Walid Khalidi writes that it is believed that the shrine for al-Nabi Rubin was built in the same place where a
Canaanite temple had once stood, and that the
mawsim ("religious festival") itself was pagan in origin.
Crusader period Nabi Rubin was a place of trade between
Crusaders and Muslims before it being inhabited. In 1184, it held a fair where Arab merchants from
Damascus traded slaves, Persian and Kurdish-bred horses, weapons, and blades from
Yemen and
India, with
Christians from
Acre. This trade continued until wars between the
Mamluks and Crusaders commenced in the 13th century.
Mamluk period The Nabi Rubin
mawsim was one of two prominent
mawsims for
Biblical prophets in Palestine—the other being dedicated to
Nabi Musa "the prophet
Moses" near
Jericho. The oldest part of the present structure is the maqam, which, according to an inscription, was built under the orders of a
Mamluk governor of Gaza, ''Timraz al-Mu'ayyadi'', between 1436 and 1437. The
qadi Mujir al-Din wrote in 1495 it "is a tomb of our Reuben," thereon crystallizing in local Muslim tradition that the site is the burial place of Reuben, son of Jacob and
Leah. Despite popular belief, the tomb may possibly be that of an Arab
sheikh. Mujir ad-Din noted it was a place of pilgrimage.
Ottoman period Naby Rubin was not mentioned in 16th century records. During the
Ottoman period, it was inhabited by the
Bedouin tribe of '
Arab al-Sawarika (عرب السواركة). These nomadic people, who inhabited the sand
dunes, depended on
livestock,
transportation, and basic
agriculture for survival. Due to their transient lifestyle and modest material possessions, their presence has left only faint marks in the
archaeological record. In 1816, an English traveler,
Charles Leonard Irby, visited "Sheik Rubin's tomb, surrounded by a square wall, inclosing some trees". He also describes that [local] people paid vows at the shrine and celebrated festivals there. In 1863,
Victor Guérin noted: "A square compound wall encloses a courtyard planted with about ten old mulberries, which form, in this desert and sandy place, a kind of small oasis.
Cisterns provide water for those who come to venerate the memory of Neby Roubin. This person, according to a Moslem tradition, was none other than the patriarch Reuben, the eldest of the twelve sons of Jacob. It rests at the bottom of the courtyard under a cupola which rises above a large
sarcophagus covered with a carpet. Another tradition, on the contrary, is that this pretended prophet is simply a sheikh who lived in the course of the last century. At any rate, at the feast of Neby Roubin, a crowd of Muslims hastened on pilgrimage to this place, and this solitary
koubbeh becomes the rendezvous of a multitude of more or less considerable pious visitors." In the late nineteenth century, the lands surrounding the Nabi Rubin shrine were endowed as a waqf by the Shāhīn family. Bedouin and fellahin were brought to cultivate the sandy plots, introducing orchards and vegetable gardens (mawāṣī) that relied on shallow groundwater. The mawāṣī (seasonally cultivated plots) were concentrated west of the shrine, near the Mediterranean shoreline, in an area locally known as al-Ḥilwa. The name is linked to a freshwater spring called ʿAyn al-Ḥilwa, which provided the site with abundant groundwater close to the surface. Contemporary descriptions indicate that this was a low-lying interdune depression, likely situated in the trough between aeolianite ridges, where winter rainfall caused groundwater to emerge and allowed for agricultural use. The village of Nabi Rubin was first settled by members of the Abu Sawayrih tribe who are descendants of the al-Maliha
Bedouin tribe who used dwell in the
Sinai Peninsula. However, when
Clermont-Ganneau visited in 1873–4, he found the place "utterly deserted." In 1881, he had "the good fortune" to be present at the festival, and observed "the very curious ceremonies connected to them."
British Mandate File:Nabi Rubin Festival-Khalidi.jpg|thumb|250px|The annual
mawsim ("religious festival") at Nabi Rubin in 1935 In the
1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the
British Mandate authorities,
Nabi Rubin, tribal area had a population of 120, all
Muslims. In 1933, during the Nabi Rubin celebrations, Arabs went on strike and rioted against
British Mandatory rule. The first
Palestinian film, a 1935 documentary, was also presented at the Nabi Rubin festivals. Up to 30,000 people made the pilgrimage annually throughout the month of August. The writer
S. Yizhar, who as a child sneaked over the sands from his home in
Rehovot, later described: "One finally arrives at Nabi Rubin and its mosque in the center, to watch by the light of bonfires...or even electricity from portable generators, the performance of the dances, the whirling of the dervishes, the colorful candy wrappers,...the pot-bellied swaying
Gypsy woman ....while on the side, the singing keeps sawing away all time, not ceasing until the depths of night..." The village's land area, most of which was covered by sand dunes, was the second largest in the district after that of
Yibna, and was designated as an Islamic
waqf ("pious endowment"). The Supreme Muslim Council attempted to further develop the area, and land settlement records show that local families maintained seasonal agriculture despite the challenges of encroaching dunes. while the total land area was 31,002
dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, a total of 683 dunums was devoted to citrus and banana cultivation, 4357 dunums were allocated to cereals, 184 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, while 25,770 dunams were classified as non-cultivable land. In 1946, a boys' school was started, with an enrollment of 56 pupils. On June 1, 1948, Israel's
Givati Brigade captured the village in the second stage of Operation Barak. Upon its capture, most of its inhabitants were expelled, except for a few who stayed until the harvest season to collect oranges, but they, too, were later expelled. On 24 August, the Giv'ati Brigade HQ issued the order for Operation Cleaning, aiming at 'cleansing' [
letaher] the newly conquered area, which included Nabi Rubin. Any armed units were to be destroyed, and any Arab civilians were expelled. The operation took place on 28 August, and they "killed 10 Arabs, wounded three and captured 3". There were no
Israeli army (IDF) casualties. According to
Salman Abu Sitta, in 1998, there were 10,116
Palestinian refugees from Nabi Rubin or their descendants. The shrine of Reuben remained abandoned by most of the 20th century and deteriorated gradually; by 1991, the
minaret of the
mosque was torn down, as were centuries-old
mulberry trees that had been located in the courtyard. Eventually, the shrine was reconsecrated as a Jewish holy site. In 2000, the green curtain with the Arabic inscription "There is no god but God, and Rubin is his prophet", which had been laid on the tomb, was replaced by a red one with a quotation in Hebrew from , "Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength". ==See also==