Bashshit

Bashshit
Bashshit
Arabic بشيت
Name meaning "House of Seth"[1]
Also spelled Beshshit, "Beit Shit" (="House of Seth")
Subdistrict Ramle
Coordinates 31°49′26.37″N 34°44′48.13″E / 31.8239917°N 34.7467028°E / 31.8239917; 34.7467028Coordinates: 31°49′26.37″N 34°44′48.13″E / 31.8239917°N 34.7467028°E / 31.8239917; 34.7467028
Palestine grid 126/136
Population 1,620[2] (1945)
Area 18,553 dunams
18.6 km²
Date of depopulation May 13, 1948[3]
Cause(s) of depopulation Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current localities Neve Mivtah, Meshar, Kfar Mordechai, Misgav Dov, Kannot, Shedema, and Aseret.

Bashshit (Arabic: بشيت‎), also Beshshit, was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict, located 16.5 kilometers (10.3 mi) southwest of Ramla about half a mile from wadi Bashshit. Archaeological artifacts from the village attest to habitation in the Early Islamic period and 12th and 13th centuries. Mentioned by Arab geographers from the 13th century onward, there was a tomb for the Neby Shit ("prophet Seth") in the village.

Like much the rest of Palestine, Bashshit was ruled by the Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans and the British. It was depopulated at the beginning of the 1948 Palestine war during Operation Barak. Along with the villages of Barqa, Bayt Daras, al-Batani al-Sharqi, and al-Maghar, among others, Bashshit was attacked by Haganah's Givati Brigade.[4] Following its depopulation, Bashshit was mostly destroyed. There are seven Israeli localities now situated on what were the village lands.

Etymology

According to the Palestine Exploration Fund, Beshshit stands for Beit Shit, meaning "house of Seth.[5] The tomb of Neby Shit ("prophet Seth") was in Bashshit, and other sanctuaries for him in the region included one in Samaria (Haram en Neby Shit), as well as Al-Nabi Shayth further north in Lebanon.[6] The tomb lies within a triple-domed mosque of the same name located on the side of a hill that lay in the center of the former village.[7]

History

During the Crusader period in Palestine, Bashshit was referred to as Basit. The village is mentioned by at least two Arab geographers as far back as the 13th century, when the village was under the rule of the Mamluks. It is documented in the writings of Yaqut al-Hamawi (died 1228) who mentioned it in his Mu'jam, describing its proximity to al-Ramla.[8][9]

Ottoman era

Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali also gave an account of the village in the 17th century, noting that the Arab grammarian and chronicler Jamal al-Bashshiti (d.1417) was from the village.[9]

In the late 19th century, while under Ottoman rule, Bashshit was an important village between Yibna and Isdud.[7] The village structures in Bashshit were made of adobe bricks. There were cultivated gardens with cactus hedges, and on a hill, stood a three-domed shrine.[7][9][10]

British Mandate era

During the British Mandate period, the village had a rectangular layout, extending in the east-west direction. Bashshit had an elementary school, built in 1921, in which 148 students were enrolled in the mid-1940s. A mosque, and a number of artesian wells, was located in the village center. The main economic activities were agriculture and animal husbandry. Grain was the chief crop.[9]

In a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Bashit had a population of 936; all Muslims,[11] increasing in the 1931 census to 1,125, still all Muslims, in a total of 333 houses.[12] By 1945, the population had increased to 1,620, the population being entirely Arab in ethnicity. The village comprised a total area of 18,553 dunums.[2]

A large number of inhabitants were employed in cereal farming, which occupied most of the land area. Some land was also allocated for irrigation and plantation, and the growing of citrus fruits and olives.[9][13]

Types of landuse in dunams by Arabs in 1945:[13][14]

Land Usage Dunams
Citrus 66
Irrigated & Plantation 651
Olives 67
Cereal 17,558
Urban 58
Cultivable 18,275
Non-cultivable 220

The land ownership of the village before occupation in dunams:[2]

Owner Dunams
Arab 18,538
Jewish 0
Public 15
Total 18,553

1948 War and aftermath

Between May 10 and May 13, 1948, the village was attacked by the 52nd and 53rd battalions of the Givati Brigade as part of Operation Barak. The villagers put up a major struggle, but the houses were mostly all destroyed.[15]

Today, there are seven Israeli settlements on the village land; including Newe Mivtach, Meshar, Kefar Mordekhay, Misgav Dov, Kannot, Shedema, and Aseret. Of Bashshit's former structures, three houses and a pool remain; two of the houses are deserted and an Israeli family occupies one. The surrounding lands today are cultivated by Israelis for agricultural production.[16]

The village also contains an archaeological site, al-Nabi 'Ararat, which has some remaining pillars and cisterns. However, the site is fenced off and marked as a "dangerous building" and the cisterns are heavily populated with bats.[17] The remains of a courtyard in front of the khirbat ("ruins") is heavily overgrown with weeds.

Excavations

In 1999, the village became subject of an archaeological investigation by the Israel Antiquities Authority. The excavation, directed by T. Kanias, with the assistance of A. Hajian (surveying), R. Graff (drafting) and M. Saltzberger (photography) involved the excavation of the sewer line which revealed building remains and ceramic fragments from the Early Islamic period and the 12th–13th centuries CE.[18] Various sized kurkar stones were discovered 0.9 m below the surface, pottery fragments from the Early Islamic period and a few animal bones.[18] Numerous potsherds were excavated also dating to the 12th–13th centuries CE, including the foot of a clay box lined with chalk and decorated with a geometric pattern and the remains of a plaster floor.[18]

References

  1. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 266
  2. 1 2 3 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 66
  3. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xix, village #257. Also gives cause of depopulation
  4. ↑ Khalidi, 1992, p.85
  5. ↑ Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), 1838, p. 84.
  6. ↑ Palestine Exploration Fund. "Quarterly Statement for 1877". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2009-08-22.
  7. 1 2 3 Petersen, 2001, p. 110.
  8. ↑ le Strange, 1890, p.421
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Khalidi, 1992, p.363.
  10. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p.409.
  11. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Gaza, p. 9
  12. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 2.
  13. 1 2 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 114
  14. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 164
  15. ↑ Morris, 2004, p.256
  16. ↑ "Destroyed villages:Bashshit". www.alnakba.org. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
  17. ↑ Tracing all that remains of the destroyed village of Bashshit -Palestine
  18. 1 2 3 Kanias, 2004, Bashshit Final Report

Bibliography

External links

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