Bashshit

Bashshayt بشيت Beshshayt, Beit Shayt
The tomb of Neby Shayt ("prophet Seth"). Its location is labeled "M" in the 1940s map below; it is currently in a park in the center of Aseret.
Etymology: "House of Seth"[1]
1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Bashshit (click the buttons)
Bashshayt Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°49′27″N 34°44′56″E / 31.82417°N 34.74889°E / 31.82417; 34.74889
Palestine grid	126/136
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Ramle
Date of depopulation	May 13, 1948[4]
Area
• Total	18,553 dunams (18.6 km2 or 7.2 sq mi)
Population  (1945)
• Total	1,620[2][3]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current Localities	Neve Mivtah[5] Meshar,[5] Kfar Mordechai,[5] Misgav Dov,[5] Kannot,[5] Shedema,[5] and Aseret.[5]

Bashshayt (Arabic: بشيت), also Beshshayt, was an Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict, located 16.5 kilometers (10.3 mi) southwest of Ramla about half a mile from wadi Bashshit. Archaeological artifacts from the village attest to habitation in the Early Islamic period and 12th and 13th centuries. Mentioned by Arab geographers from the 13th century onward, there was a tomb for the Neby Shayt ("prophet Seth") in the village.

Like much the rest of Palestine, Bashshayt was ruled by the Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans and the British. It was depopulated at the beginning of the 1948 Palestine war during Operation Barak. Along with the villages of Barqa, Bayt Daras, al-Batani al-Sharqi, and al-Maghar, among others, Bashshayt was attacked by Haganah's Givati Brigade.^[6] Following its depopulation, Bashshayt was mostly destroyed. There are seven Israeli localities now situated on what were the village lands.

According to the Palestine Exploration Fund, Beshshayt stands for Beit Shayt, meaning "house of Seth.^[7] The tomb of Neby Shit ("prophet Seth") was in Bashshayt, and other sanctuaries for him in the region included one in Samaria (Haram en Neby Shayt), as well as Al-Nabi Shayth further north in Lebanon.^[8] The tomb lies within a triple-domed mosque of the same name located on the side of a hill that lay in the center of the former village.^[9]

Pottery remains from the early Islamic era^[10] and a coin from the Umayyad era (697–750 CE) have been found here,^[11] together with pottery remains from the 12th–13th centuries CE.^[10]

During the Crusader period in Palestine, Bashshayt was referred to as Basit. It is documented in the writings of Yaqut al-Hamawi (died 1228) who mentioned it in his Mu'jam, describing its proximity to al-Ramla.^[5][12]

Coins from the Mamluk era (14th century CE) have been found here.^[11]

Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali gave an account of the village in the 17th century, noting that the Arab scholar Jamal al-Bashshiti (d.1417) was from the village.^[5]

In 1838 it was noted as a village, Beshayt, in the Gaza district.^[13]

In May 1863 Victor Guérin found the village to have 350 inhabitants, surrounded by tobacco fields,^[14] while an Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that Bashshit had a population of 159, with a total of 57 houses, though the population count included men only. It was also noted that the name came from "House of Seth".^[15][16]

In the late 19th century, while under Ottoman rule, Bashshayt was an important village between Yibna and Isdud.^[9] The village structures in Bashshit were made of adobe bricks. There were cultivated gardens with cactus hedges, and on a hill, stood a three-domed shrine.^[5][9][17]

At the end of WWI there apparently was some fighting in/around Bashshayt, as used ammunition dating from that era have been found. The New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade operated in the area in 1917.^[11]

During the British Mandate period, Bashshayt had an elementary school, built in 1921, in which 148 students were enrolled in the mid-1940s. The village had a mosque and several artesian wells. Most of the residents were farmers.^[5]

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bashayt had a population of 936; all Muslims,^[18] increasing in the 1931 census to 1,125, still all Muslims, in a total of 333 houses.^[19]

Between August and October 1942 the Anders' Army ran its Junacka Szkoła Kadetów (JSK), a Young Soldiers Batalion, in Bashshit, before it moved to Qastina.^[20]

By 1945, the population had increased to 1,620, the population being entirely Arab in ethnicity. The village comprised a total area of 18,553 dunums.^[3]

A large number of inhabitants were employed in cereal farming, which occupied most of the land area. Some land was also allocated for irrigation and plantation, and the growing of citrus fruits and olives.^[5][21]

Between May 10 and May 13, 1948, the village was attacked by the 52nd and 53rd battalions of the Givati Brigade as part of Operation Barak. The villagers put up a major struggle, but the houses were mostly all destroyed.^[23]

Today, there are seven Israeli settlements on the village land, including Newe Mivtach, Meshar, Kfar Mordechai, Misgav Dov, Kannot, Shedema, and Aseret. Of Bashshayt's former structures, three houses and a pool remain; two of the houses are deserted and an Israeli family occupies one. The surrounding lands today are cultivated by Israelis for agricultural production.^[24]

The village contains an archaeological site, al-Nabi 'Ararat, which has some remaining pillars and cisterns. However, the site is fenced off and marked as a "dangerous building" and the cisterns are heavily populated with bats.^[25] The remains of a courtyard in front of the khirbat ("ruins") is heavily overgrown with weeds.

In 1999, the village became subject of an archaeological investigation by the Israel Antiquities Authority. The excavation, directed by T. Kanias, with the assistance of A. Hajian (surveying), R. Graff (drafting) and M. Saltzberger (photography) involved the excavation of the sewer line which revealed building remains and ceramic fragments from the Early Islamic period and the 12th–13th centuries CE.^[10] Various sized kurkar stones were discovered 0.9 m below the surface, pottery fragments from the Early Islamic period and a few animal bones.^[10] Numerous potsherds were excavated also dating to the 12th–13th centuries CE, including the foot of a clay box lined with chalk and decorated with a geometric pattern and the remains of a plaster floor.^[10]

A salvage excavation in 2016 revealed remains from the Umayyad, Mamluk and Ottoman era.^[11]

• Welcome to Bashshit
• Bashshit, Zochrot
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 16: IAA, Wikimedia commons
• Bashshit at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
• Tomb of Nabi Shit (Prophet Seth)
• YouTube video