Tayasir ( ar, تياسير, also spelled Tiaseer) is a

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 northern

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 ...

. It is located 3 kilometers northeast 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 ...

and 22 kilometers northeast 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 ...

. Nearby localities include al-Aqabah to the east,

al-Bikai'a al-Bikai'a also spelled al-Buqei'a ( ar, البقيعة) is a Palestinian village cluster in the Tubas Governorate that includes the three hamlets of Khirbet al-'Atuf, al-Hadidiyah, and Khirbet Humsa al-Fawqa. The area spans 29,250 dunams, most o ...

to the northeast,

Salhab Salhab ( ar, سلحب, also known as Khirbet Salhab) is a small Palestinian village in the Tubas Governorate in the northeastern West Bank, located four kilometers north of Tubas. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) ...

to the north, 'Aqqaba to the west and ath-Thaghra to the southwest. 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), Tayasir had a population of 2,489 in 2007.2007 PCBS Census

. p. 106.

History

Settlement in Tayasir is believed to date back to the

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

ite era 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 ...

, its name deriving from the Canaanite word ''Asheer'' meaning "pleasure" or "happiness." Several archaeological remains are located in the village, including an

Ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

palace, an

olive press Olive oil extraction is the process of extracting the oil present in olive drupes, known as olive oil. Olive oil is produced in the mesocarp cells, and stored in a particular type of vacuole called a lipo vacuole, i.e., every cell contai ...

, several

grotto A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high ti ...

es and the old

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, ...

.Tayasir Village Profile
Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem. February 2006. Pottery remains from

Middle Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

, IA, early and late

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 ...

Zertal, 2007, pp
201203
/ref> An ancient road went through the village, and Byzantine ceramics have been found. It appears to have been called ''Asher'' by the

Bordeaux Pilgrim The ''Itinerarium Burdigalense'' ("Bordeaux Itinerary"), also known as the ''Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum'' ("Jerusalem Itinerary"), is the oldest known Christian ''itinerarium''. It was written by the "Pilgrim of Bordeaux", an anonymous pilgrim ...

, in 333–334 CE. Medieval

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

geographer

al-Muqaddasi Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr al-Maqdisī ( ar, شَمْس ٱلدِّيْن أَبُو عَبْد ٱلله مُحَمَّد ابْن أَحْمَد ابْن أَبِي بَكْر ٱلْمَقْدِسِي), ...

, writing in the late 10th century CE, referred to the village as "Ta'asir", describing it as a place equally far from

and

Beisan Beit She'an ( he, בֵּית שְׁאָן '), also Beth-shean, formerly Beisan ( ar, بيسان ), is a town in the Northern District of Israel. The town lies at the Beit She'an Valley about 120 m (394 feet) below sea level. Beit She'an is be ...

. In 1500 the families of Jabir and Taleb settled in the site and established the modern village, due to its strategic location and isolated arable land.

Ottoman era

In 1596 it appeared in Ottoman tax registers as "Tayasir", 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, part of the

Nablus Sanjak The Nablus Sanjak ( ar, سنجق نابلس; tr, Nablus Sancağı) was an administrative area that existed throughout Ottoman rule in the Levant (1517–1917). It was administratively part of the Damascus Eyalet until 1864 when it became part o ...

, with a population of 39 households and 9 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, summer crops, olive trees, occasional revenues, goats, beehives and a press for olives or grapes; a total of 9,462

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 ...

. A building to the south of Tayasir, named el-Kusr, possibly a tomb, was first noted in 1869 and surveyed in 1874. 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 ...

also explored the village in the same period. In 1877 Lieutenant Kitchener, of the

Palestine Exploration Fund The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem, and is the oldest known organization in the world created specifically for the study ...

survey team, reported the village deserted "owing to the heavy demands for taxes and conscription," while in 1881 Tayasir was described as a small village in a secluded and fertile valley, with good soil and arable land. To the south of the village there were old olive trees. The villagers cultivated the soil as far east as Wady Maleh, and had also good land near Yarza.Conder and Kitchener, 1882, p
228
/ref> Conder and Kitchener speculated that this village may have been the ancient site of the biblical Tirzah. In 1900 landlord Hassan Hamad obtained the majority of Tayasir's lands due to the village residents' monetary debt to him. Thirty years later, most of the land was purchased by ''al-Batriyarkia al-Latinyah'' ( Latin Patriarchate).

