Imwas

Coordinates: 31°50′26″N 34°59′30″E / 31.84056°N 34.99167°E / 31.84056; 34.99167
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Imwas
عِمواس
'Amwas, Amwas
Village
Imwas, early 20th century
Imwas, early 20th century
Etymology: possibly "thermal springs"[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Imwas (click the buttons)
Geopolitical entity
Mandatory Palestine
SubdistrictRamle
Date of depopulation7 June 1967
Population
 • Total2,015
Cause(s) of depopulationExpulsion by Israeli forces
Current LocalitiesCanada Park

Imwas or Emmaus (

Arabic: عِمواس), known in classical times as Nicopolis (Greek: Νικόπολις, lit. 'City of Victory'), was a Palestinian village located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southeast of the city of Ramla and 26 kilometres (16 mi) from Jerusalem in the Latrun salient of the West Bank.[2] It is traditionally (possibly from as early as the 3rd century, but probably incorrectly) identified with the biblical Emmaus.[3]

After 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.[4] 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 ʿImwās by its inhabitants.

Arabic literary sources indicate the name was formerly pronounced ʿAmwās and ʿAmawās, the latter being form transcribed by the Syrian geographer Yakut (1179–1229).[5]

In the time of

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 (ʾ).[5] Kitchener and Conder suggested the name Emmaus is derived from the ancient Hebrew ḥammat, a thermal spring.[7]

According to a tradition held by local fellahin in the 19th century, the village's name is related to an epidemic that killed the ancient Jewish inhabitants of the village, but they were miraculously brought back to life after Neby Uzair's visited the place and prayed to God to revive the victims. The fellahin described the pestilience as amm-mou-asa, which according to Clermont-Ganneau, roughly means "it was extended generally and was an affliction". Clermont-Ganneau thought this local etymology was "evidently artificial".[8][9]

History

Classical antiquity

Main article:
Emmaus Nicopolis

Emmaus is also mentioned in the first

toparchy in 47 BCE.[5]

Edward Robinson relates that its inhabitants were enslaved by Gaius Cassius Longinus while Josephus relates that the city, called Άμμoὺς, was burned to the ground by Publius Quinctilius Varus after the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE.[10][11]

Imwas has been identified as the site of ancient Emmaus, where according to the Gospel of Luke (24:13-35), Jesus appeared to a group of his disciples, including Cleopas, after his death and resurrection.[12]

Reduced to a small market town, its importance was recognized by the Emperor

Samaritan synagogue point the presence of a Samaritan community in Imwas in the late Roman period.[14]

Described by Eusebius 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."[16] 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.[12]

Arab caliphates era

After the

concubines to the camps, some of whom, according to Philip K. Hitti
, were no doubt captured native women.

The governmental framework of the Byzantine rule 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.[17]

In 639, the

Mu'awiya to the position of commander-in-chief in 640, and he served as the governor of Syria for 20 years before becoming the Umayyad caliph.[18][19] 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 subsequent Umayyad Caliphate, were prompted to intervene more directly in the affairs of these areas than they had intended.[20] Until as late as the 19th century, a well in the village was known locally as "The Plague Well" (بئر الطاعون), its name suggesting a derivation from these events.[21]

Palestine Pilgrim Saint Willibald

In 723, Saint

bishop of Eichstätt. 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.[22] Hygeburg of Heidenheim, Bavaria, 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.[12]

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.[23] The geographer al-Maqdisi (c. 945-1000) recalls that ʿImwas had been the capital of its province, while noting, "that the population [was] removed therefrom to be nearer to the sea, and more in the plain, on account of the wells."[24]

By 1009, the church in Imwas had been destroyed by Yaruk, the governor of

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.[22] 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."[22]

Crusader era

stades.[25][26]

Versailles
.

