The Franciscans were nominated custodians of the Holy Places by Pope Gregory IX. in 123o. Certain sites have, however, always been held by the Oriental sects and since 18o8, when the church of the Holy Sepulchre was burnt down, the number of these has greatly increased. The 19th century was disgraced, in Palestine, by a feverish "scramble" for sacred sites, in which the most dis honest means were employed and the ethics of Christianity for gotten in the struggle to oust rival orders or sects. Churches, chapels and monasteries, most of them in the worst architectural taste, sprang up like mushrooms throughout the country to per petuate the memory of pseudo-sanctuaries which were best for gotten. The zeal and self-sacrificing devotion displayed by many of their inmates and their noble labours on behalf of the people and history of Palestine throw into yet more painful relief the actions and mental attitude of some of their co-religionists.
The authenticity of the "Holy Places" was first attacked seri ously in the 18th century by Korte, a bookseller of Altona ; since he led the way a steady fire of criticism has been poured upon this mass of invention. The process of manufacture continued un checked until the World War. Even the Protestant churches are not exempt from blame ; a small tomb near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem was fixed upon by certain English enthusiasts as the true "Holy Sepulchre," an identification for which there is nothing to be said. Since the World War speculations founded on a basis of false philology and highly conjectural exegesis, such as the belief in the identity of the "Anglo-Saxons" with the ten lost tribes of Israel and in the prophetic intention of the builders of the Great Pyramid, have occupied minds that might otherwise have made further "discoveries" in the Holy Land.
Down to the time of the Egyptian occupation the only foreigners permanently resident in Turkish Palestine were the members of various monastic orders and a few traders. The first Protestant missionaries settled in Jerusalem in 1823 ; they founded the trade in olive-wood articles for the support of their converts. In came the first of several examples that have appeared in Palestine of that curious product of American religious life—a community of dupes or visionaries led by a prophet or prophetess with claims to divine guidance. The leader in this case was one Mrs. Minor, who came to prepare the land for the expected Second Advent. Her followers quarrelled and separated in 1853. This event is of importance, as it had much to do with the remarkable develop ment of Jewish colonization of Palestine in the last 3o years of the i9th century. Mrs. Minor, who was interested in the Jewish people, was befriended by Sir Moses Montefiore ; after her death her property was placed in charge of a Jew and finally passed into the hands of the Alliance Israelite Universelle. In 187o this body founded an agricultural colony for Jews on the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and called it "Mikweh Israel." Another visionary American colony the "Adamsites" came in 1866 but lost heart and departed, after selling their property to a German community, the Tempelgerneinde, a Unitarian sect led by Messrs. Hoffmann and Hardegg who established themselves in Jaffa in 1868. Un like the Americans, these hardy Wurttemberg peasants have flourished in Palestine and their colonies at Jerusalem, Haifa and in the Jaffa district have prospered and remain prosperous. In 1921 the return of the men of military age of the Haifa colony who had been temporarily deported as a military measure after the war, caused the greatest satisfaction among their late enemies, the British officers and officials stationed there, who congratulated themselves on the return of the "only efficient craftsmen" in the town. Another American religious colony, known after the founder
as the "Spaffordites" was more successful, if less numerous than its predecessors and some of its members have played a consider able part in the social and commercial life of Jerusalem.
Jewish immigration took three forms : agricultural colonization under the auspices of Zionism (q.v.) ; the influx of needy Jews of the "haluka" (dole) who abused Hebrew charity and swelled the number of Palestinian Jews who lived or existed on remit cances from Jewish congregations and philanthropists in Europe and America ; the settlement by small numbers of middle-class Jews possessed of some capital who came to live out their lives in congenial surroundings. By 1914 there were over 6o,000 Jews in Palestine of whom about a fifth were settled in agricultural colonies. Of the immigrants the majority came from Russia during the anti-Jewish disturbances of 1878-81.
Before the i9th century local anarchy made exploration diffi cult or impossible. Scientific exploration, as distinguished from the sometimes valuable narratives of early pilgrims and secular travellers, begins with Edward Robinson, an American clergyman, who made a series of journeys through the country and published his itineraries and observations under the title of Biblical Re searches in Palestine (1841-56). Though marred by the hastiness of his visits and the consequent superficiality of his descriptions of sites and by some untenable identifications, his work is at once the standard and the foundation of all subsequent topographical work in the country. He was worthily followed by Titus Tobler, who in 1853 and later years published volumes abounding in exact observation, and by V. Guerin, whose Description geographique, historique, et archeologique de la Palestine, in 7 volumes (1868 8o), contains a wealth of material collected in personal travel throughout Palestine.
In 1864 was founded the Palestine Exploration Fund, under the auspices of which an ordnance survey map of the country was published in 1881, accompanied by volumes dealing with the topography, orography, hydrography, archaeology, zoology and botany of the Holy Land. The same society initiated the scientific exploration of the mounds of Palestine. The example thus set was followed by French, German and American explorers. The Deutscher Palastina-Verein founded in 1878 carried out impor tant surveys and excavations. Austrian explorers, notably Dr. E. Sellin did valuable independent work. A remarkable biblical and archaeological school under the control of the Dominican order was founded at Jerusalem, and German and American archaeo logical institutions, educational in their purpose, were also estab lished there. Valuable archaeological exploration was annually carried out by the directors of these schools and their pupils. An account of some of the discoveries made by these bodies will be found under the Archaeology section of this article (see also ARCHAEOLOGY : Palestine and Syria) while the geographical and archaeological explorations of Dr. Alois Musil and Brunnow in Moab and Nabataea are referred to under TRANS-JORDAN (see also MOAB Useful topographical and archaeological recon naissances of the country on both sides of the Turco-Egyptian border were carried out by Major S. Newcombe, T. E. Lawrence (q.v.) and C. L. Woolley very shortly before the World War.