Bani Zeid al-Gharbia
Bani Zeid is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of Palestine, in the north-central West Bank, located northwest of Ramallah, about 45 kilometers northwest of Jerusalem and about southwest of Salfit. A town of over 6,000 inhabitants, Bani Zeid was founded when the villages of Deir Ghassaneh and Beit Rima merged to form a municipality in 1966 during the Jordanian rule.
Bani Zeid owes its name to the Arab tribe that was granted the area as a fief by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in the 12th century for having served in the Muslim army during the first Crusades. It was settled by members of the tribe alongside the native fellahin during the reign of Mamluk sultan Baibars in the mid-13th century. During Ottoman rule, the area of Bani Zeid served as a sheikdom with some administrative capacity. It consisted of several villages with Deir Ghassaneh as its center. During that time, the Barghouti family dominated the sheikdom.
During the 1936–39 Arab revolt against British Mandate rule, Deir Ghassaneh primarily served as the scene of rebel gatherings and British military raids. In 1967, Bani Zeid was occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War, but was later transferred to full Palestinian security and administrative control in 2000. The next year it became the first Palestinian-controlled town to be known as the site of major operation by Israeli forces during the Second Intifada. When Fathiya Barghouti Rheime was elected mayor in 2005, Bani Zeid became the first Palestinian locality with a woman as head of the municipality, in concurrence with nearby Ramallah.
Historically, Bani Zeid's economy was dependent on the olive crop, which was supplied to soap factories in Nablus. Until the present day, olive trees cover most of the town's cultivable land. However, the residents of Bani Zeid today largely derive their income from employment in the civil service and private business. There are a number of archaeological sites in Bani Zeid, including the old town of Deir Ghassaneh, the manor of Sheikh Salih al-Barghouti and the maqam of Sheikh al-Khawwas.
History
Habitation periods
In Beit Rima, sherds from the Iron Age I and IA II, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Crusader/Ayyubid, Mamluk and Early Ottoman remains have been found.In Deir Ghassaneh, sherds from all of the same periods, except Persian, have also been found. Small fragments of a marble column were found in Deir Ghassaneh.
According to Sharon, there is no mention of Deir Ghassaneh or Beit Rima in early Arabic sources.
Biblical reference
Deir Ghassaneh has been identified as the ancient Saredah, hometown of Jeroboam. According to some sources, it was settled by the Ghassanids, an Arab Christian tribal confederation, after it was abandoned by the Israelites.Roman period
In the compendium of Jewish oral law known as the Mishnah, Beit Rima is mentioned as a place where they formerly produced a high-quality grape wine, and which was brought as an oblation to the Temple in Jerusalem.Byzantine period
English orientalist Edward Henry Palmer thought the name meant "The monastery of the Ghassaneh", better known today as Ghassanids. However, according to Moshe Sharon, Israeli professor of Islamic history and civilisation, this claim has been dismissed by a number of researchers since the Ghassanids did not have a history of settlement in Samaria, the modern-day northern West Bank. Sharon suggests that the name of the village is related to the Arabic word ghassaneh, which means "very handsome" or suggests "youth and beauty". Casanowicz argues for its identification with Arimathea or Arimathaea, the reported home of Joseph of Arimathea, although others identify it with Ramla.Byzantine ceramics have been found in Deir Ghassaneh, and on the north side of Beit Rima.
Ayyubid period: Bani Zeid tribe in Palestine
The modern town of Bani Zeid receives its name from the Arab tribe of Bani Zeid, which settled in Palestine during the Ayyubid period in the late 12th century. They formed part of the Bedouin units of Saladin's army that hailed from the Hejaz. After the siege of Jerusalem in 1187, Saladin's forces captured the city and the Ayyubid army was garrisoned there. The Bani Zeid temporarily resided in Jerusalem and a street, located near the present-day al-Sa'idia Street, was named after them, but has since been renamed.In order for Saladin to persuade the Hejazi Arab tribes that joined his army to remain in Palestine, he offered each tribe a cluster of villages captured from the Crusaders as iqta' to settle in and control. The Bani Zeid were granted the villages of Deir Ghassaneh and Beit Rima, as well as the nearby towns of Kafr Ein and Qarawa. However, the Bani Zeid tribe only settled there after another century.
Mamluk period
It was not until 1293, after the Bahri Mamluks under Sultan Baibars conquered the coastal strip of Palestine and expelled the last of the Crusaders, that the Bani Zeid tribe settled in the villages offered to them a century earlier by Saladin.It is known that Deir Ghassaneh was inhabited during the Mamluk period due to the many houses there that have preserved elements of Mamluk architecture. Specific examples include the use of the ablaq technique of alternating stones of different colors, particularly red and white, that decorate the facades and gates of some houses.
