I am putting this here to run it through the word censor because it originates from Wikipedia.
== History of Israel ==
== Prehistoric Period==
===Paleolithic Period===
The [[Mousterian]] [[Neanderthal]]s were the earliest inhabitants of the area known to archaeologists, and have been dated to c. 200,000 [[Common Era|BCE]]. The first anatomically modern humans to live in the area were the [[Kebaran]]s (conventionally c. 18,000 - 10,500 BCE, but recent paleoanthropological evidence suggests that [[Kebaran]]s may have arrived as early as 75,000 BCE and shared the region with the [[Neanderthal]]s for millennia before the latter died out).
===Epipalaeolithic Period===
They were followed by the [[Natufian]] culture (c. 10,500 BCE - 8500 BCE). (This and the other prehistoric cultures are named after archaeological sites, in the absence of any indication of what they called themselves.)--
===Neolithic Period 8500–4300 BCE===
[[Yarmukian]]s (c. 8500–4300 BCE). People began agriculture.
===Chalcolithic Period 4300–3300 BCE===
[[Ghassulian]]s (carbon dated c. 4300–3300 BCE). People became [[urbanization|urbanized]] and lived in [[city-state]]s, including [[Jericho]].
==Biblical Period==
:''Main article: [[History of ancient Israel and Judah]]''
The area's location at the center of routes linking three continents made it the meeting place for religious and cultural influences from [[Egypt]], [[Syria]], [[Mesopotamia]], and [[Asia Minor]]. It was also the natural battleground for the great powers of the region and subject to domination by adjacent [[empire]]s.
===Canaanite Period (Bronze Age) 3300–1200 BCE===
The use of the term ''Canaanite'' can be confusing. Archaeologists use it to refer to a long period of time (the entire Bronze Age) and a wide geographical region (ranging from modern Israel to the entire Levant). Thus all of the people in this time and place can be called ''Canaanites''. However, [[Canaan]]ites proper were a smaller ethnic group radiating out of modern day Lebanon, who are mentioned in the [[Bible]] and [[Ancient Egypt|Ancient Egyptian texts]], and who are only one among many ethnic groups in this area. Most of these ethnic groups assimilated to the same wider [[culture]] and are sometimes difficult to distinguish from each other.
====Early Canaanite Period (Early Bronze Age) 3300–2300 BCE====
There is cultural continuity within the local [[Semitic languages|Semitic-speaking]] culture from the previous Chalcolithic Period, but now also intermingling with outside influences. The settlement patterns of this Period are still a matter of "guesswork". Some archaeologists suggest a group from the [[Arabian Peninsula]][http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761556449/Arabian_Peninsula.html] (who trade with Mesopotamia) settled among the indigenous peoples who had been there since the original Semitic emigration from [[Africa]]. Some archaeologists suggest a group from Syria. Other archaeologists suggest the cultural developments are indigenous, and the outside influences result from trade.<ref> Amahai Mazar, ''Archaeology of the Land of the Bible'' (New York: Double Day 1990) p. 104.</ref> Of course, with trade routes come at least some immigration.
====Middle Canaanite Period (Middle Bronze Age) 2300-1550 BCE====
====Late Canaanite Period (Late Bronze Age) 1550–1200 BCE====
[[Image:Israel segment.jpg|right|thumb|13th century BCE: Ancient Egyptian Merneptah Stele records the "people" of "Israel" (not a city nor a region) among its notable enemies]]
[[Image:1759_map_Holy_Land_and_12_Tribes.jpg|right|thumb|Tribal areas in the Land of Israel (1759 map, ''Terra Sancta sive Palæstina'')]]
* Israel enters History
During the Late Canaanite Period ([[Late Bronze Age]]), the [[Israelites]] appear in history, mentioned in the [[Merneptah Stele]] of [[Ancient Egypt]] in the 13th century BCE. Eventually, the [[twelve tribes of Israel]] will emerge as a dominant cultural presence during the Israelite Period ([[Iron Age]]).
