| Qisarya | ||
|
||
  Qisarya
|
||
| Arabic | قيسارية | |
| Also Spelled | Arab al-Bara, Barrat Qisarya | |
| District | Haifa | |
| Coordinates | 32°30′08.08″N 34°53′30.33″E / 32.5022444°N 34.8917583°ECoordinates: 32°30′08.08″N 34°53′30.33″E / 32.5022444°N 34.8917583°E | |
| Population | 960[1] (1945) | |
| Area | 31,786[1] dunums | |
| Date of depopulation | February, 1948[2] | |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Expulsion by Jewish forces | |
| Current localities | Caesarea | |
The village of Qisarya (Arabic: قيسارية) was located 37 kilometers (23 mi) south of Haifa.
Contents |
History
The village was established in 1884 by Circassian Bushnaks (Muslim immigrants from Bosnia) who built a small fishing village on the ruins of Caesarea Maritima by the Crusader fortress near Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast.[3][4] The village decline in economic importance occurred when a railway was built bypassing the port, ruining their livelihood. Qisarya had a population of 930 Muslims and 30 Christians in 1945.[5] In 1944/45 a total of 18 dunums of village land was used for citrus and bananas, 1,020 dunums were used for cereals, while 108 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.[6][7]
1947/1948, and aftermath
In December 1947 the local leader, Tawfiq Kadkuda, had made approaches to Jewish officials in an effort to establish non-belligerency agreements with local Jewish settlements.[8] The 31 January 1948 Lehi attack on a bus leaving Qisarya, killing 2 and injuring 6 people, precipitated an evacuation of the population, who fled for fear of further attacks, mainly to al-Tantura.[9] Also during February 1948 the 'Arab al Sufsafi and Saidun Bedouin, who inhabited the dunes between Qisarya and Pardes left the area.[10] After that the remaining inhabitants were expelled and the village houses were demolished by the Palmach 4th battalion between 19-20 February and October 1948.[11]
The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the village remains in 1992: "Most of the houses have been demolished. The site has been excavated in recent years, largely by Italian, American, and Israeli teams, and turned into a tourist area. Most of the few remaining houses are now restaurants, and the village mosque has been converted into a bar"[12]
Petersen, visiting the place in 1992, writes that the nineteeth-century houses were were built in blocks, generally one storey high (with the exception of the house of the governor.) Some houses on the western side of the village, near the sea, have survived. There were a number of mosques in the village in the nineteenth century, but only one ("The Bosnian mosque") has survived. This mosque, located at the southern end of the city, next to the harbour, is described as a simple stone building with a red-tiled roof and a cylindrical minaret. It was used (in 1992) as a restaurant and as a gift shop.[13]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ a b Hadawi, 1970, p.49
- ^ Morris, 2004, village #177 p xviii, Also gives the cause for depopulation
- ^ Laurence Oliphant, Haifa; or, Life in Palestine (Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1887), p182. [1]
- ^ "Caesarea". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/Caesarea.html. Retrieved 2007-10-22.
- ^ Government of Palestine, Village Statistics, 1945.
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 183
- ^ Hadawi, 1970, p.91
- ^ Morris, 2004, p 92
- ^ Morris, 2004, p 130
- ^ Morris, 2004, p 129
- ^ Morris, 2004, p 77 and p 354
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p.184
- ^ Petersen, 2002, p.129-130
Bibliography
- Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html
- Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0887282245 p. 182-184
- le Strange, Guy (1890), Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500, Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, http://www.archive.org/details/palestineundermo00lestuoft
- Morris, Benny (2004), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521009677
- Petersen, Andrew (2002), A Gazetteer of Buildings in Muslim Palestine: Volume I (British Academy Monographs in Archaeology) p. 129-130.
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
