Kafr Saba: Difference between revisions
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'''Kafr Saba''' ({{lang-ar|<big>كفر سابا</big>}}) was |
'''Kafr Saba''' ({{lang-ar|<big>كفر سابا</big>}}) was an [[Arab]] village famous for its shrine dating to the [[Mamluk]] period and for a history stretching back for more than a millennium. The village was depopulated in the [[1948 Arab-Israeli war]], and the shrine has now been taken over by the new Jewish population.<ref>Benvenisti, 2002, p.273.</ref> |
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==Location== |
==Location== |
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Presently the remaining buildings comprises two domed shrines located on either side of [[Highway 55 (Israel)|Route 55]] between [[Kfar Sava]] and [[Qalqilyah|Qalqiliyya]]. The larger of the two shrines is called Nabi Yamin, situated on the east side. About 40 meters away, on the west side of the road, is a much smaller shrine named Nabi Serakha.<ref>Petersen, 2002, p.233, 235</ref> |
Presently the remaining buildings comprises two domed shrines located on either side of [[Highway 55 (Israel)|Route 55]] between [[Kfar Sava]] and [[Qalqilyah|Qalqiliyya]]. The larger of the two shrines is called Nabi Yamin, situated on the east side. About 40 meters away, on the west side of the road, is a much smaller shrine named Nabi Serakha.<ref>Petersen, 2002, p.233, 235</ref> |
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Revision as of 22:22, 10 August 2009
Template:Infobox Former Arab villages in Palestine Kafr Saba (Arabic: كفر سابا) was an Arab village famous for its shrine dating to the Mamluk period and for a history stretching back for more than a millennium. The village was depopulated in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and the shrine has now been taken over by the new Jewish population.[1]
Location
Presently the remaining buildings comprises two domed shrines located on either side of Route 55 between Kfar Sava and Qalqiliyya. The larger of the two shrines is called Nabi Yamin, situated on the east side. About 40 meters away, on the west side of the road, is a much smaller shrine named Nabi Serakha.[2]
History
Excavations on the site have revaled the remains of a large Roman bathhouse. In the Byzantine periods the ruins of the bathhouse were first converted into fish pools, and later into some form of industrial installation.[3]
Around year 985 C.E. Al-Muqaddasi described the place as a large village with a mosque that was situated on the road to Damascus. In 1047 Nasir-i-Khusraw described it as a town on the road to al-Ramla, rich in fig and olive trees.[4]
A five-line inscription recording the grave of Sayf al-Din Bari, dated 1299-1300 CE was recorded within the shrine enclosure in 1922. The present location of this inscription is unknown.[5] A sabil ("water fountain") is situated on the east side of the main enclosure. An inscription embedded on the right side of this sabil referred to the foundation of a fountain for the public by Emir Tankiz, governor of Damascus in 1311-1312 CE.[6]
In 1596, Kafr Saba was part of the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Sa'b under the liwa' ("district") of Nablus with a population of 231. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, goats and beehives.[7]
In 1730, the Egyptian Sufi traveller al-Luqaymi visited Kafr Saba and saw the shrine for a local religious figure, Binyamin (also called al-Nabi Yamin).[8] In 1808 CE, the riwaq (prayer hall) was constructed, according to a now vanished inscription. This riwaq occupies the south side of the main enclosure of the shrine.[9] In the late nineteenth century, the village of Kafr Saba was described as a village built of stone and adobe brick and was situated on a low hill. It contained a mosque and was surrounded by sandy ground, with olive groves to the north. Its population was estimated to be 800.[10]
The village expanded in the British Mandate period; new houses were built along the highway, and new agricultural land were cultivated to the west of the village.[11] By 1944/45 the village used 1,026 dunums for citrus and bananas, 4,600 dunums for cereals, while 355 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, of which 30 dunums were planted with olive trees.[12]
1948 War and aftermath
