Husan

Husan
Other transcription(s)
 • Arabic حوسان
 • Also spelled Hussan (official)
Housan (unofficial)

View of Husan
Husan

Location of Husan within Palestine

Coordinates: 31°42′35.81″N 35°08′01.90″E / 31.7099472°N 35.1338611°ECoordinates: 31°42′35.81″N 35°08′01.90″E / 31.7099472°N 35.1338611°E
Palestine grid 162/124
Governorate Bethlehem
Government
 • Type Municipality
 • Head of Municipality Jamal Sabatin
Area
 • Jurisdiction 7,134 dunams (7.1 km2 or 2.7 sq mi)
Population (2007)
 • Jurisdiction 5,511
Name meaning "Hovering round"[1]

Husan (Arabic: حوسان‎) is a Palestinian town located north of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, nine kilometers west of Bethlehem, in the Bethlehem Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Husan had a population of 5,511 in 2007.[2]

Etymology

In Arabic, "husan" means goodness and beauty. The name may also be derived from Hassan monastery, which later became Husan.[3] In 1881, Edward Henry Palmer wrote that it came from "Hovering round".[1]

History

The oldest remains found in the village date back to the Iron Age. Other remains date from the post-Babylonian Exile Period and the Middle Ages.[4] The original inhabitants came from the Arabian Peninsula and Yemen in the 3rd. century.[3] Ceramics from the Byzantine era have been found.[5]

Ottoman era

Husan, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1596, the village appeared in the tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Quds of the Liwa of Quds. It had an all Muslim population of 12 households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, vineyards and fruit trees, vegetable and fruit garden, orchard, occasional revenues, goats and/or beehives.[6]

When the French explorer Victor Guérin first passed by Husan in June 1863, he noted that it was located on a mountain.[7] Later, in August the same year, he found that it contained only a small number of people, with houses grouped around a tower.[8]

In 1883, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Hausan as a small stone village on a flat ridge, with a steep valley to the north and a well to the south.[9]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Husan had an all Muslim population of 396, 219 males and 177 females.[10] This had increased in the 1931 census to a total of 540, still all Muslim, in 122 houses.[11]

In 1945 the population of Husan was 770, all Arabs, who owned 7,252 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[12] Of this, 1,972 dunams were for cereals,[13] while 37 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[14]

1948-1967

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

post-1967

After Six-Day War in 1967, Husan has been under Israeli occupation. In 1978, Husan had a total land area of 7,134 dunams. Since the establishment of Betar Illit and land expropriations by the Israeli Defense Forces, the town has been downsized to 1,425 dunams.[15]

On October 27, 1996, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy was beaten unconscious by an Israeli settler, after an incidence of alleged stone-throwing at passing vehicles. He died of his injuries the following day.[16]

Education

In 2009, there were five public schools in Husan, two for girls and three for boys, run by the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Palmer, 1881, p. 295
  2. ↑ 2007 PCBS Census Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p.117.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Husan profile
  4. ↑ Hussan Old Core The Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation
  5. ↑ Dauphin, 1998, p. 913
  6. ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 115
  7. ↑ Guérin, 1869, pt. 2, p. 385
  8. ↑ Guérin, 1869, pt. 3, p. 383
  9. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, p. 25
  10. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Bethlehem, p.18
  11. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 36
  12. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 57
  13. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 102
  14. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 152
  15. ↑ Husan: A Palestinian Village Undergoes the Segregation Wall Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem
  16. ↑ UN

Bibliography

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External links