Al-Midya is one of several sites identified with ancient Modi'in (also Modi'im and Moditha/Mwdyʽyn/t), hometown of the Hasmonean family.[3][4] The name is thought to have been preserved in its Arabicised form al-Midya.[5]
The ancient village site is located at Ras al-Midya, S-E of the modern village, where pottery from the Iron Age and later periods has been found.[6] Additional findings include the ruins of structures, watering holes, coins from the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and an underground hiding complex where five coins, including two from the Bar Kokhba revolt (130s CE), were discovered.[7][8][9]
According to one theory, Modi'in occupied the site of Khirbet er-Râs, directly to the south-east of the modern village.[10] Other sites in the vicinity were also suggested.[3] Based on the archeological data, as well as the site's location, Raviv suggests that it was a Jewish settlement during the Early Roman period.[9]
Possible family tomb of the Maccabees
Mosaic crosses from the Byzantine period (5th century or late, found by Clermont-Ganneau in the oldest part of the largest structure at Kh. Sheikh Gharbawi.[11]
Excavations near Midya in the 19th century suggested that graves of the Maccabees were located here. Seven triangular[dubious – discuss] tombs were found, corresponding with the description of the first-century Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, who wrote that the family’s seven pyramid-shaped graves were erected in the same place.[12] In 1870, an ancient structure near the gravesite of Sheikh al-Arabawi/Khirbet Sheikh Gharbawi (Hebrew: Horbat Ha-Gardi), adjacent to al-Midya, was identified as a Hasmonean grave, but this was rejected by another biblical archaeologist, Charles Clermont-Ganneau.[13] Further exploration by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the 21st century suggest the likelihood that Horbat Sheikh Gharbawi (Horbat Ha-Gardi) is either the original family tomb of the Maccabees, or was marking the alleged tomb in the Byzantine period.[14]
Mamluk period
Al-Midya was apparently mentioned during the Mamluk period by the 14th-century Jewish doctor and geographer Ishtori Haparchi.[6]
Ottoman period
16th century
Al-Midya was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax−records it appeared under the name of Midya as-Sarqiyya as being in the Nahiya of Ramla, part of Gaza Sanjak. It had a population of 25 Muslim households and paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on wheat, barley, summer crops or olives or fruit trees, and a press for olives or grapes; a total of 6,500 akçe.[15]
In 1870, Victor Guérin visited, and thought that ruins found there were the graves of the Maccabees.[16] However, Clermont-Ganneau made extensive excavations later, and he found Christian crosses in the oldest part of the largest structure. He concluded the ruins were from the 5th century or later, that is, from the Byzantine era.[17]
An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that el-medje had a total of 42 houses and a population of 159, though the population count included men only. It also noted that it was located half an hour east of Jimzu.[18][19]
In 1882, PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Midieh as being a village of a "good size", with houses either built of adobe or stone. To the north was a small olive grove, to the south a tank. The most "peculiar feature" they found was named er Ras. It was a high conical knoll, with a maqam on top, and rock-cut tombs on the side.[20]
In the 1945 statistics, the population of el Midya was of 320 Muslims,[23] who owned 7,020 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[24] Of this, 688 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 2,304 for cereals,[25] while 8 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[26]
Al-Midya on 1944 1:20,000 map based on 1919 survey
Al-Midya on 1945 1:250,000 map (upper left quadrant)
According to the Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem, Al-Midya's total land area was 6,959 dunams in 1942, but after 1948 most of the village's western land was expropriated, leaving 892 dunams, of which 217 were classified as built-up (urban) areas.[28]
In 1986, when the population amounted to 570 people, largely dependent on agriculture, the villagers were woken at 3:00 a.m. by the arrival of Israeli military vehicles and were informed that a curfew would be in place until 9 pm that day. Throughout the day, roughly 1,000 Israelis, soldiers protecting the operation and workers from the Israeli Lands Administration and Nature Reserve authorities who drove bulldozers to grade a road down a steep hillside to a rough track running below it, and chainsawed an olive grove extending over 1,100 dunams, destroying 3,000 trees. When the devastation was reported, Israel said the razing was to block Al-Midya from encroaching on Israeli state land, claiming that the olive trees were less than five years old, and planted to secure title to the area. Most cut trunks were over half a metre in diameter, suggesting centuries of growth.[29]
^ abרביב, דביר (2014). "היישוב היהודי בפלך תמנה משלהי ימי הבית השני ועד מרד בר-כוכבא". In ביליג, מרים (ed.). מחקרי יהודה ושומרון (in Hebrew). Vol. כג. אריאל: אוניברסיטת אריאל בשומרון, מו"פ אזורי השומרון ובקעת הירדן. pp. 166–167. ISSN0792-8416.
^Zaharoni, Irit (1983). Derekh erets (in Hebrew). Vol. 1. Tel-Aviv: Ḳetsin ḥinukh rashi--"Ba-maḥaneh". p. 75. ISBN9789650500887. OCLC10375126.
