Beit Ta’mir is located 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) south-east of Bethlehem. It is bordered by Za'atara to the east, Hindaza to the west and north, and Jannatah and Tuqu' to the south.[3]
History
The village mosque, the Mosque of Omar, has been tentatively dated to 636 CE.[4]
In 1531, records from the Jerusalem Sharia Court mention an individual named 'Ali al-Ta'amari of the Ta'amreh tribe. This record places the Ta'amreh in the vicinity of Bethlehem, marking their involvement in legal matters during the early Ottoman period.[5] In 1603/4 a Bedouin named Sha‘ala of ‘Arab al-Ta‘āmira sold a beast of burden, originally stolen from Jindas near Lydda to Sālim b. Ghunaym, resident of the village of Dayr al-Sinna in the Kidron Valley near Jerusalem.[6] These mentions highlight the Ta'amreh's active role within the social and judicial landscape of the region in the 16th and 17th centuries.
In 1596 Beit Ta'mir appeared in the tax registers as being in the nahiya of Al-Quds in the liwa of Al-Quds under the name of Bayt Ta'mar. It had a population of 65 household;[7] who were all Muslims. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, vegetable and fruit gardens, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 8,100 Akçe. Half of the revenue went to a Waqf.[7]
In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Beit Ta'mar, the village of the Ta'amirah, on his travels in the region,[8] It was also noted as an Arab village, located south of Wadi er-Rahib in the Jerusalem district.[9]
In 1863, Victor Guérin noted it as an ancient site, inhabited by people of the Ta'amereh tribe.[10]
An Ottoman list from about 1870 notes a "sizable" village with a mosque with a small minaret. The villagers were Bedouin.[11]
In 1883 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Beit T'amir: "a small village on a hill with wells and a few olives. The name is that of an Arab tribe which was originally settled in the place. The village contains a small mosque named after the Khalif Omar."[12]
In 1896 a population list noted that Beit Ta'mir was "half Bedouin".[13]
British Mandate era
In the 1945 statistics the population was counted under the name Arab et Ta'amira together with Arab Ibn Ubeid, Arab et Rashayida and Arab et Sawahira; together they had a population of 7,070 Muslims,[14] with Arab et Ta'amira having a total of 209,888 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[15] Of this, 24 dunams were used plantations and irrigable land, 12,424 for cereals,[16] while 197,440 dunams were classified as non-cultitivable land.[17]
In 1961, the population of Ta'amira inhabiting the desert of their lands as Nomads (as indicated by the Arabic section of the Jordanian Census, "عرب التعامرة") was 306, excluding other Ta'amira populations such as Za'atara (1,003), Tuqu' (555), and other Ta'amira villages, which would number their total population in thousands.[18]
