Imwas
Encyclopedia
Imwas was a Palestinian
Arab
village located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southeast of the city of Ramla
and 26 kilometres (16.2 mi) from Jerusalem in the Latrun
salient
of the West Bank
. Often identified with the biblical Emmaus
, over the course of two millennia, Imwas was intermittently inhabited and was ruled by the Romans
(including the Byzantines
), Arab
caliphate
s, Crusaders
, Ottomans
, and the British
, as part of the Mandate in Palestine. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
, Imwas fell under Jordanian control
. Its population at the time was predominantly Arab Muslim
, though there was an Arab Christian minority.
Captured by the Israeli Defense Forces during the Six-Day War
on June 7, 1967 along with the neighbouring villages of Yalo
and Bayt Nuba, Imwas was depopulated and then destroyed on the orders of Yitzhak Rabin
. Reports of its destruction caused a minor controversy abroad. The residents of the three villages were offered compensation but were not allowed to return. Today the area of the former village lies within Canada Park
, which was established by the Jewish National Fund
in 1973.
literary sources indicate the name is also pronounced 'Amwās and 'Amawās, the latter being form transcrbied by the Syria
n geographer Yakut
(1179–1229) drawing from earlier sources. At the time of Jerome
, when the city was known as Nicopolis
, Charles Clermont-Ganneau notes that it was still also known by the Greek
forms of 'Ammaôs or 'Emmaus, both beginning with an 'āyin
. Moshe Sharon, drawing upon this observation concludes that the Arabic
name more faithfully approximates the town's original ancient name when compared against the name as transcribed in the Talmud
, where it begins with an 'alef
.
appeared to a group of his disciples, including Cleopas
, after his death and resurrection. Emmaus is also mentioned in the first Book of the Maccabees
as the site where Judas Maccabeus
defeated the Syrian General Gorgias
in the 2nd century BCE. It was subsequently fortified by Bacchides in 160 BCE, and replaced Gezer
as the head of a toparchy in 47 BCE. Edward Robinson
relates that its inhabitants were enslaved by Cassius
, while Josephus
relates that the city was burned to the ground by Varus
after the death of Herod
in 4 BCE.
Reduced to a small market-town, its importance was recognized by the Emperor Vespasian
who established a fortified camp there in 68 CE to house the fifth ("Macedonian") legion. In 131 CE, the city was destroyed by an earthquake. It was rebuilt and renamed Nicopolis ("City of Victory") by Elagabalus
in 221 CE, becoming the chief polis
in a region that bore its name. Robinson writes that the town was rebuilt "by the exertions of the writer Julius Africanus
." In 222 CE, a basilica
was erected there, which was rebuilt first by the Byzantines and later by the Crusaders. In the 4th century, the city served as an episcopal see
. Remains of a Samaritan
synagogue
point the presence of a Samaritan
community in Imwas in the late Roman period.
Described by Eusebius of Caesarea
in his Onomasticon, Jerome
is also thought to have referred to the town and the building of a shrine-church therein, when he writes that the Lord "consecrated the house of Cleopas as a church." In the 5th century, a second tradition associated with Emmaus emerges in the writings of Sozomen
, who mentions a fountain outside the city where Jesus and his disciples bathed their feet, thus imbuing it with curative powers.
in the 7th century, a military camp was established at Imwas, which formed part of the newly created administrative district of Jund al-Urrdun (District of Jordan). This military camp, among others established in Tiberias and Homs
, was made up of Arabian soldiers who were soon to become citizens of the newly conquered areas. The soldiers brought their wives and concubines to the camps, some of whom, according to Philip Hitti, were no doubt captured native women. The governmental framework of the Byzantine
era was preserved, though a commander-in-chief/governor-general was appointed from among the new conquerors to head the government, combining executive, judicial and military roles in his person.
In 639, a plague
which began in Imwas and spread out from there, ended up killing some 20,000 people, including the commander-in-chief Abu Ubaydah
, and his successor Yazid
. The caliph
Umar
appointed Yazid's younger brother Mu'awiyah to the position of commander-in-chief in 640, and he served as the governor of Syria for 20 years before becoming the caliph himself. Studies on the impact of the plague note that it was responsible for a massive depopulation of the countryside, with the consequence that the new Arab rulers, particularly under the Umayyad
caliphate which followed, were prompted to intervene more directly in the affairs of these areas than they had intended. Until as late as the 19th century, a well in the village was known locally as Bir at-Taun ("the plague well"), its name suggesting a derivation from these events.
