al-Nabi Yusha'

During the late eighteenth century, a family known as al-Ghul built the religious complex and shrine known as the Maqam an-Nabi Yusha' (biblical Joshua), which included a mosque and a building for visitors, as an act of devotion. This family, also called the "servants of the shrine," numbered about fifty and were the first to settle the site. They cultivated the surrounding land, and the place subsequently evolved into a village.Khalidi, 1992, p. 481

In 1851/1852 van de Velde noted the wali at Al-Nabi Yusha, with an old terebinth tree.van de Velde, 1854, 2 vol, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/narrativeajourn01veldgoog#page/n434/mode/1up 416]-417

In 1875 Victor Guérin arrived at the Maqam (shrine) after walking up on a very steep and difficult path from the east. He described the shrine, dedicated by the local Muslims to Nabi Yusha', as a building surmounted with two small cupolas.Guérin, 1880, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr00gugoog#page/n394/mode/1up 354], [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr00gugoog#page/n402/mode/1up 362]{{cite news | author = Asher Kaufman | title = Between Palestine and Lebanon: Seven Sahi'i villages as a case study of boundaries, identities and conflict | journal = Middle East Journal | year = 2006 | volume = 60 | pages = 685–706}}

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted that the "Metawali" from nearby Qadas came to Al-Nabi Yusha' to venerate the name of Joshua.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/228/mode/1up 228]

Pottery from Rachaya Al Foukhar have been found in the village.Berger, 2015, [http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=24854&mag_id=122 En-Nabi Yusha']

At the end of World War I it was under French control, and the 1920 boundary agreement between Britain and French placed it in Lebanon. At the time of the census conducted by the French in 1921, the villagers were granted Lebanese citizenship.{{cite news | author = Khalid Sindawi | title = Are there any Shi'ite Muslims in Israel? | journal = Holy Land Studies | volume = 2 | year = 2008 | pages = 183–199}} However the Boundary Commission established by the 1920 agreement shifted the border, leaving the village in Palestine. Transfer of control to the British authorities was not complete until 1924.Biger, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jC9MbKNh8GUC&pg=PA134 134]

During the Mandate period, the British built a police station in the village. The people of al-Nabi Yusha', all of whom were Shia Muslims, held an annual mawsim (pilgrimage) and festival on the fifteenth of the month Sha'aban (the eighth month of the Islamic calendar). The mawsim was similar to that of the Nabi Rubin festival in southern coast of Palestine.

File:Hula_1930s.jpg from al-Nabi Yusha' 1930s]]

In the 1931 census of Palestine, the village was home to 52 residents that year (12 households),Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 109] growing to 70 in the 1945 statistics, and 81 (18 households) by 1948 when it was depopulated. The village occupied an area of 3,617 dunams, all private except for a dunam of public property. In 1944–45 the village had 640 dunams of land used 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/Safad/Page-120.jpg 120] while 16 dunams was built-up (urban) area.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Safad/Page-170.jpg 170]

File:Al-Nabi Yusha'.jpg

File:Nabi Yusha iii.jpg

Image:Nebi Yusha.jpg

Al-Nabi Yusha' was depopulated on May 16, in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War during Operation Yiftach led by Israeli army officer Yigal Allon who later became a key Israeli figure. An early attempt to take the village by Haganah forces during the operation ended in the deaths of 22 Haganah fighters, who had their corpses reportedly decapitated by the Arab forces.{{Cite book |last1=Norwood |first1=Stephen H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZfuaAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA133 |title=Antisemitism and the American Far Left |last2=Norwood |first2=Stephen Harlan |date=2013-08-19 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-03601-7 |language=en}}

Most of its residents ended up in refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria. In 1998, the descendants of al-Nabi Yusha' refugees were estimated at 499.{{Cn|date=June 2022}}

The Israeli moshav Ramot Naftali was established in 1945 south of the village, and since 1948 includes Al-Nabi Yusha' land. It is located close to the border between Al-Nabi Yusha' and the lands of Mallaha.Morris, 2004, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PA361 361]-2

The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the village remains in 1992 as: "The site has been fenced in with barbed wire and is buried under rubble, making access difficult. However, some evidence of the village remains: fragments of houses, tombs in the village's cemetery, and the shrine of al-Nabi Yusha'. The two domes and arched entrance of the main part of the shrine are still intact, but the thick stone walls of the rooms attached to it are broken and the entire complex of buildings is neglected; weeds sprouts from the roof. The village site is surrounded by fig trees and cactuses. The flat lands around the site are planted by Israeli farmers with apple trees, while the sloping parts are wooded or used as pasture."Khalidi, 1992, pp. 481-2

