Bani Zeid () is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of Palestine, in the north-central West Bank, located northwest of Ramallah, about 45 kilometers northwest of Jerusalem and about southwest of Salfit. A town of over 6,000 inhabitants, Bani Zeid was founded when the villages of Deir Ghassaneh and Beit Rima merged to form a municipality in 1966 during Jordanian rule over the West Bank.Bani Zeid: Excerpt Palestinian Association for Culture Exchange
Bani Zeid owes its name to the Arab tribe that was granted the area as a fief by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in the 12th century for having served in the Muslim army during the first Crusades. It was settled by members of the tribe alongside the native fellahin ("peasantry") during the reign of Mamluk sultan Baibars in the mid-13th century. During Ottoman rule, the area of Bani Zeid served as a sheikdom with some administrative capacity. It consisted of several villages with Deir Ghassaneh as its center. During that time, the Barghouti family dominated the sheikdom.
During the 1936–39 Arab revolt against British Mandate rule, Deir Ghassaneh primarily served as the scene of rebel gatherings and British military raids. In 1967, Bani Zeid was occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War, but was later transferred to full Palestinian security and administrative control in 2000. The next year it became the first Palestinian-controlled town to be known as the site of major operation by Israeli forces during the Second Intifada. When Fathiya Barghouti Rheime was elected mayor in 2005, Bani Zeid became the first Palestinian locality with a woman as head of the municipality, in concurrence with nearby Ramallah.
Historically, Bani Zeid's economy was dependent on the olive crop, which was supplied to soap factories in Nablus. Until the present day, olive trees cover most of the town's cultivable land. However, the residents of Bani Zeid today largely derive their income from employment in the civil service and private business. There are a number of archaeological sites in Bani Zeid, including the old town of Deir Ghassaneh, the manor of Sheikh Salih al-Barghouti and the maqam ("saintly person's tomb") of Sheikh al-Khawwas.
Etymology Deir Ghassaneh English orientalist Edward Henry Palmer (1840–1882) thought the name Deir Ghassaneh meant "The monastery of the Ghassaneh" in Arabic,Palmer, 1881, p. 228 better known today as Ghassanids, and deir meaning "monastery". However, according to Moshe Sharon (b. 1937), Israeli professor of Islamic history and civilisation, this claim has been dismissed by a number of researchers since the Ghassanids did not have a history of settlement in Samaria, the modern-day northern West Bank. Sharon suggests that the name of the village is related to the Arabic word ghassaneh, which means "very handsome" or suggests "youth and beauty".
Beit Rima Beit Rima means "The house of Rima".Palmer, 1881, p. 226
History Archaeological record In Beit Rima, sherds from the Iron Age I and IA II, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Crusader/Ayyubid, Mamluk and Early Ottoman remains have been found.Finkelstein and Lederman, 1997, p. 279
In Deir Ghassaneh, sherds from all of the same periods, except the Persian one, have also been found.Finkelstein and Lederman, 1997, p. 281 Small fragments of a marble column were found in Deir Ghassaneh.
In the Hebrew Bible and New Testament Deir Ghassaneh has been identified as the ancient Saredah (also spelled Zeredah), hometown of King Jeroboam I of Israel ().
I. M. Casanowicz argued in 1915 for its identification with Arimathea (Greek: Αριμαθεα), the home of Joseph of Arimathea, although others identify that city with Ramla. However, Ramla is a medieval town only founded around 705–715 by the Umayyad Caliphate.Encyclopedia of Islam, article "al-Ramla".
Roman period In the compendium of Jewish oral law known as the Mishnah (compiled in 189 CE), Beit Rima is mentioned as a place where Jews formerly produced a high-quality grape wine, and which was brought as an oblation (contribution) to the Temple in Jerusalem.The Mishnah (ed. Herbert Danby), Oxford University Press: Oxford 1977, s.v. Menahoth 8:6 (p. 503, note 4)
Byzantine period Byzantine ceramics have been found in Deir Ghassaneh,Dauphin, 1998, p. 821 and on the north side of Beit Rima.Dauphin, 1998, p. 823 According to some sources, it was settled by the Ghassanids, an Arab Christian tribal confederation, after it was abandoned by the Israelites.
Early Muslim period According to Sharon, there is no mention of Deir Ghassaneh or Beit Rima in early Arabic sources.
Ayyubid period: Bani Zeid tribe in Palestine The modern town of Bani Zeid receives its name from the Arab tribe of Bani Zeid, which settled in Palestine during the Ayyubid period in the late 12th century. They formed part of the Bedouin units of Saladin's army that hailed from the Hejaz. After the siege of Jerusalem in 1187, Saladin's forces captured the city and the Ayyubid army was garrisoned there. The Bani Zeid temporarily resided in Jerusalem and a street, located near the present-day al-Sa'idia Street, was named after them, but has since been renamed.
