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As Samu' or es-Samu' () () is a town in the Hebron Governorate of 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 ...
,
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 ...
, 12 kilometers south of the city 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 ...
and 60 kilometers southwest of
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 ...
. The town had a population of 26,011 in 2017. As-Samu' is located on a tell identified with the ancient Jewish town of Eshtemoa, from which it derives its name. The town is mentioned in the
Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Onomasticon, and the
Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...
. Archaeological discoveries include a silver
hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...
with
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 ...
inscriptions, a Jewish burial cave, and the 4th-century Eshtemoa synagogue, later converted into a mosque. Initially a small village in the early Ottoman era, as-Samu' gradually grew into a larger settlement over the years. In 1966, it was the site of the Samu incident. Since the 1990s, as-Samu' has been governed by the
Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...
as part of Area A of the West Bank. It is known for its handwoven
kilim A kilim ( ; ; ) is a flat tapestry-weaving, woven carpet or rug traditionally produced in countries of the former Persian Empire, including Iran and Turkey, but also in the Balkans and the Turkic countries. Kilims can be purely decorative ...
s.


Geography

The area is a hilly, rocky area cut by some wadis. The Armistice Demarcation Line (ADL, Green line) runs generally east to west approximately five kilometers south of as-Samu'. The village of as-Samu' is located on twin hills with a wadi varying from shallow to deep between them. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics the town had a population of 19,649 in 2007.2007 PCBS Census
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p.121.


History


Ancient period

As-Samu' is built upon a tell identified with Eshtemoa, an ancient Jewish settlement mentioned in various historical sources. In 1971, five pottery jars dated to the 9th-8th centuries BCE were found in as-Samu', bearing inscriptions written in the
Paleo-Hebrew alphabet The Paleo-Hebrew script (), also Palaeo-Hebrew, Proto-Hebrew or Old Hebrew, is the writing system found in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, including pre-Biblical and Biblical Hebrew, from southern Canaan, also known as the biblical kingdoms ...
. These jars contained one of the largest silver hoards ever found in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.


Classical period

In the 4th-century CE, Eshtemoa was described by
Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...
in his '' Onomasticon'' as a large Jewish village.
Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...
, ''Onomasticon - The Place Names of Divine Scripture'', (ed.) R. Steven Notley & Ze'ev Safrai, Brill: Leiden 2005, p. 84 (§429), note 429
In the late 19th century, a number of explorers visited the village and documented carved architectural elements scattered within it. These elements were incorporated into the walls of the village houses, with some reportedly adorned with a '' menorah'' and Jewish inscriptions. A distinctive Jewish burial cave from the second and third centuries CE was discovered at as-Samu'. It features an elliptical layout along with collection pits and storage chambers integrated into its walls. Inside, twelve intact ossuaries were found alongside fragments of others. Some ossuaries, crafted from soft
chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
stone, are typical of the Late
Second Temple Period The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...
. The other ossuaries belong to the Late style, used by Jews during the Late Roman period. In 1934, the remains of an ancient Jewish synagogue, now known as the Eshtemoa synagogue, were unearthed at as-Samu'. The synagogue is dated to around the 4th–5th century CE. Four seven-branched ''menorahs'' were discovered carved onto door lintels and one of them is displayed in Jerusalem's
Rockefeller Museum The Rockefeller Archeological Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum ("PAM"; 1938–1967), is an archaeology museum located in East Jerusalem, next to Herod's Gate, that houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the exca ...
.


Middle Ages

After the
Muslim conquest The Muslim conquests, Muslim invasions, Islamic conquests, including Arab conquests, Arab Islamic conquests, also Iranian Muslim conquests, Turkic Muslim conquests etc. *Early Muslim conquests **Ridda Wars **Muslim conquest of Persia ***Muslim conq ...
, as-Samu' was resettled by Muslims, possibly after the departure of its Jewish inhabitants. Under Islamic rule, the synagogue was repurposed as a mosque, which was constructed in its main prayer hall, with the addition of a ''
mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "''qibla'' wall". ...
''. Some sources attribute the repurposing to the 7th century, during 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 ...
period, while Robert Schick suggests it may have taken place later, in the 10th century. What was earlier identified to be part of a 12th-century
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 ...
tower, turned out to be a 4th-century synagogue, which was turned into a mosque at the time of
Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...
, according to tradition.


Ottoman era

As-Samu' 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 ...
in 1517. In the 16th century, it was a minor village, predominantly a cave settlement that remained stable over various periods. Its inhabitants routinely made seasonal journeys into the Samirah region.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 In the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 1596 the village appeared 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
Halil Halil is a common Turkish, Albanian and Bosnian male given name. It is equivalent to the Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken ...
of the '' Liwa'' of Quds. It had a population of 16 households, all
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 ...
. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, vineyards and fruit trees, in addition to occasional revenues, goats and bee-hives; a total of 3000 akçe. In 1838, Edward Robinson identified the town of Semua with biblical Eshtemoa.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, p
194
/ref> He described As-Samu as a "considerable" village..."full of flocks and herds all in fine order". He also found remains of walls built from very large stones, some of which were more than 10 feet long. In 1863 the 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 place. An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that as-Samu had a population of 298, in 77 houses, though the population count included men, only.Socin, 1879, p
154
/ref> In 1883, the
Palestine Exploration Fund The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem by Royal Engineers of the War Department. The Fund is the oldest known organization i ...
's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described it as "A village of moderate size, standing high. On the north is an open valley, and the modern buildings extend along a spur which runs out west from the watershed. The ground is rocky on the hills, but the valleys are arable land. There are remains of an ancient castle in the village, and other fragments. A church is said once to have existed here, and the ruins to the west show that the town was once much larger. To the south there are olives in the valley. To the north there are rock-cut tombs on the hill-side ; the water-supply is from
cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...
s. The inhabitants number some 400 to 500 souls.


