Yibna يبنا Tel Yavne | |
|---|---|
 Mamluk minaret in Yibna | |
| Etymology: Built[1] | |
.jpg) 1870s map.jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Yibna (click the buttons) | |
  Yibna Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:31°51′58″N34°44′47″E / 31.86611°N 34.74639°E /31.86611; 34.74639 | |
| Palestine grid | 126/141 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Ramle |
| Date of depopulation | 4 June 1948[3] |
| Area | |
• Total | 59,554dunams (59.554 km2; 22.994 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 5,420[2] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault byYishuv forces |
| Secondary cause | Expulsion byYishuv forces |
| Current Localities | Yavne,[4]Beit Raban,Kfar HaNagid,Beit Gamliel |
Yibna (Arabic:يبنا;Jabneh orJabneel inBiblical times;Jamnia inRoman times;Ibelin to theCrusaders), orTel Yavne, is an archaeological site anddepopulated Palestinian town. The ruins are located southeast of the modern Israeli city ofYavne.
The town had a population of 5,420 in 1948, located 15 kilometers southwest ofRamla.[5] Most of the population fled after the fall ofal-Qubeiba andZarnuqa in late May, but armed males were forced back. Israeli army took the town on June 5 and expelled the remaining population.[6]
It is a significant site for post-biblical Jewish history, as it was the location of theCouncil of Jamnia, considered the birthplace of modernRabbinic Judaism. It is also significant in the history of theCrusades, as the location of theHouse of Ibelin.
In many English translations of the Bible, it is known as Yavne or Jabneh/ˈdʒæbnə/. Inclassical antiquity, it was known as Jamnia (Koine Greek:Ἰαμνία,romanized: Iamníā;Latin:Iamnia); to theCrusaders asIbelin; and before 1948, as Yibna. (Arabic:يبنا)
Based on written sources and archaeology, the history of Yavneh/Jabneh/Yibna goes back to theIron Age and possibly to theBronze Age. TheHebrew Bible mentions Yavneh repeatedly, as doesJosephus. For more seeYavne.
Salvage excavations carried out in 2001 by theIsrael Antiquities Authority uncovered several burials at the northern foot of the original tell. Most of the burials are dated to the laterIron Age. One burial points to a lateBronze Age occupation.
A largePhilistinefavissa (deposit of cultic artifacts) was discovered on Temple Hill.[8] Two excavation seasons in the 2000s led by ProfessorDan Bahat revealed some Iron Age remains.[citation needed] Pottery sherds of the Iron Age and Persian period were discovered at the surface of the tell.[9]
Originally a Phillistine settlement, theSecond Book of the Maccabees gives an account ofJudas Maccabeus destroying the original Gentile-inhabited city. AfterAlexander Jannaeus, rule of the city switched to Judea and the city developed a large Jewish population.[10]
In Roman times, the city was known asIamnia, also spelledJamnia. It was bequeathed byHerod the Great upon his death to his sisterSalome I. Upon her death, it passed to the Roman emperorAugustus, who managed it as a privateimperial estate, a status it was to maintain for at least a century.[11] After Salome's death, Iamnia came into the property ofLivia, the future Roman empress, and then to her sonTiberius.[12]
During theFirst Jewish–Roman War, when the Roman army had quelled the insurrection inGalilee, the army then marched upon Iamnia andAzotus, taking both towns and stationing garrisons within them.[13] According to rabbinic tradition, thetannaYohanan ben Zakkai and his disciples were permitted to settle in Iamnia during the outbreak of the war, after Zakkai, realizing thatJerusalem was about to fall, sneaked out of the city and askedVespasian, the commander of the besieging Roman forces, for the right to settle in Yavne and teach his disciples.[14][15] Upon the fall of Jerusalem, his school functioned as a re-establishment of theSanhedrin.[16]
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Byzantine period finds from excavations include an aqueduct east of the tell, and a kiln.[17][18] The world's largest wine factory from the Byzantine period has been uncovered by Israeli archaeologists, after a two-year excavation process; the importance of its wine was exemplified by its use by emperor Justin II in 566 at his table during his coronation feast.[19]
The historianal-Baladhuri (d. 892 CE) mentioned Yibna as one of ten towns inJund Filastin conquered by theRashidun army led byAmr ibn al-As during theMuslim conquest of the Levant.[20] The 9th-century historianYa'qubi wrote that it was an ancient city built on a hill and inhabited bySamaritans.[20]
The geographeral-Maqdisi, writing around 985, said that "Yubna has a beautifulmosque. From this place come the excellentfigs known by the name of Damascene."[20] The geographerYaqut al-Hamawi wrote that in Yubna there was a tomb said to be that ofAbu Hurayra, aCompanion of the Prophet. The author of theMarasid also adds that tomb seen here is also said to be that ofAbd Allah ibn Sa'd, another Companion of the Prophet.[20]
In 2007, remains ranging from the early Islamic period until the British Mandate period were uncovered.[21] An additional kiln, and part of a commercial/industrial area were uncovered at the west of the tell in 2009.[22]
TheCrusaders called the cityIbelin and built acastle there in 1141. Two excavation seasons led by ProfessorDan Bahat starting in 2005 revealed the main gate.[citation needed] Its namesake noble family, thehouse of Ibelin, was important in theKingdom of Jerusalem and later in theKingdom of Cyprus. Salvage excavations at the west of the tell unearthed a stash of 53 Crusader coins of the 12th and 13th centuries.[22]
Ibelin was first sacked bySaladin before his army was comprehensively routed at theBattle of Montgisard in late 1177. In August 1187, it was retaken by Saladin and burned down, and ceased for some time to form part of the Crusaders' kingdom.[23] The Jewish travelerBenjamin of Tudela (1130–1173) identified Jamnia (Jabneh) of classical writers with theIbelin of the Crusades. He places the ancient city of Jamnia at three parasangs fromJaffa and two fromAshdod (Azotus).[24]
