A picture of the village of Tel al-Safi – Palestine: General view.
Source: Palestine Remembered
Introduction
This article is part of a larger research project titled "History of Palestine and the Region" by Abdul-Hafiz Youssef Nofal, a researcher and engineer from the Hebron Hills, Tell al Safi, and a descendant of the Palestinian Tribe of Brahmiyya . The full study covers Palestine's history, which has often been unclear over the past 150 years, starting from its Canaanite origins through various periods, including the Jewish (Israelite), Islamic (Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman), and Christian (Franks/al-Ifranj) invasions and conquests, as well as the Sea Peoples, Greeks, Romans, Persians, and up to the modern British-Israeli era.
The research does confirm what many sources say, that waves of Canaanites living in Palestine continued to migrate out of wandering and that they settled in the area of the island of Crete at the beginning of history, but due to pressures such as conflict with the Hittites and wider Indo‑European movements, eventually they returned to their homeland Palestine, and they carried the name the Tribe of Palestine with them. They blended seamlessly into Canaanite society, reinforcing the land’s continuity and fullness of its people.
Within this historical geography, it is important to note that the main territory of our own tribe, the Tribe of Abimelech (Hasanat Abu Mua'ilq – حَسَنات أَبُومُعَيليْق), is the Gerar Valley (Kingdom of Gerar), which bordered the Ajnadayn plain (Kingdom of Ajnadayn) from the south. A branch of the Abimelech tribe also lived within the Brahmiyya territory in Deir al‑Dhaban, one of the villages neighboring Tell al‑Safi, the center of life for the Tribe of Brahmiyya. This situates the Abimelech tribe firmly within the same cultural and territorial landscape described by Nofal, underscoring the interconnectedness of indigenous Palestinian tribes across Gerar, the Hebron Hills, the Ajnadayn plain, and Jerusalem (šālēm). More about the Tribe of Abimelech and its families can be found at abimelech.org/about.
For the purposes of this presentation, we are including only the section on the Brahmiyya tribe, which the author uses to introduce the history of Palestine. This emphasis showcases the tribe’s role as a living thread of 6,000-8,000 years of indigenous continuity in Palestine.
The author frames Palestine’s history as uniquely difficult to access because it sits at the crossroads of continents and at the intersection of religion, politics, economics, and civilization. The land’s distinct human and geographic character has imposed itself on all who enter it, and because it has been coveted by many, its events have repeatedly echoed for good or ill across the world. This sensitivity and complexity make research arduous, as layers of eras, claims, and ambitions have accumulated, obscuring clarity and rendering the historical field vulnerable to distortion.
Rejecting the pitfalls of inherited historiography, old books and repeated transmissions that can trap readers in the mistakes of past historians, the author chooses a real and natural entry point: his own tribe, the Brahmiyya. He presents them as good, simple people whose deepening love and connection to their homeland affirm their status as original owners of the land. A defining moment is highlighted: the Brahmiyya’s welcoming of Omar ibn al‑Khattab after the Battle of Ajnadayn and their declaration of Islam, which he uses to enter “the depths of the Palestinian body” through observed reality, honesty, belonging, and concrete facts rather than abstract or secondhand narratives.
Grounding the study in the tribe’s continuous presence provides a way to correct distorted or incomplete histories.to shield current and future generations and researchers from pens reliant on Israelite stories, emotionalism, mutual borrowing, and misleading accounts that sever modern narratives from ancient foundations. He argues Palestine’s history has suffered injustice and neglect even by some of its own people because many focus on modern episodes without integrating the ancient roots that give them meaning. This section therefore commits to starting from the beginning and taking the right path, and ends with a moral appeal: read carefully, grasp the dimensions, and treat this study as an act of worship through which one draws nearer to God, entering the work with reverence and a resolve to restore clarity to a vision obscured for generations.
Homeland of the Tribe of Brahmiyya
The Tribe of Brahmiyya and its branches is considered one of the largest tribes of the ancient Canaanites who have inhabited the western Hebron Mountains region since ancient times, and it is spread in several areas.
This tribe is concentrated in the town of Tell al-Safi, located 30 kilometers northwest of Hebron, overlooking the Ajnadayn Plain (the site of the famous battle in 634 AD). The town lies in a region surrounded by the villages and towns of Beit Jibrin, Kadana, Ra’na, Barqusiya, Dhakrin, Ni’lin, Tell Turmus, Samil, Jasir, Sawafir, Qastina, aMasmiya, Tina, Adhnaba, Mughlis, Bureij, Zakaria, Beit Nateef, Ajur, Deir al-Dhaban, and others.
