Imwas

Imwas or Emmaus ( ar, عِمواس), known in classical times as Nicopolis ( gr, Νικόπολις, lit=City of Victory), was a Palestinian Arab village located southeast of the city of Ramla and from Jerusalem in the Latrun salient of the West Bank.Wareham and Gill, 1998, p. 108. It is traditionally (possibly from as early as the 3rd century, but probably incorrectly) identified with the biblical Emmaus.
"Today 'Am'was (the native name) is a Mussulman village about eighteen miles from Jerusalem, on the road to Jaffa. There are still visible ruins of a beautiful basilica built in the fourth or the fifth century, and repaired by the Crusaders. Near 'Am'was, at El-Atroun, the Trappists founded a priory in 1890.
In the opinion of many 'Am'was is the Emmaus of the Gospel (Luke 24:13-35), where Christ manifested Himself to two of His Disciples. Such is, indeed, the tradition of the Church of Jerusalem, attested as early as the fourth century by Eusebius of Cæsarea, Titus of Bostra, and St. Jerome, a tradition confirmed by all pilgrims, at least to the time of the Crusades; it may even date back to the third century to Julius Africanus and Origen. It is also supported by many Biblical commentaries, some of which are as old as the fourth or the fifth century; in these the Emmaus of the Gospel is said to have stood at 160 stadia from Jerusalem, the modern 'Am'was being at 176 stadia. In spite of its antiquity, this tradition does not seem to be well founded. Most manuscripts and versions place Emmaus at only sixty stadia from Jerusalem, and they are more numerous and generally more ancient than those of the former group. It seems, therefore, very probable that the number 160 is a correction of Origen and his school to make the Gospel text agree with the Palestinian tradition of their time. Moreover, the distance of 160 stadia would imply about six hours' walk, which is inadmissible, for the Disciples had only gone out to the country and could return to Jerusalem before the gates were shut (Mark 16:12; Luke 24:33). Finally, the Emmaus of the Gospel is said to be a village, while 'Am'was was the flourishing capital of a 'toparchy'. Josephus (''Ant. Jud.'', VII, vi, 6) mentions at sixty stadia from Jerusalem a village called Ammaus, where Vespasian and Titus stationed 800 veterans. This is evidently the Emmaus of the Gospel. But it must have been destroyed at the time of the revolt of Bar-Cocheba (A.D. 132-35) under Hadrian, and its site was unknown as early as the third century. Origen and his friends merely placed the Gospel Emmaus at Nicopolis, the only Emmaus known at their time. The identifications of Koubeibeh, Abou Gosh, Koulonieh, Beit Mizzeh, etc. with Emmaus, as proposed by some modern scholars, are inadmissible."

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Imwas fell under Jordanian rule. Its population at the time was predominantly Arab Muslim, though there was an Arab Christian minority. Captured by the Israeli Defense Forces during the Six-Day War on June 7, 1967 along with the neighbouring villages of Yalo and Bayt Nuba, the villagers of Imwas were expelled and the village destroyed on the orders of Yitzhak Rabin. Today the area of the former village lies within Canada Park, which was established by the Jewish National Fund in 1973.

Etymology

The name of the modern village was pronounced by its inhabitants as 'Imwās. Arabic literary sources indicate the name was formerly pronounced 'Amwās and 'Amawās, the latter being form transcribed by the Syrian geographer Yakut (1179–1229).Sharon, 1997, p
79
/ref>

In the time of Jerome, the Semitic name of Emmaus Nicopolis was 'Ammaôs or 'Emmaus, both beginning with an ' āyin. Following Clermont-Ganneau, Moshe Sharon argued that the Arabic name more faithfully approximates the town's original ancient name when compared against the name as transcribed in the Talmud, where it begins with an 'alef. Kitchener and Conder suggested the name Emmaus is derived from the ancient Hebrew Hammath, a thermal spring.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP III, p
36-37
/ref>

History

Classical antiquity

Emmaus is also mentioned in the first Book of the Maccabees as the site where Judas Maccabeus defeated the Syrian General Gorgias in the 2nd century BCE. It was subsequently fortified by Bacchides in 160 BCE, and replaced Gezer as the head of a toparchy in 47 BCE. Edward Robinson relates that its inhabitants were enslaved by Cassius, while Josephus relates that the city (called Άμμoὺς) was burned to the ground by Varus after the death of Herod in 4 BCE.Robinson and Smith, 1856, p
147
/ref>Bromiley, 1982, p. 77. Imwas has been identified as the site of ancient Emmaus, where according to the Book of Luke (24:13-35), Jesus appeared to a group of his disciples, including Cleopas, after his death and resurrection.

