Salhab ( ar, سلحب, also known as Khirbet Salhab) is a small

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 ...

village in the

Tubas Governorate The Tubas Governorate ( ar, محافظة طوباس, Muḥāfaẓat Ṭūbās) is an administrative district of the Palestine in the northeastern West Bank. Its district capital or ''muhfaza'' is the city of Tubas. In 2007, the population was 50, ...

in the northeastern

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 ...

, located four kilometers north of

Tubas A tuba is a musical instrument that plays notes in the bass clef. Tuba can also refer to: Instruments *Roman tuba, a straight trumpet of ancient Rome *Tuba curva, a revival of the Roman ''cornu'' *Wagner tuba, an instrument like the tuba curva ...

. 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 a ...

(PCBS) census, it had a population of 45 living in five households in 2007.2007 PCBS Census

. p.106. As of 2007, its mayor was Fawze Sawafta.

History

Salhab has been identified with the biblical town of Bezeq where

Saul Saul (; he, , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered tri ...

gathered his army to relieve

Jabesh-Gilead Jabesh-Gilead ( ''Yāḇēš Gīlʿāḏ''), sometimes shortened to Jabesh, was an ancient Israelite town in Gilead, in northwest Jordan. Jabesh is mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible primarily in connection with King Saul battles against t ...

, mentioned in the

Book of Samuel The Book of Samuel (, ''Sefer Shmuel'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the narrative history of Ancient Israel called the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshu ...

. Archaeological evidence throughout the village and its vicinity, in the form of walls and foundations of ancient buildings, suggest a previous

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

-era presence in Salhab.Zertal, 2007, p.
151
/ref> Ceramic objects from the

era have been found here.

Ottoman era

In 1596, it appeared in Ottoman tax registers as "Salhab", a village in 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 ...

'' of Jabal Sami in the '' liwa'' of

Nablus Nablus ( ; ar, نابلس, Nābulus ; he, שכם, Šəḵem, ISO 259-3: ; Samaritan Hebrew: , romanized: ; el, Νεάπολις, Νeápolis) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a populati ...

. It had a population of eight households and two 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 ...

. The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops,

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

trees, goats and beehives; a total of 4,000

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 ...

. In his 1870 visit, 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 Mino ...

described Salhab as "A little town, now destroyed, on a hill whose rocky sides are pierced by numerous cisterns. The place which it occupied is now covered with confused materials, the remains of demolished dwellings, and disposed for the most part in circular heaps round silos or subterranean magazines cut in the rock."Zertal, 2007, p
783
/ref> According to the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ), the modern settlement was re-established on the ancient ''khirba'' ("ruin") in 1880 by a family from

. After the death of the family's head, Salhab's lands were sold to immigrants coming from present-day

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

.Salhab Village Profile
Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ). February 2006. Nonetheless, no population for the village was recorded in the

1931 British census of Palestine The 1931 census of Palestine was the second census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate for Palestine. It was carried out on 18 November 1931 under the direction of Major E. Mills after the 1922 census of Palestine. * Census of ...

Modern era

After 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 world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

in 1967, Salhab 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 ...

. 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,

(PNA) established a three-member local development committee to administer the village's affairs in 1999. The principal services provided by the committee are the distribution of water and humanitarian aid. Today, Salhab's residents are entirely dependent on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

as a source of income. The village lacks educational institutions, health centers, retail shops and food markets and residents have to travel to 'Aqqaba and Tubas for access to such services.

Geography

Salhab is situated in the southwestern Zababdeh Valley on a small '' tell'' ("hill") with an average altitude of 430 meters above sea level. The village's steep northern slopes are full of scattered ancient building material dating to the Roman era. In 1987 the built-up area of Salhab consists of 15

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 and is concentrated in the western section of the ''tell'' which also contains a number of small

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environ ...

. There are 30

cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...

s in the village, but the nearest source of water is the

Wadi al-Far'a Wadi al-Far'a ( ar, وادي الفارعة) is a Palestinian village in the Tubas Governorate in the northeastern West Bank located five kilometers southwest of Tubas. It has a land area of 12,000 dunams, of which 337 is built-up and 10,500 are f ...

spring, 10 kilometers to the southwest. Positioned off the road between

and Ibziq, nearby localities include

Tayasir Tayasir ( ar, تياسير, also spelled Tiaseer) is a Palestinian village in the Tubas Governorate in the northern West Bank. It is located 3 kilometers northeast of Tubas and 22 kilometers northeast of Nablus. Nearby localities include al-Aqabah ...

to the east, Tubas 4 kilometers to the south, 'Aqqaba 2 kilometers to the west and Raba to the north. The total land area is roughly 5,000

s, 1,880 of which is cultivated with much of the remaining designated for agriculture, grazing and forests.

Demographics

In the 1997 census by the

(PCBS), Salhab had a population of 53 with no residents classified as

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s.Palestinian Population by Locality and Refugee Status
.

(PCBS). Excerpt from 1997 Census. 1998. There were a total of eight households. The population decreased to 45 people living in five households, the average size of which consisted of nine members in the 2007 census by the PCBS. The gender ratio was 53.3% male and 46.7% female. About 90% of the inhabitants belonged to the al-Qadossa clan while the remainder were part of the Abu Arra clan. Salhab's residents are

s, although there is no

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 village. Worshipers attend prayers at mosques in nearby 'Aqqaba.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Kh. Salhab
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 12:
IAAWikimedia commonsKh. Salhab (Fact Sheet)

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 project ...

, ARIJ, February 2006
Salhab Village Profile
ARIJ {{Tubas Governorate Villages in the West Bank