Mount Tabor

Mount Tabor
Highest point
Elevation	575 m (1,886 ft)
Coordinates	32°41′14″N 35°23′25″E / 32.68722°N 35.39028°E / 32.68722; 35.39028Coordinates: 32°41′14″N 35°23′25″E / 32.68722°N 35.39028°E / 32.68722; 35.39028
Geography
Mount Tabor Lower Galilee, Israel

Mount Tabor (Hebrew: הר תבור‬, Modern Har Tavor, Tiberian Har Tāḇôr, Greek Όρος Θαβώρ) is located in Lower Galilee, Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, 11 miles (18 km) west of the Sea of Galilee.

In the Hebrew Bible (Joshua, Judges), Mount Tabor is the site of the Battle of Mount Tabor between the Israelite army under the leadership of Barak and the army of the Canaanite king of Hazor, Jabin, commanded by Sisera.

In Christian tradition, Mount Tabor is the site of the Transfiguration of Jesus.^[1]

Name[edit]

The Hebrew name of the, תבור tabor, has long been connected with the name for "navel", ט‬בור ṭabbur, but this is probably due to popular etymology.^[2]

The form Itabyrium attributed to Josephus is an editorial conjecture based on reading variants in manuscripts and may not be historical.^[3]

From the connection with the Transfiguration of Jesus, the mountain became eponymous of the Tabor light in Christian theology, of the Bohemian sect of the Taborites, and of numerous settlements and institutions. The Bohemian Taborites, however, are named for Tábor, their city, from the unrelated tabor "fort, encampment", a borrowing from Turkic tabur "military encampment".

The Arabic form of the name is جبل طابور Jabal aṭ-Ṭābūr or جبل الطور Jabal aṭ-Ṭūr.^{[year needed][4]}

Morphology and location[edit]

Mount Tabor is shaped almost like a half-sphere, suddenly rising from rather flat surroundings and reaching a height of 575 metres (1,886 feet), thus dominating by a good 450 metres the next town in the plain below, Kfar Tavor.^[5] At the top of the mount there are two Christian monasteries, one Greek Orthodox on the northeast side, and one Roman Catholic on the southeast side. The Catholic church at the top is well visible from afar.

The mountain is a monadnock: an isolated hill or small mountain rising abruptly from gently sloping or level surrounding land, and is not volcanic.^{[citation needed]} In spite of its proximity to the Nazareth mountains, it constitutes a separate geological form.

At the base it is almost fully surrounded by the Arab villages of Daburiyya, Shibli, and Umm al-Ghanam. Mount Tabor is located off Highway 65, and its summit is accessible by road via Shibli. A hiking tracks starts from the Bedouin village Shibli and is about five kilometers long. It is part of the Israel National Trail.

History[edit]

1855 painting of Mount Tabor

Mount Tabor, 1912

Mount Tabor, 2011

At the bottom of the mountain was an important road junction: Via Maris passed there from the Jezreel Valley northward towards Damascus. Its location on the road junction and its bulgy formation above its environment gave Mount Tabor a strategic value and wars were conducted in its area in different periods in history.

Hebrew Bible[edit]

The mountain is mentioned for the first time in the Hebrew Bible, in Joshua 19:22, as border of three tribes: Zebulun, Issachar and Naphtali. The mountain's importance stems from its strategic control of the junction of the Galilee's north-south route with the east-west highway of the Jezreel Valley.

According to the Book of Judges, Hazor was the seat of Jabin, the king of Canaan, whose commander, Sisera, led a Canaanite army against the Israelites. Deborah the Jewish prophetess summoned Barak of the tribe of Naphtali and gave him God's command, "Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun" (Judges).4:6). Descending from the mountain, the Israelites attacked and vanquished Sisera and the Canaanites.

Classical antiquity[edit]

In the days of the Second Temple (c. 516 BCE – 70 CE), Mount Tabor was one of the mountain peaks on which it was the custom to light beacons in order to inform the northern villages of Jewish holy days and of the beginning of new months.