By the beginning of May 1948, few Arabs were left in the Coastal Plain. On May 9, 1948 the Alexandroni Arab affairs expert decided, in preparation for the declaration of Israeli statehood, to immediately "expel or subdue" the inhabitants of the Palestinian villages of Kafr Saba, al Tira, Qaqun, Qalansuwa, and Tantura.[13] On May 13, Alexandroni units took Kafr Saba, which resulted in the mass evacuation of the villagers. Only nine old men and women were left in the village, however these elderly villagers were also later expelled.[14]
The town of Kfar Sava, founded in 1903, was situated southwest of the village on the eve of the war. Currently, it has expanded to cover much of the village land. Beit Berl, established in 1947 northwest of the village site, is on village land. The settlement of Neve Yamin was established in 1949 to the east of the village site on land around the shrine for al-Nabi Yamin. The settlement of Nir Eliyahu was established in 1950 about Template:Km to mi northeast of the village site, on lands of nearby Qalqilyah.[15]
The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, described the remaining structures on the village land in 1992:
The village site has been used for the construction of new residential quarters within an industrial area that is part of the settlement of Kefar Sava. Some of the old village houses have survived destruction and are located today within the settlement; a number of them are used as commercial buildings. The two shrines, the school, and the ruins of the village cemetery remain. The shrines have arched entrances and are surmounted with domes. The land around the site is cultivated by Israelis.[16]
According to Meron Benvenisti, the site was until 1948 only holy to Muslims, and Jews ascribed no holiness to it. Benvenisti writes that as part of the "a wholesale appropriation of the sacred sites of a defeated religious community by members of the victorious one [not witnessed by the civilised world] since the the end of the Middle Ages", the new Jewish population has taken over the shrine[17] Today, the dedicated inscriptions from the Mamluk period remain engraved on the stone walls of the tomb, but the cloths embroidered with verses from the Qur'an, with which the gravestones were draped, have been replaced by draperies bearing verses from the Hebrew Bible.[18]
References
- ^ Benvenisti, 2002, p.273.
- ^ Petersen, 2002, p.233, 235
- ^ According to Ayalon, 1982. Cited in Petersen, 2002, p.233
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p.555.
- ^ Petersen, 2002, p.235
- ^ Mayer, L. A. (1933a), p.219. Cited in Petersen, 2002, p.235.
- ^ Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter and Kamal Abdulfattah (1977), Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. p. 140. Quoted in Khalidi, p.555
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p.555.
- ^ Petersen, 2002, p.234.
- ^ Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener: The Survey of Western Palestine. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. (1881) II:134. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.555.
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p.555.
- ^ Hadawi, 1970, p. 126. Also cited in Khalidi, 1992, p.555
- ^ "Summary of the Meeting of the Arab Affairs Advisers in Netanya, 9.5.48", IDFA 6127\49\\109. Cited in Morris, 2004, p.246
- ^ "Tiroshi(Alon)" to HIS-AD, 17 May 1948, HA 105\54 aleph. See also Hativat Alexandroni, 194-207. Cited in Morris, 2004, p.247
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p.556.
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p.556.
- ^ Benvenisti, 2002, p.276
- ^ Benvenisti, 2002, p.277.
Bibliography
- Ayalon, E. (1982), "Kefar Sava -Nabi Yamin (Tomb of Benjamin)", ESI (Excavations and Surveys in Israel. (English version of Hadashot Arkheologiyot)), 1 p. 63. (Cited in Petersen, 2002)
- Benvenisti, Meron, Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta (translator) (2002), Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, ISBN 0520234227, 9780520234222 376 pages
- Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center
- Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0887282245
- Mayer, L. A. (1933a), Saracenic Heraldry: A Survey, Oxford University Press, Oxford. (Cited in Petersen, 2002)
- 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) Nabi Yamin, p. 233-235.
External links
- Welcome to Kafr Saba Palestine Remembered
- Kafr Saba, at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
