Etymology of Ras Abu Ammar

Etymology of Ras Abu Ammar

Is it the same as Er Ras, Et Ras?

The earliest record of this village starts in 1841 as the village of Er-Ras in The Biblical Researches of Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petræa.

Ras Abu Ammar as a village in the District of Arkub

In the second Appendix of the third volume to the aforementioned book we find mention of et-Râs, likely a typo that is meant to say er-Râs. It refers to a Muslim village. This is most probably the same village as we see Palmer – in the Survey of Western Palesting (SWP), 1881 – name Er Râs which he refers to Râs Abu ‘Ammâr. The Arabic text say رأس ابي عمَار which should have been transliterated as Râs Abi Ammâr

In 1869, the Book The Geography, History and Archeology of Palestine mentions: “a mountain village was reported to me, to which its position has given rise to the name er Râs (Head, Summit)” This is my translation of the below text.

In French, a village in Jerusalem sits on a mountain as far back as the 1860s, 30-minutes from

That same SWP calls the village a small stone village on a hill; to the east in a small valley is a good spring, with a rock-cut tomb beside it

Apparently in 1881, it was common knowledge that er Ras refers to Ras Abu Ammar.

Who is Abu Ammar anyway?

There existed in the village a shrine for a sage called Abu Ammar, amongst other shrines in the village, it seems the shrine was erected in the late-1800s as no record exists of the name in the mid-1800s. 

The sage was credited in the folk legends by having the ability to cure women from infertility and by being important enough to have had feasts held near the shrine rather than by the mosque.