Zeita Jamma'in

Zeita Jamma’in is a 11.6 km southwest of Nablus. It is bordered by Jamma’in and ‘Asira al Qibliya to the east, Tell to the north, Deir Istiya to the west, Kifl Haris, Qira and Jamma’in to the south.[http://vprofile.arij.org/nablus/pdfs/vprofile/Zeita%20Jamma'in_vp_en.pdf Zeita Jamma’in Village Profile], ARIJ, p. 4

Potsherds, possibly from the Middle Bronze Age era was found, together with sherds from Iron Age I, and IA II, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman,Finkelstein et al, 1997, p. 496 Byzantine,Dauphin, 1998, p. 805 Umayyad, Abbasid, Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk eras were found here.

It has been suggested that Zeita corresponds to a place of the same name mentioned in the Samaritan chronicles.Finkelstein et al, 1997, p. 496, citing Safrai (1986)

In 1517 the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and it appeared in the 1596 tax-records as Zayta Bani 'Amir, located in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa of Nablus. The population was 26 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives and a press for olive oil or grape syrup, in addition to occasional revenues and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 10,114 akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 131 Sherds from the early Ottoman era have been found here.

In the 18th and 19th centuries Zeita formed part of the highland region known as Jūrat ‘Amra or Bilād Jammā‘īn, from which it derived the second part of its name. Situated between Dayr Ghassāna in the south and the present Route 5 in the north, and between Majdal Yābā in the west and Jammā‘īn, Mardā and Kifl Ḥāris in the east, this area served, according to historian Roy Marom, "as a buffer zone between the political-economic-social units of the Jerusalem and the Nablus regions. On the political level, it suffered from instability due to the migration of the Bedouin tribes and the constant competition among local clans for the right to collect taxes on behalf of the Ottoman authorities."{{Cite journal |last=Marom |first=Roy |date=2022-11-01 |title=Jindās: A History of Lydda's Rural Hinterland in the 15th to the 20th Centuries CE |url=https://www.academia.edu/90931976 |journal=Lod, Lydda, Diospolis |volume=1 |pages=17}}

In 1838 Edward Robinson noted it as a village, Zeita, in the Jurat Merda district, south of Nablus.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/127/mode/1up 127]

In 1870 Victor Guérin noted it, situated on a hill lower than that of Jamma'in. It was also surrounded by plantations of olive and fig trees, and contained eight hundred inhabitants.Guérin, 1875, p. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr04gugoog#page/n198/mode/1up 173]

In 1870/1871 (1288 AH) an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Thani, subordinate to Nablus.{{Cite book |last=Grossman |first=David |title=Arab Demography and Early Jewish Settlement in Palestine |publisher=Magnes Press |year=2004 |location=Jerusalem |pages=252}}

In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Zeita as: "a small stone village, on high ground, with a well to the west, and olive groves."Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP II, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp02conduoft#page/287/mode/1up 287]

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Zeita had a population of 283 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table IX, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n27/mode/1up 25] increasing in the 1931 census to 404 Muslims and 1 Christian, in 113 houses.Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 66]

In the 1945 statistics the population was 510 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p19.jpg 19] while the total land area was 12,887 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Nablus/Page-061.jpg 61]

Of this, 2,429 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 4,277 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20II/Nablus/Page-108.jpg 108] while 43 dunams were classified as built-up areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Nablus/Page-158.jpg 158]

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Zeita Jamma'in came under Jordanian rule.

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 708 inhabitants.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. [http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/JordanCensusPages/JordanCensus1961-p25.pdf 25]

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Zeita Jamma'in has been under Israeli occupation.

After the 1995 accords 99.7% of village land is declared to be Area B land, while 0.3% is Area C.[http://vprofile.arij.org/nablus/pdfs/vprofile/Zeita%20Jamma'in_vp_en.pdf Zeita Jamma’in Village Profile], ARIJ, p. 16

{{reflist|25em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book | editor =Barron, J.B. | title = Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922 |url=https://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922 |publisher = Government of Palestine | year = 1923}}
• {{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=1882|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp02conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology|location=London|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund|volume=2}}
• {{cite book |last= Dauphin |first = C.|author-link= Claudine Dauphin| title = La Palestine byzantine, Peuplement et Populations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FC1mAAAAMAAJ |volume = III : Catalogue | series = BAR International Series 726 | year = 1998 | publisher = Archeopress | location = Oxford|language =fr|isbn= 0-860549-05-4}}
• {{cite book|editor1=Finkelstein, I. | editor1-link= Israel Finkelstein|editor2=Lederman, Zvi|year=1997|title=Highlands of many cultures |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wb4xmgEACAAJ |location=Tel Aviv|publisher= Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University Publications Section| isbn = 965-440-007-3}}
• {{cite book | title = First Census of Population and Housing. Volume I: Final Tables; General Characteristics of the Population | author = Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics | year = 1964|url=http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/JordanCensus1961bits.pdf}}
• {{cite book|title=Village Statistics, April, 1945 |url=http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/Hebrew/library/Pages/BookReader.aspx?pid=856390|author=Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics|year=1945}}
• {{cite book|last=Guérin|first=V.|author-link=Victor Guérin|title=Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine|url=https://archive.org/details/descriptiongogr04gugoog|volume=2: Samarie, pt. 2|year=1875|publisher= L'Imprimerie Nationale|location=Paris|language=fr}}
• {{cite book|title=Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html|first=S.|last=Hadawi|author-link=Sami Hadawi|year=1970|publisher=Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center}}
• {{cite book | last1= Hütteroth |first1=W.-D.|author-link1=Wolf-Dieter Hütteroth |first2=K. | last2=Abdulfattah |author-link2=Kamal Abdulfattah| title = Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wqULAAAAIAAJ | year = 1977 | publisher = Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft|isbn= 3-920405-41-2}}
• {{cite book | editor = Mills, E. | title = Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas |url=https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas | publisher = Government of Palestine | location = Jerusalem | year = 1932}}
• {{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}}
• {{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}}

{{refend}}

• [http://www.palestineremembered.com/GeoPoints/Zayta_1724/index.html Welcome To Zayta]
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14: [http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8376 IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.14.jpg Wikimedia commons]
• [http://vprofile.arij.org/nablus/pdfs/vprofile/Zeita%20Jamma'in_vp_en.pdf Zeita Jamma’in Village Profile], Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
• [http://vprofile.arij.org/nablus/images/english/Zeita%20Jamma'in_ap_en.jpg Zeita Jamma'in, aerial photo], ARIJ

{{Nablus Governorate}}

Category:Nablus Governorate

Category:Villages in the West Bank

Category:Municipalities of Palestine