A Mamluk-era stone inscription belonging to an unidentified building in Deir Ghassaneh dating from 1330 describes a two-story "felicitous palace" with a garden. The palace was apparently an asset of the Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad and was inspected by Isa Muhammad al-Qaymari, a low-ranking emir from the Mosul region in charge of overseeing the personal assets of the sultan. In 1480 Deir Ghassaneh-based tribesmen from the Bani Zeid attacked Jerusalem as retaliation for the governor's execution of some of its members who had been accused of revolting against the Burji Mamluk authorities.
Early Ottoman period
During the Ottoman era in Palestine, the area where the Bani Zeid tribe settled became the nahiya of Bani Zeid, part of the larger sanjak of Quds. The nahiya contained over 20 towns and villages and had jurisdiction over a part of Salfit. While these villages were registered and organized like other villages in the Jerusalem Sanjak, they were also treated as a group. Each village was led by a ra'is and the entire Bani Zeid Nahiya was headed by a sheikh. The Bani Zeid sheikdom would serve as a political-administrative unit for the purposes of tax collection and army mobilization.In 1556 the sheikdom was led by Sheikh Abu Rayyan bin Sheikh Manna, who was succeeded by Sheikh Muhammad Abu Rabban in 1560. Olive oil was the primary commodity that Bani Zeid Nahiya produced and the product was sold to local Ottoman officials and soap factories in Nablus. The Ottomans imposed taxes on olive oil, wheat and barley, and the sheikh was responsible for paying the revenues of collected taxes to the Ottoman authorities. In addition, Bani Zeid was required to finance a waqf to the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. In 1596 both Deir Ghassaneh and Beit Rima appeared in Ottoman tax registers and both villages paid taxes on wheat, barley, olive trees, fruit trees, vineyards, goats and/or beehives. Deir Ghassaneh had a population of 76 households, all Muslim, while Beit Rima had 54 Muslim households and 14 Christian households. During the course of the 16th century, most of Beit Rima's Christian inhabitants had emigrated from the village to Jerusalem, Ramla and Gaza, although the Christian population that remained continued to grow.
Nineteenth century
In the 19th century Bani Zeid was one of about two dozen sheikdoms in the central highlands of Palestine. While its exact borders varied from time to time, it was generally marked by the Wadi al-Dilb stream to the south, which separated it from the Bani Harith al-Shamali sheikdom, and the Wadi Nattif stream to the north that separated it from Bilad Jamma'in. The Bani Zeid sheikdom contained the highest slopes and the largest concentration of mountain faults of all the highland sheikdoms. About two-thirds of its villages were situated on relatively wide hilltops while the remainder were built along slopes. None were located in the valleys or the foothills. In 1838 English biblical scholars Edward Robinson and Eli Smith noted that the Bani Zeid Nahiya consisted of 18 inhabited localities and four khirbas. They classified Deir Ghassaneh and Beit Rima as inhabited by Muslims. Residents from the al-Ramahi clan of Deir Ghassana settled al-Muzayri'a near Ramla, establishing it as a dependency, or satellite village, of their home village.In the early 19th century, the paramount sheikhs of Bani Zeid were Sheikh Marif al-Barghouti and Sheikh 'Asi al-Rabbah Barghouti. They belonged to the wealthy noble family of al-Barghouti, a sub-clan of the Bani Zeid tribe that traditionally provided the leaders of the sheikdom. Its members were generally referred to as Baraghithah and the clan consisted of nine branches whose collective power extended beyond the Bani Zeid sheikdom to the coastal plain of Palestine. During the period of Khedivate Egyptian rule in the Levant, Sheikh 'Abd al-Jabir al-Barghouti, a nephew of Sheikh Marif, served as the chief of the Bani Zeid. Sheikh 'Abd al-Jabir belonged to the al-Zahir branch of the family which was based in Deir Ghassaneh. Deir Ghassaneh served as the sheikdom's qaryat al-kursi. During the early part of Egyptian rule, Governor Ibrahim Pasha had Sheikh 'Abd al-Jabir executed. He was succeeded by Sheikh Ali al-Rabbah, another leading Barghouti sheikh and a son of Sheikh Asi. The latter was also subsequently executed on the orders of Ibrahim Pasha. Both sheikhs and their peasant fighters had fought against Egyptian rule during the 1834 Peasants' Revolt that spread throughout Palestine. During the last years of Egyptian control, Sheikh Musa Ahmad al-Sahwil of Abwein became the paramount sheikh of the Bani Zeid and continued to exercise great influence over the sheikdom when the Egyptian military withdrew from Palestine in 1841.
