The Construction of an Islamic City in Palestine. The Case of Umayyad al-Ramla

Abstract

At the beginning of the eighth century A.D. a new town was built in Palestine, called al- Ramla (Ramlah of today). It was founded by the then provincial governor, Sulaymān b. ‘Abd al-Malik (d. 717) in order to serve as the capital of Jund Filasṭīn, the southern province of Palestine. The building of a new town, and especially of a capital city, constituted a significant departure in the Palestine environment, for two main reasons. First, it was the first city to be founded after a period of 350 years, i.e., for most of the Byzantine epoch. Second, though the Muslims ruled the country for 1100 years, al-Ramla remained the sole example of a new town in the whole of Palestine.

Politics and narratives: Islamic archaeology in Israel

“…This problem may be related to the shortage of funds, which has also led to the decay of many of its monuments despite the efforts of individual archaeologists (Golan 2003;Petersen 1992Petersen , 1993. There has been a recent attempt by an Israeli historical geographer, Nimrod Luz, to set the archaeology within a regional context and produce a map of the early Islamic city though this was hampered by a limited knowledge of the archaeology (Luz 1997). Currently, the Council for British Research in the Levant is collaborating with the Israeli Antiquities Authority to produce an archaeological map of Ramla together with an assessment of its history and archaeology.…”

Defining Cities and Non-Cities through Emic and Etic Perspectives: A Case Study from Israel/Palestine during Early Islam

“…For example, the metropolis of written sources al-Ramla is considered a 'town' by some modern scholars (e.g. Luz 1997;Kennedy 2010, 55-56). The main problem this list points to is the division between 'cities' and 'non-cities' being simplistic and circular.…”