Bi'ina

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Bi'ina בענה‎ بعنة
Local council
Bi'ina Show map of Northwest Israel Bi'ina Show map of Israel
Coordinates: 32°55′46″N35°16′22″E / 32.92944°N 35.27278°E / 32.92944; 35.27278
Grid position	175/259 PAL
Country	Israel
District	Northern
Population  (2022) [1]
• Total	8,629

Bi'ina or al-Bi'na ^[2] (also el-Baneh) (Arabic : البعنة) is an Arab town in the Northern District of Israel. It is located east of Akko. In 2003, Bi'ina merged with Majd al-Krum and Deir al-Asad to form the city of Shaghur, but was reinstated as a local council in 2008 after Shaghur was dissolved. Bi'ina has a mostly Muslim population (92%) with a small Christian minority (8%); ^[3] in 2022 its population was 8,629. ^[1]

History

Classical antiquity

Main article: Beth-Anath

Along with several other sites, Bi'ina was proposed as the location of ancient Beth-Anath mentioned in Egyptian and biblical texts. ^{[4] [Note 1]} Archaeological evidence suggests that Bi'ina, though perhaps occupied in the Early Bronze Age, was no longer occupied in the Late Bronze Age. ^[7]

The old site of Bi'ina is thought to have been at the mound of Jelamet el-Bi'ina, less than a mile southeast of the present site of Bi'ina. ^[8] The word jélameh, meaning "hill, mound," is sometimes employed instead of tell .

Ottoman Empire

In 1517 Palestine was conquered by the Ottoman Empire from the Mamluks. Around this time, possibly as early as 1510, the Sufi sheikh Muhammad al-Asad had settled in the monastery of the village of Dayr al-Bi'ina (also called Dayr al-Khidr, the 'St. George La Beyne' of the Crusaders). Under order of the Ottoman sultan Selim I (r. 1512–1520), a major patron of the Sufis, the Christian inhabitants of Dayr al-Bi'ina were expelled from the village, so that eventually a significant Muslim settlement could be established there under the auspices of Muhammad al-Asad and his followers. Dayr al-Bi'ina was thereafter called Deir al-Asad after the sheikh and the expelled Christians established the village of Bi'ina at its present site, about 0.5 kilometers (0.31 mi) to the south of Dayr al-Bi'ina. According to local tradition, the present Christian inhabitants of Bi'ina are the descendants of the expelled Christians. ^[9]

In 1596 Bi'ina was recorded in Ottoman tax registers as belonging to the nahiya (subdistrict) of Acre, part of Safed Sanjak. It had a population of 61 households; 46 Muslim and 15 Christian. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olives, cotton, goats or beehives, in addition to a press for grapes or olives; a total of 7,134 akçe. ^{[10] [11]}

By the early 18th century the Banu Zaydan (or Zayadina) family held sway in the Shaghur area and their future leader, Zahir al-Umar, played a prominent role defending Bi'ina from a taxation campaign by the Ottoman governor of Sidon at some point between 1713 and 1718. The event helped establish Zahir's good reputation with the area's inhabitants. ^[12] By 1730, Zahir had gained control of Tiberias as its multazim (tax farmer) and within a few years moved to expand his domains. In 1740 Zahir besieged Bi'ina, by then a fortified village, but after failing to capture it, secured control of it by forming a pact with its headman, sealed by Zahir's marriage to the headman's daughter. ^{[13] [14]}

After Zahir was slain in an imperial Ottoman campaign against him, the new, Acre-based governor of Sidon, Jazzar Pasha, moved to eliminate Zaydani control in the Galilee. Zahir's son Ali posed the main challenge to Jazzar's rule in the region and controlled several fortified villages in the central and eastern Galilee, including Bi'ina. After a string of victories against Ali, Jazzar gained control of the area in 1776. ^[15] A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799, during Jazzar's rule, by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as "El Bena", ^[16] while in 1838, el Ba'neh was noted as Greek Christian village in the Esh-Shagur district, located between Safad, Acca and Tiberias. ^[17]