In 723, Willibald
of Eichstätt
visited Imwas. In his writings, he notes that the church, which he thought lay over the house of Cleopas, was still intact; he also recalls and describes the miraculous water source mentioned by Sozomen. Hugeburc von Heidenheim
, a nun who visited Palestine in the 8th century, mentions both the church and the fountain in Imwas in her work on The Life of St. Willibald. By the 9th century, the administrative districts had been redrawn and Imwas was the capital of a sub-district within the larger district of Jund Filastin
. The Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi
(c. 945-1000), recalls that Imwas had been the capital of its province, while noting, "that the population [was] removed therefrom to be nearer to the sea, and more in the plain, on account of the wells
."
By 1009, the church in Imwas had been destroyed by Yaruk, the governor of Ramla
, after the Fatamid caliph of Egypt
, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
, ordered the destruction of Christian sites, affecting some 30,000 churches in the territory under his rule. Carsten Peter Thiede
describes this destruction and other acts of suppression against Christian worship as one of the main impetuses behind the First Crusade
, in which, "Saving Christian sites and guaranteeing access to them was paramount."
, describing the arrival of the armies of the First Crusade to Imwas from Ramla
in 1099, notes the abundance of water and fodder
available at the site. Throughout the 12th century, Imwas continued to be identified as the Biblical Emmaus by Eastern Orthodox Christians. For example, in 1106-7, Abbot Daniel
writes of Imwas: "Once there was a large village here, and a church was built here, but now all is destroyed by the pagans and the village of Emmaus in empty. It was near the road beyond the mountains on the right hand as you go from Jerusalem to Jaffa
." John Phocas also located Emmaus in the same position. Conversely, Western sources in the late 12th century identified Biblical Emmaus with another village closer to Jerusalem: Qaryat al-'Inab or Abu Ghosh
. Denys Pringle and Peter E. Leach attribute the reasons for this shift as stemming from a difference in the description of the distance between Emmaus and Jerusalem in the Gospel texts, versus the distance as transribed in the earliest Greek Gospel codices. In the Gospel texts, more widely embraced by the West, the distance is transcribed as 60 stades, whereas the Codex Sinaiticus
, which was known to Eusebius and Jerome, places the distance at 160 stades.
The identification of Biblical Emmaus with two villages in the 12th century has led to some confusion among modern historians when apprehending historical documents from this time. Generally-speaking however, Abu Ghosh was referred to by the Latin Biblical name for Emmaus, Castellum Emmaus, whereas Imwas was referred to simply as Emmaus. In 1141, Robert of Sinjil leased the "land of Emmaus", which included Imwas and six other villages, to Raymond of Le Puy
, the master of the Hospitallers for 500 bezant
s a year. In February 1151 or 1152, the terms of the lease were modified and half of the tithe
s from the lands in question were accorded to the Hospitallers by the patriarch of Jerusalem, William. An 1186 reference to a "bailiff of Emmaus" named Bartholomew suggests that the Hospitallers had an established a commandery in Imwas. There is also archaeological and documentary evidence that suggests that the local Eastern Christian population continued to live in Imwas during this time, and likely attended services alongside the Crusaders at the parish church dedicated to St. George which was constructed in the village by the latter on the site of the ruins of the earlier churches.
Imwas was likely abandoned in 1187 and unlike the neighboring villages of Beit Nuba, Yalo
, Yazur
and Latrun
, it is not mentioned in chronicles describing the Third Crusade of 1191-2, and it is unclear whether it was reoccupied by the Hospitallers between 1229 and 1244. The village was re-established just north of where the church had been located.
, which itself stood for almost a century before falling into ruin. In 1596 its population was reported as 24 Muslim families.
Edward Robinson
visited Imwas during his mid-19th century travels in Syria
and Palestine
. He describes it as "a poor hamlet consisting of a few mean houses." He also mentions that there are two fountains of living water and that the one lying just beside the village must be that mentioned by Sozomen in the 5th century, Theophanes
in the 6th, and by Willibald in the 8th. The ruins of the "ancient church" are described by Robinson as lying just south of the built-up area of the village at that time.
Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau
also visited Imwas in the late 19th century and describes a local tradition centered around a bathhouse dating to the Roman era. The upper part of the structure, which protruded above the ground, was known to locals as "Sheikh Obaid" and was considered to be the burial place of Abu Ubayd who succumbed to the plague in 639. The site served as both a religious sanctuary and cemetery until the town's depopulation in 1967.
