Wikipedia

Mukhmas

For the Biblical locality, see Michmas.

Mukhmas[a] (Arabic: مُخماس) is a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate, located northeast of Jerusalem, in the center of the West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 1,363 in 2017.[1]

Mukhmas
Municipality type D (Village council)
Arabic transcription(s)
 • Arabicمُخماس
Mikhmas from the west
Mikhmas from the west
Mukhmas is located in State of Palestine
Mukhmas
Mukhmas
Location of Mukhmas within Palestine
Coordinates: 31°52′22″N 35°16′37″E / 31.87278°N 35.27694°E / 31.87278; 35.27694
Palestine grid176/142
StateState of Palestine
GovernorateJerusalem
Government
 • TypeVillage council
Population
 (2017)[1]
 • Total
1,363
Name meaningMichmash [2]

Mukhmas is identified with the biblical Michmas,[2][3] and preserves its ancient name. It is described in historical texts as Jonathan Apphus' seat and for supplying fine flour to the Jerusalem Temple.[3][4] Archaeological fieldwork revealed Iron Age and Second Temple Period remains, indicating a Jewish priestly presence until the Bar Kokhba revolt. Finds also include Byzantine-era remains.[5]

During the early Ottoman period, it was a Muslim village with a small population engaged in agriculture.[6] It was then ruled by the British, the Jordanians and the Israelis. Following the Oslo Accords, Mukhmas' jurisdiction, now under the Palestinian Authority, is divided between Areas B and C.[7]

Location

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Mikhmas is located 11.2 kilometers (7.0 mi) (horizontally) on the highlands north-east of Jerusalem. It is bordered by Deir Dibwan to the north, Burqa to the west, and Jaba' to the south.[8] The Israeli settlement Ma'ale Mikhmas lies to the east.[8]

History

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Antiquity

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Main article: Michmas

Mukhmas is identified with the ancient town of Michmas, and the modern Arabic name preserves the ancient Hebrew name.[2] Its ruins can be found at Khirbet el-Hara el-Fauqa, an archaeological site at the northern edge of the village.[9] Another archeological site, Khirbet ed-Dawwara, a small Iron Age I Israelite ruin dating back to the 11th-10th century BCE, is situated 1.5 km southeast of the village.[10]

Michmas is also mentioned in classical period sources. It was the seat of Jonathan Apphus until 152 BC.[3] According to the Mishnah, Michmas was known for providing fine flour as a gift offering to the Temple in Jerusalem.[4]

Four clusters of tombs including as many as 70 burial caves dating from the Second Temple period were discovered in Mukhmas during the 1980s. On the entrance to one of the caves, a drawing of a seven-branched menorah was found, alongside an inscription written in the Paleo-Hebrew script. Other findings from Mukhmas include an ossuary which bears the name ‘Shimeon L[evi]’ in the Hebrew alphabet. These findings led archeologists to believe that Mukhmas was a Jewish priestly settlement which was populated up until Bar-Kokhba revolt in the early 2nd century CE.[5]

Byzantine period

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Ceramics from the Byzantine era have been found in Mukhmas.[11] Clermont-Ganneau also found Byzantine remains here, speculating that they might be from the convent found by abbot Firminus, a disciple of St. Sabas.[12]

 
Byzantine remains found by Clermont-Ganneau in Mukhmas

The SWP noted about Mikhmas: "In the village are remains of old masonry, apparendy a church. A pillar-shaft is built into a wall in the north-west corner of the village. Two lintel stones are built over the door of another house, one with three crosses in circles, the second with a design apparently cut in half."[13]

Ottoman era

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Mukhmas 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 Al-Quds in the liwa of Al-Quds under the name of Mihmas. It had a population of 24 household;[6] who were all Muslims. They paid a fixed Ziamet tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olive trees, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 2,200 akçe.[6]

In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village, Mukhmas, located in the area immediately north of Jerusalem.[14][15]

In 1863, Victor Guérin observed a great number of sizeable antique stones in the modern houses. About thirty cisterns and silos dug in the rock also dated back to antiquity.[16] An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that Muchmas had 36 houses and a population of 120, though the population count included only men.[17][18]

Clermont-Ganneau visited Mukhmas in 1873 and documented the local funeral traditions. He also mentioned a local maqam named Sultan Ibrahim, alongside rock-cut tombs, irregularly shaped caves, and remnants of hewn stones and sculptures.[19]