In 1875 Victor Guérin noted that the population was divided between Druze and Greek Orthodox Christians. He listed a mosque and a Greek church, both of which were built on the sites of older churches. ^[18] In the late 19th century, it was described as a village of 300 Muslims and 100 Christians, surrounded by olives and arable land. Water was supplied by a spring. ^[19] A sarcophagus was also seen lying outside the town. Lieutenant Kitchener of the Palestine Exploration Fund described the town under its name El-Baneh, and where he noted a spring and birket (reservoir). ^[19] A population list from about 1887 showed that B'aneh had 620 inhabitants; slightly more Muslims than Greek Catholic Christians. ^[20]

British Mandate

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Al Ba'na had a population of 518; 311 Muslims and 207 Christians, ^[21] where all the Christians were Orthodox. ^[22] By the 1931 census the population had increased to 651; 441 Muslims and 210 Christians, in a total of 133 houses. ^[23]

In the 1945 statistics, Bi'ina had 830 inhabitants; 530 Muslims and 300 Christians. ^[24] They owned 14,839 dunams of land, while 57 dunams were public. ^{[24] [25]} 1,619 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 5,543 used for cereals, ^{[24] [26]} while 57 dunams were built-up (urban) land. ^{[24] [27]}

Israel

During Operation Hiram, 29–31 October 1948, the village surrendered to the advancing Israeli army. Many of the villagers fled north but some remained and were not expelled. ^[28] The village remained under martial law until 1966.

In 1981, a Bedouin neighborhood was created in the village, populated by members of the Sawaed tribe from Rame. In 2001, the village was spread out over an area of some 30 dunams (7.4 acres). ^[29]

Notable people

• Mohammad Bakri
• Salim Daw

Notes

1. Those who dispute Albright's identification are Charles William Meredith van de Velde and Victor Guérin, who place the ancient site of Beth-anath in Ain Aata, Lebanon. Others place the ancient site in Bu'eine Nujeidat, while still others thought that Beth-anath ought to be identified with Safad el Batih in Lebanon. ^[5] Klein thought that Beth-anath was to be identified with Hinah. ^[6] Zvi Gal, in his article, "The Late Bronze Age in Galilee: A Reassessment," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research , No. 272 (Nov., 1988), pp. 79-84 writes: "Various sites have been suggested for this city: Bi'ina in the Beit Hakerem Valley, (Albright 1923: 19-20; Safrai & Safrai 1976), Ba'inah in the Beit Netophah Valley (Alt 1946: 55-57), Tel Roš (Amiran 1953: 125-26), and Tell el Ḥirbeh (Garstang 1931:244-45)."

References

1. "Regional Statistics". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
2. from personal name, according to Palmer, 1881, p. 41
3. בענה 2014
4. W.F. Albright was a major proponent of this view (AASOR - 1921/1922, pp. 19–20). As for the Egyptian texts that mention Beth-Anath, see the Zenon Papyri . Cf. Stephen G. Wilson & Michel Desjardins, Text and Artifact in the Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity: Essays in honour of Peter Richardson, Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo Ontario 2000, p. 121, ISBN   0-88920-356-3
5. Shmuel Ahituv, Canaanite Toponyms in Ancient Egyptian Documents, Magnes Press: Jerusalem 1984 ISBN   9652235644, citing Aharoni (1957:70-74).
6. Klein, S. (1934), pp. 5–7
7. Gal, 1988, pp. 80–83
8. Albright (1923), p. 19
9. Layish 1987, pp. 61, 67–68, 70.
10. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 191
11. Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 Archived 2019-04-20 at the Wayback Machine writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied from the Safad-district was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9.
12. Philipp 2001, p. 31.
13. Philipp 2001, pp. 32–33.
14. Joudah 2013, p. 20.
15. Cohen 1973, pp. 93–97.
16. Karmon, 1960, p. 166 Archived 2019-12-22 at the Wayback Machine .
17. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, 2nd appendix, p. 133
18. Guérin, 1880, p. 445, as translated by Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 150
19. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 150
20. Schumacher, 1888, p. 174
21. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Acre, p. 36
22. Barron, 1923, Table XVI, p. 50
23. Mills, 1932, p. 100
24. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 4
25. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 40
26. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 80
27. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 130
28. Morris, 1987, p. 226
29. Frankel, et al. (2001), p. 22

