Lubya

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title: "Lubya" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["arab-villages-depopulated-during-the-1948-arab–israeli-war", "district-of-tiberias"] topic_path: "geography/israel" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubya" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

FieldValue
nameLubya
native_nameلوبيا
native_name_langar
other_nameLubiya, Lubia
image_skylineTiberiasRegion1870s.jpg
imagesize250
image_captionMap of the area from the 1870s
etymology"Bean"
pushpin_mapMandatory Palestine
pushpin_mapsize200
coordinates
grid_namePalestine grid
grid_position190/242
subdivision_typeGeopolitical entity
subdivision_nameMandatory Palestine
subdivision_type1Subdistrict
subdivision_name1Tiberias
established_title1Date of depopulation
established_date1July 16–17, 1948
established_title2Repopulated dates
unit_prefdunam
area_total_dunam39,629
population_as_of1945
population_total2,350
blank_name_sec1Cause(s) of depopulation
blank_info_sec1Military assault by Yishuv forces
blank3_name_sec1Current Localities
blank3_info_sec1Lavi, Lavi Pine Forest, South African Park
::

| name = Lubya | native_name = لوبيا | native_name_lang = ar | other_name = Lubiya, Lubia | settlement_type = | image_skyline = TiberiasRegion1870s.jpg | imagesize = 250 | image_caption = Map of the area from the 1870s | etymology = "Bean" | pushpin_map = Mandatory Palestine | pushpin_map_caption = Location within Mandatory Palestine | image_map = | map_caption = A series of historical maps of the area around Lubya (click the buttons) | pushpin_mapsize = 200 | coordinates = | grid_name = Palestine grid | grid_position = 190/242 | subdivision_type = Geopolitical entity | subdivision_name = Mandatory Palestine | subdivision_type1 = Subdistrict | subdivision_name1 = Tiberias | established_title1 = Date of depopulation | established_date1 = July 16–17, 1948 | established_title2 = Repopulated dates | unit_pref = dunam | area_total_dunam = 39,629 | population_as_of = 1945 | population_total = 2,350 | blank_name_sec1 = Cause(s) of depopulation | blank_info_sec1 = Military assault by Yishuv forces | blank3_name_sec1 = Current Localities | blank3_info_sec1 = Lavi, Lavi Pine Forest, South African Park ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Al-Nabi_Shwamin_grave_in_Lubya.jpg" caption="Al-Nabi Shwamin grave in Lubya, called ''Neby Eshua Ibn Amin'' in 1881Palmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/132/mode/1up 132]"] ::

Lubya ( "bean"), sometimes referred to as Lubia, Lubieh and Loubieh, was a Palestinian Arab town located ten kilometers west of Tiberias that was captured, ethnically cleansed, and destroyed by Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War where its residents were forcefully evacuated and became refugees. Nearby villages included Nimrin to the north, Hittin to the northwest, and al-Shajara to the south; Each of those villages were also ethnically cleansed.

Lubya had a total land area of 39,629 dunams (3,963ha), of which 83% was Palestinian-owned and the remainder public property. Most of its cultivable land was planted with cereals while only 1,500 dunams (150 ha) were planted with olive groves. The village's built-up area was 210 dunams (21 ha).

History

Archaeological excavations have revealed remains dating from the Roman era, second century BCE until the fifth century CE.

The village was known as Lubia by the Crusaders and was a rest stop for Saladin's Ayyubid army prior to the Battle of Hattin. It is the birthplace of a prominent 15th century Muslim scholar Abu Bakr al-Lubyani, who taught Islamic religious sciences in Damascus.

Ottoman era

Lubya belonged to the nahiya ("district") of Tiberias in the 1596 tax records, a few decades after the Ottoman Empire won control over the region from the Mamluks. Its population was recorded as 182 households and 32 bachelors, an estimated 1,177 persons; all Muslim. The village was required to pay taxes on its goats, beehives and its olive press, but most of the revenues (45,000 Akçe) were paid as a fixed amount. Total taxes were 46,700 akçe.