In 1883 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Mukhmas as: "A small stone village on the slope of a ridge. The houses are poor and scattered. The water supply is from cisterns. It has a well to the east, and some scattered figs to the west. On the north are rock-cut tombs; an ancient road leads past the place. There are foundations and remains of former buildings in the village; on the south a steep slope leads clown to the great valley, Wady Suweinit. This place is the ancient Michmash, which is placed by the Onomasticon 9 Roman miles from Jerusalem. The distance is 7 1/2 English or 8 Roman miles in a line."[20]

In 1896 the population of Muchmas was estimated to be about 288 persons.[21]

British Mandate era

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In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Mukhmas had a population of 361,[22] increasing in the 1931 census to 404 inhabitants, in 80 houses.[23]

In the 1945 statistics, Mukhmas had a population of 540 Muslims,[24] and a land area of 13,479 dunams.[25] Of this, 569 dunams were designated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,274 for cereals,[26] while 28 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[27]

Jordanian era

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

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 774 inhabitants.[28]

Post 1967

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After the Six-Day War in 1967, Mukhmas has been under Israeli occupation. After the 1995 accords, 6.4% of the village land was classified as Area B, the remaining 93.6% as Area C.[7]

The Israelis have confiscated land in Mukhmas for its military bases, roads, and Israeli settlements, including Sha'ar Binyamin and Ma'ale Mikhmas.[7] According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 1,878 in 2006.[29] In 2010, Israeli Settlers from Ofra and Migron uprooted several hundred olive trees owned by the people of Mukhmas.[7]

The village is subject to settler attacks, invasion of fields and pastures, destruction of trees and violence against residents.[30] The Israeli authorities do not intervene to prevent these attacks and security personnel were witnessed participating in such attacks.[31] In 2011, Israeli settlers from the nearby settlement of Ma'ale Mikhmas set fire to about a hundred olive trees belonging to the people of Mukhmas.[7] in 2017 310 olive trees were uprooted.[32]

A settler attacks peace activists who try to prevent him from entering a private Palestinian field in Mukhmas. June 2024
 
Mukhmas May 24

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Mujmas in the Spanish transcriptions

References

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  1. ^ a b 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.
  2. ^ a b c Palmer, 1881, p. 323
  3. ^ a b c Avi-Yonah, Michael (1976). "Gazetteer of Roman Palestine". Qedem. 5: 77. ISSN 0333-5844. JSTOR 43587090.
  4. ^ a b Amit, D. (2014). Jewish Bread Stamps and Wine and Oil Seals from the Late Second Temple, Mishnaic, and Talmudic Periods. See, I Will Bring a Scroll Recounting what Befell Me (Ps 40: 8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud, pp. 159-174
  5. ^ a b Raviv, Dvir (2018). "A Seven-Branched Menorah Graffito from Kafr Mukhmas". Strata: Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society. 36: 87–99.
  6. ^ a b c Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 116
  7. ^ a b c d e Mikhmas village profile, ARIJ, pp. 16-17
  8. ^ a b "Mikhmas Village Profile" (PDF). The Applied Research Institute (ARI). 2012.
  9. ^ Finkelstein, Israel (2018). Hasmonean realities behind Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. SBL Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-88414-307-9. OCLC 1081371337.
  10. ^ Finkelstein, Israel (1990-09-02). "Excavations at Khirbet Ed-Dawwara: An Iron Age Site Northeast of Jerusalem". Tel Aviv. 17 (2): 163–208. doi:10.1179/tav.1990.1990.2.163. ISSN 0334-4355.
  11. ^ Dauphin, 1998, pp. 841–2
  12. ^ Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, pp. 282-283
  13. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 149
  14. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, 2nd appendix, p. 122
  15. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 2, pp. 115, 117
  16. ^ Guérin, 1869, p. 63
  17. ^ Socin, 1879, p. 158 It was also noted to be in the Bire district
  18. ^ Hartmann, 1883, p. 127, noted 35 houses
  19. ^ Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, vol 2, p. 282
  20. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 12
  21. ^ Schick, 1996, p. 121, also writes that this locality is on Socin, p. 153. That is clearly a typo, this place is on Socin, p. 158 (The number of male inhabitants given in Socin, 120, is correct)
  22. ^ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p. 14
  23. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 41
  24. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 25
  25. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 57
  26. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 103
  27. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 153
  28. ^ Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 24
  29. ^ Projected Mid -Year Population for Jerusalem Governorate by Locality 2004- 2006 Archived 2012-02-07 at the Wayback Machine Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
  30. ^ "Palestinian American beaten by Israeli settlers: Take Action to End Settler Violence".
  31. ^ Hass, Amira (5 April 2024). "Settlement Security Head Joined Brutal Raid of Palestinian Village Near Ramallah". HAARETZ.
  32. ^ "Israeli settlers uproot 310 olive trees in Jerusalem district village". 10 April 2017.

Bibliography

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