Rabud

Rabud
Other transcription(s)
• Arabic	ﺩﺍﺒﺭ
• Also spelled	Khirbet Rabud (official)
Rabud Location of Rabud within the Palestinian Territories
Coordinates:
Governorate	Hebron
Government
• Type	Village council (from 1993)
• Head of Municipality	Muhammad Huraibat
Area
• Jurisdiction	2,200 dunams (2.2 km2 or 0.8 sq mi)
Population (2007)
• Jurisdiction	2,262

Rabud (Arabic: ﺩﺍﺒﺭ‎‎, also spelled Khirbet Rabud) is the site of an ancient Cannanite city and currently a Palestinian village in the southern West Bank between Israel and Jordan.

Etymology

The meaning of the name Rabud is unclear, yet some historians note the text reverse of the Semitic spelling for Rabud (R-B-D) spells Debir - an association to indicate the area as biblical Debir.

Demographics

Part of the Hebron Governorate, it is located 13 kilometers southwest of Hebron and about 5 km northwest of as-Samu. Rabud had a population of 2,262 in the 2007 census by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). The principal families are the Huraibat, Quteinah, al-Uqela and Shanan.

History

According to research by the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem, Rabud's history dates back to the Canaanite period in Palestine, but that the modern inhabitants of the village migrated from the Arabian Peninsula. A village council was established by the Palestinian National Authority in 1993 to administer Rabud's civil affairs and provide limited municipal services. There is currently one mosque, Salah ad-Din Mosque, which serves the village.

Identification with Biblical Debir

In 1968, archaeologist Moshe Kochavi identified the area as the biblical city of Debir, an association favored by modern historians as opposed to that of Claude Reignier Conder who identified biblical Debir as ad-Dhahiriya.