Tiberias: The Palestinian City on the Sea of Galilee

Tiberias (Tabariyya in Arabic) sits on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, 209 meters below sea level, in one of the lowest inhabited areas on earth. The city was founded around 20 CE by Herod Antipas as a Roman-era capital and has remained continuously inhabited for 2,000 years. Under Arab and Ottoman rule, Tabariyya was a significant Palestinian Arab city in the Galilee, known for its position on the Sea of Galilee trade routes, its hot springs, and its diverse population of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish residents. The Palestinian Clothing collection at FALASTIN reflects the heritage of Palestinian cities like Tiberias, where Palestinian Arab communities maintained cultural and commercial life across centuries.

History: 2,000 Years on the Sea of Galilee

Herod Antipas founded Tiberias in approximately 20 CE, naming it after the Roman emperor Tiberius. The city was built on the site of an older settlement and served as the capital of Galilee under Roman administration. The Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret in Hebrew, Bahr Tabariyya in Arabic) gave the city access to fish trade and transportation routes connecting the Jordan Valley to the coastal cities. The lake's surface, lying 209 meters below sea level, gives Tiberias a warm climate year-round and made the nearby hot springs (about 10 kilometers south at Hammat Tiberias) a significant health destination in antiquity.

Following the Arab conquest of the Galilee in 636 CE, Tiberias became a center of early Islamic administration in the region. The Umayyad caliph Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan maintained a residence near Tiberias, and the city served as one of the administrative capitals of Jund al-Urdunn (the Jordan district) under early Islamic rule. The Arab city developed around the lakeside harbor, with a market district, mosque, and residential quarters built in the coastal style common to Levantine lake and sea cities.

The Crusader period brought Tiberias briefly into the center of Levantine military history. The Battle of Hattin in July 1187 was fought just west of Tiberias, and Saladin's decisive victory over the Crusader army at that battle ended Crusader control of the Galilee. Tiberias was taken by Saladin's forces shortly after. Under subsequent Mamluk and Ottoman rule, the city continued as a provincial town on the Sea of Galilee, maintaining a mixed Arab-Jewish population through the 19th century.

Palestinian Arab Tiberias: Ottoman and Mandate Period

Under Ottoman rule, the Palestinian Arab population of Tiberias maintained the city's commercial and fishing economy. The Sea of Galilee fishery, producing the musht fish (St. Peter's fish) sold across the Galilee and Jordan Valley, was a Palestinian Arab industry that supported families in Tiberias and surrounding villages. The fish market at the waterfront operated continuously through the Ottoman and Mandate periods.

By the late Ottoman period, Tiberias had a roughly equal Muslim Arab, Christian Arab, and Jewish population. The British Mandate census of 1931 recorded a total population of approximately 6,700, with Arab and Jewish communities of comparable size. Palestinian Arab families in Tiberias were concentrated in the old city and around the lake market, with extended family networks connecting the city to the agricultural villages of the surrounding Galilee hills.

The Palestinian Arab community of Tiberias was displaced almost entirely during the 1948 war. In April 1948, following fighting in the city, the Arab population fled by boat across the Sea of Galilee. The displacement of Tiberias's Palestinian community was one of the earlier large-scale urban displacements of the 1948 Nakba. The families who left carried with them the connection to the lake and the city that appears in Palestinian memory as a specific place of origin, maintained through family histories and the symbolic objects, including house keys, that Palestinians carried when they left. The significance of these objects is documented at The Palestinian Key: A Symbol of Home, Resistance, and Return.

The Hot Springs and Healing Tradition

The hot springs at Hammat Tiberias, 10 kilometers south of the city, have been in continuous use for approximately 3,000 years. The springs produce water at approximately 60 degrees Celsius, rich in sulfur and minerals, and have been used therapeutically since at least the Roman period. Under Ottoman administration, the hot springs facilities attracted visitors from across the Levant, including Palestinian Arab, Jewish, and Christian pilgrims and health travelers. The Ottoman baths constructed at the site in the 19th century served a mixed Palestinian Arab and Jewish clientele.

The therapeutic use of the hot springs connects Tiberias to the broader Palestinian tradition of landscape and land as connected to daily life. The same relationship between Palestinian communities and their physical environment that characterizes the olive groves, orange orchards, and wheat fields of Palestinian agricultural life applies to the lake and springs of Tiberias. The Palestinian olive tree and the lake of Tabariyya are both expressions of Palestinian connection to a specific, documented landscape.

Tiberias in the Palestinian City Network

Tiberias sat at the intersection of the Palestinian Galilee cities, connected by road and trade route to Haifa to the west and to Akka to the northwest, and to the Jordan Valley and the eastern trade routes. Its position as a lake city, producing fish and receiving agricultural goods from surrounding villages, made it a regional distribution node in the northern Palestinian economy. The displacement of its Palestinian population in 1948 severed the commercial networks that had connected Tabariyya to the Palestinian hill and coast cities for two thousand years.

The broader Galilee region of which Tiberias formed a part encompassed dozens of Palestinian villages whose residents carried their cultural traditions through trade, seasonal labor, and shared religious observance. The weekly markets of Tiberias drew Palestinian farmers from Hittin, Lubya, Nimrin, and other villages of the Galilee plain, who exchanged agricultural products for fish, cloth, and goods imported through the lake trade. The destruction of this market network after 1948 erased an economic system that had functioned across Roman, Arab, Crusader, Mamluk, and Ottoman administrations without interruption.

Frequently Asked Questions

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At FALASTIN, we aim to keep that heritage alive through our Palestinian clothing collection.

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