PALESTINE, in its present state, is a part of Asiatic Turkey, situated between 31° 30' and 33° 20' north latitude, and between 34° 50' and 37° 15' east longitude. It is bounded by Mount Libanus, which divides it from Syria, on the north; by Mount Hermon, which separates it from Arabia Deferta, on the east; by the mountains of Seir and the deserts of Arabia Petraea, on the south; and by the Mediterranean sea on the west.

This once fertile and happy spot was first called the land of Canaan, or Chanaan, from Noah's grandson. In Scripture, however, it is frequently distinguished by other names; such as the Land of Promise, the Land of God, the Land of Israel, &c. It received the name of Palestine from the Philistines or Philistines, who possessed a great part of it; and it had the name of Judea, or Judaea-Palestina, from Judah, the most considerable of the twelve sons of Jacob. The Christians have denominated it the Holy Land; partly on account of the many singular blessings it received from the Divine Providence, and partly on account of its metropolis being made the centre of God's worship and his peculiar habitation; but much more for its being the place of our Saviour's birth, the scene of his preaching and manifold miracles; especially the place in which he accomplished the great work of our redemption. As to the name of Judea, it did not begin to receive that till after the return of the Jews from the Babylonia. nith captivity, though it had been styled long before the Kingdom of Judah, in opposition to that of Israel, which revolted from it under Jeroboam, in the reign of Rehoboam the son of Solomon. But after the return, the tribe of Judah, the only one that made any figure, settling at Jerusalem, and in the countries adjacent, quickly gave its name to the whole territory. By pro- fane authors it was called by many different names; such as Syria, Palestina, Syria, Cælesteria, Iduma, Idu- maea, and Phoenicia or Phenice; but these are suppo- sed only to have been given out of contempt to the Jewish nation, whom they looked upon as unworthy of any other name than what distinguished the most ob- scure parts of the neighbouring provinces.

That part of the country which was properly called the Land of Promise, was inclosed on the west by the Mediterranean; on the east by the lake Asphaltites, the Jordan, and the sea of Tiberias or of Galilee, and the Samachonite lake; to the north it had the moun- tains of Libanus, or rather of Antilibanus, or the pro- vince of Phoenicia; and to the south, that of Edom or Idumæa, from which it was likewise parted by another ridge of high mountains. The boundaries of the other part, which belonged to the two tribes and an half beyond the river Jordan, are not so easily defined, as well as those of the conquests made by the more pro- sperous kings of the Jews. All that can be said with any probability is, that the river Arnon was the first northern boundary on that side; and with respect to those on this side the Jordan, there is a considerable disagreement between the Hebrew and Samaritan ver- sions of the Pentateuch.

The extent of this country is likewise variously set- tled by geographers; some giving it no more than 170 or 180 miles from north to south, and 140 in breadth where broadest, though not much above half that breadth where narrowest. But from the latest and most accurate maps, it appears to extend near 200 miles in length, and about 80 in breadth about the middle, and about 10 or 15, more or less, where it widens or shrinks.

The climate is certainly very happy, its situation be- ing neither too far south nor too far north. The long- est day is not above 14 hours 15 minutes: But the li- mits of Palestine appear so small, considering that the country is likewise intersected by high ridges or moun- tains, woods, deserts, &c. that many learned men have been induced to question what we read of its fertility and populousness in former times. It must be owned, indeed, that when we compare its ancient and flourishing state, when it was cultivated with the utmost diligence by persons well skilled in every branch of agriculture, with what it hath been since the total extirpation of the Jews out of it, and more especially since it fell into the hands of the Turks, the contrast is amazingly great; but when we consider the many evident causes which have contributed to effect this change, and even yet consider the nature of the country itself, we find not the least reason to doubt the truth of what the sacred historians have related. Moses describes the richness of it in the strongest terms, even before the Israelites got possession of it. It even exceeded the land of E- gypt, so much celebrated by ancient historians; espe- cially in the vast numbers of cattle which it produced; in the quantity and excellence of its wine, oil, and fruits. With respect to the oil and fruits, it is plain, Palestine, that the olives and oil of Canaan exceeded in goodness those of Egypt, since the tribes sent them thither from thence; and as for vines, Herodotus tells us, that the Egyptians had none at all, but supplied the want of them by a liquor brewed from barley. The presents which Jacob sent to his son Joseph, of honey, spices, myrrh, almonds, and other fruits of Palestine, show that they must have been much better in the land of Judæa than in Egypt. The wines of Gaza, Acalon, and Sarepta, were famous among the most remote na- tions; though it is allowed, that the wine which was made at and in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, in great quantities, was equal at least, if not superior, to any of the rest: and that of Lebanon, mentioned by the prophet Hosea, was no less celebrated for its ex- cellent flavour.

