Abu Ghosh Clan
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The Abu Ghoshes (also written AbuGosh/ AbouGhawsh), known as "ancien seigneurs feodaux", are an old wealthy landowning family, who ruled the Jerusalem mountains and controlled the pilgrimage route from the coast to
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
during the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
.


Origins of the family

Some historians are of the opinion that the Abu Ghoshes came from
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
. Others believe that their origins go back to the
Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...
who came to Jerusalem with
Richard I of England Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199), known as Richard the Lionheart or Richard Cœur de Lion () because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ru ...
in the 12th century AD, due to the fact that many of them have blond hair and blue eyes. Members of the family and some other historians hold the view that the clan originally came from the
Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...
. They were four Emirs of Yemen, who were brothers, when they arrived to Egypt. From Egypt they came to Palestine with the
Ottoman Sultan The sultans of the Ottoman Empire (), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to Dissolution of the Ottoman Em ...
Suleiman Suleiman (; or dictionary.reference.comsuleiman/ref>) is the Arabic name of the Jewish and Quranic king and Islam, Islamic prophet Solomon (name), Solomon. Suleiman the Magnificent (1494–1566) was the longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman E ...
at the beginning of the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
and were entrusted with the control of the pilgrimage route to the holy places of Jerusalem, as documented in the Egyptian royal manuscripts. The Abu Ghoshes were settled in the 16th century AD on the mountains of Jerusalem, about 10 km west of Jerusalem city, where they still reside now. It is established that the Abu Ghoshes became related, through marriage, to the people who lived in the area at that time, as well as with the descendants of the Crusaders, who are known to have lived in the same region at the same time. Archaeological excavations have revealed that the site where the Abu Ghoshes live is one of the most ancient inhabited sites in the southern Levant. This site used to be "Kiryat Ye'arim", a Hebrew name meaning "Town of Forests". Following the
Muslim conquest of the Levant The Muslim conquest of the Levant (; ), or Arab conquest of Syria, was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab–Byzantine wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and develope ...
, the site was called "kiryat al-Inab". In the 18th century this site took the name of the family "kiryat Abu Ghosh", and is now called Abu Ghosh, a small Muslim Israeli Arab town near Jerusalem. The majority of its inhabitants today are the descendants of the old feudal family of the 16th century.


History

At the beginning of the Ottoman Empire Sultan Suleiman entrusted the Abu Ghoshes with control of the route from the coast to Jerusalem and granted them official permission, a "farman", to impose a toll on all
pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...
s and visitors entering Jerusalem. The churches of Jerusalem also paid an annual one-off tax to the Abu Ghoshes for their visitors. Palestine was part of Great Syria, and like Syria it was governed by feudal families until the middle of the 19th century. The Abu Ghoshes were among the most well-known feudal families in Palestine, formerly governing over 22 villages. They had
self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...
powers in the region. All power was in the hands of the Emir or Scheich (Lord) of Abu Ghosh. The Scheich was also called Zaim or Mutasallem (leader, governor). He dealt with all political, military, economic, social and legal matters. A dispute between two parties was solved by the Scheich and a judgement was made by him and executed with no right of appeal. Seeking revision was sometimes possible if allowed by the Scheich. Any person acting against the local laws or tradition was imprisoned. The Abu Ghoshes used an old crusader church as a prison. The relation between the Abu Ghoshes and the peasants of the villages was a patron-client relation. According to tradition, any pilgrim or visitor to the holy sites passing through Abu Ghosh had to pay their respects to the Scheich. Some visitors to the holy lands wrote about Lady Stanhope (daughter of a British Lord, niece of the
British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern pri ...
William Pitt and a relative of Sir Sidney Smith who besieged Napoleon in Akko and had correspondence with the Scheich Ibrahim AbuGhosh) that when she visited Jerusalem in 1811 she stopped in Abu Ghosh to pay her respects to the Scheich. Scheich Ibrahim AbuGhosh found her an interesting woman, and he ordered a formal dinner and spent the night in her company. She came back the next year and the Scheich was delighted to see her again. The next morning, he insisted on escorting her with his guards and servants to Jerusalem.see kinglake:Journey to the East; Mustafa Dabbagh, Biladuna Filistin The houses of the Abu Ghoshes were described by pilgrims and visitors as beautifully constructed stone houses, and the residence of the Scheich was described as "a true palace, a castle, a protective fortress." In the 19th century, between 1834 and 1860, Abu Ghosh was attacked by
military forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...
three times. The first attack was launched by the Egyptian military forces, led by Ibrahim Pasha, son of Muhammad Ali, in 1832-4 during the Egyptian occupation of Palestine (1831–1840). The castle of Abu Ghosh was destroyed during this campaign. The second attack was in 1853 during the civil war between feudal families under Scheich Ahmad Abu Ghosh, who was 90 years old. He entrusted his nephew Mustafa with the military task force. The third attack on Abu Ghosh was made by the Ottoman military forces, helped and executed by
British forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, support international peacekeeping ef ...
, during the military expedition against the feudal families in the 1860s, under Scheich Mustafa Abu Ghosh. Almost all villages governed by the Abu Ghoshes were bombarded during this battle. Lord Mustapha Abu Ghosh continued to control the Jerusalem mountains against the will of the Ottomans until he died in 1863. The Ottoman Empire introduced reforms abolishing the
feudal system Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring socie ...
and creating a
centralized government A centralized government (also united government) is one in which both executive and legislative power is concentrated centrally at the higher level as opposed to it being more distributed at various lower level governments. In a national conte ...
with its main location in the Turkish capital. Powers were transferred from feudal families to a Turkish governor representing the Sultan, sitting in the city of Jerusalem. All villages and towns around Jerusalem were part of the
Jerusalem District The Jerusalem District (; ) is one of the six administrative districts of Israel. The district capital is Jerusalem and its total land area is 652 km2. The population of 1,159,900 is 66.3% Jewish and 32.1% Arab. A fifth (21%) of the Arab ...
and each village was represented by an elected "Mukhtar". At the beginning of the 20th century, a nephew of the Mukhtar of Abu Ghosh named Said Abu Ghosh left Abu Ghosh and went to live on his own land, an estate made of 22,000 dunum between Abu Ghosh and the city of
Ramla Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Arabs. The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph S ...
. He built a mansion in his estate near the village of al-Qubab using a German architect. He was known to have hundreds of peasants working in his estate, and offered his protection to all villagers in the region. He was known to have founded a "Sabeel", offering water and a resting place for free to travellers passing through on their way to Jerusalem. He married the daughter of a Turkish General in the
Ottoman army The Military of the Ottoman Empire () was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922. Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years ...
who had his residence in the village of al-Qubab. Said Abu Ghosh was loved and respected by the Abu Ghoshes for his contributions and the support he provided. After the declaration of the British mandate on Palestine in 1920, the main concerns of Said Abu Ghosh were the British occupation. He offered unlimited financial and military help to the Palestinian militants in order to fight the British. He was also known to have bought land in all parts of Palestine, in order to avoid land coming into the hands of the Jews, becoming one of the biggest landowners in Palestine at the time. The reason for preventing Jews from acquiring land were the rumours that were spreading about the
Balfour Declaration The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman regio ...
of 1917, a promise given by the British government to the Jews to create a homeland in Palestine. Lord Abu Ghosh died in 1936 and was buried in his estate.


See also

* Mustafa Dabbagh: Biladuna Filistin, Beirut 1965-1976


References

{{reflist Families from the Ottoman Empire Ottoman Palestine Palestinian families