This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
The Abu Ghoshes (also written AbuGosh/ AbouGhawsh), known as "ancien seigneurs feodaux", are an old wealthy landowning family, who ruled the Jerusalem mountains and controlled the pilgrimage route from the coast to Jerusalem during the Ottoman Empire.
Some historians are of the opinion that the Abu Ghoshes came from Eastern Europe. Others believe that their origins go back to the Crusaders who came to Jerusalem with Richard I of England in the 12th century AD, due to the fact that many of them have blond hair and blue eyes. Members of the family and some other historians hold the view that the clan originally came from the Arabian Peninsula. They were four Emirs of Yemen, who were brothers, when they arrived to Egypt. From Egypt they came to Palestine with the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman at the beginning of the Ottoman Empire and were entrusted with the control of the pilgrimage route to the holy places of Jerusalem, as documented in the Egyptian royal manuscripts. [1]
The Abu Ghoshes were settled in the 16th century AD on the mountains of Jerusalem, about 10 km west of Jerusalem city, where they still reside now. [1] [ needs update ] It is established that the Abu Ghoshes became related, through marriage, to the people who lived in the area at that time, as well as with the descendants of the Crusaders, who are known to have lived in the same region at the same time. Archaeological excavations have revealed that the site where the Abu Ghoshes live is one of the most ancient inhabited sites in the southern Levant. [1] This site used to be "Kiryat Ye'arim", a Hebrew name meaning "Town of Forests". Following the Muslim conquest of the Levant, the site was called "kiryat al-Inab". In the 18th century this site took the name of the family "kiryat Abu Ghosh", and is now called Abu Ghosh, a small Muslim Israeli Arab town near Jerusalem. The majority of its inhabitants today are the descendants of the old feudal family of the 16th century. [1]
At the beginning of the Ottoman Empire Sultan Suleiman entrusted the Abu Ghoshes with control of the route from the coast to Jerusalem and granted them official permission, a "farman", to impose a toll on all pilgrims and visitors entering Jerusalem. [1] The churches of Jerusalem also paid an annual one-off tax to the Abu Ghoshes for their visitors. [2]
Palestine was part of Great Syria, and like Syria it was governed by feudal families until the middle of the 19th century. The Abu Ghoshes were among the most well-known feudal families in Palestine, formerly governing over 22 villages. [3] They had self-determination powers in the region. All power was in the hands of the Emir or Scheich (Lord) of Abu Ghosh. The Scheich was also called Zaim or Mutasallem (leader, governor). He dealt with all political, military, economic, social and legal matters. A dispute between two parties was solved by the Scheich and a judgement was made by him and executed with no right of appeal. Seeking revision was sometimes possible if allowed by the Scheich. Any person acting against the local laws or tradition was imprisoned. The Abu Ghoshes used an old crusader church as a prison. The relation between the Abu Ghoshes and the peasants of the villages was a patron-client relation. [1]
According to tradition, any pilgrim or visitor to the holy sites passing through Abu Ghosh had to pay their respects to the Scheich. Some visitors to the holy lands wrote about Lady Stanhope (daughter of a British Lord, niece of the British Prime Minister William Pitt and a relative of Sir Sidney Smith who besieged Napoleon in Akko and had correspondence with the Scheich Ibrahim AbuGhosh) that when she visited Jerusalem in 1811 she stopped in Abu Ghosh to pay her respects to the Scheich. Scheich Ibrahim AbuGhosh found her an interesting woman, and he ordered a formal dinner and spent the night in her company. She came back the next year and the Scheich was delighted to see her again. [1] The next morning, he insisted on escorting her with his guards and servants to Jerusalem. [4]
The houses of the Abu Ghoshes were described by pilgrims and visitors as beautifully constructed stone houses, and the residence of the Scheich was described as "a true palace, a castle, a protective fortress." [2] [5] [6]
In the 19th century, between 1834 and 1860, Abu Ghosh was attacked by military forces three times. The first attack was launched by the Egyptian military forces, led by Ibrahim Pasha, son of Muhammad Ali, in 1832-4 during the Egyptian occupation of Palestine (1831–1840). The castle of Abu Ghosh was destroyed during this campaign. The second attack was in 1853 during the civil war between feudal families under Scheich Ahmad AbuGhosh, who was 90 years old. He entrusted his nephew Mustafa with the military task force. The third attack on Abu Ghosh was made by the Ottoman military forces, helped and executed by British forces, during the military expedition against the feudal families in the 1860s, under Scheich Mustafa AbuGhosh. Almost all villages governed by the Abu Ghoshes were bombarded during this battle. Lord Mustapha AbuGhosh continued to control the Jerusalem mountains against the will of the Ottomans until he died in 1863. [1]
The Ottoman Empire introduced reforms abolishing the feudal system and creating a centralized government with its main location in the Turkish capital. Powers were transferred from feudal families to a Turkish governor representing the Sultan, sitting in the city of Jerusalem. All villages and towns around Jerusalem were part of the Jerusalem District and each village was represented by an elected "Mukhtar". [1]
