A 2,000-year-old Jewish workshop for creating stone vessels has been unearthed in Reineh. It dates to the Roman period. The analysis of the site and its artifacts suggests a rigorous adherence to purity laws among Galilean Jews, akin to the practices of Jews of Judea.[8]
Pottery imported from Syria and Italy in the 14th–16th century CE found here, indicate that the village had a strong economy in the Mamluk period.[7]
Ottoman period
St. Joseph Worker Church in Reineh
In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as Rayna, located in the Nahiya of Tabariyya of the Liwa Safad. The taxable population was 151; 139 families and 6 bachelors; all Muslim, in addition to 6 Christian families. They paid taxes for various agricultural products; 5200 akçe on wheat, 2100 on barley, 350 on fruit trees, 200 on vegetable and fruit gardens, 250 on goats and beehives, in addition to 900 for occasional revenues and 480 for Jizya.[9][10] Archaeological remains from the early Ottoman era have also been found here.[7]
A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as El Raineh.[11] In 1806, Seetzen noted a spring in the village (which he called Reni), whose inhabitant were half Muslim, half "Greek Christians".[12]
In 1837, Reineh was badly damaged in the Galilee earthquake. William McClure Thomson travelled in the region three weeks afterwards, and described how Reineh, (which he called Rumaish), was mostly destroyed, with thirty deaths occurring as people were crushed in their homes. Many more would have suffered the same had they not been at evening prayers at the church there, which was a small building that was not seriously damaged.[13][14] A total of 200 people were killed in Reineh.[15]
In 1875 Victor Guérin noted: "On 22 June, after a day resting up at Nazareth, I set out on my march again at 5 am, heading northeast, then north northeast. At 5.33 am, I passed by a copious spring, called A'in er Reineh. Next to the small pool that catches its flow, an ancient sarcophagus has been placed, in the form of a trough, the external parts of which tank are elegantly sculptured with whorls and garlands. This spring waters gardens planted with fig and pomegranate trees. The village of Reineh stretches over the southern slopes of the hill it abuts. It contains approximately 800 residents, half of them Muslims and the other half schismatic Greeks, with some Protestants as well. The reason for the latter is that an English mission has been active here for some years and established a local school."[18]
In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it: "A large village of well-built houses, containing about 500 Christians and Moslems. There are two springs south of the village; one, called 'Ain Kana. It is surrounded by arable ground and olive-groves. There is a church in the village."[19]
A population list from about 1887 showed that Reineh had about 1150 inhabitants; half Muslims and half Christians.[20]
In the Mandatory Palestine, at the 1922 census of Palestine, Reineh had a population of 787; 423 Christians and 364 Muslims.[22] Among the Christians, 203 were Greek Orthodox, 87 Roman Catholics, 101 Greek Catholic (Melkites) and 32 Church of England.[23] The population increased in the 1931 census to 1,015 residents living in 243 houses. The religious breakdown of the population was 389 Christians, 1 Jew and 625 Muslims.[24]
The 1927 earthquake hit Reineh worse than the other villages in the area, and afterwards the Christians started rebuilding in the area called "New Reineh".[25]
In the 1945 statistics Reineh (Er Reina) had a population of 1,290; 500 Christians and 790 Muslims.[26] The total land area was 16,029 dunams; 15,899 owned by Arabs and the rest, 130 dunams, were public land.[27] Of this, 915 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 10,451 for cereals, 10 for citrus and bananas,[28] while 139 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.[29]
1948–1949
The catholic Latin patriarchal school in Reineh.
Reineh was conquered by Israeli forces in July 1948, during Operation Dekel.[30] In September, 14 Arab residents were reportedly murdered by Israeli authorities after they had been detained near the village, brought into Reineh and accused of smuggling. The victims included a young Bedouin woman, and Yusuf al-Turki, a member of the "Land of Israel Workers Alliance".[31]
In December 1948/January 1949 it was proposed that Saffuriya's remaining inhabitants be moved to Reineh, as their "neighbouring [Jewish] settlements coveted Saffuriya lands".[32] When the Saffuriya inhabitants were expelled by the Israelis in January 1949, 14 were expelled to Lebanon, while the rest went to Nazareth, 'Illut, Kafr Kanna and Reineh.[33]
Cana
In 1878 Claude Reignier Conder suggested that the small spring south of Reineh, named "Ain Kana", was the location of biblical Cana.[21][34]
Archaeology
In Reineh, Israel, archaeologists uncovered a Jewish factory for producing stone vessels dating back to the Roman period. The site, which includes a chalk cave functioning as both a quarry and a workshop, provides evidence that Galilean Jewish communities adhered to purity laws with the same rigor as those in Judea. The site yielded numerous findings, such as stone cores and partially completed vessels, which are consistent with types used in Jewish ritual purification practices. The Reineh workshop is the fourth of its kind in Israel, with similar workshops found at Hizma and at Jebel Mukaber (both in the vicinity of Jerusalem) and another one close to Reineh.[8]
The discovery of the workshop in Reineh contributed to the historical understanding of Jewish religious life in ancient Galilee. It suggests that the observance of purity laws, previously thought to be weaker in Galilee compared to Judea, was in fact similarly strict. This is supported by the production scale of stone vessels, which were preferred over pottery due to religious beliefs about purity derived from Levitical law.[8]
^Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 188. Note that they have a typo; they write a total of 9000 Akçe, while the correct sum is 9480
^Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied from the Safad-district was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
^Guérin, 1880, p. 165: "Le 22 juin, après un jour de repos passé à Nazareth, je me remets en marche à cinq heures du matin, dans la direction du nord-est, puis du nord-nord-est. A cinq heures trente-trois minutes, je passe à côté d'une source abondante, appelée A'ïn er-Reineh. Près du petit bassin qui la recueille a été placé, en guise d'auge, un sarcophage antique, dont la cuve est ornée extérieurement de disques et de guirlandes de fleurs assez élégamment sculptés. Cette source arrose des jardins plantés de figuiers et de grenadiers.
Le village de Reineh s'étend sur les pentes méridionales d'une colline à laquelle il est adossé. Il renferme environ huit cents habitants, moitié Musulmans et moitié Grecs schismatiques. Il faut joindre à ceux-ci quelques protestants. Une mission anglaise s'est, en effet, établie en cet endroit depuis plusieurs années, et y a fondé une école."
^Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 374: "'Ain Kana: A of good supply perennial water, flowing in a stream in the valley. The spring is surrounded with masonry, and near it is a masonry tank."
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