Silat Ad-Dhahr
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Silat ad-Dhahr () 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 ...
town in the
Jenin Governorate The Jenin Governorate () is one of 16 Governorates of Palestine. It covers the northern extremity of the West Bank, including the area around the city of Jenin, which is the district capital or ''muhfaza'' of the district. According to the Pale ...
of
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 northern
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 southwest of
Jenin Jenin ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and is the capital of the Jenin Governorate. It is a hub for the surrounding towns. Jenin came under Israeli occupied territories, Israeli occupation in 1967, and was put under the administra ...
. 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 ...
(PCBS) census, the town had a population of 5,794 in 2007 and 7,406 by 2017.2007 Locality Population Statistics
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 ...
(PCBS). p. 107.
The healthcare facilities for the surrounding villages are based in Silat adh Dhahr, the facilities are designated as MOH level 2. The average elevation of the town is above sea level. The population in 1997 was 4,439, 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 estimated population in 2001 was approximately 6,000 and was divided into 51% males and 49% female, young people representing a very high percentage of inhabitants. About 30% of inhabitants are traders and 20% rely on agriculture, producing such products as olives and almonds. The village has a high level of education, and there is a large group of university graduates. There are water and electricity networks in the town, there are also telephone and Internet lines. There is also a health clinic and sports, social and cultural centers and libraries. There are five schools in the town: the Industrial School (co-ed, 150 students), a secondary school for boys (450 students), primary school for boys (500 students), a secondary school for girls (400 students), and a primary school for girls (650 students).


Geography

Silat ad-Dhahr is situated in a deep ravine at the edge of a ridge with an average elevation of above sea level. It is surrounded by the hills of the Musheirif Range. The old core of the village is situated on a
spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to ba ...
and has an area of 28
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. The village is located southwest of
Jenin Jenin ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and is the capital of the Jenin Governorate. It is a hub for the surrounding towns. Jenin came under Israeli occupied territories, Israeli occupation in 1967, and was put under the administra ...
in the northern
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 ...
. The nearest localities are Fandaqumiya and Jaba' to the east,
Burqa A burqa or burka (; ) is an enveloping outer garment worn by some Muslim women which fully covers the body and the face. Also known as a chadaree (; ) or chaadar (Dari: چادر) in Afghanistan, or a ''paranja'' (; ; ) in Central Asia, the Ara ...
to the south, Bizzariya to the southwest,
al-Attara Al-Attara () is a Palestinian village in the Jenin Governorate of Palestine, in the northwestern area of the West Bank, located 15 kilometers southwest of Jenin. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a popula ...
to the west,
Rama Rama (; , , ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the seventh and one of the most popular avatars of Vishnu. In Rama-centric Hindu traditions, he is considered the Supreme Being. Also considered as the ideal man (''maryāda' ...
to the northwest,
Ajjah Ajjah () is a Palestinian village in the Jenin Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the northern West Bank, located 19 kilometers southwest of Jenin. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of ...
to the north and
Anzah Anzah or 'Anza () is a Palestinian village in the located 18 km southwest of the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. Its total land area consists of 4,740 dunams of which nearly a 1/4 is covered with olive orchards. According to the P ...
to the northeast.


History

In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census 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 al-Sha'rawiyya al-Sharqiyya. In 1949, a burial cave from the
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
and Byzantine periods was excavated in Silat ad-Dhahr by the
American School of Oriental Research The American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR), founded in 1900 as the American School of Oriental Study and Research in Palestine, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, which supports the research and teaching of ...
and
McCormick Theological Seminary McCormick Theological Seminary is a private Presbyterian seminary in Chicago, Illinois. As of 2023, it shares a campus with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and Catholic Theological Union, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. A l ...
. The cave, located at the village's western edge, had three chambers, each with ten ''
kokhim A rock-cut tomb is a burial chamber that is cut into an existing, naturally occurring rock formation, so a type of rock-cut architecture. They are usually cut into a cliff or sloping rock face, but may go downward in fairly flat ground. It was a ...
'', and contained a variety of findings. It is thought that the oil lamps discovered at the site are of
Samaritan Samaritans (; ; ; ), are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Hebrews and Israelites of the ancient Near East. They are indigenous to Samaria, a historical region of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah that ...
origin. Ben-Zvi wrote that the local Thaher family is of Samaritan ancestry. A site on the ridge above Silat ad-Dhahr and with the same name contains
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
-era
pottery sherds This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...
, mosaic fragments and a wine press.
Pottery sherds This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...
from the town of Silat ad-Dhahr itself indicate that it was founded during the early Islamic period (9th–10th centuries CE).Zertal, 2004, p.
303
Arab chroniclers called it ''Silat ad-Dhahr'' to distinguish it from another homonymous
Silat Silat is the collective term for a class of martial arts from the Nusantara and surrounding geocultural areas of Southeast Asia. It is traditionally practised in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Southern Thailand, Southern Philippi ...
(Silet) northwest of Jenin.