In 1875, the Carmelites of Bethlehem
acquired the site containing the ruins of the church of Imwas. The debris was removed in 1887-8, and excavations were conducted intermittently from November 1924 to September 1930 by the Ecole Biblique
. In 1884, Dr. C. Shick discovered a baptistry with a well-preserved font dating to the 4th century. The square building housed an apse
and a shallow cruciform
basin where it is thought that those undergoing baptismal rites would stand.
, the village held strategic importance due to its location on the Latrun salient, affording control over the road to Jerusalem. Arab Liberation Army
forces were there from April to the middle of May until the arrival of the Arab Legion
. Israeli forces attacked the position several times but failed to gain control during the Battle of Latrun.
In 1961 the village had a population of 1,955 mostly Arab
Muslim
s with a minority of 40 Arab Christians. The total land area of the village consisted of 5,167 dunum
s, of which 4218 dunums were cultivable.
Imwas was taken and destroyed in June 1967 on the orders of Yitzhak Rabin
due to its strategic location which afforded control over the route to Jerusalem
. Israel further justified the decision citing its residents participation in the Siege of Jerusalem
two decades earlier, and in an attack by Egypt
ian commandos on Lod
just days before the village was taken.
('Nakba' in Hebrew) has lobbied the Jewish National Fund
for permission to post signs designating the Palestinian villages in Canada Park. After petitioning the Israeli High Court, permission was granted. However, subsequently the signs have been stolen or vandalized. On June 23, 2007, Zochrot joined the refugees of the village Imwas for a tour of the remains of their village.
made Imwas the subject of one of his paintings. The work, named for the village, was one of a series of four on destroyed Palestinian villages that he produced in 1988; the others being Yalo
, Bayt Dajan
and Yibna
.
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...
Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
village located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southeast of the city 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...
and 26 kilometres (16.2 mi) from Jerusalem in the Latrun
Latrun
Latrun is a strategic hilltop in the Ayalon Valley in Israel overlooking the road to Jerusalem. It is located 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla.-Etymology:...
salient
Salient
Salient may refer to:* See Salients, re-entrants and pockets for the battlefield feature* Salient , part of a discrete territory projecting out of the main portion, bordered by foreign territory on three sides, into which it projects...
of the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
. Often identified with the biblical Emmaus
Emmaus
Emmaus was an ancient town located approximately northwest of present day Jerusalem...
, over the course of two millennia, Imwas was intermittently inhabited and was ruled by the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
(including the Byzantines
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
), Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
s, Crusaders
Crusaders
The Crusaders are a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Christchurch that competes in the Super Rugby competition. They are the most successful team in Super Rugby history with seven titles...
, Ottomans
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, and the British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, as part of the Mandate in Palestine. After 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...
, Imwas fell under Jordanian control
Rule of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan
The West Bank and East Jerusalem were occupied by Jordan for a period of nearly two decades starting from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In 1950, the British extended formal recognition to the union between the Hashemite Kingdom and of that part of Palestine under Jordanian occupation and control -...
. Its population at the time was predominantly Arab 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...
, though there was an Arab Christian minority.
Captured by the Israeli Defense Forces during the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
on June 7, 1967 along with the neighbouring villages of Yalo
Yalo
Yalo was a Palestinian Arab village located 13 kilometres southeast of Ramla. Identified by Edward Robinson as the ancient Canaanite city of Aijalon, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Jordan formally annexed Yalo along with the rest of the West Bank...
and Bayt Nuba, Imwas was depopulated and then destroyed on the orders of Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
. Reports of its destruction caused a minor controversy abroad. The residents of the three villages were offered compensation but were not allowed to return. Today the area of the former village lies within Canada Park
Canada Park
Canada Park is a national park stretching over 7,000 dunams, mostly in the West Bank, with a portion in the region that was a no man's land before 1967 and incorporated into Israel in 1967. It is maintained by the Jewish National Fund of Canada...
, which was established by the Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...
in 1973.