All of these placenames were part of the Kingdom of Ajnadayn (there is disagreement about the origin of the name, but it is most likely that it was common before the periods of Roman rule and the Islamic conquest (3)).
The town of Tel al-Safi overlooks some villages of the West Bank from the east, such as Surif, Beit Ummar, and Beit Ula, and the Palestinian coastal plain from the west (where it is possible to see from the area today the ships in the port of Ashdod and also the ruins of the Asqalān fortress, which belonged to the Gaza region).
Its location, central to Hebron, Jerusalem, Ramla, and Gaza gave the region and its inhabitants strategic importance throughout history, as it was a fortress and a station for conquerors and passing armies.
Hence, speaking about the Tribe of Brahmiyya and the town of Tel al-Safi is considered a good introduction to the history of Palestine and the region.
Canaanite Origins
Their town is Tel al-Safi, which was founded by the Canaanites (1) at the beginning of their presence in the region. Among its names are Lubna (as mentioned by many sources), and among its other names are Jit and Safita (it appeared with this name on the map of Madaba), and Blanche Garde in the days of the Franks, meaning the white hill or the white guard.
Perhaps its names were taken from the layers of white rock that adorn the hillside in most aspects (and it appears that the name Tel al-Safi was taken from the sum of those names).
It was considered one of their Canaanite castles, due to its strategic location overlooking the Palestinian coast and the Mediterranean Sea, where the Canaanites (1) used this fortress as an advanced site in the far west of the Hebron Mountains as a line of defense for their regions in the Hebron Mountains, Jericho and Jerusalem (and these regions are the beginnings of their settlement, where some historians called it the first Palestine, and from here history began to write itself and human civilization radiated to all parts of the world) in order to repel the attacks of the sea peoples who had begun to come.
On the Palestinian coast of the sea at that time, sources say that in a later period, the fortress of Sa'ir was built where the village of Sa'ir is now, to protect their positions from the east, after that, many castles and fortresses were built along the mountains of Palestine, and this proves that their culture was defensive and not offensive, and this was the morality of the people of the Holy Land throughout time.
Historical Continuity
Hence, the Canaanites (1), ancestors of the Brahmiyya tribe, were the first people known to history who inhabited Palestine, even before the arrival of their cousins Lakhm and Judham (2).
Their presence in their original homeland was not affected, even after the arrival of the Qais and Yemen tribes, before or after the Islamic conquest (3) or after the arrangements that took place during the Ayyubid, Mamluk (4) and Ottoman eras, as the Brahmiyya and the people of the town of Tell al-Safi later contributed to the establishment of the Sheikh neighborhood (5) near the city of Hebron.
Yes, Tell es-Safi, the Brahmiyya tribe, the surrounding area, and others had a great role throughout history, even before the advent of religions and before Islam. These conditions continued, despite the succession of nations, until the beginning of the twentieth century, when British forces (6) landed in Palestine (and the British-Israeli era (6) began), along with the tragedy of the abolition of the Caliphate.
Conversion to Islam
The Brahmiyya tribe and its branches, belong to the first people to inhabit this country (Bani Canaan). They were the farmers of the Palestinian land and its original Canaanite-speaking inhabitants. They are descendants of the pagan tribes, and they were present before the advent of the three heavenly religions, before the so-called Jewish invasion, and before the birth of Christ. Their feet remained firmly planted in this soil since those ancient times.
Since the surrounding nations including the Romans then embraced the Christian religion until the Islamic conquest (3) came starting from the year 632 AD, which liberated them from the rule of the Romans. As a result, they all entered the Islamic religion, the region of Ajnadayn, including Tal al-Safi with its inhabitants at that time and the Brahmiyya with their branches, were honored that their region was the first region that the Islamic conquest entered in the Levant, or outside the Hijaz region. The Tribe of Brahmiyya and their cousins that embraced Islam were the starting point for Islamic advocacy among the other tribes in those areas.
It is worth mentioning that even a hundred years ago, women from the Brahmiyya tribe used to wear embroidered peasant clothes, where women used to boast of embroidering the image of the god Dajan, one of the Canaanite gods, on their chests(1) because of their pride in belonging to Canaanite origins (1) (and there are proofs for the above).
