Of the over 100 houses that made up the village, only three remain standing today.[5] TheJewish localities ofMazor,Nofekh, andRinatia are located on Rantiya's former lands.[5]
Etymology
Ranṭyā /Ranṭya/ is an ancient name which perfectly matches theGreek Ῥαντία. The name is apparently related to that of Ranṭīs which is a Grecized form of a Hebrew name (Rmtym, LXX Aρμαθαιμ); with t > ṭ under the influence of r.[7]
During theCrusader era the village was known asRentie,Rantia, orRentia.[8][9]
History
The village was situated on a low mound on an ancient site.[10]
In 1122 thetithes of the village were granted to the hospital of the church of St John atNablus.[11] In 1166, the tithes were granted to theKnights Hospitaller.[12] Avaulted building in the village, namedal-Baubariya, has been dated to the Crusader period.[8]
Ottoman era
Rantiya, like the rest ofPalestine, was incorporated into theOttoman Empire in 1517, and in 1557 the revenues of the village were designated for the newwaqf ofHasseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem, established by Hasseki Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana), wife ofSuleiman the Magnificent.[13] Administratively, the village belonged to the Sub-district ofRamla in the District ofGaza.[14] In the late 1550s, local disturbances decreased the income from the village by nearly 40%.[15]
In 1596, Rantiya was a village in thenahiya ("subdistrict") of Ramla (liwa' ("district") ofGaza), with a population of 132. Villagers paid taxes to the authorities for the crops that they cultivated, which includedwheat,barley, fruit, andsesame as well as on other types of property, such asgoats andbeehives.[16] All the villagers were Muslim.[17] All of the revenues; a total of 5,300Akçe, went to aWaqf.[17]
In 1838 it was noted as aMuslim village calledRentieh in theLydda administrative region,[18] while in 1856 the village was namedRenthieh onKiepert's map of Palestine published that year.[19]
In 1870 the French explorerVictor Guérin visited and described the village as partially destroyed,[20] while an Ottoman village list from about the same year showed that Rantiya had 33 houses and a population of 116, though the population count included men only.[21][22]
In 1882, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine found Rantiya to be a small village built ofadobe bricks. At that time a main road passed right next to it.[23]
By1945 the population had increased to 590 Muslims,[2] while the total land area was 4,389dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[3] Of this, 505 were allocated for citrus and bananas, 99 were for plantations and irrigable land, 3,518 for cereals,[26] while 13 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[27]
1948, and after
In 1992 the village remains were described as "Three deserted houses, standing amid weeds, tall wild grasses, and the debris of several other houses, are all that remains of the village. Two of the deserted houses are made of stone, the third of concrete. All have rectangular doors and windows. Two of them have flat roofs; the third may have had a gabled roof."[5]
References in contemporary culture
In the filmSoraida: A Woman of Palestine, byTahani Rached, the main character explains that she named her daughter and son, Rantia and Aram, after Palestinian villages to preserve the memory of thehomeland.[28][29]
^abcGovernment of Palestine, Department of Statistics.Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.53
^Morris, 2004, p.xviii, village #212. Also gives cause of depopulation. According to Morris the village had also been depopulated the 28 April 1948, also at that time by Military assault.
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1870s map.jpg)
1940s map.jpg)
modern map.jpg)
1940s with modern overlay map