Etymology
The name of the town was popularly pronounced by its local inhabitants as 'Imwās. ArabicArabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
literary sources indicate the name is also pronounced 'Amwās and 'Amawās, the latter being form transcrbied by the Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n geographer Yakut
Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yāqūt ibn-'Abdullah al-Rūmī al-Hamawī) was an Islamic biographer and geographer renowned for his encyclopedic writings on the Muslim world. "al-Rumi" refers to his Greek descent; "al-Hamawi" means that he is from Hama, Syria, and ibn-Abdullah is a reference to his father's name, Abdullah...
(1179–1229) drawing from earlier sources. At the time of Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
, when the city was known as Nicopolis
Emmaus Nicopolis
Emmaus Nicopolis was the Roman name for a city associated with the Emmaus of the New Testament, where Jesus is said to have appeared after his death and resurrection. In the modern age, the site was the location of the Palestinian Arab village of Imwas, near the Latrun junction, between Jerusalem...
, Charles Clermont-Ganneau notes that it was still also known by the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
forms of 'Ammaôs or 'Emmaus, both beginning with an 'āyin
Ayin
' or ' is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic . It is the twenty-first letter in the new Persian alphabet...
. Moshe Sharon, drawing upon this observation concludes that the Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
name more faithfully approximates the town's original ancient name when compared against the name as transcribed in the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
, where it begins with an 'alef
Aleph
* Aleph or Alef is the first letter of the Semitic abjads descended from Proto-Canaanite, Arabic alphabet, Phoenician alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Syriac alphabet-People:*Aleph , an Italo disco artist and alias of Dave Rodgers...
.
Classical antiquity
Imwas has been identified as the site of ancient Emmaus, where according to the Book of Luke (24:13-35), JesusJesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
appeared to a group of his disciples, including Cleopas
Cleopas
Cleopas was a figure of early Christianity, one of the two disciples who encountered Jesus during the Road to Emmaus appearance in the Gospel of ....
, after his death and resurrection. Emmaus is also mentioned in the first Book of the Maccabees
Books of the Maccabees
The Books of the Maccabees are books concerned with the Maccabees, the leaders of the Jewish rebellion against the Seleucid dynasty, or related subjects.The term mostly refers to two deuterocanonical books contained in some canons of the Bible:...
as the site where Judas Maccabeus
Judas Maccabeus
Judah Maccabee was a Kohen and a son of the Jewish priest Mattathias...
defeated the Syrian General Gorgias
Gorgias (general)
Gorgias was a Syrian-Seleucid General of the 2nd century BC, in the service of Antiochus Epiphanes .-Life:After Judas Maccabeus's forces defeated the Seleucid army at the Battle of Beth Horon, they were determined to send a stronger force against him. According to 1 Maccabees iii. 38, which...
in the 2nd century BCE. It was subsequently fortified by Bacchides in 160 BCE, and replaced Gezer
Gezer
Gezer was a Canaanite city-state and biblical town in ancient Israel. Tel Gezer , an archaeological site midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, is now an Israeli national park....
as the head of a toparchy in 47 BCE. Edward Robinson
Edward Robinson (scholar)
Edward Robinson was an American biblical scholar, known as the “Father of Biblical Geography.” He has been referred to as the “founder of modern Palestinology.” -Biography:...
relates that its inhabitants were enslaved by Cassius
Gaius Cassius Longinus
Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman senator, a leading instigator of the plot to kill Julius Caesar, and the brother in-law of Marcus Junius Brutus.-Early life:...
, while Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
relates that the city was burned to the ground by Varus
Varus
-People:*Publius Attius Varus , Roman governor of Africa.*Publius Quinctilius Varus , politician of the Roman Empire.*Quinctilius Varus -People:*Publius Attius Varus (died 17 March 45 BCE), Roman governor of Africa.*Publius Quinctilius Varus (46 BCE - 9 CE), politician of the Roman...
after the death of Herod
Herod the Great
Herod , also known as Herod the Great , was a Roman client king of Judea. His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis." He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his...
in 4 BCE.
Reduced to a small market-town, its importance was recognized by the Emperor Vespasian
Vespasian
Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
who established a fortified camp there in 68 CE to house the fifth ("Macedonian") legion. In 131 CE, the city was destroyed by an earthquake. It was rebuilt and renamed Nicopolis ("City of Victory") by Elagabalus
Elagabalus
Elagabalus , also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman Emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was Syrian on his mother's side, the son of Julia Soaemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus. Early in his youth he served as a priest of the god El-Gabal at his hometown, Emesa...
in 221 CE, becoming the chief polis
Polis
Polis , plural poleis , literally means city in Greek. It could also mean citizenship and body of citizens. In modern historiography "polis" is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, so polis is often translated as "city-state."The...
in a region that bore its name. Robinson writes that the town was rebuilt "by the exertions of the writer Julius Africanus
Julius Africanus
Julius Africanus was a celebrated orator in the reign of Nero, and seems to have been the son of the Julius Africanus, of the Gallic state of the Santoni, who was condemned by Tiberius in 32 AD. Quintilian, who had heard Julius Africanus, spoke of him and Domitius Afer as the best orators of their...