Branches of the Tribe of Brahmiyya
The region, including Tell al-Safi fortress and Palestine in general, were always subjected to hit-and-run, take-and-return, as the population was exposed to displacement, massacres, horrors and conflict. Throughout history, this caused the spread of some of the branches of Brahmiyya across in many areas such as the Jerusalem area, Ramallah and Halhul, especially in the area of Thermos Ayya, the area of Barham, Aruram and others. These communities also extended to regions like Nablus, Haifa, and parts of Jaffa, including Kafra'ana and Safiriya, where they were known by names such as al-Shara'i'a, Arouri, al-Bu, and others.
There are also branches in the Arab Republic of Egypt, some of them live in Sharqiyah Governorate, where their presence is concentrated in the Center of Saqr's Children. It is also worth noting that Qasim Junaidi (ancestor of the Tribe of Qawasmeh) lived, or some of his sons, in Tel al-Safi (after his ancestors arrived from Iraq around 300 AH). After the Crusades (after 1099 AD), some of his descendants moved there with Sheikh Ali al-Bakka (5). This sheikh, who settled in Tel al-Safi, later accompanied al-Zahir Baybars and participated with him in defeating the Crusaders in the last battle in the Arsuf region on the coast in 1265 AD. They moved to the Hebron area and established a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city called Harat al-Sheikh (5). Many of their descendants remained in Tell al-Safi and in the nearby village of Barqusia, where they now constitute a significant proportion of the residents of both villages. It is worth noting that they have cousins and descendants of al-Junayd living in the Ajloun Mountains (al-Momani) and also in the Nablus area (al-Junayd).
The Tribe of Brahmiyya shares a common heritage with tribes with an ancient history in Tell al-Safi, such as the Abu Afifa family and others. There are also families who settled in the area in recent times, such as the al-Azza family and others. A large proportion of families of Egyptian or other origins came to the area seeking livelihood or as part of military campaigns, especially those of Saladin, the Mamluks (4), and Ibrahim Pasha. These immigrant families were treated with hospitality, honor, and good accommodation by the Brahmiyya tribe, the original inhabitants of the country. This led to the tribe being respected and appreciated by everyone. All the families of the country were united by love, harmony, cooperation, and loyalty, as if they were all one tribe. There are families in the Hebron area who have historical ties and kinship with the Brahmiyya tribe and the people of the town of Tel al-Safi, such as Abu Shukhaydam, Junaidi, Qawasmeh, Abu Zeina, Zughayer, and many families from the villages of Beit Ula, Surif, Dura, Dhahiriya, and Halhul.
Throughout history, the Brahmiyya have focused on agriculture due to their love and connection to their land and their relentless and continuous defense throughout history. Their town was an important fortress before and after Islam, and during Saladin's advances and retreats from the fortress of Asqalān (just before the Battle of Hattin), and it was also the headquarters of the Frankish King Fulk.
The Nakba and Diaspora
Despite this, in all circumstances, most of the Brahmiyya, their descendants, remained steadfast on their land until the British-Israeli invasion (6), when the region was reorganized according to the (unilateral) Sykes-Picot agreements of 1916. But this time the attack was bigger and more powerful than the region's capacity, which led to forced migration and displacement from the region in what is known as the Nakba of 1948 AD.
The Brahmiyya, the townspeople, and the residents of the neighboring villages fought desperately to defend their homeland during that period. In the last battle of the town, a number of Brahmiyya, the townspeople, and the residents of the neighboring villages were martyred, led by Mahmoud Hassan Noufal, his brothers Abdel Hafez and Abdel Moneim, and their son Ayyash. Eyewitnesses recount that the martyr Mahmoud Hassan killed more than 10 invaders in that battle alone. The fall of the town of Tel al-Safi in 1948 AD naturally led to a weakening of the morale of the region's residents, which led to the fall of dozens of villages after that, due to the strategic position of the town of Tel al-Safi.
Therefore, the displacement from Tel al-Safi and the neighboring villages was the result of military battles. The matter did not stop there, but most of Palestine fell in 1948 AD. In addition to large areas of land in 1967 AD, after which the Arab and Islamic world fell into a trap where capitals fell one after the other and countries disintegrated. We ask God to protect us from the evils of the future.
The Brahmiyya tribe spread after 1948 AD in the cities, villages, and camps of the West and East Banks. Some families headed to the Gaza Strip, while the rest spread throughout the diaspora.
The well-known branches of the Brahmiyya tribe (including the town of Tel al-Safi) at the present time include: Nawfal, Sheikh Salman, Ayesh, Abu al-Hajj, Mughnim, Asmaran, Dukh, Jamal, Maari, Bahr, and others.
