Deir Ballut

Deir Ballut
Other transcription(s)
 • Arabic دير بلّوط
 • Also spelled Dayr Ballout (official)
Deir al-Ballut (unofficial)
Deir Ballut
Deir Ballut
Location of Deir Ballut within Palestine
Coordinates: 32°03′55″N 35°01′30″E / 32.06528°N 35.02500°E / 32.06528; 35.02500Coordinates: 32°03′55″N 35°01′30″E / 32.06528°N 35.02500°E / 32.06528; 35.02500
Palestine grid 152/163
Governorate Salfit
Government
 • Type Village council
Elevation[1] 236 m (774 ft)
Population (2007)
 • Jurisdiction 3,195
Name meaning "Monastery (or Convent) of the Oak"[2]

Deir Ballut (Arabic: دير بلّوط‎) is a Palestinian town located in the Salfit Governorate in the northern West Bank, 41 kilometers (25 mi) south west of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of 3,195 in 2007.[3]

Location

Deir Ballut is located 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) west of Salfit. It is bordered by Kafr ad Dik to its east, Al Lubban al Gharbi to the south, Kafr Qasem to the west, and Rafat to the north.[1]

History

Sherds from the Iron Age, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad/Abbasid and Crusader/Ayyubid eras have been found here.[4]

The "great valley" of Wadi Deir Ballut was identified by Charles William Wilson (1836–1905) as the boundary between Judaea and Samaria, as defined by first-century historian Josephus.[5]

Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi records in 1226 that "Deir al-Ballut was a village of district around ar-Ramla."[6]

Ottoman era

In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village, Deir Balut, in Jurat Merda, south of Nablus.[7]

In 1870 Victor Guérin found it to be a village of one hundred and fifty people. However, judging by the extent of the ruins that covered the hill where it stood, Guérin thought it had once been a large city. Most houses were built with large stones.[8]

In 1882 the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it as "a small village, partly ruinous, but evidently once a place of greater importance, with rock-cut tombs. The huts are principally of stone. The water supply is from wells."[9] To the west of the village are rock-tombs, from a Christian age.[10]

WWI and British Mandate era

During World War I#Ottoman Empire conflict, 1917–1918, Deir Ballut was the site of minor engagement between Turkish and British troops on March 12, 1918.

In the a 1922 census of Palestine Deir Ballut had a population of 384 inhabitants, all Muslim,[11] rising to 532 in the 1931 census, still all Muslim, in a total of 91 houses.[12]

In the 1945 statistics the population was 720, all Muslim[13] while the total land area was 14,789 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[14] Of this, 508 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 3,488 for cereals,[15] while 63 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[16]

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Deir Ballut came under Jordanian rule.

In 1961, the population was 1,087.[17]

Post-1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Deir Ballut has been under Israeli occupation.

After the 1995 accords, only 5.2% of village land is Area B land, while the remainder 94.8% is Area C. Israel has confiscated 171 dunums of village land in for the Israeli settlements of Peduel and Alei Zahav.[18]

View of Deir Ballut (foreground) from Peduel

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Deir Ballut Town Profile, ARIJ, p. 4
  2. ↑ Palmer 1881, p. 228
  3. ↑ 2007 PCBS Census Archived December 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p. 112.
  4. ↑ Finkelstein et al, 1997, p. 242
  5. ↑ Wilson, c. 1881, vol 1, p. 232, accessed 31 May 2018
  6. ↑ le Strange, 1890, p. 428.
  7. ↑ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 126
  8. ↑ Guérin, 1875, p. 130
  9. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 284
  10. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 313
  11. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p. 26
  12. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 60
  13. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 18
  14. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 59
  15. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 105
  16. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 155
  17. ↑ Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 26
  18. ↑ Deir Ballut Town Profile, ARIJ, p. 16

Bibliography

  • Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
  • Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H. H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
  • Finkelstein, I.; Lederman, Zvi, eds. (1997). Highlands of many cultures. Tel Aviv: Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University Publications Section. ISBN 965-440-007-3.
  • Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics (1964). First Census of Population and Housing. Volume I: Final Tables; General Characteristics of the Population (PDF).
  • Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945.
  • Guérin, V. (1875). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). 2: Samarie, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
  • Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
  • Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
  • 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.
  • Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
  • Strange, le, G. (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
  • Wilson, C.W. (1881). Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt. 1. New York: D. Appleton.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.