Al-Ubeidiya () is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

town located east of

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

, in the

Bethlehem Governorate The Bethlehem Governorate () is one of 16 governorates of Palestine. It covers an area of the West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Its principal city and district capital is Bethlehem. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, its pop ...

of the

State of Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, in the central

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ) is the official statistical institution of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures at the national and international levels. It is a state institution that provid ...

(PCBS), al-Ubeidiya had a population of over 14,460 in 2017. The Monastery of St. Theodosius, the Mar Saba Monastery and the 'Ayn Fashkhah tourist area are all on Al-Ubeidiya land. Ubeidiya is considered as part of the 'Arab al-Ta'mira village cluster, along with Za'atara, Beit Ta'mir, Hindaza, Tuqu', Khirbet ad-Deir (today part of Tuqu'), Nuaman and

al-Asakra Al-Asakra () 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 Bureau of Statistic ...

Name

In 1881,

Palmer Palmer may refer to: People and fictional characters * Palmer (pilgrim), a medieval European pilgrim to the Holy Land * Palmer (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Palmer (surname), including a list of people and f ...

called the place '' Khurbet 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 The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

(ARIJ), Al-Ubeidiya was settled in 1600 by people originating from the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

, and is named after a certain Al-‘Ubeidi Faris of the

Shammar The tribe of Shammar () is a tribal Arab Qahtanite confederation, descended from the Tayy, which migrated into the northern Arabian Peninsula from Yemen in the second century. It is the largest branch of the Tayy, and one of the largest and mos ...

tribe, who came from the Arabian Peninsula.ARIJ, 2010, pp
5-6
/ref>

History and archaeology

Background: Roman and Byzantine periods

Roman period The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

pool, built in order to collect water, is situated in the center of al-Ubeidiya. Two

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

monasteries were first established during the

Byzantine period The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

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, or simply Mar Saba, founded and named after Saint Sabbas ('Mar Saba').

Ottoman period: Ubeidiya

ARIJ states that Ubeidiya was settled in 1600 by people originating from the

, its name evoking a certain Al-‘Ubeidi Faris of the

tribe who came from Arabia. The area, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

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 A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, 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 divisi ...

'' of

Al-Quds Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Jud ...

(Jerusalem) in the '' liwa'' of Al-Quds. It had a population of 42 households and 6 bachelors, all

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. 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'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

. 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 (; ; ; ) and historically as the Great Laura of Saint Sabas, is a Greek Orthodox monastery overlooking the Kidron Valley in the Bethlehem Governorate of Palestine, in th ...

'', on his travels in the region. He also met some of the

fellahin A fellah ( ; feminine ; plural ''fellaheen'' or ''fellahin'', , ) is a local 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". Due to a con ...

from the village by the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

, where they collected salt for cooking. In 1863, the French explorer

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

visited the place, which he called ''Deir Dosi'', and described the remains of the monastery.Guérin (1869), pp
88
-92 In 1883, the PEF's " Survey of Western Palestine" described there ''Kh. Deir Ibn Obeid'' as "Ruins of a modern village", but in 1899

Conrad Schick Conrad Schick (1822–1901) was a German architect, archaeologist and Protestantism, Protestant missionary who settled in Jerusalem in the mid-nineteenth century.Perry & Yodim (2004) For many decades, he was head of the "House of Industry" at the ...

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 pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

) of the Ubedieh call the convent ruins by the name of their own tribe, and have a nearby

maqam Maqam, makam, maqaam or maqām (plural maqāmāt) may refer to: Musical structures * Arabic maqam, melodic modes in traditional Arabic music ** Iraqi maqam, a genre of Arabic maqam music found in Iraq * Persian maqam, a notion in Persian clas ...

by the name of Sheikh Khalife where they worship. Schick notes that in 1897, the

Greek Orthodox Church Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Christianity in Greece, Greek Christianity, Antiochian Greek Christians, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christian ...

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 divis ...

, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, the tribal area of ''Ibaidiyeh'' had an all-

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'', ''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: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

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 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. In 1961, the population of Ubeidiya'' was of 838.

1967, aftermath

Since the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 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, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967, al-Ubeidiya has been under

Israeli occupation Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...

. 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, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

s; 124 dunams for the settlement of Ovnat and 97 dunams for the nature reserve of ‘Ayn Fashkhah, 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 The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a c ...

(PNA). The municipality has jurisdiction over 97,232

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

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

s in the town.

Population structure (tribe, clans)

The residents are mostly descendants of the

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 was founded by Saint

Sabbas the Sanctified SabasPatrich (1995). (439–532), in Church parlance Saint Sabas or Sabbas the Sanctified (), was a Cappadocian Greek monk, priest, grazer and saint, who was born in Cappadocia and lived mainly in Palaestina Prima. He was the founder of several ...

(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

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Al-‘Ubeidiya Town (Fact Sheet)

(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 Palestine Populated places in the Bethlehem Governorate