{{main|Maqam an-Nabi Yusha'}}

The shrine was surveyed by the British School of Archaeology in 1994, who described it as rectangular structure formed around a courtyard, aligned north-south, which was entered through a gateway on the north end. The principal rooms were at the south end of the courtyard, with two major domed chambers, of which the west chamber was found to be the oldest in the whole shrine complex.Petersen, 2001, pp. [https://www.academia.edu/21620056/Gazetteer_5_K-R 236]-8

Alternative traditional sites for the Prophet's tomb are situated in Turkey (the shrine on Joshua's Hill, Istanbul), Jordan (An-Nabi Yusha' bin Noon, a Sunni shrine near the city of Al-SaltMazar Hazrat Yusha' bin Noon, on the website of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada [http://www.islamicsupremecouncil.com/islamic-heritage-tabarrukat/]Tomb of Prophet Yusha' (photo of the tomb; Islamic view on Prophet Yusha'/Joshua) [http://www.islamiclandmarks.com/jordan/tomb-of-yusha-as]) and Iraq (the Nabi Yusha' shrine of Baghdad).

• Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel
• Metzudat Koach
• Metawali
• Shia villages in Palestine

{{Reflist|25em}}

{{ref begin}}

• {{cite journal|last= Berger |first=Uri|date= 2015-12-09 |url=http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=24854&mag_id=122 |title= En-Nabi Yusha' |publisher=Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel |number=127}}
• {{cite book | first = Gideon | last = Biger | title = The boundaries of modern Palestine, 1840-1947 | publisher = Routledge | year = 2004 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jC9MbKNh8GUC | page = 134 | isbn = 978-0-7146-5654-0 }}
• {{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|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/descriptiongogr00gugoog|volume=3: Galilee, pt. 2|year=1880|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|access-date=2009-06-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181208215837/http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html|archive-date=2018-12-08|url-status=dead}}
• {{cite book|title=All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_By7AAAAIAAJ |first=W.|last=Khalidi|author-link=Walid Khalidi|year=1992|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies|isbn=0-88728-224-5}}
• Lamb, Franklin. [http://www.countercurrents.org/lamb181108.htm Completing The Task Of Evicting Israel From Lebanon] 2009-06-02
• {{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|title=The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C |first=B.|last=Morris|author-link=Benny Morris|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-00967-7 }}
• {{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|last=Petersen |first=Andrew |title=A Gazetteer of Buildings in Muslim Palestine (British Academy Monographs in Archaeology)|url =https://www.academia.edu/21620056|volume =1 |year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-727011-0}}
• al-Qawuqji, F. (1972): [https://web.archive.org/web/20110928202610/http://www.palestine-studies.org/enakba/Memoirs/ Memoirs of al-Qawuqji, Fauzi] in Journal of Palestine Studies
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718144320/http://www.palestine-studies.org/enakba/Memoirs/Al%20Qawuqji%2C%20Memoirs%201948_Pt%201.pdf "Memoirs, 1948, Part I" in 1, no. 4 (Sum. 72): 27-58.], dpf-file, downloadable
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718144415/http://www.palestine-studies.org/enakba/Memoirs/Al%20Qawuqji,%20Memoirs%201948_Pt%202.pdf "Memoirs, 1948, Part II" in 2, no. 1 (Aut. 72): 3-33.], dpf-file, downloadable
• {{cite news|title=The Seven Lost Villages|author=Rubinstein, D.|author-link=Danny Rubinstein|newspaper=Haaretz|date=6 August 2006|access-date=2009-06-02|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=746274|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001002608/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=746274|archive-date=1 October 2007}}
• {{cite book|last=Velde, van de |first=C.W.M.|author-link=Charles William Meredith van de Velde |title=Narrative of a journey through Syria and Palestine in 1851 and 1852|url=https://archive.org/details/narrativeajourn01veldgoog |volume=2 |year=1854|publisher=William Blackwood and son }}

{{refend}}

• [http://www.palestineremembered.com/Safad/al-Nabi-Yusha'/index.html Welcome To al-Nabi Yusha'], Palestine Remembered
• [http://www.zochrot.org/en/village/49304 al-Nabi Yusha'], Zochrot
• 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 SWP Wikimedia commons]
• [http://www.alnakba.org/villages/safad/nabi.htm al-Nabi Yusha'], at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
• [http://www.villagesofpalestine.com/AlNabiYusha.htm Al-Nabi Yusha'], Dr. Khalil Rizk.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090807133137/http://domino.un.org/maps/m0103_1b.gif UN map of the 1947 plan]
• [http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/310630/page/ The Destroyed Palestinian Villages on Google Earth] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122092314/http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/310630/page |date=2008-11-22 }}

{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War}}

Category:District of Safad

Category:Islamic shrines in Israel

Category:Tegart forts

Category:Shia shrines

Category:Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War