Arraba ( ʻArrābah), also Arrabah, Arrabeh or Arrabet Jenin, is a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank located 12 kilometers southwest of Jenin and has an elevation of 350 meters above sea level. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) census, Arraba had a population of 11,479 in 2017.
History The lands of 'Arraba include Khirbet al-Hammam and Tel el-Muhafer, either of which believed to be the site of the Israelite town Arubboth from the Books of Kings (associated with the Canaanite Rubutu in the Egyptian documents) and the Jewish city Narbata of the Roman period.Zertal, 1984, pp. 72-76, 112-114, 133-136Na'aman, 2005, p. 212 Tell Dothan is located just north-east of Arraba.
Pottery remains from the late Roman, Byzantine, early Muslim and the Middle Ages have been found here.Zertal, 2016, pp. 377-379
In 1226 the geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi noted that the village had a holy place named after the prophet 'Arabil'. During the Crusader period, Arraba appears as one of the settlements marking the eastern boundary of the Caesarea district.Beyer, 1940, pp. 183, 192, cited in Zertal, 2016, p. 378
Ottoman era Arraba was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 along with the rest of Palestine. Throughout Ottoman rule, Arraba saw waves of immigration from the region, including from Hebron, Acre, and Egypt.Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. [in Hebrew] Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 349 During the 16th and 17th centuries, it was controlled by the Turabay dynasty (1517–1683), whose territory spanned a large part of northern Palestine. In the census of 1596, Arraba was administratively part of the nahiye (subdistrict) of Jabal Shami in the Nablus Sanjak. It had a population of 81 households and 31 bachelors, all Muslim. The inhabitants paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, that was 17,040 akçe on wheat, 1,500 on barley, 2,683 for summer crops, 1,500 for olive trees, 1,000 for occasional revenues, 1,000 for goats and beehives, 30 for an olive oil press, and 3,840 for adat rijaliyya, totalling 29,575 akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 128. Note typo in grid number, see talk. In 1648-50 the Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi noted the village contained 100 Muslim houses and that its taxes were allocated to the governor of Nablus.Stephan, 1936, p. 88, cited in Zertal, 2016, p. 378
In 1838 Arraba was noted as a village in the Sha'rawiya al-Sharqiya district, north of Nablus.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, p. 150Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, 2nd Appendix, p. 129 Arraba is the origin of the Abd al-Hadi family, once a leading landowning family in the districts of Afula, Baysan, Jenin, and Nablus, and was their seat of power as a throne village (qaryat kursi).Lesch, Ann M.; "Abd al-Hadi Family," Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa.Doumani, 1995, Chapter: Egyptian rule, 1831-1840. The clan was traditionally opposed to the Tuqan family of Nablus. In the 1850s the Ottoman rulers withdrew their soldiers from the district (to be used in the Crimean War), and hence open hostility ensued between the different Palestinian factions.Schölch, 1993, pp. 211-227 The Abd al-Hadis sacked several villages, some of the results were shown to the British consul Rogers when he visited Arraba in 1856.Rogers, 1865, p. 236 ff
In April 1859 a coalition of Ottoman troops and local leaders opposed to the Abd al-Hadi clan, stormed Arraba. Members of the Abd al-Hadi clan either fled or were captured, while the fortifications of Arraba were razed and the place plundered. By subduing Arraba, the Ottomans had suppressed the last bastion of independent local rule in the Nablus region.Rogers, 1865, p. 414 ff, on the children of Salih Abd al-HadiPoujoulat, 1861, p. 291 ff: on Mahmoud Abd al-Hadi, exiled in Beirut French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village in 1870, and described it: "This town is situated on a plateau. [...] It is divided into three quarters, one of which was once surrounded by a wall flanked with small towers. This wall is now in great part destroyed, having been overthrown in a siege sustained some years ago during a revolt against the Caimacam of Nablus".Guérin, 1875, pp. 218 ff, as translated by Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 154. Guérin also wrote: "Arrabeh has certainly succeeded an ancient town of which no mention is anywhere made. Probably it bore the name of the present town. There still remain cisterns cut in the rock, and a great many cut stones built up in modern houses. Before the Mohammedan conquest a church stood here, from the materials of which a mosque has been erected. This is now, in its turn, falling into ruins. We remarked above the entrance a beautiful monolithic lintel in white marble, in the middle of which was formerly engraved a cross with equal branches, which the Moslems have chipped out. It occupied the middle of a rectangle flanked by two triangles, one on either side, all three framed in a kind of rectangular cartouche. The lintel is alone sufficient to fix the date of the church at the period assigned by me. The church was decorated internally with columns having Corinthian capitals, and fluting half spiral, half vertical. Some fragments of the shafts still remain in the mosque, together with a beautiful piece of frieze formerly sculptured with interlaced links." In 1870/1871, an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiye of al-Sha'rawiyya al-Sharqiyya.
