Other scholars propose that the name "Turmus" may have derived from the Latin word thermae, a public hot bath. According to this theory, the original name of the site was Ayya, and it is believed that the bath constructed there, presumably during
Roman-
Byzantine times, led to the addition of the name "Turmus" for the site.[8]
Geography
Turmus Ayya is located 22 kilometres (14 mi) northeast of the city of
Ramallah. Its surrounding villages are
Sinjil and
Khirbet Abu Falah as well as the
Israeli settlement of
Shilo. Its jurisdiction is about 18,000 acres (73 km2). Turmus Ayya is 720 m above
sea level. It is also the northernmost town in the Ramallah District. Turmus Ayya's climate is similar to that of the central
West Bank, which is rainy in the winter, and hot and humid in the summer.
History
Potsherds from the late
Iron Age (8 -7th century B.C.E.) period and later have been found, and it is estimated that the village has existed continuously since then.[11]
Turmus Ayya is generally accepted as being the Turbasaim in
Crusader sources.[12] A little northeast of Turmus Ayya is Khirbet Ras ad-Deir/Deir el-Fikia, believed to be the Crusader village of Dere.[13][14] In 1145, half of the income from both villages were given to the Abbey of
Mount Tabor, so that they could maintain the church at
Sinjil.[15] In 1175, all three villages; Turmus Ayya, Dere and Sinjil, were transferred to the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[16]
Ottoman era
In 1517, Turmus Ayya was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the
tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Quds of the Liwa of
Quds. It had a population of 43 households, all
Muslim, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and/or beehives; a total of 7,200
akçe. 11/24 of the revenue went to a
Waqf.[17]
In 1838,
Edward Robinson noted that Turmus Aya was within the province of Jerusalem, but the province of Nablus was just north of it.[18] It was further noted that it was situated "on a low rocky mound in the level valley."[19]
In Turmus Ayya's cemetery, several graves have headstones that date back to the Ottoman Era.
French explorer
Victor Guérin visited the village in 1870 and found ancient
cisterns, cut stones built up in the houses, a broken
lintel with a
garland carved upon, and the fragments of a column.[20] He further noted that the village had about seven hundred inhabitants, and was administered by two
sheikhs and divided into two different areas. Some ancient cisterns were almost completely dry, and women were forced to fetch water either from Ain Siloun, or Ain Sindjel.[21] An official Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed that "Turmus Aya" had a total of 88 houses and a population of 301, though the population count included men only.[22][23]
In 1882, the
PEF's Survey of Western Palestine Turmus Aya was described as "a village on a low knoll, in a fertile plain, with a spring to the south. The village is of moderate size, and surrounded by fruit trees. On the south at the foot of the mound is the conspicuous white
dome of the sacred place."[24] In 1896 the population of Turmus Ayya was estimated to be about 834 persons.[25]
In the
1945 statistics the population was 960, all Muslim,[28] while the total land area was 17,611
dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[29] Of this, 3,665 dunams were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 7,357 for
cereals,[30] while 54 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.[31]
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,620 inhabitants.[32]
1967-present
Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Turmus Ayya has been under
Israeli occupation. According to an
Israeli census in 1967, there were 1,562 people. By 1989, the population rose to 5,140.
In December 2014, the town was the site of the controversial death of Palestinian official
Ziad Abu Ein, during a protest against Israeli occupation.[35]
Settler terror
Turmus Ayya is the frequent target of
Israeli settler violence.[5][4] According to the Israeli press, in the six first months of 2023, ten attacks by Jewish Israeli settlers were recorded against Turmus Ayya, the most serious of which on 21 June 2023, when hundreds of masked Israeli settlers made an incursion into the village and devastated houses and vehicles, with 12 Palestinian residents shot by live fire. Roughly 30 homes were firebombed, together with 60 cars;[36] one Palestinian resident, Omar Qattin (27), was killed by live fire.[37] In response, the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson called the incursions and attacks by armed Jewish settlers "
acts of terror conducted by criminals",[5] adding that the IDF had “failed to prevent” the attacks, described as “very grave”, and that such incidents "create terror" by pushing the attacked civilian populations "towards extremism".[4]
Nearly a month after the settler terror attack, the IDF placed five suspects under administrative detention out of the estimated 400 armed settlers that descended upon the village.[38]More than 6 months later, no charge has been made against these settlers and their status has not been reported in Israeli media.
^Röhricht, 1887, p.
206; cited in Finkelstein, 1997, p. 651
^"Foundations and heaps of stones. Ruins of a monastery and chapel, the masonry in the walls rude, the stones drafted in some cases with a rustic boss. The place appears to be Crusading work;" Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p.
331
Michon, E. (1913). "Sarcophage representant Bacchus et les Genies des saisons decouvert a Tourmous'aya". Revue Biblique. 10 (1): 111–118.
JSTOR44101421.