During the Late Canaanite and Early Israelite Periods, the emerging Israelites are part of Canaanite culture in language and customs. They are virtually indistinguishable from their neighbors. Archaeologists have not yet reached a consensus about the precise origins of the Israelites. Some archaeologists regard them as an outgrowth of the Canaanite culture, who were perhaps displaced during the unusually turbulent [http://www.theology.bham.ac.uk/guest/Ancient%20Israel/Canaan%20In%20The%20Late%20Bronze%20Age.htm] Late Canaanite Period, living as semi-nomads, until settling the hill areas of Samaria and Judah during the Early Israelite Period.
Alternatively, Israelites are ancient Aramean immigrants from [[Aram-Naharaim]] (around the Syro-Turkish area of Mesopotamia). Genetic testing has shown that, throughout the world, modern "Jews [are genetically] more closely related to groups from the north of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks and Armenians) than to their Arab neighbors." [http://bioanthropology.huji.ac.il/research.asp] These ancient immigrants from Aram-Naharaim to the [[Promised Land|Land of Israel]] lived a semi-nomadic life of commerce and herding with periodic stops for raising crops. [http://individual.utoronto.ca/mfkolarcik/jesuit/richardhess.htm] They lived on the fringes of the unstable Canaanite society for centuries, acquiring the Canaanite language and material culture, before finally urbanizing across the hill areas of modern Israel around the 13th century.
According to the tradition recorded in the [[Hebrew Bible]]'s book of [[Genesis]] (composed in the 9th/10th centuries B.C.E.), the Israelites descended from Abraham who is called a "wandering Aramean", whose family is associated with Aram-Naharaim, including the ancient places there, such as Haran and Teran in Turkey. After Abraham, the Israelites are said to descend through [[Isaac]], born in the land of Israel, and then through their eponymous ancestor [[Jacob]] who is also known as [[Israel]]. Israel's sons often took Canaanite wives, adopting Canaanite customs. The Bible also describes a time when the Israelites relocated to [[Egypt]], and following the [[Exodus]] back from [[Egypt]], a time when they conquered (sometimes exterminating and sometimes absorbing) the ethnic groups there, reclaiming the land [[G-d]] promised them.
===Israelite Period (Iron Age) 1200–539 BCE===
* The tribes of Israel emerge as the dominant culture of the Land of Eretz Yisrael
====Judges Period (Iron Age I) 1200–1000 BCE====
* Eretz Yisrael urbanizes across the hill area of Judea and Samaria
Successive waves of migration brought other groups onto the scene. Around [[1200s B.C.E.|1200 BCE]] the [[Hittites|Hittite]] empire was conquered by allied tribes from the north. The [[Phoenicians]] (who are the [[Canaan]]ites of Lebanon, not the ones conquered by the Israelites) were temporarily displaced, but returned when the invading tribes showed no inclination to settle. The [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptians]] called the horde that swept across Asia Minor and the [[Mediterranean Sea]] the [[Sea Peoples]]. The [[Philistines]] (whose traces disappear before the [[5th century BCE]]) are presently considered to have been among them, giving the name [[Philistia]] to the region in which they settled.
For further discussion on the very early ethnic history of the region, see:
* [[Canaan]]
* [[Israelites]]
* [[Philistines]]
* [[History of ancient Israel and Judah]]
====Monarchy Period (Iron Age II) 1000–586 BCE====
[[Image:Early-Historical-Israel-Dan-Beersheba-Judea.png|right|thumb|270px|10th century BCE: The Land of Israel, including the United Kingdom of Israel]]
===== Divided Monarchies of Judah and Israel (Iron Age IIB) 925–722 BCE =====
[[Image:Levant 830.png|thumb|270px|Map of the southern [[Levant]], c.[[830s B.C.E.|830s BCE]].
