Special Subject: Palestine from the Ottomans to Nakba (V1424)

30 credits, Level 6

Autumn and spring teaching

You'll learn about the great upheavals in Palestinian society during the First World War and immediately afterwards.

Using primary source materials, you'll study how ordinary Palestinians (Muslims, Christians or Jews) experienced these upheavals. You'll focus on Jerusalem as this was the spiritual and political capital of Palestine and where many first-hand accounts of the war are set. 

You use this focus on the lives of ordinary individuals during the First World War to examine wider debates connected to the history of Palestine in the early 20th century, looking to the late Ottoman period and to the trauma of 1948 and beyond.

You'll study:

• navigating the hardships of war: plague, famine and military conscription
• the entertainment industry in Jerusalem: music, theatre and prostitution 
• women's lives in wartime Palestine: change and continuity
• the political sphere: Ottoman legacies, Arab nationalism and the coming of Zionism
• the arrival of the British mandate
• opposing British rule
• colonial lives in Palestine
• contested memories: 1948 and the struggle over Palestinian history.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 44 hours of contact time and about 256 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.