Lod (, ), also known as Lydda () and Lidd (, or ), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Shephelah on the east and the coastal plain on the west. The city had a population of in .
Lod has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic period. It is mentioned a few times in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament. Between the 5th century BCE and up until the late Roman period, it was a prominent center for Jewish scholarship and trade. Around 200 CE, the city became a Roman colony and was renamed (). Tradition identifies Lod as the 4th century martyrdom site of Saint George; the Church of Saint George and Mosque of Al-Khadr located in the city is believed to have housed his remains.
Following the Arab conquest of the Levant, Lod served as the capital of Jund Filastin; however, a few decades later, the seat of power was transferred to Ramla, and Lod slipped in importance. Under Crusader rule, the city was a Catholic diocese of the Latin Church and it remains a titular see to this day.
Lod underwent a major change in its population in the mid-20th century. Exclusively Palestinian Arab in 1947, Lod was part of the area designated for an Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine; however, in July 1948, the city was occupied by the Israel Defense Forces, and most of its Arab inhabitants were expelled in the Palestinian expulsion from Lydda and Ramle.Shapira, Anita, “Politics and Collective Memory: the Debate Over the 'New Historians' in Israel,” History and Memory 7 (1) (Spring 1995), pp. 9ff, 12–13, 16–17.Blumenthal, 2013, p. 420 The city was largely resettled by Jewish immigrants, most of them from Arab countries.M. Sharon, s.v. "Ludd," Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed. Leiden: Brill, 1983, vol. 5, pp. 798-803; Morris, 2004, pp. 414-461.
Today, Lod is one of Israel's mixed cities, with an Arab population of 30%.Uploads (p. 18), Jerusaleminstitute.org. Accessed 1 November 2022. Lod is one of Israel's major transportation hubs. The main international airport, Ben Gurion Airport, is located 8 km (5 miles) north of the city. The city is also a major railway and road junction.
Religious references The Hebrew name Lod appears in the Hebrew Bible as a town of Benjamin, founded along with Ono by Shemed (1 Chronicles 8:12; Ezra 2:33; Nehemiah 7:37; 11:35). In , it is mentioned as one of the cities whose inhabitants returned after the Babylonian captivity. Lod is not mentioned among the towns allocated to the tribe of Benjamin in .Exell, J. S. and Spencer-Jones, H. (eds), Pulpit Commentary on 1 Chronicles 8, biblehub.com. Accessed 8 February 2020.
The name Lod derives from a tri-consonantal root not extant in Northwest Semitic, but only in Arabic (“to quarrel; withhold, hinder”). An Arabic etymology of such an ancient name is unlikely (the earliest attestation is from the Achaemenid period).
In the New Testament, the town appears in its Greek form, Lydda,Bible Dictionary, "Lydda"International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Lod; Lydda"Palmer, 1881, p. 216 as the site of Peter's healing of Aeneas in ."Lod," Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009. "And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda", Acts 9:32–38
The city is also mentioned in an Islamic hadith as the location of the battlefield where the false messiah (al-Masih ad-Dajjal) will be slain before the Day of Judgment.
History Neolithic and Chalcolithic
The first occupation dates to the Neolithic in the Near East and is associated with the Lodian culture.Yannai and Marder 2000Brink 1999, 2002, Brink et al. 2015 Occupation continued in the Levant Chalcolithic.Paz, Rosenberg and Nativ 2005:131–154 Pottery finds have dated the initial settlement in the area now occupied by the town to 5600–5250 BCE.Schwartz, Joshua J. Lod (Lydda), Israel: from its origins through the Byzantine period, 5600 B.C.-640 A.D.. Tempus Reparatum, 1991, p. 39.
Early Bronze In the Early Bronze, it was an important settlement in the central coastal plain between the Judean Shephelah and the Mediterranean coast, along Nahal Ayalon.Amir Golani (2022) Early Bronze Age Remains at Tel Lod, 'Atiqot 108 Other important nearby sites were Tel Dalit, Tel Bareqet, Khirbat Abu Hamid (Shoham North), Tel Afeq, Azor and Jaffa.
Two architectural phases belong to the late EB I in Area B.Keplan 1977 The first phase had a mudbrick wall, while the late phase included a circulat stone structure. Later excavations have produced an occupation later, Stratum IV. It consists of two phases, Stratum IVb with mudbrick wall on stone foundations and rounded exterior corners. In Stratum IVa there was a mudbrick wall with no stone foundations, with imported Egyptian potter and local pottery imitations.
Another excavations revealed nine occupation strata. Strata VI-III belonged to Early Bronze IB. The material culture showed Egyptian imports in strata V and IV.
Occupation continued into Early Bronze II with four strata (V-II). There was continuity in the material culture and indications of centralized urban planning.
Middle Bronze North to the tell were scattered MB II burials.Segal 2012
Late Bronze The earliest written record is in a list of Canaanite towns drawn up by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III at Karnak in 1465 BCE.
Classical era From the fifth century BCE until the Roman period, the city was a centre of Jewish scholarshipRozenfeld, 2010, p. 52 and commerce."Lod," Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009.
According to British historian Martin Gilbert, during the Hasmonean period, Jonathan Maccabee and his brother, Simon Maccabaeus, enlarged the area under Jewish control, which included conquering the city.Gilbert, Martin. Dearest Auntie Flori: The Story of the Jewish People. New York: Harper Collins 2002, p. 82; also see Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 14: 208
Roman era
The Jewish community in Lod during the Mishnah and Talmud era is described in a significant number of sources, including information on its institutions, demographics, and way of life. The city reached its height as a Jewish center between the First Jewish-Roman War and the Bar Kokhba revolt, and again in the days of Judah ha-Nasi and the start of the Amoraim period. The city was then the site of numerous public institutions, including schools, study houses, and synagogues.
