Misplaced Pages

The population of the region of Palestine, which approximately corresponds to modern Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan, has varied in both size and ethnic composition throughout its history.

The following table shows the total population and that of the main ethno-religious groups living in the area from the First Century CE up until the last full calendar year of the British Mandate, 1947.

Note: Figures prior to the 1500s are all only estimates by researchers. For some periods, there are multiple researchers who have made differing estimates. None should be taken as exact numbers, and further context and detail is available by following links to the full description on Misplaced Pages as well as links to the original information sources.

including what is today the Kingdom of Jordan

References

1. All Samaritan population figures after 1500: "The Samaritan Update". The Samaritanupdate.com. 5 June 2022.
2. Figures are from Roberto Bachi's work: Bachi, Roberto (1977). The Population of Israel. C.I.C.R.E.D. Retrieved 11 December 2023. as cited by Sergio DellaPergola in: Pergola, Sergio della (2001). "Demography in Israel/Palestine: Trends, Prospects, Policy Implications" (PDF). Semantic Scholar. S2CID 45782452. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-08-20.
3. DellaPergola, Sergio (2003). "Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications". The American Jewish Year Book. 103: Table 2. ISSN 0065-8987. S2CID 141880906. Table 2
4. Schwartz, Seth (1984). "Political, social and economic life in the land of Israel". In Davies, William David; Finkelstein, Louis; Katz, Steven T. (eds.). The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period. Cambridge University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0521772488.
5. Tacitus, Histories, Book V, Chapter XIII
6. Josephus. BJ. 6.9.3., Perseus Project BJ6.9.3, .
7. ^ Raviv, Dvir; Ben David, Chaim (2021-05-27). "Cassius Dio's figures for the demographic consequences of the Bar Kokhba War: Exaggeration or reliable account?". Journal of Roman Archaeology. 34 (2): 585–607. doi:10.1017/S1047759421000271. ISSN 1047-7594. S2CID 236389017.
8. Mohr Siebek et al. Edited by Peter Schäfer. The Bar Kokhba War reconsidered. 2003. P142-3.
9. קליין, א' (2011). היבטים בתרבות החומרית של יהודה הכפרית בתקופה הרומית המאוחרת (135–324 לסה"נ).(עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ (Doctoral thesis, Bar-Ilan University) עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ' 314–315. (Hebrew, Aspects in the Material Culture of Rural Judea in the Late Roman Period (135-324 AD))
10. שדמן, ע' (Between Nahal Raba and Nahal Shilo: the layout of the rural settlement in periods 275-271, 2016). בין נחל רבה לנחל שילה: תפרוסת היישוב הכפרי בתקופות ההלניסטית, הרומית והביזנטית לאור חפירות וסקרים. עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ' 271–275. (Doctoral thesis, Bar-Ilan University, Hebrew)
11. ^ Stemberger, Gunter (1 December 1999). Jews and Christians in the Holy Land: Palestine in the Fourth Century. A&C Black. pp. 17–22. ISBN 978-0-567-23050-8. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
12. M. Avi-Yonah, The Jews under Roman and Byzantine Rule, Jerusalem 1984 chapters XI–XII
13. An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations by Edward Kessler P72
14. The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period By William David Davies, Louis Finkelstein, P:409
15. 150,000 expelled in 629 plus 100,000 that remained after 629. Unknown number massacred.
16. Butler, Alfred J. (1902). David Mignery (ed.). "The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of the Roman Dominion".
17. Gil, Moshe: A History of Palestine, 634–1099, p. 9 (1997). Cambridge University Press
18. Schäfer 2003, p. 198: He had promised the Jews ... amnesty ..., but was unable to hold to this. At the insistence of the leaders of the Christians, who had not forgotten the period of Jewish rule from 614 to 617, he once more expelled the Jews from Jerusalem and had to allow large numbers of them to be executed. Balfour 2012, p. 112: The patriarch of Jerusalem executed those who were known to have taken part in the killings.
19. James Parkes (1949). A History of Palestine from 135 A.D. to Modern Times. Victor Gollancz.
20. Crown, Alan David; Pummer, Reinhard; Tal, Abraham (eds.). A Companion to Samaritan Studies. Mohr Siebeck. pp. 70–45.
21. Gil, Moshe (1997). A History of Palestine, 634–1099. Cambridge University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780521599849.
22. ^ "HISTORY: Foreign Domination". Archived from the original on 2013-06-15.
23. Ellenblum, Ronnie (2003). Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521521871.
24. Pergola, Sergio della (2001). "Demography in Israel/Palestine: Trends, Prospects, Policy Implications" (PDF). Semantic Scholar. S2CID 45782452. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-08-20.
25. Broshi, Magen (1979). "The Population of Western Palestine in the Roman-Byzantine Period". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 236 (236): 1–10. doi:10.2307/1356664. ISSN 0003-097X. JSTOR 1356664. S2CID 24341643.
26. Broshi, M., & Finkelstein, I. (1992). "The Population of Palestine in Iron Age II". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 287(1), 47-60.
27. Mukaddasi (1886). Le Strange, G. (ed.). Description of Syria, including Palestine. London: Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society.
28. Ehrlich, Michael (2022). The Islamization of the Holy Land, 634–1800. Arc Humanity Press. pp. 2–3. ISBN 978-1-64189-222-3. OCLC 1310046222.
29. Goitein, S.D. "Contemporary Letters on the Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders." Journal of Jewish Studies 3 (1952), pp. 162–177, pg 163
30. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2020-10-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
31. Kedar, Benjamin Z., Phillips, Jonathan, Riley-Smith, Jonathan: Crusades: Volume 3, p. 82 (2016), Routledge
32. Levy-Rubin, Milka (2000). "New Evidence Relating to the Process of Islamization in Palestine in the Early Muslim Period: The Case of Samaria". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 43 (3): 263. doi:10.1163/156852000511303. JSTOR 3632444. Retrieved 21 January 2024. The evidence concerning the Jewish community comes mainly from the Geniza documents, dating mainly from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, where there is one famous event in which forced mass conversion of Jews and Christians took place: this is the persecution of the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim (1009). Apart from that, although there is evidence of numerous cases of individual conversions, as Goitein remarks: "conversion to Islam was not widespread during the classical Geniza period". (Drawing on Goltein (1971) A Mediterranean Society, vol. 2, p.300 and (1978) A Mediterranean Society, vol. 3, p. 290)
33. Gil, M. A History of Palestine, 634–1099. p. 294
34. Frank Heynick, commenting on Maimonides's decision not to settle there a century later in Heynick, Frank (2002). Jews and medicine, An Epic Saga. KTAV Publishing House. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-88125-773-1.
35. Brog, David (20 March 2017). Reclaiming Israel's History: Roots, Rights, and the Struggle for Peace. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781621576099.
36. Kelly, J. (2005). The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time. Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-000692-1.
37. "Ottoman Rule (1517-1917)".
38. "Jewish & Non-Jewish Population of Israel/Palestine (1517-Present)". Jewish Virtual Library.

Sources

• Balfour, Alan (December 3, 2012). Solomon's Temple: Myth, Conflict, and Faith. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 112–. ISBN 978-0-470-67495-6.
• Schäfer, Peter (2003). The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-30585-3.

• History of Palestine (region)
• Demographics of Asia
• Demographics of the Middle East
• Demographic history by country or region