In 1743, the Ottoman governor of Damascus, Sulayman Pasha al-Azm died in the village while on his way to confront the rebellious de facto Arab ruler of the Galilee, Zahir al-Umar. A map by Pierre Jacotin, from 1799 showed the place named Loubia.

Lubya is near the site of Khan Lubya which is filled with the ruins of a pool, cisterns and large building stones. This site was probably a caravansary during medieval times.

In the early 19th century, James Silk Buckingham described Lubya as a very large village on top of a high hill. Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss traveler to Palestine, referred to the village as "Louby" and noted that wild artichokes covered the village plain. The American scholar Edward Robinson, who passed through the village in 1838, noted that it had suffered greatly from the Galilee earthquake of 1837, with 143 villagers reported dead.

Mark Twain mentioned it in his 1869 travel book, The Innocents Abroad: We jogged along peacefully over the great caravan route from Damascus to Jerusalem and Egypt, past Lubia and other Syrian hamlets, perched, in the unvarying style, upon the summit of steep mounds and hills, and fenced round about with giant cactuses.

In 1875, the French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village, called Loubieh, and estimated it had 700 inhabitants. He further noted that: "A house built of cut stones of medium size in the direction of east and west appears to occupy the site, and to be built out of old materials formerly used for a Christian Church".Guérin, 1880, p. 184, as translated by Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 412

Later that century, the village was described as being built of stone, on top of a limestone hill. Its population, estimated to be between 400 and 700, cultivated olive and fig trees.

A population list from about 1887 showed Lubieh to have about 2,730 inhabitants; all Muslims.

An elementary school was established in 1895 and remained in use throughout the rule of the British Mandate of Palestine from 1923 to 1947.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities the population was 1,712; 1,705 Muslims, four Christians and three Druze, increasing in the 1931 census to 1,850; 1,849 Muslims and one Christian, in a total of 405 houses. During this period, Lubya was the second largest village in the Tiberias District.

According to the Palestine Government's village statistics, Lubya had a population of 2,350 in 1945 statistics, all Muslim. All the inhabitants were Muslim. The total land area was 39,629 dunams. while a total of 210 dunams were built-up land.

Occupation by Israel

At the onset of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Lubya was being defended by local militia volunteers. Village forces constantly skirmished with the Jewish militias which would soon become the Israeli Army; the first Israeli raid on the village occurred on January 20, 1948, coordinated with one on nearby Tur'an, leaving one Lubya resident dead. On February 24, local militiamen and Arab Liberation Army (ALA) members ambushed a Jewish convoy on the village's outskirts, causing several casualties, including one militiaman. The attack signaled that the Israelis were unable to keep the roads open and that foreign volunteers (the ALA) were taking over the offensive in the eastern Galilee.

In early March, Israeli forces attempted to create a route between Tiberias and the village of Shajara, which required attacking Lubya. During the attack militiamen repulsed the Israelis, killing seven and losing six of their own.

After Tiberias was occupied by Israel, Lubya turned to the ALA in nearby Nazareth for military support and guidance.

In early June, the 14th. battalion from the Golani Brigade was ordered to take Lubya and "to expel its inhabitants". However, the attack failed, due to heavy resistance from the villagers.

The ALA attacked the Jewish town of Sejera on June 10 at the time when a truce was being brokered between Lubya's militiamen and Israeli forces. After the truce expired on July 16, Israel launched Operation Dekel, capturing Nazareth at the start.

After news of Nazareth's fall, the majority of non-combatant village residents fled north towards Lebanon or to nearby Arab towns. The ALA also withdrew, leaving the local militia to confront incoming forces. When a single Israeli armored unit appeared outside the village, the militia retreated and left the village. The few remaining residents reported that Israeli forces subsequently shelled Lubya, demolished a few houses and commandeered many others. The village was finally demolished in the 1960s.