During theMamluk period (13th–16th centuries), Yibna was a key site along the Cairo–Damascus road, which served as a center for rural religious and economic life.[25] Ibelin's parish church was converted into a mosque, to which a minaret was added during the Mamluk period in 1337. The minaret survives until today, while the mosque (the former Crusader church) was blown up by the Israeli army in 1950.[7][26]
TheMausoleum of Abu Huraira, amaqam (religious shrine), in Yibna was described as "one of the finest domed mausoleums in Palestine". The site has been considered by Muslims as the tomb of Abu Huraira since the 12th century. After Israel's capture of Yibna in 1948, the shrine was taken over bySephardic Jews who consider the tomb as the burial place of RabbiGamaliel of Yavne.[27]
The village became part of theOttoman Empire in 1517. In the 1596 Ottoman tax registers, it fell under thenahiya (subdistrict) ofGaza, part of theliwa' (district) ofGaza, with a population of 129 households, an estimated 710 persons, all Muslims. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, summer crops,sesame seeds and fruits, as well as goats, beehives and vineyards; a total of 34,000akçe. Three quarters of the revenues went to awaqf (religious endowment).[28]
In theFrench campaign in Egypt and Syria in 1799, it was shown on the map thatPierre Jacotin compiled that year as 'Ebneh'.[29]
An American missionary,William Thomson, who visited Yibna in 1834, described it as a village on hill inhabited by 3,000 Muslims who worked in agriculture. He wrote that an inscription on the mosque indicated that it had been built in 1386, whileDenys Pringle indicates 1337 as the construction year of the minaret.[7][30][31] In 1838, Yibna was noted as a Muslim village in the Gaza district.[32]
An Ottoman village list from 1870 found that Yibna had a population of 1,042 living in 348 houses, although this number only counted adult males.[33][34] In 1882, thePalestine Exploration Fund'sSurvey of Western Palestine described Yibna as a large village partly built of stone and situated on a hill. It had olive trees and corn to the north, and gardens nearby.[35]
Oral histories of Yibna mention Late Ottomaninfantjar-burials, commonly associated withnomads oritinerant workers ofEgyptian origins.[36]
In 1921, an elementary school for boys was founded in Yibna. By 1941-42 it had 445 students. A school for girls was founded in 1943, and by 1948 it had 44 students.[5]
In the1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Yibna had a population of 1,791; all Muslims,[37] increasing in the1931 census to 3,600, of whom all were Muslims except for seven Christians, two Jews and oneBaháʼí, living in a total of 794 houses.[38]
The inhabitants of Yibna cultivated not only the fertile alluvial plains but also the sandy hinterland known asRimāl Yibnā. Despite being classified as uncultivable under Ottoman land law, villagers, in cooperation withnomadic groups, developed fig orchards, vineyards, and seasonal fields among the dunes. British cadastral and tax reforms in the 1920s and 1930s accelerated these efforts, and by the 1940s local farmers had managed to cultivate up to 10 percent of the dunefield, transforming marginal lands into productive plots.[39]
In 1941,KibbutzYavne was established nearby by refugees from Germany, followed by aYouth Aliyah village,Givat Washington, in 1946.[5]
In1944-45, Yibna had a population of 5,400 Muslims and 20 Christians,[2] while the total land area was 59,554dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[40]In addition there were 1,500 nomads living around the village.[5] A total of 6,468 dunams of village land was used for citrus and bananas, 15,124 were used for cereals, 11,091 were irrigated or used for orchards, of which 25 were planted with olive trees,[5][41] while 127 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[42]
Yibna was in the territory allotted to the Jewish state under the 1947UN Partition Plan.[43] In mid-March 1948, a contingent of Iraqi volunteers moved into the village. In aHaganah reprisal on March 30, two dozen villagers were killed.[44] On April 21, the Iraqi village commander was arrested by the British authorities for the drunken shooting of two Arabs.[44]
During the1948 Arab–Israeli war, residents ofZarnuqa sought refuge in Yibna, but left after Yibna's inhabitants accused them of being traitors.[45] On 27 May, following the fall of nearbyal-Qubayba andZarnuqa, most of the population of Yibna fled toIsdud, but Yibna's armed males were forced back to Yibna byIsdud's militiamen. According to the official history, the IsraeliGivati Brigade was interested in evacuating the village.[45] On June 5, after a brief firefight, they occupied the village and expelled the few old people who remained.[45] Refugees fleeing the village were fired at 'to increase [their] panic.'[45]
After 1948, a number of Israeli villages were founded on Yibna's land:Kfar HaNagid andBeit Gamliel in 1949,Ben Zakai in 1950,Kfar Aviv (originally: "Kfar HaYeor") in 1951, andTzofiyya in 1955.[46]
Archaeological excavations have revealed that part of the pre-1948 Arab village at Yibna was built on top of a Byzantine-period cemetery and refuse pits.[47]
Palestinian artistSliman Mansour made Yibna the subject of one of his paintings. The work, named for the village, was one of a series of four on destroyed Palestinian villages that he produced in 1988 in order to resist the cancellation of Palestinian history; the others beingYalo,Imwas andBayt Dajan.[48]
The harbour of ancient Yavneh has been identified on the coast atMinet Rubin (Arabic) orYavne-Yam (Hebrew), where excavations have revealed fortification going back to theBronze AgeHyksos.[9] It has been in use from the Middle Bronze Age until the 12th century CE, when it was abandoned.[49]