Reduced to a small market-town, its importance was recognized by the Emperor Vespasian, who established a fortified camp there in 68 CE to house the fifth ("Macedonian") legion, populating it with 800 veterans. In 131 CE, the city was destroyed by an earthquake. It was rebuilt and renamed Nicopolis ("City of Victory") by Elagabalus in 221 CE, becoming the chief ''polis'' in a region that bore its name.Negev and Gibson, 2005, p. 159. Robinson writes that the town was rebuilt "by the exertions of the writer Julius Africanus." In 222 CE, a basilica was erected there, which was rebuilt first by the Byzantines and later by the Crusaders.Sharon, 1997, p
80
/ref> In the 4th century, the city served as an episcopal see. Remains of a Samaritan synagogue point the presence of a Samaritan community in Imwas in the late Roman period.

Described by Eusebius of Caesarea in his ''Onomasticon'', Jerome is also thought to have referred to the town and the building of a shrine-church therein, when he writes that the Lord "consecrated the house of Cleopas as a church."Pringle, 1993, p
52
/ref> In the 5th century, a second tradition associated with Emmaus emerges in the writings of Sozomen, who mentions a fountain outside the city where Jesus and his disciples bathed their feet, thus imbuing it with curative powers.

Arab caliphates era

After the conquest of Palestine by forces of the Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th century, a military camp was established at Imwas, which formed part of the newly created administrative district of Jund al-Urdunn (District of Jordan). This military camp, among others established in Tiberias and Homs, was made up of Arabian soldiers who were soon to become citizens of the newly conquered areas. The soldiers brought their wives and concubines to the camps, some of whom, according to Philip Hitti, were no doubt captured native women. The governmental framework of the Byzantine era was preserved, though a commander-in-chief/governor-general was appointed from among the new conquerors to head the government, combining executive, judicial and military roles in his person.Hitti, 2002, p.
424
/ref>

In 639, a plague which began in Imwas and spread out from there, ended up killing some 20,000 people, including the commander-in-chief Abu Ubaydah, and his successor Yazid. The caliph Umar appointed Yazid's younger brother Mu'awiyah to the position of commander-in-chief in 640, and he served as the governor of Syria for 20 years before becoming the caliph himself.Hitti, 2002, p.
425
/ref> Studies on the impact of the plague note that it was responsible for a massive depopulation of the countryside, with the consequence that the new Arab rulers, particularly under the Umayyad caliphate which followed, were prompted to intervene more directly in the affairs of these areas than they had intended.Bray, 2004, p
40
/ref> Until as late as the 19th century, a well in the village was known locally as ''Bir at-Taun'' ("the plague well"), its name suggesting a derivation from these events.

In 723, Willibald of Eichstätt visited Imwas. In his writings, he notes that the church, which he thought lay over the house of Cleopas, was still intact; he also recalls and describes the miraculous water source mentioned by Sozomen.Thiede and D'Ancona, 2005, p. 59. Hugeburc von Heidenheim, a nun who visited Palestine in the 8th century, mentions both the church and the fountain in Imwas in her work on ''The Life of St. Willibald.'' By the 9th century, the administrative districts had been redrawn and Imwas was the capital of a sub-district within the larger district of Jund Filastin.Gil, 1997, p
111
/ref> The Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi (c. 945-1000), recalls that Imwas had been the capital of its province, while noting, "that the population asremoved therefrom to be nearer to the sea, and more in the plain, on account of the wells."

By 1009, the church in Imwas had been destroyed by Yaruk, the governor of Ramla, after the Fatimid caliph of Egypt, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, ordered the destruction of Christian sites, affecting some 30,000 churches in the territory under his rule. Carsten Peter Thiede describes this destruction and other acts of suppression against Christian worship as one of the main impetuses behind the First Crusade, in which, "Saving Christian sites and guaranteeing access to them was paramount."

