Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya () is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village in the northern

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, 20 kilometers south of

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

, in the

Nablus Governorate The Nablus Governorate () is an administrative district of Palestine located in the Central Highlands of the West Bank, 53 km north of Jerusalem. It covers the area around the city of Nablus which serves as the ''muhfaza'' (seat) of the go ...

of the

State of Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. The town has a total land area of 12,075

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s of which 200 dunams is built-up area. The village is just north of the historic Khan al-Lubban caravansary. In 2012, the nearby village of Ammuriya was joined with Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya into one Municipal Council, also called Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya.Al Lubban ash Sharqiya Village Profile (including ‘Ammuriya Locality)
ARIJ, p. 5

Location

Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya is bordered by

Qaryut Qaryout () is a Palestinian people, Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank, located southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Qaryut had a population of 2,560 inhabit ...

and As Sawiya to the east, As Sawiya, Iskaka and Salfit to the north, ''Khirbet Qeis'' to the west, and 'Abwein and Sinjil to the south.

History

Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya has been identified with biblical

Lebonah Lebonah was a town near Shiloh, on the north side of Bethel, mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (). It has been identified with Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, to the south of Nablus. In Hebrew, Lebonah means frankincense Frankincense, also known as oliba ...

. Pottery and

sherd This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

s from Iron Age II,

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

/ RomanFinkelstein et al, 1997, p. 616 and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

era have been found, as have sherds from the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

eras. The village was known as "Lubanum" to the Crusaders,Pringle, 1997, p
119
/ref> and sherds from Crusader/

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egyp ...

have also been found here. In 593 AH/1196 CE, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahid al-Makhzumi al-Lubanni (d. 1260), a

qadi A qadi (; ) is the magistrate or judge of a Sharia court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and minors, and supervision and auditing of public works. History The term '' was in use from ...

(Islamic judge) in

Baalbek Baalbek (; ; ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In 1998, the city had a population of 82,608. Most of the population consists of S ...

, was born in the village. In 1320s CE it was marked as ''Casale Lepna'' on the map of Marino Sanuto.Finkelstein et al, 1997, p. 617 Sherds from the

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

era have been found here.

Ottoman era

In 1517 the village was incorporated into 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 ...

with the rest of

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. Under the name "Lubban as-Sawi", the village appeared in 1596 Ottoman tax registers as being in the ''

Nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' of Jabal Qubal of the '' liwa'' of

. It had a population of 75

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

households. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, and goats or beehives; a total of 15,454 akçe. Half of the revenue went to a

Waqf A (; , plural ), also called a (, plural or ), or ''mortmain'' property, is an Alienation (property law), inalienable charitable financial endowment, endowment under Sharia, Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot ...

. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the village formed part of the highland region known as Jūrat ‘Amra or Bilād Jammā‘īn. Situated between Dayr Ghassāna in the south and the present Route 5 in the north, and between Majdal Yābā in the west and Jammā‘īn, Mardā and Kifl Ḥāris in the east, this area served, according to historian Roy Marom, "as a buffer zone between the political-economic-social units of the

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 ...

and the

regions. On the political level, it suffered from instability due to the migration of the

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

tribes and the constant competition among local clans for the right to collect taxes on behalf of the Ottoman authorities." In 1838 it was noted as a village ''el-Lubban'', part of the ''Jurat Merda'' district, south of Nablus. It was also noted that it was inhabited, and had the appearance of an old place, with rock cut tombs above it. French explorer

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

visited the village in 1863, and found it to be in a poor state, but with beautiful old elements as part of the houses. The population was estimated to be 300. In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Thani, subordinate to Nablus. In the 1882 PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP), the village was described as being perched on a terrace on the hill, with ancient tombs close by.

British Mandate era

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya (called Lubban Sharqi) had a population of 356, all

s,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p
25
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to a population of 474 Muslims and one Christian, in a total of 116 houses.Mills, 1932, p
62
/ref> In the 1945 statistics Lubban Sharqiya had a population of 620, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
18
/ref> with 12,545

s of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 2,424 dunams were

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

s and irrigable land, 5,605 used for cereals, while 34 dunams were built-up land.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,annexed by Jordan in 1950. In 1961 the population of ''Lubban Sharqiye'' was 984.

Post-1967

Since the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967, Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya has been under

Israeli occupation Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...

. The population of ''Lubben Sharqiya'' in the 1967 census conducted by Israel was 823, of whom 37 originated from the Israeli territory. Under the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...

of 1995, 33% of village land was classified as Area A (full Palestinian control), 25% as Area B (partial Palestinian control), and the remaining 40% as Area C (full Israeli control). Israel has confiscated 1,144 dunums of land from Al Lubban ash Sharqiya for the establishment of the

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

s of Alie and Ma’ale Levona, and additional land for service roads. On 5 November 1990 at Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, a local villager, Ali el Khatib, aged 65 was gunned down while riding his donkey to an olive grove, and a few second later, gunfire from the same Israeli Peugeot killed Miriam Salman Rashid while she was standing outside her home. The car then sped off towards

Eli Eli most commonly refers to: * Eli (name), a given name, nickname and surname * Eli (biblical figure) Eli or ELI may also refer to: Film * ''Eli'' (2015 film), a Tamil film * ''Eli'' (2019 film), an American horror film Music * ''Eli'' (Jan ...