Several circumstances contributed to this wonderful fecundity: such as, the excellent temperature of the air, which was never subject to excessive heats or colds; the regularity of its seasons, especially the former and latter rain; and the natural richness and fertility of its soil, which required neither dunging nor manuring, and could be ploughed with a single yoke of oxen and a small kind of plough; for the soil was, and is still, so shallow, that to have gone deep into it, would rather have endangered than improved the crop. With respect to the excellency of its corn, we are told, that the bread of Jerusalem was preferred above all other; and the tribe of Asher produced the best of both, and in greater quantity than any other tribe; and such plen- ty was there of it, that, besides what sufficed the in- habitants, who made it their chief sustenance, Solo- mon, we read, could afford to send 20,000 cors, or measures, of it, and as many of oil, yearly, to Hiram king of Tyre; besides what they exported into other countries. And we find, even to late as King Herod, surnamed Agrippa, the countries of Tyre and Sidon received most of their sustenance from his tetrarchy.

As to their fruits, the grapes were delicious, finely flavoured, and very large. The palm tree and its dates were in no less request; and the plain of Jericho, among other places, was famed for the great plenty and excellence of that fruit; infomuch, that the me- tropolis of that territory was emphatically styled the city of palm-trees. But what both this plain, and other parts of Palestine, were most celebrated for, was the balsam shrub, whose balm was esteemed so precious a drug among the Greeks, Romans, Egyp- tians, and other nations, and is still to this day under the name of balm of Gilead. They had likewise the greatest variety of other fruit-trees in the highest per- fection; and which might be, in some sense, styled perpetual, because they were not only covered with a constant verdure, but because the new buds always appeared on the same boughs before the old fruit was ripe; and of those buds, which were in too great quantities to be allowed to come to maturity, they gathered enough to make very delightful pickles and sweetmeats, especially of their citrons, oranges, and apples of paradise, which last commonly hung by hun- dreds in a clutter, and as big as hens eggs, and of an excellent taste and flavour. Their vines yielded grapes twice, and sometimes three times, a year, great quan- tities of which were dried up, and preserved for use, as Palestine, well as their figs, plums, and other fruits. They had plenty of honey; the very trees distilled it; and the rocks yielded it in great quantities: but whether that of the latter kind was there deposited by the industrious bees, or produced some other way, is much disputed by travellers and naturalists. They likewise cultivated sugar-canes in great abundance; and the cotton, hemp, and flax, were mostly of their own growth and manufacture, except some of a finer sort, that were brought to them from Egypt, and worn by those of the higher rank. Their vicinity to Lebanon made the cedars, cyprusses, and other stately fragrant trees, very common in most parts of the land, but more especially in Jerusalem. Cattle, both large and small, they fed in vast quantities; and the hilly countries not only afforded them variety and plenty of pasture, but also of water, which descended thence into the valleys and lowlands, and fertilized them to the degree we have seen; besides several other rivers and brooks, some of the most remarkable of which we shall speak of in their proper places. But the most fertile pasture grounds were those on each side the river Jordan; besides those of Sharon, or Sarona, the plains of Lydda, Jannia, and some others then justly famed for their fecundity. As for fish, the rivers above-mentioned, the lake of Tiberias, and the Mediterranean sea, afforded, as they do to this day, great plenty and variety. Vast quantities were brought to Jerusalem, on which the inhabitants mostly subsisted; and hence one of the gates of that metropolis was, according to St Jerome, called the fish-gate. The lake Asphaltites yielded salt in abundance, wherewith to season and preserve their fish, which Galen affirms to have been preferable to any other for wholesomeness, digestion, and extenuation. In short, the Scripture is so pregnant with proofs of the extraordinary richness and fecundity of this once happy land, and the vast number of people that lived in it, almost wholly upon its product, to say nothing of the vast exports of its corn, wine, oil, raisins, and other fruits, &c., that a man must have taken a strange turn to infidelity, that can call it in question, merely on account of the melancholy and quite opposite figure it now makes under its present tyrannical government.

