The Ancient Cities and Global Trade of Palestine

A 7,000 Year History

Nur Masalha

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780755659715
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

For millennia, and despite its relatively small size, Palestine enjoyed wealth, prosperity and flourishing cities and civilisations. The ancient world's trade systems and trade routes were fundamental to the emergence of early urban life in ancient Palestine. In fact, the impact of international trade on both ancient and modern Palestine as a whole was radical and transformative.

Despite this, the overwhelming majority of publications on Palestine focus on the modern period and overlook the long history of Palestine and its ancient cities and civilisations. This book addresses the lacuna. It provides a long history of Palestine, uncovering the ancient trading and industrial cities from Antiquity, the Middle Ages and throughout the modern period. Spanning 7,000 years of history, the study reveals the extent to which the global trade and local industries of Palestine have shaped the urban social, economic and cultural life of the country over successive periods.

Based on extensive archaeological discoveries, Nur Masalha brings iconic, famous and forgotten trade brands to life. These include: the Neolithic Age obsidian trade; the Calcolithic Age and Bronze Age copper industry of the Naqab; the ancient cities of frankincense and spices; the Red Sea-Gaza silk route; the textiles of Beisan; Gaza wine; gauze and silk weaving from Asqalan and Gaza; Al-Khalil glassware; acre and cotton export to Europe; Nablus soap; and Jaffa orange. The book is a record and testament of the real cultural, intellectual and historical significance of Palestine.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Palestine as a Transit Country: International Highways, Commercial Geography and the Trade Routes of Palestine
• 2 Ancient Obsidian and Copper Regional Trade Systems: The Mining Industries and Urbanization in Ancient Palestine and Egypt (From the Late Neolithic Ages to the Iron Age)
• 3 The Nabataean Arab Cities of Spice and Aromatics: The Trans-Arabian Global Incense Trade and the Transformation of the Palestinian Cities of the Naqab (Classical and Late Antiquity)
• 4 The Myth of the Single ‘Silk Road’ and the Palestine Red Sea Silk Route from China: The Rise of the Maritime Trade Route of Iotabe‒Aylah‒Elusa‒Gaza and the Ghassanid Arabs of Palaestina Tertia
• 5 Elite Fashion, Linen, Silk and Purple Dye: The Palestine Clothing Industry and a Tale of Five Textile Cities in Antiquity
• 6 The Christian Revolution and Palestinian Wines on Western Tables: Monasteries, Urban Boom and the Golden Age of the Wine Industry of Byzantine Palestine (Fourth to Early Seventh Centuries)
• 7 A Tale of Two Cities: Seamen, Merchants and Clergymen and the Port City of Maiumas Gaza
• 8 The Founding of a New Capital City in Palestine in Early Islam: Al-Ramla, the Administrative and Commercial Centre of the Arab Province of Palestine (Seventh to Eleventh Centuries)
• 9 Regulating Trade and Inspecting Urban Markets in Byzantine and Islamic Palestine: The Agoranomos and Muhtasibs in Historical and Comparative Perspectives
• 10 The Rise and Decline of a Trademark of Palestinian Identity: The Glassware and Ceramic Industries of Al-Khalil (Thirteenth to Twenty-First Centuries)
• 11 Cities of Stone: Quarries and the Stone and Marble Industries of Palestine
• 12 Cross-Weaving and Gauze from Palestine to Europe: The Silk and Linen Industries of Asqalan and Gaza Under the Mamluks
• 13 Caravanserais, Markets and Urban Life: The Urban and Rural Merchant Khans of Mamluk and Ottoman Palestine
• 14 Palestine’s Cottonopolis and Dhaher Al-ʿUmar: The Cotton Industry, Urbanization in Galilee and the Rise of Modern Acre
• 15 The Soap Factories of Jerusalem and Nablus: Olive Oil and the Soap Industry of Palestine from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period
• 16 Tobacco, Coffeehouses and Popular Culture: The Transformation of the Urban Leisure Industries of Palestine
• 17 Sweets as a Modern Trademark: Urban Life, Sweet Bakeries and the Confectionary Culture of Palestine
• 18 City of Oranges: Jaffa Orange, Palestine’s Citrus Industry and the Transformation of Jaffa into a Modern Metropolis (1845‒1948)
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Imprint