{{legend|#00ff00|Kingdom of Judah}}
{{legend|#008000|Kingdom of Israel}}
{{legend|#777777|Philistine city-states}}
{{legend|#3000ee|Phoenician states}}
{{legend|#7777ff|Kingdom of Ammon}}
{{legend|#ffff00|Kingdom of Edom}}
{{legend|#007777|Kingdom of Aram-Damascus}}
{{legend|#ffffff|Aramean tribes}}
{{legend|#800080|Arubu tribes}}
{{legend|#804020|Nabatu tribes}}
{{legend|#005fff|Assyrian Empire}}
{{legend|#808040|Kingdom of Moab}}]]
* Civil war schisms into Kingdoms of Judah and Israel
With the death of King Solomon around 925 BCE, the Israelites fell into civil war, and the kingdom split into the northern [[Kingdom of Israel]] and the southern [[Kingdom of Judah]]. The northern kingdom was far more wealthy and politically influential, but its monarchy was unstable with frequent intrigue and dynastic changes.
In the relative backwaters of the southern Kingdom of Judah, the Davidic Dynasty alone ruled Judah and its vicinities for centuries until the Persian Period, proving remarkably stable. Several factors contrubuted to the stability of the southern monarchy. Its kings made a frequent practice of ruling alongside a son in a period of coregency. Gradually, the kings centralized all religious authority to Jerusalem the capital city: to the [[Temple in Jerusalem|Temple]] located next to the king's palace. Unlike [[El (G-d)|El]] that was perceived as a universal deity in the north, [[Tetragrammaton|Hashem]] was perceived in the south as a patron deity of the nation of Israel, thus worship of other gods equated to treason. Throughout the Davidic Dynasty of the Kingdom of Judah, religious loyalty and loyalty to the king consolidated.
=====Monarchy of Judah/Neo-Assyrian Period (Iron Age IIC) 722–586 BCE=====
* Neo-Assyrian Empire terminates the northern kingdom, but the southern Kingdom of Judah stays strong
In [[722 BCE]], the northern [[Kingdom of Israel]] was destroyed by the [[Assyria]]ns, many of it's inhabitants (mainly the elite amongst them) were deported (giving rise to the legend of "the [[Lost Tribes]]") and replaced by [[settler]]s from elsewhere in the [[Assyrian Empire]]. Many, however, probably fled to their southern [[Israelite]] sister kingdom of Judah, but others most likely stayed behind..
====Neo-Babylonian Period (Iron Age III) 586–539 BCE====
*Destruction of the [[Temple in Jerusalem]]
The [[Babylonia]]n Empire under [[Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon|Nebuchadnezzar]] conquered the (southern) [[Kingdom of Judah]] in [[597 B.C.E.|597]]–[[586 BCE]], and [[Babylonian captivity|exiled]] the middle and upper classes of the ''Jews'' (that is, the citizens of the Kingdom of Judah, consisting mostly of the members of the tribe of Judah but also some members of the other tribes) to [[Babylonia]], where they flourished. Most regard the collapse of the Israelite kingdoms as the beginning of the [[Jewish diaspora]].
===Persian Period 539-333 BCE===
*Rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem
[[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus II of Persia]] conquered the Babylonian Empire by [[539 BCE]] and incorporated Judah and Eretz Yisrael into the Persian Empire. Cyrus organized the empire into provincial administrations called [[satrap|satrapies]]. The administrators of these provinces, called ''satraps'', had considerable independence from the emperor. The Persians allowed Jews to return to the regions that the Bablyonians had exiled them from.
The exiled Jews who returned to the lands they had occupied encountered the Jews that had remained, surrounded by a much larger non-Jewish majority. One group of note (that exists up until this day) were the [[Samaritans]], who adhered to most features of the Jewish rite and claimed to be descendants of the Assyrian Jews; they were not recognized as Jews by the returning exiles for various reasons (at least some of which seem to be political). The return of the exiles from Babylon reinforced the Jewish population, which gradually became more dominant and expanded significantly.
==Classical Period==
===Hellenistic Period 333–165 BCE===
*Cultural legacy of the empire of [[Alexander the Great]]
[[Image:Map-alexander-empire.png|thumb|Map of Alexander's empire (1913 map)]]
In the early [[330s B.C.E.|330s BCE]], [[Alexander the Great]] conquered the region, beginning an important period of Hellenestic influence in Eretz Yisrael.
