Daughters of Jacob Bridge

The place was first associated with the biblical forefather of the Jews, Jacob, due to a confusion. The Crusader-era nunnery of Saint James ({{lang|fr|Saint Jacques}} in French), from the nearby castellany of Sephet (modern-day Safed), received part of the customs paid at the ford, and since {{lang|fr|Jacques}} is derived from Jacob, this led to the name Jacob's Ford.[http://www.israelandyou.com/metzad-ateret/ Jacob's Ford by Metzad Ateret], Israel and You (blog), accessed 27 April 2020

File:JacobsFordBattlefield.jpg

{{Split portions|portion=this subsection|Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (archaeological site) |date=May 2024}}

Archaeological excavations at the prehistoric Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site have revealed evidence of human habitation in the area, from as early as 750,000 years ago.[http://www.israel21c.org/briefs/evidence-found-of-early-modern-humans Evidence found of early modern humans] (January 5, 2010) in [http://www.israel21c.org/ Israel 21c Innovation News Service] Retrieved 2010-01-05 Archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem claim that the site provides evidence of "advanced human behavior" half a million years earlier than has previously been estimated as possible. Their report describes a layer at the site belonging to the Acheulian (a culture dating to the Lower Palaeolithic, at the very beginning of the Stone Age), where numerous stone tools, animal bones and plant remains have been found,[http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1261364468162&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull] {{Dead link|date=July 2019|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} including those of the large elephant Palaeoloxodon recki{{Cite journal |last1=Larramendi |first1=Asier |last2=Zhang |first2=Hanwen |last3=Palombo |first3=Maria Rita |last4=Ferretti |first4=Marco P. |date=February 2020 |title=The evolution of Palaeoloxodon skull structure: Disentangling phylogenetic, sexually dimorphic, ontogenetic, and allometric morphological signals |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=229 |pages=106090 |bibcode=2020QSRv..22906090L |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.106090 |s2cid=213676377}} which is associated with stone tools, including a handaxe, and shows cut and fracture marks indicating that it was butchered by archaic humans.{{Cite journal |last=Haynes |first=Gary |date=March 2022 |title=Late Quaternary Proboscidean Sites in Africa and Eurasia with Possible or Probable Evidence for Hominin Involvement |journal=Quaternary |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=18 |doi=10.3390/quat5010018 |issn=2571-550X |doi-access=free|bibcode=2022Quat....5...18H }} According to the archaeologists Paul Pettitt and Mark White, the site has produced the earliest widely accepted evidence for the use of fire, dated approximately 790,000 years ago.Pettitt and White, 2012, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=6p50fneNDAgC&pg=PA194 194]{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/science/22archaeo.html|title=Excavation Sites Show Distinct Living Areas Early in Stone Age|first=John Noble|last=Wilford|date=22 December 2009|access-date=22 October 2021|website=The New York Times}}{{Cite web |url=http://archaeology.about.com/od/gterms/g/gesher_benot.htm |title=Gesher Benot Ya'aqov - Lower Paleolithic Site in Israel |access-date=2015-05-04 |archive-date=2014-04-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429121026/http://archaeology.about.com/od/gterms/g/gesher_benot.htm |url-status=dead }} A Tel-Aviv University study found remains of a huge carp fish cooked with the use of fire at the site 780,000 years ago.{{cite journal |last1=Zohar |first1=Irit |last2=Alperson-Afil |first2=Nira |last3=Goren-Inbar |first3=Naama |last4=Prévost |first4=Marion |last5=Tütken |first5=Thomas |last6=Sisma-Ventura |first6=Guy |last7=Hershkovitz |first7=Israel |last8=Najorka |first8=Jens |title=Evidence for the cooking of fish 780,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |date=14 November 2022 |volume=6 |issue=12 |pages=2016–2028 |doi=10.1038/s41559-022-01910-z |pmid=36376603 |bibcode=2022NatEE...6.2016Z |s2cid=253522354 }}

{{Main|Siege of Jacob's Ford}}

Jacob's Ford was a key river crossing point and major trade route between Acre and Damascus.Murray, 2006, p. 649 It was utilized by Christian Palestine and Seljuk Syria as a major intersection between the two civilizations, making it strategically important. When Humphrey II of Toron was besieged in the city of Banyas in 1157, King Baldwin III of Jerusalem was able to break the siege, only to be ambushed at Jacob's Ford in June of that year.Richard, 1999, pp. 175-176

Later in the twelfth century, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Saladin continually contested the area around Jacob's Ford. Baldwin allowed the Templars to build Chastelet castle overlooking Jacob's Ford known to the Arabs as Qasr al-'AtaPringle, 1997, pg. 85 commanding the road from Quneitra to Tiberias.Payne, 1998, p. 188 On 23 August 1179, Saladin successfully conducted the siege of Jacob's Ford, destroying the unfinished fortification, known as the castle of Vadum Iacob or Chastellet.

