Bayt 'Itab

The local farmers cultivated cereals, fruit trees and olive groves and some engaged in livestock breeding.

[7] Bayt ʿIṭāb is identified with Enadab, a name that appears in Eusebius' Onomasticon, written in the fourth century CE.

[8][9] Agmon conjectured that its ancient name was batˁaṭami = "place of the vulture-goddess shrine", in reference to the Egyptian deity Nekhbet.

[10] In the mid-12th century, Bayt ʿIṭāb hosted an impressive maison forte [fr], or fortified hall house, in the ancient centre of the modern village, that is thought to have served as the residence of Johannes Gothman, a Frankish crusader knight.

[16] The Arabic name of the village appears in Latin transliteration as Bethaatap in a list recording the 1161 sale of Gothman's land.

Robinson recounts that he was "a good-looking man" from the Lahaam clan, and that when they arrived in the village, he was sitting conversing with other sheikhs on a carpet under a fig tree.

[19] As Meron Benvenisti writes, al-Lahham waged "a bloody war against Sheik Mustafa Abu Ghosh, whose capital and fortified seat was in the village of Suba.

[20][21] In February 1855, the Abu Ghosh clan came to the aid of Atallah, conquered Bayt ʿIṭāb, and imprisoned ʿUtham al-Laḥḥām in his own house.

With the help of one of the younger members of the Abu Ghosh clan, James Finn was able to negotiate a cease-fire between the Atallah and Lahham factions in Bayt 'Itab.

"[23] An official Ottoman village list from about 1870 cited by Socin shows that Bayt 'Itab had a total of 89 houses inhabited by 241 people, with the caveat that the population count included men only.

[24] In the late 19th century, Bayt ʿIṭāb was described as a village built on stone, perched on a rocky knoll that rose 60 to 100 feet above the surrounding hilly ridge.

[29][30] The original layout of Bayt ʿIṭāb was circular, but newer construction to the southwest (towards Sufla), gave the village an arc-shape.

He noted two cemeteries that lay east and west of the village, and the fact that some of the surrounding land was cultivated by Israeli farmers.

[5] [36] Remains at the site include a Crusader fortress, vaults, remnants of a wall and towers, tunnels, a columbarium and an olive press.

[43] This cavern or tunnel, known in Arabic as Mgharat Bīr el-Hasuta, ("Cave of the Well of Hasuta") is "evidently artificial," and was hewn into the rock.

"[45][46] John William McGarvey (1881) quotes Conder on the linguistic evidence: "The substitution of B for M is so common (as in Tibneh for Timnah) that the name Atab may very properly represent the Hebrew Etam (eagle's nest); and there are other indications as to the identity of the site.

"[47] Survey of Western Palestine (1883), notes that the name of the "curious cave" at Bayt ʿIṭāb in Arabic is Bir el-Has Utah.

"[16] McGarvey also relays Conder's belief that the cavern within the rock formation was "the real hiding place" of Samson after his destruction of the Philistine's grains.

Crusader ruins at Bayt Itab.
Member of Harel Brigade during demolition of Bayt 'Itab, 1948
House demolition in Bayt 'Itab, 1948.