." In 222 CE, a basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
was erected there, which was rebuilt first by the Byzantines and later by the Crusaders. In the 4th century, the city served as an episcopal see
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
. Remains of a Samaritan
Samaritan
The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism...
synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
point the presence of a Samaritan
Samaritan
The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism...
community in Imwas in the late Roman period.
Described by Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea also called Eusebius Pamphili, was a Roman historian, exegete and Christian polemicist. He became the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine about the year 314. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon...
in his Onomasticon, Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
is also thought to have referred to the town and the building of a shrine-church therein, when he writes that the Lord "consecrated the house of Cleopas as a church." In the 5th century, a second tradition associated with Emmaus emerges in the writings of Sozomen
Sozomen
Salminius Hermias Sozomenus was a historian of the Christian church.-Family and Home:He was born around 400 in Bethelia, a small town near Gaza, into a wealthy Christian family of Palestine....
, who mentions a fountain outside the city where Jesus and his disciples bathed their feet, thus imbuing it with curative powers.
Arab caliphate era
After the conquest of Palestine by forces of the Rashidun CaliphateRashidun Caliphate
The Rashidun Caliphate , comprising the first four caliphs in Islam's history, was founded after Muhammad's death in 632, Year 10 A.H.. At its height, the Caliphate extended from the Arabian Peninsula, to the Levant, Caucasus and North Africa in the west, to the Iranian highlands and Central Asia...
in the 7th century, a military camp was established at Imwas, which formed part of the newly created administrative district of Jund al-Urrdun (District of Jordan). This military camp, among others established in Tiberias and Homs
Homs
Homs , previously known as Emesa , is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is above sea level and is located north of Damascus...
, was made up of Arabian soldiers who were soon to become citizens of the newly conquered areas. The soldiers brought their wives and concubines to the camps, some of whom, according to Philip Hitti, were no doubt captured native women. The governmental framework of the Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
era was preserved, though a commander-in-chief/governor-general was appointed from among the new conquerors to head the government, combining executive, judicial and military roles in his person.
In 639, a plague
Plague of Emmaus
The Plague of Emmaus , also known as the Plague of Amwas, was an outbreak of plague, possibly bubonic plague, that occurred in 639 AD in the town of Emmaus in Palestine. The town had been re-founded as Nicopolis in 221 AD by the Roman Emperor Elagabalus, and was given the title of 'city'...
which began in Imwas and spread out from there, ended up killing some 20,000 people, including the commander-in-chief Abu Ubaydah
Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah
Amir ibn `Abdullah ibn al-Jarrah , more commonly known as Abu 'Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah, was one of the ten companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad who were promised Paradise as mentioned in early Islamic historical accounts and records...
, and his successor Yazid
Yazid
-Given name:* Yazid I , second Umayyad Caliph upon succeeding his father Muawiyah* Yazid II, Umayyad caliph* Yazid III, Umayyad caliph* Yazid Kaïssi, French-born Moroccan footballer* Yazid Mansouri, French-born Algerian footballer...
. The caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
Umar
Umar
`Umar ibn al-Khattāb c. 2 November , was a leading companion and adviser to the Islamic prophet Muhammad who later became the second Muslim Caliph after Muhammad's death....
appointed Yazid's younger brother Mu'awiyah to the position of commander-in-chief in 640, and he served as the governor of Syria for 20 years before becoming the caliph himself. Studies on the impact of the plague note that it was responsible for a massive depopulation of the countryside, with the consequence that the new Arab rulers, particularly under the Umayyad
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
caliphate which followed, were prompted to intervene more directly in the affairs of these areas than they had intended. Until as late as the 19th century, a well in the village was known locally as Bir at-Taun ("the plague well"), its name suggesting a derivation from these events.
