• The Ottoman Empire

The structure of the Arab Caliphate gradually broke down and at the beginning of the 16^th

century, after a period of local dynasties and constant wars, Palestine was conquered by

the Ottoman Turks, who establish in Western Asia, North Africa and the Balkans an empire

which survived, although diminished and in decay, until 1918.

The empire was never a Turkish racial state in which the Arabs were a subject people.

The ruler was a Turk by descent and the language of administration was Turkish, but in

essence the empire like the Arabs were fully a part of the Ottoman community. Moreover

 the Government did nothing to suppress the national life of its citizens and provinces.

Until the reforms of the later 19^th century the empire was not a centralized bureaucratic

state but a loose collection of local communities. The Government interfered rarely and

intermittently in the local affairs of the empire, except to collect taxes and put down

the over-mighty subject. The ordinary life of the people was regulated by customary and

traditional law  and by the requirements of an immemorial economic and social system.

Just as each local community was left free to follow its own path, so too each local

community was left free to follow its own conduct of its religious affairs. The Kews of the

Empire as well as terminous with the empire organized under its spiritual heads and

recognized by the Sultan as possessing authority in matters of communal interest and

personal status, and as competent to speak for all its members in their dealing with the

state. Each “Millet” had power to own and administer its own property, to dispense its

own laws in internal matters and to worship as it thought fit. At times the Empire afforded a

refuge to Jews who were persecuted in Europe. When the Jews were turned out of Spain in

the 15^th and 16^th centuries many of them found a refuge in the Ottoman Empire, where,

since they came without any political ambitious as a community, their descendants have

lived in peace until recent times.

From the book: The Future of Palestine. Prepared by the Arab Office, London. 1947.