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Khirbat al-Simia () 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 located four kilometers north-west of
As-Samu As Samu' or es-Samu' () () is a town in the Hebron Governorate of the West Bank, Palestine, 12 kilometers south of the city of Hebron and 60 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem. The town had a population of 26,011 in 2017. As-Samu' is located o ...
.The village is in the
Hebron Governorate The Hebron Governorate () is an administrative district of Palestine in the southern West Bank. The governorate's land area is and its population according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in mid-year 2019 was 1,004,510. This ...
Southern
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 ...
. According to the
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ) is the official statistical institution of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures at the national and international levels. It is a state institution that provid ...
, the village had a population of 1,705 in mid-year 2006.


History

It has been suggested that Khirbat al-Simia was identical to a Biblical place named Eshean.


Ottoman era

Khirbat al-Simia 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 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 under the name ''Simya Burin (Abu Hasan)'', 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 Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Juda ...
. It had a population of 18 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, summer crops, vineyards and fruit trees, goats and bee-hives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 1,600
Akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...
. In 1838, ''Simieh'' was noted by Edward Robinson as a place "in ruins or deserted," part of the area 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 ...
.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
116
/ref> In 1863,
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 ...
noted: "The highest point of this mound is occupied by the debris of a small
fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...
, the lower
courses Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
of which, still standing, are composed of enormous blocks cut in bosses. Lower down I notice the location of a building which, except for a fine section of wall of very regular stones, is upset from top to bottom. Two tombs of broken stone columns lie on the ground in the interior. Perhaps, in the
Christian era The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used when designating years in the Gregorian and Julian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means "in the year of the Lord" but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord", tak ...
, this edifice served as a
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...
. As for the houses, there was scarcely anything left, except for the cisterns and caves dug in the rock which a number of them contained. I also observe a small birket about ten · paces by four wide; it is partly built and partly dug in the rock. A short distance to the east of this hill, on the last slopes of a mountain, is a magnificent tomb, which is preceded by a small courtyard, cut in the bright rod, which measures eight steps in length by six and half wide. From there one enters into an open vestibule, decorated externally with two pilasters and two Doric
column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...
s, arranged in the thickness of the rock, and whose frieze consists of denoted metopes and triglyphs. This vestibule is, on the inside, seven paces long and three and a half wide. A very low bay in the center allows one to penetrate crawling into the sepulchral chamber, which itself is seven paces long by five wide and is surrounded by a bench. The place for two bodies had been prepared under a curved
arch An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...
." 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 Palestine The Survey of Palestine was the government department responsible for the survey and mapping of Palestine during the British mandate period. The survey department was established in 1920 in Jaffa, and moved to the outskirts of Tel Aviv in 19 ...
(SWP) noted at ''Es Simia'': "Walls,
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, caves, and tombs, principally broken, but one well cut. It is a large ruin, and evidently an ancient site. A
courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...
, 23 feet 8 inches by 19 feet 6 inches, is cut in rock in front of the
porch A porch (; , ) is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance to a building. A porch is placed in front of the façade of a building it commands, and forms a low front. Alternatively, it may be a vestibule (architecture), vestibule (a s ...
, which is 20 feet 9 inches wide and 8 feet to the back. It is supported on two pillars, 14 inches diameter, and two pilasters, all cut in rock with very simple
capitals Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...
. Over the pillars at 6 feet from the ground is a
frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...
with 9 medallions, divided by
triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...
s. A door 2 feet 3 inches wide leads from the porch into a chamber, 11 feet 7 inches wide, by 9 feet 8 inches to the back. In the right-hand corner at the back is a recess, 2 feet wide, 16 inches to the back. On the right a door 2 feet wide leads into another chamber 6 feet square."


British Mandate era

In the
1931 census of Palestine The 1931 census of Palestine was the second census carried out by the authorities of Mandatory Palestine. It was carried out on 18 November 1931 under the direction of Major E. Mills after the 1922 census of Palestine. * Census of Palestine 1931, ...
, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Khirbat al-Simia, together with
As-Samu As Samu' or es-Samu' () () is a town in the Hebron Governorate of the West Bank, Palestine, 12 kilometers south of the city of Hebron and 60 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem. The town had a population of 26,011 in 2017. As-Samu' is located o ...
and ''Kh. Rafat'' had a total of 1,882 Muslims, in 372 houses.Mills, 1932, p
33
/ref>


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 The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
ian rule.


1967, aftermath

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, the village 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 in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 267.


Footnotes


Bibliography

* * * * * *


External links

*Khirbat al-Simia.common

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 21:
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Hebron Governorate Villages in the West Bank Hebron Governorate Municipalities of Palestine