But its fertility has been called in question; and Voltaire and other infidel writers have raised difficulties and objections against the authority of Scripture, from the pretended sterility of the land of Judea. In answer to which, the Abbé Guénéé, about the year 1780, communicated to the academy of inscriptions and belles lettres at Paris, Two Memoirs concerning the Fertility of Palestine, in order to show that such objections had no solid foundation.

In the first of them, the author proves, that from the captivity of Babylon to the war of Adrian, Judea was always considered as a rich and fertile country. The positive and multiplied authorities of the writers of that period, Jews, Greeks, and Romans, not only attest in general the fertility of that country, but many of these writers, entering into a particular detail of circumstances, prove it from the nature of the climate, the qualities of the soil, and the excellencies and variety of its productions. These are confirmed by proofs of another kind, but which are of a very convincing nature, even those resulting from a great number of medals struck under the reigns of the kings of Syria and Judea, and under the Romans, both by Jews and Pagans, and which all bear the symbols of a rich fertility. To these proofs are added a multitude of facts, recorded in the history of the Jews during this period; the efforts of the neighbouring kings to conquer their country; the long and bloody wars that the Jews carried on with vigour, and sometimes with success, against powerful princes and nations; the tribute and taxes they paid to the kings of Egypt and Syria, to the Romans, and to their own princes; the magnificence of their sovereigns, and among others of Herod; the troops he raised and kept on foot; the temples, fortresses, palaces, and cities, which he erected and embellished, not only in his own country, but also in Syria, Asia Minor, and even in Greece; the immense sums he lavished among the Romans, the donations he made to his own people, and the vast treasures which he left behind him: all these circumstances concur in proving the fertility and riches of Palestine during that period.

