The region of Palestine, also known as historic Palestine or land of Palestine, is a geographical area in West Asia. It generally encompasses the area inhabited by the modern states of Israel and Palestine, though over history it has also been used to refer to an area both smaller and larger. Other names for part or all of this region include Canaan, the Promised Land, the Land of Israel, the Holy Land, and Judea.
The earliest written record referring to Palestine as a geographical region is in the Histories of Herodotus in the 5th century BCE, which calls the area Palaistine, referring to the territory previously held by Philistia, a state that existed in that area from the 12th to the 7th century BCE. The Roman Empire conquered the region in 63 BCE and appointed client kings to rule over it until Rome began directly ruling over the region and established a predominately-Jewish province named "Judaea" in 6 CE. The Roman Empire killed the vast majority of Jews in Judaea to suppress the Bar Kokhba revolt during 132-136 CE; shortly after the revolt, the Romans expelled and enslaved nearly all of the remaining Jews in the historical Judah region centered on Jerusalem, depopulating that area. Roman authorities renamed the province of Judaea to "Syria Palaestina" in c. 135 CE to punish Jews for the Bar Kokhba Revolt and permanently sever ties between Jews and the province. In 390, during the Byzantine period, the region was split into the provinces of Palaestina Prima, Palaestina Secunda, and Palaestina Salutaris. Following the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s, the military district of Jund Filastin was established. While Palestine's boundaries have changed throughout history, it has generally comprised the southern portion of the wider Syria or Levant region.
As the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, Palestine has been a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics. In the Bronze Age, it was home to Canaanite city-states; and the later Iron Age saw the emergence of Israel and Judah. It has since come under the sway of various empires, including the Neo-Assyrian, the Neo-Babylonian, the Achaemenid Persian, the Macedonian (of Alexander the Great), and the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires. The brief Hasmonean dynasty ended with its gradual incorporation into the Roman Empire, and later the Byzantine Empire, during which Palestine became a center of Christianity. In the 7th century, Palestine was conquered by the Muslim Rashidun Caliphate, ending Byzantine rule in the region; Rashidun rule was succeeded by the Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid caliphates. Following the collapse of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had been established through the Crusades, the population of Palestine became predominantly Muslim. In the 13th century, it became part of the Mamluk Sultanate, and after 1516, spent four centuries as part of the Ottoman Empire.