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Arraba as "a very large village on the south slope of a ridge, the northern houses on high ground. There is a small mosque in the centre, and one or two large buildings, including the Sheikh's house. The water supply is entirely from wells within the village, and on the road-side towards the north. There is a ridge of very barren rock between the village on the south and the plain (Merj 'Arrabeh) on the north. Scattered olives grow round the village, but the immediate neighbourhood is very bare. The villagers are turbulent and rich, owning very fine lands in the northern plain."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 154 In 1913-14 the Ottomans built a section of the Jezreel Valley railway (itself a branch of the now-defunct Hejaz railway) that passed through Arraba and ended in Nablus.Gilbar, 1990, p. 197
British Mandate era In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Arraba had a population of 2,196, all Muslim.Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Jenin, p. 29 In the 1931 census it had increased to a population of 2,500, still all Muslim, in 554 inhabited houses.Mills, 1932, p. 67 In the 1945 statistics the population was 3,810 MuslimsGovernment of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 16 with 39,901 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 54 five dunams were used for citrus or bananas, 3,568 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 23,357 dunams for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 98 while 315 dunams were built-up (urban) land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 148
Jordanian era In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Arraba came under Jordanian rule. It was annexed by Jordan in 1950.
In 1961, the population of Arraba was 4,865.Government of Jordan, 1964, p. 13
Post-1967 Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Arraba, like the rest of the West Bank, has been under Israeli military occupation.
Holy Sites The holy tomb of ash-Sheikh 'Arabil is located within a cave under the minbar of the town's central mosque, constructed in 1819 by Hussein 'Abd al-Hadi. Before the mosque's construction, the location was identified as "Nabi Allah A'arabil" in the land known as Hakurat A'arabil, as recorded by early 19th century Ottoman records. Al-Nabulsi, visiting in 1690 and referring to the site as "a-Nebi A'arabl," recorded that he was a descendant of Jacob and mentioned an ornate structure with a remarkable dome present at the time. The name 'Arabil is speculated to be a variation of Reuben, Jacob's son, known in some places as Rubil, while Ihsan al-Nimer referred to him as "'Arabim." This saint is celebrated for miraculous deeds, and according to one tradition, Arraba is named after him.
Gallery
Notable residents Husayn Abd al-Hadi, d. 1835, powerful rural chief and governor of Sidon Sami Taha, 1916–1947, labor leader in British Mandatory Palestine Abu Ali Mustafa, 1938–2001, secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Hasan Abu-Libdeh, b. 1954, statistician and Palestinian Authority official Khader Adnan, 1978–2023, Palestinian Islamic Jihad activist who died after hunger strike in Israeli prison
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References
Bibliography
External links
Welcome To 'Arabba, Palestine remembered Arraba, Welcome to Palestine Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11: IAA, Wikimedia commons The Municipality's official website Throne villages, with Abdel-Hadi palaces in Aarrabeh, RIWAQ 11 Stop Work Orders in the Villages of Barta’a Al Sharqiya and Arraba - Jenin Governorate, 23, February, 2012, (POICA) Stop-work Orders for Commercial Structures in 'Arraba 17, May, 2012, POICA