After this migration, members of the Brahmiyya tribe, like the rest of the Palestinian people, focused on education and practicing professional and commercial crafts. They left their mark on goodness wherever they went. After that, many young Brahmiyya men contributed to the Palestinian revolution and Arab parties, and some of them joined the Islamic movements, the most famous of whom was Sheikh Youssef Abdel-Hafiz Nofal (who is considered one of the founders and theorists of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine since the 1940s and who died in the city of Hebron in 1999 AD).
During the battles of the Palestinian revolution from the beginning of the 1960s until the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 AD, a number of Brahmiyya men fell, martyred and wounded, most notably Fahd Ibrahim Mahmoud Nofal, who was martyred during the invasion of Lebanon.
Spiritual Appeal and Conclusion
Throughout history, the Canaanites as a whole, including the Tribe of Brahmiyya and other inhabitants of Palestine, have preserved Palestine, this holy land, choosing to remain on it and had no ambitions to expand outside it or establish empires. They rather preferred to remain on this land to preserve it and prepare to receive the prophets, messengers and messages. They endured for that through wars and invasions, and their land of Palestine has been subjected, more than any other country in the world, to occupation, destruction, and injustice throughout history.
Therefore, the entire world in general, and with a direct appeal to the Arab and Islamic worlds in particular, must fulfill these people's rights and repay them by working to liberate their country (following the path such as that of Omar, who came from the Hijaz, Saladin, who came from northern Iraq, Sultan Qutuz, who came from Khwarazm, and Zahir Baybars, who came from Kazakhstan) and return them to their homeland so that they can preserve it as a sacred and blessed land and an oasis of peace for the world and humanity.
This appeal is, in fact, one of the reasons for writing this research and its appendices, and I invite everyone to read and understand it. In any case, whether the nation is determined to do this or not, we turn to God to hasten His promise (details are in Surat al-Isra. The promise of God who never breaks His promise) and forgive us all for our shortcomings towards our cause and improve our situation, our people and our nation and guide them to the straight path and to a good understanding and comprehension of the situation. May God consider us among the patient (patience in obedience, patience in avoiding disobedience, and patience in the face of calamity) and the grateful. May we be part of the true promise and among His soldiers and divine army and may our return to the homeland be facilitated so that our people and our nation may once again establish God’s rule over this holy land and preserve it.
Notes
Perhaps these days the name of the tribe al-Brahmiyya and many of the names of the indigenous tribes have become uncommon and unknown to many of today’s generation because most of the branches and clans are named after their ancestors and branches.
Many researchers or even ordinary people make mistakes when they attribute the name of a certain village or city to the Romans or Greeks or other peoples who passed through Palestine throughout history. This is a common mistake because those peoples reached Palestine, where Palestine was always full of Arab people, villages and civilization, and the Canaanite project always took its place exactly on this land.
We welcome any addition, comment, correction or any other information. The truth is that we do not have the ability to cover everything and we do not claim perfection. We have spent many years investigating the facts, searching for evidence, visiting the mentioned areas, and studying their topographical and demographic conditions, their antiquities and cemeteries spread throughout them. We studied the customs of their people and their dialects until we reached what we have reached. We hope that this research will be easy on the soul and digestible. We have tried to clarify the main denominators of what historians have written. From here, we call on everyone to further study and research. If there is any difference, it is only an effort and a point of view.
What has been mentioned in this research is just the tip of the iceberg in order to provide the new generation (and unfortunately with all due respect to this generation, it was raised on the curricula and methods imposed on us by the West and its students and on food products with foreign recipes) and give it this historical information in addition to its belief and patriotism so that it can reformulate itself and its society as a fundamental step to rearrange the conditions of the nation and to cleanse the nation from the sediments of “Sykes-Picot” and restore the one nation, depending on its belief, origins and deep roots, as the past is the father of the present and the grandfather of the future, and peace be upon him was always proud of his origin and lineage.