In 723, Willibald
Willibald
Saint Willibald was an 8th century bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria.Information about his life is largely drawn from the Hodoeporicon of Saint Willibald, a text written in the 8th century by Huneberc, an Anglo-Saxon nun from Heidenheim am Hahnenkamm who knew Willibald and his brother personally...
of Eichstätt
Eichstätt
Eichstätt is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the District of Eichstätt. It is located along the Altmühl River, at , and had a population of 13,078 in 2002. It is home to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the lone Catholic university in Germany. The...
visited Imwas. In his writings, he notes that the church, which he thought lay over the house of Cleopas, was still intact; he also recalls and describes the miraculous water source mentioned by Sozomen. Hugeburc von Heidenheim
Hygeburg
Hygeburg , also Hugeburc or Huneberc, was an Anglo-Saxon nun at the Abbey of Heidenheim in Germany.Hygeburg was the author of a life of Willibald, the Vita S. Willibaldi, written at some time between 767 and 778. She also produced a life of Willibald's brother Wynnebald, who had been Abbot of...
, a nun who visited Palestine in the 8th century, mentions both the church and the fountain in Imwas in her work on The Life of St. Willibald. By the 9th century, the administrative districts had been redrawn and Imwas was the capital of a sub-district within the larger district of Jund Filastin
Jund Filastin
Jund Filastin was one of several sub-provinces of the Ummayad and Abbasid Caliphate province of Syria, organized soon after the Muslim conquest of Syria in the seventh century. According to al-Biladhuri, the main towns in the district at its capture by the Rashidun Caliphate, were Gaza, Sebastiya,...
. The Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi
Al-Muqaddasi
Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shams al-Din Al-Muqaddasi , also transliterated as Al-Maqdisi and el-Mukaddasi, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of Ahsan at-Taqasim fi Ma`rifat il-Aqalim .-Biography:Al-Muqaddasi, "the Hierosolomite" was born in Jerusalem in 946 AD...
(c. 945-1000), recalls that Imwas had been the capital of its province, while noting, "that the population [was] removed therefrom to be nearer to the sea, and more in the plain, on account of the wells
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
."
By 1009, the church in Imwas had been destroyed by Yaruk, the governor 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...
, after the Fatamid caliph of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
Abu ‘Ali Mansur Tāriqu l-Ḥākim, called Al-Hakim bi Amr al-Lāh , was the sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili imam .- History :...
, ordered the destruction of Christian sites, affecting some 30,000 churches in the territory under his rule. Carsten Peter Thiede
Carsten Peter Thiede
Carsten Peter Thiede was a German archaeologist and New Testament scholar. He was also a member of PEN and a Knight of Justice in the Order of St John. Thiede often advanced theories that conflicted with the consensus of academic and theological scholarship...
describes this destruction and other acts of suppression against Christian worship as one of the main impetuses behind the First Crusade
First Crusade
The First Crusade was a military expedition by Western Christianity to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem...
, in which, "Saving Christian sites and guaranteeing access to them was paramount."
Crusader era
William of TyreWilliam of Tyre
William of Tyre was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from a predecessor, William of Malines...
, describing the arrival of the armies of the First Crusade to Imwas from 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...
in 1099, notes the abundance of water and fodder
Fodder
Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...
available at the site. Throughout the 12th century, Imwas continued to be identified as the Biblical Emmaus by Eastern Orthodox Christians. For example, in 1106-7, Abbot Daniel
Daniel Kievsky
Daniel of Kiev, or in Russian Daniel Kievsky or Daniil Polomnik , was the first travel writer from Kievan Rus.Some have identified him as Daniel, Bishop of Suriev, that flourished 1115 CE to 1122 CE.-Travels:...
writes of Imwas: "Once there was a large village here, and a church was built here, but now all is destroyed by the pagans and the village of Emmaus in empty. It was near the road beyond the mountains on the right hand as you go from Jerusalem to 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:...
." John Phocas also located Emmaus in the same position. Conversely, Western sources in the late 12th century identified Biblical Emmaus with another village closer to Jerusalem: Qaryat al-'Inab or Abu Ghosh
Abu Ghosh
Abu Ghosh is an Israeli Arab town in Israel, located west of Jerusalem on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway. It is situated 610–720 meters above sea level. In 2010, it set the Guinness World Record for largest dish of hummus...
