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Al-Ubeidiya ( ar, العبيدية) is a Palestinian town located east of Bethlehem. The town is a part of the Bethlehem Governorate in the central West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), al-Ubeidiya had a population of over 14,967 in 2019.2017 PCBS Census
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
The Monastery of St. Theodosius, the
Mar Saba Monastery The Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba ( syr, ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܣܒܐ, ar, دير مار سابا; he, מנזר מר סבא; el, Ἱερὰ Λαύρα τοῦ Ὁσίου Σάββα τοῦ Ἡγιασμέ ...
and the 'Ayn Fashkhah tourist area are all on Al-Ubeidiya land.


Name

In 1881, Palmer called the place ''Kh. Deir Ibn Obeid'', meaning "The ruin of the monastery of the son of Obeid; also called Mar Theodosius. According to the Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ), Al-Ubeidiya is named after a certain Al-‘Ubeidi Faris of the Shammar tribe, who came to the area from the
Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
.ARIJ, 2010, pp
5-6
/ref>


History and archaeology


Background: Roman and Byzantine periods

A
Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
pool, built in order to collect water, is situated in the center of al-Ubeidiya. Two Greek Orthodox monasteries were first established during the Byzantine period in the late fifth century, and are now standing within the municipal jurisdiction of Ubeidiya. The Monastery of St. Theodosius, known in Arabic as Deir Ibn 'Ubeid (lit. 'Monastery of the Son of 'Ubeid') or as Mar Dosi (' Saint Theodosius'), named after its founder; and
Mar Saba Monastery The Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba ( syr, ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܣܒܐ, ar, دير مار سابا; he, מנזר מר סבא; el, Ἱερὰ Λαύρα τοῦ Ὁσίου Σάββα τοῦ Ἡγιασμέ ...
, or simply Mar Saba, founded and named after Saint Sabbas ('Mar Saba').


Ottoman period: Ubeidiya

The area, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517. In 1596 Al-Ubeidiya appeared in Ottoman tax registers, called ''Dayr Bani 'Ubayd'' (lit. 'Monastery of the 'Ubayd clan'), being in the '' nahiya'' of
Al-Quds Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
(Jerusalem) in 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 Al-Quds. It had a population of 42 households and 6 bachelors, all
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 ...
. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3 % on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, occasional revenues, goats and/or beehives; a total of 4,900
akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...
. Around 1740 Richard Pococke noted "We soon came to a ruin called ''Der Benalbede'', which from the name seems to have been an old convent." In 1838, Edward Robinson noted ''Deir ibn Obeid, not far from
Mar Saba The Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba ( syr, ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܣܒܐ, ar, دير مار سابا; he, מנזר מר סבא; el, Ἱερὰ Λαύρα τοῦ Ὁσίου Σάββα τοῦ Ἡγιασμέ ...
'', on his travels in the region. He also met some of the fellahin from the village by the
Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...
, where they collected salt for cooking. In 1863, the French explorer Victor Guérin visited the place, which he called ''Deir Dosi'', and described the remains of the monastery.Guérin (1869), pp
88
-92
In 1883, 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 there ''Kh. Deir Ibn Obeid'' as "Ruins of a modern village", but in 1899 Conrad Schick noted that "This ..designation is not sufficient -the ruins are not those of a village, but of a former convent, and only in modern times used as a storehouse for grain by the wandering tribe Ubedieh." Schick notes that the "Badawin" (
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 ...
) of the Ubedieh call the convent ruins by the name of their own tribe, and have a nearby
maqam MAQAM is a US-based production company specializing in Arabic and Middle Eastern media. The company was established by a small group of Arabic music and culture lovers, later becoming a division of 3B Media Inc. "MAQAM" is an Arabic word meaning a ...
by the name of Sheikh Khalife where they worship. Schick notes that in 1897, the Greek Orthodox Church had recovered the ruins of the former convent of Saint Theodosius from the Bedouin, and by the following year had started with their project of erecting a new monastery there. The current compound was built mainly between 1914-1952.