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,

tithes from six surrounding villages to the Hospitallers, one of these villages was nearby Khulda.[28] In February 1151 or 1152 the Hospitallers were still leasing, but the terms of the lease were modified.[29] An 1186 reference to a "bailiff of Emmaus" named Bartholomew suggests that the Hospitallers had an established a commandery in Imwas.[30] 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.[31][32]

Imwas was likely abandoned by Crusaders 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.[25] The village was re-established just north of where the church had been located.[25]

Mamluk era

Maqam Sheikh Mu'alla

Maqam Sheikh Mu'alla had an endowment text (now lost), dating it to 687 AH/1289-1290 CE.[33] 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

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. ...[34]

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

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.[35]

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.[36] 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.[36]

In 1863

Emmaus Nicopolis.[37]

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.[21][38]

In 1875, the

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.[39]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Imwas as an adobe village, of moderate size.[40]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Imwas had a population of 824, all Muslim.[41] This had increased by the time of the 1931 census to 1,029, 2 Christians and 1,027 Muslim, in 224 houses.[42]

In the 1945 statistics the population of Imwas was 1,450, all Muslims,[43] while the total land area was 5,151 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[44] Of this, 606 dunams were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 3,612 for cereals,[43][45] while 148 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[43][46] By 1948, the population had dwindled to 1,100 Arabs.[47]

Imwas (Anwas) 1942 1:20,000
Imwas 1945 1:250,000

Jordanian rule

Map of Dayr Ayyub, Imwas, Yalo, Bayt Nuba and the armistice lines

During the

Battle of Latrun.[48]

After the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Imwas came under Jordanian control.

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,955 inhabitants in Imwas.[49]

Israeli rule

The expulsion of the residents of Imwas, 1967

The town, defended by a few Jordanian and Egyptian units,[

fellahin were themselves not responsible for Jordanian shelling from that area during the Six Day War. The decision to destroy the houses was explained to soldiers operating there as necessary in order to "punish the nest of murderers" and stop housing infrastructure from being used in future for terrorist bases.[50]
Central Command orders issued to soldiers at the time described the 1948 failure, and the 1967 success in the following way, by writing of:

'terms of disappointment, terms of a long and painful account, which has now been settled to the last cent. Houses suddenly left. Intact. With their potted geraniums, their grapevines climbing up the balconies. The smell-of wood-burning ovens still in the air. Elderly people who have nothing more to lose, slowly straggling along.,'[50]

In August of that year, villagers were told that they return could pick up their stored harvests with trucks.[51] The residents of the three villages then formed a committee to negotiate their return. The villagers' request that Israel allow their leaders, who had fled to Amman, to return and negotiate on their behalf, was turned down by Dayan.[51] Israel offered monetary compensation for the destruction of homes and the expropriation of lands. One committee leader, the father of Abu Gaush replied:

"We will not accept all the money in the world for one dunam in Imwas, and we will not accept one dunum in heaven for one dunam in Inwas!"[51]

According to his son, he was told by his Israeli interlocutors that he had three choices: to share the fate of Sheikh Abdul Hameed Al Sayeh, the first Palestinian to be exiled by Israel after the beginning of the 1967 occupation, after he spoke up for the inalienable right of return of Palestinians; or he could choose to go to prison, or, finally, he could suck on something sweet and keep quiet;[51] In all cases no one was allowed to return.[51] One descendant of the expelled villagers said her father told her they were threatened with prison if they did not agree to compensation [51][52][53][54][55] An Imwas Human Society now campaigns for the expelled villagers' rights and publicizes what they call the war crimes committed in the Latrun Enclave.[51]

In 1973 the Jewish National Fund in Canada raised $5 million to establish a picnic park for Israelis in the area,[51] which it created and still maintains. It descrfibes the area as:-

"one of the largest parks in Israel, covering an area of 7,500 acres in the biblical Ayalon Valley. At peak season, some 30,000 individuals visit the site each day,. enjoying its many play and recreational facilities and installations."[51]

Since 2003, the Israeli

better source needed
]

Artistic representations

Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour made Imwas the subject of one of his paintings. The work, named for the village, was one of a series of four on destroyed Palestinian villages that he produced in 1988; the others being Yalo, Bayt Dajan and Yibna.[59]

The destruction of Imwas and the other Latrun villages of

The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist.[60]

Emwas, restoring memories is a recent documentary film in which the filmmaker makes a 3D model of the town using expertise and interviews with people who survived the exodus.[61]

