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Jos., Ant., 12:330ff.). Alexander *Yannai in 85 B.C.E. wrested
Golan from the Nabateans, who, by the latter part of the second
century, had spread out from their settlements in Edom
and reached as far as Damascus. Some 20 years later, however,
Pompey conquered Golan from the Jews and gave it to
the Itureans, who controlled most of Bashan. He granted autonomy
to the Greek cities Hippos (Susita) in Lower Golan
and Raphana and Kanatha in the Plain of Bashan and included
them in the *Decapolis. From 30 to 20 B.C.E. Herod gradually
received all of Bashan from Emperor Augustus, and it remained
the domain of his heirs Herod Philip and Agrippa I
and II until about 100 C.E. In the days of Herod, Jews from
Western Palestine and Babylonia were settled there. His army
commander *Zamaris (Zimra), a Babylonian Jew, cleared Trachonitis
(al-Lijā) of marauders and the area was later named
for him – Terakhona de-Zimra, or Terakona. For halakhic purposes
this region was considered part of Ereẓ Israel (Tosef.,
Shev. 4:11). In 106 C.E. Bashan was annexed to the Provincia
Arabia, the capital of which was Bozrah.
In Byzantine times the al-Jafna dynasty of the Ghasān tribe
ruled Bashan; its capital was Jabiyya, northwest of Nawe. Chosroes
II, king of Persia, penetrated into Bashan in 614 and defeated
the Byzantines near Edrei (Darʿa). The Muslims invaded
in 634 and after the battle of the Yarmuk (Aug. 20, 636) Golan
was included in Jund al-Urdun (Jordan Province), the capital
of which was Tiberias. The rest of Bashan apparently became
part of the district of Damascus – capital of the caliphate from
660 to 750. Because of its proximity to the centers of power
and of Muslim culture, Bashan flourished under the Umayyad
dynasty; thereafter it declined rapidly until, in Turkish times,
it was inhabited by Bedouins, who plundered its few remaining
villages. In 1711 Druze from Mt. Lebanon began to settle on
Mt. Bashan, which was later renamed for them (Jebel Druze).
Their number increased considerably there in 1860, when many
Druze fled from Mr. Lebanon. Far from submitting to the Bedouin,
the Druze established their authority over many tribes.
The attempts of the Egyptians (from 1832 to 1840) and of the
Turks (from 1840 to 1918) to extend their sovereignty over Jebel
Druze were only partly successful. In 1925 the Druze rebelled
against the French, who subdued the revolt, and subsequently
granted the Bashan Druze area broad autonomy. Until the end
of the British Mandate, Bashan was the most tranquil part of
Syria; after 1944, it became part of the Republic of Syria. Attempts
by the Damascus government to treat it like other provinces
met with constant opposition and periodic rebellions.
On the Bashan Plain and in Golan, Turkish rule succeeded
in enforcing its sovereignty over the inhabitants in the
late 19th century. To strengthen its authority in these districts,
the Turkish government settled Circassian refugees there in
1880–84. At the end of the 19th century, a French company
laid a railroad line in Bashan from Damascus to al-Muzayyīb,
north of the Yarmuk, to expedite the export of its wheat. In
1907 the Hejaz railway was built parallel to the French line as
far as Edrei (Darʿa), and then branching off to cross the Yarmuk,
thus connecting Bashan with Haifa. The French tracks
bashyazi
were removed by the Turks during World War I. Good roads
were constructed during the French Mandate, linking up with
the road networks of Syria, Transjordan, and Palestine. During
the 1890s, Baron Edmond de Rothschild purchased thousands
of acres on both sides of Nahr al-ʿAllān and founded a Jewish
settlement, but the pasha of Damascus expelled the settlers
in 1899. A small private settlement called Benei Yehudah
was founded in 1886 by Jews from Tiberias and Safed in the
Golan, east of Lake Kinneret, but it was abandoned in 1920
as a result of the Arab riots and attacks after contact was broken
between the two banks of the Jordan. In 1967 the area was
captured from the Syrians and Israeli settlement there began.
In 1981 the Golan Law declared the area part of Israel. In the
early 2000s the Golan Heights included 33 settlements, mainly
rural, with a population of 15,500 Jewish settlers and another
18,000 Druze concentrated in four large villages.
Bibliography: Avi-Yonah, Land, index; Glueck, in: D.W.
Thomas (ed.), Archaeology and Old Testament Study (1967), 450ff.; EM,
S.V. (incl. bibl.). add bibliography: A. Heber-Percy, A Visit to
Bashan and Argob (1895); R.P.A. Beaulieu, “la première civilization du
Djebel Druze,” Syria, 24 (1947): 232–250; G. Barkay, Z. Ilan, A. Kloner,
A. Mazar and D. Urman, “Archaeological Survey in the Northern
Bashan,” Israel Exploration Journal, 24 (1974), 173–184; Z. Ilan, Attempts
at Jewish Settlement in Trans-Jordan, 1871–1947 (1984).
[Abraham J. Brawer / Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
BASHIRI, YAḤYA (Yahya b. Abraham b. Sa’adiah al-
Bashiri; Heb. name Abner bar Ner ha-Sharoni; 17th century),
Yemenite kabbalist and scribe. His extant work is characterized
by accuracy and beauty. Later Yemenite scholars, particularly
Yaḥya *Ṣaliḥ, refer to Bashiri in their writings, while
popular legends extol his piety and the miracles he performed
by virtue of his knowledge of practical Kabbalah. His two extant
works, still in manuscript form, are Ḥavaẓẓelet ha-Sharon,
a kabbalistic work on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and
Bashiri, a pentateuchal commentary based on gematria. He is
known to have written other works, which have not survived:
two commentaries on the Ein Ya’akov of Jacob ibn Ḥabib and
Amirat ha-Emunot, the contents of which are unknown. The
numerous quotations from Bashiri in the Ḥelek ha-Dikduk
of Ṣaliḥ reveal the variae lectiones collected by Bashiri in the
course of copying the books of the Pentateuch, on which he
may even have compiled a distinct work. His love of books
is evidenced by his written vow (appearing in a colophon to
the Midrash ha-Gadol, on Deuteronomy) never to sell a book
“in his lifetime or thereafter,” i.e., even if this be necessary to
provide funds for his burial shroud.
Bibliography: A. Elnadaf, Seridei Teiman (1928), 7a, 9b; Y.
Ratzhaby, in: KS, 28 (1952/53), 260, 264, 268, 405; A. Koraḥ, Sa’arat
Teiman (1954), 2.
[Yehuda Ratzaby]
BASHYAZI (Heb. יצישב; traditional Rabbanite transcription
for the Turkish name Bashyatchi), family of Karaite scholars in
Adrianople and Constantinople. Although the family moved
to Constantinople in 1455, they retained the cognomen “Adri-
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