Ta'amreh (in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

: التعامرة) is a large

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...

tribe in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

. Today, most of the tribe's members live in the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine,

territories south and east of

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

, and in the

Kingdom of Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan River ...

. Members of the tribe have established several permanent settlements in the Bethlehem area, known as the 'Arab et-Ta'amreh village cluster (

Za'atara Za'atara ( ar, زعترة) is a Palestinian town located southeast of Bethlehem. The town is in the Bethlehem Governorate central West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of over 6,289 in 2007 ...

Beit Ta'mir Beit Ta'mir ( ar, خربة بيت تعمر) is a Palestinian village located six kilometers southeast of Bethlehem.The town is in the Bethlehem Governorate central West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village ha ...

Hindaza Hindaza ( ar, هندازة) is a Palestinian territories, Palestinian village located six kilometers south-east of Bethlehem. The village is in the Bethlehem Governorate Southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, ...

Tuqu' :''Khirbet ad-Deir, part of Teqoa, should not be confused with Khirbet ad-Deir in Hebron Governorate.'' Teqoa ( ar, تقوع, also spelled Tuquʿ) is a Palestinian town in the Bethlehem Governorate, located southeast of Bethlehem in the West Ba ...

with Khirbet al-Deir,

Nuaman Nuaman or Khallet an Nu'man ( ar, النعمان, meaning "Grace"), also written al-Numan/an-Nu'man, is a small village located just north of Beit Sahour in the Palestinian Governorate of Bethlehem. The Israeli government incorporated its territ ...

Ubeidiya Ubeidiya commonly refers to: * Ubeidiya prehistoric site * Ubeidiya, West Bank * Ubeidiya, Tiberias See also * Abd (Arabic) ʿAbd ( ar, عبد) is an Arabic word meaning one who is subordinated as a slave or a servant, and it means also to w ...

, Al-Masara and

al-Asakra Al-Asakra ( ar, العساكرة) is a Palestinian village in the Bethlehem Governorate in the south-central West Bank, located 4.5 kilometers southeast of Bethlehem. It is a part of the Jannatah municipality. According to the Palestinian Central B ...

History

The tribe participated in the 1834 Peasants' Revolt .

Jewish origins

Some of the tribe members were interviewed for a Channel 1 programme by Tzvi Misinai, a former high-tech professional who researches the Jewish ancestry of some Palestinians, and they claimed Jewish roots. Tzvi Misinai also included the story of the Ta'amreh tribe in "The Engagement Book." According to his study, the Ta'amra tribe was originally a tribe of permanent residents. The first to leave, did so with their flocks due to a lack of grazing land in the area. Thus, the Ta'amreh people became nomadic, in search of grazing grounds. Misinai notes that in the

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

of the Ta'amreh tribe near the ruins of Ta'amreh, there are two old gravestones at the highest point with

Star of David The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...

engravings, which are partially damaged. According to him, these were tampered with by the locals to hide their Jewish ancestry after being forced to convert to Islam.

19th century

In 1878,

C. R. 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. ...

described the Ta'amreh as being of

fellah A fellah ( ar, فَلَّاح ; feminine ; plural ''fellaheen'' or ''fellahin'', , ) is a peasant, usually a farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. The word derives from the Arabic word for "ploughman" or "tiller". ...

origin, wearing

turbans A turban (from Persian دولبند‌, ''dulband''; via Middle French ''turbant'') is a type of headwear based on cloth winding. Featuring many variations, it is worn as customary headwear by people of various cultures. Communities with promine ...

, and cultivating

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

Ben-Zvi study (1930s); Dead Sea Scrolls (1940s)

In the 1930s,

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi Yitzhak Ben-Zvi ( he, יִצְחָק בֶּן־צְבִי‎ ''Yitshak Ben-Tsvi''; 24 November 188423 April 1963) was a historian, Labor Zionism, Labor Zionist leader and the longest-serving President of Israel. Biography Born in Poltava in the ...

wrote that the tribe consisted of about 4,000 people. Members of the Ta'amra tribe were involved in the discovery of the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the nor ...

in the

Qumran caves Qumran Caves are a series of caves, both natural and artificial, found around the archaeological site of Qumran in the Judaean Desert. It is in these caves that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Israel Nature and Parks Authority took over th ...

and the Murabba'at caves in the

Judaean Desert The Judaean Desert or Judean Desert ( he, מִדְבַּר יְהוּדָה, Midbar Yehuda}, both ''Desert of Judah'' or ''Judaean Desert''; ar, صحراء يهودا, Sahraa' Yahuda) is a desert in Palestine and Israel that lies east of Jerusa ...

References

{{Reference list Bedouin groups Groups claiming Jewish descent