Ar Rajman

Aqraba ( ar, عقربا) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate of the State of Palestine, located eighteen kilometers southeast of Nablus in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Aqraba had a population of approximately 8,180 inhabitants in 2007.2007 PCBS Census
. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p.110.

Aqraba is an ancient settlement, and the earliest traces of its history date from the Iron Age. During classical antiquity, it was an important Jewish town and the capital of a toparchy. Under Byzantine rule, it was a Christian village. In the early Islamic period, its population converted to Islam. In 2018, it had a population of 18,180.

Nearby hamlets surround the village and are considered to be natural extensions of Aqraba; they are the ''khirbets'' of al-Arama, al-Kroom, Abu ar-Reisa, ar-Rujman, Firas ad-Din and Tell al-Khashaba. The total population of these hamlets was estimated to be 500 in 2008. The prominent families of Aqraba are Al Dayriyeh, Bani Jaber, Al-Mayadima, Bani Jame', and Bani Fadel.

Etymology

The origin of the name is Semitic - Canaanite or Aramaic. In Arabic 'aqraba' means "scorpion". Acraba, the last village adjacent to the desert
Studium Biblicum Franciscanum - Jerusalem. 2000-12-19.

History and archaeology

Pottery sherds from Iron Age II, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad and Crusader/Ayyubid period,Finkelstein and Lederman, 1997, p. 818 as well as rock-hewn cisterns have been found in Aqraba. In 1874, surveyors found near the village rock-cut ''kokhim'' tombs.

Hellenistic to Roman period

During the Second Temple period, Aqraba was a prominent Jewish town and a significant border town in Judea's north. It was named by first century historian Josephus as ''Akrabbatá'' or ''Acrabatta'', the capital of a district of Roman Judaea called Akrabbatène (''Wars'' 3:3, 5).Sharon, 1997, pp
110
111 It is also mentioned in the Mishnah (compiled in 189 CE) under the name ''Aqrabat'' as being one day's march from Jerusalem (Ma'aser Sheni 5:2). It appears that Aqraba's agricultural backdrop was the Gittit Valley at the foot of the town; people who lived there were gentiles who converted to Judaism, most of them of Edomite origin.

It appears that Bar Giora had taken control of Aqraba and the surrounding area before he was forced to flee to Masada during the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73 CE). About six months prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, Vespasian seized control of the cities of Acrabtenam and Gophna (present day Jifna) and annexed them to Flavia Neapolis.

Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260–339 CE) calls the town 'Akrabbeim and the district Akrabbatinés.

Byzantine period

Aqraba was inhabited by Christians during the Byzantine period. A Syriac document notes that the village contained two Byzantine-era monasteries, called after saints Titus and Stephan.Ellenblum, 2003, p
245
/ref> Local tradition concurs with a number of British scholars who believe the mosque was originally a Byzantine-era church.

Early Muslim period

The inhabitants of Aqraba became Muslim during the early Muslim period (630s–1099). Shihab al-Din Ahmad al-Aqrabani, a follower of the noted Muslim jurist al-Shafi'i, lived and was buried there in 180 AH/796–797 CE.Pringle, 2009, p. 235

Crusader/Ayyubid to Mamluk period

Several medieval buildings and other remains were described in the 1930s and 1940s and revisited in the 1990s, such as a fortified courtyard building northwest of the mosque, known as al-Hisn ("the castle") dominating the village from its highest point and now part of a private building; an open cistern or pool (Arabic:''birka'') in the centre of the village, well preserved but now used as an orchard;Pringle, 1997, p.
20
/ref> and a domed building said to be Mamluk, probably a mosque which is in use as the village school The mosque's mihrab was flanked by marble columns topped by capitals, both from the Crusader period.

Aqraba is mentioned in the medieval Samaritan Book of Joshua, a text redacted circa 1300 CE. It is mentioned there as Akrabith in its Samaritan Hebrew version, and as 'Akrabeh in the Arabic one.Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p
386
/ref>

The village mosque is built on the remains of a church, and in the Survey of Western Palestine the Greek inscriptions found there on a lintel decorated by a cross, are described as similar to Crusader-period ones.Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, pp
389-390
/ref>

Pottery sherds from the Mamluk era and a construction inscription in Arabic from 1414 have been found in the village.

Ottoman period

Aqraba, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1596 the village appeared under the name ''Aqraba'' as being in the ''Nahiya'' (Subdistrict) of ''Jabal Qubal'', part of Sanjak Nablus, with a population of 102 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and bee-hives; vineyards and fruit trees, in addition to occasional revenues, and a press for olive oil or grape syrup; a total of 3,960 akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 131

During his travels in the region in 1838 Edward Robinson mentions it, believing it was ancient ''Acrabi''.
Victor Guérin visited in 1870, and described as a large town with 2000 inhabitants. He further noted that it consisted of four quarters, each with their own sheikh.

In 1873-4 Clermont-Ganneau visited, and was told of the governor ''el Kadery'', who resided in Aqraba at the time of Jezzar Pasha. He is said to have erected considerable buildings in the town.

In 1882, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described it as "A large village, surrounded with olives, of houses better built than most in the country. It stands on a saddle between two hills, one of which rises north of it 700 feet, the village standing at the mouth of a pass, through which the main road runs. The place crescent-shaped, whence perhaps its name, ' carved.' To the south is the fertile plain (''Jehir 'Akrabeh''). There is a mosque in the east part of the village, founded on the remains of a Christian church, and a second sacred place (''er Rafai'') on the south. The inhabitants used to number, according to their own account, 2,000 guns, but the present population appears to be about 600 to 800 souls."

British Mandate period

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Aqraba had a population of 1,160; 1,158 MuslimsBarron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p
25
/ref> and 2 Orthodox Christians,Barron, 1923, Table XV, p
47
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census, where Aqraba (together with the smaller location Kh. Fasayil) had a population of 1,478, all Muslims, in a total of 309 houses.Mills, 1932, p
59
/ref>

In the 1945 statistics Aqraba (including Kh. Fasayil) had a population of 2,060, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
18
/ref> with 142,530 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 3,383 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 19,732 used for cereals, while 55 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian period

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

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