File:Jisr Benat Yacob 1799.png 1799 map]]

In the late Mamluk period, Sefad became a principal town and Baibars' postal road from Cairo to Damascus was extended with a branch that went through the north of Palestine. To accomplish this, the bridge was built over the Crusaders' Vadum Jacob (Jacob's ford). The bridge had the Mamluk characteristic dual-slope pathway like the Yibna Bridge.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}} Al-Dimashqi (1256–1327) noted that "the Jordan traverses the district of Al Khaitah and comes to the Jisr Ya'kub (lit. "Jacob's Bridge"), under Kasr Ya'kub (lit. "Jacob's Castle"), and reaching the Sea of Tiberias, falls into it."Le Strange, 1890, p. [https://archive.org/stream/palestineundermo00lestuoft#page/53/mode/1up 53]{{dubious|A "jisr", bridge, during Dimashqi's lifetime cotradicts the next paragraph (and logic), that the 1st bridge was only built after the 14th century.|date=April 2020}}

Before 1444, a merchant constructed a khan (caravanserai) on the eastern side of the bridge, one of a series of such khans built at the time.Petersen, 1991, pp. [https://www.academia.edu/21539664/Gazetteer_4_D-J 182−183] Edward Robinson noted that during the 14th century, travellers crossed the river Jordan below the Lake of Tiberias, while the first crossing in the area of Jisr Benat Yakob was noted in 1450 CE. The khan, at the eastern end of the bridge, and the bridge itself, were both probably built before 1450, according to Robinson.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, pp. [https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearch03robiuoft/page/361/mode/1up 361]−363

For the year 1555−1556 CE (AH 963) the toll post at the bridge collected 25,000 akçe, and in 1577 (985 H) a firman commanded that the place had post horses ready.

On June 4th 1771, a combined force of Zahir al Umar's men and mamluk commander Abu al-Dhahab met the Damascene Pasha in battle, The result was a victory for the Zayadina coalition and established control of Irbid and Quneitra to Zahir al Umar. This also set in motion the later Final Invasion of Damascus Eyalet & Siege of Damascus by Abu al-Dhahab{{Cite book |title=Revolt in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century}}

The bridge was maintained through the Ottoman period, with a caravanserai on one end of the bridge, as shown in the 1799 Jacotin map.Karmon, 1960, pp. [http://www.jchp.ucla.edu/Bibliography/Karmon,_Y_1960_Jacotin_Map_(IEJ_10).pdf 250−252] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222063351/http://jchp.ucla.edu/Bibliography/Karmon,_Y_1960_Jacotin_Map_(IEJ_10).pdf |date=2019-12-22 }} During the Egyptian campaign of 1799, Napoleon sent his cavalry commander, general Murat, to defend the bridge, as a measure of preempting reinforcement from Damascus being sent to Akko during the siege laid by the French.{{cite news |author= Stephane Cohen |title= The parable of Tel Hazor |newspaper= The Jerusalem Post |date= 6 February 2018 |url= https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-parable-of-Tel-Hazor-540876 |access-date= 27 April 2020}} Murat occupied nearby Safed and Tiberias, as well as the bridge{{cite book |first= Daniel |last= Amson |title= Israël et Palestine: Territoires sans frontières |page= 9 |publisher= Presses Universitaires de France (Réédition Numérique Fenixx) |series= Politique d'aujourd'hui |year= 1992 |language= French |isbn= 9782130450276 |url= http://excerpts.numilog.com/books/9782130450276.pdf |access-date= 27 April 2020}} and, by relying on the superior quality of French troops, managed to defeat Turkish units far outnumbering him.[http://www.napoleonsims.com/blog/post017.htm Bonaparte in Egypt and Syria, 1798-1799: A Counter Stroke Stopped], Napoleonics blog, accessed 27 April 2020 Jacotin's map marks the west side of the bridge with the name of General Murat and the date of 2 April 1799.