. Denys Pringle and Peter E. Leach attribute the reasons for this shift as stemming from a difference in the description of the distance between Emmaus and Jerusalem in the Gospel texts, versus the distance as transribed in the earliest Greek Gospel codices. In the Gospel texts, more widely embraced by the West, the distance is transcribed as 60 stades, whereas the Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Sinaiticus is one of the four great uncial codices, an ancient, handwritten copy of the Greek Bible. It is an Alexandrian text-type manuscript written in the 4th century in uncial letters on parchment. Current scholarship considers the Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the best Greek texts of...
, which was known to Eusebius and Jerome, places the distance at 160 stades.
The identification of Biblical Emmaus with two villages in the 12th century has led to some confusion among modern historians when apprehending historical documents from this time. Generally-speaking however, Abu Ghosh was referred to by the Latin Biblical name for Emmaus, Castellum Emmaus, whereas Imwas was referred to simply as Emmaus. In 1141, Robert of Sinjil leased the "land of Emmaus", which included Imwas and six other villages, to Raymond of Le Puy
Raymond du Puy de Provence
Raymond du Puy de Provence was a French knight and was the first Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem from 1120 to 1160. A member of a noble and ancient family in Dauphiné, Rochefort and Montbrun, he was also a relative of Adhemar of Le Puy, the papal legate during the First Crusade...
, the master of the Hospitallers for 500 bezant
Bezant
Bezant is a medieval term for a gold coin from the Byzantine Empire, which term is derived from the Greek name Βυζάντιον for the relatively minor city which in the 4th c. became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, renamed Constantinople by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great...
s a year. In February 1151 or 1152, the terms of the lease were modified and half of the tithe
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
s from the lands in question were accorded to the Hospitallers by the patriarch of Jerusalem, William. An 1186 reference to a "bailiff of Emmaus" named Bartholomew suggests that the Hospitallers had an established a commandery in Imwas. There is also archaeological and documentary evidence that suggests that the local Eastern Christian population continued to live in Imwas during this time, and likely attended services alongside the Crusaders at the parish church dedicated to St. George which was constructed in the village by the latter on the site of the ruins of the earlier churches.
Imwas was likely abandoned in 1187 and unlike the neighboring villages of Beit Nuba, Yalo
Yalo
Yalo was a Palestinian Arab village located 13 kilometres southeast of Ramla. Identified by Edward Robinson as the ancient Canaanite city of Aijalon, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Jordan formally annexed Yalo along with the rest of the West Bank...
, Yazur
Yazur
Yazur was an Arab town located east of Jaffa. Mentioned in 7th century BCE Assyrian texts, the village was a site of contestation between Muslims and Crusaders in the 12th century....
and Latrun
Latrun
Latrun is a strategic hilltop in the Ayalon Valley in Israel overlooking the road to Jerusalem. It is located 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla.-Etymology:...
, it is not mentioned in chronicles describing the Third Crusade of 1191-2, and it is unclear whether it was reoccupied by the Hospitallers between 1229 and 1244. The village was re-established just north of where the church had been located.
Ottoman era
Imwas came under the rule of the Ottoman empire in the early 16th century and by the end of that century, the church built by the Crusaders had been converted into a mosqueMosque
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...
, which itself stood for almost a century before falling into ruin. In 1596 its population was reported as 24 Muslim families.
Edward Robinson
Edward Robinson (scholar)
Edward Robinson was an American biblical scholar, known as the “Father of Biblical Geography.” He has been referred to as the “founder of modern Palestinology.” -Biography:...
visited Imwas during his mid-19th century travels in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and 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....
. He describes it as "a poor hamlet consisting of a few mean houses." He also mentions that there are two fountains of living water and that the one lying just beside the village must be that mentioned by Sozomen in the 5th century, Theophanes
Theophanes
-Saints:*Theodorus and Theophanes , called the Grapti, proponents of the veneration of images during the second Iconoclastic controversy*Theophanes the Confessor Byzantine 8th-9th century historian*Theophan the Recluse Russian saint...
in the 6th, and by Willibald in the 8th. The ruins of the "ancient church" are described by Robinson as lying just south of the built-up area of the village at that time.
Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau
Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau
Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau was a noted French Orientalist and archaeologist.-Biography:Clermont-Ganneau was born in Paris, son of a sculptor of some repute...
also visited Imwas in the late 19th century and describes a local tradition centered around a bathhouse dating to the Roman era. The upper part of the structure, which protruded above the ground, was known to locals as "Sheikh Obaid" and was considered to be the burial place of Abu Ubayd who succumbed to the plague in 639. The site served as both a religious sanctuary and cemetery until the town's depopulation in 1967.
