Other Speaker sketches the ayan class as commercial, political, and religious elites who predated the Tanzimat.
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Episode notes
In this chapter of Secret History of Israel/Palestine, we look how the small urban elite stole much of region’s land from it’s rightful peasant owners, turning them from an independent tribal peasantry, into a class of impoverished, indebted tenants on their own land.
These events set the stage for much of the conflict to come between Zionists and the majority fellahin class.
We also look at the 19th century origins of Palestinian identity, and early stirrings of proto Arab nationalism.