Medieval period

The
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 ...
conquered the area in 1099 and referred to the village as "Sileta". King
Baldwin IV Baldwin IV (1161–1185), known as the Leper King, was the king of Jerusalem from 1174 until his death in 1185. He was admired by historians and his contemporaries for his dedication to the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the face of his debilitating ...
of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Crusader Kingdom, was one of the Crusader states established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1 ...
confirmed the sale in 1178 of the village made by the viscount of Nablus (''vicecomes Neapolitanus'') to the
Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...
. The transaction included 103 "Bedouin tents", meaning homes, indicating that the tribal lands of the latter were in the vicinity of Silat ad-Dhahr. The total price paid was 5,500
bezant In the Middle Ages, the term bezant (, from Latin ) was used in Western Europe to describe several gold coins of the east, all derived ultimately from the Roman . The word itself comes from the Greek Byzantion, the ancient name of Constantinop ...
s, of which 2,000 were for the village itself.Clermont-Ganneau, 1888, p
331
cited in Röhricht, 1893, RHH, pp
150
1, #565 :'Amalricus, vicecomes Neapolitanus, filius Baldevini vicecomitis bonae memoriae, domui Hospitalis per manum Rogerii de Molinis magistri omnes suos bedevinos de genere Benekarkas et alios 111 Millibus et D bisantiis vendit.'
Conder, 1890, p
35
Clermont-Ganneau, 1888, p
331
both cited in Röhricht, 1893, RHH, p
151
#566
The village was mentioned by geographer
Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography con ...
in his
Mu'jam al-Buldan Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography con ...
, written in the early 13th century, during
Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egyp ...
rule.


Ottoman era

Silat ad-Dhahr 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 ...
with the rest of
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 1517. In the 1596 Ottoman tax records, it appeared under the name of ''Sila'', located 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 ...
Jabal Sami, in the
Nablus Sanjak The Nablus Sanjak (; ) was an administrative area that existed throughout Ottoman Empire, Ottoman rule in the Ottoman Syria, Levant (1517–1917). It was administratively part of the Damascus Eyalet until 1864 when it became part of Syria Vilayet ...
. It had a population of 27 households and 9 bachelors, 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 ...
. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a press for olives or grapes; a total of 7,400
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 ...
. Nearby ''Neby Lawin'' at the same time had 21 families and 6 bachelors, also all Muslims. Silat ad-Dhahr was mentioned by the
Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...
traveler Evliya Celebi in 1640. In the spring of 1697,
Henry Maundrell Henry Maundrell (1665–1701) was an academic at Oxford University and later a Church of England clergyman, who served from 20 December 1695 as chaplain to the Levant Company in Syria. His ''Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter A.D. 1697'' ...
, on his way to Jerusalem, noted there "a fair Fountain, called ''Selee'', taking its name from an adjacent village."Maundrell, 1703, p
57
March 24, 1697
Most of the buildings in Silat ad-Dhahr's old town date back to the 17th and 18th centuries.Zertal, 2004, p.
302
The village's main mosque was built in the 19th century. It has a particularly tall
minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...
.
Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 19 ...
missed it in his travels in the region in 1838, but notes that
Henry Maundrell Henry Maundrell (1665–1701) was an academic at Oxford University and later a Church of England clergyman, who served from 20 December 1695 as chaplain to the Levant Company in Syria. His ''Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter A.D. 1697'' ...
had passed it during his travels. Robinson placed it in the ''esh-Sha'rawiyeh esh-Shurkiyeh'', the eastern administrative region, north 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 ...
.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd Appendix, p.
129
/ref> 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 ...
visited, and described it as “a large village divided into quarters, with 1800 inhabitants. It occupies a hill surrounded by higher hills in the north, with beautiful olive trees on their slopes. A good fountain supply the village.” In 1882, the PEF'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 ...
'' described Silat ad-Dhahr as:
"a good-sized and flourishing village, built on a hill slope, with many good stone houses. It is surrounded by fine groves of olives, and owns good lands in the plain. The principal water supply is from a good spring of clear water, which appears to be perennial. This comes out of the chalk rock on the slope of the hill by the main road above the village on the north-cast. It is called 'Ain Sileh, and is half-a-mile from the houses. The name of the sacred place opposite the village on the north is of special interest : Neby Lawin, signifying the Levite Prophet."
During the end of this era, under the leadership of the German engineer
Heinrich August Meißner Heinrich August Meissner (, January 3, 1862 – January 14, 1940) was a German engineer who was largely responsible for the railway network in the Ottoman Empire, and later helped manage the network in Turkey. He attained the high-ranking honorary ...
( Meisner Pasha), of railway were built between Silat ad-Dhahr and
Beersheba Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...
, during just a six-month period.