. On the basis of evidence collected in an intensive investigation, police concluded that it was an operation undertaken by members of the Kach militant organization in retaliation for Meir Kahane's murder in New York earlier that day. Three Kach activists, among them David Ha'ivri, were arrested on suspicion, but the case never came to trial due to lack of evidence. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya had a population of 2,465 in the 2007 census and 2,640 by 2017.2007 PCBS Census
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p. 110. The population is primarily made up of two clans, the Daraghmeh and Awaysa. In 2009 two members of Yesh Din wrote in Haaretz about settlers from Eli who had taken control over land in the area, which had seriously damaged the ability of the villagers from Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya to work their land. According to the writers, this was part of a systematic strategy to remove all Palestinians from Area C, and the authors concluded that "an infrastructure of Jewish terror is being created in the West Bank." On 4 May 2010 a fire broke out in the main mosque of al-Lubban al-Sharqiyya, destroying carpets and religious texts.

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

'Israeli firefighters: West Bank mosque fire likely arson
at

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

, May 06, 2010. Police forensics officers were called in to determine whether it was arson or an electrical failure, while the PA said the fire was started by settlers in a price tag attack. Israel firefighters later said the fire seemed to was deliberately set, and that the likely cause was arson. Later the same year, the olive harvest became one of the most violent for years on the West Bank, and olive trees belonging to the village, and situated near the Israeli settlement of Eli, were torched, though Eli residents say it was a "pruning fire that got out of control." The family of Rasmia Awase found 40 olive trees they had planted two decades earlier on their plot near the settlement of Eli chopped down when they came to harvest the fruits. They blamed the destruction on Eli settlers. In February 2012 an IDF soldier from the

Golani Brigade The 1st "Golani" Brigade (, ''Hativat Golani'') is an Israeli military infantry brigade. It is subordinated to the 36th Division and traditionally associated with the Northern Command. It is one of the five infantry brigades of the regular Is ...

, together with two women were arrested for defacing a village home with graffiti "Mohammed is a Pig". Security cameras in the village showed one of them destroying construction material. In March 2012 the UN published a report about the take-over by Israeli settlers of water resources on the West Bank, including the spring ''Ein El Mukheimer'' near al-Lubban al-Sharqiyya, traditionally used by villagers for irrigation and domestic purposes. According to the village head of Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, the villagers were only allowed near another local spring, ''Ain Arik'', for a few days of the year during harvest time. The rest of the year they would be stopped by the Israeli military. One family, the Daraghmehs, have repeatedly complained of harassment from Israeli settlers, saying that both animals and crops have been destroyed. In response, both local and international supporters have come to their aid.

Khan al-Lubban

Between al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya and Sinjil is the Khan al-Lubban caravansary. The exact date of its construction is not clear, although its architectural style indicates it was built during the

or early Ottoman eras. Large parts of its western and northern sides were restored and reconstructed in the later Ottoman period as indicated by the size and style of the stones. Factors behind its construction include its important location as a crossroads between central Palestine's major towns and the close proximity of a freshwater well.Abu Khalaf, Marwan
Khan al-Lubban
. Excerpt from Islamic Art in the Mediterranean provided by Museum With No Frontiers. In the spring of 1697, Henry Maundrell stayed at the Khan first on the way south to Jerusalem,Maundrell, 1703, p
62
March 24, 1697 and then on the way back. Maundrell was also the first person to identify the place as "Lebonah" (Judges 21:19). In 1838 Edward Robinson found the Khan "in ruins", but noted near it a "fine fountain of running water",Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, p.
90
/ref> the same was found by de Saulcy in 1850. In 1882, the Khan was also described as "ruined", but with a fine spring beneath it. During the British Mandate period, the authorities took advantage of its strategic position and used Khan al-Lubban as a police station. The Jordanians continued to use the complex for the same purpose following the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

. Presently, the site is open to the public and recent work has been carried out to accommodate more visitors. Because of its proximity to the larger caravansary towns of

and al-Bireh, Khan al-Lubban only consists of a single story, unlike most caravansaries which have two or more. The layout of Khan al-Lubban is square-shaped, with each side measuring roughly 23 meters in length. Most of the original building remains intact, with the entrance way bordered by stables on both sides and leading into a courtyard. The eastern and western rooms served administrative functions while the northern rooms served as visitor lodging.

Demography

Some residents of Lubban have their origins in al-Walaja.Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 356

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Lubban SharqiyaAl-Lubban ash-Sharqiya
Welcome to Palestine *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14
IAAWikimedia commonsAl Lubban ash Sharqiya Village Profile (including ‘Ammuriya Locality)
Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
Lubban-ash-Sharqiya arael photo
ARIJ
Development Priorities and Needs in Al Lubban ash Sharqiya
ARIJ
Lubban-ash-SharqiyaKhan-al-LubanAl-Luban
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lubban Ash-Sharqiya, Al- Nablus Governorate Villages in the West Bank Municipalities of Palestine Caravanserais in Palestine