Ein Yabrud () is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the central West Bank. It is located approximately 7 km northeast of the city of Ramallah and its elevation is 800 m. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) the town had a population of 2,515 in 2017.
Location Ein Yabrud is located (horizontally) west of Ramallah. It is bordered by Rammun and Taybeh to the east, Yabrud and Silwad to the north, Dura al-Qar' to the west, and Deir Dibwan, Beitin and Al-Bireh to the south.‘Ein Yabrud village profile, ARIJ, p. 4
History Sherds from the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras have been found here.Finkelstein et al, 1997, p. 563 A grave, with three arcosolia, and with coins from the reign of Constantine the Great have been excavated here.Dauphin, 1998, p. 832 Sherds from the Umayyad, Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk eras have also been found. According to historian Yossef Rapoport, Ein Yabrud was continuously inhabited since the Hellenistic period.
Ayyubid and Mamluk periods The geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi noted about Ein Yabrud in 1226, during Ayyubid rule (1187–1260), that it was "a village lying north of Jerusalem, on the road from the Holy City to Nabulus, between which and Yabrud is Kafar Natha. It possesses orchards and vineyards, and olives and Sumach trees."Le Strange, 1890, p. 550 Half of the village at that time belonged to a waqf (religious endowment) for the benefit of the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem and the other half to a (Islamic school).
Ein Yabrud was mentioned in two documents found in a corpus stored in Jerusalem dating to the first decade of the 14th century, during Mamluk rule (1260–1516). The waqf to which three-quarters of Ein Yabrud's revenues were allotted was for the benefit of the Haram al-Sharif, as it had been during Ayyubid rule. The first document, from November 1306, records the sale of olive oil to the waqf by two villagers belonging to the family of Banu Amir for the sum of 1,400 dirhams, which they were to share equally among themselves and a third villager, Musa ibn Qasim ibn Isma'il. The second document, dated September 1307, identifies one of the two aforementioned villagers of the Banu Amir as a (headman) and the second as the son of a ; altogether the second document names twenty-five residents, mostly (peasants), of Ein Yabrud, divided into five groups, at the head of each was a . Each was a mutual guarantor of the other's obligations.
Ottoman period Palestine was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and Ein Yabrud ('Ayn Ibrud') was listed in the Ottoman tax register of 1596 as being in the Nahiya of Quds (Jerusalem) of the Liwa of Quds. The population was 24 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on various agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and/or beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 8,700 akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 121Toledano, 1984, p. 289, gives the location as 31°57'15"N 35°14'20"E, noting a spring called Ayn Abrud located nearby, at 31°57′00″N 35°13′40″E
In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Ein Yabrud was located "on the top of a hill".Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, p. 80 It was further noted as a Muslim village, located in the Bani Murra district, north of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 125 In 1863 Victor Guérin found it to have 800 inhabitants and a number of houses were built with antique materials.Guérin, 1869, pp. 42-43 Socin found from an official Ottoman village list from about 1870 that the village had 66 houses and a population of 282, though the population count only included men. It was further noted that it was located one hour north of Beitin.Socin, 1879, p. 143 Also noted it in the Bani Murra regionHartmann, 1883, p. 115 noted 67 houses In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Ein Yabrud as: "A village of moderate size on the top of a hill, well built, surrounded with fine groves of olives, with a well on the north-east."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 291 In 1896 the population of Ein Yabrud was estimated to be about 573 persons.Schick, 1896, p. 121
British Mandate period In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, the population numbered 576 Muslims,Barron, 1922, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramalllah, p. 16 increasing in the 1931 census to 788 inhabitants, in 178 houses.Mills, 1932, p.49 In the 1945 statistics Ein Yabrud had a population of 930 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 26 and a total land area of 11,488 dunams.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 64. 3,151 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 3,632 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 112 while 88 dunams were built-up areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.162
Jordanian period In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Ein Yabrud came under Jordanian rule. Jordan confiscated lands of Ein Yabrud and nearby Silwad for the construction of a military camp before the Six-Day War.State moves to expand settlement on Palestinian land confiscated by Jordan, Chaim Levinson, Jun 17, 2011, Haaretz.
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,501 inhabitants in Ein Yabrud.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 24
Post-1967 Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Ein Yabrud has been under Israeli occupation.
After the 1995 accords, 34.3% of village land is classified as Area B land, while the remaining 65.7% is classified as Area C.‘Ein Yabrud village profile, ARIJ, p. 18 Israel has confiscated land from Ein Yarbrud for two settlements: 1,252 dunams for Ofra and 137 dunams for Beit El.‘Ein Yabrud village profile, ARIJ, p. 19
The Jordanian buildings formed the initial basis of the Israeli settlement of Ofra founded in 1975. Plans for further expansion of Ofra in this land in 2011 resulted in legal challenges and public dispute. Land belonging to the residents of the village has been used to construct hundreds of structures in the neighbouring Israeli settlement of Ofra.Israel's 'Ulpana neighborhood is built on years of land theft and forgery, Akiva Eldar, 24 April 2012, Haaretz
Ein Yabrud is the home village of Hamas military commander Maher Udda.Israel arrests Hamas leader March 15, 2010, Al Jazeera
References
Bibliography
External links Welcome to 'Ayn Yabrud Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14: IAA, Wikimedia commons 'Ein Yabrud village (fact sheet), Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ) ‘Ein Yabrud village profile, ARIJ ‘Ein Yabrud, aerial photo, ARIJ