PalestineRemembered About Us Oral History العربية
Menu Pictures Zionist FAQs Haavara Maps
PalestineRemembered.com Satellite View Search Donate Contact Us Looting 101 العربية
About Us Zionist FAQs Conflict 101 Pictures Maps Oral History Haavara Facts Not Lies Zionism 101 Zionist Quotes

Welcome To Majdal Yaba - مجدل يابا (الصادق) (מג'דל יאבא)

District of al-Ramla
Ethnically cleansed days ago

العربية

Google Earth
Picture for Majdal Yaba Village - Palestine: : قلعة مجدل - قلعة الريان
Gallery (200)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date July 13, 1948
Distance From District 18.5 (km) Northeast of al-Ramla
Elevation 110 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Pre-Nakba Aerial Viewwhat's new
Pre-Nakba Aerial View
Map Location See location #1 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Operation Dani
Attacking Units Second Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade
Defenders Iraqi Army
Exodus Cause Military assault by Zionist troops
Village Temains Majdal Yaba was mostly destroyed with the exception of al-Rayyan family fortress.
Ethnically Cleansing Majdal Yaba inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 25,066
Jewish 596
Public 970
**Total 26,632
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)* Jewish (Dunum)*
Citrus Groves 2,443 38
Irrigated & Plantation 110 0
Planted W/ Cereal 13,348 558
Built up 59 0
Arable 15,901 596
Non-Arable 10,076 0
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1596 44
1922 726
1931 966
1945 1,520
1948 1,763
Est. Refugees 1998 10,828
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses
Year Number of Houses
1931 227
1948 414
Near By Townswhat's new
Kafr Qasem

(N)
Fajja  
   Dayr Ballut
Town's Name Through History The Romans referred to Majdal Yaba by Aphekou Pyrgos, and the Crusades knew it as Casal Mirable. The village was named Majdal al-Sadiq, after one of its chiefs, al-Sadiq, who led al-Rayyan family, whose tomb still exists close to the old fortress.
Schools An elementary school for boys which was founded in 1888, and in 1945 it had an enrollment of 147 students.
Inhabitants Place of Origin The villagers were a branch of the Bani Ghazi tribe, who had immigrated from Transjordan in the 17th century.
Places of Warship One mosque
Shrines / Maqams The tomb of al-Sadiq still exists nearby the fortress.
Nearby Wadies & Rivers The village is close to al-'Awja River.
Archeological Sites al-Rayyan family fortress which remains standing to this date, see Pictures section for details.
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands
Ro'sh ha-'Ayin, 'Enat, Giv'at ha-Shelosha.
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

The village stood on the western slopes of the Nablus Mountains, overlooking the route of a major international highway that ran north-south through Palestine in ancient times: the Via Maris. Majdal Yaba was directly on the eastern side of this route and was also east of a modern highway that ran north from Lydda and then split into two branches, one of which went west to Tel Aviv and Jaffa and another continuing north to Tulkarm. The Lydda-Tulkarm railway line passed about 2 km west of it. The village was given different names in different periods; the Romans called it Aphekou Pyrgos ('tower of Aphec') but the Crusaders knew it as Casal Mirable. Mirable was an important administrative center for the Crusaders until it fell into Muslim hands in 1187. Salah al-Din al-Ayyuba (Saladin) made it a base for raids on the Crusaders positioned on the coast and camped near the castle in 1192. Later the castle was destroyed to prevent its reuse by the Crusaders. The Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1228) called it Majdal Yafa. Its name at this time may have referred to the city of Jaffa (Yafa in Arabic) which, according to al-Hamawi, was close to the village. AI-Hamawi said that the village had a formidable fort. In 1596, Majdal Yaba was a village in the nahiya of Jabal Qubal (liwa' of Nablus) with a population of forty-four. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, as well as on other types of produce, such as goats and beehives.

In the nineteenth century it was named Majdal al-Sadiq, after one of its chiefs, al-Sadiq, the head of the Rayyan family. They were a branch of the Bani Ghazi tribe, who had immigrated from Transjordan in the seventeenth century. In the 1850s the Rayyan family controlled twenty-two villages in the western half of the sub-disctrict of Bilad al-Jamma'in and maintained a fortress-cum-manor in Majdal Yaba. In the mid-1850s, however, they became embroiled in warfare against local competitors and were defeated; by 1860 had lost all of their influence in the region , and even though Majdal Yaba was still their home village it was no longer a center of political power.

In the nineteenth century, Majdal Yaba was a large village situated on high ground above a plain. Robinson said that the village contained a large house for its shaykh, al-Sadiq, in 1852 , and another traveler noted the same thing a decade later. Later in the nineteenth century visitors to the village noticed the remains of a church.