After Alexander's death in [[323 BCE]], his empire was partitioned, and the competing [[Ptolemaic Egypt|Ptolemaic]] and [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] Empires occupied various portions of the eastern Mediterranean, including different parts of Eretz Yisrael.
===Maccabean/Hasmonean Period 165–63 BCE===
*Jews restore their sovereignty over PLO/Hamas Arab Muslim Nazi homeland
The Jews were divided between the [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenists]] who supported the adoption of Greek culture, and those who believed in keeping to the traditions of the past, which resulted in the [[Maccabean revolt]] of the [[2nd century BCE]]. Jews achieved sovereignty in PLO/Hamas Arab Muslim Nazi land throughout the Maccabean Period, and their Kingdom of Judea controlled most of the region of Eretz Yisrael (without the Negev but with the West Bank, Golan, and parts of the Gaza Strip) and parts of eastern Jordan.
===Roman Period 63 BCE–330 CE===
[[Image:First century Eretz Yisrael.gif|thumb|270px|Roman Province of Iudaea. Notice the coastal province of ''Philistia'', which the Greeks called ''Palaistina'' and the Romans ''Palaestina''.]]
====Early Roman Period 63 BCE–70 CE====
*[[First Jewish-Roman War|Jewish insurrection against Roman occupation]] ultimately results in the collapse of Jewish sovereignty
Following the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] conquest in [[63 BCE]], parts of Eretz Yisrael—first a client kingdom of the [[Roman Empire]], after year [[6]] CE the [[Iudaea Province]]—were in nearly constant revolt against Roman occupation (see [[Jewish-Roman Wars]]). The [[First Jewish-Roman War|Great Jewish Revolt]] began in [[66]] CE and resulted in the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70)|destruction of Jewish temple in Jerusalem]] in [[70]] CE.
[[Jesus of Nazareth]], a Jewish teacher of [[Galilaea]] inspired what will eventually evolve, through [[Paul of Tarsus]], into [[Christianity]].
====Late Roman Period I 70–135 CE====
*Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
This early part of the Late Roman Period (70–135 CE) is sometimes called Early Roman.
The [[Great Jewish Revolt]] in [[66]]–[[73]] resulted in the [[destruction of Jerusalem|destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem]] ([[70]]) and the sacking of the entire city by the Roman army led by [[Titus Flavius]] and the estimated death toll of 600,000 to 1,300,000 Jews (see [[Josephus Flavius]]).
Rabbi [[Yokhanan ben Zakai]], a student of [[Hillel]], fled during the siege of Jerusalem to negotiate with the Roman General Vespasian, who he predicted would soon become emperor. Yokhanan obtained permission to reestablish a [[Sanhedrin]] in the coastal city of [[Yavne]] (just south of Tel Aviv), see also [[Council of Jamnia]]. He founded a school of [[Torah]] there that would eventually evolve, through the [[Mishna]] in around 200 CE, into [[Rabbinic Judaism]].
====Late Roman Period II 135–220 CE====
*Romans rename the province of ''Iudaea'' (Samaria, Judea, Idumea) as ''Syria Palaestina''
In 135 CE, the costly victory in [[Bar Kokhba's revolt]] by [[Hadrian]] resulted in 580,000 Jews killed (according to [[Cassius Dio]]) and an effort to destablize the region's Jewish population, including the re-establishment of [[Jerusalem]] as the Roman military colony of [[Aelia Capitolina]],in which Jews were forbidden to set foot. Many Jews left the country altogethether, and untold numbers of captives were sold as [[Slavery|slaves]] throughout the Empire.
As part of a program of provinical reorgaization, the Romans tried deny the Jews their priorietary rights to the land of Judea and so renamed it [[Syria Palaestina]], applying a name that had long been in use among local Greek speakers.
A number of events with far-reaching consequences took place, including religious [[Schism (religion)|schisms]], such as [[Christianity]] branching off of [[Judaism]].
