Editing Palestinian Christians (section)

===Background and early history===
[[File:Jerusalem Cross.svg|thumb|left|The Jerusalem Cross]]
[[File:Interior of the House of a Christian Family in Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Interior of the house of a Christian family in Jerusalem. By [[William Henry Bartlett|W. H. Bartlett]], {{Circa|1850}}]]
The first Christian communities in [[Judaea (Roman province)|Roman Judea]] originated from the followers of [[Jesus of Nazareth]], who was put to death and [[Crucifixion of Jesus|crucified]] by order of Prefect [[Pontius Pilate]] in 30–33; they were [[Aramaic]] speaking [[Jewish Christian]] and, later, [[Roman Empire|Latin]] and [[Koine Greek|Greek]]-speaking [[ancient Rome|Romans]] and [[Greeks]], who were in part descendants from previous settlers of the regions, such as [[Canaan|Syro-Phoenicians]], [[Arameans]], [[Greeks]], [[Persian people|Persians]], and [[Arab people|Arabs]] such as [[Nabataeans]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Theissen|first=G|title=Sociology of early Palestinian Christianity|year=1978|publisher=Fortress Press|isbn=978-0-8006-1330-3|page=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NovYAAAAMAAJ|access-date=19 March 2016|archive-date=19 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119051344/https://books.google.com/books?id=NovYAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>{{verify source|date=November 2013}}

Contrary to other groups of oriental Christians such as the largely [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] [[Nestorians]], the vast majority of Palestinian Christians went under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate]] and [[Eastern Roman Empire|Roman emperors]] after the [[Council of Chalcedon]] in 451&nbsp;AD (which would be part of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] after the [[East–West Schism|Great Schism]]), and were known by other [[Syriac Christianity|Syrian Christians]] as [[Melkite]]s (followers of the king).<ref name=Thomas16>{{cite book|last=Thomas|first=D. R.|title=Syrian Christians under Islam: The First Thousand Years|year=2001|publisher=Brill|publication-place=Leiden|isbn=978-90-04-12055-6|pages=16–18}}</ref> The Melkites were heavily [[Hellenization|Hellenised]] in the following centuries, abandoning their distinct [[Western Aramaic languages]] in favour of [[Greek language|Greek]]. By the 7th century, [[Jerusalem]], [[Gaza City|Gaza]] and Byzantine Palestine became the epicentre of Greek culture in the Orient.<ref name=Thomas16 />

In the fourth century, the monk [[Hilarion]] introduced monasticism in the area around Gaza which became a flourishing monastic center (including the [[Saint Hilarion Monastery]] and the [[monastery of Seridus]]), second only to the cluster of monasteries in the Judaean desert (which include the [[Mar Saba monastery]]).<ref name=YH04>{{cite book |author= [[Yizhar Hirschfeld|Hirschfeld, Yizhar]] |chapter= The monasteries of Gaza: An archaeological review |pages= 61–62, 87 |editor1= Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony |editor2= Aryeh Kofsky |title= Christian Gaza in Late Antiquity |year= 2004 |publisher= Brill |isbn= 9789004138681 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lA9VwVwoyiAC&pg=PA67 |access-date= 12 November 2023 |archive-date= 9 January 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240109013450/https://books.google.com/books?id=lA9VwVwoyiAC&pg=PA67 |url-status= live }}</ref>

Following [[Muslim conquest of Syria#Conquest of Palestine|Muslim conquests]], non-Arabic speaking Christians underwent a gradual process of [[Arabization]] in which they abandoned [[Aramaic]] and [[Greek language|Greek]] in favor of [[Arabic language|Arabic]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Masalha |first=Nur |date=2016 |title=The Concept of Palestine: The Conception Of Palestine from the Late Bronze Age to the Modern Period |url=https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/hlps.2016.0140 |journal=Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies |language=en |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=143–202 |doi=10.3366/hlps.2016.0140 |issn=2054-1988 |quote=In the mid-7th century the population of Palestine was predominantly Christian, mostly Palestinian Aramaic-speaking Christian peasants who continued to speak the language of Jesus under Islam. |access-date=9 July 2024 |archive-date=4 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231104124136/https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/hlps.2016.0140 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Thomas16"/> The Melkites began abandoning Greek for [[Arabic language|Arabic]], a process which made them the most Arabicised Christians in the Levant.<ref name=Thomas16/> Most Arab [[Ghassanids]] remained Christian and joined [[Melkite]] and [[Syriac Christianity|Syriac]] communities within what is now [[Jordan]], [[Israel]], [[Palestine]], [[Syria]], and [[Lebanon]].<ref name="Bowersock">{{cite book |last1=Bowersock |first1=G. W. |url=https://archive.org/details/lateantiquity00brow |title=Late Antiquity: A guide to the Postclassical World |last2=Brown |first2=Peter |last3=Grabar |first3=Oleg |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1998 |isbn=9780674511705 |quote=Late Antiquity - Bowersock/Brown/Grabar. |url-access=registration}}</ref>

The eleventh century Melkite [[bishop of Gaza]] [[Sulayman al-Ghazzi]] holds a unique place in the history of Arab Christian literature as author of the first [[Diwan (poetry)|diwan]] of Christian religious poetry in Arabic. His poems give insights into the life of Palestinian Christians and the persecution they suffered under [[Fatimid caliph]] [[Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah|al-Hakim]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Noble |first1=Samuel |last2=Treiger |first2=Alexander |title=The Orthodox Church in the Arab World, 700–1700: An Anthology of Sources |date=15 March 2014 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-5130-1 |pages=160–162 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q6rMDwAAQBAJ |access-date=15 January 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

In the late sixteenth century, Christianity in southern [[Bilad al-Sham|Bilad ash-Sham]] was primarily rural, with a significant portion of the population living in villages and tribes. Christians were dispersed among numerous towns and villages in the vicinity of Jerusalem, some had been inhabited by Christians since Byzantine and Frankish rule. Villages with Christian population included [[Taybeh, Ramallah|Taybeh]], [[Beit Rima]], [[Jifna|Jifna an-Nasara]], [[Ramallah]], [[Yabrud, Ramallah|Yabrud]], [[Aboud]], [[Suba, Jerusalem|Suba]], [[Teqoa|Tuqu]], [[Nahalin]], and [[Artas, Bethlehem|Artas]]. The Christians living in these villages were mainly of [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] denomination, although exceptions existed, such as the [[Syriac Christianity|Syrian Christian]] community in Aboud.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Tramontana |first=Felicita |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc16s06 |title=Passages of Faith: Conversion in Palestinian villages (17th century) |date=2014 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-10135-6 |edition=1 |pages=24–25 |chapter=Chapter I "Christians in Seventeenth-century Palestine" |doi=10.2307/j.ctvc16s06.6 |jstor=j.ctvc16s06 |access-date=15 May 2024 |archive-date=15 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240515111016/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc16s06 |url-status=live }}</ref>