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Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Israeli Arabs.
The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik as the capital of Jund Filastin, the district he governed in Bilad al-Sham before becoming Caliphate in 715. The city's strategic and economic value derived from its location at the intersection of the Via Maris, connecting Cairo with Damascus, and the road connecting the Mediterranean port of Jaffa with Jerusalem. University of Haifa Excavation in Marcus Street, Ramala; Reports and studies of the Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies and Excavations, Haifa 2007 It rapidly overshadowed the adjacent city of Lod, whose inhabitants were relocated to the new city. Not long after its establishment, Ramla developed as the commercial centre of Palestine, serving as a hub for pottery, dyeing, weaving, and olive oil, and as the home of numerous Ulama. Its prosperity was lauded by geographers in the 10th–11th centuries, when the city was ruled by the Fatimids and Seljuk Empire.
It lost its role as a provincial capital shortly before the arrival of the (), after which it became the scene of various battles between the Crusaders and Fatimids in the first years of the 12th century. Later that century, it became the centre of a lordship in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader states established by Godfrey of Bouillon.
Ramla had an Arabs-majority population before most were expelled during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.Pilger, 2011, p. 194 The town was subsequently repopulated by Jews immigrants. Today, Ramla is one of Israel's mixed cities, with a population 76% Jewish and 24% Arab.
In a tradition recorded by the historian Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari (died 1347), a determined local Christian cleric refused Sulayman's requests for plots in the middle of Lydda. Infuriated, he attempted to have the cleric executed, but his local adviser Raja ibn Haywa dissuaded him and instead proposed building a new city at a superior, adjacent site. In choosing the site, Sulayman utilized the strategic advantages of Lydda's vicinity while avoiding the physical constraints of an already-established urban center. Historian Moshe Sharon holds that Lydda was "too Christian in ethos for the taste of the Umayyad rulers", particularly following the Arabization and Islamization reforms instituted by Abd al-Malik.
According to al-Jahshiyari (died 942), Sulayman sought a lasting reputation as a great builder following the example of his father and al-Walid, the respective founders of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Umayyad Mosque. The construction of Ramla was Sulayman's "way to immortality" and "his personal stamp on the landscape of Palestine", according to Luz. The first structure Sulayman erected in Ramla was his palatial residence, which dually served as the seat of Jund Filasṭīn's administration (). The next structure was the Dar al-Sabbaghin (House of the Dyers). At the center of the new city was a congregational mosque, later known as the White Mosque. It was not completed until the reign of Sulayman's successor Caliph Umar II (). The Sulayman's construction works were financially managed by a Christian from Lydda, Bitrik ibn al-Naka. The remains of the White Mosque, dominated by a minaret added at a later date, are visible in the present day. In the courtyard are underground water cisterns from the Umayyad period. Encyclopedia of Islam, article "al-Ramla"; Myriam Rosen-Ayalon, The first century of Ramla, Arabica, vol 43, 1996, pp. 250–263. From early on, Ramla developed economically as a market town for the surrounding area's agricultural products, and as a center for dyeing, weaving and pottery. It was also home to many ulema.
Sulayman built an aqueduct in the city called al-Barada, which transported water to Ramla from Tel Gezer, about to the southeast. Ramla superseded Lydda as the commercial center of Palestine. Many of Lydda's Christian, Samaritan and Jewish inhabitants were moved to the new city. Although the traditional accounts are in agreement that Lydda almost immediately fell into obscurity following the founding of Ramla, narratives vary about the extent of Sulayman's efforts to transfer Lydda's inhabitants to Ramla, some holding that he only demolished a church in Lydda and others that he demolished the city altogether. Al-Ya'qubi (died 839) noted Sulayman razed the houses of Lydda's inhabitants to force their relocation to Ramla and punished those who resisted. In the words of al-Jahshiyari, Sulayman "founded the town of al-Ramla and its mosque and thus caused the ruin of Lod Lydda".
The golden age of Ramla under the Umayyads and Abbasids, when the city overtook Jerusalem as a trade center, later gave way to a period of political instability and war beginning in the late 10th century. The Egypt-based Fatimids conquered Ramla in 969 and ten years later the city was destroyed by the Jarrahids, a branch of the Banu Tayy tribe.
Nonetheless, the 10th-century Jerusalemite geographer al-Muqaddasi described Ramla as "a fine city, and well built; its water is good and plentiful; it fruits are abundant". He noted that it "combines manifold advantages, situated as it is in the midst of beautiful villages and lordly towns, near to holy places and pleasant hamlets", as well as bountiful fields, walled towns and hospices. The geographer further noted the city's significant commerce and "excellent markets", lauding the quality of its fruits and bread as the best of their kind.Mukaddasi, 1886, p. 32Le Strange, 1890, p. 304 During this period, Ramla was one of the major centers for the production and export of oil extracted from unripe olives, known as anfa kinon (Greek language: ὀμφάκιον, ὀμφάχινον; Latin: omphacium; ), and used in cuisine and medicine.Al-Muqaddasi (1906), p. 181Zohar Amar, et al. (2004), p. 78. Cf. Babylonian Talmud, Menahot 86a, where it says that the olives used to produce the oil had not reached one-third of its natural stage of ripeness, and that it was used principally as a depilatory and to flavor meat.
