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DayrAban Village Communities
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Village History

DayrAban was a Palestinian village west of Jerusalem, on the lower slope of a high ridge east of Bayt Nattif. Its name traces to the Aramaic for "the monastery of Aban." A fuller, sourced history follows.

21 km west of Jerusalem
≈127 people recorded in 1596
2,100 population in 1945
22,734 dunams of village land
5,000+ descendants today
  1. Antiquity

    Abenezer

    The site on the western approaches to Jerusalem has been settled since antiquity and has been identified by some scholars with the biblical Eben-Ezer.

  2. The name

    "The Monastery of Aban"

    The name "DayrAban" comes from Aramaic. "Dayr" means a dwelling place or monastery, giving the sense of "the Monastery of Aban" — a trace of an early Christian presence in the village.

  3. 1596

    An Ottoman tax register

    Under Ottoman rule the village lay in the nahiya of Jerusalem. Tax records list 23 Muslim and 23 Christian households — roughly 127 people — paying dues on wheat, barley, olives, vineyards, fruit, goats and beehives.

  4. 1635–1650

    A community converts to Islam

    A series of conversion certificates dated 1635, 1649 and 1650 record the village's Christian families gradually adopting Islam.

  5. 1838

    Recorded as a Muslim village

    The biblical scholar Edward Robinson noted DayrAban as a Muslim village in the el-Arkub district.

  6. 1863

    "A large village"

    The French explorer Victor Guérin described DayrAban as a large village, with the adjacent valley sown with sesame.

  7. 1896–1931

    Steady growth

    The population rose from about 921 in 1896 to 1,214 at the 1922 census, and to 1,534 people in 321 houses by 1931.

  8. 1945

    At its height

    The village numbered about 2,100 people (2,090 Muslims and 10 Christians) and held 22,734 dunams of land, watered in part by a pipeline from the spring of 'Ayn Marjalayn, 5 km to the east. It had a mosque and three nearby archaeological sites — Khirbat Jinna'ir, Khirbat Haraza and Khirbat al-Suyyagh.

  9. 17 Jan 1948

    Surrounded

    In the early weeks of the 1948 war an armed force encircled DayrAban together with the neighbouring villages of Zakariyya and Bayt Nattif.

  10. 19–20 Oct 1948

    Depopulation

    The village was depopulated following a military assault during Operation Ha-Har.

  11. Today

    A village remembered

    The localities of Tzora, Mahseya, Yish'i and parts of Beit Shemesh now stand on the village lands. More than 5,000 descendants of DayrAban live today, many in Jordan — the community this site exists to reconnect.

Sources