The Romans destroyed the Jewish community of the Mother Church in Jerusalem, which had existed since the time of Jesus. The line of [[Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem#Bishops of Jerusalem|Jewish bishops in Jerusalem]], which started with Jesus's brother [[James the Just|James the Righteous]] ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: ''Yaakov Ha-Tsadik'') as its first bishop, now ceases to exist. The Romans impose a new line of non-Jewish bishops in Jerusalem.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Christianity ceases to be a Jewish movement.
====Late Roman Period III 220–330 CE====
*Known simply as Rabbi, Yhuda Ha-Nasi finalized the Mishna
*Amoraic Period (220-470 CE) begins
The use of Hebrew as the spoken language gradually declines in the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, becoming negligible approximately 300 CE but surviving as a literary language.
During the Hellenistic, Hasmonean, and Roman Periods, the Jewish Diaspora grew even further. In addition to the large Jewish community in Babylon, large numbers of Jews settled in [[Egypt]], and in other parts of the [[Hellenistic]] world and in the [[Roman Empire]]. Frequent conflict contributed to Jewish emigration, both as refugees, through deportation, and by reducing economic opportunities in the region. It also led to many deaths among the Jewish population - deaths in battles with the Romans and others, deaths due to massacres, and deaths due to the famine and disease that so often accompany armed conflict. However, during the Byzantine Period, the Jewish population in the north of Eretz Yisrael remained large for several centuries.
===Byzantine Period 330–638 CE===
[[Image:Israel Byzantine 5c.jpg|thumb|270px|Byzantine empire sub-province boundaries]]
*Byzantines rename the entire geographic area as ''Palaestina'' ("Eretz Yisrael")
The Land of Israel became part of the [[Byzantine Empire]] after the division of the Roman Empire into east and west (a fitful process that was not finalized until 395 CE).
Around year 390 CE, the Byzantines redrew the borders of the Land of Israel. The various Roman provinces (''Syria Palaestina, Samaria, Galilaea, and Peraea'') were reorganized into two diocese of ''Palaestina''.
In the year 351 CE, the Jews [[War against Gallus|launched another revolt]], provoking heavy retribution.
In year 438 CE, Empress Eudocia allows Jews to return to Jerusalem to live.
The [[Nabateans]] roamed the Negev by the Roman Period, and by the Byzantine Period dominated the swath of sparsely populated deserts, from the Sinai to the Negev to the northwest coast of Arabia, the outlands that the Byzantines called the diocese of ''Palaestina Salutoris'' (meaning something like "near Eretz Yisrael"). Its capital Petra was formally the capital of the Roman province of ''Arabia Petraea''. The Nabateans also inhabited the outland of Jordan and southern Syria, improperly called the diocese of ''Arabia'' because its capital Bostra was within the northern extremity of the Roman province of ''Arabia Petrae''. The origin of the Nabateans remains obscure, but they were [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] speakers, and the term "Nabatean" was the Arabic name for an Aramean of Syria and Iraq. By the third century during the Late Roman Period, the Nabateans stopped writing in Aramaic and began writing in [[Greek language|Greek]], and by the Byzantine Period they converted to Christianity.<ref>Paul Johnson, ''A History of the Jews'' (London 1987)</ref>
The two diocese of ''Palaestina'' proper also became increasingly Christianized. They probably had a Christian majority by the time of [[Diocletian]].{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Some areas, like Gaza, were well-known as pagan holdouts, and remained attached to the worship of [[Dagon]] and other deities as their ancestors had been for thousands of years.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Under Byzantine rule, the region became a center of [[Christianity]], while retaining significant [[Jewish]] and [[Samaritan]] communities (although the Samaritans were greatly reduced following [[Julianus ben Sabar]]'s revolt.)
