Palestinian town in the Jordan Valley
Municipality type C in Tubas, State of Palestine
'
Aqqaba
(
Arabic
:
??????
) is a
Palestinian
town located on a slope in the
Jordan Valley
in the northern
West Bank
, 15 kilometers northeast of
Jenin
in the
Tubas Governorate
of the
State of Palestine
. According to the
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
(PCBS), the town had a population of 8,239 inhabitants in the 2017 census.
[2]
History
[
edit
]
Pottery remains
from the
Persian
,
Hellenistic
and
Byzantine
eras have been found here.
[3]
'Aqqaba is identified with Iqbin (
Hebrew
:
?????
), mentioned in the 6th-7th century
Mosaic of Re?ob
as a Jewish settlement in the region of
Sebastia
inhabited mostly by non-Jews and, therefore, agricultural produce obtained from the area could be taken by Jews without the normal restrictions imposed during the
Sabbatical years
, or the need for
tithing
.
[4]
[5]
Ottoman era
[
edit
]
'Aqqaba, like the rest of
Palestine
, was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire
in 1517, and in the
census
of 1596, the village was located in the
Nahiya
of Jabal Sami of the
Liwa
of
Nablus
. The population was 22 households and 5 bachelors, all
Muslim
. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on various agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and/or beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 5,982
akce
.
[6]
In 1870
Victor Guerin
found the village to have 130 inhabitants, who had a
mosque
in the eastern part of the village.
[7]
In 1882, the
PEF
's
Survey of Western Palestine
described it as "a good sized village on the northern slope of
Ras el Akra
. It is surrounded with brushwood on the hills, but has arable land below."
[8]
British Mandate of Palestine
[
edit
]
In the
1922 census of Palestine
, conducted by the
British Mandate authorities
, 'Aqqaba had a population of 330; 322 Muslims and 8 Christian
[9]
Orthodox,
[10]
increasing in the
1931 census
to 411; 9 Christians and 403 Muslims, in a total of 89 houses.
[11]
In the
1945 statistics
the population was 600; 20 Christians and 580 Muslims,
[12]
with 8,068
dunams
of land, according to an official land and population survey.
[13]
Of this, 1,259 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 4,284 dunams were for cereals,
[14]
while 54 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
[15]
Jordanian era
[
edit
]
In the wake of the
1948 Arab?Israeli War
, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements
, 'Aqqaba came under
Jordanian rule
.
In 1961, the population had reached 1,164.
[16]
Post 1967
[
edit
]
Since the
Six-Day War
in 1967, 'Aqqaba has been held under
Israeli occupation
.
'Aqqaba is made up of three main families: Abu Arra, Abu Ghannam and al-Masri. During clear weather,
Haifa
could be seen from the west on the
Mediterranean Sea
as well as the summit of
Jabal ash-Sheikh
in
Lebanon
, while from the east the mountains of
Ajloun
in
Jordan
are clearly seen day and night. 'Aqqaba is the highest point in the Tubas Governorate. 'Aqqaba lies five kilometers east the
Arab American University
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Palmer, 1881, p.
198
- ^
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
(February 2018).
"Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census 2017"
(PDF)
. p. 66
. Retrieved
May 19,
2023
.
- ^
Zertal, 2007, pp.
149
-
150
- ^
Aaron Demsky
,
The Permitted Villages of Sebaste in the Re?ov Mosaic
,
Israel Exploration Journal
(vol. 29, no. 3/4), Jerusalem 1979, p. 189. "?????? is identified by Sussmann with the village 'Aqabah (map ref. 1830 1953)."
- ^
Zertal, Adam (2007).
The Manasseh Hill Country Survey. Volume 2, The Eastern Valleys and the Fringes of the Desert
. Leiden: Brill. p. 105.
ISBN
978-90-474-2387-4
.
OCLC
310354878
.
The identification with Iqbin (?????) of the "Permitted Villages" is supported by the location, geographical historical context and findings; and see discussion of site no. 84, Kh. el-'Aqabah.
- ^
Hutteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 125
- ^
Guerin, 1874, p.
354
- ^
Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p.
227
- ^
Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p.
24
- ^
Barron, 1923, Table XV, p.
47
- ^
Mills, 1932, p.
59
- ^
Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p.
18
- ^
Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics.
Village Statistics, April, 1945.
Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.
59
- ^
Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics.
Village Statistics, April, 1945.
Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.
105
- ^
Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics.
Village Statistics, April, 1945.
Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.
155
- ^
Government of Jordan, 1964, p.
26
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- 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
. Vol. 2. London:
Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund
.
- 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
.
- Guerin, V.
(1874).
Description Geographique Historique et Archeologique de la Palestine
(in French). Vol. 2: Samarie, pt. 1. 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.
- Hutteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (1977).
Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century
. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Frankischen Geographischen Gesellschaft.
ISBN
3-920405-41-2
.
- 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
.
- Zertal, A.
(2007).
The Manasseh Hill Country Survey
. Vol. 2. Boston: BRILL.
ISBN
978-9004163690
.
External links
[
edit
]