In the second half of the 19th century Bani Zeid was officially ruled by Sheikh Salih al-Barghouti, although he struggled to maintain full authority over the sheikdom, having to contend with his Abwein-based rival Sheikh Musa and his family, al-Sahwil. The latter controlled seven villages in the eastern part of the sheikdom, while the Barghouti maintained control over twelve villages in the western part. The two domains were separated by a wadi. Nonetheless, Sheikh Salih enjoyed high political and social status, holding the official title of sheikh al-nahiya and was also referred to locally as sheikh al-mashayikh. The title ceased to be recognized by the Istanbul-based central government in 1864, but locally the title continued to demonstrate the guise of official authority. As sheikh al-nahiya, Sheikh Salih was tasked with the nomination and dismissal of makhatir and maintaining order through local custom. He also served as the multazim of the Bani Zeid sheikdom on behalf of the Ottoman authorities, despite the ban on tax-farming in 1853. This role in particular enabled the Barghouti clan to acquire vast wealth and property either forcefully or through legal transfer. During previous inter-family disputes, members of the clan had begun to settle in the surrounding villages of Beit Rima, Kobar and Deir Nidham.
As members of the Qais tribo-political faction, in opposition to the Yaman faction, the Barghouti aligned themselves with Qaisi-affiliated Bedouin tribes and other prominent families, including the Khalidi clan of Jerusalem, the 'Amr, 'Azza and 'Amla clans of the Hebron area and the Samhan clan of the Bani Harith nahiya to the north. In 1855–1856 tensions between Sheikh Salih and the leading families of Nablus broke out into fierce clashes. Sheikh Salih was eventually able to compel the Ottoman authorities to take the local rulers of Nablus to task. The restive sheikhs of the Jerusalem and Hebron regions were called to Damascus to conclude a lasting peace, but all were condemned to exile in Trabzon, northern Anatolia, with the exception of Sheikh Salih who apparently impressed the governor and was allowed to return to Deir Ghassaneh. The Barghouti clan would later support the Dar Hammad tribe against the Dar Hamid, both of which were engaged in a feud in nearby Silwad. In one day of fighting, 20 men were killed, prompting Sureya Pasha, the governor of Jerusalem, to personally intervene with a detachment of Ottoman troops which forced both factions to withdraw.
French explorer Victor Guérin visited both Deir Ghassaneh and Beit Rima in 1863. He noted that the former had a population of roughly 900 and was built on a mountain overlooking hills filled with "magnificent" olive groves. Beit Rima had a smaller population of 350, and was situated on a high plateau covered with olive and fig groves. The houses of both villages were constructed from red and white stone masonry and the mosque in Deir Ghassaneh, which Guérin regarded as noteworthy, was built from black and white stone. The home of Deir Ghassaneh's sheikh, who maintained a level of sovereignty over about 15 villages and hamlets in the area, and the members of his family, were particularly large and sturdily built. According to Sharon, the sheikh Guérin had referred to was Sheikh Salih. It was around this time, in the late 1860s, that the prominent al-Husayni clan of Jerusalem unsuccessfully attempted to form an alliance with the Barghouti clan, initially through diplomatic means. Afterward, they commissioned their allies in Istanbul to launch a propaganda campaign against the Barghouti clan, accusing them of undermining the sultan. This allegation was evidenced by the disruption of Jerusalem's water supply by the peasant fighters of the Bani Zeid led by Sheikh Salih, who closed off the aqueduct from Solomon's Pools to the south of Bethlehem.
In the 1887 census the Bani Zeid sheikdom consisted of 24 villages with an estimated collective population of 7,700, including 400 Christians. According to the census, Deir Ghassaneh had 1,200 inhabitants living in 196 households, making it significantly larger than the surrounding localities. There were nine elite households, each of whose family head was recognized by the census as a sheikh. The local imam, Muhammad Shams al-Din al-Shaykh Hanafi, was Egyptian and one of five men in Deir Ghassaneh born outside the village. The PEF's Survey of Western Palestine in the late 19th century stated Deir Ghassaneh was "a village on a ridge, with springs in the valley below. It is of moderate size, built of stone and has olives beneath it." The SWP described Beit Rima as "a small village on the summit of a ridge with wells to the west".