The Israeli town of Lavi was built on Lubya's land, northeast of the village site.

In the 1990s, two books were published about Lubya by Ibrahim Yahya Al-Shahabi, one under the auspices of Birzeit University, and one book about Lubya was published in Denmark, in 1995, by Mahmoud Issa.

Demographics

The village's population rose and dropped dramatically throughout its history; In 1596, Lubya had a population of 1,177 dropping to about 400–700 in the beginning of the 19th century.

The village's residents predominantly adhered to Islam. It was estimated that there was 16,741 Palestinian refugees descending from Lubya in 1998. After 1948, the majority of refugees lived at the Wavel refugee camp in Lebanon and other places in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. A few hundred remained in Israel as present absentees, living first in Kafr Kana. After the departure of the PLO from Lebanon in 1983 and the Sabra and Shatila massacres, many Lubya refugees emigrated from Lebanon to Europe. By 2003 about 2,000 lived in Denmark, Sweden and Germany.

References

Bibliography

  • {{cite book|title=Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html |first=S.|last=Hadawi|author-link=Sami Hadawi |year=1970 |publisher=Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Hütteroth |first1=W.-D.|author-link1=Wolf-Dieter Hütteroth |last2=Abdulfattah|first2=K. |author-link2=Kamal Abdulfattah |title=Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wqULAAAAIAAJ |year=1977 |publisher=Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft |isbn=3-920405-41-2 }}
  • {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C |first=B. |last=Morris |author-link=Benny Morris |year=2004 |title=The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited |isbn=978-0-521-00967-6 |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}
  • {{cite book |last=Palmer|first=E.H.|author-link=Edward Henry Palmer |year=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer |publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund}}
  • {{cite book |last=Pappé|first=I.|author-link=Ilan Pappé |year=2006 |title=The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine|location=London and New York|isbn=1-85168-467-0|publisher=Oneworld}}
  • (pp. 202–203)
  • {{cite book |title=Secular buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: an archaeological Gazetter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-_NbE5obqRMC |last=Pringle|first=D.|author-link=Denys Pringle |year=1997 |isbn=0521-46010-7|publisher=Cambridge University Press}} (p. 119)
  • {{cite book |first= J. Jr.|last= Reston|author-link= James Reston Jr. |title= Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=n68ZQKYAj58C |year= 2007|publisher= Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn= 978-0307430120}}
  • {{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Rhode |first=H. |author-link=Harold Rhode |date=1979 |url=https://www.academia.edu/2026845 |title=Administration and Population of the Sancak of Safed in the Sixteenth Century |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=2018-12-18 |archive-date=2020-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301141739/https://www.academia.edu/2026845/The_Administration_and_Population_of_the_Sancak_of_Safed_in_the_Sixteenth_Century |url-status=dead }}
  • {{cite book |last1=Robinson|first1=E.|author-link1=Edward Robinson (scholar) |last2=Smith|first2=E.|author-link2=Eli Smith |year=1841|url=https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearch03robiuoft|title=Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838|location=Boston|publisher=Crocker & Brewster |volume=3}}
  • {{cite book |last=Röhricht|first=R.|author-link=Reinhold Röhricht |year=1893 |url=https://archive.org/details/registaregnihier00rhuoft |title=Regista Regni Hierosolymitani (1097-1291)|publisher=Oeniponti : Libraria Academica Wagneriana}} (pp. 6, 326)
  • {{cite journal | last = Schumacher | first = G. | author-link = Gottlieb Schumacher | title = Population list of the Liwa of Akka | journal = Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund | volume = 20 | pages = 169–191 | url = https://archive.org/details/quarterlystateme19pale | year = 1888 }}
  • {{cite book |last=Twain|first=M.|author-link=Mark Twain |year=1869|url=https://archive.org/details/innocentsabroad00twairich |title=The innocents abroad}}
  • {{cite book |last=Tal|first=D.|author-link=David Tal (historian) |year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dL29_RBATv0C|title=War in Palestine, 1948|publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-7146-5275-X}}

