Nabi Rubin
Encyclopedia
Al-Nabi Rubin was a Palestinian
village in central Palestine
, located 14.5 kilometres (9 mi) west of Ramla
, just northeast of Yibna
and 18 kilometres (11.2 mi) south of Jaffa
. The village was situated on the southern banks of Wadi al-Sarar, also known as Sorek Stream, at an elevation of 25 metres (82 ft) below sea level. Nabi Rubin is named after a shrine in the village, believed by Muslim
s to be the tomb of Reuben
. In Sami Hadawi
's 1945 land and population survey, Nabi Rubin had a population of 1,420 inhabitants and a total land area of 31,002 dunam
s, of which 683 were planted with citrus
trees with no built-up area. It was captured by the Israel Defence Force during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
, and the inhabitants were expelled.
s and Muslims prior to it being inhabited. In 1184, it held a fair where Arab merchants from Damascus
traded slaves, Persian and Kurdish-bred horses, weapons, and blades from Yemen
and India
, with Christian
s from Acre
. This trade continued until wars between the Mamluk
s and Crusaders commenced in the 13th century.
The Mamluk governor of Jerusalem built a mosque and shrine there in the early 15th century. Islamic judge
Mujir ad-Din
wrote in 1495 it "is a tomb of our Reuben," thereon crystallizing in local Muslim tradition that the site is the burial place of Reuben
, son of Jacob
and Leah
. Despite popular belief, the tomb may possibly be that of an Arab sheikh
.
Walid Khalidi
writes that it is believed that the shrine for al-Nabi Rubin was built in the same place where a Canaan
ite temple had once stood, and that the mawsim ("religious festival") itself was pagan in origin. The Nabi Rubin mawsim was one of two prominent mawsims for Old Testament
prophets in Palestine—the other being dedicated to Nabi Musa
("the prophet Moses
") near Jericho
.
The site comprised a mosque, a minaret
, (now demolished), and a maqam, as well as at least nine wells dispersed in the sand dunes nearby. The oldest part of the present structure is the maqam, which, according to an inscription, was built under the orders of the governor Timraz al-Mu'ayyadi between 1436 and 1437 C.E. A cross-vaulted room to the east was built slightly later, possibly in the 16th century. The rest of the complex was built in the later Ottoman period, probably in the 19th century.
Since at least the 17th century, Muslims from Jaffa
, Ramla
, Lydda
, and the towns and villages surrounding these cities, flocked to Nabi Rubin to celebrate the mawsim. In 1816, an English traveler, Irby, visited the "Sheik Rubin´s tomb, surrounded by a square wall, inclosing some trees". He also describes that [local] people paid vows at the shrine and celebrated festivals there. Up to 30,000 people made the pilgrimage annually throughout the month of August. Temporary coffeehouses, restaurants, and stalls selling food and other merchandise were set up, and people sang popular songs, — both religious and nationalist — and danced the traditional dabka. Sufi dervishes held dhikr
sessions, and pilgrims also watched horse races, magic shows and listened to sermons from imam
s and poets. City wives, who virtually never socialized outside households, in particular "craved participation in the festival," and Tawfiq Canaan
writes that they would announce to their husbands "Either you take me to Nabi Rubin, or you divorce me." In 1933, during the Nabi Rubin celebrations, Arabs went on strike and rioted against British Mandatory rule. The first Palestinian film
, a 1935 documentary, was also presented at the Nabi Rubin festivals. The writer S. Yizhar
, who as a child sneaked over the sands from his home in Rehovot
, later described:
tribe who used dwell in the Sinai Peninsula
. In 1944, a boy's school was built, and by 1946 it had an enrollment of 55 pupils. The village's land area, most of which was covered by sand dunes, was the second largest in the district after that of Yibna
, and was designated as an Islamic waqf
("pious endowment"). Some of the houses, which were scattered across the site without any discernible nucleus, were also built inside the fruit orchards. Shops, as well as a movie theater
, were built in the neighborhood of the shrine. The villagers worked in agriculture and animal husbandry; they also catered to the visitors during the mawsim. They cultivated mainly grain, followed by citrus
and other fruits, such as fig
s and grape
s. In 1944-45 a total of 683 dunums was devoted to citrus and banana cultivation, and 4357 dunums were allocated to cereals. Another 184 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.