At the beginning of the 20th century, a nephew of the Mukhtar of Abu Ghosh named Said AbuGhosh left Abu Ghosh and went to live on his own land, an estate made of 22,000 dunum between Abu Ghosh and the city of Ramla. He built a mansion in his estate near the village of al-Qubab using a German architect. He was known to have hundreds of peasants working in his estate, and offered his protection to all villagers in the region. He was known to have founded a "Sabeel", offering water and a resting place for free to travellers passing through on their way to Jerusalem. He married the daughter of a Turkish General in the Ottoman army who had his residence in the village of al-Qubab. Said AbuGhosh was loved and respected by the Abu Ghoshes for his contributions and the support he provided. [1]
After the declaration of the British mandate on Palestine in 1920, the main concerns of Said AbuGhosh were the British occupation. He offered unlimited financial and military help to the Palestinian militants in order to fight the British. He was also known to have bought land in all parts of Palestine, in order to avoid land coming into the hands of the Jews, becoming one of the biggest landowners in Palestine at the time. The reason for preventing Jews from acquiring land were the rumours that were spreading about the Balfour Declaration of 1917, a promise given by the British government to the Jews to create a homeland in Palestine. Lord AbuGhosh died in 1936 and was buried in his estate. [1]
ʿIzz ad-Dīn ibn Abd al-Qāder ibn Mustafā ibn Yūsuf ibn Muhammad al-Qassām was a Syrian Muslim preacher, and a leader in the local struggles against British and French Mandatory rule in the Levant, and a militant opponent of Zionism in the 1920s and 1930s.
Abu Ghosh is an Arab-Israeli local council in Israel, located 10 kilometers (6 mi) west of Jerusalem on the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem highway. It is situated 610–720 meters above sea level. It takes its current name from the dominant clan inhabiting the town, while the older Arabic name used to be Qaryat al-'Inab.
Bayt Naqquba was a Palestinian village in British Mandate Palestine, located 9.5 kilometers west of Jerusalem, near Abu Ghosh. Before Palmach and Haganah troops occupied the village during Operation Nachshon on April 11, 1948, approximately 300 Palestinian Arabs lived there. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, a moshav named Beit Nekofa was founded close to the site by Jewish immigrants from Yugoslavia. In 1962, residents of Bayt Naqubba built a new village named Ein Naqquba, south of Beit Nekofa.
Bayt ʿIṭāb was a Palestinian Arab village located in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. The village is believed to have been inhabited since the biblical period. An ancient tunnel which led to the village spring is associated with the story of Samson. Both during and after its incorporation into Crusader fiefdoms in the 12th century, its population was Arab. Sheikhs from the Lahham family clan, who were associated with the Qays tribo-political faction, ruled the village during Ottoman era. In the 19th century, this clan controlled 24 villages in the vicinity. The homes were built of stone. The local farmers cultivated cereals, fruit trees and olive groves and some engaged in livestock breeding.
Sunni Islam is a major religion in Palestine, being the religion of the majority of the Palestinian population. Muslims comprise 85% of the population of the West Bank, when including Israeli settlers, and 99% of the population of the Gaza Strip. The largest denomination among Palestinian Muslims are Sunnis, comprising 85% of the total Muslim population.
Abasan al-Kabira is a Palestinian city located in the Khan Yunis Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the southern Gaza Strip. It is connected with Khan Yunis city by a local street that crosses other villages like Bani Suheila and Khuza'a. Abasan al-Kabera and the nearby village of Abasan al-Saghira, have in recent years been built up to each other so that they form a larger urban area around Khan Yunis.
Jerusalem in the Middle Ages was a major Byzantine metropolis from the 4th century CE before the advent on the early Islamic period in the 7th century saw it become the regional capital of Jund Filastin under successive caliphates. In the later Islamic period it went on to experience a period of more contested ownership, war and decline. Muslim rule was interrupted for a period of about 200 years by the Crusades and the establishment of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem. At the tail end of the Medieval period, the city was ceded to the Ottomans in 1517, who maintained control of it until the British took it in 1917.
Nabi Musa is primarily a Muslim holy site near Jericho in Palestine, where a local Muslim tradition places the tomb of Moses. The compound is centered on a mosque which contains the alleged tomb. It used to be the site of an eponymous seven-day-long religious festival that was celebrated annually by Palestinian Muslims, beginning on the Friday before Good Friday in the Orthodox calendar used by the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem. Considered in the political context of 1920 as "the most important Muslim pilgrimage in Palestine", the festival was built around a collective pilgrimage from Jerusalem to what was understood to be the Tomb of Moses. A great building with multiple domes marks the mausoleum of Moses.
Jalqamus is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, located 10 km southeast of the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 1,867 inhabitants in mid-year 2006 and 2,624 by 2017.
