Daburiyya

Daburiyya (Arabic: دبورية‎; Hebrew: דַבּוּרִיָּה), also Deburieh or Dabburieh, is an Arab village east of Nazareth in Israel's North District. Daburriya gained local council status in 1961. Its jurisdiction extends over 7,200 dunams. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, Daburiyya has a population of 8,500.

Daburiyya is located off of Highway 65 at the foot of Mount Tabor in the Lower Galilee, near the area where the prophetess Deborah judged.

History

Daburiyya is identified with the biblical city of Daberath (also spelled Davrat), which in Joshua 21:28 and in the Book of Chronicles was allotted to the tribe of Issachar, who gave it as a Levitical city to the Levites. Its Greek name was Dabráth or Dabiroth and its Latin name was Dabareth.Josephus called it Dabritta.

Daburiyya has been identified with the locality of Helenopolis of the Roman-Byzantine period, but Helenopolis is more commonly identified with Kafr Kama or other town or region.

Remains of a Crusader church can still be seen in Daburiyya (in the center of the town). Daburiyya fell to Saladin in 1187 and a mosque, possibly constructed above an old Crusader tower, has an inscription above the entrance stating that it was built in 610 H (1214 CE) by the Damascus-based Ayyubid ruler al-Mu'azzam 'Isa.