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

attempted to purchase the land following their

occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

of the West Bank in 1967 but the Patriarchate refused the offer.

British Mandate of Palestine

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, Tayasir (called: Tiasir") had a population of 146 MuslimsBarron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p
24
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 192 inhabitants, all Muslim, except for 5 Christians, with 36 occupied houses.Mills, 1932, p
65
In the 1945 statistics the population was 260 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
19
/ref> with 23,258

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.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
61
/ref> Of this, 763 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 5,315 dunams for cereals, while 29 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian era

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. In 1961, the population had reached 487.Government of Jordan, 1964, p
26
/ref>

Post 1967

Since 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, Tayasir 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 ...

. Following the 1993

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993;

, Tayasir came under the jurisdiction of 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) and later became a

village council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

in 1997. By 2007, the council consisted of 11 members and was headed by Akram Dabaq.Tayasir Profile

Jerusalem Media and Communications Center The Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre (JMCC) is a Palestinian non-governmental organization based in East Jerusalem, which provides information about events in Gaza and the West Bank including East Jerusalem to journalists, researchers and ...

(JMCC). 2007-02-09.

Demographics

In the

, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Tayasir (called: Tiasir") had a population of 146, all Muslim. That rose to 192 inhabitants, all Muslim, except for 5 Christians, with 36 occupied houses at the time of the 1931 census. In

Sami Hadawi Sami Hadawi ( ar, سامي هداوي; March 6, 1904 – April 22, 2004) was a Palestinian people, Palestinian scholar and author. He is known for documenting the effects of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on the Palestinian people, Arab population ...

's land and population survey in

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which nuclear weapons have been used in combat. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. Januar ...

, Tayasir's population was 260 and this figure nearly doubled in 1961, reaching 487. The

Israel Central Bureau of Statistics The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics ( he, הלשכה המרכזית לסטטיסטיקה, ''HaLishka HaMerkazit LiStatistika''; ar, دائرة الإحصاء المركزية الإسرائيلية), abbreviated CBS, is an Israeli government ...

, projected a population of 1,200 in 1987.Welcome to Tayasir: Town Statistics and Facts
Various sources via PalestineRemembered. In the

' (PCBS) first official census in 1997, Tayasir had a population of 1,753 inhabitants. According to the 2007 census by the PCBS, the village's population was 2,489. In the 1997 census, males constituted 50.6% of the population while females comprised 49.4%. Tayasir represents 5% of the

's total population. Seven families make-up the majority of the village residents: Debik (17%), Abu Muhsen (15%), Wahdan (15%), Sbah (15%), Jabir (11%), Taleb (8%) and Abd al-Rasaq (7%). Other smaller families comprise 14% of the population.

Economy and land use

Tayasir's total land area amounts to about 26,000

s, of which roughly 500 make up the village's "built-up" area. About 5,000 dunams are classified as arable land, of which 3,545 are cultivated, mostly with field crops and fruit trees. The Israeli authorities have confiscated 15,875 dunams for security reasons and military use. Agriculture is the largest economic sector, accounting for 82% of the active labor force. The second largest sector is the Israeli labor market accounting for 10% of workers. Between 2002 and 2006, the average household income dropped by 60% largely due to measures implemented by Israel as a result of the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada ( ar, الانتفاضة الثانية, ; he, האינתיפאדה השנייה, ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada ( ar, انتفاضة الأقصى, label=none, '), was a major Palestinian uprising against Israel. ...

which began in 2000. In 2007 the PCBS recorded that there were 49 business establishments in Tayasir. According to ARIJ, these included 22 retail and grocery stores, two restaurants and one government-run health clinic. Most services are provided by nearby Tubas.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * (p
95
ff.) * * * * *

External links

Tayasir
Welcome to Palestine *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 12:
IAAWikimedia commonsTayasir (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
Tayasir village profile
ARIJ {{Tubas Governorate Tubas Governorate Villages in the West Bank Municipalities of the State of Palestine