Al Janiya

Al-Janiya ( ar, الجانيه) is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate located 8 kilometers northwest of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 1,400 inhabitants by late 2014.'Denied land access, Palestinians miss olive harvest,'
Ma'an News Agency 29 October 2014.

Location

Al Janiya is located 8.5 km west of Ramallah. It is bordered by Al-Zaytouneh and Ein Qiniya to the east, Ras Karkar and Kafr Ni'ma to the west, Al-Zaytouneh and Al-Itihad to the north, and Deir Ibzi to the south.

History

Shards from the Iron Age II,Finkelstein et al., 1997, p. 314 Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine era have been found here. It has been suggested that this was ''Ganta'', a village which belonged to Byzantine empress Eudocia (c. 401–460), who gave it to the Church of Jerusalem.Sharon, 2016, pp
167171
/ref>

It has also been suggested that Al-Janiya was the Crusader site named ''Megina''. Shards have also been found here from the Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk eras. There are Arabic and Greek inscriptions in the village mosque, which has been dated to 731 A.H., that is, 1330-31 C.E.

Ottoman era

Shards have been found here from the early Ottoman era. In the Ottoman census of 1500s, ''Dajjaniyya'' was located in the ''nahiya'' of Quds.

In 1838 ''el-Janieh'' was noted as partly a Greek Christian and partly a Muslim village, part of ''Beni Harith'' area, located north of Jerusalem.

Al-Janiya, together with er-Ras, were the chief towns for the ruling family of Simhan. The chief Sheikh of the Simhan family was Isma'il, who was killed by Ibrahim Pasha in the 1834 uprising. After Isma'il, Hasan es-Sa'id and Mohammah ibn Isma'il became the rulers.

In 1870, Victor Guérin found it to be a village of 400 inhabitants, all Muslims except a few "Grec schismatique". He also suggested that the mosque stood on the site of a previous church. An Ottoman village list from about same year found that the village had a population of 29 "Greeks" in 8 houses, and 268 Muslims in 58 houses, though the population count included men, only. It was noted that it was located NWW of Ramallah.Socin, 1879, p
153
It was also noted that it was in the ''Beni Harit'' area

In 1882, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described it: "A small village on high ground, with two Mukams and a well on the east; on the north is a modern graveyard. Olives exist round."

Two different estimates were given of the population of ''Ed-dschanije'' in 1896, one gave a population of 528, while another estimate gave the population to be 342 Muslims and 36 Christians.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Al-Janiya had a population of 180; 177 Muslims and 3 Orthodox Christians.Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p.
16
/ref>Barron, 1923, Table XIV, p
45
/ref> This had increased by the time of the 1931 census to 250, 245 Muslims and 5 Christians, in 60 houses.Mills, 1932, p
49

In the 1945 statistics the population was 300, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
26
/ref> while the total land area was 7,565 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 2,961 were plantations and irrigable land, 1,423 for cereals, while 40 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.

Jordanian era

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

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases