Bayt Nattif or Beit Nattif (, and alternatively) was a Palestinian village, located some 20 kilometers (straight line distance) southwest of Jerusalem, midway on the ancient Roman road between Beit Guvrin and Jerusalem, and 21 km northwest of Hebron. The village was on a hilltop, surrounded by olive groves and almonds, with woodlands of oak and carobs overlooking Wadi es-Sunt (the Elah Valley) to its south. It contained several shrines, including one dedicated to el-Sheykh Ibrahim. Roughly a dozen khirbas (deserted, ruined settlements) lay in the vicinity.
During the British Mandate it was part of the Hebron Subdistrict. Bayt Nattif was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on October 21, 1948 under Operation Ha-Har.Khalidi, 1992, pp. 211-212.
Name In Roman period the town was known as Bethletepha or Betholetepha, and commonly known by its Greek equivalent, Bethletephon.Tsafrir, Di Segni and Green (1994), p. 84.Chaniotis, A., Corsten, T., Papazarkadas, N. and Tybout, R.A., "SEG 61-1422. Betholetepha/Pella (Beit Nattif). Epitaphs in a burial chamber, 3rd cent. A.D.", in: Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Current editors: A. T. E. N. Chaniotis Corsten Stavrianopolou Papazarkadas. Consulted online on 30 December 2020<http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1874-6772_seg_a61_1422>
According to Muhammad Abu Halawa, the name was originally Bayt Lettif, which was simplified to Bayt Nattif because it was easier to pronounce. Muhammad Abu Halawa (born 1929) made this claim in an interview with Rakan Mahmoud in 2009. See Palestine Oral History: Interview with Muhammad Halawa #1, Bayt Nattif-Hebron, Arabic (In video: 2:48 – 2:56)
History Early Roman period (63 BCE – 135 CE) Bayt Nattif stood on the much-travelled ancient road connecting Eleutheropolis (Beth Guvrin, later Bayt Jibrin) with Jerusalem, about midway between the two towns.
In the Roman province of Judaea (6–135 CE), the town became the capital of one of the eleven toparchies or prefectures of the province, receiving certain administrative responsibilities, and is known from some classical sources by the name Betholetepha.The 11 were the toparchies of: 1) Gophna, 2) Acrabatta, 3) Thamna, 4) Lydda, 5) Emmaus, 6) Pella, 7) Idumea, one of whose principal cities being Bethletephon, 8) Engaddi, 9) Herodium, 10) Jericho, and 11) Jamnia and Joppa. These all answered to Jerusalem.Josephus, De Bello Judaico (The Jewish War), 3.3.5 (3.51) This region was called Idumea on account of it being inhabited largely by the descendants of Esau (Edom) who were converted to Judaism during the time of John Hyrcanus.Josephus, De Bello Judaico (The Jewish War), 2.20.3-4
During the first Jewish uprising against Rome (66-73), in the 12th year of the reign of Nero, when the Roman army had suffered a great defeat under Cestius Gallus, with more than five thousand foot soldiers killed, the people of the surrounding countryside feared reprisals from the Roman army and made haste to appoint generals and to fortify their settlements. Generals were at that time appointed for Idumea, namely, over the entire region immediately south and south-west of Jerusalem, and which incorporated within it the towns of Bethletephon, Betaris (corrected to read Begabris),, citing Reland who cites in turn Tyrannius Rufinus, based on his Latin translation of Josephus' The Jewish War (4.8.1.). Kefar Tobah, Adurim, and Maresha. Later in the revolt, in spring 68 CE, the city was destroyed by Vespasian and Titus, as recorded by Josephus.Josephus, De Bello Judaico (The Jewish War) 4.8.1.
Based on the writings of Josephus and archaeological discoveries, the town and surrounding region were predominantly Jewish until the Bar-Kokhba revolt of 132–135 CE.
Late Roman and Byzantine periods (135 – early 7th century)
Archaeological findings indicate that after the revolt, during the Late Roman period, the town has been resettled with pagan Roman citizens and army veterans, as part of the Romanisation process of the rural area surrounding Aelia Capitolina and reaching downhill towards Eleutheropolis. At this time the town was still an important site.
