Bayt Jirja بيت جرجه Beit Jerja | |
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 Farmers near Bayt Jirja threshing wheat in 1940 | |
| Etymology: The house of the highway[1] | |
.jpg) 1870s map.jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Bayt Jirja (click the buttons) | |
  Bayt Jirja Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:31°36′11″N34°34′51″E / 31.60306°N 34.58083°E /31.60306; 34.58083 | |
| Palestine grid | 110/112 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Gaza |
| Date of depopulation | date unknown[4] |
| Area | |
• Total | 8,015dunams (8.015 km2; 3.095 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 940[2][3] |
| Current Localities | None |
Bayt Jirja orBeit Jerja (Arabic:بيت جرجه) was aPalestinianArab village 15.5 km Northeast ofGaza. In 1931 the village consisted of 115 houses. It was overrun byIsraeli forces during operationYo'av in the1948 Arab-Israeli war. Bayt Jirja was found depopulated in November 1948, during "clean up sweeps" to expel any partial inhabited villages and destroy village housing to prevent any possible re-occupation in the area.[5] The village was completely destroyed after the occupation and only one tomb remains.
Bayt Jirja contained the archaeological site ofKhirbat 'Amuda, excavation there in 2005 yielded coins and pottery fragments from theByzantine and earlyIslamic period.[6]
Khirbat 'Amuda was known to theCrusaders as Amouhde, and pottery fragments,cisterns, and a pool have also been found there.[7]
The Arab geographerYaqut, writing in the 1220s called the village for "Jirja", and said it was the birthplace of Abu al-Fadl al-Jirjawi, at one time the major authority in Palestine onhadith.[7]
In 1517, Bayt Jirja was incorporated into theOttoman Empire with the rest ofPalestine, and in 1596 the village appeared in the Ottomantax registers (named "Bayt Harja" (Farja)) as being in thenahiya (subdistrict) ofGaza, part of theSanjak of Gaza, with a population of 71 households and 14 bachelors, an estimated 468 persons, allMuslims. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on a number of crops, including wheat, barley and fruit trees, as well as on goats and beehives; a total of 18,500akçe. All of the revenue went to awaqf.[8]
During the17th and18th centuries, the area of Bayt Jirja experienced a significant process of settlement decline due tonomadic pressures on local communities. The residents of abandoned villages moved to surviving settlements, but the land continued to be cultivated by neighboring villages.[9] The village must have been destroyed, as a marble slab at the entrance to the yard of the villagemosque proclaimed thatAbdullah Pasha ofAcre, via his delegate Mohammed Shahin, had rebuilt the village in 1825–26.[10]
In 1838,Beit Jerja was noted as a Muslim village in the Gaza area.[11]
In May 1863,Victor Guérin visited the village. He found it had 370 inhabitants, and awali with ancient granite columns.[12]Socin found from an official Ottoman village list from about 1870 that Bayt Jirja had a population of 106, with a total of 34 houses, though the population count included men, only.[13]Hartmann found thatBet Dschardscha had 32 houses.[14]
In 1883 thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine described Bayt Jirja as small, with gardens, and supplied with water fromcisterns and a pond.[15]
In the1922 census of Palestine, conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities,Beit Jerja had a population of 397 inhabitants, all Muslims,[16] increasing in the1931 census to 619, still all Muslim, in 115 houses.[17]
The villagers kept ashrine, located on the eastern edge and overlooking Wadi al-Abd, and which they believed to be the tomb of "prophet" (nabi) Jirja. An elementary school was established in the center of village in 1932, and it had 67 students in the mid-1940s. The village center also contained some small shops. There were a number of wells, ranging in depth from 30 to 80 meters, which supplied drinking and irrigation water.[7]
In the1945 statistics the population of Beit Jirja consisted of 940 Muslims[2] with a land area of 8,015dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[3] Of this, 434 dunams were designated forcitrus andbananas, 618 for plantations and irrigable land, 6,911 forcereals,[18] while 25 dunams were built-up areas.[19]
The village was probably captured in early November 1948, along with neighbouringal-Majdal, during the last phase ofOperation Yoav. The villagers fled or were expelled and the village was destroyed.[7]
According to the Palestinian historianWalid Khalidi, what remained of the village in 1992 was:
The site is encircled by barbed wire fencing, with only the street and scattered rubble still visible. One house on the northern edge of the village remains, along with some sycamore trees and cactuses. Some village lands are cultivated, while others are covered by woods.[7]
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