Al-Bireh, al-Birah, or el-Bira ( ar, البيرة; also known historically as Castrum Mahomeria, Magna Mahomeria, Mahomeria Major, Birra, or Beirothah) is a
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
city in the central
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
, north of
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. It is the capital of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the central ridge running through the West Bank and is above sea level, covering an area of . Al-Bireh is under the administration of the
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine,
(as part of
Area A
Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an op ...
).
Because of its location Al-Bireh served as an economic crossroad between the north and south, along the caravan route between Jerusalem and Nablus. According to the
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ar, الجهاز المركزي للإحصاء الفلسطيني) is the official
statistical institution of the State of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures ...
(PCBS), the city had a population of approximately 39,202 in the 2007 census.2007 PCBS Census
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ar, الجهاز المركزي للإحصاء الفلسطيني) is the official
statistical institution of the State of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures ...
. p. 114.
History
Edward Robinson in the early 19th century thought Al-Bireh was the biblicalBe'eroth,Robinson and Smith, 1841, pp 130 - 133 but modern scholars believe Be'eroth was located at Kh. el-Burj near
Beit Iksa
Beit Iksa ( ar, بيت إكسا;) is a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate, located northwest of Jerusalem in the West Bank.
The village is surrounded on all sides by the Israeli West Bank barrier, and outside Palestinians are de ...
.Finkelstein et al., 1997, p. 510
Claude Reignier Conder
Claude Reignier Conder (29 December 1848, Cheltenham – 16 February 1910, Cheltenham) was an English soldier, explorer and antiquarian. He was a great-great-grandson of Louis-François Roubiliac and grandson of editor and author Josiah Conder. ...
and others identified it with Beirothah of the Samaritan chronicles.
The Crusaders captured and named the town Birra. It was also called Castrum Mahomeria, Magna Mahomeria or Mahomeria Major.Pringle, 1993, pp 161 - 165 It was one of 21 villages given by King Godfrey as a
fief
A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...
to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p 11 /ref> In 1114, the gift was re-confirmed by
Baldwin I of Jerusalem
Baldwin I, also known as Baldwin of Boulogne (1060s – 2April 1118), was the first count of Edessa from 1098 to 1100, and king of Jerusalem from 1100 to his death in 1118. He was the youngest son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, and Ida of Lor ...
.
In 1156, 92 people from ''Mahomeria'' pledged their allegiance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and a further 50 names were added in the next three decades. Hence, it has been estimated that the total
Frankish
Frankish may refer to:
* Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture
** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages
* Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany
* East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...
population at this time was 500–700.
The Crusaders built a castle,Pringle, 1997, p. 35 /ref> church and hospice there.Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, pp. 88 89Pringle, 2009, pp 259 - 266 The latter two buildings were built by the Knights Templar in 1146 and belonged to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The
Ayyubids
The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin ...
under
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
drove away the Crusaders from Birra when they reconquered interior Palestine after the Battle of Hattin in 1187, and completely demolished the town.
Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known for ...
mentions seeing the ruins a few times during his travels in the area. Nearing the end of Ayyubid rule, in 1280, the modern town of al-Bireh was an inhabited village. The Ayyubids built a
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
in the town dedicated to
Umar ibn al-Khattab
ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate ...
adjacent to the church ruins.Sharon, 1999, pp 236 239
Potsherds
This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains.
A
B
C
D
E
F
...
Al-Bireh, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
in 1517, and in the
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
of 1596 the village, called Bira al-Kubra, was a part of the ''
nahiya
A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also 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 division w ...
'' ("subdistrict") of Al-Quds which was under the administration of the '' liwa'' ("district") of Al-Quds. It had a population of 45 households, all Muslim, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olive trees, fruit trees, occasional revenues, beehives and/or goats; a total of 4,570 akçe. Half of the revenue went to a
waqf
A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or '' mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitab ...
.
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'' ...
noted at Al Bireh, which he called ''Beer'', the remains of a Church, which he wrote was built by
Empress Helena
Flavia Julia Helena ''Augusta'' (also known as Saint Helena and Helena of Constantinople, ; grc-gre, Ἑλένη, ''Helénē''; AD 246/248– c. 330) was an '' Augusta'' and Empress of the Roman Empire and mother of Emperor Constantine th ...
.Maundrell, 1703, p 63 March 25, 1697, cited in Wilson, c1881, vol 1, p 218 /ref>
After the 1834 Arab revolt in Palestine, the Ottoman authorities conscripted many men from Al-Bireh as soldiers. In 1838, when Robinson visited, 60 had been taken away to be soldiers, out of a total population of 700. Robinson noted it as a Muslim village, ''el-Bireh'', located in the area immediately north of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, 2nd appendix, p 122 /ref>
When French explorer
Victor Guérin
Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Min ...
visited the village in 1863, he found it to have 800 inhabitants.
Socin, citing an official Ottoman village list compiled around 1870, noted that Al-Bireh had a population of 399 Muslims in 142 houses, and 20 "Greeks" in 5 houses, though that population count included only men. It was further noted that the name meant "The cistern". Hartmann found that Al-Bireh had 142 houses.
In 1883, 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 Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...
'' (SWP) described Bireh as a good-sized village, with "fairly well built" houses.
In 1896 the population of Bireh was estimated to be about 1,080 persons.
Until 1917, the city served as a political and administrative center for the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...
