Attil

Attil
Other transcription(s)
  Arabic عتيل

View of Attil, 2007
Attil

Location of Attil within the Palestinian Territories

Coordinates: 32°22′09.78″N 35°04′18.49″E / 32.3693833°N 35.0718028°E / 32.3693833; 35.0718028Coordinates: 32°22′09.78″N 35°04′18.49″E / 32.3693833°N 35.0718028°E / 32.3693833; 35.0718028
Palestine grid 156/197
Governorate Tulkarm
Government
  Type Municipality
Area
  Jurisdiction 7,337 dunams (7.3 km2 or 2.8 sq mi)
Population (2007)
  Jurisdiction 9,038
Name meaning Attil, "severe"[1]

Attil (Arabic: عتيل) is a Palestinian town in the Tulkarm Governorate in the eastern West Bank, located 12 kilometers Northeast of Tulkarm. Attil is the connection point between the other villages and Tulkarm. It is bordered by Illar to the east; Baqa ash-Sharqiyya to the north; The Green Line to the west; and Deir al-Ghusun to the south. Mountains surrounding the town include the Nabhan, Aboora, Asad, and Shehadeh mountains. Attil has an elevation of 100m above Sea level, and an area of 7.337km2.

History

Attil is an ancient village site on a hill at the edge of the plains. Fragmentary mosaic floors and column shafts from a church have been found, together with cisterns dug into the rock, as well as caves.[2]

Ottoman era

Attil, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1596 it was a part of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jabal Sami which was under the administration of the liwa ("district") of Nablus. The village had a population of 59 households, all Muslim, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, occasional revenues, beehives and/or goats, and an olive oil press, or press for grape syrup.[3]

In the late Ottoman period, in 1852, the American scholar Edward Robinson described passing by the villages of Zeita and Jatt on the way to 'Attil. Of 'Attil itself, he writes that it was "a considerable village," located on a hill with plains to the north and south.[4]

In 1863, the French explorer Victor Guérin passed by and noted that the village was also called Deir Attil.[5]

In 1882 the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described the village as being of considerable size, situated on a hill on the edge of the plain, and surrounded by a small olive-grove.[6]

British Mandate era

In a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Attil had a population of 1,656, all Muslims.[7] At the time of the 1931 census of Palestine, Attil, together with Jalama, Al-Manshiyya and Zalafa had a total of 2207 persons, all Muslim except 1 Druze, living in 473 houses.[8]

In 1945 the population of Attil was 2,650 all Arabs, who owned 7,337 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[9] 4,011 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 2,527 used for cereals,[10] while 86 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[11]

Population

Attil had a population of 9,038 in the 2007 census by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.[12] The majority of its people are expatriates living in Jordan, Gulf, the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world.

References

  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 179
  2. Dauphin, 1998, p. 757
  3. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 126
  4. Robinson and Smith, 1856, p. 124.
  5. Guérin, 1875, p. 345
  6. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 151
  7. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Tulkarm, p. 27
  8. Mills, 1932, p. 53
  9. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 74
  10. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 124
  11. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 174
  12. 2007 PCBS census. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). p. 107.

Bibliography

External links

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