In 1874, Clermont-Ganneau noted the similarity between the name "Beit Thul" and the Bethulia mentioned in the Book of Judith. He added that according to local fellahin, the town was previously recognized by Christians as Qal'at Fertin, signifying "the fortress of Fertin". It was named after a Christian or pagan king who once ruled the area and held dominion over the entire vicinity before meeting his demise in a catastrophic "deluge" emanating from the TannurofAbu Shusheh, submerging the entire region.[8]
Bayt Thul, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1538–1539, Bayt Tul was noted in the Nahiya of Quds of the LiwaofQuds.[9] In the 1596 census, the village had a population was 7 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on various agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, olive trees, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 1,860 akçe.[10]
In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village in the district of Beni Malik, west of Jerusalem.[11]
In the early 1870s Clermont-Ganneau found the village inhabited, and a "hearty welcome was accorded to us." He further noted that the "village contains two welys, one the sanctuary of Sheikh Injeim, the other that of Bedriyeh. In front of the welyofBedriyeh, I noticed the remains of a small aqueduct of masonry and two large shafts of ancient columns." According to local tradition, Bedriyeh was the sister of Sheikh Injeim.
He found remains there which led him to conclude that an important Christian building of the Byzantine period once existed there.[12]
In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 260 Muslims,[2] with a total of 4,629 dunums of land.[3] Of this, 55 dunams were for irrigable land or plantations, 787 for cereals,[16] while 13 dunams were built-up, urban, land.[17]
When the writers of an oral Palestinian history collection returned with a villager to Bayt Thul, they recorded how she, Umm 'Ali, began to collect herbs and plants. “She continued picking the leaves until what she had clutched to her chest sprouted from her like a large bush. That was Umm 'Ali, or maybe thats what we remember: A tree of wild herbs and greens moving with amazing grace over the stones of the destroyed villages, assuring, comforting, and reminding us of our descendants who are awaiting us.“[19]
Diab, Imtiaz; Fahoum, Ziyad (1990). Hikayat qarya: Qura Filastin al-mudammara 'am 1948 fi mintaqat al-Quds [Story of a village: Destroyed Palestinian villages in 1948 in the Jerusalem area]. Beirut, Lebanon: al-Mu'assasa al-'Arabiyya lil-Dirasat wa al-Nashr.