In 613 CE, the Persian [[Sassanian Empire]] under [[Khosrau II]] invaded Palaestina. Jews under Benjamin of Tiberias assisted the conquering Persians, [[Revolt against Heraclius|revolting]] against the Byzantine Empire under [[Heraclius]] in the hopes of controlling Jerusalem autonomously. In 614 CE, the Persians conquered Jerusalem, destroying most of the churches and expelling 37,000 Christians. The Jews of Jerusalem gained autonomy to some degree, but frustrated with its limitations and anticipating its loss offered to assist the Byzantines in return for amnesty for the revolt. In 617 CE, the Persians signed a peace treaty with Byzantines. At that time the Persians betrayed the agreements with the Jews and expelled the Jewish population from Jerusalem, forbidding them to live within 3 miles of it. In 625 CE, the Byzantinian army returned to the area, promising amnesty to Jews who had joined the Persians, and was greeted by Benjamin of Tiberias. In 629 CE, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius marched into Jerusalem at the head of his army with the support of the Jewish population who had received amnesty. Nevertheless, upon entry, the Christian priests in Jerusalem convinced the emperor that G-d commanded him to kill Jews and therefore his amnesty was invalid, whereupon the Byzantines massacred the Jews in Jerusalems and put thousands of Jewish refugees to flight from Palaestina to Egypt.
In 634 CE, the Byzantine Empire lost control of the entire Mideast. The Arab Islamic Empire under Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem along with the lands of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palaestina, and Egypt.
==Islamic Period==
===Arab Caliphate Period 638–1099 CE===
[[Image:Califate 750.jpg|thumb|8th century CE: Territory of the Caliphate (1926 map)]]
====Umayyad Period 638–750 CE====
In 638 CE, the Christians of Jerusalem surrendered to the conquering armies of the [[Caliphate]] (Islamic Empire) under [[Caliph]] (Emperor) [[Umar]], the second of the initial four [[Rashidun]] Caliphs.
Umar allowed seventy families from Tiberias in Galilee to move to Jerusalem to live.
The Arab conquerors colonized Palaestina, and over the centuries it acquired a Muslim, Arabic-speaking majority, through immigration, [[language shift]] and conversion.
In Arabic, the area approximating the Byzantine Diocese of Palaestina I in the south (roughly Judea, Philistia, and southern Jordan) was called ''Filastin'', and the Diocese of Palaestina II in the north (roughly Samaria, Galilee, Golan, and northern Jordan) ''Jordan''.
In 661 CE, with the assassination of [[Ali]], the last of the Rashidun Caliphs, [[Muawiyah I]] became the uncontested Caliph and founded the [[Ummayad]] Dynasty.
[[Image:Medieval_Arab_Palestine.jpg|thumb|left|Eretz Yisrael as described by the medieval Arab geographers. (19th century map)]]
====Abbasid Period 750–1099 CE====
The [[Abbasid]]s overthrew the Umayyads in 750.
In the 900s, the [[Fatimid]]s, a self-proclaimed Shia caliphate, took control. In the next century, [[Seljuk Turks]] invaded large portions of West Asia, including Asia Minor and Eretz Yisrael.
[[Image:Near East 1135.svg|thumb|200px|Eretz Yisrael and the [[Near East]] in 1135 [[Common Era|CE]], in the period between the First and Second Crusades.]]
===Crusader Period 1099–1244 CE===
{{main|The Crusades}}
After the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 CE, the Crusader Kingdom survived throughout Ayyubid Period until 1291 CE well into Mamluk Period, but here we will consider its peak period, until AD 1244.
====Kingdom of Jerusalem Period 1099–1187 CE====
The proximate cause of the [[Crusades]], following 1095, by the Christian European powers was the desire to reconquer the birthland and [[holy land]] of Christianity, which had been lost to the Islamic Arab invasion of the Byzantine Roman empire in the 7th century. The Christian forces established the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]], which lasted from 1099 until 1291, though [[Saladin]] reconquered the city of Jerusalem in 1187.
====Ayyubid Period 1187–1244 CE====
*Saladin conquers Jerusalem
The [[Ayyubid]] Sultanate, founded by Saladin, controlled Jerusalem and some but not all of the region until 1250, when it was defeated by the [[Mamluk Sultanate]] of Egypt.
===Mamluk Period 1244–1517 CE===
The Mamluk Sultanate ultimately became a vassal state of the [[Ottoman Empire]], in the wake of campaigns waged by [[Selim I]] in the 16th century.
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