The Ottoman Turks (AD 1516 - 1917)

The Ottoman Turks (AD 1516 - 1917)

History of Palestine

To win over the Arabs, the conquering Turks declared themselves champions of Islam; and to prove their point Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520 - 1566) built a new wall for Jerusalem. The Khasseki Sultan, the favourite wife of Suleiman, built a complex in Jerusalem to feed and shelter the poor and the distressed. The complex included a monastry and an inn with a public kitchen, Bakery, stables and store rooms. During the British Mandate khasseki Sultan's public kitchen and bakery were still functioning.

Palestine, however, continued slumbering, as Constantinople's un declared policy was to keep its subjects illiterate. As Europe advanced through its schools and universities, Palestine and the rest of the Arab countries stagnated in illiteracy. During the seventeenth century, the Ottomans went into defensive to protect their large empire, which stretched from Hungary to Egypt. They conscripted large numbers of Palestinian peasants into the Turkish army, and the fertile plains of Palestine once again began to erode.

To block Britain's trade route with India and the far East, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt, then Palestine, in February 1799, after besieging Jaffa, the French army savagely massacred the local population. When a pernicious plague began devastating the French army, the French interpreted this as a Divine retribution for the sins which they had committed in the Holy Land. A demoralized French army moved northwards to capture Acre but its ruler, Ahmed Al-Jazzar, held off Napoleon despite a steady, concerted French bombardment. Acre was finally relieved when thirty Ottoman ships landed 10,000 Anglo-Turkish troops. Napoleon ordered the burning of he harvest in the surrounding area and, for the first time, was forced to retreat. He made his way back, from where he sailed for France.

The long Dark Age which had gripped Palestine finally began to lift when Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt invaded Palestine in November 1831. Ibrahim Pasha was the son of Mohammed Ali, Egypt's colorful ruler who defied Turkey as the new power of the Middle East. Ibrahim Pasha opened a string of Arabic schools in Palestine, and he even encouraged the European missionaries to open schools to educate the Palestinian Christians. Ibrahim's ten-year rule of Palestine (1831 - 1840) was sufficient to spark off the long-awaited renaissance for the Holy Land. Great Britain, However, finally sided with Turkey against Egypt, and Ibrahim Pasha was forced to retreat back home. The Turks reoccupied Palestine and immediately closed down Ibrahim's schools, but out of fear of reaction from the West, they kept clear of the missionary schools.

After 1840, European interests in Palestine steadily increased. Consulates and vice-consulates of the greater powers were established in Jerusalem and in some of the Palestinian seaports. Rivalry between the Latins, championed by Tzarist Russia, reached preposterous levels when they entered into a bitter feud over who had the right to mark with a star the birthplace of Christ in the Church of Nativity at Bethlehem. The feud sparked off much international tension, and it became one of the prime causes of the Crimean War.

In 1898, Kaiser Wihelm II of Germany paid a visit to Palestine, signalling to the European powers Germany's interests in the Arab East. When World War I broke out, Turkey sided with Germany against Great Britain. Great Britain, which had earlier occupied Egypt, now braced itself for Turkish attacks on the strategic Suez Canal.