I call upon all individuals, institutions, professional unions and all their departments, research centers, and those who have scientific or material capabilities to make an effort in these topics in order to remove the ambiguity and provide the youth with correct information and work to save them from this deceptive and manipulative intellectual pollution in whose net we have all been prisoners for the past hundred years, so that they do not become victims of some Arab and Muslim historians and some suspicious organizations and others who have slipped into circles of forgery, distortion and slander and who have tried to brainwash the youth in one way or another, hiding behind high certificates and university titles (with our respect for science and scientists) and who have set the curricula for universities and schools, where they have persisted in separating science from literature and education from culture, which has led to the disaster. I call upon the youth with scientific specializations such as medicine, engineering, computers and all sciences to give history and literature their due, and not to live as prisoners of their professions. And their achievements, even if it is through extracurricular evening activities or interest in topics as a hobby, and I remind them of the Quranic verses (So relate the stories that perhaps they will give thought... And each We relate to you from the news of the messengers... We relate to you the best of stories), and to make their culture go along with their knowledge. I remind the youth of the previous Islamic eras where everyone who had professions was a jurist, historian, hadith scholar, musician, and there were famous names, and I also remind them that Israel and Zionism played the cards of history and religion, and we, the people of the correct history and true religion, neglected these two items, and from here Palestine and the region were lost.
I call upon the youth to take advantage of the opportunity of the Internet, the abundance of books, the press, and these many satellite channels, all of which are advantages of this time. I call upon them to benefit from all of this to collect information, sort it, and publish it to benefit from it. The current global system is trying, persisting, and working hard to sow imbalance in our country and to consolidate what we mentioned in the previous item 5, so that this generation becomes a victim of isolationism and seclusion and so that they become prisoners of their specializations and professions. As a result, classism arises and the nation disintegrates and becomes loose as it is these days, so it becomes easy prey for others (even housing projects were planned in a way that serves this imbalance). This is what happened over the past hundred years. Note: Hence, our universities and colleges, which have reached imaginary numbers over those years, have not kept pace with global development and have not succeeded in bringing about the required change and development, as government universities are monopolized by certain segments. Regardless of their academic level, private universities are nothing but commercial companies, and from here young people graduate as if they never graduated. We call upon all young people, regardless of their educational level, to rebuild themselves, their minds and their culture through their own efforts, and to combine knowledge with both culture and literature so that their personality is complete, and to be among the people of the Holy Quran, and in the noble hadith (The best among you is he who learns the Quran and teaches it).
We want, as a requirement, to emphasize and clarify to people that culture in general and historical information in particular is a source of inspiration for the youth, and culture has always been what has unified the nation and removed barriers between all segments of the nation. The educated person must ask himself about the extent of his connection to his homeland, is it only from a material, emotional or national perspective? And has this matter gone beyond to a connection through faith with this homeland? This is what is required. When our master Muhammad, peace be upon him, left Mecca as an immigrant, he addressed it and said (You are the most beloved place on earth to me). There is nothing more beautiful or greater than for us Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims to be connected to the Palestinian homeland emotionally and ideologically.
I call upon all members of the tribes belonging to Canaanite origins and all who inhabited Palestine during those periods, to research these matters and verify a lot of information and publish it in order to contribute to confirming the identity of the original owners of the land, and we suggest establishing a special website for this topic (about the history of Palestine, its tribes, the stages of its occupation and the role of the Islamic Caliphate in preserving it), due to its importance and to provide evidence to the current and future generations that this land is Arab and Islamic.
Our interest in origin, separation and searching for our roots is a legitimate necessity and this matter does not diminish the value of religion or belief, but rather completes the personality and fulfills the belief and that Arabism and Islam are twins and that when Saladin began his campaign he called out his famous cry (Death is pleasant, O Arabs), and Omar bin al-Khattab said before him, we are a people whom Allah has honored with Islam, so if we seek honor for anything other than it, Allah will humiliate us.
This presentation about the Brahmiyya tribe and the town of Tel Safi, which is a good introduction to understanding the history of Palestine and the region, is not the talk of a mood, alignment, or favoritism for one group over another, or pride in a particular side. Rather, it is the essence of experiences, information, studies, meetings, visits, research, and reality. It is taken from a historical perspective and a neutral angle. We have summarized many matters in brief phrases or symbolic references so that the reader can get a general idea and we open the door for those who want to research more.
Anyone who reads this research and its appendices should consider it as if he is reading the history of his town and tribe, as the subject is general, comprehensive, and intertwined with all historical aspects. It is a good step towards understanding the situation of the Palestinian issue and provides a glimpse into its history and the history of the region.
Anyone who reads this research should consider themselves as if they are reading the history of their town and tribe, as the subject is general, comprehensive, and intertwined with all historical aspects. It is a good step towards understanding the situation of the Palestinian issue and provides a glimpse into its history and the history of the region.
Written by Abdul-Hafiz Youssef Nofal, the Hebron Hills Region – Palestine.
First published February 20, 2011 on Palestine Remembered.
