From 1515 to 1517, the Ottoman armies under Sultan Selim I Yavuz (“the Cruel”) seized power from the Mamelukes in Syria-Palestine, in Egypt, and in Western Arabia before extending their territory as far as the Maghreb (Morocco). The Ottomans (or Osmanlis), originally from Anatolia, took their name from one of their leaders, Othman, who died at the beginning of the fourteenth century. As a general policy, they respected existing political and religious structures wherever they conquered. Local leaders, the aristocracy and the different religious communities maintained their privileged status and were integrated into the Ottoman administration on condition that they pledge allegiance to the Sultan.

Palestine was at first part of the administrative province of Damascus but became an independent province (pachalik) at the beginning of the eighteenth century; it was itself divided into three sanjaks: Acre, Nablus and Jerusalem. It was on these administrative bases that the pashas, or governors, supported by the local farmers, imposed order and collected taxes. During this period, the Palestinian countryside, and also the cities in the interior experienced a general decline. The diversion of commercial routes in favour of the Atlantic, after the discovery of the Cape Route (Vasco da Gama), diminished the commercial importance of the Palestinian ports (Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Gaza) while the Sultan of the Sublime Port pursued a foreign policy of capitulations (economic and political concessions to the European powers and merchants) commencing in the sixteenth century. A first treaty of this kind was signed in 1535 between Suleyman the Magnificent and Francis I of France.

The viceroy of Egypt, Mohammad Ali, took advantage of the Ottomans’ weak defenses and he governed Palestine from 1832 to 1840. The European powers supported the Ottoman Empire against Egypt, using their position to have an increasingly greater say in Turkish internal affairs. The ostensible need to “protect” Christians in the Orient and other minority groups became a favourite device to consolidate European presence on the ground. In the nineteenth century, Ottoman reforms on land ownership permitted a semi-feudal class to become owners of immense fiefdoms. Independent farmers and especially the ports Jaffa and Haifa and the towns, essentially Jerusalem, experienced an economic boom based on increased exports, soaring numbers of pilgrims and the establishment of European religious communities.

Circa 1900, Palestine’s population was 600,000 (87% Muslim, 10% Christian, and 3% Jewish). During World War I, the Palestinian population suffered from Turkish repression, forced mobilization and requisitions. These final years of Ottoman domination contributed to fix in the collective memory the image of the Ottoman authority as parasitical and brutal.