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, As-Samu (called: Al Samu) had an entirely
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 ...
population of 1,600 inhabitants.Barron, 1923, Table V, p
10
/ref> In the 1931 census, As-Samu, together with Khirbat al-Simia and ''Kh. Rafat'' had a total of 1,882 Muslims, in 372 houses. In 1934, remains of the towns ancient synagogue were discovered and the site was later excavated in 1969, by Ze'ev Yeivin. In the 1945 statistics the population of as-Samu' was 2,520, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
23
who owned 138,872
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 land according to an official land and population survey. 30 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 40,398 for cereals, while 165 dunams were built-up (urban) 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 the 1949 Armistice Agreements, As-Samu was annexed by Jordan along with the rest of the renamed ‘
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 ...
’. In 1961, the population of Samu was 3,103.


Samu Incident

In 1966 Israel launched a full-scale military operation against the town, which resulted in the deaths of fifteen Jordanian soldiers and three Jordanian civilians; fifty-four other soldiers were wounded. The villagers suffered 3 civilians killed and 96 wounded. According to David Dean Shulman, the villagers were unconnected to the incident that had triggered the reprisal. Much of the village was destroyed. The commander of the Israeli paratroop battalion, Colonel
Yoav Shaham Yoav () is a male given name popular among Israeli Jews. Its popularity is attributed to both Joab (), commander of King David's army in the Hebrew Bible, and Operation Yoav, Yitzhak Dubno, a 1940s Palmach soldier whose codename was Yoav. Yoav is a ...
, was killed and ten other Israeli soldiers were wounded.


Israeli occupation

As a result of 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, 'as-Samu came 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 in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 3,784. 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 ...
, the town was assigned to Area A. It was reported in 2005 that 10,000 dunums of land in the towns of 'as-Samu, Yatta and
ad-Dhahiriya Ad-Dhahiriya (also az-Zahiriya) () is a city in the Hebron Governorate of Palestine, 22 km southwest of the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, ad-Dhahiriya had a population of ...
near Hebron were to be seized by the
Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...
for the construction of the separation wall. Palestinian sources have alleged that settler violence from the nearby Israeli settlements of Ma'on and Asa'el has prevented them from accessing their fields.


Demography

Among the residents of as-Samu are the Abu Awwad, al-Badareen, ad-Daghameen, al-Hawadah , al-Mahareeq, ar-Rawashdah, al-Salameen and az-Za'areer families.


Culture

A headdress or 'money hat' (''wuqayat al-darahem'') from as-Samu (c. 1840s, with later additions) is exhibited at the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
. The caption notes that the headdress was worn in the 19th century and early 20th century during the wedding ceremony, especially for the 'going out to the well' ceremony when the bride appeared in public as a married woman for the first time.Money hat
/ref> Generally, the headdress was considered to be one of the most important parts of the Palestinian costume. As-Samu' is also known for its handwoven
kilim A kilim ( ; ; ) is a flat tapestry-weaving, woven carpet or rug traditionally produced in countries of the former Persian Empire, including Iran and Turkey, but also in the Balkans and the Turkic countries. Kilims can be purely decorative ...
s.Samou'a Kilims
, by Hamdan Taha


See also

* Eshtemoa synagogue


References


Bibliography

* * Ben-Yehûdā, Ḥ. and Sandler, Shmuel (2002). ''The Arab-Israeli Conflict Transformed: Fifty Years of Interstate and Ethnic Crises''. SUNY Press. * * Chen, S.
The Design of the Ancient Synagogues in Judaea: Eshtemoa and Horvat Susiya
* * (p. 972) * * * * * * *
Hussein of Jordan Hussein bin Talal (14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 1952 until Death and state funeral of King Hussein, his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemites, Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Hu ...
(1969). ''My "War" with Israel''. London: Peter Owen. * * * Oren, M. (2002). ''Six Days of War''. Oxford University Press. * * * Prittie, Terence (1969). ''Eshkol of Israel: The Man and the Nation''. London, Museum Press. * (p
312
* *


External links




Samu’a
Welcome to Palestine * Survey of Western Palestine, Map 25
IAAWikimedia commons

Samu’a
Ta'ayush
As Samu' Town (Fact Sheet)
Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
As Samu' Town Profile
ARIJ
As Samu' aerial photo
ARIJ
The priorities and needs for development in As Samu' town based on the community and local authorities’ assessment
ARIJ {{DEFAULTSORT:Samu, as- Cities in the West Bank Hebron Governorate Ancient Jewish settlements of Judaea 13 Kohanic cities Municipalities of Palestine