sacred events with spe-

cific locations in Palestine. Several verses in the 

Quran were interpreted as references to the holy 

land, or Syria. For example, according to one 

such statement, “We made the people (the chil-

dren of Israel) who were weak inherit the land 

where we placed our blessing east and west” (Q 

7:137, compare 5:21 and 21:71). By the 10th 

century, the sacredness of Palestine-Syria was 

discussed in detail by Muslim geographers such 

as al-Maqdisi (also known as al-Muqaddisi, d. 

ca. 990). Jerusalem was the focal point of this 

sacred land, for it was the first 

qibla

 (prayer 

direction) and the place where Muhammad went 

on his famous n

ight

 J

oUrney

 

and

 a

scent

. This 

sacredness achieved architectural expression in 

the  d

ome

 

oF

 

the

  r

ock

 and the a

qsa

  m

osqUe

,

located on the site of the ancient Israelite temple. 

Al-Maqdisi listed dozens of other associations 

between the Palestine (Filistin) and sacred his-

tory—how its topography memorialized a

bra

-

ham

, Isaac, m

oses

, David, Solomon, John the 

Baptist,  J

esUs

, and m

ary

. Gaza, he noted, was 

known for being the burial place of Muhammad’s 

great grandfather Hashim and the birth place of 

al-Shafii (767–820), the founder of the s

haFii

l

egal

 s

chool

. He also mentioned how Palestine 

would serve as the future site of the resurrection 

and final judgment. Such sites were visited by 

Muslim pilgrims, along with Christians, who had 

been making the Holy Land a pilgrim destination 

since the fourth century.

Palestine, as part of greater Syria, flourished 

under the Umayyad caliphs, who ruled from 

nearby d

amascUs

. Its fortunes declined somewhat 

when the U

mayyad

 c

aliphate

 came to an end in 

750 and power shifted eastward to i

raq

, where 

the  a

bbasid

  c

aliphate

 ruled. When Abbasid 

power weakened in the 10th century, this area 

of the empire became a battlefield for religious 

movements, regional powers, and tribal groups. 

Among the primary participants in these con-

flicts were the Byzantines, the F

atimid

 

dynasty

 in 

Egypt, and the Seljuk Turks, who swore allegiance 

to the Abbasids in Baghdad. The Fatimid caliph 

al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (r. 996–1021), known for 

his eccentricities, ordered the destruction of the 

Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in 

1009 and took various punitive measures against 

both Christians and Jews as well as officials who 

earned his displeasure and ordinary Muslims. 

News of the fate of the Church of the Holy Sep-

ulcher eventually reached Europe and became 

one of the causes for the launching of the First 

Crusade by Pope Urban II in 1095 to take back 

the Holy Land in the name of Christianity. The 

entire region from Egypt to Constantinople was 

the scene of crusader wars for nearly 200 years. 

The armies from Europe took Jerusalem in 1099 

after massacring Muslims and Jews living in the 

city. It remained under crusader control until 

1187, when the warrior prince s

aladin

 (d. 1193) 

established Muslim rule once again. During the 

13th century and again in the early 15th century, 

Palestine was threatened by Mongol invasions 

from the east, but Muslim armies were able to 

repel them. Palestine stayed in the hands of Mus-

lim rulers throughout the reigns of the Mamluk 

sultans of Egypt and Syria (1250–1517) and of 

the o

ttoman

 

dynasty

 (1517–1917).

During the Ottoman period, Palestine was 

governed from Damascus, except for a brief period 

in the 1830s when it was controlled by Egypt. It 

returned to Ottoman control in 1840, then, dur-

ing an era of far-reaching Ottoman political and 

economic reforms in the 1880s, it was divided 

administratively into three districts: Nablus, Acre, 

and Jerusalem. Britain, France, Austria, and Rus-

sia competed against each other for influence in 

the region, and Europeans began to go there not 

just as pilgrims but as settlers, too. s

ephardic

 J

eWs

(also known today as Mizrahim “Easterners”) had 

lived in Palestine continuously for centuries, but 

during the latter part of the 19th century, new 

Jewish immigrants went from Europe to settle 

there. Most of these were Ashkenazi (European) 

Jews who belonged to an international movement