In 55 BCE, during a Hasmonean rebellion against the Roman proconsul of Syria, Aulus Gabinius, Alexander of Judaea and his army of 30,000 Judeans was defeated in battle at Mount Tabor. As many as 10,000 Jewish fighters were killed in the battle and Alexander was forced to flee, apparently to Syria.^[6]

In 66 CE, during the First Jewish-Roman War, the Galilean Jews retrenched on the mountain under the command of Yosef Ben Matityahu, better known as Josephus Flavius, the later historian, whence they defended themselves against the Roman assault. Itabyrium, as Josephus calls it, was one of the 19 sites fortified by the rebels in Galilee under his very orders. According to what is written in his book "The Wars of the Jews", Vespasian sent an army of 600 riders, under the command of Placidus, who fought the rebels. Placidus understood that he could not reach the top of the steep mountain with his forces, and therefore called the fortified rebels to walk down the mountain. A group of Jewish rebels descended from the mountain, supposedly, in order to negotiate with Placidus, but they attacked him. The Roman forces initially retreated, but while they were in the valley, they returned towards the mountain, attacked the Jewish rebels, killed many of them, and blocked the road for the remaining rebels who tried to flee back to the top of the mountain. Many of the Jewish rebels left Mount Tabor and returned to Jerusalem. The rest of the fortified rebels in the fortress on the mountain surrendered after their water ran out. They then handed over the mountain to Placidus.^[7]

From the late times of the Roman province Judaea (6–135 CE) and on, the writers of the Christian New Testament relate that Jesus had brought Peter, James, and John his brother into a high mountain apart, and that Jesus became radiant there. However, none of these accounts identifies the "high mountain" of the scene by name. The earliest identification of the Mount of Transfiguration as Tabor is by Origen in the 3rd century. This early speculation is recounted by St. Cyril of Jerusalem and St. Jerome in the 4th century.^[8] It is later recounted in the 5th century Transitus Beatae Mariae Virginis. Mount Hermon is an alternative site according to tradition.^{[citation needed]} After the destruction of the Second Temple, Jewish settlement On Mount Tabor was renewed.

Due to the importance of Mount Tabor in Christian tradition, from the 4th century onward it became a pilgrimage site. According to descriptions of the pilgrims, during the 6th century there were three churches on the top of the mountain.

Middle Ages[edit]

During the 8th century there were four churches and a monastery on the mountain. During the Arab Caliphate period, in 947, a battle occurred on Mount Tabor between different factions over the control of the Land of Israel on behalf of the Abbasid Caliphate.^{[citation needed]}

During the period of the Crusades, the mountain changed hands many times between Muslims and Christians. In 1099 the Crusaders fortified the area of the monastery which was on the peak of the mountain, in order to protect the pilgrims from Muslim attacks. In 1101, when Crusaders controlled the area, the Benedictine monks rebuilt a ruined basilica and erected a fortified abbey.^[9] In 1212 the mountain was occupied by the Ayyubid Sultan Al-Adil I who built a large fortress at its top, but in 1229 it was again occupied by the Christians. In 1263, the Mamluk ruler Baibars occupied the fortress and destroyed the buildings on the mountain.^{[citation needed]}

Ottoman era[edit]

Mount Tabor, by Helga von Cramm. New Year chromolithographic card, c. 1870–1880. C. Caswell.

In 1799, during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte's Syrian expedition, in the valley between mount Tabor and the Hill of Moreh, the Battle of Mount Tabor was fought in which a French force of about 3,000 soldiers under the command of Napoleon and general Jean Baptiste Kléber won against an Ottoman force of about 35,000 soldiers.

At the end of the 19th and the beginning the 20th century, the Bedouin tribe Arab Al-Sabehi settled on the mountain. It was one of the strongest tribes in that region.^{[citation needed]}

Modern period[edit]

During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War members from the Arab Al-Sabehi tribe participated in the army of the Arab Liberation Army of Fawzi al-Qawuqji and amongst others killed seven members of the kibbutz Beit Keshet. At the start of May 1948 the Golani Brigade occupied Mount Tabor. Most members of the tribe were forced out to Syria and to the Kingdom of Jordan, except for one branch of the tribe, the clan of Shibli, whose members refused to leave their land. After the war their village was established, Arab Al-Shibli, which is nowadays part of the village Shibli-Umm al-Ghanam.^{[citation needed]} The Bedouin village was admitted as a tourist village by the Israeli government and the locals are famous of being hospitable and very friendly to visitors.^{[citation needed]}

Many tribes in the region, like Arab-Al Hieb, began their military cooperation with the Jewish underground forces before the establishment of the state, in the late 1930s.^{[citation needed]} Since the late 1960s many of the tribesmen joined the Israeli security forces (such as IDF, Border Guarding Unit and police).^{[citation needed]}

In April each year, the regional council of Lower Galilee holds a 12-kilometre race around Mount Tabor in memory of Yitzhak Sadeh, the first commander of the Palmach and one of the founders of the Israel Defense Forces at the time of the establishment of the State of Israel.