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) also noted about Jisr Benat Yakub: "The bridge itself appears to be of later date than the Crusader period."Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/217/mode/1up 217]

{{See also|Battle of Jisr Benat Yakub}}

File:Benat Yakub bridge.jpg

The Battle of Jisr Benat Yakub was fought there on 27 September 1918 during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I, at the beginning of the pursuit by the British Army of the retreating remnants of the Ottoman Yildirim Army Group towards Damascus, who destroyed the central arch of the bridge. The bridge was shortly repaired by ANZAC sappers, flattening the original dual-slope pathway, making it useful for modern vehicles.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

In 1934, during the draining of Lake Hula as part of a Zionist land reclamation project, the old bridge was replaced by a modern one further south.{{dubious|What happened to the old one?|date=April 2020}}

On the "Night of the Bridges" between 16 and 17 June 1946, the bridge{{which|date=April 2020}} was again destroyed by the Jewish Haganah. The Syrians captured the bridge on June 11, 1948, during the 1948 Palestine war, but later withdrew as a result of the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and Syria. After the war, the bridge was in the central demilitarised zone established by the armistice agreement.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

In 1953, the site was chosen as the original location for the water intake of the National Water Carrier of Israel, but after US pressure, the intake was moved downstream to the Sea of Galilee at Eshed Kinrot,Sosland, 2007, p. 70 which later became known as the Sapir Pumping Station at Tel Kinrot/Tell el-'Oreimeh.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

During the Six-Day War, an Israeli paratrooper brigade captured the area, and after the war, the Israeli Combat Engineering Corps constructed a Bailey bridge. In the Yom Kippur War, Syrian forces approached the vicinity of the bridge. As a precaution, Israeli sappers placed explosives on the bridge but did not detonate them as the Syrians did not attempt to cross it.{{cite book |author=Abraham Rabinovich |year=2004 |title= The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter That Transformed The Middle East |publisher=Schocken Books |location=New York |page=175 |isbn=0-8052-4176-0 }}

In 2007, one of the two Bailey bridges at the site (one for traffic from east to west and the other handling traffic in the opposite direction) was replaced with a modern concrete span, while the other Bailey bridge was left intact for emergency use.

• Archaeology of Israel and Levantine archaeology
• Barid, Muslim postal network renewed during Mamluk period (roads, bridges, khans)
• Jisr al-Ghajar, stone bridge south of Ghajar
• Al-Sinnabra Crusader bridge, with nearby Jisr Umm el-Qanatir/Jisr Semakh and Jisr es-Sidd further downstream
• Jisr al-Majami bridge over the Jordan, with Mamluk khan
• Jisr Jindas bridge over the Ayalon near Lydda and Ramla
• Yibna Bridge or "Nahr Rubin Bridge"
• Isdud Bridge (Mamluk, 13th century) outside Ashdod/Isdud
• Jisr ed-Damiye, bridges over the Jordan (Roman, Mamluk, modern)
• Bir Ma'in, Arab village near Ramle, connected by a foundation legend to Jacob/Ya'kub and Daughters of Jacob Bridge/Jisr Benat Ya'kub.Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, vol 2, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/archaeologicalre02cler#page/77/mode/1up 77] ff.
• Jacob's Well, site associated with biblical Jacob in Samaritan and Christian tradition
• Jubb Yussef (Joseph's Well), site associated with biblical Joseph in Muslim tradition

