Rural Settlement Processes in Central Palestine, ca. 640–800 c.e. : The Ramla-Yavneh Region as a Case Study

Abstract

As a partial response to the paucity of synthetic studies that deal with the countryside of the Palestinian heartland during Early Islamic times, this article concentrates on rural settlement processes and rural—urban relationships in a specific part of central Palestine—the Ramla-Yavneh region—between ca. 640 and 800 C.E. Several excavated or systematically surveyed rural sites, located within the immediate hinterland of the region's urban and semi-urban centers, have been chosen as representative case studies. As demonstrated by the archaeological and historical data reassessed in this study, the settlement history of the rural and urban milieu in the Ramla-Yavneh region was by no means uniform, especially for the local, non-Muslim population which experienced significant changes. The rise of the administrative status of the area after the Muslim conquest and the consequent boost to its development, as well as the militarization of the seashore belt, the oppressive taxation of non-Muslims, the earthquake(s) of 747–749 C.E., and other human- and nature-induced events, both documented and undocumented, all played a role in shaping the lives of the region's population. Also, the settlement of Muslim newcomers, in addition to cases of migration and conversion of the local Christians, Samaritans, and Jews, brought about a gradual shift in the religious and ethnic identity of the region's population and landscape.

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