Iron Age and Hebrew Bible According to the
Bible, Galilee was named by the
Israelites and was the tribal region of
Naphtali and
Dan, at times overlapping the
Tribe of Asher's land. Normally, Galilee is just referred to as "Naphthali".
1 Kings 9 states that
Solomon rewarded his Phoenician ally,
King Hiram I of
Sidon, with twenty cities in the land of Galilee, which would then have been either settled by foreigners during and after the reign of Hiram or by those who had been forcibly deported there by later conquerors such as the
Neo-Assyrian Empire. Hiram, to reciprocate previous gifts given to
David, accepted the upland plain among the Naftali Mountains and renamed it "the land of
Cabul" for a time. In the Iron Age II, Galilee was part of the
Kingdom of Israel, which
fell to the Assyrians. Archaeological survey conducted by Zvi Gal in Lower Galilee indicates that the area became deserted following the Assyrian conquest in the 8th century and remained so for several centuries; the local Israelite population
was carried off to Assyria after 732 BCE. Yardenna Alexandre discovered minor short-lived Israelite settlements in the Naḥal Ẓippori basin, which were built by survivors of the Assyrian conquest. Elsewhere, Galilee was depopulated. But there is evidence of Assyrian presence, based on artefacts in
Cana, and
Konrad Schmid and Jens Schroter believe it was likely that Assyrians settled in the region.
Hellenistic period Up until the end of the
Hellenistic period and before the
Hasmonean conquest, the Galilee was sparsely populated, with the majority of its inhabitants concentrated in large fortified centers on the edges of the western and central valleys. Based on archaeological evidence from
Tel Anafa,
Kedesh, and
ash-Shuhara, the Upper Galilee was then home to a
pagan population with close ties to the
Phoenician coast. A significant wave of Jewish settlement arrived in the region following the
Roman conquest of 63 BCE. Many towns and villages, particularly those around the Sea of Galilee benefited from both fertile land and a thriving fishing industry. Markus Cromhout states that while Galileans, Judeans and diasporic Judeans were all Jewish, the Galileans had their unique social, political and economic matrix. In terms of ethnicity, Galileans were ethnic Judeans, which generally saw themselves also as Israelites, but could be also identified with localized characteristics, such as Sepphorean. Others argue that Galileans and Judeans were distinct people groups. Outsiders generally conflated them due to Hellenistic-Roman culture, which grouped all diverse groups in Palestine and their related diasporas as "Judean". ,
Herod Antipas, the
tetrarch of Galilee from 4 BCE–39 CE, was permitted to mint his own coinage (
shown above). In 4 BCE, a rebel named Judah plundered Galilee's largest city,
Sepphoris. According to Josephus, the Syrian governor
Publius Quinctilius Varus responded by sacking Sepphoris and selling the population into slavery, but the region's archaeology lacks evidence of such destruction. After the death of
Herod the Great that same year, his son
Herod Antipas was appointed as
tetrarch of Galilee by the Roman emperor
Augustus. Galilee remained a Roman
client state and Antipas paid tribute to the
Roman Empire in exchange for Roman protection. record that the itinerant preacher
John the Baptist criticized Antipas over his marriage, and Antipas consequently had him
imprisoned and then beheaded. In 66 CE, during the
Great Jewish Revolt, Josephus was appointed by the
Jerusalem provisional government to command Galilee. The region experienced internal conflicts among cities such as Sepphoris and Tiberias, with factions opposing Josephus's authority and warring for control. Sepphoris and other strong cities attempted to remain neutral by maintaining alliances with Rome. Despite opposition, Josephus managed to secure internal peace and fortified nineteen cities in preparation for the Roman invasion; nearly half of them were uncovered by archaeologists. In 67 CE, the Roman army, led by general
Vespasian, arrived in Acre. Josephus's account,
The Jewish War, details the Roman
campaign in Galilee, starting with the siege and capture of Gabara, followed by Jotapata (where Josephus was captured), and continuing with Tiberias, Taricheae, Gamala, Tabor, and ending in Gischala. While not all of Galilee was devastated, the conquered cities were razed, and many inhabitants were sold into slavery. According to medieval Hebrew legend,
Shimon bar Yochai, one of the most famed of all the
tannaim, wrote the
Zohar while living in Galilee.
Byzantine period After the completion of the Mishnah, which marked the conclusion of the
tannaitic era, came the period of the
amoraim. The
Jerusalem Talmud, the principal work of the amoraim in Palestine, is primarily discussions and interpretations of the Mishnah, and according to academic research, most of it was edited in
Tiberias. The vast majority of the
amoraim named there, as well as the majority of the settlements or place names referenced, were Galileans. During the
Byzantine period, however, Galilee's Jewish population experienced a decline, while Christian settlement grew. Archaeological data indicates that in the third and fourth centuries, several Jewish sites were abandoned, and some Christian villages were established on or near these deserted locations. Certain settlements, such as
Rama,
Magdala,
Kafr Kanna,
Daburiyya, and
Iksal, which were materially Jewish during the Roman period, were now predominantly inhabited by Christians or had a significant Christian population. Safrai and Liebner argue that the decline of the Jewish population and the expansion of the Christian population in the region were separate events that happened at different times. Throughout this period, religious segregation between Christian and Jewish villages endured, with few exceptions like
Capernaum and perhaps
Nazareth, due to their sanctity in Christian tradition. Over time, this area experienced a decline in population due to raids by nomadic groups and insufficient protection from the central government.