Nabi Rubin was located in a region which was targeted by Haganah
´s "Operation Lightning" (Mivtza Barak
) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
, which aimed to force the Arab inhabitants to move. During the 10–12 May 1948, units of the Ephraim sub-district, apparently without success, repeatedly mortared and raided Nabi Rubin, with the aim of forcing evacuation.
On June 1, 1948, Israel
's Giv'ati Brigade captured the village in the second stage of Operation Barak
. Upon its capture, most of its inhabitants were expelled, except for a few who stayed until the harvest season to collect oranges, but they too were later expelled. On the 24 August, the Giv'ati Brigade HQ issued the order for Mivtza Nikayon (Operation Cleaning), aiming at ´cleansing [letaher]´the newly conquered area which included Nabi Rubin. Any armed units were to be destroyed, and any Arab civilians expelled. The operation took place on 28 August, and they "killed 10 Arabs, wounded three and captured 3". There were no IDF
casualties.
According to Salman Abu-Sitta
, in 1998, there were 10,116 Palestinian refugee
s from Nabi Rubin or their descendants.
Walid Khalidi
describes Nabi Rubin after its capture:
The shrine of Reuben remained abandoned and deteriorated gradually; by 1991, the minaret of the mosque
was torn down, as were centuries-old mulberry
trees that had been located in the courtyard. Eventually, the shrine was reconsecrated as a Jewish holy site (although Jews have traditionally placed Reuben's tomb in the Lower Galilee). The green curtain with the script "There is no god, but God, and Rubin is his prophet" which had been laid on the tomb was replaced by a red one with "Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength."
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
village in central Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, located 14.5 kilometres (9 mi) west of Ramla
Ramla
Ramla , is a city in central Israel. The city is predominantly Jewish with a significant Arab minority. Ramla was founded circa 705–715 AD by the Umayyad Caliph Suleiman ibn Abed al-Malik after the Arab conquest of the region...
, just northeast of Yibna
Yibna
Yibna was a Palestinian village of 5,420 inhabitants, located 15 kilometers southwest of Ramla. Yibna was occupied by Israeli forces on June 4, 1948, and was depopulated during the military assault and expulsion.-History:...
and 18 kilometres (11.2 mi) south of Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
. The village was situated on the southern banks of Wadi al-Sarar, also known as Sorek Stream, at an elevation of 25 metres (82 ft) below sea level. Nabi Rubin is named after a shrine in the village, believed by Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s to be the tomb of Reuben
Reuben (Bible)
According to the Book of Genesis, Reuben or Re'uven was the first and eldest son of Jacob with Leah. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Reuben.-Etymology:...
. In Sami Hadawi
Sami Hadawi
Sami Hadawi was a Palestinian scholar and author. He is known for documenting the effects of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on the Arab population in Palestine and published statistics for individual villages prior to Israel's establishment. Hadawi worked as a land specialist until he was exiled from...
's 1945 land and population survey, Nabi Rubin had a population of 1,420 inhabitants and a total land area of 31,002 dunam
Dunam
A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum, dynym, dulum was a non-SI unit of land area used in the Ottoman Empire and representing the amount of land that can be plowed in a day; its value varied from 900–2500 m²...
s, of which 683 were planted with citrus
Citrus
Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...
trees with no built-up area. It was captured by the Israel Defence Force during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
, and the inhabitants were expelled.
History
Nabi Rubin was a place of trade between CrusaderCrusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
s and Muslims prior to it being inhabited. In 1184, it held a fair where Arab merchants from Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
traded slaves, Persian and Kurdish-bred horses, weapons, and blades from Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, with Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s from Acre
Acre, Israel
Acre , is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country....