A rectangular structure with a decorated floor mosaic was interpreted in 1934 to be the remains of a fifth- or sixth-century Byzantine church.Baramki,1935, pp.119–121
Ottoman period (1517–1917) In 1596, Bayt Nattif was listed among villages belonging to the nahiya Quds, in the administrative district Liwā` of Jerusalem, in a tax ledger of the "countries of Syria" (wilāyat aš-Šām) and which lands were then under Ottoman rule. During that year, Bayt Nattif was inhabited by 94 households and 10 bachelors, all Muslim. The Ottoman authority levied a 33.3% taxation on agricultural products produced by the villagers (primarily on wheat, barley, olives, sesame seeds and grapes, among other fruits), besides a marriage tax and supplement tax on goats and beehives. Total revenues accruing from the village of Bayt Nattif for that year amounted to 12,000 akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 114Toledano, 1984, p. 290, gives the position of 34°59′20″E 31°41′45″N
In 1838 Edward Robinson visited, and remarks that their party was very well received by the villagers. He further noted that the villagers belonged to the "Keis" faction,Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, pp. 341-347Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. 16 and that they were a Muslim village, located in the el-Arkub District, southwest of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 125
By the mid-19th century, a rift had divided families in the region over control of the district Bani Hasan, until at length it broke out into actual fighting between the Keis (Qays) faction on the one side and the Yaman faction on the other.Schölch, 1993, p. 229 Meron Benvenisti, writing of this period, says that Sheikh 'Utham al-Lahham waged "a bloody war against Sheikh Mustafa Abu Ghosh, whose capital and fortified seat was in the village of Suba."Benvenisti, 2002, in a chapter named "The Convenience of the Crusades", p. 301Schölch, 1993, p. 231 In 1855, Mohammad Atallah in Bayt Nattif, a cousin of 'Utham al-Lahham, contested his rule over the region. In order to win support from Abu Ghosh, Mohammad Atallah gave his allegiance to the Yaman faction. This is said to have enraged 'Utham al-Lahham. He raised a fighting force and fell on Bayt Nattif on 3 January 1855. The village lost 21 dead. According to an eyewitness description by the horrified British consul, James Finn, their corpses were terribly mutilated.Schölch, 1993, p. 232Finn, 1878, vol 2, pp. 194-210
In the mid-nineteenth century, Beit Naṭṭīf was among several Hebron-area villages—along with Zakariyya, Beit Jibrīn, Ṣurīf, and al-Dawāymeh—whose territories were expanded to include earlier ruin sites. Following the Ottoman land reforms of 1858–1859, these villages received legal title to formerly state-owned (mīrī) lands, marking a phase of agrarian reorganization and renewed cultivation in the Judean Foothills.Orit Peleg-Barkat, Roy Marom, Gregg E. Gardner, Michael Chernin, and Saleh Kharanbeh, "Rural adaptation and settlement change in the late Islamic Jabal al-Khalīl (Judean Foothills)," Journal of Historical Geography 90 (2025): 87–98.
In 1863 Victor Guérin visited twice. The first time he visited he estimated that the village contained about one thousand inhabitants. He further noted that the houses were crudely built, one of them, which was assigned to the reception of foreigners, the al-Medhafeh, was a square tower. Above the entrance of the al-Medhafeh was a large block for lintel, featuring elegant mouldings, Guérin assumed it came from an ancient destroyed monument. Many other ancient stones were embedded here and there in private homes. Two wells, several cisterns and a number of silos and stores carved in the rock, and in continued use, were also ancient.Guérin, 1869, pt. 2, pp. 374-377Guérin, 1869, pt. 3, pp. 329-330
Socin, citing an official Ottoman village list compiled around 1870, noted that Bayt Nattif had 66 houses and a population of 231, though the population count included men only.Socin, 1879, p. 147 Hartmann found that Bayt Nattif had 120 houses.Hartmann, 1883, p. 145
In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Bayt Nattif as being "a village of fair size, standing high on a flat-topped ridge between two broad valleys. On the south, about 400 feet below, is a spring (`Ain el Kezbeh), and on the north a rock-cut tomb was found. There are fine olive-groves round the place, and the open valleys are very fertile in corn."Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 24
Around 1896, the population of Bayt Nattif was estimated to be about 672 persons.Schick, 1896, p. 123
British Mandate (1920–1948) For all practical purposes, the British inherited from their Turkish counterparts the existing laws in regard to land tenures as defined in the Ottoman Land Code, to which laws there was later added subsidiary legislation.A Survey of Palestine (Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry), chapter 8, section 5, British Mandate Government of Palestine: Jerusalem 1946, p. 255 At the time of the British occupation the land tax was collected at the rate of 12.5% of the gross yield of the land. Crops were assessed on the threshing floor or in the field and the tithe was collected from the cultivators.A Survey of Palestine (Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry), chapter 8, section 4, British Mandate Government of Palestine: Jerusalem 1946, p. 246 In 1925, additional legislation provided that taxation on crops and other produce not exceed 10%. In 1928, as a measure of reform, the Mandate Government of Palestine began to apply an Ordinance for the "Commutation of Tithes," this tax in effect being a fixed aggregate amount paid annually. It was related to the average amount of tithe (tax) that had been paid by the village during the four years immediately preceding the application of the Ordinance to it.A Survey of Palestine (Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry), chapter 8, section 4, British Mandate Government of Palestine: Jerusalem 1946, pp. 246 – 247
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bayt Nattif had a population of 1,112, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Hebron, p. 10 increasing in the 1931 census to 1,649, still all Muslim, in a total of 329 houses (which figure includes houses built in the nearby ruin, Khirbet Umm al-Ra’us).Mills, 1932, p. 28
In 1927, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi reported local traditions indicating that families of Jewish descent resided in Bayt Nattif. Locals said they converted to Islam around five hundred years earlier.
In 1926, some 259 dunums (61.77 acres) of land near Beit Nattif were designated as "Jabal es-Sira Forest Reserve no. 73," held by the State.May 1939, Office of the Commissioner for Lands and Surveys, Jerusalem , Conservator of Forest, Government of Palestine (Department of Forests)
By the 1945 statistics, the population had increased to 2,150 Muslims.Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 23Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 50 In 1944/45, a total of 20,149 dunums were allocated to cereal grains in the adjacent lowlands; 688 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 93 while 162 dunams were built-up (urban) areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 143
1948 war and depopulation In the proposed 1947 UN Partition Plan, it was designated as part of the Arab state.