Early Muslim and Crusader periods After the
Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s, the Galilee formed part of
Jund al-Urdunn (the military district of Jordan), itself part of
Bilad al-Sham (Islamic Syria). Its major towns were Tiberias the capital of the district,
Qadas,
Beisan,
Acre,
Saffuriya, and
Kabul. During the early Islamic period, Galilee underwent a process of
Arabization and
Islamization, similar to other areas in the region. Under
Umayyad rule, Islamic rule was gradually consolidated in newly conquered territories, and some Muslims settled in the villages, establishing residency there. Later, under
Abbasid rule, geographer
al-Ya'qubi (d. 891), who referred to the region as
Jabal al-Jalil, noted that its inhabitants were Arabs from the
Amila tribe. The Islamization process in which began with the settlement of nomadic tribes. Michael Ehrlich suggests that during the Early Islamic period, the majority of people in the Western Galilee and Lower Galilee likely converted to Islam, while in the Eastern Galilee, the Islamization process continued for a more extended period, lasting until the
Mamluk period. According to Moshe Gil, Jews in rural Galilean areas frequently succeeded in upholding community life during and for decades after the Umayyad period. He comes to the conclusion that several Galilean Jewish communities "retained their ancient character". Today it remains one of Judaism's
four holy cities and a center for
kabbalah. In the mid-17th century Galilee and Mount Lebanon became the scene of the
Druze power struggle, which came in parallel with much destruction in the region and decline of major cities. In the mid-18th century, Galilee was caught up in a struggle between the
Arab leader
Daher al-Umar and the
Ottoman authorities who were centred in
Damascus. Daher ruled Galilee for 25 years until Ottoman loyalist
Jezzar Pasha conquered the region in 1775. In 1831, the Galilee, a part of
Ottoman Syria, switched hands from Ottomans to
Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt until 1840. During this period, aggressive social and politic policies were introduced, which led to a violent
1834 Arab revolt. In the process of this revolt the Jewish community of
Safed was greatly reduced, in the event of
Safed Plunder by the rebels. The Arab rebels were subsequently defeated by the Egyptian troops, though in 1838, the Druze of Galilee led another
uprising. In 1834 and
1837, major earthquakes leveled most of the towns, resulting in great loss of life. Following the 1864
Tanzimat reforms in the Ottoman Empire, the Galilee remained within
Acre Sanjak, but was transferred from
Sidon Eyalet to the newly formed
Syria Vilayet and shortly, from 1888, became administered from
Beirut Vilayet. In 1866, Galilee's first hospital,
the Nazareth Hospital, was founded under the leadership of American-Armenian missionary Dr.
Kaloost Vartan, assisted by German missionary
John Zeller. , encompassing the Galilee In the early 20th century, Galilee remained part of
Acre Sanjak of Ottoman Syria. It was administered as the southernmost territory of the
Beirut Vilayet.
British administration Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in
World War I, and the
Armistice of Mudros, it came under British rule, as part of the
Occupied Enemy Territory Administration. Shortly after, in 1920, the region was included in the British Mandate territory, officially a part of Mandatory Palestine from 1923.
Modern Israeli period After the
1948 Arab–Israeli war, nearly the whole of Galilee came under Israel's control. A large portion of the population fled or was forced to leave, leaving dozens of entire villages empty; however, a large
Israeli Arab community remained based in and near the cities of Nazareth,
Acre,
Tamra,
Sakhnin, and
Shefa-'Amr, due to some extent to a successful rapprochement with the Druze. The
kibbutzim around the
Sea of Galilee were sometimes shelled by the
Syrian army's artillery until Israel seized Western
Golan Heights in the 1967
Six-Day War. During the 1970s and the early 1980s, the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
launched multiple attacks on towns and villages of the Upper and Western Galilee from
Lebanon. This came in parallel to the general destabilization of
Southern Lebanon, which became a scene of fierce sectarian fighting which deteriorated into the
Lebanese Civil War. On the course of the war, Israel initiated
Operation Litani (1979) and
Operation Peace For Galilee (1982) with the stated objectives of destroying the PLO infrastructure in Lebanon, protecting the citizens of the Galilee and supporting allied Christian Lebanese militias. Israel took over much of southern Lebanon in support of Christian Lebanese militias until 1985, when it withdrew to a
narrow security buffer zone. From 1985 to 2000,
Hezbollah, and earlier
Amal,
engaged the
South Lebanon Army supported by the
Israel Defense Forces, sometimes shelling
Upper Galilee communities with
Katyusha rockets. In May 2000,
Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak unilaterally withdrew IDF troops from southern Lebanon, maintaining a security force on the
Israeli side of the international border recognized by the
United Nations. The move brought a collapse to the
South Lebanon Army and takeover of Southern Lebanon by Hezbollah. However, despite Israeli withdrawal, clashes between Hezbollah and Israel continued along the border, and UN observers condemned both for their attacks. The
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict was characterized by round-the-clock Katyusha rocket attacks (with a greatly extended range) by Hezbollah on the whole of Galilee, with long-range, ground-launched missiles hitting as far south as the
Sharon Plain,
Jezreel Valley, and
Jordan Valley below the Sea of Galilee. ==Demography==