Conversely, the city's disadvantages included the severe muddiness of the place during the rainy winter season and its hard, sandy grounds due to its distance from natural water sources. The limited drinking water gathered in the city's cisterns were generally inaccessible to the poorer inhabitants.
By 1011–1012, the Jarrahids controlled all of Palestine, except for the coastal towns, and captured Ramla from its Fatimid garrison, making it their capital. The city and the surrounding places were plundered by the Bedouin, impoverishing much of the population. The Jarrahids brought the Alids emir of Mecca, al-Hasan ibn Ja'far, to act as caliph in defiance of the Fatimids. The development was short-lived, as the Jarrahids abandoned al-Hasan after Fatimid bribes, and the caliphal claimant left the city for Mecca. A Fatimid army led by Ali ibn Ja'far ibn Fallah wrested control of Ramla from the Jarrahids, who continued to dominate the surrounding countryside. The following decade was marked by peace, but, in 1024, the Jarrahids renewed their rebellion. The Fatimid general Anushtakin al-Dizbari secured Ramla for a few months, but the Jarrahids overran the city that year, killing and harassing several inhabitants and seizing much of the population's wealth. They appointed their own governor, Nasr Allah ibn Nizal. In the following year, al-Dizbari drove the Jarrahids out of Ramla, but was recalled to Egypt in 1026. In 1029, he returned and routed the Jarrahids and their Bedouin allies.
Persian geographer Nasir-i-Khusrau visited the city in 1047, remarking:
Ramla is a great city, with strong walls built of stone, mortared, of great height and thickness, with iron gates opening therein. From the town to the sea-coast is a distance of three leagues. The inhabitants get their water from the rainfall, and in each house is a tank for storing the same, in order that there may always be a supply. In the middle of the Friday Mosque White, also, is a large tank: and from it, when it is filled with water, anyone who wishes may take. The area of the mosque measures two hundred paces ( Gam) by three hundred. Over one of its porches ( suffah) is an inscription stating that on the 15th of Muharram, of the year 425 (=10th of December, 1033 CE), there came an earthquakeLe Strange adds: "This earthquake is mentioned by the Arab annalists, who state that a third of Ramla was thrown down, the mosque in particular being left a mere heap of ruins. Footnote, p. 21 of great violence, which threw down a large number of buildings, but that no single person sustained an injury. In the city of Ramla there is marble in plenty, and most of the buildings and private houses are of this material; and, further, the surface thereof they do most beautifully sculpture and ornament. They cut the marble here with a toothless saw, which is worked with 'Mekka sand'. They saw the marble in length, as is the case with wood, to form the columns; not in across; they also cut it into slabs. The marbles that I saw here were of all colours, some variegated, some green, red, black and white. There is, too, at Ramla, a particular kind of fig, and this they export to all the countries round. This city Ramla, throughout Syria and the West, is known under the name of Filastin.Nasir-i-Khusrau, 1997, pp. 21- 22Le Strange adds: "Ramlah was the Arab capital of the province Filastin (Palestine), and as such was often referred to under the name of its province. The same applied to Sham (Damascus or Syria), Misr (Cairo or Egypt), and other places. Major Fuller begins his translation (J. R. A. S. vol VI, N.S., p. 142) at this point. Footnote, p. 22
Around 1163, the rabbi and traveller Benjamin of Tudela, who also mistook it for a more ancient city, visited "Rama, or Ramleh, where there are remains of the walls from the days of our ancestors, for thus it was found written upon the stones. About 300 Jews dwell there. It was formerly a very great city; at a distance of two miles (3 km) there is a large Jewish cemetery." Adler notes that earlier translations wrote "3" rather than "300", but he considers that incorrect.
In the early days of the Ottoman period, in 1548, a census was taken recording 528 Muslim families and 82 Christian families living in Ramla.Cohen and Lewis, 1978, pp. 135-144From the sources listed above: no Jews in 1525, 1538, 1548, 1592; two in 1852Petersen, 2005, p. 95
On 2 March 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Ramla during his unsuccessful bid to conquer Palestine, using the Franciscan hospice as his headquarters. The village appeared as 'Ramleh' on the map of Pierre Jacotin compiled during this campaign.Karmon, 1960, p. 171
In 1838, Edward Robinson found Ramleh to be a town of about 3000 inhabitants, surrounded by olive-groves and vegetables. It had few streets, and the houses were made of stone and were well-built. There were several mosques in the town.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, pp. 25-33
In 1863, Victor Guérin noted that the Latin (Catholic) population was reduced to two priests and 50 parishioners.Guérin, 1868, pp. 34-55 In 1869, the population was given as 3,460; 3000 Muslims, 400 Greek Orthodox and 60 Catholics.Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 252
In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine noted that there was a bazaar in the town, "but its prosperity has much decayed, and many of the houses are falling into ruins, including the Serai."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 253 Expansion began only at the end of the 19th century.Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, "The Population of the Large Towns in Palestine During the First Eighty Years of the Nineteenth Century, According to Western Sources", in Studies on Palestine during the Ottoman Period, ed. Moshe Ma'oz (Jerusalem, 1975), pp. 49–69.
