-Part One-

From the Dawn of History to the Arab Conquest

In the Stone Age—that is, some three thousand five hundred years before Christ—these lands were inhabited by non-Semitic peoples, as attested by the antiquities discovered recently in several places in Syria, Palestine, and elsewhere, and especially in the village of Gezer (which is the village of Abu Shusha near al-Ramla). A thousand years after that date—that is, around two thousand five hundred BC—a mighty torrent poured over these lands from the inhabitants of Iraq and central Arabia, and they settled in them, populated them, and built cities in them. The dwellings of the Semites ran from north to south in the following order:

The Arameans (who are the Syriacs and the Chaldeans), then the Phoenicians, then the Hebrews, then the Nabataeans. Diverse peoples mingled with them, both Semitic and non-Semitic, dwelling in their midst in various regions of the land, such as the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Edomites, and others—this apart from the remnants of the indigenous peoples, whose account would be too long to relate.

The geographic position of these lands, however, made them prey to the ambitions of the conquerors among the ancient nations, such as the Hittites, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Persians, and others. They would take turns conquering or overrunning it, and their peoples would stream into it, and often those peoples would blend with the original inhabitants. The Hittites, who had a kingdom established in northern Syria and Asia Minor, sent a tribe of theirs to attack Palestine around the seventeenth century (BC); it settled between Jerusalem and Hebron, and they often extended northward to near Nablus.

The Egyptians dominated Palestine and some parts of Syria in the late sixteenth century before Christ, and their rule lasted about three centuries (apart from two long intervals that fell within those three centuries). It appears that they were not inclined to remain in these lands, given the difference[?] of their climate from the Nile Valley. Rather, their occupation of it arose from their fear[?] of another invasion coming to them by way of Syria and Palestine, like the invasion of the Hyksos that had overrun their country. And to ward off what might take it by surprise[?] of invasions except. For this reason we find that they made no attempt to spread their civilization and letters in these lands, and in their official writings they used the Babylonian language. Then a torrent of invaders poured over Palestine from the desert, most of them Arameans and Arabs, around the year 1360 BC, and they mingled with the original inhabitants; their strength grew through them, and with their help they were able to free themselves from the yoke of the Egyptians. The Assyrian state occupied a part of Palestine, and likewise the Babylonian state occupied another part. Yet both occupations were nothing more than raids of the sort that some tribes still carry out to this day in certain regions. Palestine's share of those two invasions was nothing but killing, wrecking, destruction, and captivity. Palestine came into the possession of the Persians in the time of Cyrus the Great, who founded his kingdom upon the ruins of the two kingdoms of Babylon and Assyria in the year 529 BC. But despite this occupation, which lasted a full two centuries, the Persians left no antiquities worth mentioning in these lands.

Yet another occupation followed that of the Persians, namely the occupation of the Greeks under the leadership of their king Alexander the Great the Macedonian, known among the Arabs as Dhu al-Qarnayn (the Two-Horned One), who left important traces in every corner of Syria, Palestine, Transjordan, and other lands. Excavations still reveal to us of these, from time to time, things that astonish the mind. This great commander conquered these lands in the early part of the second quarter of the fourth century before Christ and penetrated deep into them. His first concern was to spread the Greek spirit and Greek letters and sciences within them. When he died, his commanders divided his kingdom among themselves and exerted all their efforts to render the lands they had seized Greek in every sense of the word. To this end they threw open the door of immigration to their own people, and many of them came to these lands, settled in them, and mingled with their inhabitants. Their influx into it grew especially after the appearance of Christianity, as we shall see. And although these lands came, two hundred and sixty-nine years (269) after this occupation, into the possession of the Romans, the Roman language—despite its grandeur and the grandeur of the state that upheld it—could not take the place of the Greek language that Alexander's successors, the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, had spread and made common, nor could it rival it as an equal. Rather, the Greek language kept the foremost rank, especially among the elite of the population, and its standing at that time resembled that of French and English in the present day.

After the death of Alexander, Syria submitted to the Seleucid state, and Palestine submitted to the Ptolemies, the rulers of Egypt, so that Syria was thereby separated from Palestine for a century and a quarter, until Antiochus IV, king of Syria, arose in the year 198 BC and annexed Palestine to Syria after bloody battles. The period during which Palestine had submitted to the Ptolemies was a period of calm and peace; but after it came into the possession of the Seleucids, its people suffered terrors.