References

  1. Palmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/130/mode/1up 130]
  2. Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PR17 xvii], village #96. Also gives the causes for depopulation
  3. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p12.jpg 12]
  4. Palmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/132/mode/1up 132]
  5. Hanna, 2009 [http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=1009&mag_id=115 Khirbat Lubiya Final Report]
  6. Hanna, 2012, [http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=2030&mag_id=119 Khirbat Lubiya, Golany Interchange]
  7. Reston, 2007, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=n68ZQKYAj58C&pg=PA51 51]
  8. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/368/mode/1up 368]
  9. [https://web.archive.org/web/20031117195955/http://alcor.concordia.ca/~pal/History/Villages/lub%40vil.html Lubya] [[Rami Nashashibi. Nashashibi, Rami]]. Center for Research and Documentation of Palestinian Society. [[Birzeit University]]. June 1996.
  10. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 187
  11. Note that Rhode, 1979, p. [https://www.academia.edu/2026845/The_Administration_and_Population_of_the_Sancak_of_Safed_in_the_Sixteenth_Century 6] {{Webarchive. link. (2019-04-20 writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9.)
  12. Karmon, 1960, p. [http://www.jchp.ucla.edu/Bibliography/Karmon,Y_1960_Jacotin_Map(IEJ_10).pdf 166] {{Webarchive. link. (2019-12-22)
  13. Guérin, 1880, p. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr01unkngoog#page/n198/mode/1up 185]
  14. Buckingham, 1821, p. [https://archive.org/stream/travelsinpalesti00buckuoft#page/491/mode/1up 491]
  15. Burckhardt, 1822, p. [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.22956/page/n369 333]
  16. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/n255/mode/1up 238]
  17. Nicholas N. Ambraseys. (1997). "The earthquake of 1 January 1837 in Southern Lebanon and Northern Israel".
  18. Twain, 1869, p. [https://archive.org/stream/innocentsabroad00twairich#page/519/mode/1up 519]
  19. Guérin, 1880, p. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr01unkngoog#page/n197/mode/1up 184]
  20. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/361/mode/1up 361]. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 527
  21. Schumacher, 1888, p. [https://archive.org/stream/quarterlystateme19pale#page/n210/mode/1up 185]
  22. Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tiberias, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n41/mode/1up 39]
  23. Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 83]
  24. Khalidi, 1992, p. 527
  25. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Tiberias/Page-072.jpg 72]
  26. [http://domino.un.org/pdfs/AAC25ComTech7Add1.pdf ''Village Statistics April 1945,'' The Palestine Government] {{webarchive. link. (2012-06-09 , p. 7)
  27. Of this, a total of 1,655 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 32,310 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20II/Tiberias/Page-122.jpg 122]
  28. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Tiberias/Page-172.jpg 172]
  29. Tal, 2004, p.69
  30. IDF]]Archive 665\51\2
  31. Aron Shai, The Fate of Abandoned Arab Villages in Israel, 1965–1969, ''History & Memory'', Vol. 18, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2006, pp. 86-106.
  32. Davis, 2011, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wlKjZwMwz0wC&pg=PA285 285]
  33. Issa, 1995, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-7SVXwAACAAJ Palestinians from Lubya in Denmark: Dreams and Realities]
  34. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/Tiberias/Lubya/index.html Welcome to Lubya: Towns Statistics and Facts] Palestine Remembered.
  35. Mahmoud Issa, [http://refuge.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/refuge/article/view/21286/19957 Resisting oblivion: Historiography of the destroyed Palestinian village of Lubya], ''Refuge'', Vol. 21, No. 2, 2003, pp. 14–22
  36. Rassem Khamaisi, Land ownership as a determinant in the formation of residential areas in Arab localities, ''Geoforum'', Vol. 26, No.2 1995, pp211–224.

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arab-villages-depopulated-during-the-1948-arab–israeli-wardistrict-of-tiberias