Golan Heights: Difference between revisions

The earliest evidence of human habitation on the Golan dates to the [[Upper Paleolithic]] period.<ref>Tina Shepardson. [http://www.bibfor.de/archiv/99-1.shepardson.htm Stones and Stories: Reconstructing the Christianization of the Golan], {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010415195509/http://bibfor.de/archiv/99-1.shepardson.htm |date=15 April 2001 }} Biblisches Forum, 1999.</ref> After [[Assyria]]n and [[Babylonia]]n rule, the region came under the domination of [[Achaemenid Empire|Persia]], and later under the control of [[Alexander the Great]] in 332 BC.<ref name="HaReuveni, Immanuel 1999 pp. 662">HaReuveni, Immanuel (1999). ''Lexicon of the Land of Israel'' (in Hebrew). Miskal – Yedioth Ahronoth Books and Chemed Books. pp. 662–663 {{ISBN|978-965-448-413-8}}.</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">Vitto, Fanny, ''Ancient Synagogue at Rehov'', [[Israel Antiquities Authority]], Jerusalem 1974</ref><ref name="Michael Avi-Yonah 1979 p. 170">Michael Avi-Yonah (1979). ''The Holy Land – from the Persian to the Arab Conquests (536 B.C. to A.D. 640) A Historical Geography'', Grand Rapids, Michigan, p. 170 {{ISBN|978-0-8010-0010-2}}</ref> The [[Iturea]]ns, an [[Arabs|Arab]] or [[Aramaic]] people, settled in the area in the 2nd century BC.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27nq65cZUIgC&pg=PA249 |title=Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land |author1=Avraham Negev |author2=Shimon Gibson |edition=Paperback |publisher=Continuum |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8264-8571-7 |page=249}}</ref><ref name="UrmanFlesher1998">{{cite book |author1=Dan Urman |author2=Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher |title=Ancient synagogues: historical analysis and archaeological discovery |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HQyxvmYV-50C&pg=PA423 |access-date=2 March 2011 |year=1998 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-11254-4 |page=423}}</ref><ref name="Meyers1996">{{cite book |title=The Oxford encyclopedia of archaeology in the Near East |volume=2 |author=Eric M. Meyers |edition=Hardcover |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-19-511216-0 |page=421}}</ref> By the third century AD, the Christian Arab [[Ghassanids|Ghassanid]] kingdom controlled the Golan.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Butcher |first=Kevin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJPn3-rRjC0C&dq=ghassanids+golan&pg=PA71 |title=Roman Syria and the Near East |date=2003 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=978-0-89236-715-3 |language=en}}</ref> The region was later annexed by the [[Rashidun Caliphate]] during the [[Muslim conquest of the Levant]] in the early seventh century. In the 16th century, the Golan was conquered by the [[Ottoman Empire]]. Within [[Ottoman Syria]], the Golan was part of the [[Syria Vilayet]].<ref name=VilayetSyria>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vm5bGBka_4gC&q=vilayet+of+syria&pg=PA20 |title=The Origins and Evolution of the Arab-Zionist Conflict |author=Michael J. Cohen |publisher=University of California Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-520-90914-4 |page=21}}</ref> The area later became part of the [[Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|French Mandate in Syria]] and the [[State of Damascus]].<ref name=StateOfDamascus>{{Citation |title=The French Mandate in Syria |publisher=Editorial Information Service of the Foreign Policy Association |number=5 |series=1925–26 |year=1925 |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hEqF9pok6qIC&q=%22state+of+damascus%22+french+mandate&pg=PP1 |access-date=16 November 2020}}</ref> When the mandate terminated in 1946, it became part of the newly independent [[Syria|Syrian Arab Republic]], spanning about {{cvt|1800|sqkm|sqmi}}.