Palestine: A Timeline

Posted: 28 Safar 1423, 11 May 2002

3000 BC – Canaanites inhabit Palestine

2000 BC – Pharaonic Egypt rules Palestine

1050 BC – Philistines severely defeat Israelites

995 BC – Prophet Dawood, alayhi-salam, captures Jerusalem

961 BC - Prophet Sulayman, alayhi-salam, becomes the King of Israel

922 BC - Prophet Sulayman, alayhi-salam, dies

721 BC – Assyrians overrun Israel and completely destroy the First Temple

538 BC – Persian emperor Cyrus defeats the Babylonians and Jews are allowed to return to Jerusalem

515 BC – Jews build the Second Temple

332 BC – Alexander conquers Palestine

63 BC – Romans conquer Jerusalem

37 BC – King Herod rules Jerusalem. He enlarges the Second Temple

4 BC – Prophet Isa, alayhi-salam, (Jesus) is born

70 CE – Titus of Rome, a pagan, conquers Jerusalem. He completely destroys the Second Temple and Jerusalem and builds a new city, Aelia, on the ruins. The Romans have control over Palestine for the next 600 years.

313 CE – Constantine I, the Roman emperor legalizes Christianity. Christianity becomes the official religion of Palestine for the next 300 years.

324 CE – Constantine marches into Aelia and opens the city for Christian pilgrimage.

620 CE – Isra' wal Mi'raj takes place.

638 CE – Muslims conquer Palestine. The 1300 years Muslim rule of Palestine begins. Peace and justice flourish and everyone regardless of their religion is allowed to live and visit Jerusalem safely.

1099 CE – Crusaders capture Jerusalem. They rule it for 90 years. This era is marked by injustice and cruelty to all non-Christian residents. The Muslims conquer the city again in 1187 returning the peace and justice.

1914 CE – British occupy Palestine. The end of the Muslim rule in Jerusalem

1917 CE – The British government makes promises to Arab leaders for an independent Arab state that would include Palestine (the Hussain-McMahon correspondence). Simultaneously, and secretly, it makes promises to the Zionists for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine (the Balfour Declaration). Jews are only 8% of the population at this time, and so the British government starts bringing in Jews from Europe into Israel.

1948 CE – Jews establish a state for themselves over the land of Palestine and call it Israel. Thousands of Muslims are forced out of their homes.