The First 3 Palestinians in Modern History

The first Arab to use the term “Palestinian” in modern history was Khalil Baydas.

In 1898, he translated “A Description of the Holy Land” from Russian to Arabic.

“The Arabic geography books on the topic were insufficient,” Baydas wrote in the introduction to the translation. “The people of Palestine needed a geography book about their country.”

The book mentions the “Palestinians” in multiple places [see my ph.d dissertation, p.155–158 here for more details].

We of course don’t know if Baydas called himself or anyone else “Palestinian.” But we do know the word “Palestinian” was circulating in Arabic texts already in 1898.

The second Arab in modern history to use the term Palestinian was Salim Qub’ayn, who published an article titled “A Palestinian Describes Palestinian Towns” in Arabic in 1902.

Now, it might have been the magazine’s editor — Farah Antun — who chose the title “A Palestinian describes a Palestinian town” — rather than Qub’ayn. I mean, if editors then were like editors now — I’m 95% confident Qub’ayn saw the title, and thought to himself — what the fuck was Farah Antun thinking?

The third person to use the term “Palestinian”, to the best of my knowledge, was Najib Nassar in an article he published in the same magazine under the same title, “A Palestinian Describes Palestinian Towns.” And, to be sure, it was probably the magazine’s editor (good ole Farah Antun) rather than Nassar —who chose the word “Palestinian.” Although, I’m also 95% confident, using myself as a point of comparison —that Nassar read the article at least 278 times.

Khalil Baydas in 1898. Salim Qub’ayn in 1901. And Najib Nassar in. 1901.

Some other early adopters of the term were Farid Georges Kassab in 1909, Iliya Zakka in 1911 and Shukri Khalil Suwaydan in 1912.[here, here].

So many Palestinians! If you enjoyed this piece, I upload comedy videos about the Middle East to youtube here! Also, I share free high resolution maps of the Middle East here, and the rest of my academic work can be found here.