Ancient Gaza: The History and Legacy of the Crucial Territory during Antiquity

by Charles River Editors

The Gaza Strip is one of the most controversial hotbeds of conflict in the 21st century, but wars are nothing new to this area of the world. Like other places across the Middle East, it has exchanged hands for three millennia and seen empires rise and fall. In the same vein, the current borders of the area known as Gaza have ebbed and flowed, to the extent that the Gaza Strip didn't have its present borders until the 20th century. Before then, Gaza City and the land around it were linked strongly to the rest of Canaan, the Sinai Peninsula, and Egypt.

Although borders changed, there has historically been a significant difference between the Mediterranean coast of Canaan and its hilly interior. Gaza has played a role as an integral part of the coastal system and was usually under the control of the political and cultural entity dominant there and in the nearby plains. This remains important in the modern world, because for many complex political, religious, and social reasons, the ancient history of the region plays a role in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Today, the Arabs living in Gaza City and the Gaza Strip (and many other parts of the Middle East and the world) are named Palestinians, but while they are indirectly named after the Philistines, they are not their descendants in any direct manner. The Philistines disappeared from the region around the 6th century BCE, but after putting down a Jewish rebellion in Judea, the Romans renamed the province Palaestina. The name was meant to snub the Jews and attempt to wipe their memory away after a particularly devastating revolt against the Roman Empire. At the same time, while no one living in Palestine or Israel today is directly descended from the Philistines, there are extremely close genetic ties between the Jews and Arabs in the area, a reminder of just how far back history stretches around Gaza.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

72 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 16, 2021

About the author

Charles River Editors is an independent publisher of thousands of ebooks on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Apple iBookstore & provider of original content for third parties.

Reviews

[Nakarem · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe 1.5*?
Apparently David vs Goliath took place around Gaza... I think that's the only thing I've learned and even that I feel like I already knew. I'd rather have read an annotated version of the relevant biblical passages than this, honestly.
Also very inconsistent with what is considered an actual source and what isn't. It does say the "bad" sources at least help with learning about the times' vibe or whatever but then it goes on to only talk about those bad sources and considering how short this is..? Idk man but that doesn't make sense.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but

Ancient Gaza was interesting but what got me was the fact that in one place of the book they referred to the Biblical reference as a myth, and yet they kept referring to the Bible over and over again. To me that seems hypocritical. The other thing that bothered me was, was the writer stated that Sennacherib destroyed the first temple. No he didn't. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, destroyed it.

[Jerry Jares · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some errors; the major one is regarding the first Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. This book erroneously said Sennacherib, one of the most famous Assyrian kings, destroyed the first temple. The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple while carting off most of its treasures.

After the three-century rule of Egypt over most of the Levant, the Philistines became essential rulers. However, the Philistines and, later, the Persians were not literate, so information is sketchy at best. This book uses the Bible to discuss the changing tides of leadership over the Levant and Gaza.

This ebook is not as engaging and well-written as most Charles Rivers books. I was disappointed.