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book|last=Clermont-Ganneau|first=C.S.|author-link=Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau|title=[ARP] Archaeological Researches in Palestine 1873–1874, translated from the French by J. McFarlane|url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologicalre02cler|volume=2|year=1896|publisher=Palestine Exploration Fund|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/archaeologicalre02cler/page/78 78]}}
• {{cite book|last1=Conder|first1=C.R.|author-link1=Claude Reignier Conder|last2=Kitchener|first2=H.H.|author-link2=Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|year=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp01conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology|location=London|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund|volume=1}}
• {{cite book|author=El-Eini, Roza|title=Mandated Landscape: British Imperial Rule in Palestine 1929–1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1sCRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA276|date=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-77240-6}}
• {{cite book|last=Guérin|first=V.|author-link=Victor Guérin|title=Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine|url=https://archive.org/details/descriptiongogr01unkngoog|volume=3: Galilee, pt. 1|year=1880|publisher=L'Imprimerie Nationale|location=Paris|language=French}} (pp. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr01unkngoog#page/n354/mode/1up 341]−344)
• {{cite journal|author = Karmon, Y.|title = An Analysis of Jacotin's Map of Palestine|url = http://www.jchp.ucla.edu/Bibliography/Karmon,_Y_1960_Jacotin_Map_(IEJ_10).pdf|journal = Israel Exploration Journal|volume = 10|issue = 3,4|year = 1960|pages = 155–173, 244–253|access-date = 2018-12-29|archive-date = 2019-12-22|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191222063351/http://jchp.ucla.edu/Bibliography/Karmon,_Y_1960_Jacotin_Map_(IEJ_10).pdf|url-status = dead}}
• {{cite book |title=Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500 |url=https://archive.org/details/palestineundermo00lestuoft |first=G. |last=Le Strange |author-link=Guy Le Strange |year=1890 |publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund |location=London }}
• Murray, Alan V. editor. (2006), The Crusades: An Encyclopaedia, {{ISBN|1-57607-862-0}}
• {{cite book|last=Palmer|first=E.H.|author-link=Edward Henry Palmer|year=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R.E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund|page=[https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/76/mode/1up 76]}}
• {{cite book|title=The Crusades: A History|last=Payne|first=R.|author-link=Robert Payne (author)|year=1998|publisher=Wordsworth Editions |isbn=1-85326-689-2}}
• {{cite book|title=A Gazetteer of Buildings in Muslim Palestine (British Academy Monographs in Archaeology)|url=https://www.academia.edu/21539664|volume=I|first=Andrew|last=Petersen|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-727011-0}}
• {{cite book|title=Medieval bridges of Palestine|url=https://www.academia.edu/2635988|first=Andrew|last=Petersen|year=2010|publisher=Uitgeverij Peeters|location=Leuven−Paris−Walpole,MA}}
• {{cite book |title=The British Palaeolithic: Human Societies at the Edge of the Pleistocene World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6p50fneNDAgC |first1=P. |last1=Pettitt |author-link1=Paul Pettitt |first2=Mark |last2=White |publisher=Routledge |year=2012 |location=Abingdon, UK |isbn=978-0-415-67455-3 }}
• {{cite book|last=Pococke|first=R.|author-link=Richard Pococke|year=1745|url=https://archive.org/details/gri_33125009339611|title=A description of the East, and some other countries|volume=2|location=London|publisher=Printed for the author, by W. Bowyer|page=[https://archive.org/details/gri_33125009339611/page/n103 73]}}
• {{cite book |title=The Desert Mounted Corps: An Account of the Cavalry Operations in Palestine and Syria 1917–1918 |last=Preston |first=R.M.P. |year=1921 |publisher=Constable & Co. |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/desertmountedcor00pres/page/n7 |oclc=3900439 }}
• {{cite book|title=Secular buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: an archaeological Gazetter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-_NbE5obqRMC|last=Pringle|first=D.|author-link=Denys Pringle|year=1997|isbn=0521-46010-7|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-_NbE5obqRMC&pg=PA85 85]}}
• {{cite book|last=Richard|first=J.|author-link=Jean Richard (historian)|title=The Crusades c. 1071–c. 1291 |year=1999|publisher=Cambridge University press|isbn=0-521-62566-1}}
• {{cite book|last1=Robinson|first1=E.|author-link1=Edward Robinson (scholar)|last2=Smith|first2=E.|author-link2=Eli Smith|year=1841|url=https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearch03robiuoft|title=Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838|location=Boston|publisher=Crocker & Brewster|volume=3}}
• {{cite book|title=Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, B-C|volume=2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EPFDU8POrXIC|first=M.|last=Sharon|author-link=Moshe Sharon|year=1999|publisher=Brill|isbn=90-04-11083-6}}
• {{cite book|title=Cooperating Rivals: The Riparian Politics of the Jordan River Basin|last=Sosland|first=Jeffrey|year=2007|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-7201-9}}
• {{cite book|author=Sufian, Sandra M.|title=Healing the Land and the Nation: Malaria and the Zionist Project in Palestine, 1920–1947|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zt9Do3WEUQoC&pg=PA165|date=2008|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-77938-6}}

{{Refend}}

• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 4: [http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8367 IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.04.jpg Wikimedia commons]
• [http://archnet.org/sites/4309 Bridge at Jisr Banat Ya'qub], 12th-century bridge pictured early 20th century.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927150240/http://www.paratroops.org.il/siteArticle.asp?aid=53&cid=63 80th Brigade's Battles in the Six-Day War]. Paratroopers Brigade website. {{in lang|he}}
• [http://www.amalnet.k12.il/meida/history/1939_45/hisi2129.htm Bridge Destruction During the Night of the Bridges] {{in lang|he}}
• [http://gby.huji.ac.il/ Gesher Benot Ya'aqov Acheulian Site Project]

{{Authority control}}

Category:Bridges over the Jordan River

Category:Crusade places

Category:Hula Valley

Category:Mamluk architecture in Israel