'Iraq al-Manshiyya

The village was situated in an area of rolling hills, where the coastal plain and the foothills of the Hebron mountains merged, and was bordered on the western side by Wadi Fattala. It was on the south side of the highway between al-Faluja, to the northwest and Bayt Jibrin (an important village in the Hebron sub-disctrict), to the east. Its name, Iraq al-Manshiyya, expressed both the geography and history of the village. The first part, Iraq ('small hill' in Arabic), referred to the topography. The second part, al-Manshiyya ('the built one' in Arabic), was added by the inhabitants to distinguish it from a nearby village, also known as Iraq, from which they had moved. In 1596, Iraq al-Manshiyya was a village in the nahiya of Gaza (liwa' of Gaza), with a population of sixty-one. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, as well as on other types of produce such as goats and beehives.

In the late nineteenth century, the village of Iraq al-Manshiyya was built of adobe bricks and surrounded by arable land. The village had a radial plan, with its smaller streets branching out from the intersection of the two perpendicular main streets. The intersection of these two streets formed its center. Three wells supplied the village with water for domestic use. As the village grew, it expanded toward the highway and northeastward in the direction of Tall al-Shaykh Ahmad al-Urayni. This large mound, some 32 m high, rose to the north of the village, and on its summit was a religious shrine for Shaykh Ahmad al-Urayni.

Iraq al-Manshiyya's Arab population was Muslim. It had an old mosque and a more recent one that was considered one of the most handsome among village mosques; it contained several rooms, a portico, and a courtyard. The village also had an elementary school, founded in 1934, with an enrollment of 201 students in the mid-1940s.

The inhabitants worked primarily in agriculture, growing grain, grapes, and many varieties of trees (such as olive and almond trees). Agriculture was mostly rainfed, despite the availability of groundwater, especially along the line where the plain intersected with the nearby foothills. In 1944/45 a total of 13,449 dunums was allotted to cereals; 53 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Goats and sheep supplied the materials (hair and yarn) needed for rug weaving. The villagers dyed their rugs in al-Faluja, where they also went for medical treatment and other services.

The mound next to Iraq al-Manshiyya was for some years erroneously identified with the biblical (Philistine) city of Gath. However, when the site was excavated (1956–1961) no traces of a Philistine presence were found. These excavations (and later work in 1984) determined that a settlement had been established there in the fourth millennium B.C. and had been occupied until the second century B.C. The tell contains the ruins of this settlement. As is the case for many sites in Palestine, its later history continued on a new location below this tell—that is, on the site of Iraq al-Manshiyya.