Arabic maps of “the Land of Israel”. WTF?
Some of the earliest Arabic printed maps of Palestine were actually maps of “Israel.”
Let’s start with a series of maps that appeared in “An Atlas of the Bible,” (Atlas al-Kitab al-Muqaddas), published by one of Europe’s most important 19th century map publishers, W. & A.K. Johnston, based in London and Edinburgh. Have a look at the following map, titled “The Two Kingdoms of Judah and Israel”:
History is, how do I say this academically, weird!
Ancient history had not yet been hijacked by propagandists. The Biblical history of the ancient Israelites was as much a part of Christian and Muslim Arab history as it was Jewish Zionist history, or so most Palestinians thought well into the 20th century.
Remember, in the 19th century, European and American historians spent 90% of their mental energy writing ancient and Biblical history, and 10% on all other periods. History writing, in other words, was another way of saying using archaeological and historical evidence to fill in the gaps in the Biblical narratives. And this belief made its way into Arabic books and atlases until at least the 1940s.
The next map under review is titled, “The Holy Land, According to the Divisions among the Twelve Tribes of Israel”:
Although the book was publishing anonymously, I think the British missionaries who established the St. Georges School in Jerusalem in 1899 published it. Confession: I’m guessing and someone should actually look into that.
But I think that’s a reasonably good guess because the atlas was published in the UK anonymously, which suggests its authors wanted to remain nameless (think missionaries). Second, the British missionaries were obsessed with teaching Biblical history and geography, and so they would have wanted an Atlas just like this one to use in their classrooms. Third, the only extant copy I am aware of can be found in the AP collection held at the Israeli National Library. This means Zionist forces took it from the private home of a Palestinian during the 1948 — and a huge percentage of those books were taken from the wealthy Palestinians who lived in Jerusalem outside of the walls of Old City, in places like Katamon, Shaykh Jarah and elsewhere — exactly the kind of people who sent their kids to the St. Georges School.
Some of these 19th century Arabic Bible maps also labeled the region Palestine, such as the following, map titled “Palestine During the Times of Jesus”, which also depicts the Roman provinces of Judea, Idumea, Phonecia, Syria, the Upper Galilee and more.
This next map depicts the “United Kingdom of Saul, David and Solomon.” Notice the area the Philistines along the Gaza coastal strip, as well as Judea, Israel, and Aram or Syria.
This final map depicts the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt to the Land of Canaan.
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