The Zealous Intruders: The Western Rediscovery of Palestine"At the end of the eighteenth century, in the wake of Napoleon's disastrous invasion, Palestine was seen by the West as a barren and neglected country in need of Western enterprise--a belief that led to the greatest rush to the Holy Land since the Crusades. Naomi Shepherd's account of how the West rediscovered Palestine illuminates the fantasies and the figures: There were the explorers like Seetzen and Burckhardt, using Palestine to train for Arabia, who found the sites of antiquity at the height of classical revival. There were scholars like Robinson and Tristram, who struggled to match scriptural truth with scientific progress, and painters like Holman Hunt who tried to portray it. There were the Western consuls, rulers by proxy, who were exploited by their protégés and compromised by their colonists. There were the tourists led by Thomas Cook, who suffered like penitential pilgrims without their compensations. Antiquarians seeking evidence of a colossal Jewish antiquity found the ambiguous remains of several cultures, and the great archaeologist Clermont Ganneau was hounded out of Palestine by his rivals. Finally, there were the missionaries who attempted to convert the poor and orthodox Jews to Christianity, but brought them closer to the assimilated and wealthy Jew of the West. Thus, rescued from oblivion, the object of so many interests, fantasies, and anxieties in Europe and America, Palestine defied and resisted the West as strongly as it obsessed and challenged it."--Book jacket. |
Contents
The Rediscovery of Palestine | 11 |
The Baroque in the Desert | 45 |
Palestine and the Authentication | 73 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Akil Aga Akil's American ancient Arab Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews authenticity Bankes Bedouin Beirut Bergheim Bible biblical bishop British consul Buckingham Burckhardt Catholic century Christian church Clarke Conder Constantinople consular converts Cook Cook's Crimean War Crusaders Damascus Dead Sea desert Djezzar Druse East Eastern Egypt Egyptian England English escort Europe European Finn Finn's firman foreign France French consul Fund's Galilee Ganneau German governor of Acre Greek Orthodox Henadi Holy City Holy Land Holy Sepulchre inscriptions Jaffa Jerusalem Jewish Jews of Palestine Jordan journey kavass later Levant London Lynch mission missionaries Montefiore Moslem Mount Nablus Napoleon Nazareth Noble Sanctuary officers Oriental Ottoman painters painting Palestine Exploration Fund Pasha peasants Petra photographs pilgrims Porte protégés Protestant Prussian rabbis reported ruins Sakhr Sanctuary Saulcy scholars Scriptures Seetzen sent Sheikh Sinai soldiers stone Syria Templars Temple Temple Mount Tiberias took tourists town travellers tribes Turkish Turks village visitors Warren West Western wrote