Jump to content

Daughters of Jacob Bridge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Daughters of Jacob Bridge

  • גשר בנות יעקב
  • جسر بنات يعقوب
The bridge and ancient khan in 1918
Coordinates33°0′51.17″N 35°37′42.81″E / 33.0142139°N 35.6285583°E / 33.0142139; 35.6285583
CrossesJordan River
LocaleNorthern District, Israel
Named forJacob
History
Closed1932
Location
Map
Location of the Daughters of Jacob Bridge, approximately 400m north of the modern Gesher Benot Ya'aqov

The Daughters of Jacob Bridge (Hebrew: גשר בנות יעקב, romanized: Gesher Bnot Ya'akov, Arabic: جسر بنات يعقوب, romanized: Jisr Benat Ya'kub)[1] was a medieval arch bridge that spanned the last natural ford of the Jordan River between the Korazim Plateau, today in northern Israel.

Within the vicinity of the bridge is the location of a well known Paleolithic archaeological site with Acheulean artifacts dated to around 780,000 years ago. The area has been used as a crossing point for thousands of years; it was part of the recently dubbed Via Maris, and was strategically important to the Ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Hittites, Jews, Saracens (early Muslims), Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, and to modern inhabitants and armies who crossed the river at this place.

The site was named Jacob's Ford (Latin: Vadum Iacob) by Europeans during the Crusades. A stone bridge was built by the Mamluks sometime in the 13th century, who called it Jisr Ya'kub (lit. 'Jacob's Bridge'). Located southwest of the medieval bridge are the remains of a crusader castle known as Chastelet and east of the bridge are the remains of a Mamluk khan (caravanserai). The old arched stone bridge marked the northernmost limit of Napoleon's campaign in Syria,[2][3] and was the site of the Battle of Jisr Benat Yakub during World War I.

Described by Professor Andrew Petersen as the "best-known medieval bridge in Palestine",[4] the historical bridge was demolished in 1934 during the draining of Lake Hula (see Hula Concession purchase).[5]

It was replaced by a series of modern bridges in a different location, approximately 400m south of the historic location. The modern history of these replacement bridges is described at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov – initially a Warren truss bridge, later replaced with two Bailey bridges, and finally a modern road bridge was built in 2007.

Etymology

[edit]

The Crusader-era nunnery of Saint James (Saint Jacques in French), from the nearby castellany of Sephet (modern-day Safed), received part of the customs paid at the ford, and since Jacques is derived from Jacob, this led to the name Jacob's Ford.[6]

The references to "daughters" is relatively modern, attested no earlier that the 17th or 18th centuries.[7]

The "daughters of Jacob" name was shared by a nearby reservoir (bath) and tomb (maqam). According to the PEF Survey of Palestine, the "legends of the bridge, the baths, and the tomb of Jacob’s daughters seem to be entirely of Mussulman origin".[8]

History and archaeology of the ford site

[edit]
Jacob's Ford battlefield, looking from the west bank to the east bank of the Jordan River

Prehistory

[edit]

Archaeological excavations at the prehistoric Gesher Benot Ya'aqov [he] site have revealed evidence of human habitation in the area, from as early as 750,000 years ago.[9] Archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem claim that the site provides evidence of "advanced human behavior" half a million years earlier than has previously been estimated as possible. Their report describes a layer at the site belonging to the Acheulian (a culture dating to the Lower Palaeolithic, at the very beginning of the Stone Age), where numerous stone tools, animal bones and plant remains have been found,[10] including those of the large elephant Palaeoloxodon recki[11] which is associated with stone tools, including a handaxe, and shows cut and fracture marks indicating that it was butchered by archaic humans.[12] According to the archaeologists Paul Pettitt and Mark White, the site has produced the earliest widely accepted evidence for the use of fire, dated approximately 790,000 years ago.[13][14][15] A Tel-Aviv University study found remains of a huge carp fish cooked with the use of fire at the site 780,000 years ago.[16] A 2026 study argued that the plant remains at the site include the oldest known evidence of medicinal plant use by humans, predating previous estimates by more than 700,000 years.[17]

