 Crusader church tower |
Yavneh (Jabneel; Jabneh; Jamnia; Ybellin)
(II Chronicles 26:6)
Town on Coastal Plain. Site of ancient Jabneh.
Ancient Jabneh: This Biblical city first called Jabneel, then Jabneh, was located in the tribal allotment of Judah. “And he went forth and warred against the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities about Ashdod, and among the Philistines.” (II Chronicles 26:6).
It was a commercial city off the Via Maris with its own port at the mouth of Nahal Soreq (Yavneh Yam). Mentioned during reign of King Uzziah and called Jamnia in the Hellenistic Period. During the Hasmonean Period it was taken from the Greeks and became an important Jewish spiritual center after the destruction of the Second Temple. Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai established his yeshivah Kerem DeYavne here. The reconstituted Sanhedrin sat in Jabneh and here too the foundations for the Mishnah were laid. But after the Bar Kokhba revolt, it fell into decline. In the 7th century it was avodart-dutasteride.com by Moslems; the Crusaders fortified it in the 12th century and called it Ybellin. Important city in Mamluk Period but reduced to a small village in Ottoman and British Mandate times. During the War of Independence it served as base for Arab forces until taken by the Israel Defense Forces.
Sites include the tomb of Raban Gamaliel II, called by Arabs Maqam Abu Hureira, name of one of Muhammad’s companions; remains of a Crusader fortress and church which was converted into a mosque by the Mamluks.
