Bayt Thul

Bayt Thul was a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 1, 1948 under Operation Nachshon. It was located 15.5 km west of Jerusalem.

Bayt Thul

بيت ثول
Village
Etymology: The house of Tul (meaning length)[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Bayt Thul (click the buttons)
Bayt Thul
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°49′21″N 35°04′26″E
Palestine grid157/136
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictJerusalem
Date of depopulationNot known[2]
April 1, 1948[3]
Area
 • Total4,629 dunams (4.629 km2 or 1.787 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total260[5][4]
Current LocalitiesNataf,[6] Neve Ilan[7]

History

Ottoman era

Bayt Thul, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1538-1539, Bayt Tul was noted in the Nahiya of Quds of the Liwa of Quds.[8] In the 1596 census, the village had a population was 7 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on various agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, olive trees, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 1,860 akçe.[9]

In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village in the district of Beni Malik, west of Jerusalem.[10]

A Capital, which Clermont-Ganneau noted in Beit Thul in the 1870s

In the early 1870s Clermont-Ganneau found the village inhabited, and a "hearty welcome was accorded to us." He further noted that the "village contains two welys, one the sanctuary of Sheikh Injeim, the other that of Bedriyeh. In front of the wely of Bedriyeh, I noticed the remains of a small aqueduct of masonry and two large shafts of ancient columns." According to local tradition, Bedriyeh was the sister of Sheikh Injeim.

He found remains there which led him to conclude that an important Christian building of the Byzantine period once existed there.[11]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine noted "Foundations and a Mukam."[12]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, there were 133 villagers, all Muslims,[13] increasing in the 1931 census to 182 inhabitants, in 43 inhabited houses.[14]

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 260 Muslims,[5] with a total of 4,629 dunums of land.[4] Of this, 55 dunams were for irrigable land or plantations, 787 for cereals,[15] while 13 dunams were built-up, urban, land.[16]

  • Bayt Thul 1943 1:20,000 (right of centre)
  • Bayt Thul 1945 1:250,000

1948, aftermath

In late October, 1948, the Beit Horon Battalion started the destruction of Bayt Thul.[17]

When the writers of an oral Palestinian history collection returned with a villager to Bayt Thul, they recorded how she, Umm 'Ali, began to collect herbs and plants. “She continued picking the leaves until what she had clutched to her chest sprouted from her like a large bush. That was Umm 'Ali, or maybe thats what we remember: A tree of wild herbs and greens moving with amazing grace over the stones of the destroyed villages, assuring, comforting, and reminding us of our descendants who are awaiting us.“[18]

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 287
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xx, village #358. Gives both cause and date of depopulation as "Not known"
  3. Palestine Remembered - Bayt Thul
  4. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 56
  5. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 24
  6. Khalidi, 1992, p. 280
  7. Close by, but on land traditionally belonging to Abu Ghosh, according to Khalidi, 1992, p. 290
  8. Toledano, 1984, p. 291, has Bayt Tul at location 31°49′20″N. 35°04′10″E
  9. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 113
  10. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 123
  11. Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, vol. 2, pp. 65-67
  12. Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 86
  13. Barron, 1923, p. 15
  14. Mills, 1932, p. 38
  15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 102
  16. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 152
  17. Morris, 2004, pp. 234 400, note #85
  18. Diab and Fahoum, 1990, p. 23; cited in Davis, 2011, p. 173

Bibliography
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