Anab (, ''Anav'') is a city mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Book of Joshua The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile. It tells of the ...

as one of the cities in the

Judaean Mountains The Judaean Mountains, or Judaean Hills (, or ,) are a mountain range in the West Bank and Israel where Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and several other biblical sites are located. The mountains reach a height of . The Judean Mountains can be di ...

from which

Joshua Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...

expelled the

Anakim Anakim ( ''ʿĂnāqīm'') are mentioned in the Bible as descendants of Anak. According to the Old Testament, the Anakim lived in the southern part of the land of Canaan, near Hebron (Gen. 23:2; Josh. 15:13). states that they inhabited the regio ...

In the Hebrew Bible

Anav is mentioned in

Joshua 11 Joshua 11 is the eleventh Chapters and verses of the Bible, chapter of the Book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible or in the Old Testament of the Christianity, Christian Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to Joshua, with addi ...

:21: Later,

Joshua 15 Joshua 15 is the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible or in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to Joshua, with additions by the high priests Eleazar and Phinehas, ...

:50 lists Anav as one of several sites incorporated into the hilly parts of the territory of the Tribe of Judah.

In later sources

Anab was mentioned in a Jewish document, written in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, self-dated to the "4th year after the destruction of the house of Israel", which scholars put at 140 CE, four years after the Roman suppression of the

Bar Kokhba revolt The Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 AD) was a major uprising by the Jews of Judaea (Roman province), Judaea against the Roman Empire, marking the final and most devastating of the Jewish–Roman wars. Led by Simon bar Kokhba, the rebels succeeded ...

Archeology

Anav is identified with today's Khirbet Anab. It lies among the

Hebron Hills The Hebron Hills, also known as Mount Hebron (, ), are a mountain ridge, geographic region, and geologic formation, constituting the southern part of the Judaean Mountains, Judean Mountains. The Hebron Hills are located in the southern West Ban ...

, south-south-west of

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

, in the

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 ...

. 'Anab al-Kabir used to be a sizeable village with 60 tax-payers, as noted by Hütteroth and Abdulfattah. The cause of its destruction remains unknown. Currently, it is occupied by

Bedouins 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 ...

from the Ramad'in tribe, who likely settled there during the Jordanian control of the West Bank (1948–1967).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. 369 A basilical-shaped church with

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Christian Palestinian Aramaic Christian Palestinian Aramaic was a Western Aramaic languages, Western Aramaic dialect used by the Melkite, Melkite Christian community, predominantly of Jews, Jewish descent, in Palestine (region), Palestine, Transjordan (region), Transjordan an ...

inscriptions was found at the site. The entire complex is 38 x 20 meters.

Mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

floors were discovered throughout the site; they suffered

iconoclastic Iconoclasm ()From . ''Iconoclasm'' may also be considered as a back-formation from ''iconoclast'' (Greek: εἰκοκλάστης). The corresponding Greek word for iconoclasm is εἰκονοκλασία, ''eikonoklasia''. is the social belie ...

destruction during the

early Islamic period The historiography of early Islam is the secular scholarly literature on the early history of Islam during the 7th century, from Muhammad's first purported revelations in 610 until the disintegration of the Rashidun Caliphate in 661, and arguab ...

(c. 8th century CE). The rooms of the complex were used for habitation during 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 ...

period in the 13th and 14th centuries.

References

{{Authority control Book of Joshua Hebrew Bible cities Anakim Archaeological sites in the West Bank Tribe of Judah Hebron Hills