Words Worth Noting - October 22, 2026

“The word Filistini – Palestinian – had first been used in 1898 by the short story writer, Khalil Beidas, in an introduction to a Russian guidebook of the Holy Land; in 1908, a former Ottoman official Najib Azouri suggested the expansion of Jerusalem Sanjak to include the southern parts of the Beirut Vilayat: ‘the progress of the land of Filastin depends on this.’”

Simon Sebag Montefiore Jerusalem: The Biography A History of the Middle East