Rantiya (, known to the Romans as Rantia and to the Crusaders as Rentie) was a Palestinian village, located east of Jaffa. During the British Mandate in Palestine, in 1945 it had a population of 590 inhabitants.

Those inhabitants became refugees after a 10 July 1948 assault by Israeli forces from the Palmach's Eighth Armored Brigade and the Third Infantry Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.Khalidi, 1992. p. 252

Of the over 100 houses that made up the village, only three remain standing today. The Jewish localities of Mazor, Nofekh, and Rinatia are located on Rantiya's former lands.

Etymology Ranṭyā /Ranṭya/ is an ancient name which perfectly matches the Greek Ῥαντία. The name is apparently related to that of Ranṭīs which is a Grecized form of a Hebrew name (Rmtym, LXX Aρμαθαιμ); with t > ṭ under the influence of r.

During the Crusader era the village was known as Rentie, Rantia, or Rentia.Pringle, 1997, p. 90Rey, 1883, p. 414

History The village was situated on a low mound on an ancient site.Dauphin, 1998, p. 821

In 1122 the tithes of the village were granted to the hospital of the church of St John at Nablus.Röhricht, 1893, RRH, pp. 22-23, no 100; cited in Pringle, 1998, p. 104. Note that H. E. Mayer argued that the 1122 document was a forgery. In 1166, the tithes were granted to the Knights Hospitaller.Prutz, 1881, p. 167; Röhricht, 1893, RRH, p. 110, No. 423; both cited in Pringle, 1997, p. 90 A vaulted building in the village, named al-Baubariya, has been dated to the Crusader period.

Ottoman era Rantiya, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in 1557 the revenues of the village were designated for the new waqf of Hasseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem, established by Hasseki Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana), wife of Suleiman the Magnificent.Singer, 2002, p. 50, citing TSAE-7816/8. (TSAE=Topkapi Saray Arsivi, Evrak) This document reiterate what was transferred on 14 Ramazan 963 AH. Administratively, the village belonged to the Sub-district of Ramla in the District of Gaza. In the late 1550s, local disturbances decreased the income from the village by nearly 40%.Singer, 2002, p. 124

In 1596, Rantiya was a village in the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Ramla ( liwa' ("district") of Gaza), with a population of 132. Villagers paid taxes to the authorities for the crops that they cultivated, which included wheat, barley, fruit, and sesame as well as on other types of property, such as goats and beehives.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 155. Quoted in All the villagers were Muslim.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 155 All of the revenues; a total of 5,300 Akçe, went to a Waqf.

In 1838 it was noted as a Muslim village called Rentieh in the Lydda administrative region,Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 121 while in 1856 the village was named Renthieh on Kiepert's map of Palestine published that year.Kiepert, 1856, Map of Southern Palestine

In 1870 the French explorer Victor Guérin visited and described the village as partially destroyed,Guérin, 1875, pp. 391-2 while an Ottoman village list from about the same year showed that Rantiya had 33 houses and a population of 116, though the population count included men only.Socin, 1879, p. 159Hartmann, 1883, p. 138 also found 33 houses

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine found Rantiya to be a small village built of adobe bricks. At that time a main road passed right next to it.Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 253, Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 252

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Rantieh had a population of 351, all Muslims.Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jaffa, p. 20 increasing the 1931 census to 411, still all Muslims, in a total of 105 houses.Mills, 1932, p. 15.

By 1945 the population had increased to 590 Muslims, while the total land area was 4,389 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 505 were allocated for citrus and bananas, 99 were for plantations and irrigable land, 3,518 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 96 while 13 dunams were classified as built-up areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 146

1948, and after In 1992 the village remains were described as "Three deserted houses, standing amid weeds, tall wild grasses, and the debris of several other houses, are all that remains of the village. Two of the deserted houses are made of stone, the third of concrete. All have rectangular doors and windows. Two of them have flat roofs; the third may have had a gabled roof."

References in contemporary culture In the film Soraida: A Woman of Palestine, by Tahani Rached, the main character explains that she named her daughter and son, Rantia and Aram, after Palestinian villages to preserve the memory of the homeland.

See also List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict

References

Bibliography

External links Welcome To Rantiya Rantiya, Zochrot Survey of Western Palestine, Map 13: IAA, Wikimedia commons Rantiya at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center Ross, KL, 2002, The Periphery of Francia: Outremer - Kings of Jerusalem and Cyprus, Counts of Edessa, Princes of Antioch, Counts of Tripoli, Kings of Thessalonica, Dukes of Athens, Princes of Achaea, and the Grand Masters of the Military Monastic Orders The Proceedings of the Friesian School, Fourth Series