Beit Ta’mir is located 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) south-east of Bethlehem. It is bordered by Za'atara to the east, Hindaza to the west and north, and Jannatah and Tuqu' to the south.[3]
Beit Ta'mir was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the nahiya of Al-Quds in the liwaofAl-Quds under the name of Bayt Ta'mar. It had a population of 65 household;[5] who were all Muslims. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, vegetable and fruit gardens, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 8,100 Akçe. Half of the revenue went to a Waqf.[5]
In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Beit Ta'mar, the village of the Ta'amirah, on his travels in the region,[6] It was also noted as an Arab village, located south of Wadi er-Rahib in the Jerusalem district.[7]
In 1863, Victor Guérin noted it as an ancient site, inhabited by people of the Ta'amereh tribe.[8]
AnOttoman list from about 1870 notes a "sizable" village with a mosque with a small minaret. The villagers were Bedouin.[9]
In 1883 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Beit T'amir: "a small village on a hill with wells and a few olives. The name is that of an Arab tribe which was originally settled in the place. The village contains a small mosque named after the Khalif Omar."[10]
In 1896 a population list noted that Beit Ta'mir was "half bedouin".[11]
In the 1945 statistics the population was counted under the name Arab et Ta'amira together with Arab Ibn Ubeid, Arab et Rashayida and Arab et Sawahira; together they had a population of 7,070 Muslims,[12] with Arab et Ta'amira having a total of 209,888 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[13] Of this, 24 dunams were used plantations and irrigable land, 12,424 for cereals,[14] while 197,440 dunams were classified as non-cultitivable land.[15]
In 1961, the population of Ta'amira inhabiting the desert of their central lands was 306, excluding other Ta'amira populations such Za'atara which would number their total population in thousands.[16]
