Palestine

A Four Thousand Year History

By: Nur Masalha

Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi

This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine's millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history.

Starting with the earliest references in Egyptian and Assyrian texts, Nur Masalha explores how Palestine and its Palestinian identity have evolved over thousands of years, from the Bronze Age to the present day. Drawing on a rich body of sources and the latest archaeological evidence, Masalha shows how Palestine's multicultural past has been distorted and mythologized by Biblical lore and the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

In the process, Masalha reveals that the concept of Palestine, contrary to accepted belief, is not a modern invention or one constructed in opposition to Israel, but rooted firmly in ancient past. Palestine represents the authoritative account of the country's history.

©2018 Nur Masalha (P)2021 Tantor

Incredibly well researched and important

This is truly a monumental work that needs to be read especially right now. It lays out four millennia of history with irrefutable sources.

The honest, impartial, and open point of view of this history

I love that it took from all parts of historians, both Zionists views, Israeli historians and Arab Historians to complete this history book. I love that it started thousands of years ago, so it’s a more complete history of that land. It’s incredibly devastating to know what is happening to Palestine, and this book gives a great history of how everything came into play and why. I didn’t know much about the Zionists, but I completely understand now why they are disliked among Arab communities while also writing a complete 3rd party unbiased view of the History of Palestine.

A True History of Palestine

This is a true history of Palestine going back 4,000 years. For those who wish to study the history of Palestine, this is a great book. This book also describes how Palestine began to be colonized beginning from the later years of the 19th century to today. The Author gives a detailed description of ways how European Zionists colonized the land of Palestine first by purchasing land and later by brute force. The authur also debunks the Zionist story based on mythology and ancient scriptures.

A must read

A must read to understand the Palestinian struggle against Zionists oppression . Nur debunked all lies that Palestine was a land without people using historical facts not fiction

Excellent but flawed history of the eastern Mediterranean

This title does most of what it sets out to do, but there are elements of it that tend to discredit it's attempts to represent itself as a corrective to more ideological historiography. That will be obvious to any reader or listener encountering ideology bound terms like “settler colonialism” or “metanarrative” that are used without qualification or explication.

The audiobook is is generally well done, but it does have some jarring aspects. The narrator is careful to pronounce obscure liturgical language place names from Hebrew or Arabic correctly, while flubbing well-known names from German( (Tubingen) or Akkadian (Amarna) or Greek (Akre) which are somewhat strangely pronounced incorrectly as if they were English. More jarring is the occasional Persian place name like “Kurdistan” which are pronounced as if they were Arabic.