Taffuh

Taffuh
Other transcription(s)
 • Arabic تفّوح
Taffuh

Location of Taffuh within the Palestinian territories

Coordinates: 31°32′21.08″N 35°3′11.1″E / 31.5391889°N 35.053083°E / 31.5391889; 35.053083Coordinates: 31°32′21.08″N 35°3′11.1″E / 31.5391889°N 35.053083°E / 31.5391889; 35.053083
Governorate Hebron
Government
 • Type Municipality
Population (2007)
 • Jurisdiction 10,597
Name meaning from "Beth Tappuah"[1]

Taffuh (Arabic: تفّوح‎‎) (lit. fragrance) is a Palestinian town located eight kilometers west of Hebron.The town is in the Hebron Governorate in the southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of over 10,597 in 2007.[2]

History

The city of Beth-tappuah, literally House of Apple [tree], cited in the Book of Joshua (15: 53), is often located in the hill country of the Tribe of Judah, 5 km west northwest of Hebron.[3] Archaeological finds in the vicinity of the hill site include remains of an ancient road, a well to the west, cisterns, and rock-cuttings.[4] Some, but not all, experts identify this now with the modern Arab village established not far from the cite.[5] The Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted : "Evidently an ancient site; there are caves here, with trenches leading down to them, as at Khurbet 'Aziz, and he rock is quarried. An ancient road leads past the village."[6]

Ottoman era

In 1863, in the late Ottoman era, Victor Guérin visited, and found the village to have 400 inhabitants. He also noted that several houses seemed ancient.[7] An Ottoman village list of about 1870 counted 54 houses and a population of 161, though the population count included men only.[8]

In 1883, the SWP described Taffuh as "A village of ancient appearance, standing high at the edge of a ridge ; on the north are the steep slopes of Wady Kedir, in which are olives belonging to the place. An ancient main-road passes through the village, and runs along flat ground to the west for a little way, then descends the ridge. There is a well to the west, with cisterns, caves, and rock-cuttings. The village has vineyards round it, and good springs in the valley to the west."[9]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Taffuh had a population of 461 inhabitants, all Muslims,[10] increasing in the 1931 census to 580, all Muslim, in 124 inhabited houses.[11]

In 1945 the population of Taffuh was 780, all Muslims,[12] who owned 12,103 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[13] 1,073 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,543 for cereals,[14] while 31 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[15]

1948-1967

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

1967-present

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Taffuh has been under Israeli occupation.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 408
  2. ↑ 2007 PCBS Census Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p.119.
  3. ↑ Woudstra, 1981, p. 251
  4. ↑ Bugatti, 2002, p. 59
  5. ↑ Wilkinson, Hill and Ryan, 1988, p. 58, note 13
  6. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 379
  7. ↑ Guérin, 1869, p. 374
  8. ↑ Socin, 1879, p. 161
  9. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 310
  10. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Hebron, p. 10
  11. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 34.
  12. ↑ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 23
  13. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 50
  14. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 94
  15. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 143

Bibliography

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