Situated between three continents, the region of Palestine has a tumultuous history as a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics. The region was among the earliest to see human habitation, agricultural communities and civilization. In the Bronze Age, the Canaanites established city-states influenced by surrounding civilizations, among them Egypt, which ruled the area in the Late Bronze Age. During the Iron Age, two related Israelite kingdoms, Israel and Judah, controlled much of Palestine, while the Philistines occupied its southern coast. The Assyrians conquered the region in the 8th century BCE, then the Babylonians in c. 601 BCE, followed by the Persians who conquered the Babylonian Empire in 539 BCE. Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in the late 330s BCE, beginning Hellenization.
The Peasants' Revolt was a rebellion against Egyptian conscription and taxation policies in Palestine. While rebel ranks consisted mostly of the local peasantry, urban notables and Bedouin tribes also formed an integral part of the revolt. This was a collective reaction to Egypt's gradual elimination of the unofficial rights and privileges previously enjoyed by the various classes of society in the Levant under Ottoman rule.
Al-Jayyusi is a prominent Palestinian business and political clan whose members acted as rulers, local lords, army generals and tax collectors since the 11th century. They were the traditional leaders of the Bani Sa'b subdistrict (nahiya), which included their throne villages of Kur and Kafr Sur; Jayyus the village named after the patronymic of the family founder, Fatimid Vizier and Governor of Damascus who was known by his military title Amīr al-Juyūsh where the name 'Juyush-i' was designated to his property, lands and all decedents in Egypt and Palestine. Other Palestinian villages that were considered within the Jayyusi clan's stronghold include Qalqilya, Tayibe, Jinsafut, Kafr Zibad and Kafr Jammal.
The Tuqan clan is a prominent Palestinian and Jordanian political and business family. During the Ottoman era, they dominated the political and socio-economic spheres in Nablus and extended their influence to al-Salt. During that era, they were the only household that came close to establishing centralized rule over Jabal Nablus. Over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries the Tuqan family held the title of mutasallim of Nablus longer than any other local family.
Al-Qubab was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict. It was depopulated in July 1948 during the Operation Dani led by the Yiftach Brigade.
The Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, also known as the Sanjak of Jerusalem, was an Ottoman district with special administrative status established in 1872. The district encompassed Jerusalem as well as Hebron, Jaffa, Gaza and Beersheba. During the late Ottoman period, the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem was commonly referred to as Palestine; a very late Ottoman document describes Palestine as including the Sanjak of Nablus and Sanjak of Akka (Acre) as well, more in line with European usage. It was the 7th most heavily populated region of the Ottoman Empire's 36 provinces.
The Ridwan dynasty was the most prominent pasha family in Palestine, ruling the southwestern districts of the Damascus Eyalet in the 16th and 17th centuries under Ottoman rule. The dynasty was based in Gaza, where its members continuously served as the hereditary sanjak-beys of the sanjak for over a century. Members also ruled different provinces and districts throughout the Ottoman Empire and held additional titles at different times. The Ridwan period in Gaza was considered the city's last golden age.
Amir al-hajj was the position and title given to the commander of the annual Hajj pilgrim caravan by successive Muslim empires, from the 7th century until the 20th century. Since the Abbasid period, there were two main caravans, one departing from Damascus and the other from Cairo. Each of the two annual caravans was assigned an amir al-hajj whose main duties were securing funds and provisions for the caravan, and protecting it along the desert route to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in the Hejaz.
Palestinian nationalism is the national movement of the Palestinian people that espouses self-determination and sovereignty over the region of Palestine. Originally formed in the early 20th century in opposition to Zionism, Palestinian nationalism later internationalized and attached itself to other ideologies; it has thus rejected the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the government of Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestinian nationalists often draw upon broader political traditions in their ideology, such as Arab socialism and ethnic nationalism in the context of Muslim religious nationalism. Related beliefs have shaped the government of Palestine and continue to do so.
The 1585 Ottoman expedition against the Druze, also called the 1585 Ottoman invasion of the Chouf, was an Ottoman military campaign led by Ibrahim Pasha against the Druze and other chieftains of Mount Lebanon and its environs, then a part of the Sidon-Beirut Sanjak of the province of Damascus Eyalet. It had been traditionally considered the direct consequence of a raid by bandits in Akkar against the tribute caravan of Ibrahim Pasha, then Egypt's outgoing governor, who was on his way to Constantinople. Modern research indicates that the tribute caravan arrived intact and that the expedition was instead the culmination of Ottoman attempts to subjugate the Druze and other tribal groups in Mount Lebanon dating from 1518.
The Turabay dynasty was a family of Bedouin emirs in northern Palestine who served as the multazims and sanjak-beys of Lajjun Sanjak during Ottoman rule in the 16th–17th centuries. The sanjak (district) spanned the towns of Lajjun, Jenin and Haifa, and the surrounding countryside. The progenitors of the family had served as chiefs of Marj ibn Amir under the Egypt-based Mamluks in the late 15th century.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)