Muslim migrations to Ottoman Palestine

The Muslim migrations to Ottoman Palestine involved successive waves of settlement by Muslims of various ethnicities within the southern Syrian districts of the Ottoman Empire. This area, which encompasses modern-day Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza, was divided into different prefectures, such as the sanjaks of Nablus, Acre, and Lajjun and the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem.
The migration process spanned several centuries, with migrants arriving from various regions, including surrounding areas in the Levant, Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, and even as far as the Balkans and North Africa. Immigrants who settled in Ottoman Palestine included Egyptians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Bedouins, and Arabs from neighboring areas, such as the Transjordan and the Hauran.
Background
Muslim migrations to Palestine began with the Muslim conquest of the region in the 7th century and continued throughout centuries of Muslim rule, peaking in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the early Ottoman period, around the late 16th century, the population of Palestine (minus an area of the Hulah basin) was estimated to be approximately 206,290 people, significantly less than the region's population during the Roman and Byzantine periods, believed to be around 1,000,000 people. Aware of the under-population, the Ottomans promoted a policy of settlement in sparsely inhabited regions. Zvi Ilan also notes that the Ottomans aimed to defend the ancient, international highways that crossed Palestine, including the Via Maris and the .
16th century
The Turabays, a prominent family from the Bedouin Banu Haritha tribe, who claim descent from the Tayy tribe of the Arabian Desert, assisted Ottoman Sultan Selim I in his conquest of Egypt during Ottoman-Mamluk War of 1516-1517. As a reward, they were granted control over what became the Lajjun Sanjak, covering the Jezreel Valley, northern Samaria and Lower Galilee. They also oversaw Gaza and led pilgrim caravans to Mecca. The Turabay family controlled Lajjun until the late 17th century when they were replaced by the Ottoman administration.
By the late 17th century, Druze settlers started establishing themselves around Banias and in Jabal al-Druze.
In the 1780s, a significant number of Egyptians sought refuge in Palestine in response to a severe famine in Egypt. It's estimated that about one-sixth of Egypt's population left at this time. According to Volney, in January 1785, the streets of Sidon, Acre, and all the cities of Palestine—defined by him as the area governed by the governor of Gaza, from Khan Yunis to a line between the "Jaffa River" and Caesarea—were filled with Egyptian refugees.
Egyptian migrations (1830s)
The first half of the nineteenth century saw a significant influx of Egyptian immigrants. Ibrahim Pasha actively encouraged Egyptian immigration and facilitated the settlement of Bedouin clans in the region.
The Egyptian settlers predominantly established themselves in urban centers like Jaffa and Gaza, where they founded residental districts, and also integrated into nearby villages. They were transferred through northern Palestine into Syria and surrounding regions. Many eventually found homes in abandoned villages in Galilee, Small numbers of Algerian Berber refugees also settled in Safed following Abdelkader's exile to Damascus in 1855. Economic migration from Hauran to Palestine continued into the Mandatory period, during which four villages in the Gaza subdistrict were inhabited by people of Haurani origin.<ref name=":5" />
Migrations from Circassia, Chechnya and Bosnia
The 19th century saw migrations to Palestine from Circassia and Chechnya, with refugees from territories the Russian Empire annexed in 1864.<ref name":2" /> Bosniaks also migrated to Palestine after their province was captured by Serbia in 1878.<ref name":2" />

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