Bayt Dajan

This article is about the destroyed Palestinian village near Jaffa. For other uses, see Beit Dajan.
Bayt Dajan
بيت دجن
Beit Dajan, Bait Dajan, Dajūn, Beit Dejan
Bayt Dajan, before 1935. From the Khalil Raad-collection.[1]
Bayt Dajan, before 1935. From the Khalil Raad-collection.[1]
Etymology: "The house of Dagon"[2]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Bayt Dajan (click the buttons)
Bayt Dajan is located in Mandatory Palestine
Bayt Dajan
Bayt Dajan
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°0′13″N 34°49′46″E / 32.00361°N 34.82944°E / 32.00361; 34.82944
Palestine grid134/156
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictJaffa
Date of depopulation25 April 1948[4]
Area
[5]
 • Total17,327 dunams (17.327 km2 or 6.690 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total3,840[3]
Cause(s) of depopulationInfluence of nearby town's fall
Current LocalitiesBeit Dagan[6][7] Mishmar HaShiv'a[7] Hemed[7] Ganot[7]

Bayt Dajan (Arabic: بيت دجن, romanized: Bayt Dajan; Hebrew: בית דג'ן), also known as Dajūn, was a Palestinian Arab village situated approximately 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) 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 Ancient Egyptian texts. In the 10th century CE, it was inhabited mostly by Samaritans.

In the mid-16th century, Bayt Dajan formed part of an Ottoman waqf established by Roxelana, the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, and by the late 16th century, it was part of the nahiya of Ramla in the liwa of Gaza. The villagers, who were all recorded as Muslim, paid taxes to the Ottoman authorities for property and agricultural goods and animal husbandry conducted in the villages, including the cultivation of wheat, barley, fruit, and sesame, as well as on goats, beehives and vineyards. In the 19th Century, the village women were also locally renowned for the intricate, high quality embroidery designs, a ubiquitous feature of traditional Palestinian costumes.

By the time of the Mandatory Palestine, the village housed two elementary schools, a library and an agronomic school. After an assault by the Alexandroni Brigade during Operation Hametz on 25 April 1948 in the lead up to the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, the village was entirely depopulated.[8] The Israeli town of Beit Dagan was founded at the same site in October 1948.[9]

Another Bayt Dajan, not to be confused with this one, is located southeast of Nablus.[10]

  1. ^ Khalidi, 1992, pp. 231, 605, 606
  2. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 213
  3. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 27
  4. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #219. Also gives cause(s) of depopulation.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hadawi52 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xxi, Settlement #91.
  7. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference Khalidi3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Welcome to Bayt Dajan". Palestine Remembered. Retrieved 2007-12-04.
  9. ^ Gelber, 2006, p. 394.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Smithp396 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).