In 43 BC, Cassius, the Roman governor of Syria, sold the inhabitants of Lod into slavery, but they were set free two years later by Mark Antony.Josephus, "Jewish War", I, xi, 2; "Antiquities", XIV xii, pp. 2–5.
During the First Jewish–Roman War, the Roman proconsul of Syria, Cestius Gallus, razed the town on his way to Jerusalem in Tishrei 66 CE. According to Josephus, "[he] found the city deserted, for the entire population had gone up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. He killed fifty people whom he found, burned the town and marched on". Lydda was occupied by Emperor Vespasian in 68 CE.Michael Avi-Yonah, s.v. "Lydda," Encyclopaedia Judaica. Accessed 1 November 2022.
In the period following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Rabbi Tarfon, who appears in many Tannaitic and Jewish legal discussions, served as a rabbinic authority in Lod.
During the Kitos War, 115–117 CE, the Roman army laid siege to Lod, where the rebel Jews had gathered under the leadership of Julian and Pappos. Torah study was outlawed by the Romans and pursued mostly in the underground.Holder, 1986, p. 52 The distress became so great, the patriarch Rabban Gamaliel II, who was shut up there and died soon afterwards, permitted fasting on Ḥanukkah. Other rabbis disagreed with this ruling.Ta'anit ii. 10; Yer. Ta'anit ii. 66a; Yer. Meg. i. 70d; R. H. 18b Lydda was next taken and many of the Jews were executed; the "slain of Lydda" are often mentioned in words of reverential praise in the Talmud.Pes. 50a; B. B. 10b; Eccl. R. ix. 10
In 200 CE, emperor Septimius Severus elevated the town to the status of a city, calling it Colonia Lucia Septimia Severa Diospolis.Cecil Roth, Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1972, p. 619. The name Diospolis ("City of Zeus") may have been bestowed earlier, possibly by Hadrian.Smallwood, 2001, p. 241 At that point, most of its inhabitants were Christian. The earliest known bishop is Aëtius, a friend of Arius.
During the following century (200-300CE), it's said that Joshua ben Levi founded a yeshiva in Lod.
Byzantine period
In December 415, the Council of Diospolis was held here to try Pelagius; he was acquitted. In the sixth century, the city was renamed GeorgiopolisYoram Tsafrir, Leah Di Segni, Judith Green, Tabula Imperii Romani Iudaea-Palestina: Eretz Israel in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods; Maps and Gazetteer, p. 171. Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1994; after St. George, a soldier in the guard of the emperor Diocletian, who was born there between 256 and 285 CE.Frenkel, Sheera and Low, Valentine. "Why Lod, the other land of St George, isn't for the faint-hearted", The Times, 23 April 2009.
The Church of Saint George and Mosque of Al-Khadr is named for him. The 6th-century Madaba map shows Lydda as an unwalled city with a cluster of buildings under a black inscription reading "Lod, also Lydea, also Diospolis".The Madaba Mosaic Map, Jerusalem 1954, pp. 61–62 An isolated large building with a semicircular colonnaded plaza in front of it might represent the St George shrine.
Early Muslim period
After the Muslim conquest of Palestine by Amr ibn al-'As in 636 CE,Le Strange, 1890, p. 28 Lod which was referred to as "al-Ludd" in Arabic served as the capital of Jund Filastin ("Military District of Palaestina") before the seat of power was moved to nearby Ramla during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik in 715–716. The population of al-Ludd was relocated to Ramla, as well.Le Strange, 1890, p. 303 With the relocation of its inhabitants and the construction of the White Mosque in Ramla, al-Ludd lost its importance and fell into decay.Le Strange, 1890, p. 308
The city was visited by the local Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi in 985, when it was under the Fatimid Caliphate, and was noted for its Great Mosque which served the residents of al-Ludd, Ramla, and the nearby villages. He also wrote of the city's "wonderful church (of St. George) at the gate of which Christ will slay the Antichrist."Le Strange, 1890 p. 493
Crusader and Ayyubid period The Crusaders occupied the city in 1099 and named it St Jorge de Lidde. It was briefly conquered by Saladin, but retaken by the Crusaders in 1191. For the English Crusaders, it was a place of great significance as the birthplace of Saint George. The Crusaders made it the seat of a Latin Church diocese, and it remains a titular see.Lydda, Catholic-hierarchy.org. Accessed 1 November 2022. It owed the service of 10 knights and 20 sergeants, and it had its own burgess court during this era.Pringle, 1998, p. 11
In 1226, Ayyubid Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi visited al-Ludd and stated it was part of the Jerusalem District during Ayyubid rule.Le Strange, 1890, p. 494
Mamluk period
Sultan Baybars brought Lydda again under Muslim control by 1267–8.Petersen, 2001, p. 203 According to Qalqashandi, Lydda was an administrative centre of a wilaya during the fourteenth and fifteenth century in the Mamluk empire. Mujir al-Din described it as a pleasant village with an active Friday mosque.Moudjir ed-dyn, 1876, Sauvaire (translation), pp. 210-213 During this time, Lydda was a station on the postal route between Cairo and Damascus.al-Ẓāhirī, 1894, pp. 118-119
Ottoman period
In 1517, Lydda was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire as part of the Damascus Eyalet, and in the 1550s, the revenues of Lydda were designated for the new waqf of Hasseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem, established by Hasseki Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana), the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent.Singer, 2002, p. 49