,Barron, 1923, p 16 /ref> where the Christians were 61 Orthodox, 3 Roman Catholics and 8 "other".Barron, 1923, Table XIV, p 45 /ref> The population had increased in the 1931 census to 2,292; 2,044 Muslim and 248 Christians, in 541 houses.Mills, 1932, p 48 /ref>
In the 1945 statistics, the town's residents numbered 2,920; of which 280 were Christians and 2,640 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p 26 /ref> while urban Bireh had 967 dunams of land, and rural Bireh 22,045 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 5,162 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 11,226 used for cereals, while 759 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
1949 Armistice Agreements
The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule.
In 1961, the population of ''Bira'' was 14,510.
Post-1967 era
During the
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...
, on June 6, 1967, Israeli troops occupied the city, and Al-Bireh has been under
Israeli occupation
Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the term is currently applied to the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, it has also been used to refer to a ...
since.
Israel confiscated 346
dunams
A dunam (Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount o ...
of land from Al-Bireh in order to build the Israeli settlement of Beit El (established in 1977) in addition to 780 dunams in order to build
Pesagot
Psagot ( he, פְּסָגוֹת, ''lit.'' Peaks) is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, located on Tawil hill, adjacent to the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and al-Bireh. Established in 1981, it is organised as a community settlement and ...
(established in 1981).
In 1994, the civil administration of the city was turned over to the
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine,
under the Oslo Accords. Al-Bireh is the second largest center of Palestinian administration after Gaza. Besides the governor's headquarters, it also hosts a considerable number of governmental, non-governmental, and private organizations, including the Ministries of Transportation, Supply,
Information
Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...
, Public Works and Higher Education, as well as the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.General view of al-Bireh Al-Bireh Municipality. Due to its proximity with Ramallah, the cities form a single constituency for elections to the Palestinian National Authority.
After the 1995 accords, 39.8% of village land was classified as
Area A
Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an op ...
, 5% as
Area B
The Palestinian enclaves are areas in the West Bank designated for Palestinians under a variety of U.S. and Israeli-led proposals to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The enclaves are often compared to the nominally self-governing black ...
, while the remaining 55.2% was classified as Area C.
Demographics
The 1997 census carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics counted 27,856 residents, exactly half male and half female. The majority of the inhabitants were Palestinian refugees who made up 55.4% of the total population. In the 2007 PCBS census, there were 38,202 people living in the city.
Al-Bireh is inhabited by 5
major clans: Qur'an, Hamayel, 'Abed, Qaraqra, At Taweel and Ar Rafidi.
Government
Al-Bireh established a city council headed by mayor Eid Musa in 1928 under the British Mandate. Eight other mayors took office either through elections or government appointments. The city had some well known mayors, including Abudul Jawad Saleh who was mayor in the 1970s until exiled by the Israelis. He later went on to become a member of the PLO executive committee and then minister of agriculture in the Palestinian Authority. In 1982,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
instated a civil administration, but later appointed an Arab mayor, Hassan al-Tawil. In 1988, after two years in office, he was stabbed and critically wounded outside his office.
In 1996, a 12-member
municipal council
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam ...
-backed Reform and Change List won 9 of the 15 seats, while independent lists won the remaining 6. The current mayor is Azzam Esmail.
In 2010, a public square in al-Bireh was dedicated to the memory of
Dalal Mughrabi
Dalal Mughrabi ( ar, دلال المغربي, ; ''c.'' 1959 – 11 March 1978) was a Palestinian militant who was a member of the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and participated in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre ...
, leader of an attack that killed 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, in 1978.
Health and education
In 2010, the Jerusalem Fund, National Arab American Medical Association Foundation and Physicians for Peace dedicated the Palestine Diabetes Institute in al-Bireh.
Al-Quds University
Al-Quds University ( ar, جامعة القدس) is a Palestinian university with campuses in Jerusalem, Abu Dis, al-Bireh, and Hebron.
Overview
The idea of establishing an institution of higher learning in the outskirts of Jerusalem was con ...
maintains a campus in al-Bireh.
Sports
The 7,000-seat Majed Ass'ad or Al Bireh International Stadium was completed in 2010; originally constructed in 1996, it was upgraded to international standards from 2006 to 2010 at a cost of €3 million. The work was funded by France, the German Development Bank, the UN Development Agency, and FIFA. Construction was halted by the Israeli Supreme Planning Council on November 1, 2009, but resumed in late December. In November 2009, the nearby settlement of
Psagot
Psagot ( he, פְּסָגוֹת, ''lit.'' Peaks) is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, located on Tawil hill, adjacent to the State of Palestine, Palestinian cities of Ramallah and al-Bireh. Established in 1981, it is organised as a commun ...
petitioned the
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (Englan ...
to have the stadium shut down, citing concerns that rowdy soccer fans might attack Psagot.
Al Bireh Youth Foundation is the most prominent sports club in the city, mostly famous for its football teams and ancient scouts association.
Gennevilliers
Gennevilliers () is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department of Île-de-France. It is located from the centre of Paris. In 2017, it had a population of 46,907.
History
On 9 April 1929, one-fifth of the ...
, France
Notable people
*
Bassel al-Araj
Bassel al-Araj ( ar, باسل الأعرج, 1984 — 2017) was a Palestinian activist, writer and author. Known for his writings about revolution and Arab nationalism, al-Araj was killed on 6 March 2017 by a unit belonging to Israel’s Yamam po ...
, Palestinian activist killed in al-Bireh
*
Ahmad Sa'adat
Ahmad Sa'adat (also transliterated from Arabic as Ahmed Sadat / Saadat; ar, احمد سعدات, links=no; born 1953), also known as Abu Ghassan, is a Palestinian militant and Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palesti ...
Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem
The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ar, معهد الابحاث التطبيقية - القدس) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research proje ...