Crusader and Ayyubid period

[edit]

Jacob's Ford was a key river crossing point and major trade route between Acre and Damascus.[18] It was utilized by Christian Palestine and Seljuk Syria as a major intersection between the two civilizations, making it strategically important. When Humphrey II of Toron was besieged in the city of Banyas in 1157, King Baldwin III of Jerusalem was able to break the siege, only to be ambushed at Jacob's Ford in June of that year.[19]

Later in the twelfth century, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Saladin continually contested the area around Jacob's Ford. Baldwin allowed the Templars to build Chastelet castle overlooking Jacob's Ford known to the Arabs as Qasr al-'Ata[20] commanding the road from Quneitra to Tiberias.[21] On 23 August 1179, Saladin successfully conducted the siege of Jacob's Ford, destroying the unfinished fortification, known as the castle of Vadum Iacob or Chastellet.

Mamluk and Ottoman bridge

[edit]
Jisr Benat Yacob marked on the Jacotin 1799 map

In the late Mamluk period, Sefad became a principal town and Baibars' postal road from Cairo to Damascus was extended with a branch that went through the north of Palestine. To accomplish this, the bridge was built over the Crusaders' Vadum Jacob (Jacob's ford). The bridge had the Mamluk characteristic dual-slope pathway like the Yibna Bridge.[citation needed] Al-Dimashqi (1256–1327) noted that "the Jordan traverses the district of Al Khaitah and comes to the Jisr Ya'kub (lit. "Jacob's Bridge"), under Kasr Ya'kub (lit. "Jacob's Castle"), and reaching the Sea of Tiberias, falls into it."[22][dubious – discuss]

Before 1444, a merchant constructed a khan (caravanserai) on the eastern side of the bridge, one of a series of such khans built at the time.[23] Edward Robinson noted that during the 14th century, travellers crossed the river Jordan below the Lake of Tiberias, while the first crossing in the area of Jisr Benat Yakob was noted in 1450 CE. The khan, at the eastern end of the bridge, and the bridge itself, were both probably built before 1450, according to Robinson.[24]

For the year 1555−1556 CE (AH 963) the toll post at the bridge collected 25,000 akçe,[23] and in 1577 (985 H) a firman commanded that the place had post horses ready.[23]

On June 4, 1771, a combined force of Daher al-Umar's men and mamluk commander Abu al-Dhahab met the Damascene Pasha in battle, The result was a victory for the Zayadina coalition and established control of Irbid and Quneitra to Daher al Umar. This also set in motion the later Final Invasion of Damascus Eyalet & Siege of Damascus by Abu al-Dhahab[25]

The bridge was maintained through the Ottoman period, with a caravanserai on one end of the bridge, as shown in the 1799 Jacotin map.[26] During the Egyptian campaign of 1799, Napoleon sent his cavalry commander, general Murat, to defend the bridge, as a measure of preempting reinforcement from Damascus being sent to Akko during the siege laid by the French.[27] Murat occupied nearby Safed and Tiberias, as well as the bridge[28] and, by relying on the superior quality of French troops, managed to defeat Turkish units far outnumbering him.[29] Jacotin's map marks the west side of the bridge with the name of General Murat and the date of 2 April 1799.

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) also noted about Jisr Benat Yakub: "The bridge itself appears to be of later date than the Crusader period."[30]

20th century

[edit]
The Daughters of Jacob Bridge in 1918
Daughters of Jacob Bridges in 1942, showing the subject of this article, marked as demolished, and the modern bridge, marked stone, from the Survey of Palestine

The Battle of Jisr Benat Yakub was fought there on 27 September 1918 during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I, at the beginning of the pursuit by the British Army of the retreating remnants of the Ottoman Yildirim Army Group towards Damascus, who destroyed the central arch of the bridge. The bridge was shortly repaired by ANZAC sappers, flattening the original dual-slope pathway, making it useful for modern vehicles.[citation needed]