British Mandate

In 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, the tribal area of ''Ibaidiyeh'' had an all-
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 ...
population of 2,000, 880 males and 1,120 females. In the 1931 census the ''El Ubeidiya'' consisted of 1,187 persons, still all Muslim, 610 males and 577 females.Mills (1932), p
36
/ref> In the 1945 statistics, the population was counted under the name of tribal unit (''arab'') as ''Arab Ibn Ubeid'', along with three other such units, ''
Arab et Ta'amira Ta'amreh (in Arabic: التعامرة) is a large Bedouin tribe in Palestine. Today, most of the tribe's members live in the Palestinian Authority territories south and east of Bethlehem, and in the Kingdom of Jordan. Members of the tribe have est ...
'', ''Arab et Rashayida'' and ''Arab et Sawahira''; together they had a population of 7,070 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945), p
25
/ref> where ''Arab Ibn Ubeid'' had a total of 92,026
dunam 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 ...
s of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 3,732 dunams were used for cereals, while 88,294 dunams were classified as non-cultitivable land.


Jordanian period

In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...
, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule The Jordanian annexation of the West Bank formally occurred on 24 April 1950, after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, during which Transjordan occupied territory that had previously been part of Mandatory PalestineRaphael Israeli, Jerusalem divi ...
. In 1961, the population of Ubeidiya'' was of 838.


1967, aftermath

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, al-Ubeidiya has been under Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 1,377. After the 1995 Oslo Accords, 9.1% of village land was classified as Area A, 0.4% as Area B, and the remainder 82% as Area C. Israel has confiscated land from Al-Ubeidiya in order to construct at least 2
Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...
s; 124 dunams for the settlement of Ovnat and 97 dunams for the nature reserve of
‘Ayn Fashkhah Ein Feshkha ( ar, عين فشخة, also Ain Al-Fashka) or Einot Tzukim ( he, עינות צוקים, lit=cliff springs) is a 2,500 ha nature reserve and archaeological site on the north-western shore of the Dead Sea, about 3 km south of ...
, both on the Dead Sea shore.


Current state


Administration

Since 1997, al-Ubeidiya has been governed by an 11-member municipal council appointed by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The municipality has jurisdiction over 97,232
dunam 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 ...
s of land—much larger than the built-up and residential areas of the town which constitute 979 of those dunams. Other localities located within the municipal borders include Wadi al-Arayis.


Religion

The population is Muslim, except for the monasteries, which are inhabited by Greek Orthodox monks. and there are ten mosques in the town.


Population structure (tribe, clans)

The residents are mostly descendants of the Shammar with the main families being al-'Asa, al-Radayda, al-Rabai'a, al-Hasasna, and Abu Sirhan.


Landmarks


Monastery of St. Theodosius

The Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Theodosius stands on a hilltop on the road to Mar Saba, some 6 km from the eastern outskirts of Bethlehem. The once large fortified Byzantine monastery, which holds the tomb of its founder, Saint Theodosius the Cenobiarch (c. 423–529), has been rebuilt on a much smaller scale. Most of the current compound was erected between 1914-1952, incorporates Byzantine remains, and is centered on a small grotto, the "Cave of the Magi", where tradition has the three Magi stopping on their way home after having delivered gifts to the newborn Baby Jesus.


Mar Saba Monastery

The
Mar Saba Monastery The Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba ( syr, ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܣܒܐ, ar, دير مار سابا; he, מנזר מר סבא; el, Ἱερὰ Λαύρα τοῦ Ὁσίου Σάββα τοῦ Ἡγιασμέ ...
was founded by Saint Sabbas the Sanctified (439–532) and is located east of the town proper. The strongly fortified monastery, established in 484 and expanded over the centuries, stands on the west bank of Wadi en-Nar.


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * (Marti and Schick, 1880, pp
34
37) * * * * (pp
271
278) * * *


External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17:
IAA
Wikimedia commons
Al-‘Ubeidiya Town (Fact Sheet)
Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
Al ‘Ubeidiya Town Profile
ARIJ
Al-‘Ubeidiya Aerial Photo
ARIJ
The priorities and needs for development in Al ‘Ubeidiya town based on the community and local authorities’ assessment
ARIJ {{DEFAULTSORT:Ubeidiya, al- Towns in the West Bank Municipalities of the State of Palestine Populated places in the Bethlehem Governorate