Hajjah, Qalqilya

Hajjah (حجة) is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located eighteen kilometers west of Nablus in the Qalqilya Governorate of the State of Palestine. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 2,659 inhabitants in 2017.

Hajjah features remains from the Israelite, Byzantine, and Early Muslim periods. During the Iron Age, it likely hosted inhabitants from the Tribe of Menashe. In the Roman and Byzantine eras, it was identified as Kfar Hagai or Kiryat Hagga, a Samaritan village, with mentions in ancient inscriptions and Samaritan sources. The village maintained its Samaritan identity through the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods, evident from the discovery of mikvehs and stone menorahs. Under Mamluk rule, a mosque was constructed. In the Ottoman period, Hajjah appeared in tax records with a Muslim-majority population.

Hajjah has a populace with roots in Egypt, Yemen, and Jaffa, organized into several clans, while one clan trace their lineage to Samaritan roots. The village's en-Naby Rabbah shrine, atop a tell, is believed to be the tomb of a saint, possibly linked to Baba Rabba, a 4th-century Samaritan leader, serving as a guardian of crops. This site was declared a nature reserve in 1986.

Location
Hajja is located 15.9 km east of Qalqiliya. It is bordered by Kafr Qaddum and Immatin to the east, Al Funduq and Jinsafut to the south, Kafr ‘Abbush, Kafr Laqif and Baqat al Hatab to the west, and Kur to the north.

Etymology
According to the local inhabitants, Hajjah is originally an Aramaic word translated as "market" or "society".

History and archaeology
Potsherds from the Israelite, Byzantine and Early Muslim periods have been found at Hajja.

Iron Age
The earliest potsherds indicate that Hajja was already inhabited during the Iron Age, probably by the Tribe of Menashe.

Hellenistic to Byzantine period
Hajja has been identified with Kfar Hagai, an ancient Samaritan village that had existed since at least the mid-Second Temple Period. A votive inscription of the third or second century BCE from Mount Gerizim, the holiest site in Samaritanism and then the site of a major temple, reads "That which Ḥaggai son of Qimi from Kfar Ḥaggai offered".

In later Samaritan sources, this might be the village referred to as "Kiryat Hagga" or "Kirjath Hagah". It was mentioned as the birthplace of Baba Rabba, who is said to have built several synagogues in the area, including in the village of Hagga. The Tolidah, a Samaritan historical work, mentions a man named Gever Ben-Karmi of Kiryat Hagga. Mikvehs found in the village indicate that Hagga was still a Samaritan village during the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods.

Archaeological surveys in Hajjah discovered five stone menorah reliefs, some accompanied by plant decorations, repurposed on contemporary buildings. Similar finds have been made in nearby villages like Kafr Abbush, Kafr Zibad, Kafr Qaddum and Kafr Jit. Dating to the Byzantine period, these menorahs are believed to have originally adorned Samaritan structures, symbolizing Samaritan identity.

Mamluk period
During the reign of the Mamluk sultan An-Nasir Muhammad, in AH 722/1322 CE, a mosque was constructed in the village. A minaret was added to it in AH 735/1334-35 CE. These building were done in the name of Muhammed bin Musa bin Ahmed, a local imam, whose grave stone is also by the mosque, dating his death to AH 749/1348 CE.

Ottoman period
Hajja was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the nahiya of Bani Sa'b of the liwa of  Nablus. It had a population of 96 households, all Muslims. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on various agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and/or beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues", a press for olive oil or grape syrup, and a tax for people of the Nablus region; a total of 19,200 akçe. All of the revenues went to a waqf.

In 1838, Robinson noted Kuryet Hajja as a village in Beni Sa'ab district, west of Nablus, while in 1870 Victor Guérin noted it from Fara'ata.

In 1870-71 (AH 1288), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Bani Sa'b.

In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted about Kuryet Hajja: "A good-sized village on high ground, supplied by wells. It has a rock-cut tomb on the west, and appears to be an ancient place."

British Mandate
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Qariyet Hajjeh had a population of 642 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 731 Muslims, with 206  houses.

In the 1945 statistics, the population was 960 Muslims, with 13,119 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 4 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 1,226 dunams were for plantations or irrigated land, 5,045 were for cereals, while 36 dunams were built-up land.

Jordanian period
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Hajjah came under  Jordanian rule.

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,093 inhabitants.

1967-present
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Hajjah has been under Israeli occupation.

After the 1995 accords, 37.2% of village land was assigned as Area B land, while the remaining 62.8% is assigned Area C.

Israel has confiscated 216 dunums of land from Hajja to establish two Israeli settlements, Karne Shomron and Neve Oramin, with the remainder of the land for these two settlements taken from Jinsafut, Kafr Laqif and Deir Istiya). Israel has also confiscated land from Hajja to build bypass roads and the Israeli West Bank barrier.

Demographics
Hajjah is considered the initial center of the Bani Sa'b tribe. Historically, it has absorbed Bedouins from the Arab al-Jabarat group. The current residents of Hajjah trace their ancestry to Egypt, Yemen and Jaffa. They are united in several clans ("hamulas"), including the Bata-Hamed, Masalha, Da'as, Ta'ayun and Farhat clans, among others.

Some families in the village are believed by locals to be the descendants of Samaritan families which had lived in the village until the Middle Ages, when they converted to Islam. The "Al-Tzipi" clan, descendants of the Samaritan Zipor HaMatari family, still live in the village.

Sites
A tell topped by a shrine, known as en-Naby Rabbah, is situated 419 meters west of the village. Local residents claim that this shrine marks the tomb of a saint, identified as one of Jacob's grandsons. This saint lacks recognition within mainstream Islam, and no tomb is present at the site. Moshe Sharon suggests that the saint's name may preserve the memory of Baba Rabba, a prominent Samaritan leader from the 4th century known for constructing a synagogue at Hajjah. The locals believe that the saint acts as a guardian for their crops. The site and its surroundings were designated as a nature reserve in 1986.

Notable people

 * Mahmoud Da'as aka Abu Khalid (1934–2009), high-ranking Palestine Liberation Organisation commander