Tell Mulabbis (
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
: ملبس,
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 ...
: אומלבס, מולבס) is an
archaeological mound in modern
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva (, ), also spelt Petah Tiqwa and known informally as Em HaMoshavot (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of the Old Y ...
,
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
.
Mulabbis is a key site in the
Yarkon River
The Yarkon River, also Yarqon River or Jarkon River (, ''Nahal HaYarkon''; , ''Nahr al-Auja''), is a river in central Israel. The source of the Yarkon ("Greenish" in Hebrew) is at Tel Afek (Antipatris), north of Petah Tikva. It flows west throu ...
basin, with habitation remains from the Roman, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Late Ottoman periods.
Crusader and Mamluk periods
Khirbat Mulabbes was home to the
Crusader village of ''Bulbus'', an identification proposed in the nineteenth century by French scholar
fr. A Crusader source from 1133 CE states that the
Count of Jaffa
The double County of Jaffa and Ascalon was one of the four major Manorialism, seigneuries comprising the major Crusader state of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, according to 13th-century commentator John of Ibelin (jurist), John of Ibelin.
History
Jaf ...
granted the land to the
Hospitaller order, including “the mills of the three bridges” (“des moulins des trios ponts”).
[Haddad, 2013]
Petah Tikva, Kh. Mulabbis
In 1478 CE (AH 883), 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 ...
Sultan of Egypt
Sultan of Egypt was the status held by the rulers of Egypt after the establishment of the Ayyubid dynasty of Saladin in 1174 until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. Though the extent of the Egyptian Sultanate ebbed and flowed, it generally ...
,
Qaitbay
Sultan Abu Al-Nasr Sayf ad-Din Al-Ashraf Qaitbay (; 1416/14187 August 1496) was the eighteenth Burji Mamluk Sultan of Egypt from 872 to 901 A.H. (1468–1496 C.E.). He was Circassian by birth, and was purchased by the ninth sultan Barsbay ( ...
, endowed a quarter of the revenues of Mulabbes to two newly established institutions:
Madrasa Al-Ashrafiyya in Jerusalem, and a
mosque
A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard.
Originally, mosques were si ...
in Gaza.
Ottoman period
David Grossman suggests that Mulabbes was "Milus", a village with 42
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, mentioned in the
Ottoman tax records in 1596.
"Melebbes" appears on
Jacotin's map drawn up during
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
's
invasion in 1799, and shows up as "el Mulebbis" on
Kiepert's map of Palestine, published in 1856.
Following the invasion of the Levant by
Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt
Ibrahim Pasha ( ''Ibrāhīm Bāshā''; 1789 – 10 November 1848) was an Egyptian general and politician; he was the commander of both the Egyptian and Ottoman armies and the eldest son of Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman Wāli and unrecognized Khedi ...
(1831-1841), the village was repopulated by
Egyptian
''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...
emigrants belonging to the Abu Hamed al-Masri clan as part of a wider wave of migration that settled in Palestine's coastal lowlands.
[Marom]
The village of Mulabbis
, Cathedra 176, 2020, pp. 48-64.
In 1870,
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 that "Melebbes" was a small village with 140 inhabitants, surrounded by fields of watermelon and tobacco. An Ottoman village list from about the same year showed that "Mulebbes" had 43 houses and a population of 125, though the population count included men only. It was also noted that the village was located on a hill, "Auf einer Anhöhe", 2.75 hours northeast of
Jaffa
Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...
.
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
The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...
visited "Mulebbis" in 1874 and described it as "a similar
mud
Mud (, or Middle Dutch) is loam, silt or clay mixed with water. Mud is usually formed after rainfall or near water sources. Ancient mud deposits hardened over geological time to form sedimentary rock such as shale or mudstone (generally cal ...
village
s Al-Mirr">Al-Mirr.html" ;"title="s Al-Mirr">s Al-Mirr with a well">Al-Mirr">s_Al-Mirr<_a>.html" ;"title="Al-Mirr.html" ;"title="s Al-Mirr">s Al-Mirr">Al-Mirr.html" ;"title="s Al-Mirr">s Al-Mirr with a well."
[Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p]
252
/ref> Following the sale of Mulabbes' lands to Jewish entrepreneurs, its residents dispersed in neighboring villages like Jaljulia and Fajja.
References
Bibliography
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* (p
216
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External links
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 13
IAA
Wikimedia commons
{{Wikivoyage
Palestine (region)
Crusader castles
Petah Tikva
Archaeological sites in Israel