The mountain serves as one of Israel's preferred locales for hang gliding.^{[citation needed]}

Church of the Transfiguration[edit]

Aerial view of the Church of Transfiguration at the summit, which is divided into Eastern Orthodox (northeast) and Roman Catholic (southeast) areas.

Between 1919 until 1924 an impressive Roman Catholic church of the Franciscan order named "Church of the Transfiguration" was built on the peak of Mount Tabor. The architect who designed the church, among many other more in the Holy Land, was Antonio Barluzzi. The church was built upon the ruins of a Byzantine church from the fifth or sixth century and a Crusader church from the 12th century, which was built in honour of Jesus. The friars of the church live next to the church in a monastery established in 1873.^{[citation needed]}

The church consists of three naves which are separated by two rows of columns supporting arches. In the two bell towers on either side of the entrance, there are two chapels. The northern chapel is dedicated to Moses and it contains an image of him receiving the Tables of the Law on Mount Sinai, and the southern chapel is dedicated to Elijah the prophet and it contains an image of him invoking God during his confrontation with the Ba'al prophets on Mount Carmel.

In the upper part of the church, above the altar, there is a mosaic which depicts the Transfiguration, and on the Transfiguration holiday on August 6, it is illuminated by the sun beams which are reflected by a glass plate located on the floor of the church.

A rock near the entrance of the church has an engraving in ancient Greek and beside it there is an engraving of a cross. Nearby there are the remains of the 12th-century Benedictine abbey.^[9]

Eastern Orthodox sanctuary[edit]

Bell tower of the Eastern Orthodox monastery.

The main church of the Jerusalemite Orthodox monastery dedicated to the Transfiguration and lends its name to the entire monastery. The construction of the current church was started by a Romanian monk, Irinarh Rosetti, in 1859, the year of his death, and was finished by his disciple, Nectarie Banul, in 1862,^[10] making it the first religious structure built by Romanian Christians in the Holy Land.

Northeast of the Church of the Transfiguration, there is the more modest Church of the Prophet Elijah. Northwest of the main church there is a small cave-church named after Melchizedek, the King of Salem. According to the Christian tradition, this cave was the place where Abraham met the king of Salem.^{[citation needed]} The cave was known to pilgrims and local Christians during the Middle Ages.^{[citation needed]}

An all-night vigil is held at the church every year on the Orthodox Feast of the Transfiguration on August 19 (which corresponds to August 6 according to the Julian Calendar).^{[citation needed]}

Vegetation[edit]

Mount Tabor was entirely covered with vegetation typical of northern Ancient Israel until the reign of the Ottoman Empire, during which period most of the trees were felled.^[11] The trees were felled for use in the charcoal industry.^[11] As part of the Jewish National Fund's efforts to recreate the landscapes of the country, during the 1960s and 1970s the area was reforested with trees which are similar to its original vegetation. Today, most of Mount Tabor is covered with trees such as Mount Tabor Oak (Quercus ithaburensis) and Palestine oak (Quercus calliprinos). Up to 400 plant species have been found on the Mount including large yellow crocuses (Sternbergia clusiana), the Persian lily (Fritillaria persica) rain-bells flowers (Muscari parviflorum), black-eyed red tulips (Tulipa agenensis), orchids, irises (including Iris haynei) and yellow asphodel (Asphodeline Lutea), spontaneous barley (Hordeum spontaneum), Mt. Tabor larkspur, a rather rare perennial grass with blue spring flowers (Delphinium ithaburense), sweet cicely (myrrhoides nodosa), a very rare plant of the umbelliferae family, Galileahn alkanet (Alkanna galilaea) and parsley-piert (Aphanes arvensis).^[11]

Fauna[edit]

The woodland vegetation is good habitat for various animals, including wolves and jackals, foxes, porcupines, hyraxes, mongooses and the broad-toothed field mouse (Apodemus mysticanus). In a cave at the top of the Mount, long-fingered bats (Myotis capaccini), can be found roosting. Various reptiles can also be found including; the Greek tortoise (Testudo graeca), the hardun lizard (Stellagama stellio), the Lebanon lizard (Phoenicolacerta laevi) and the red whip snake (Platyceps collaris). The woodland is also a good habitat for various birds including jays (Garrulus), Syrian woodpeckers (Dendrocopos syriacus), Sardinian warblers (Sylvia melanocephala), Eurasian hobbies (Falco subbuteo), great tits (Parus major), great spotted cuckoos (Clamator glandarius) and snake eagles (Circaetus).^[11]

References[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mount Tabor.