. This trade continued until wars between the Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
s and Crusaders commenced in the 13th century.
The Mamluk governor of Jerusalem built a mosque and shrine there in the early 15th century. Islamic judge
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
Mujir ad-Din
Mujir al-Din al-'Ulaymi
Mujīr al-Dīn al-'Ulaymī , often simply Mujir al-Din, was a Jerusalemite qadi and Arab historian whose principal work chronicled the history of Jerusalem and Hebron in the Middle Ages. Entitled al-Uns al-Jalil bi-tarikh al-Quds wal-Khalil Mujīr al-Dīn al-'Ulaymī (Arabic: ) (1456–1522), often...
wrote in 1495 it "is a tomb of our Reuben," thereon crystallizing in local Muslim tradition that the site is the burial place of Reuben
Reuben (Bible)
According to the Book of Genesis, Reuben or Re'uven was the first and eldest son of Jacob with Leah. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Reuben.-Etymology:...
, son of Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
and Leah
Leah
Leah , as described in the Hebrew Bible, is the first of the two concurrent wives of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob and mother of six of sons whose descendants became the Twelve Tribes of Israel, along with at least one daughter, Dinah. She is the daughter of Laban and the older sister of Rachel, whom...
. Despite popular belief, the tomb may possibly be that of an Arab sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
.
Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is General Secretary and co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an independent research and publishing center...
writes that it is believed that the shrine for al-Nabi Rubin was built in the same place where a Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
ite temple had once stood, and that the mawsim ("religious festival") itself was pagan in origin. The Nabi Rubin mawsim was one of two prominent mawsims for Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
prophets in Palestine—the other being dedicated to Nabi Musa
Nabi Musa
Nabi Musa is the name of a site in the Judean desert that popular Palestinian folklore associates with Moses. It is also the name of a seven-day long religious festival that was celebrated annually by Palestinian Muslims, beginning on the Friday before Good Friday in the old Orthodox Greek calendar...
("the prophet Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
") near Jericho
Jericho
Jericho ; is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate and has a population of more than 20,000. Situated well below sea level on an east-west route north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently...
.
The site comprised a mosque, a minaret
Minaret
A minaret مناره , sometimes مئذنه) is a distinctive architectural feature of Islamic mosques, generally a tall spire with an onion-shaped or conical crown, usually either free standing or taller than any associated support structure. The basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery....
, (now demolished), and a maqam, as well as at least nine wells dispersed in the sand dunes nearby. The oldest part of the present structure is the maqam, which, according to an inscription, was built under the orders of the governor Timraz al-Mu'ayyadi between 1436 and 1437 C.E. A cross-vaulted room to the east was built slightly later, possibly in the 16th century. The rest of the complex was built in the later Ottoman period, probably in the 19th century.
Since at least the 17th century, Muslims from Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
, Ramla
Ramla
Ramla , is a city in central Israel. The city is predominantly Jewish with a significant Arab minority. Ramla was founded circa 705–715 AD by the Umayyad Caliph Suleiman ibn Abed al-Malik after the Arab conquest of the region...
, Lydda
Lod
Lod is a city located on the Sharon Plain southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2010, it had a population of 70,000, roughly 75 percent Jewish and 25 percent Arab.The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod...
, and the towns and villages surrounding these cities, flocked to Nabi Rubin to celebrate the mawsim. In 1816, an English traveler, Irby, visited the "Sheik Rubin´s tomb, surrounded by a square wall, inclosing some trees". He also describes that [local] people paid vows at the shrine and celebrated festivals there. Up to 30,000 people made the pilgrimage annually throughout the month of August. Temporary coffeehouses, restaurants, and stalls selling food and other merchandise were set up, and people sang popular songs, — both religious and nationalist — and danced the traditional dabka. Sufi dervishes held dhikr
Dhikr
Dhikr , plural ; ), is an Islamic devotional act, typically involving the repetition of the Names of God, supplications or formulas taken from hadith texts and verses of the Qur'an. Dhikr is usually done individually, but in some Sufi orders it is instituted as a ceremonial activity...
