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Hajjah
Municipality type D (Village council)
Arabic transcription(s)
• Arabic	حجة
• Latin	Hajjah (official) Haja (unofficial)
HajjahLocation of Hajjah within Palestine
Coordinates: 32°12′17″N 35°07′50″E / 32.20472°N 35.13056°E / 32.20472; 35.13056
Palestine grid	162/179
State	State of Palestine
Governorate	Qalqilya
Government
• Type	Village council
Elevation	409 m (1,342 ft)
Population
• Total	2,659
Name meaning	Kuryet Hajja, The town of Hajja, from personal name, or pathway

Hajjah (Arabic: حجة) is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located eighteen kilometers west of Nablus in the Qalqilya Governorate of the State of Palestine. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 2,659 inhabitants in 2017.

Location

Hajja is located 15.9 kilometers (9.9 mi) east of Qalqiliya. It is bordered by Kafr Qaddum and Immatin to the east, Al Funduq and Jinsafut to the south, Kafr ‘Abbush, Kafr Laqif and Baqat al Hatab to the west, and Kur to the north.

History and archaeology

Potsherds from the Iron Age, Byzantine and Early Muslim periods have been found at Hajja.

Jewish scholars claim that during the Iron Age, Hajjah hosted inhabitants from the Israelite Tribe of Menashe.

Hellenistic to Byzantine period

Magen identified Hajja with Kfar Hagai (כפר חגי), an ancient Samaritan village from the Hellenistic period. A votive inscription of the third or second century BCE from Mount Gerizim, the holiest site in Samaritanism and then the site of a major temple, reads "That which Ḥaggai son of Qimi from Kfar Ḥaggai offered".

In later Samaritan sources, the village is referred to as "Kiryat Hagga (קרית חגה), the current Arabic name being a direct rendition. It was mentioned as the birthplace of Baba Rabba, who built several synagogues in the area, including in the village of Hagga. The Tolidah, a Samaritan historical work, mentions a man named Geber Ben-Karmi of Kiryat Hagga. Mikvehs found in the village indicate that Samaritans inhabited the village during the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods.

Mamluk period

During the reign of the Mamluk sultan An-Nasir Muhammad, in AH 722/1322 CE, a mosque was constructed in the village. A minaret was added to it in AH 735/1334-35 CE. These building were done in the name of Muhammed bin Musa bin Ahmed, a local imam, whose grave stone is also by the mosque, dating his death to AH 749/1348 CE.

Ottoman period

Hajja was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the nahiya of Bani Sa'b of the liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 96 households, all Muslims. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on various agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and/or beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues", a press for olive oil or grape syrup, and a tax for people of the Nablus region; a total of 19,200 akçe. All of the revenues went to a waqf.

In 1838, Robinson noted Kuryet Hajja as a village in Beni Sa'ab district, west of Nablus, while in 1870 Victor Guérin noted it from Fara'ata.

In 1870-71 (AH 1288), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Bani Sa'b.

In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted about Kuryet Hajja: "A good-sized village on high ground, supplied by wells. It has a rock-cut tomb on the west, and appears to be an ancient place."

The village's en-Naby Rabbah shrine, atop a tell. This site was declared a nature reserve in 1986.

British Mandate

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Qariyet Hajjeh had a population of 642 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 731 Muslims, with 206 houses.

In the 1945 statistics, the population was 960 Muslims, with 13,119 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 4 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 1,226 dunams were for plantations or irrigated land, 5,045 were for cereals, while 36 dunams were built-up land.

Jordanian period

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

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,093 inhabitants.

1967-present

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Hajjah has been under Israeli occupation.

After the 1995 accords, 37.2% of village land was assigned as Area B land, while the remaining 62.8% is assigned Area C.

Israel has confiscated 216 dunums of land from Hajja to establish two Israeli settlements, Karne Shomron and Neve Oramin, with the remainder of the land for these two settlements taken from Jinsafut, Kafr Laqif and Deir Istiya). Israel has also confiscated land from Hajja to build bypass roads and the Israeli West Bank barrier.

Demographics

Hajjah is considered the initial center of the Bani Sa'b tribe. Historically, it has absorbed Bedouins from the Arab al-Jabarat group. The current residents of Hajjah trace their ancestry to Egypt, Yemen and Jaffa. They are united in several clans ("hamulas"), including the Bata-Hamed, Masalha, Da'as, Ta'ayun and Farhat clans, among others.

Some families in the village are believed by locals to be the descendants of Samaritan families which had lived in the village until the Middle Ages, when they converted to Islam.

Sites

A tell topped by a shrine, known as en-Naby Rabbah, is situated 419 meters west of the village. Local residents claim that this shrine marks the tomb of a saint, identified as one of Jacob's grandsons. This saint lacks recognition within mainstream Islam, and no tomb is present at the site. Moshe Sharon suggests that the saint's name may preserve the memory of Baba Rabba, a prominent Samaritan leader from the 4th century known for constructing a synagogue at Hajjah. The locals believe that the saint acts as a guardian for their crops. The site and its surroundings were designated as a nature reserve in 1986.