Crusader era

William of Tyre, describing the arrival of the armies of the First Crusade to Imwas from Ramla in 1099, notes the abundance of water and fodder available at the site. Throughout the 12th century, Imwas continued to be identified as the Biblical Emmaus by Eastern Orthodox Christians. For example, in 1106-7, Abbot Daniel writes of Imwas: "Once there was a large village here, and a church was built here, but now all is destroyed by the pagans and the village of Emmaus is empty. It was near the road beyond the mountains on the right hand as you go from Jerusalem to Jaffa." John Phocas (c. 1185) also located Emmaus in the same position. Conversely, Western sources in the late 12th century identified Biblical Emmaus with another village closer to Jerusalem: Qaryat al-'Inab or Abu Ghosh. Denys Pringle and Peter E. Leach attribute the reasons for this shift as stemming from a difference in the description of the distance between Emmaus and Jerusalem in the Gospel texts, versus the distance as transcribed in the earliest Greek Gospel codices. In the Gospel texts, more widely embraced by the West, the distance is transcribed as 60 stades, whereas the Codex Sinaiticus, which was known to Eusebius and Jerome, places the distance at 160 stades.Pringle, 1993, p
53
/ref>Brownrigg, 2001, p. 49.

The identification of Biblical Emmaus with two villages in the 12th century has led to some confusion among modern historians when apprehending historical documents from this time. Generally speaking, however, Abu Ghosh was referred to by the Latin Biblical name for Emmaus, ''Castellum Emmaus'', whereas Imwas was referred to simply as Emmaus. In 1141, Robert of Sinjil leased the "land of Emmaus", which included Imwas and six other villages, to Raymond of Le Puy, the master of the Hospitallers for 500 bezants a year. The same year, William, the Patriarch of Jerusalem granted half of the tithes from six surrounding villages to the Hospitallers, one of these villages was nearby Khulda. In February 1151 or 1152 the Hospitallers were still leasing, but the terms of the lease were modified. An 1186 reference to a "bailiff of Emmaus" named Bartholomew suggests that the Hospitallers had an established a commandery in Imwas. There is also archaeological and documentary evidence that suggests that the local Eastern Christian population continued to live in Imwas during this time, and likely attended services alongside the Crusaders at the parish church dedicated to St. George which was constructed in the village by the latter on the site of the ruins of the earlier churches.Levy, 1998, p. 508.Thiede and D'Ancona, 2005, p. 60

Imwas was likely abandoned in 1187 and unlike the neighboring villages of Beit Nuba, Yalo, Yazur and Latrun, it is not mentioned in chronicles describing the Third Crusade of 1191-2, and it is unclear whether it was reoccupied by the Hospitallers between 1229 and 1244. The village was re-established just north of where the church had been located.

Mamluk era

Maqam Sheikh Mu'alla had an endowment text (now lost), dating it to 687 AH/1289-1290 CE.Sharon, 1997, p
84
/ref>

