Baqat al-Hatab () is a village in the Qalqilya Governorate,

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 ...

in the western area 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 ...

, located 20 kilometers southwest 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 ...

. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 1,943 inhabitants in 2017.

Location

Baqat al-Hatab is located northwest of

Qalqiliya Qalqilya or Qalqiliya () is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, which serves as the administrative center of the Qalqilya Governorate. The city had a population of 51,683 in 2017. Qalqilya is surrounded by the Israeli West Bank wall, with a narr ...

. It is bordered by Hajja to the east, south and north; Kafr Laqif and Khirbet Sir to the south; ‘Izbat Abu Hamada to the west; and Kafr ‘Abbush to the west and north.

History

Ottoman era

Baqat al-Hatab 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, and in 1596 it appeared in the 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 Bani Sa'b of the '' Liwa'' of the Sanjak of Nablus. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on various agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and/or beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 23,900 akçe. 5,25/24 of the revenues went to a Muslim charitable endowment.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 139 An Ottoman census in 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 Bani Sa'b. The PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described Baka (Beni Sab) in 1882 as "a well-built stone village in a conspicuous position on a bare ridge, with a few olives, and a well to the north; it is a small place. A high house on the north side formed a trigonometrical station in 1873." It is historically the mother-village of many family hamula groups that now form the population of the Israeli township of Tira.

British Mandate era

An official land survey recorded 8,950

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 in 1945. Of this, 645 dunams were for plantations or irrigated land, 1,688 were for cereals, while 36 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, Baqat came under Jordanian occupation.

1967-present

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, Baqat has been under Israeli rule. After the

Oslo II Accord The Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, commonly known as Oslo II or Oslo 2, was a key and complex agreement in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Because it was signed in Taba, Egypt, it is sometimes called the Taba Agre ...

in 1995, about 58.4% of the village land is defined in Area B, while the remainder 41.6% is in Area C.Baqat al Hatab Village Profile
ARIJ, p. 14

Maqam ash-Sheikh Ali a-Najdi

The village of Baqat al-Hatab is home to the maqam (tomb-shrine) of ''ash-Sheikh Ali a-Najdi''< a tomb located inside a cave next to a well. According to local tradition, ''ash-Sheikh Ali a-Najdi'' came from the

Najd Najd is a Historical region, historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes most of the central region of Saudi Arabia. It is roughly bounded by the Hejaz region to the west, the Nafud desert in Al-Jawf Province, al-Jawf to the north, ...

region of 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 ...

, in modern-day

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

, and arrived in the village during the 19th century. He taught the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

to the children of the village, and tradition says he committed miraculous acts.

Demography

Baqat had a population of 59 households in 1596, 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 ...

s. The British Mandate authorities conducted a census in 1922, Baqat had a population of 207 Muslims.Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p
24
/ref> By the 1931 census, the village had a population of 282 Muslims, with 63 houses. The population in the 1945 census was 390 Muslims.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
18
/ref> The Jordanian census of 1961 found 569 inhabitants in ''Baqa Hatab''. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics census in 2017 recorded 1943 residents.

Local origins

The village's residents have their origins in Hajjah,

, and the Sharon plain.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. 353

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Baqat al-Hatab
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11:
IAAWikimedia commonsBaqat Al Hatab (Fact Sheet)
Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
Baqat al Hatab Village Profile
ARIJ
Baqat al Hatab - aerial photo
ARIJ
Development Priorities and Needs in Baqat al Hatab
ARIJ {{Qalqilya Governorate Qalqilya Governorate Villages in the West Bank