In 1889, 31 Jewish worker families settled in the town, which had no Jewish population at the time.
Less than a decade later, the population had increased nearly 25%; the 1931 census recorded 10,347 people (8,157 Muslims, 2,194 Christians, five Jews, and two Druze), in a total of 2,339 houses.Mills, 1932, p. 22
Ramla was connected to wired electricity (supplied by the Zionist-owned Palestine Electric Company) towards the end of the 1920s. Economist Basim Faris noted this fact as proof of Ramla's higher standard of living than neighbouring Lydda. In Ramla, he wrote, "economic demands triumph over nationalism" while Lydda, "which is ten minutes' walk from Ramleh, is still averse to such a convenience as electric current, and so is not as yet served; perhaps the low standard of living of the poor population prevents the use of the service at the present rates, which cannot compete with petroleum for lighting".Faris, A. Basim (1936) Electric Power in Syria and Palestine. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, pp. 66-67. Also see: Shamir, Ronen (2013) Current Flow: The Electrification of Palestine. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 71, 74
Sheikh Mustafa al-Khairi was mayor of Ramla from 1920 to 1947.
The 1938 village statistics list the population ("Ramle, Er") as 11,950.
The 1945/46 survey gives 'Ramle' a population of 15,160 (11,900 Muslims and 3,260 Christians).Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 30
After a number of unsuccessful raids on Ramla, the Israeli army launched Operation Dani. Ramla was captured on 12 July 1948, a few days after the capture of Lydda. The Arab resistance surrendered on July 12,Morris, 2004, p. 427 and most of the remaining inhabitants were expelled.Many of the refugees including a large number of children died (at least 400+ according to the Arab historian 'Aref al-Aref) from thirst, hunger, and heat exhaustion after being stripped of their valuables on the way out by Israeli soldiers. Morris, "Operation Dani and the Palestinian Exodus from Lydda and Ramle in 1948", The Middle East Journal, 40 (1986) 82–109; Morris, 2004, pp. 429–430, who quotes the orders; The Rabin Memoirs (censored section, The New York Times, 23 October 1979). A disputed claim, advanced by scholars including Ilan Pappé, characterizes this as ethnic cleansing.For the use of the term "ethnic cleansing", see, for example, Pappé 2006.
By November 1949, there were about 2,000 Arabs in Ramla and Lod.
A 2013 Israeli police report documented that the Central District ranks fourth among Israel's seven districts in terms of drug-related arrests. Today, five of Israel's prisons are located in Ramla, including the maximum-security Ayalon Prison and the country's only women's prison, called Neve Tirza. In 2015, Ramla had one of Israel's highest crime rates.
In January 2021, archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Haifa University announced the discovery of six engravings on 120,000-year-old aurochs bone near the city of Ramla in the open-air Middle Paleolithic site of Nesher Ramla. According to archaeologist Yossi Zaidner, this finding was definitely the oldest in the Levant. Three-dimensional imaging and microscopic analysis were used to examine the bone. The six lines ranged in length from 38 to 42 millimeters.
One of the finds was an eyeless scorpion, given the name Akrav israchanani honouring the researchers who identified it, Israel Naaman and Hanan Dimentman. All ten specimen of the blind scorpion found in the cave had been dead for several years, possibly because recent overpumping of the groundwater has led the underground lake to shrink, and with it the food supply to dwindle. Seven more species of troglobite and were discovered in "Noah's Ark Cave", as the cave has been dubbed by journalists, several of them unknown to science.
Most Jews from Karachi, Pakistan, have migrated to Israel and have resettled in Ramle, where they have built a synagogue named Magen Shalome, after the Magain Shalome Synagogue from Karachi. Pakistan Jewish Virtual History Tour, Jewish Virtual Library
Nesher Israel Cement Enterprises, Israel's sole producer of cement, maintains its flagship factory in Ramla. Archaeological excavations on the grounds of the Nesher quarry have discovered the remains of a large Second Temple Jewish town and the Christian Byzantine settlement established over it. Over fifty underground hiding complexes were found in the area, some used for storage and others believed to be hiding places for humans with access to water.
The Arabs, both Muslims and Christian, increasingly depend on their own private schools and not Israeli governmental schools. There are currently two Christian schools, such as Terra Santa School, the Greek Orthodox School, and there is one Islamic school in preparations.
The Owpen House in Ramla is a preschool and daycare center for Arab and Jewish children. In the afternoons, Open House runs extracurricular coexistence programs for Jewish, Christian, and Muslim children.
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