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The olive tree is not just the modern symbol of the Palestinians and their deep roots in the soil of their land, it was always central to their history and economy.
Along with cotton, which the Palestinians exported to Marseilles, olive oil and olive soap were major export industries in the early Ottoman period, a reflection of the astonishing number amount of olive trees growing between Jerusalem and Nablus.
The trees were divided into rumani- the big, old spreading ones that dated back to Byzantine times and so were most fruiful- and the more youthful islami ones, those planted under Muslim rule, so younger and therefore less productive and taxed at a lower rate.
Camels carried the oil into town, each one carrying a load of four vessels, while soap was carried out. The Ottomans taxed camels moving in both directions.
There were at least twelve olive oil soap factories operating in Jerusalem under the Mamluks.
Under early Ottoman rule, the Jerusalem economy greatly enlarged, well-organised guilds were set up and yet more soap factories were built.
The Janisseries in the Citadel and the 'ulama of the al-Aqsa were both heavily invested in the trade.
By the 18thC, the making of olive oil soap had partly migrated to Nablus, which along with Acre became the richest city in the region, largely on the proceeds.
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Manger Square 120 years ago. Photo taken from the church with the Masjid Umar in the background. A 120 years ago, Palestinians could travel without being shot at a check point or be worried their animals would be die because the settlers poisoned their water wells.
Circa late 1800s...The #Palestinian
village Nebi Samwail with its minaret framed in the arch...This could
be a rare old photo of one of the several villages that surround Nebi
Samwail including Lifta, Al Jeeb, Beit Iksa, and of course Mike Hanini Odetella's ancestral
village of Beit Hanina
Kolonia, and Wady [Wadi] Beit Hanina, favourite place of resort of the
people of Jerusalem; it is famous for its well-kept vineyards and
vegetable gardens from the book Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and EgyptBy Colonel Wilson, Charles William, Sir, 1836-1905. Published in New
York by D. Appleton and Company in 1881 with engravings in steel and
wood from original Drawings by Harry Fenn and J. D. Woodward Volume 1
"Threshing the wheat harvest circa early 1930's #Palestine...I
rode on the board that the animals are pulling as a child (and as an
added weight. It's called a "lohe", a derogatory term when applied to
person) as it went around in circles in the early 1960's in my village
of Beit Hanina..."
The
annual camel race in the desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan, in 2007.
Radiocarbon dating was used to pinpoint the earliest known domesticated
camels in Israel to the 10th century B.C.— decades after the kingdom of
David, according to the Bible.Salah Malkawi/Getty Images
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There are too many camels in the Bible, out of time and out of place.
Camels
probably had little or no role in the lives of such early Jewish
patriarchs as Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, who lived in the first half of
the second millennium B.C., and yet stories about them mention these
domesticated pack animals more than 20 times. Genesis 24, for example,
tells of Abraham’s servant going by camel on a mission to find a wife
for Isaac.
These
anachronisms are telling evidence that the Bible was written or edited
long after the events it narrates and is not always reliable as
verifiable history. These camel stories “do not encapsulate memories
from the second millennium,” said Noam Mizrahi, an Israeli biblical
scholar, “but should be viewed as back-projections from a much later
period.”
Dr.
Mizrahi likened the practice to a historical account of medieval events
that veers off to a description of “how people in the Middle Ages used
semitrailers in order to transport goods from one European kingdom to
another.”
For
two archaeologists at Tel Aviv University, the anachronisms were
motivation to dig for camel bones at an ancient copper smelting camp in
the Aravah Valley in Israel
and in Wadi Finan in Jordan. They sought evidence of when domesticated
camels were first introduced into the land of...READ MORE
A visitor to the Holy Land between 1890 and 1900 would have encountered a
place that looked a lot like the pastoral setting described in the
Bible and the Quran.
A glimpse of this era is preserved through photochrom prints from the Library of Congress.
We invite you to put aside your political views (note: we've turned
off comments) and enjoy these vintage pictures of "the land flowing with
milk and honey."
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