Palestine remains a mainly rural, poor but…

Palestine remains a mainly rural, poor but self-sufficient, introverted society, despite the growth of Christian missionary schools and the establishment of European consulates.

Demographically its population is overwhelmingly Arab, mainly Muslim, but with an important Christian merchant and professional class residing in the cities.

The Jewish population of Palestine before 1880, when the Ottoman administration creates the post of mutasarrif (governor) of Jerusalem, consists of fewer than twenty-five thousand people, two-thirds of whom live in Jerusalem, where they make up half the population.

These are Orthodox Jews, many of whom have immigrated to Palestine simply to be buried in the Holy Land, and who have no real political interest in establishing a Jewish entity.

They are supported by alms given by world Jewry.