Timeline of the Fertile Crescent (Canaan, Isreal, Judea, Palestine)

Archeological & historical facts for those who are interested in facts……. (supersummarized)

– The Qesem Cave was occupied by prehistoric humans at approximately 420,000–220,000 BCE .

– c. 9000 BCE – Natufian hunter-gatherer groups form a permanent settlement that would come to be known as Jericho.

– Isrealites enter the picture…. First record of “Israel” – documented in the Merneptah stele, established by Pharaoh Merneptah around 1209 BCE

– 925 BCE – Sack of Jerusalem (925 BC) – Pharaoh Sheshonk I of the Third Intermediate Period invades Canaan following the Battle of Bitter Lakes.

– 853 BCE – The Battle of Qarqar in which Jerusalem’s forces were likely involved in an indecisive battle against Shalmaneser III of Neo-Assyria (Jehoshaphat King of Judah was allied with Ahab King of the Israel according to the Jewish Bible).

– c. 720 BCE – The Kingdom of Israel is conquered by Neo-Assyrian Empire and parts of the local population is deported and replaced with deportees from other parts of the empire.

– Babylonian and Persian periods (586–332 BCE).
The Babylonian period began with the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II in 587 or 586 BCE. The Persian period spans the years 539–332 BCE, from the time Cyrus II of Persia (“the Great”) conquered the Neo-Babylonian Empire, to the conquest of the region by Alexander the Great.
–

538 bc – The captivity formally ended in 538 bce, when the Persian conqueror of Babylonia, Cyrus the Great, gave the Jews permission to return to their homeland.

– The Hellenistic period began with Alexander the Great’s conquest of the area in 332 BCE and ended with Pompey’s conquest of Israel and Judea in 63 BCE. Alternatively, it can be considered to end with the victory of Rome’s client king, Herod the Great, over the last Hasmonean king of Judea in 37 BCE.

– 200 BCE – The Seleucid emperor Antiochus III the Great conquers the area.

– 167 BCE, autumn – Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlaws Judaism in Judea and allows pagan worship at the Jerusalem temple.

161 BCE – Judas Maccabeus is killed in battle and his army is routed

Roman period

The Roman period lasted from Pompey’s conquest of the area in 66 BCE, until the legal establishment of Christianity in the realm around 313 CE by Constantine the Great.

– 63 BCE – Roman troops occupy the area of Israel and Judea.

62–64 – Completion of the renovations of the Jerusalem temple begun by Herod.

66–70 – First Jewish revolt:

66 – The revolt breaks out in the summer.

67 – Roman legions invade Isreal and Judea.

69 – Vespasian is declared emperor and leaves for Rome. His older son, Titus, takes command of the Roman legions in Israel and Judea.

70 – The Romans takes Jerusalem and destroy the Second Temple.

73/4 – The Romans takes Masada, the last rebel holdout.

129/130 – The Roman emperor Hadrian visits Syria, Isreal and Judea, and Arabia, and founds the Roman colonyAelia Capitolina at Jerusalem.

Presumably, the outbreak of the Bar Kokhba revolt is directly linked to this event.

132–135 – Bar Kokhba revolt:^[70]

195 – The bishops of Caesarea and Jerusalem, Theophilus and Narcissus, preside over a council in Caesarea to settle a growing dispute over the proper date of the celebration of Easter.

222 – Caesarea becomes the metropolitan see for Palestine.

270 – Zenobia, ruler of the Palmyrene Empire, conquers most of the Roman east including Palestine.

272 – Israel and Judea is recaptured by Rome.

Byzantine period

Allowing for varying starting dates (see above under Roman period), this timeline chooses for convenience’s sake to set the starting year of the Byzantine period as 313, when Constantine declared Christianity a permitted religion. The period ends with the Muslim conquest of Palestine in 637–641.

Early Muslim period

Rashidun period

• 637 (or 638) – Jerusalem falls to the armies of Rashidun caliphUmar Ibn el-Khatab.
• Jews are permitted to return to the city after 568 years of Roman and Byzantine rule.
  • June/July – The Rashiduns capture Gaza.
  • summer – Ascalon surrenders to the Rashiduns.
  • late – The Rashiduns and the Byzantines consent to a truce.
• 640 – The Rashiduns capture Caesarea.
• 641 – The Rashiduns capture Ashkelon, completing their conquest of the Holy Land.
• 659 – Earthquake.

