History of Palestine (Palestine Under the Persian and Greek Occupation)

Palestine Under the Persian and Greek Occupation

Palestine Under the Persian Occupation

Persians invaded Palestine in 539 B.C and occupied it after Babylon. Palestine remained under the hegemony of the Persians for two centuries. During that time the remnants of Yehud tribe of Babylon captives returned to Jerusalem.

Babylonians allowed the exiled Jews to keep their identity and religion, some of them wrote theological books, and many historical books in that period. Of those books was the Old Testament which was rewritten after the ancient manuscripts in the temple had been burnt by Nebuchadnezzar.

When great Cyrus ruled Persia, he conquered Babylon kingdom in 539 B.C and let the jews go back to Jedua in Palestine. He gave them an autonomy there. So, they renewed the walls of Jerusalem and classified the Torah which became the symbol of their social and religious life.

Do the Persian Magus whose descendants live in India as heirs of their forefathers who flew away there from the Islamic Conquest have right to claim for Jerusalem because their ancestors ruled it for two hundred years?

Palestine During the Greek Occupation

Triumph of Alexander the Great over the Persians is considered one of the most important events of the fourth century B.C. He occupied Syria including Gaza and Jerusalem and annexed them to the Greek Empire in 322 B.C.

After his death, his empire was divided between the leaders of his army. Palestine  was put under Antiochus who was defeated, then, by the Ptolemies in Gaza in 321 B.C. Palestine was under Antiochus III. Palestine went on being unstable suffering from wars, and disorders under the reign of many rulers such as the Maccabees and the Arab Nabataeans for 90 years. It was annexed to their capital, Petra, until the Roman occupied it.