Palestine in the Victorian Age

Colonial Encounters in the Holy Land

Gabriel Polley

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780755643134
• eBook ISBN: 9780755643158
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

Narratives of the modern history of Palestine/Israel often begin with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and Britain's arrival in 1917. However, this work argues that the contest over Palestine has its roots deep in the 19th century, with Victorians who first cast the Holy Land as an area to be possessed by empire, then began to devise schemes for its settler colonization. The product of historical research among almost forgotten guidebooks, archives and newspaper clippings, this book presents a previously unwritten chapter of Britain's colonial desire, and reveals how indigenous Palestinians began to react against, or accommodate themselves to, the West's fascination with their ancestral land. From the travellers who tried to overturn Jerusalem's holiest sites, to an uprising sparked by a church bell and a missionary's tragic actions, to one Palestinian's eventful visit to the heart of the British Empire, Palestine in the Victorian Age reveals how the events of the nineteenth century have cast a long shadow over the politics of Palestine/Israel ever since.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Note on transliteration
• Chapter 1 ‘HOLY LAND ON THE BRAIN’: INTRODUCTION
• Chapter 2 ‘THE FEELINGS OF A CHRISTIAN TRAVELLER’: EDWARD ROBINSON AND THE BIRTH OF BIBLICAL PALESTINE
• Chapter 3 ‘A JERUSALEM OF THEIR OWN’: VICTORIAN TRAVELLERS IN A HOLY CITY
• Chapter 4 ‘NOT PRECISELY A JEWISH INSTITUTION’: THE FARM OF KEREM AVRAHAM
• Chapter 5 ‘DOWN WITH THE BELL!’: THE NABLUS UPRISING OF 1856
• Chapter 6 ‘PRINCE OF THE SAMARITANS’: THE UNLIKELY STORY OF YA‘QUB AL-SHALABI
• Chapter 7 ‘A FIRM HAND UPON THE ARABS’: LAURENCE OLIPHANT’S BLUEPRINT FOR COLONIZATION
• Chapter 8 ‘PALESTINE IS THUS BROUGHT HOME TO ENGLAND’: CONCLUSION
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Imprint