Notable people

• Mahmoud Da'as aka Abu Khalid (1934–2009), high-ranking Palestine Liberation Organisation commander

References

1. ^ Hajja village profile, ARIJ, p. 4
2. ^ Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017 (PDF). Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) (Report). State of Palestine. February 2018. pp. 64–82. Retrieved 2023-10-24.
3. Palmer, 1881, p. 187
4. ^ Erlich (Zhabo), Ze’ev H.; Rotter, Meir (2021). "ארבע מנורות שומרוניות בכפר חג'ה שבשומרון" [Four Samaritan Menorahs from the village of Hajjeh, Samaria]. במעבה ההר. 11 (2). Ariel University Publishing: 188–204. doi:10.26351/IHD/11-2/3.
5. גופנא, ר' ופורת, י', 1972 .הסקר בארץ אפרים ומנשה. בתוך: מ' כוכבי (עורך), יהודה שומרון וגולן: סקר ארכיאולוגי בשנת תשכ"ח. ירושלים, עמ' 195–241.
6. Dauphin, 1998, p. 798
7. מגן ואחרים 2000 מגן, י', צפניה, ל' ומשגב, ח', 2000 .הכתובות העבריות והארמיות מהר גריזים. קדמוניות 120 ,עמ' 125–132 Mount Gerizim Excavations, Volume 1: The Aramaic, Hebrew and Samaritan Inscriptions.
8. Gudme, Anne Katrine de Hemmer (2013). Before the God in this Place for Good Remembrance: A Comparative Analysis of the Aramaic Votive Inscriptions from Mount Gerizim. De Gruyter. p. 74. ISBN 978-3-11-030118-2. OCLC 858213282.
9. Taylor, J. (1993). Christians and the Holy Places: The Myth of Jewish-Christian Origins. Clarendon Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-19-814785-5.
10. Conder, 1876, p. 196
11. Sharon (2013), pp. 270-277.
12. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 139
13. Robinson and Smith (1841), vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 127.
14. Guérin (1875), p. 180.
15. Grossman, David (2004). Arab Demography and Early Jewish Settlement in Palestine. Jerusalem: Magnes Press. p. 255.
16. Conder and Kitchener (1882), SWP II, p. 166.
17. Barron (1923), Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p. 24.
18. Mills (1932), p. 61.
19. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 18.
20. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi (1970), p. 59.
21. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi (1970), p. 106.
22. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi (1970), p. 156.
23. Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 25.
24. ^ Hajja village profile, ARIJ, p. 17.
25. Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 353
26. Tal, Uri (2023). Muslim Shrines. Yad Ben-Zvi. p. 151. ISBN 978-965-217-452-9.

Bibliography

• Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
• Conder, C.R. (1876). "Samarian Topography". Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund. 8 (4): 182–197. doi:10.1179/peq.1876.8.4.182.
• Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
• Dauphin, C. (1998). La Palestine byzantine, Peuplement et Populations. BAR International Series 726 (in French). Vol. III : Catalogue. Oxford: Archeopress. ISBN 0-860549-05-4.
• Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics (1964). First Census of Population and Housing. Volume I: Final Tables; General Characteristics of the Population (PDF).
• Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945.
• Guérin, V. (1875). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 2: Samarie, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
• Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
• Hütteroth, W.-D.; Abdulfattah, K. (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
• Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
• Palmer, E.H. (1881). 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. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
• Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. Vol. 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
• Sharon, M. (2013). Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, H-I. Vol. 5. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-25097-0.

External links

• Welcome to Hajja
• Hajjah, Welcome to Palestine
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11: IAA, Wikimedia commons
• Hajja village (fact sheet), Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
• Hajja village profile, ARIJ
• Hajja, aerial photo, ARIJ
• Development Priorities and Needs in Hajja, ARIJ

v t e Qalqilya Governorate
Cities	Qalqilyah
Municipalities	Azzun (Islah • ‘Izbat at Tabib) Hableh (al-Daba) Kafr Qaddum Kafr Thulth (Arab al-Khouleh)
Villages	Arab Abu Farda Arab ar-Ramadin al-Janubi Arab ar-Ramadin ash-Shamali Azzun Atma Baqat al-Hatab Beit Amin Falamya Hajjah Immatain (Fara'ata) Izab al-Gharbiyah Jayyous (Khirbet Sir) Jinsafut (al-Funduq) Jit Kafr Laqif Nabi Ilyas Ras Atiya (Ras at-Tira • Wadi ar-Rasha) Sanniriya

• Qalqilya Governorate
• Villages in the West Bank
• Municipalities of the State of Palestine
• Ancient Samaritan settlements