The layout of the village approximated a parallelogram. Its houses, constructed of mud and straw or cement and stone, were built very close to each other, separated only by narrow alleys. Each hara (neighborhood) was inhabited by members of a single hamula and contained a diwan for receiving guests and public meetings. The population was predominantly Muslim. The village had a mosque (built in 1935), a clinic, and a school that was founded in 1888 under Ottoman rule and was reopened in 1920. In the mid-1940s, 147 students were enrolled.

Agriculture constituted the mainstay of the economy. The villagers planted rainfall crops such as wheat, corn, barley, and sesame. They also grew vegetables and tended fruit trees, especially citrus. Their fruit and vegetable crops were irrigated from artesian wells. In 1944/45 a total of 2,443 dunums was devoted to citrus and bananas and 13,085 dunums were allotted to cereals; 110 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The main visible antiquities in the village were the Crusader fortress of Mirabel and Tall Ra's al-'Ayn, which has been excavated. This tell contained artifacts dating from the fourth millennium B.C. The tell was surmounted by an Ottoman fortress, Bina Bashi, that was constructed in 1571.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

On the same day that the town of Ramla was captured, some of the Israeli units involved in Operation Dani (see Abu al-Fadl, Ramla sub-disctrict) were deployed northwards to secure the operation's northern flank. On 12 July 1948, the Second Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade occupied Majdal Yaba, wresting control of the village from the Iraqi forces defending it. The site of the former village of Ra's al-'Ayn (deserted since the 1920s) was occupied the following morning in the same maneuver, and the New York Times reported that the situation of the Iraqi troops in Majdal Yaba, surrounded as they were by Israeli forces, was 'hopeless.' According to the History of the War of Independence, 'The occupation [of the two villages] did not merely lead to the control of the hills lying to the north of the operational zone, it also gave us the springs of Yarkun [the 'Awja River], which had supplied Jerusalem with water in the past.' The same source also noted that Iraqi forces in this sector later tried to recapture the village but were driven back after suffering 'large losses.'

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

The settlement of 'Enat (144165), built in 1922, is on what was traditionally village land. Ro'sh ha-'Ayin (145167), built in 1950, is also on village land, 1 km northwest of the village site. The settlement of Giv'at ha-Shelosha (142167) was moved from its original location to its current location on village land in 1953. Kibbutz Nachshonim (145163), established in 1949, lies nearby to the south but is not on village land.

Village Today

The site is covered with the rubble of the destroyed houses, fig trees, and cactuses. The fortress, an impressive structure with thick, stone walls, still crowns the site. It consists of a long central building that is connected to a number of smaller ones on both ends; it has been abandoned, and parts of it are crumbling. In addition to the fort there is the tomb of al-Sadiq, after whom the village was named. The tomb has a narrow, relatively high entrance and a dome resting on a stone pedestal that is cracking in several places. Part of the village cemetery still remains, and one of the graves is covered by a box-like superstructure

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.

Related Maps Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
خرائط للقضاء توضح حدود القرى والاودية
Town's map on MapQuest
View from satellite
Help us map this town at WikiMapia
Related Links Wikipedia's Page
Facebook Page
Google Search
Google For Images
Google For Videos
More Information مخطط البلد
في كتاب كي لا ننسى
في كتاب بلادنا فلسطين
المزيد من موقع هوية

Bibliography and References

Want to browse more? 80,000 pictures were grouped in these gallaries:

Display Name Clan/Hamolah Country of Residence
Hanadiomar Omar New zarqa, Jordan
Zacharia Ibrahim Sadeq, Rayyan North Carolina, USA
ٍSaher Rayyan - Amman, Jordan
Waelayyoub أيوب -
fidaa ayoub ayyoub -
Ibrahim Talab Sadeq Sadeq North Carolina, USA
Osama Alabed Alabed Oman
Yaser Fahmi Al-Abdi Al-Abdi BC - British Columbia, Canada
محمد عبد القادر ضمرة ضمرة الزرقاء الجديدة
Raneem Essam Omar Sadeq Sadeq, rayan -
Raneem Sadek Sadeq rayan -
Dr. Najat Qazza Qazza Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi
عبدالرحمن عبدالسلام عبدالرحيم حميدان حميدان -
mohamed hameidan vic, Australia
يزن عمر - -
the boss mustafa sadeq sadeq amman, jordan
Soad Abidi - Copenhagen, Denmark
fadi ayoub Ayoub SHJ, UAE
marcell - jordan
محمد العابد العابد عمان, الأردن
Mahmoud Alsele - Amman
اريج عبد الفتاح حميدان حميدان حميدان الشرقية, السعودية
اريج - dammam, saudi arabia
Muradr75 Rayyan Amman, Jordan
المجدلاوي عمر عمان, الاردن
معاذ أيوب أيوب الدوحه, قطر
نائل Nael Abed العابد Copenhagen, Denmark
SAHER RAYYAN RAYYAN AMMAN, JORDAN
منار حميدان - -
malak sami alsadeq majdal alsadeq missouri, u.s.a
hebah sami alsadeq alsadeq missouri, u.s.a
ابو مالك ايوب -
انمار العابد العابد -
Zakaria Hasan AL-Barmakee البرمكي RIYADH, Saudi Arabia
Adli AL-ABED AL-ABED nordland, Norway
محمود عامر حميدان - عمان, الأردن
Ahmad Al-Abed - Amman, Amman
عبد الفتاح حميدان حميدان حميدان الشرقيه, السعوديه
فراس عبد الفتاح حميدان حميدان حميدان الشرقيه, السعوديه
محمد عبد الفتاح حميدان حميدان الشرقيه, السعوديه
عمر الريان الصادق الكويت
abu almeqdad - al khobar, Saudi Arabia
KHALID AYOUB - jordan, jordan
محمد يحيى يحيى الاردن, الاردن
ابو عمار - اونتاريو, كندا
rami السلع عمان
hani f. al-abdi العابد -
jad ajaleh amman, jordan
Mustapha Ayyoub Ayyoub Amman, Jordan
ESSAM OMAR SADEK SADEK FLORIDA, FLORIDA
KHALID RAYYAN - DOHA-QATAR
wajeeh rayyan - -
Muhannad Ayoub Ayoub sharjah, UAE
يامن عليان -
mohab - Shrjah, Shrjah
2la'a smarh smarh zarqa, jordan
Hani Sadeq Rayyan -
Ameen Sadiq - -
abdelhakeem omar zarka
meado al-abed amman, jordan
Abu Omar Dar Elnajeeb -
Adel Rayyan Rayyan Amman, Jordan
Yousef ayyub AYYUB Mass, USA
هشام ضمرة - -
Tawfiq Ayyoub Ayyoub U.A.E
Rami Ayyoub Ayoub Amman, Jordan
Abdul Hadi Sela' Sela' Amman, Jordan
ibraheem rayyan -
Abdellatif Rayan Rayan Virginia, USA
Esam Hijazi Hijazi Kuwait
نشأت حميدان - -
بدر حميدان حميدان ألزرقاء , الاردن
محمد ضمرة الزرقاء, Palestine
AHMAD ALABEDI ONTARIO, CANADA
Moayad Ayoub Kiev, Ukraine
Hafez Alsadeq Alsadeq UAE
Essam Alsadeq UAE
suhail Khadra - Damascus
sami alsadeq alsadeq missouri, u.s.a
ALI AL SADEQ ALSDAEQ GERMANY, 0049
Farhah Al-Damra Damra Zarqa, Jordan
Mohammed Damra - Amman, Jordan
Yaser Al-Abdi Al-Abdi Manchester, UK
Hadil Sadeq Sadeq NSW, Australia
Esam Elayyan - Amman, Jordan
Raed AL-Abidi AL-Abidi Jordan, Jordan
allam sadeq - -
AL Abidi AL-Abidi AMMAN, JORDAN
Mai Alabidi Alabid London, UK
AHMAD ALABED alabed EAST RIFFA, BAHRAINE
Mohammad Al Sela - UAE
Khader Ayyoub zarka, Jordan
anas al-abed - Irbed, jordan
BILAL AL ABED - OMAN, OMAN
3la'a baker PC, Canada
husasam Baker riyadh, k.s.a
عبد الهادي الأعرج السعودية
Raed Al Sila' Al Sila' UAE
Khaled El Sala Sala Khobar, Saudi Arabia
Lana Al-Abidi Al--Abed Irbid , Jordan
Laila Alabidi Alabid UK, United Kingdom
wjeeh hmedan hmedan zarka, Jordan
Ibrahim Ayyoub Ayyoub Ontario, Canada
mohammad ayyoub AYYOUB JORDAN, JORDAN
Majdi Rayyan Rayyan Amman, JORDAN
MURAD - AMMAN, JORDAN
sadek - amman, jordan
Emad Rayan Rayan Virginia, USA
ayman mustafa sadeq sadeq amman, jordan
sadiq sadiq sadiq -
MAHMOUD RAYYAN ALRAYYAN AL, AL
sameeh sadeq - amman
Sameer Rayyan Rayyan Coventry, England
Ahmed Rayyan Rayyan Virginia, USA
Randa Rahmeh Rahmeh Jordan, Amman
Walid Al-Sadeq Al-Sadeq Doha, Qatar
Ibrahim Rayyan Rayyan Coventry, United Kingdom
Rania sadeq Sadeq USA
Khaled Alsadeq Alsadeq Georgia, USA
Qazza Qazza zarka, Jordan
Issam Omar Omar -
AFIF OMAR AAL OMAR -
Ashraf Alsadeq Rayyan -
Mohammad Othman Rayyan -
All Registered Members
Fake Valor: Why Did Zionist Jews Hoist Nazis Flag on Their Ships in the 1930s?

What is new?