British Mandate period

Palestine, including Silat ad-Dhahr, was captured by British forces during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and the country subsequently came under a British Mandate. 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, Silat ad-Dhahr had a population of 1,638, mostly
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 with three
Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...
, all Orthodox. The population increased in the 1931 census to 1,985 inhabitants, all Muslims, living in 466 houses.Mills, 1932, p
71
/ref> Silat ad-Dhahr was home to Abu Khalid, a disciple of
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam (; 1881 or 19 December 1882 – 20 November 1935) was a Syrian Muslim preacher and a leader in the local struggles against British and French Mandatory rule in the Levant and an opponent of Zionism in the 1920s and 1930s. Qassam was born in ...
and rebel commander during the 1936–1939 Palestine revolt against the British authorities. In 1945 statistics, the population of Silat eh Dahr was 2,850, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
17
/ref> with 9,972
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. 1,978 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 4,577 dunams for cereals, while 64 dunams were built-up (urban) land and 3,179 dunams were classified as "non-cultivable".


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 The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. In 1961, the population of ''Silat Dhahr'' was 3,566 persons.


1967, aftermath

Silat ad-Dhahr 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 ...
since the 1967
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 ...
. Under the Oslo Accords, the town was assigned to Area B.
Israeli military 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, an ...
took over several houses in the town in 2004. In 2005, 18 people from Silat ad-Dhahr were killed by Al-Qaeda terrorists in the Amman bombings. In 2008,
Israeli settler Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish identity or ethnicity, and hav ...
s harassed villagers and closed off the main road.


Demographics

Silat ad-Dhahr had a population of 4,639 in the 1997 census by 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 ...
(PCBS).
Palestinian refugees Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country, village or house over the course of the 1948 Palestine war and during the 1967 Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refug ...
and their descendants accounted for 11.7% of the inhabitants.. 1997 Census.
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 ...
(PCBS). 1999.
In the 2007 PCBS census, Silat ad-Dhahr's population grew to 5,794. The number of households was 946, with each household containing an average of between six members. Women made up 49.3% of the population and men 50.7%.


Neby Lawin

Just north of Silat ad-Dhahr is ''Neby Lawin'', known in Crusader sources as ''Loie'' or ''Loja'', while considered the burial place of
Levi Levi ( ; ) was, according to the Book of Genesis, the third of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's third son), and the founder of the Israelites, Israelite Tribe of Levi (the Levites, including the Kohanim) and the great-grandfather of Aaron ...
in the late 19th century.
Aaron Demsky Aaron Demsky is professor of biblical history at Bar-Ilan University. He is an epigrapher noted for his work on onomastics. Demsky is the winner of the 2014 Bialik Prize The Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of ...
identified Silat ad-Dhahr with Shilta (), mentioned in the
Mosaic of Rehob The Mosaic of Reḥob (, also known as the Tel Rehov inscription and the Baraita of the Boundaries), is a late 3rd–6th century Common Era, CE mosaic discovered in 1973. The mosaic, written in late Mishnaic Hebrew, describes the geography and ...
from the 6th-7th centuries as a village in the region of Sebastia. The agricultural produce of Shilta was exempt from the normal Jewish restrictions imposed during the Sabbatical years, or the need for
tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or ...
, possibly because it was inhabited by Samaritans or Gentiles or both. It is mentioned next to Penṭāḳūmewatha, identified with the nearby village of Fandaqumiya.
Aaron Demsky Aaron Demsky is professor of biblical history at Bar-Ilan University. He is an epigrapher noted for his work on onomastics. Demsky is the winner of the 2014 Bialik Prize The Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of ...
, ''The Permitted Villages of Sebaste in the Reḥov Mosaic'',
Israel Exploration Journal The ''Israel Exploration Journal'' is a biannual academic journal which has been published by the Israel Exploration Society since 1950. It primarily covers research in archaeology, but also history and geography relating to Israel and the surrou ...
(vol. 29, no. 3/4), Jerusalem 1979, p. 190.
Ze'ev Safrai Ze'ev Safrai (; born 1948, Jerusalem) is an Israeli Professor in the Department for Israel Studies in Bar Ilan University, as well as an author, lecturer and researcher of Israel in the Second Temple period, Second Temple era. His main project is ...
also associated Silat adh-Dhahar with Shilta, attributing the identification to Zussman. He wrote that the village was only known as ''Sila'' during the 17th century, indicating that the suffix "adh-Dhahar" was added later. The name ''Sila'' is mentioned as a Samaritan center in a Samaritan chronicle. According to Safrai, the Samaritan community later became a Gentile community. In the absence of any suitable finds, Zertal suggested Shilta should be located at the nearby site of Neby Lawin, whereas, he believes, the name survived in the later founded Silet adh-Dhahr.Zertal, 2004, pp
7576
/ref>


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


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