Clermont-Ganneau described it: "The most important, and most conspicuous Mussulman sanctuary in 'Amwas is that which stands on the hill some 500 metres to the south of the village. It appears on the P.E.Fund Map under the name of Sheikh Mo'alla, a name which is interpreted in the name lists by "lofty." I have heard the name pronounced ''Ma'alleh'', and also ''Mu'al'', or Mo'al; but these are merely shorter or less accurate forms; the complete name, as I have on several occasions noted, is ''Sheikh Mu'al iben Jabal''. Although they do not know anything about its origin, the fellahin have an extraordinary reverence for this sanctuary; they declare that it is often the scene of a supernatural apparition; that of an old man, with a long white beard, mounted on a green mare, and holding in his right hand a pike arbeh)_wherewith_he_slays_his_enemies._This_is_the_Sheikh,_of_whom_they_stand_in_holy_awe._This_legend,_and_the_name_of_the_personage,_puzzled_me_greatly,_and_it_was_not_without_some_trouble_that_I_discovered_the_answer_to_the_riddle._It_is_directly_derived_from_the_historical_memory_of_the_famous_Plague_of_'Amwas,_in_connection_with_the_Plague-well._The_Arab*_historians_tell_us,_as_I_have_already_explained,_that_the_epidemic_originated_at_'Amwas,_whence_it_took_the_name_by_which_it_is_known_in_their_chronicles._Among_the_most_illustrious_victims_of_the_disease_was_one_of_the_companions_of_Muhammad.html" ;"title="Sheikh.html" ;"title="arbeh) wherewith he slays his enemies. This is the Sheikh">arbeh) wherewith he slays his enemies. This is the Sheikh, of whom they stand in holy awe. This legend, and the name of the personage, puzzled me greatly, and it was not without some trouble that I discovered the answer to the riddle. It is directly derived from the historical memory of the famous Plague of 'Amwas, in connection with the Plague-well. The Arab* historians tell us, as I have already explained, that the epidemic originated at 'Amwas, whence it took the name by which it is known in their chronicles. Among the most illustrious victims of the disease was one of the companions of Muhammad">Mahomet, Abu 'Abd er Rahman Muadh ben Jabal, who was entrusted by Umar, 'Omar with the organisation of the conquered country. This personage died beyond Jordan, and was buried there. (As for the exact place in which he was buried, a topographical question connected with that of the place where Jesus was baptized, see my ''Recucil d'Archeologie Orientale'', Vol. I, p. 344, et sqq. I may add that instead of Deir ''Fakhur'', many Mohammedan writers, for example Beladhory and Yakut, call the place where ''Mu'adh ben Jabal'' died and was buried, ''Ukhuana''...... I have established the exact position of ''Ukhuana'', and its identity with the ''Cauan'' of the Crusaders, in my ''Etudes d'Archeologie Orientale'', Vol. II, p. 123.)
.....We may presume that originally this monument was merely commemorative, and that local tradition has at last wrongly ended in regarding it as the real tomb of this celebrated personage, inferring from his having succumbed to the 'Plague of 'Amwas' that he died and was buried at 'Amwas itself. However, the mistake of the legend on this point must be a very ancient one, for as early as the twelfth century, Aly el Herewy'' has the following passage : " One sees at 'Amwas the tombs of a great number of companions of the prophets and of ''tabis'' who died of the Plague. Among them (sic) is mentioned 'Abd er Rahman ibn {sic) Mu'adh ben Jabal and his children. ..."

Ottoman era

Imwas came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the early 16th century and by the end of that century, the church built by the Crusaders had been converted into a mosque, which itself stood for almost a century before falling into ruin. In the 1596 tax record its population was reported as 24 Muslim families. They paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 3,600 akçe. Part of the revenue went to a waqf.

Edward Robinson visited Imwas during his mid-19th century travels in Ottoman Syria and Palestine. He describes it as "a poor hamlet consisting of a few mean houses." He also mentions that there are two fountains of living water and that the one lying just beside the village must be that mentioned by Sozomen in the 5th century, Theophanes in the 6th, and by Willibald in the 8th.Robinson and Smith, 1856, p
146
/ref> The ruins of the "ancient church" are described by Robinson as lying just south of the built-up area of the village at that time.

In 1863 Victor Guérin visited and identified it as ancient Emmaus Nicopolis.

Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau also visited Imwas in the late 19th century and describes a local tradition centered around a bathhouse dating to the Roman era. The upper part of the structure, which protruded above the ground, was known to locals as "Sheikh Obaid" and was considered to be the burial place of Abu Ubayd who succumbed to the plague in 639. The site served as both a religious sanctuary and cemetery until the town's depopulation in 1967.

In 1875, the Carmelites of Bethlehem acquired the site containing the ruins of the church of Imwas. The debris was removed in 1887-8, and excavations were conducted intermittently from November 1924 to September 1930 by the Ecole Biblique. In 1884, Dr. C. Schick discovered a baptistry with a well-preserved font dating to the 4th century. The square building housed an apse and a shallow cruciform basin where it is thought that those undergoing baptismal rites would stand.Schick, 1884, p
15
cited in Driver et al., 2006, p
325
/ref>

In 1883, the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' described Imwas as an adobe village, of moderate size.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Imwas had a population of 824, all Muslim.Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p
15
/ref> This had increased by the time of the 1931 census to 1,029, 2 Christians and 1,027 Muslim, in 224 houses.Mills, 1932, p
40

In the 1945 statistics the population of Imwas was 1,450, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
29
/ref> while the total land area was 5,151 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 606 dunams were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 3,612 for cereals, while 148 dunams were classified as built-up areas. By 1948, the population had dwindled to 1,100 Arabs.

Jordanian rule

During the 1948 Palestine War, the village held strategic importance due to its location on the Latrun salient, affording control over the road to Jerusalem. Arab Liberation Army forces were there from April to the middle of May until the arrival of the Arab Legion. Israeli forces attacked the position several times but failed to gain control during the Battle of Latrun.

After the 1949 Armistice Agreements

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