Al-'Ubaydiyya ( ar, العبيدية) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Tiberias Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the

1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine The 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine was the first phase of the 1947–1949 Palestine war. It broke out after the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption of the Pa ...

on March 3, 1948. It was located 11 km south of Tiberias, situated close to the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...

. Today the site is a desolate hill named Tel Ubeidiya.

History

Ottoman period

It was mentioned in the Ottoman

defter A ''defter'' (plural: ''defterler'') was a type of tax register and land cadastre in the Ottoman Empire. Description The information collected could vary, but ''tahrir defterleri'' typically included details of villages, dwellings, household ...

for the year 1555-6, as ''Mezraa'' land, (that is, cultivated land), located in the '' Nahiya'' of Tabariyya of the ''

Liwa Liwa may refer to: Places ; Chad *Liwa (sub-prefecture) in Mamdi Department ; Indonesia *Liwa, Indonesia ; Oman * Liwa, Oman, place in Oman, area around Sohar University *Liwa Province, Oman (wilayah) ; Poland *Liwa, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeshi ...

'' of Safad. The land was designated as ''Sahi'' land, that is, land belonging to the

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

. Pierre Jacotin called the village ''Abadieh'' on his map from 1799. In 1838 Robinson's '' Biblical Researches in Palestine'' noted it as a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

village, ''el-'Öbeidiyeh'', in the Tiberias District, located south of lake Tiberias. In 1881, the

PEF PEF, PeF, or Pef may stand for the following abbreviations: * Palestine Exploration Fund * Peak expiratory flow * PEF Private University of Management Vienna * Pentax raw file (see Raw image format) * Perpetual Education Fund * Perpetual Emigratio ...

's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' described ''El Abeidiyeh'': "Stone and mud houses, built on a round tell, close to the Jordan river. It contains about 200 Moslems, and the plain is cultivated. There are several mills in the neighbourhood. There are a few small palms, but not many trees round the village." The PEF wrote that the name comes from Arabic word " Abeed", meaning slave. A population list from about 1887 showed ''al Abediyeh'' to have about 310 inhabitants; all Muslims. Al-'Ubaydiyya had an elementary school which was founded by the Ottomans.Khalidi, 1992, p. 543

British Mandate

At the time of 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 divisi ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Al-'Ubaydiyya had a population of 336 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table XI, p
39
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 625 Muslims, in 137 houses.Mills, 1932, p
85
/ref> In 1944/1945, the village had a population of 870 Muslims, with a total of 5,173 dunams of land. Of this, Arabs used 3 dunams for citrus and bananas, 1,014 dunams were irrigated or used for orchards, 1,349 were used for

cereal A cereal is any Poaceae, grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, Cereal germ, germ, and bran. Cereal Grain, grain crops are grown in greater quantit ...

s, while 24 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) land.

1948, aftermath

The village became depopulated on March 5, 1948. In 1988, a book about the village was published in Jordan.Davis, 2011, p
283
/ref> In 1992 the village site was described: "The remaining section of the walls of the canal (that provided the mill with water) is the most prominent indication of the former existence of the village. Ruins of houses, piles of stones, the bases of walls, terraces, and date palms can be seen on the site. The lands around the site are cultivated mainly in cotton by the Israelis."Khalidi, 1992, p. 544

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * *Khalifa, Ahmad Mohammad Ali. 1988. Qaryat al-‘Ubaydiyya he Village of ‘Ubaydiyya Jordan: Mataba‘ al-Jazira. * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To al-'Ubaydiyyaal-'Ubaydiyya
Zochrot *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 6
IAAWikimedia commons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Ubaydiyya Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Tiberias