In order for Saladin to persuade the Hejazi Arab tribes that joined his army to remain in Palestine, he offered each tribe a cluster of villages captured from the Crusaders as iqta' (fiefs) to settle in and control. The Bani Zeid were granted the villages of Deir Ghassaneh and Beit Rima, as well as the nearby towns of Kafr Ein and Qarawa. However, the Bani Zeid tribe only settled there after another century.
Mamluk period It was not until 1293, after the Bahri Mamluks under Sultan Baibars conquered the coastal strip of Palestine and expelled the last of the Crusaders, that the Bani Zeid tribe settled in the villages offered to them a century earlier by Saladin.
It is known that Deir Ghassaneh was inhabited during the Mamluk period due to the many houses there that have preserved elements of Mamluk architecture. Specific examples include the use of the ablaq technique of alternating stones of different colors, particularly red and white, that decorate the facades and gates of some houses.
A Mamluk-era (1260–1516) stone inscription belonging to an unidentified building in Deir Ghassaneh dating from 1330 describes a two-story "felicitous palace" with a garden. The palace was apparently an asset of the Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad and was inspected by Isa Muhammad al-Qaymari, a low-ranking emir from the Mosul region in charge of overseeing the personal assets of the sultan.Sharon, 2004, pp. 46-47. In 1480 Deir Ghassaneh-based tribesmen from the Bani Zeid attacked Jerusalem as retaliation for the governor's execution of some of its members who had been accused of revolting against the Burji Mamluk authorities.Singer, 1994, p. 179
Early Ottoman period During the Ottoman era in Palestine, the area where the Bani Zeid tribe settled became the nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Zeid, part of the larger sanjak (district) of Quds (Jerusalem). The nahiya contained over 20 towns and villages and had jurisdiction over a part of Salfit.The 20 villages were 'Atara, Ajjul, 'Arura, Beit Rima, Deir Dibwan, Deir Ghassaneh, Ein Siniya, Yabrud, Jifna, Jiljiliya, Kafr Ein, Kafr Aqab, Qarawa, Kafr 'Ana, Mazari, al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya, Nabi Salih, Deir as-Sudan, Kobar, Surda. See Singer, 1994, p. 77. While these villages were registered and organized like other villages in the Jerusalem Sanjak, they were also treated as a group. Each village was led by a ra'is (local chief) and the entire Bani Zeid Nahiya was headed by a sheikh (paramount chief). The Bani Zeid sheikdom would serve as a political-administrative unit for the purposes of tax collection and army mobilization.Amiry, 1987, p. 46.
In 1556 the sheikdom was led by Sheikh Abu Rayyan bin Sheikh Manna, who was succeeded by Sheikh Muhammad Abu Rabban in 1560. Olive oil was the primary commodity that Bani Zeid Nahiya produced and the product was sold to local Ottoman officials and soap factories in Nablus. The Ottomans imposed taxes on olive oil, wheat and barley, and the sheikh was responsible for paying the revenues of collected taxes to the Ottoman authorities. In addition, Bani Zeid was required to finance a waqf (religious endowment) to the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.Singer, 1994, pp. 76-78. In 1596 both Deir Ghassaneh and Beit Rima appeared in Ottoman tax registers and both villages paid taxes on wheat, barley, olive trees, fruit trees, vineyards, goats and/or beehives.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 120-121 Deir Ghassaneh had a population of 76 households, all Muslim,Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 120. while Beit Rima had 54 Muslim households and 14 Christian households.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 121. During the course of the 16th century, most of Beit Rima's Christian inhabitants had emigrated from the village to Jerusalem, Ramla and Gaza, although the Christian population that remained continued to grow.Singer, 1994, p. 180
Nineteenth century In the 19th century Bani Zeid was one of about two dozen sheikdoms in the central highlands of Palestine. While its exact borders varied from time to time, it was generally marked by the Wadi al-Dilb stream to the south, which separated it from the Bani Harith al-Shamali sheikdom, and the Wadi Nattif stream to the north that separated it from Bilad Jamma'in. The Bani Zeid sheikdom contained the highest slopes and the largest concentration of mountain faults of all the highland sheikdoms. About two-thirds of its villages were situated on relatively wide hilltops while the remainder were built along slopes. None were located in the valleys or the foothills.Amiry, 1987, p. 44. In 1838 English biblical scholars Edward Robinson and Eli Smith noted that the Bani Zeid Nahiya consisted of 18 inhabited localities and four khirbas (abandoned or ruined villages). They classified Deir Ghassaneh and Beit Rima as inhabited by Muslims.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, pp. 124-125. The 18 inhabited villages of the Bani Zeid District were listed as Deir Abu Mash'al, Deir ad-Dam, Abud, Beit Rima, Deir Ghusaneh, Kafr Iyan, Kurawa, Deir as-Sudan, al-Mezari'a, 'Arura, Ajjul, Jilijliya, 'Atara, Abwein, Umm Safa, Burham, Jibiya and Kobar. The four khirbas are Nabi Salih, Khirbet Ibrahim, Artubba and Rashaniya. Residents from the al-Ramahi clan of Deir Ghassana settled al-Muzayri'a near Ramla, establishing it as a dependency, or satellite village, of their home village.