Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Map 1 Frankish rural sites in Palestine
- PART I PRESENTATION OF THE PROBLEM
- PART II THE “CASTRUM,” THE BURGUS, AND THE VILLAGE
- 3 Castellum Regis
- 4 Evidence about the existence of Frankish settlements
- 5 The rights and duties of the Frankish settlers in Casale Imbert and Nova Villa
- 6 The settlers: places of origin and occupations
- 7 The geographic layout of a Frankish village: the example of Parva Mahomeria
- 8 The neighborhood of a Frankish castrum: the fields and the role played by the castellan
- 9 A church as the nucleus of a settlement
- 10 Mixed Frankish and local Christian settlements
- 11 Frankish settlements and the collection of tithes
- PART III THE ISOLATED DWELLINGS
- PART IV THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FRANKISH SETTLEMENT
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - The settlers: places of origin and occupations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Map 1 Frankish rural sites in Palestine
- PART I PRESENTATION OF THE PROBLEM
- PART II THE “CASTRUM,” THE BURGUS, AND THE VILLAGE
- 3 Castellum Regis
- 4 Evidence about the existence of Frankish settlements
- 5 The rights and duties of the Frankish settlers in Casale Imbert and Nova Villa
- 6 The settlers: places of origin and occupations
- 7 The geographic layout of a Frankish village: the example of Parva Mahomeria
- 8 The neighborhood of a Frankish castrum: the fields and the role played by the castellan
- 9 A church as the nucleus of a settlement
- 10 Mixed Frankish and local Christian settlements
- 11 Frankish settlements and the collection of tithes
- PART III THE ISOLATED DWELLINGS
- PART IV THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FRANKISH SETTLEMENT
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Frankish village of Magna Mahomeria
The casale of Bira in which the castrum of Magna Mahomeria was later built is mentioned for the first time as one of the twenty-one villages (casalia) which Duke Godfrey granted to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
A Frankish “castrum” is mentioned there for the first time in a confirmation issued by Pope Honorius II in 1128 for the property of the Chapter of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Only four years earlier the place was called “Birrum” and was described by Fulcher of Chartres as no more than a small village (viculus) with a tower recently built in it.
It is interesting to note that already in 1128 the place was called by its Frankish name. The current use of the Latin name testifies to the existence of Latin settlement. Local villages retained their original or Latinized names till the Latin settlement had taken root and only in later documents were they called only by the Latin names. It is also interesting to note that when the local name of Mahomeria reappears, it is the Syriac form “Byrra” or “Bira” which reappears and not the Arabic form al-Bira. This phenomenon is in no way unique to Mahomeria. The same applies to the local Christian village of Effraon and the village Afarbala, both called in Arabic al-Taiyba, to Hadesse, called in Arabic Kh. 'Adasa, to Beitiumen, called Baytuniya in Arabic, to Turcarme, called Tulkarim in Arabic, to Ramathes, and many others.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998
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