al-Midya | |
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Other transcription(s) | |
• Arabic | المديه |
• Also spelled | al-Midyah (official) |
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Coordinates: 31°56′08.91″N 35°00′18.91″E / 31.9358083°N 35.0052528°ECoordinates: 31°56′08.91″N 35°00′18.91″E / 31.9358083°N 35.0052528°E | |
Governorate | Ramallah & al-Bireh |
Government | |
• Type | Village Council |
Area | |
• Jurisdiction | 892 dunams (0.9 km2 or 0.3 sq mi) |
Population (2007) | |
• Jurisdiction | 1,301 |
al-Midya (Arabic: المديه) is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the northern West Bank, located 20 kilometers west of Ramallah. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of over 1,301 inhabitants in 2007.[1]
History
The ancient village site is located at Ras al-Midya, north of the village, where pottery from the Iron Age and later periods has been found.
In 1596, Midya ash-Shaqiyya appeared in Ottoman tax registers as a village in the Nahiya of Ramla in the Liwa of Gaza. It had a population of 25 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summercrops or olives or fruit trees, and a press for olives or grapes.[2]
At the time of the 1931 census, Midya had 59 occupied houses and a population of 286 Muslims.[3] A population of 320 Arabs was estimated in 1945.[4]
According to the Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem, Al-Midya's total land area was 6,959 dunams in 1942, but after 1948 most of the village's western land was expropriated, leaving 892 dunams, of which 217 were classified as built-up areas.[5]
Archaeology
Excavations near Midya in the 19th century suggested that graves of the Maccabees were located here. Seven triangular tombs were found corresponding with the description of the first-century Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, who wrote that the family’s seven pyramid-shaped graves were erected in the same place.[6]In 1870, an ancient structure near the gravesite of Sheikh al-Arabawi, adjacent to al-Midya, was identified as a Hasmonean grave, but this was rejected by another biblical archaeologist, Charles Clermont-Ganneau. [7]Further exploration by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the 21st century confirms the likelihood that Horbat Sheikh Gharbawi (Horbat Ha-Gardi) is the family tomb of the Maccabees.[8]
References
- ^ 2007 PCBS Census. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p.113.
- ^ Wolf-Dieter Hütteroth and Kamal Abdulfattah (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. p. 154.
- ^ E. Mills, ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine. p. 21.
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in S. Hadawi, Village Statistics, 1945. PLO Research Center, 1970, p67. [1]
- ^ The series of Israeli annexation and threatening are now targeting Al-Midya village in Ramallah District Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem. 14 August 2003.
- ^ Ayalon Valley - On the Maccabee trail
- ^ The Hasmoneans were here - maybe
- ^ Excavations and Surveys in Israel:Horbat Ha-Gardi, Final Report