This may well be true in part, but it is also true that there has been a
settled Arabic speaking population in the country since the time of its
conquest by the Muslim Arabs in the 7th century CE. The town of Ramla, for
example, was founded by the Arabs in the early 8th century CE as the
administrative centre of what was known to them as the province of
Palestine. No doubt since then the Arab population has risen and fallen at
different times with changing economic and political circumstances, but it
seems likely that the population of the land has included Arabic speaking
people for many centuries.
This is, I hope, intended to be informative rather than controversial or
polemical There is a brief but interesting scholarly history of early
Muslim Palestine, from the point of view of a western Islamicist, in the
Encyclopaedia of Islam (New Edition), volume 2, pp.910-13.
Richard Kimber
Richard Kimber Phone (direct line): (0) 1334 463635
Department of Arabic Studies Fax: (0) 1334 462914
University of St Andrews E-mail: rak2@st-and.ac.uk
St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ, SCOTLAND