Umayyad period

• 661 – The Umayyad family takes control of the caliphate and moves its capital to Damascus, following the assassination of the Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib.
• 687–691 – The Dome of the Rock is built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem at the site where, according to Islam, Muhammad ascended to heaven.
• c. 715 – Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik founds Ramla; it becomes the capital and administrative center of Palestine.

Fatimid period

• 969/70 – The Fatimids, a self-proclaimed Shia caliphate, defeat the Ikhshidids and appoint a Jewish governor.

1012 – Beginning of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah‘s oppressive decrees against Christians and Jews.

1027 – A treaty is signed between the Byzantine emperor and the Fatimid caliph. It permits the rebuilding of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and allows Christians who had converted to Islam under duress to return to their former faith. It also granted the emperor the right to designate the patriarch of Jerusalem. In return, the mosque of Constantinople would be reopened.

Crusader/Ayyubid period

The Crusader period, sometimes referred to as the medieval period, as it was the only time when the Western-type societal organisation was transplanted to the region, lasted from 1099 when the Crusaders captured Jerusalem, to 1291 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem‘s last major possession in the Holy Land, Acre, was overrun by the Mamluks. In part of that period, almost every part of the territory changed hands repeatedly between the Crusaders and the Ayyubids.

• 1096–1099 – First Crusade and the establishment of the Catholic Kingdom of Jerusalem in Outremer.

Mamluk period

The Mamluk period lasted from 1291 when the Mamluks capture Acre, to 1517 when the Ottomans conquered Palestine.

Ottoman period

1517: The Ottomans conquer Palestine

1742–1777 – Several Jewish Hassidic leaders (including Rabbi Abraham Gershon of Kitob and Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk) move to the Holy Land with many followers of the Baal Shem Tov. Historians mark their arrival as the beginning of the current Jewish Hassidic community in the region.

1798 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria. 1799:

• March 3–4 – Napoleonic Wars: Siege of Jaffa – Napoleon captures the city of Jaffa.
• March 20–May 21 – Napoleonic Wars: Siege of Acre – An unsuccessful attempt by Napoleon to capture the city of Acre.
• April 8 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Nazareth.
• April 11 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Cana.
• April 16 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Mount Tabor – Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre.

1808–1810 – Students of Elijah ben Solomon Zalman (Gr”a), amounting to 501 families, arrive in the Holy Land. Historians mark their arrival as the beginning of the current Jewish Ashkenazi community in the region.

1840 July 15 – The Austrian Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Russian Empire sign the Convention of London with the ruler of the Ottoman Empire. The signatories offered to Muhammad Ali and his heirs permanent control over Egypt and the Acre Sanjak (roughly what is now Israel), provided that these territories remain part of the Ottoman Empire and that Ali agreed within ten days to withdraw from the rest of Syria and return to Sultan Abdülmecid I the Ottoman fleet which had defected to Alexandria. Muhammad Ali was also to immediately withdraw his forces from Arabia, the Holy Cities, Crete, the district of Adana, and all of the Ottoman Empire.

1860 – The first Jewish neighborhood (Mishkenot Sha’ananim) is built outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.^[187]

1874 – Jerusalem becomes a Mutesarrifiyyet gaining a special administrative status.

1882–1903 – The First Aliyah took place: 25,000–35,000 Jews immigrate to Ottoman Syria.

1887–1888 – Ottoman Syria is divided into Jerusalem Sanjak, Nablus Sanjak, and Acre Sanjak

1897 August 29–31 – The First Zionist Congress is held in Basel, Switzerland. During it, the World Zionist Organization is founded and the Basel Declaration is approved. The latter determine that the Zionist movement’s ultimate aim is to establish and secure under public law a homeland for the Jewish people. The homeland is to be located in the Biblical region dubbed variously “The Holy Land” or “Palestine” by the European Christians during the Catholic and later secular Enlightenment.