In 1875, the Carmelites of Bethlehem
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
acquired the site containing the ruins of the church of Imwas. The debris was removed in 1887-8, and excavations were conducted intermittently from November 1924 to September 1930 by the Ecole Biblique
École Biblique
The École Biblique, strictly the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, is a respected French academic establishment in Jerusalem, founded by Dominicans, and specialising in archaeology and Biblical exegesis.-Foundation:...
. In 1884, Dr. C. Shick discovered a baptistry with a well-preserved font dating to the 4th century. The square building housed an apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
and a shallow cruciform
Cruciform
Cruciform means having the shape of a cross or Christian cross.- Cruciform architectural plan :This is a common description of Christian churches. In Early Christian, Byzantine and other Eastern Orthodox forms of church architecture this is more likely to mean a tetraconch plan, a Greek cross,...
basin where it is thought that those undergoing baptismal rites would stand.
20th century
During the 1948 Palestine War1948 Palestine war
The 1948 Palestine war refers to the events in the British Mandate of Palestine between the United Nations vote on the partition plan on November 30, 1947, to the end of the first Arab-Israeli war on July 20, 1949.The war is divided into two phases:...
, the village held strategic importance due to its location on the Latrun salient, affording control over the road to Jerusalem. Arab Liberation Army
Arab Liberation Army
The Arab Liberation Army , also translated as Arab Salvation Army, was an army of volunteers from Arab countries led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji...
forces were there from April to the middle of May until the arrival of the Arab Legion
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...
. Israeli forces attacked the position several times but failed to gain control during the Battle of Latrun.
In 1961 the village had a population of 1,955 mostly Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
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 with a minority of 40 Arab Christians. The total land area of the village consisted of 5,167 dunum
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 4218 dunums were cultivable.
Imwas was taken and destroyed in June 1967 on the orders of Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
due to its strategic location which afforded control over the route to Jerusalem
Highway 1 (Israel)
Highway 1 , is the main highway connecting Tel Aviv with Jerusalem.-History:The section between Latrun and Jerusalem roughly follows an ancient path connecting Jaffa and Jerusalem...
. Israel further justified the decision citing its residents participation in the Siege of Jerusalem
Siege of Jerusalem (1948)
The Battle for Jerusalem occurred from 30 November 1947 to 11 June 1948 when Jewish and Arab population of Mandatory Palestine and later Israeli and Jordanian armies fought for the control of the city....
two decades earlier, and in an attack by Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian commandos on Lod
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...
just days before the village was taken.
21st century
Since 2003, the Israeli NGO ZochrotZochrot
Zochrot is an Israeli-Jewish non-profit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Palestinian Nakba , the 1948 Palestinian exodus. The group's director is Eitan Bronstein...
('Nakba' in Hebrew) has lobbied the Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...
for permission to post signs designating the Palestinian villages in Canada Park. After petitioning the Israeli High Court, permission was granted. However, subsequently the signs have been stolen or vandalized. On June 23, 2007, Zochrot joined the refugees of the village Imwas for a tour of the remains of their village.
Artistic representations
Palestinian artist Sliman MansourSliman Mansour
Sliman Mansour , is a Palestinian painter, considered an important figure among contemporary Palestinian artists. Mansour is considered an artist of the intifada whose work gave visual expression to the cultural concept of sumud....
made Imwas the subject of one of his paintings. The work, named for the village, was one of a series of four on destroyed Palestinian villages that he produced in 1988; the others being Yalo
Yalo
Yalo was a Palestinian Arab village located 13 kilometres southeast of Ramla. Identified by Edward Robinson as the ancient Canaanite city of Aijalon, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Jordan formally annexed Yalo along with the rest of the West Bank...
, Bayt Dajan
Bayt Dajan
Bayt Dajan was a Palestinian Arab village situated approximately southeast of Jaffa. It is thought to have been the site of the biblical town of Beth Dagon, mentioned in the Book of Joshua and in ancient Assyrian and Egyptian texts....
and 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:...
.
See also
- List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict
- Emmaus NicopolisEmmaus NicopolisEmmaus Nicopolis was the Roman name for a city associated with the Emmaus of the New Testament, where Jesus is said to have appeared after his death and resurrection. In the modern age, the site was the location of the Palestinian Arab village of Imwas, near the Latrun junction, between Jerusalem...