See also

  • List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict

References

  1. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 283
  2. ^ Wareham and Gill, 1998, p. 108.
  3. 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.
  4. ISBN 978-0-345-46431-6
    .
  5. ^ a b c d e f Sharon, 1997, p. 79
  6. ^ Charles Clermont-Ganneau (1899). Archaeological Researches in Palestine during the Years 1873–1874. Vol. 1. p. 490.
  7. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP III, p. 36-37
  8. ^ C. Clermont-Ganneau, "Letters: VII-X," Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement 6.3 (July 1874): p. 162
  9. ^ Conder, C. R. (Claude Reignier); Kitchener, Horatio Herbert Kitchener; Palmer, Edward Henry; Besant, Walter (1881–1883). The survey of western Palestine : memoirs of the topography, orography, hydrography, and archaeology. Robarts - University of Toronto. London : Committee of the Palestine exploration fund. p. 66.
  10. ^ a b c Robinson and Smith, 1856, p. 147
  11. ^ a b Bromiley, 1982, p. 77.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Pringle, 1993, p. 52
  13. ^ Josephus, The Jewish War Bk 7,6:6.
  14. ^ a b Negev and Gibson, 2005, p. 159.
  15. ISBN 978-90-04-10833-2
    .
  16. ISBN 978-0-521-39036-1
    .
  17. ^ a b Hitti, 2002, p. 424]
  18. ^ Hitti, 2002, p. 425
  19. ^ Al-Baladhuri, 1916, p. 215
  20. ^ Bray, 2004, p. 40
  21. ^ a b Sharon, 1997, p. 80
  22. ^ a b c Thiede and D'Ancona, 2005, p. 59.
  23. ^ Gil, 1997, p. 111
  24. ^ Al-Maqdisi quoted in le Strange, 1890, p.393.
  25. ^ a b c d Pringle, 1993, p. 53
  26. ^ Brownrigg, 2001, p. 49.
  27. ^ Röhricht, 1893, RRH, p. 50, No 201; cited in Pringle, 1993, p. 53
  28. ^ de Roziére, 1849, pp. 219-220, No. 117; cited in Röhricht, 1893, RRH, p. 51, No 205; cited in Pringle, 1993, p. 53
  29. ^ Röhricht, 1893, RRH, pp. 61-62, No 244; p. 65, No 257; p. 69, No 274; all cited in Pringle, 1993, p. 53
  30. ^ Röhricht, 1893, RRH, p. 172, No 649; cited in Pringle, 1993, p. 53
  31. ^ Levy, 1998, p. 508.
  32. ^ Thiede and D'Ancona, 2005, p. 60
  33. ^ Sharon, 1997, p. 84
  34. ^ Clermont-Ganneau, 1899, ARP 1, pp. 492-493
  35. ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 153
  36. ^ a b Robinson and Smith, 1856, p. 146
  37. ^ Guérin, 1868, pp. 293-308
  38. ^ Clermont-Ganneau, 1899, pp. 483-493
  39. ^ Schick, 1884, p. 15; cited in Driver et al., 2006, p. 325
  40. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 14
  41. ^ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p. 15
  42. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 40.
  43. ^ a b c Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 29
  44. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 66
  45. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 115
  46. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 165
  47. OCLC 610327173
    .
  48. ^ Morris, 2008, see Latrun and Imwas in the index.
  49. ^ Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 24
  50. ^ a b c d e Tom Segev, 1967, Abacus Books 2007 pp.489-490.
  51. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rich Wiles, "Behind the Wall: Life, Love, and Struggle in Palestine," Potomac Books, Inc., 2010, pp. 17-24.
  52. ^ a b Oren, 2002, p. 307
  53. ^ a b Mayhew and Adams, 2006.
  54. ^ Segev, 2007, pp. 407–409
  55. ^ "Interview: Ahmad Abughoush: "Imwas : Canada Park's Concealed Crime "". Archived from the original on 2015-02-22. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  56. ^ a b Zafrir Rinat (13 June 2007). "Out of sight maybe, but not out of mind". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 17 February 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2008.
  57. ^ High Court Petition on Canada Park[usurped], Zochrot
  58. ^ Tour to Imwas[usurped], Zochrot
  59. ^ Ankori, 2006, p. 82
  60. The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist
    , Arabia Books, London, 2010 ( Chapter 36)
  61. ^ Maude Girard, 25 May 2018, fr:Orient XXI, Le festival Ciné Palestine s’engage auprès des réalisateurs

Bibliography

External links

Media related to Imwas at Wikimedia Commons

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