We said that the period of Greek rule in Syria and Palestine, from the time Alexander entered it until it came into the possession of the Romans, amounted to (269) years. Whoever reviews the history of these lands in those ages will be utterly astonished at how the Greeks were able, in the course of this period, to spread their sciences, arts, and letters with such speed, to blend with the original inhabitants of the land, and to make most of the land Greek—building edifices in it and populating cities—even though this period did not pass in calm and peace. Rather, the wars between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies were continuous, and revolts and disturbances succeeded one another. The Seleucids in particular were debased in letters and morals; add to this that they were cruel and unjust, as appears from their treatment of the Jews and from what caused the Jews to revolt against them after they had lived a century and a quarter under the rule of the Ptolemies in peace and security. But this astonishment vanishes when the reader delves further into the study of the character of Alexander and his commanders, and becomes certain that the greatest motive that drove that great commander to open up countries and plunge into the battles of war was the mingling of East and West—the very idea Napoleon aimed at—and the unification of the human family. In other words, to render all the people of the lands they conquered Greek by whatever means. He pursued many paths to realize his aspirations, the most important of which was the matter of marriage: he himself married the daughter of Darius, king of the Persians, and he encouraged his commanders and compelled his men to marry Eastern women. He threw wide open the door of immigration for the Greeks, so that a mighty torrent poured over Syria, Palestine, and Transjordan from the land of Greece, the islands of the Mediterranean, and other Greek lands. His commanders and successors followed his pattern, making the Greek spirit universal by spreading their poetry, philosophy, customs, dress, theaters, arts, games, letters, and language. Thus Alexander and his successors transformed the cities of Palestine, Syria, and Transjordan into centers of Greek learning and Greek civilization, and they built various cities. A great number of Greek colonists resided in Gaza, Ashdod, Ascalon, Jaffa, and Acre, which was called (Ptolemais). Many of Alexander's retired soldiers settled in Hippos, Gadara, Pella, Jerash, and ancient Rabbath[?] Ammon, which they named (Philadelphia). We may say that the spread of the Greek language in the land, along with its letters, sciences, and civilization, was accompanied by a measure of cruelty, coercion, and terror, especially on the part of the Seleucids—judging by their treatment of the Jews and their slaughtering of them without mercy or pity.

Yet despite all the means employed to obliterate the letters, customs, morals, and language of the original inhabitants of the land, and despite this intermingling, we observe that these inhabitants remained clinging to their letters and language. The Jews in particular preserved everything—apart from the change that befell their language during the Babylonian captivity, when it mingled with Syriac and Chaldean and came to be known as the Aramaic or Chaldean language, and in which the Talmud was written. Many of them became skilled in the Greek language, and seventy-two elders among them took part in translating the Holy Scripture into the Greek language in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus in Alexandria; among them was Simeon the Elder, as tradition relates to us. As for those of the Semitic peoples who remained, and the Arameans in particular, they embraced Christianity when Christianity entered, and they held apart with their own letters, morals, and customs. Most of them resided in Iraq, Mesopotamia, and upper Syria down to Palestine.

If we cast a general glance over Syria, Palestine, and Transjordan in those ages, we find that along the western frontier of Syria, on the shores of the Roman (Mediterranean) Sea, the Greek element predominated; along its eastern frontier bordering the desert, the Arab element predominated; while in the central parts of the land, the Aramaic element predominated, as the leading scholars among Arab and European historians confirm. To this day three villages near Damascus still have inhabitants who speak the Aramaic language: Maaloula, Ain al-Tina, and Jubb Adin (Jubb al-Ain)—even though their names are Arabic.

From the beginning of the fourth century before Christ there was an Arab nation known as the Nabataeans, or the Nabat. Their abode was in the southeast of Palestine, upon the ruins of the Edomites; this was the kingdom of Petra. They mingled with the people of Syria and Palestine for successive generations, and the inscriptions and antiquities that some Orientalists found in many of the cities that lay within the borders of this kingdom—such as Petra (Wadi Musa), Bosra, Azraa (Azraat), Amman, Jerash, al-Karak, al-Shawbak, Aila (Aqaba), and Madain Salih—bear witness to this. This kingdom at one time encompassed most of northern Arabia, and included within it Moab, al-Balqa, Hawran, the Sinai Peninsula, the land of Midian, and the upper Hijaz. Inscriptions in their language have been found at Dumayr on the outskirts of Damascus, indicating the breadth of their commercial relations. History records that this state was fairly well organized, having kings, ministers, and its own coinage. Alexander's successors tried to seize this kingdom but did not succeed. When the land came into the possession of the Romans in the year 64 BC, they declared war upon them in the days of Augustus Caesar, but they were driven back disappointed. Many of them embraced Christianity in the first spread of the Christian religion, but the Romans returned and overcame this kingdom and occupied it in the year 106 AD, so that they were scattered and their civilization destroyed; they merged into the rest of the people of the land and spread along the frontiers of Syria and Palestine bordering the desert, between Sinai and the Euphrates. (See The History of the Arabs before Islam by Zaydan, page 76; The Arab States and Their Letters by Anis al-Khuri al-Maqdisi, page 25; and The Origin of the Orthodox in Syria and Palestine by Pavlos Karolides the Greek, page 135.)

This Arab kingdom had barely faded away before another Arab kingdom flourished in its place: the famous kingdom of Palmyra (Tadmur). The city of Palmyra is of ancient date; they claim that its builder was King Solomon, though this claim is rejected by many historians for reasons this place is too narrow to relate. In any case, it is a very ancient city, but it did not flourish, advance, and expand its borders until after the fall of Petra, when it became the caravan route between India and the land of Persia to Phoenicia. Many of its people embraced Christianity. This kingdom gradually fell into decline after the breaking of Zenobia's power in her war with the Romans, as is well known in history, until the state of Islam arose and conquered it.

Continued in the Next Issue