In the second memoir, the Abbé Guénéé considers the state of Palestine as it was from the time of the Emperor Adrian to the caliphate of Omar, which comprehends a period of four centuries. From sundry facts he shows, that it could not then have been the barren country which it has been represented by some sceptical writers. He particularly mentions the project formed by Adrian of rebuilding and embellishing Jerusalem, of forming it into a Roman colony, and giving it its own name; a project of which he could never have entertained a thought, if Judea, which he had seen and examined with his own eyes, had appeared to him such a barren and wretched country, as it is said to be by some who have neither seen that country nor examined the matter with care and attention. Our author also produces a variety of other facts, to show that Judea, after all that it had suffered from the defolations of war both in ancient and later times, still remained at the period in question fertile, rich, and populous. This is the idea which the writers of the time, Pagan and Christian, as well as Jewish, have given of Palestine. Antoninus Martyr, a citizen of Placentia, who in the 6th century travelled to Palestine, and composed an account of his voyage, which is still extant, says, that the canton of Nazareth was not inferior to Egypt in corn and fruits; and that though the territory of that city was not very extensive, it abounded in wine and oil, and excellent honey. The country about Jericho appeared to him still more fertile. He saw mount Tabor, which he represents as surrounded with cities; and he observed, in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, vineyards, great plantations of fruit trees, and through the whole country a considerable number of hospitals, monasteries, and beautiful edifices. Our learned Abbé, in concluding his work, acknowledges, that the opulence and fertility of Judea might begin to diminish towards the middle of the period treated of in his second memoir; but he does not think that any argument can be drawn from hence against its having been at the commencement of this period in a flourishing state; and much less can any proof be brought from hence, that in preceding periods, Besides, it ought to be considered, that it was then inhabited by an industrious people, who knew how to improve every inch of their land, and had made even the most desert and barren places to yield some kind of productions, by proper care and manure; so that the very rocks, which now appear quite bare and naked, were made to produce corn, pulse, or pasture; being, by the industry of the old inhabitants, covered with mould, which, through the laziness of the succeeding proprietors, has been since washed off with rains and storms. We may add, that the kings themselves were not above encouraging all kind of agriculture, both by precept and example; and, above all, that they had the divine blessing promised to their honest endeavours and industry: whereas it is now, and hath been long since, inhabited by a poor, lazy, indolent people, groaning under an intolerable servitude and all manner of discouragements; by which their aversion to labour and agriculture, farther than what barely serves to supply their present wants, is become in a manner natural and invincible. We may farther observe, after the judicious Mr Maundrell, that there is no forming an idea of its ancient flourishing state, when under the influence of heaven, from what it is now under a visible curse. And, if we had not several concurring testimonies from profane authors, who have extolled the fecundity of Palestine, that single one of Julian the apostate, a sworn enemy to Jews and Christians, as well as to all the sacred writings, would be more than sufficient to prove it; who frequently makes mention, in his epistles, of the perpetuity, as well as excellence and great abundance, of its fruits and product. The visible effects of God's anger, which this country has felt, not only under Titus Vespasian (when myriads of inhabitants were either slain, or perished by the most severe famine, pestilence, and other calamities; and the rest sold for slaves, into all lands; and new colonies sent to repeople it; who found it in such a desolate state, as quite discouraged them from restoring it to its pristine fruitfulness); but much more since that emperor's time, in the inundations of the northern barbarians, of the Saracens, and of the more cruel and destructive Christians during the holy war; and in the oppression it now feels under the Turkish yoke; may be easily owned to be more than sufficient to have wrought the dismal change we are speaking of, and to have reduced the far greater part into a mere desert.

Nevertheless, if we may credit those who have viewed it in this doleful condition, they will tell us, there are still such visible signs of its natural richness and fertility, as plainly show, that the bare want of culture is the main if not the only cause of its present poverty and barrenness. We shall hint, as a farther proof of this, what a learned traveller hath lately written of it from his own observations.

The Holy Land (says Dr Shaw), were it as well peopled and cultivated as in former times, would still be more fruitful than the very best part of the coast of Syria and Phoenicia; for the soil is generally much richer, and, all things considered, yields a preferable crop. Thus the cotton that is gathered in the plains of Ramah, Esdraelon, and Zebulun, is in great esteem than what is cultivated near Sidon and Tripoli. Neither is it possible for pulse, wheat, or any sort of grain, to be more excellent than what is sold at Jerusalem. The barrenness, or scarcity rather, which some authors may, either ignorantly or maliciously, complain of, doth not proceed from the incapacity or natural unfruitfulness of the country, but from the want of inhabitants, and the great overstock there is to labour and industry in those few who possess it. There are, besides, fierce perpetual discords and depredations among the petty princes who share this fine country, that, allowing it was better peopled, yet there would be small encouragement to sow, when it was uncertain who should gather in the harvest. Otherwise, the land is a good land, and still capable of affording its neighbours the like supplies of corn and oil which it is known to have done in the time of Solomon."

And Volney, in his Travels in Egypt and Syria, observes, that though the whole of Palestine is almost an entire level plain, without either river or rivulet in summer, and only watered by the winter torrents, the soil is yet good, and may even be termed fertile; so when the winter rains do not fail, every thing springs up in abundance; and the earth, which is black and fat, retains moisture sufficient for the growth of grain and vegetables during the summer. More doura, fennel, water-melons, and beans, are grown here than in any other part of the country. They also raise cotton, barley, and wheat; but though the latter be most esteemed, it is less cultivated, for fear of too much inviting the avarice of the Turkish governors and the rapacity of the Arabs.

