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The Muslim migrations to Ottoman Palestine involved successive waves of settlement by Muslims of various ethnicities within the southern Syrian districts of the Ottoman Empire. This area, which encompasses modern-day Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza, was divided into different provinces and districts, such as Nablus and Lajjun Sanjaks and the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem.

The migration process spanned several centuries, with migrants arriving from various regions, including surrounding areas in the Levant, Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, and even as far as the Balkans and North Africa. Immigrants who settled in Ottoman Palestine included Egyptians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Bedouins, and Arabs from neighboring areas.

Background

Muslim migrations to Palestine began with the Muslim conquest of the region in the 7th century and continued throughout centuries of Muslim rule, peaking in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the early Ottoman period, the population of Palestine was estimated to be around 250,000–300,000 people, significantly less than the region's population during the Roman and Byzantine periods, believed to be around 1,000,000 people.

Aware of the under-population, the Ottomans promoted a policy of settlement in sparsely inhabited regions. Zvi Ilan also notes that the Ottomans aimed to defend the ancient, international highways that crossed Palestine, including the Via Maris and the King's Highway.

16th century

The Turabays, a prominent family from the Bedouin Banu Haritha tribe, who claim descent from the Tayy tribe of the Arabian Desert, assisted Ottoman Sultan Selim I in his conquest of Egypt during Ottoman–Mamluk War of 1516–1517. As a reward, they were granted control over what became the Lajjun Sanjak, covering the Jezreel Valley, northern Samaria and Lower Galilee. They also oversaw Gaza and led pilgrim caravans to Mecca. The Turabay family controlled Lajjun until the late 17th century when they were replaced by the Ottoman administration.

17th-18th centuries

During the 17th and 18th centuries, Bedouin clans migrated to Palestine from Hejaz, Syria, and Transjordan. The Ottomans encouraged this migration to populate certain areas, offering land and allowing freedom of movement. While the Bedouins were taxed when possible, their mobility made taxation rare and inconsistent. Even in the late 19th century, Bedouins were not conscripted for military service.

According to Haim Gerber, "the problem of nomads in Syria and Palestine under Ottoman rule is well known and needs little elaboration. The vacuum left by the weakening of the government after the sixteenth century (if not before) was a function of the fact that the great bulk of the coastal plain was a roaming ground for bedouin tribes, and was almost totally devoid of permanent villages."

19th century

In the 1830s, Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt promoted the immigration of Egyptians and facilitated the settlement of individual Bedouin clans in Palestine. These new settlers primarily established themselves in Jaffa and its neighboring villages, the Acre region, as well as the Jordan and Hula Valleys.

The withdrawal of Egyptian forces from Palestine increased Bedouin incursions to the region.

Sources

1. אילן, צבי, 'טורקמנים, צ'רקסים, ובוסנים בצפון השרון', עמ' 279-287
2. ^ Abu-Husayn 1985, p. 183.
3. ^ Ze'evi, Dror. An Ottoman Century: The District of Jerusalem in the 1600s. State University of New York Press. pp. 42–43, 94–95.
4. ^ Krämer, Gudrun (2008). A history of Palestine: from the Ottoman conquest to the founding of the state of Israel. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. pp. 50–51, 134–135. ISBN 978-0-691-11897-0. OCLC 141484787.
5. Haim Gerber (1987), The Social Origins of the Modern Middle East. Boulder, Colorado. p. 60

Work cited

• Abu-Husayn, Abdul-Rahim (1985). Provincial Leaderships in Syria, 1575-1650. Beirut. ISBN 9780815660729.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)