In 1934, during the early stages of the draining of Lake Hula, shortly ahead of the Hula Concession purchase, the old bridge was demolished and replaced by a modern one further south.[5]

The modern history of the replacement bridges, 400m south, is described at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ Sharon, 1999, p. 41
  2. ↑ Preston, 1921, p. 261
  3. ↑ Jill, Duchess of Hamilton (2002). First to Damascus: the great ride and Lawrence of Arabia. Roseville: Kangaroo Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-7318-1071-0. OCLC 248935397.
  4. ↑ Petersen 2010, p. 295.
  5. 1 2 Sufian, 2008, pp. 165 ff
  6. ↑ Jacob's Ford by Metzad Ateret, Israel and You (blog), accessed 27 April 2020
  7. ↑ Cytryn & Czitron 2024, p. 359, footnote 11.
  8. ↑ Cytryn & Czitron 2024, p. 360, footnote 11 cont'd.
  9. ↑ Evidence found of early modern humans (January 5, 2010) in Israel 21c Innovation News Service Retrieved 2010-01-05
  10. ↑ [permanent dead link]
  11. ↑ Larramendi, Asier; Zhang, Hanwen; Palombo, Maria Rita; Ferretti, Marco P. (February 2020). "The evolution of Palaeoloxodon skull structure: Disentangling phylogenetic, sexually dimorphic, ontogenetic, and allometric morphological signals". Quaternary Science Reviews. 229 106090. Bibcode:2020QSRv..22906090L. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.106090. S2CID 213676377.
  12. ↑ Haynes, Gary (March 2022). "Late Quaternary Proboscidean Sites in Africa and Eurasia with Possible or Probable Evidence for Hominin Involvement". Quaternary. 5 (1): 18. Bibcode:2022Quat....5...18H. doi:10.3390/quat5010018. ISSN 2571-550X.
  13. ↑ Pettitt and White, 2012, p. 194
  14. ↑ Wilford, John Noble (22 December 2009). "Excavation Sites Show Distinct Living Areas Early in Stone Age". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  15. ↑ "Gesher Benot Ya'aqov - Lower Paleolithic Site in Israel". Archived from the original on 2014-04-29. Retrieved 2015-05-04.
  16. ↑ Zohar, Irit; Alperson-Afil, Nira; Goren-Inbar, Naama; Prévost, Marion; Tütken, Thomas; Sisma-Ventura, Guy; Hershkovitz, Israel; Najorka, Jens (14 November 2022). "Evidence for the cooking of fish 780,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 6 (12): 2016–2028. Bibcode:2022NatEE...6.2016Z. doi:10.1038/s41559-022-01910-z. PMID 36376603. S2CID 253522354.
  17. ↑ Jopling, David A. (2026). "Paleo-medicine at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov". Evolution and Human Behavior. 47 (2) 106807. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106807.
  18. ↑ Murray, 2006, p. 649
  19. ↑ Richard, 1999, pp. 175-176
  20. ↑ Pringle, 1997, pg. 85
  21. ↑ Payne, 1998, p. 188
  22. ↑ Le Strange, 1890, p. 53
  23. 1 2 3 Petersen, 1991, pp. 182−183
  24. ↑ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, pp. 361−363
  25. ↑ Revolt in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century.
  26. ↑ Karmon, 1960, pp. 250−252 Archived 2019-12-22 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ↑ Stephane Cohen (6 February 2018). "The parable of Tel Hazor". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  28. ↑ Amson, Daniel (1992). Israël et Palestine: Territoires sans frontières (PDF). Politique d'aujourd'hui (in French). Presses Universitaires de France (Réédition Numérique Fenixx). p. 9. ISBN 978-2-13-045027-6. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  29. ↑ Bonaparte in Egypt and Syria, 1798-1799: A Counter Stroke Stopped, Napoleonics blog, accessed 27 April 2020
  30. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, 217
  31. ↑ Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, vol 2, pp. 77 ff.

Bibliography

[edit]
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daughters_of_Jacob_Bridge&oldid=1383056637"