Bibliography

• Aharoni, Y. (1957). The Settlement of the Tribes of Israel in the Upper Galilee. Jerusalem: Magnes Press.
• Albright, W.F. (1922). "Contribution to the Historical Geography of Palestine". The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 2–3: 1–46.
• Albright, W.F. (1923). Warren J. Moulton (ed.). "Beth Anath". The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research (AASOR). 2–3. New Haven: Yale University Press. JSTOR   3768450.
• Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
• Cohen, Amnon (1973). Palestine in the 18th Century: Patterns of Government and Administration. Jerusalem: The Magnes Press. ISBN   978-0-19-647903-3.
• Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 1. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. (p. 153)
• Frankel, Rafael; Getzov, Nimrod; Aviam, Mordechai; Degani, Avi (2001). "Settlement Dynamics and Regional Diversity in Ancient Upper Galilee (Archaeological Survey of Upper Galilee)". Israel Antiquities Authority . 14.
• Gal, Zvi (1988). "The Late Bronze Age in Galilee: A Reassessment". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 272 (272): 79–84. doi:10.2307/1356788. JSTOR   1356788. S2CID   164010807.
• Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945.
• Guérin, V. (1880). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 3: Galilee, pt. 1. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale. (Deir al-Asad: p. 446, Majd al-Kurum: pp 437, 444)
• Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
• Hütteroth, W.-D.; Abdulfattah, K. (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN   978-3-920405-41-4.
• Joudah, Ahmad Hasan (2013). Revolt in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century: The Era of Shaykh Zahir al-Umar (Second ed.). Gorgias Press. ISBN   978-1-4632-0002-2.
• Karmon, Y. (1960). "An Analysis of Jacotin's Map of Palestine" (PDF). Israel Exploration Journal . 10 (3, 4): 155–173, 244–253. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-12-22. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
• Klein, S. (1934). "Notes on History of Large Estates in Palestine". Yediot - Bulletin of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society. 1: 18–34.
• Layish, Aharon (1987). ""Waqfs" and Ṣūfī Monasteries in the Ottoman Policy of Colonization: Sulṭan Selīm I's "waqf" of 1516 in Favour of Dayr al-Asad". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 50 (1): 61–89. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00053192. JSTOR   616894.
• Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
• Morris, B. (1987). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem . Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-33028-2.
• Palmer, E.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
• Philipp, Thomas (2001). Acre: The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian City, 1730–1831. Columbia University Press. ISBN   978-0-231-50603-8.
• Pringle, D. (1993). The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A-K (excluding Acre and Jerusalem). Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521390361. (p.80 -92 )
• Rhode, H. (1979). Administration and Population of the Sancak of Safed in the Sixteenth Century (PhD). Columbia University. Archived from the original on 2020-03-01. Retrieved 2017-12-02.
• Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. Vol. 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
• Röhricht, R. (1893). (RRH) Regesta regni Hierosolymitani (MXCVII-MCCXCI) (in Latin). Berlin: Libraria Academica Wageriana. (p. 188 no 674; p. 248 no 934; p. 256 no 974; p. 308 no 1175)
• Safrai, Z. (1976). "Beth-Anath". Sinai. 78: 18–34.
• Schumacher, G. (1888). "Population list of the Liwa of Akka". Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund. 20: 169–191.

External links

• Welcome To Bi'na
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 3: IAA, Wikimedia commons