Musing on Ta’ Xbiex’s origin and past…

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Ta’ Xbiex as a parish, it is interesting to look at the locality’s origins and history.

First and foremost the locality’s name, etymology and the relationship between the two, or its ‘borgata’, remains an enigma.

Various suggestions have been made but none, so far, have been fully accepted or convincing. They include “ta’ xbiek” (netting), “tbexbix” (dawning), “xawbas” (a thorny shrub) and “Saba” (a Byzantine name that probably used to be pronounced “shabash”).

Ġużè Aquilina had said that it “probably” emanates from vulgar Arabic “xawbas” or “sawabax”, referring to an agent or official responsible for an expansive area of land. 

According to the renowned Agius de Soldanis the aforementioned word “xawbax” is a “vocabolo di una pianta o lido di Malta”. To be more correct, “xawbax” is a sort of wild bramble known as spinnery in English, from the Latin “spina”, evidently a thorn. Such plants have existed in our country ever since the Quaternary Period. Although there is no valley in Ta’ Xbiex, close by lies what was once the mouth of Wied Għollieqa, a valley that would have provided ideal conditions for a bramble to thrive in.

The oldest...