sessions, and pilgrims also watched horse races, magic shows and listened to sermons from imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
s and poets. City wives, who virtually never socialized outside households, in particular "craved participation in the festival," and Tawfiq Canaan
Tawfiq Canaan
Tawfiq Canaan was a pioneering physician, medical researcher, ethnographer and Palestinian nationalist. Born in Beit Jala during the rule of the Ottoman Empire, he served as a medical officer in the Ottoman army during World War I...
writes that they would announce to their husbands "Either you take me to Nabi Rubin, or you divorce me." In 1933, during the Nabi Rubin celebrations, Arabs went on strike and rioted against British Mandatory rule. The first Palestinian film
Cinema of Palestine
Palestinian cinema is relatively young in comparison to Arab cinema as a whole, many Palestinian movies are made with European and Israeli funding and support. Palestinian movies are not exclusively produced in Arabic and some are made in English, French and Hebrew...
, a 1935 documentary, was also presented at the Nabi Rubin festivals. The writer S. Yizhar
S. Yizhar
Yizhar Smilansky , better known by his pen name S. Yizhar , was an Israeli writer and a great innovator in modern Hebrew literature.His pen name was given to him by the poet and editor Yitzhak Lamdan, when in 1938 he published Yizhar's first story Ephraim Goes Back to Alfalfa in his literary...
, who as a child sneaked over the sands from his home in Rehovot
Rehovot
Rehovot is a city in the Center District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2009 the city had a total population of 112,700. Rehovot's official website estimates the population at 114,000.Rehovot was built on the site of Doron,...
, later described:
"One finally arrives at Nabi Rubin and its mosque in the center, to watch by the light of bonfires...or even electricity from portable generators, the performance of the dances, the whirling of the dervishes, the colorful candy wrappers,...the pot-bellied swaying Gypsy woman ....while on the side, the singing keeps sawing away all time, not ceasing until the depths of night..."
The village
The village of Nabi Rubin was first settled by members of the Abu Sawayrih tribe in the 1930s and '40s who are descendants of the al-Maliha BedouinBedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
tribe who used dwell in the Sinai Peninsula
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...
. In 1944, a boy's school was built, and by 1946 it had an enrollment of 55 pupils. The village's land area, most of which was covered by sand dunes, was the second largest in the district after that of Yibna
Yibna
Yibna was a Palestinian village of 5,420 inhabitants, located 15 kilometers southwest of Ramla. Yibna was occupied by Israeli forces on June 4, 1948, and was depopulated during the military assault and expulsion.-History:...
, and was designated as an Islamic waqf
Waqf
A waqf also spelled wakf formally known as wakf-alal-aulad is an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law, typically denoting a building or plot of land for Muslim religious or charitable purposes. The donated assets are held by a charitable trust...
("pious endowment"). Some of the houses, which were scattered across the site without any discernible nucleus, were also built inside the fruit orchards. Shops, as well as a movie theater
Cinema of Palestine
Palestinian cinema is relatively young in comparison to Arab cinema as a whole, many Palestinian movies are made with European and Israeli funding and support. Palestinian movies are not exclusively produced in Arabic and some are made in English, French and Hebrew...
, were built in the neighborhood of the shrine. The villagers worked in agriculture and animal husbandry; they also catered to the visitors during the mawsim. They cultivated mainly grain, followed by citrus
Citrus
Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...
and other fruits, such as fig
Ficus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
s and grape
Grape
A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...
s. In 1944-45 a total of 683 dunums was devoted to citrus and banana cultivation, and 4357 dunums were allocated to cereals. Another 184 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.
Capture by Israel
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
´s "Operation Lightning" (Mivtza Barak
Operation Barak
Operation Barak was a Haganah offensive launched just before the end of the British Mandate in Palestine. It was part of Plan Dalet. Its objective was to capture villages North of Gaza in anticipation of the arrival of the Egyptian army...
) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
, which aimed to force the Arab inhabitants to move. During the 10–12 May 1948, units of the Ephraim sub-district, apparently without success, repeatedly mortared and raided Nabi Rubin, with the aim of forcing evacuation.
On June 1, 1948, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's Giv'ati Brigade captured the village in the second stage of Operation Barak
Operation Barak
Operation Barak was a Haganah offensive launched just before the end of the British Mandate in Palestine. It was part of Plan Dalet. Its objective was to capture villages North of Gaza in anticipation of the arrival of the Egyptian army...
. Upon its capture, most of its inhabitants were expelled, except for a few who stayed until the harvest season to collect oranges, but they too were later expelled. On the 24 August, the Giv'ati Brigade HQ issued the order for Mivtza Nikayon (Operation Cleaning), aiming at ´cleansing [letaher]´the newly conquered area which included Nabi Rubin. Any armed units were to be destroyed, and any Arab civilians expelled. The operation took place on 28 August, and they "killed 10 Arabs, wounded three and captured 3". There were no IDF
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
casualties.
According to Salman Abu-Sitta
Salman Abu-Sitta
Salman H. Abu Sitta is a Palestinian researcher and writes about Palestinian refugees and the Palestinian right of return.-Biography:Abu-Sitta was born in Beersheba Salman H. Abu Sitta (Arabic سلمان ابو ستة)(born 1938) is a Palestinian researcher and writes about Palestinian refugees and the...
, in 1998, there were 10,116 Palestinian refugee
Palestinian refugee
Palestinian refugees or Palestine refugees are the people and their descendants, predominantly Palestinian Arabic-speakers, who fled or were expelled from their homes during and after the 1948 Palestine War, within that part of the British Mandate of Palestine, that after that war became the...
s from Nabi Rubin or their descendants.
Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is General Secretary and co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an independent research and publishing center...
describes Nabi Rubin after its capture:
The shrineShrineA shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
of al-Nabi Rubin stands amid shrubs and other wild vegetation. A minaretMinaretA minaret مناره , sometimes مئذنه) is a distinctive architectural feature of Islamic mosques, generally a tall spire with an onion-shaped or conical crown, usually either free standing or taller than any associated support structure. The basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery....
that has three lancet-arched entrances stands at one end of it. A number of minor shrines built of large stones also remain. Near the shrine is a deserted, free-standing cement structure that consists of a single, box-shaped room.
The shrine of Reuben remained abandoned and deteriorated gradually; by 1991, the minaret of the mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
was torn down, as were centuries-old mulberry
Mulberry
Morus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae. The 10–16 species of deciduous trees it contains are commonly known as Mulberries....
trees that had been located in the courtyard. Eventually, the shrine was reconsecrated as a Jewish holy site (although Jews have traditionally placed Reuben's tomb in the Lower Galilee). The green curtain with the script "There is no god, but God, and Rubin is his prophet" which had been laid on the tomb was replaced by a red one with "Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength."
See also
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict
- Nabi MusaNabi MusaNabi Musa is the name of a site in the Judean desert that popular Palestinian folklore associates with Moses. It is also the name of a seven-day long religious festival that was celebrated annually by Palestinian Muslims, beginning on the Friday before Good Friday in the old Orthodox Greek calendar...
- Nabi SalihNabi SalihNabi Salih is a small Palestinian village of over 530 in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the central West Bank.-Shrine of Salih:The residents of Nabi Salih identify a blue-color-domed building complex with the shrine of the prophet Salih . It was built in the 19th century during Ottoman...
External links
- Welcome To al-Nabi Rubin
- al-Nabi Rubin, at Khalil Sakakini Cultural CenterKhalil Sakakini Cultural CenterKhalil Sakakini Cultural Center is an organization established in 1996. It is located at 4 Raja Street, Ramallah in the West Bank. The traditional manor that houses the centre was the former family home of Khalil Salem Salah, the mayor of Ramallah between 1947/1951, is now owned by the Palestinian...