Judea, in its largest sense, was divided into maritime and inland, as well as into mountainous and champaign; and again subdivided into Judea on this side, and Judea beyond Jordan. But the most considerable division is that which was made among the twelve tribes, by lot, to prevent all murmuring and discontent among that stubborn people*; of these, two and a half were feasted beyond Jordan, and the rest on this side. The next remarkable division was made by king Solomon, who divided his kingdom into twelve provinces or districts, each under a peculiar officer; and every one of these was to supply the king with provisions for his household in his turn; that is, each for one month in the year†. But the most fatal division of all was, that which obtained under his imprudent son Rehoboam; when ten of the twelve tribes revolted, under the conduct of Jeroboam, who became head of this new monarchy, styled the kingdom of Israel, in opposition to that of Judah, the title which distinguished the named kingdom of Rehoboam from that time downwards. Under the second temple the division lasted a considerable time, and the same bloody hatred and hostilities continued between these two kingdoms; that of Israel taking the name of Samaria from its capital. The inhabitants were a mixture of the old Israelites, and of new colonies sent thither by the kings of Assyria after their conquest of it, till they were subdued by the Maccabees, and their metropolis destroyed. Under the Romans it began to be divided into tetrarchies and toparchies: the larger were those of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, Upper and Lower; the lesser, those of Geraritica, Sarona, and others of less note. Palestine, all which lay on this side of the Jordan. The rest, on the other side, were those of Gilead, Persea, Gaulonitis, Auranitis, Batanea, and Decapolis. Josephus Antiq. lib. mentions another division made in Gabinius's time into five districts, or, as he styles them, συντάξεις or councils, agreeable to the Roman manner; these were Jerusalem, Jericho, and Sephoris on this side Jordan; and Gadara and Amathus on the other. In the reigns of the Christian emperors, it was divided afresh into Palestina Prima, Palestina Secunda, and Palestina Tertia or Salutaris; which last included the far greater part, if not the whole country, as is known to all who are acquainted with history. On that account we shall waive all other divisions and changes that happened to it under the northern barbarians, Saracens, &c., and conclude this article with the present state and division of it under the Turks.—The whole country of Palestine is now reduced to a district or province, under the beglerbegate or bailiwick of Scham or Damascus, who hath the seven following fangiacs or subgovernors under him, styled, according to the different places of their residence, 1. The fangiac of Damascus, who is under the baili of that province; 2. Of Jerusalem, or, as the Turks call it, Cudjembier or Cudjeshereif; 3. Aglum; 4. Bahara; 5. Scifat; 6. Gaza; 7. Nabulos. Each of these has a number of ziamets, and each ziamet a number of timariots under them; for the better understanding of which terms, we shall refer our readers to Sir Paul Ricaut's account of the Ottoman empire. At present it will be sufficient to say of these inferior subdivisions, under the fangiac of this district, or fangiacate of Jerusalem, that it hath nine of the former and fifteen of the latter class. Neither must the reader imagine these fangiacates or sub-governments to be any thing considerable, or the residence of these officers to be places of any note or opulence. The former indeed live by oppressing the people under them, and extort contributions of every thing that comes within their reach, such as the protection of travellers, merchants, and caravans; but being all under their respective bailis, who are still more gripping than their underlings, they are commonly fleeced of some considerable part of their unjust gains. As for the places of their residence, except it be here and there one in a considerable city, as at Damascus and Jerusalem, the rest are either some old cities or even inconsiderable villages.

There are a variety of curiosities in Palestine both natural and artificial; but they are so very numerous as almost to preclude description: we therefore refer our readers to the Ancient Universal History, Vol. II., where they are mentioned and particularly described. The principal mountains, rivers, and other places of note, have already been, or will be, noticed under their respective names.