Ajjul

Ajjul ( ar, عجّول) is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the northern West Bank, located north of Ramallah. There are two archaeological sites or ''khirbets'' to the east of the village. One of the ''khirbets'' is dedicated to a former resident of Ajjul, ''Sheikh Abdul''.Ajjul Village
Ajjul Village Council. (Translated from Arabic) Ajjul is governed by a village council of three members.

Location

Ajjul is located (horizontally) north of Ramallah. It is bordered by Atara to the south and east, Abwein to the east, Bani Zeid ash Sharqiya to the north, and Deir as-Sudan and Umm Safa to the west. Ajjul lies at an altitude of 484 meters above sea level.

History

Ajjul is a village on an ancient site. Potsherds from the Iron Age, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman/Byzantine, Crusader/ Ayyubid, Mamluk and early Ottoman period have also been found.Finkelstein et al, 1997, p. 415 Rock-cut tombs have been found, and ancient architectural fragments have been reused in a mosque.

Crusader/Ayyubid period

In the 12th and 13th centuries, during the Crusader period, Ajjul was inhabited by Muslims, according to the Muslim scholar Diya al-Din (d. 1245). A mosque in the village has an inscription in the south wall, dating it to 1196. The inscription is in Ayyubid naskhi script.

Röhricht (1842–1905 suggested that Ajjul was the Crusader place called ''Gul''; however, Conder (1848–1910) disagreed.

Ottoman period

The village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the ''Nahiya'' of Quds of the '' Liwa'' of Quds. It had a population of 79 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, which included wheat, barley, summer crops, vineyards and fruit trees, olives, goats and/or beehives; a total of 8,745 akçe. Half of the revenue went to a Waqf.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 117.

In 1838 Ajjul was noted as a Muslim village in the Beni Zeid administrative region.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p
125
/ref> In 1870 Victor Guérin passed by the village, which he called ''A'djoul'', and estimated it to have about 300 inhabitants. Around Ajjul he found large fig and carob-trees, besides pomegranate, mulberry and apricot trees. An official Ottoman village list from about the same year showed that Ajjul had 79 houses and a population of 250, though the population count included men, only.

In 1882, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described Ajjul as a "village of moderate size, with a well. It is on high ground, with olives round it, and ancient tombs. An ancient road leads towards it on the south." In 1896 the population of Ajjul was estimated to be about 468 persons.

British Mandate

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Ajjul had a population of 202, all Muslim.Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p
16
/ref> By the time of the 1931 census, Ajjul had 79 occupied houses and a population of 292, still all Muslim.Mills, 1932, p
47

In the 1945 statistics, the population was 350 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
26
/ref> and the total land area was 6,639 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
64
/ref> Of this, 3,507 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 863 for cereals, while 14 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

Jordanian period

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements

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