How peace flourished in Ottoman Palestine: A story of coexistence

As Israel relentlessly pounds Gaza with high explosives, while continuing to impose a brutal occupation in the West Bank and legislating more divisive laws in Israel proper people across the world can be heard asking — why is the history of the region so very soaked in blood? Perhaps, this is because of a general lack of historical knowledge, or because of a long-running campaign in the Western media, in which aspects of history are deliberately elided.

In hindsight, the troubles for Palestine began when, in 1918, the Ottoman Empire was forced to cede the territory to the League of Nations, who handed it over for the British to administer as a Mandate. As it was later revealed, the British and the French had other ideas, having already secretly signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916 and publicly announced the Balfour Declaration in 1917.

What unfolded afterwards is well-known. Less known is what existed before. In other words, a continuous, 401-year-long rule of the Ottoman Empire — a period marked by peace, harmonious coexistence and flourishing of local culture.

For the Ottomans, Palestine’s importance stemmed from its historical capital Jerusalem, which is regarded as Islam’s third holiest city after Mecca and Medina. For the Ottoman dynasty, which already held the Islamic Caliphate, the stewardship of these lands was viewed as a sacred duty.

And yet, given Jerusalem’s position as sacred to the two other Abrahamic religions, it never tried to disturb the harmony that existed between believers of different religions who lived in the Holy Lands.

Raja Shehadeh, a Ramallah-based Palestinian lawyer, writer and co-founder of the award-winning Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq, reiterated this understanding to TRT World.

He has decided to trace his Ottoman uncle's footsteps and delve into the historical landscape of Ottoman Palestine, perhaps with the hope of embalming pain with memory. Through his literary work, A Rift in Time, published in 1997, he captures the once-desirable Ottoman identity, offering readers a profound insight into life during the era.

“Ottoman Palestine holds great significance towards understanding Palestinian history and identity. It was a time when the three monotheistic religions coexisted without conflict,” he says.

Ottoman arrival in Palestine

When the Ottoman ruler Selim I, famously known as Selim the Resolute, conquered the regions that now make up modern-day Syria and Palestine in the 16th century, the Levant had already endured multiple turmoils.

Before their defeat by the legendary Ayyubid Sultan Salahuddin al Ayyubi in 1187, Crusaders from Europe had repeatedly invaded Palestine and massacred a significant portion of the Muslim population.

After the Battle of Marj Dabiq, during which Sultan Selim conquered Jerusalem and the surrounding Palestinian territories from the Mamluks, a reconstruction process unfolded in this historic region. Palestine, divided into multiple administrative provinces, experienced a remarkable 401-year-long period of stability, enabled by the unity and harmony of its diverse society.

Travels with ‘Ottoman uncle’

Najib Nassar, Raja Shehadeh’s great-uncle, was a Christian Palestinian who lived in the late 19th and early 20th century Palestine, just before the British Mandate started. He had rejected all other identities and insisted on defining himself as “Ottoman”.

Over a century later, Najib’s journey enables us to escape the Occupation through our imagination “into a better, more peaceful time of open borders that has all become so distant from the present confining reality,” Shehadeh says.

Uncle Najib was a persistent advocate of the Ottoman presence in his homeland, even during the three years or more he spent evading Ottoman soldiers due to his vocal opposition to the Empire's involvement in World War I. Through it all, he never wavered in his commitment to his "Ottomanness".

What motivated Najib's strong attachment to the Ottoman identity? Understanding this can shed light on why diverse communities in Ottoman Palestine shared similar feelings.

A fatherly state

Preserving harmony for Palestine's multi-religious population resulted from the Ottoman Empire's determination not to pursue colonisation in the region.

“The Ottomans may have needed reforms, of course, but ultimately, it was a multi-ethnic regime that never attempted to colonise the region,” Shehadeh says in A Rift in Time, voicing his uncle.

The coexistence stemmed from the Ottoman administrative mechanism known as the "millet system", aptly described as the "talisman" of societal harmony by Mim Kemal Oke, historian and professor of International Relations at Istanbul Ticaret University.

The term "millet", commonly defined as a "religious community", was employed by the Ottomans to represent non-Muslim religious communities.

The central authority didn’t categorise the minority groups based on their ethnic backgrounds. Rather, they were organised according to their religious affiliations. Through a structured series of negotiations with the leaders of these religious communities, the millet system emerged as a successful example of non-territorial autonomy.

The Empire governed various religious minority groups under a single rule and played a reconciliatory role among them, as Professor Oke tells TRT World. This was an inherent result of the State's paternalistic governance approach, overseeing and coordinating interactions among different groups.

The central authority recognised various religious groups, such as the Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Catholic and Protestant denominations among Christians, granting them the autonomy to appoint their leaders, manage their internal affairs, preserve their language, maintain independent courts and practise religious beliefs. Members of these communities often occupied prominent roles in government and pursued various economic and professional endeavours.

As historian Beshara B. Doumani also notes, up until the late 19th century, the people of Palestine experienced a significant level of self-governance. By the time the sun set on the Ottoman era, the 1917 Balfour Declaration was offering Jews exclusive political rights to establish a "national home". In contrast, non-Jews, who comprised 90% of the population then, were assured only of civil and religious rights.

The mosaic

The historical impact of the self-governance of the minority communities in Ottoman Palestine could potentially change the way we interpret the region's history, emphasising diversity rather than uniformity.

The centuries-long Ottoman rule provided Palestinian lands "a distinct cultural flavour, mythology and historical memory to each village, town and city, and, at a larger level, to clusters of villages and entire regions,” Prof Doumani says.

Just like Najib Nassar, the vast mosaic of the Empire's subjects were holding tight to their cultural heritages, which seems to have made it easier for them to maintain their loyalty to the State.

What Raja, the author of more than a dozen books on Palestinian heritage, found during his research into Najib’s memory, was that the Christian identity was strong among his uncle’s contemporaries too. “They found no contradiction between being Christian and Ottoman and felt that their rights and freedom to practise their religion were protected. They also felt they could participate as Christians in political life without restraints,” he says.

Abraham's unity

The Muslim population of Palestine, on the other hand, primarily owed their loyalty to the central authority in Istanbul, given that the Ottoman Sultan held the role of the Caliph, the head of the Muslim community worldwide. They perceived themselves as citizens rather than mere subjects of the Empire, and this overarching Ottoman identity took precedence over narrower ethnic affiliations, according to Prof Oke.

Similar to various characteristics in the region, this too was destined to evolve, influenced by the rise of nationalism in the 19th century in other parts of the world. It was followed by the emergence of Arab nationalism across Ottoman territories in the 20th century.

Today, the Ottoman practice of giving unique laws applicable to each religious group is still followed by most countries in the Middle East, the Ramallah-based author explains.

“Yet the kind and extent of coexistence prevalent in the Ottoman era is no longer possible, mainly because of the politicisation of religion, which had not been the case then,” he adds.

The enduring harmonious spirit still resonates to this day through an inscription at the Jaffa gate of Jerusalem's old city, placed there by Suleiman I, famously known as "Suleiman the Magnificent". It reads, "There is no God but Allah, and Abraham is His friend." This statement serves to unite believers of all three Abrahamic religions, as they all revere Abraham as a prominent figure.

The historical realities that contrast with today’s occupied Palestine mean, for Shehadeh, that “Ottoman times are looked back upon with nostalgia and yearning for the time when there were no borders between the states created by Western imperialists after World War I.”