31.9735°N 34.9588°WBeit Qufa (Arabic: بيت قوفا) is an archaeological site in the Lod Valley, near the modern Israeli settlement of Beit Nehemia in Israel's Central District.
The site of Beit Qufa was inhabited since antiquity. Salvage excavations revealed settlement remainsfrom the Middle Bronze Age I, in addition to a settlement, a bathhouse, terraces and a lime-kiln from the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods (Umayyad and Abbasid periods).[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
The village of Beit Qufa was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine. In 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Ramla, which was under the administration of the liwa ("district") of Gaza. It had a population of 16 households who were all Muslims.[7] They paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 4,100 akçe. All of the revenue went to a waqf dedicated to the Cave of the Patriarchs.[8]
In the 17th century, the village of Bayt Qūfā was abandoned due to unsettled conditions, and its residents scattered between Bayt Nabala and the villages of ‘Ajjūl and ‘Arūra near Ramallah.[9]
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the area around Beit Qufa now belonged to the nahiya of Lod that encompassed the area of the present-day city of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut in the south to the present-day city of El'ad in the north, and from the foothills in the east, through the Lod Valley to the outskirts of Jaffa in the west. This area was home to thousands of inhabitants in about 20 villages, who had at their disposal tens of thousands of hectares of prime agricultural land.[10]
According to Marom, local tradition holds that sometime during the 18th century, a Yaman immigrant from the Khuzā‘a tribe, named Salām b. Ḥarfūsh, came to the vicinity of Bayt Nabālā and camped in the caves near the village and Bayt Qūfā. When a conflict broke out between Bayt Nabala and al-Ḥadītha, Salām took advantage of the plight of the residents of Bayt Nabālā to gain control over them, and his three “sons” – Zayd, Nakhla and Ṣāfī – settled in Bayt Nabala. The lands of Beit Qufa were than subsumed by the village of Beit Nabala.