Talk:Khirba

This article
This article is quite broken. Khirba is the standard Arabic word for "ruin"; consult any Arabic dictionary. Also, there is a confusion between the word in common usage, and the word Khirbet that appears in place names. They are the same word, but don't necessarily have the same meaning in context. The article is based on careful cherry-picking of sources, ignoring the far greater body of sources that identify khirbet as "ruin of", and even ignoring parts of the given sources that don't suit. For example the first source says that the use of khirba to mean secondary or satellite village is a recent phenomenon and that in general it can mean many things including "ruin". The third reference doesn't address place names. The fourth reference gives "ruins" as the literal meaning. The fifth reference doesn't mention the word at all that I can find, so it is SYNTH. The last reference doesn't address place names. Zerotalk 09:22, 21 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Zero I agree with you. Realy only used in Palestine? Only for villages? This article should be rewritten. Hanay (talk) 04:02, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
 * (notified on hewiki to this),, I agree. This is a semitic word (wider than just Arabic) for ruin, used in various contexts (including on very small clusters of houses), in the Levant. Huldra how does this not fail WP:DICTDEF?Icewhiz (talk) 05:02, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Many archaeological sites in the Land of Israel are called Khirba, for example Khirbet Qeiyafa. You can find easilly more. Hanay (talk) 06:20, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Err..., you can find some more at the existing article Khirbet. Tzafrir (talk) 17:13, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

This article was basically made by now topic banned editor Gilabrand. I suggest we redir it to Khirbet, Huldra (talk) 20:27, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
 * My apologies on confusing authorship. I second the redirect. If there is anything worth merging, then in one article.Icewhiz (talk) 20:43, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I have never edited this article, it wasn't even on my 6K watchlist....but yeah, I hope it is redirected, Huldra (talk) 20:54, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

For the record, here is how it is defined in the Palestine Index Gazetteer (an official classified list of all the place names appearing on 1:100,000 maps): "Khirba means either an abandoned or a temporary site of habitation. This term may be used to describe anything from a few scattered stones to permanently inhabited villages and appears several hundred times on Palestine maps." I also agree that a redirect would be appropriate. Zerotalk 22:17, 6 December 2017 (UTC)