Al-Sumayriyya

al-Sumayriyya
The aqueduct in al-Sumayriyya
al-Sumayriyya
Arabic السُميريه
Name meaning "Tawny" or "Brown"[1]
Also spelled Someleria, Katasir
Subdistrict Acre
Coordinates 32°58′19″N 35°05′36″E / 32.97194°N 35.09333°E / 32.97194; 35.09333Coordinates: 32°58′19″N 35°05′36″E / 32.97194°N 35.09333°E / 32.97194; 35.09333
Palestine grid 159/264
Population 760[2][3] (1945)
Area 8,542[3] dunams
Date of depopulation 14 May 1948[4]
Cause(s) of depopulation Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current localities Lohamei HaGeta'ot,[5][6] Shomrat[6]

Al-Sumayriyya (Arabic: السُميريه‎, Katasir in Canaanite times, Someleria during Crusader rule), was a Palestinian village located six kilometers north of Acre that was depopulated after it was captured by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.[7]

History

al-Sumayriyya, 1948
Al-Sumayriyya's old cemetery, July 2008

Tall al-Sumayriyya contains carved stones, a mosaic floor, tombs, columns, and stone capitals. Khirbat Abu 'Ataba has an Islamic shrine and ceramic fragments.[8]

In the Crusader era, it was mentioned in 1277 under the name of Somelaria.[9] At the time, the village belonged to the Templars.[10] In the hudna of 1283 between Al Mansur Qalawun and the Crusaders, Al-Sumayriyya was still under Crusader rule[11][12] while in 1291 it had come under Mamluk control.[13]

A building with a court-yard, measuring 60,5 by 57 meters, dating from the Crusader era, has been noted in the village, and a 13th-century glass-factory has been excavated.[10]

Ottoman era

It was mentioned in the Ottoman defter for the year 1555-6, named Summayriyah, located in the Nahiya of Akka of the Liwa of Safad, and with its land designated as Sahi land, that is, land belonging to the Sultan.[14]

In 1738 Richard Pococke passed by the place, which he called Semmars. He thought the name came from "St. Mary's", and noted the remains of a wall of hewn stone, which he thought had belonged to a convent.[15]

A map by Pierre Jacotin from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the place, named as El Esmerieh.[16]

In 1875 Victor Guérin found the village had 400 Muslim inhabitants.[17] In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described the place as a village of "mud and stone houses, containing about 200 [..] Moslems, situated on the plain, surrounded by a few clumps of olives and figs and arable land; two or three cisterns are in the village, the aqueduct near brings good water."[18]

A population list from about 1887 showed the village to have about 270 inhabitants; all Muslims.[19]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities Semariyeh had a population of 307; 300 Muslims and 7 Christians,[20] where all the Christians were Maronite.[21] This had increased in the 1931 census to 392, 390 Muslims, 1 Christian and 1 Jew, in a total of 92 houses.[22]

Al-Sumayriyya had an elementary school for boys, which was founded in 1943. In 1945, it had an enrollment of 60 students. One mosque which remains.[8]

In 1944/1945 the village had a population of 760 Muslims,[2] with a total of 8,542 dunams of land.[3] Of this, 6,854 dunams were allocated to grain crops; 354 dunams were irrigated or planted with orchards,[23] while 28 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[24]

1948, and aftermath

At the beginning of 1945, al-Sumayriyya's 760 inhabitants were all Arab Muslims. The inhabitants fled as a result of the 14 May 1948 assault on the village by the Carmeli Brigade during Operation Ben-Ami, one day before the official outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.[7] The village - along with neighbouring al-Bassa and al-Zib which were also captured in the offensive - was subsequently destroyed, except its mosque.[25]

Lohamei HaGeta'ot and Shomrat are both on village land.[6] Morris writes that Bustan HaGalil was built near its site,[26] however, Khalidi writes that Bustan HaGalil is on the land of Al-Manshiyya.[27] Shavey Tziyon and Regba are close to the northern borders of Al-Sumayriyya, but were established on land that used to belong to Mazra'a.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 54
  2. 1 2 Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 5
  3. 1 2 3 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 41
  4. ↑ Morris, 2004, p.xvii, village #87. Also gives cause of depopulation
  5. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xxi, settlement #53. January 1949
  6. 1 2 3 4 Khalidi, 1992, p. 31
  7. 1 2 Welcome to Al-Sumayriyya, Palestine Remembered, retrieved 2007-12-03
  8. 1 2 Khalidi, 1992, p. 30
  9. ↑ Röhricht, 1893, RRH, pp. 366-367, No. 1413; cited in Pringle, 1998, pp. 332-333
  10. 1 2 Pringle, 1997, p. 96
  11. ↑ Raynaud, 1887, p. 243, no. 490
  12. ↑ Barag, 1979, p. 205, no. 26
  13. ↑ Raynaud, 1887, p. 243, no. 490; cited in Pringle, 1998, pp. 332-333
  14. ↑ Rohde, 1979, p. 97
  15. ↑ Pococke, 1745, vol II, p. 78; referenced in Pringle, 1997, p. 96
  16. ↑ Karmon, 1960, p. 162.
  17. ↑ Guérin, 1880, p. 161
  18. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 147. Also cited in Khalidi, 1992, p.30
  19. ↑ Schumacher, 1888, p. 172
  20. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Acre, p. 36
  21. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table XVI, p. 49
  22. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 103
  23. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 81
  24. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 131
  25. ↑ Tal, 2004, pp. 104-105.
  26. ↑ Morris, 2004, p.xxi, settlement #36. December 1948
  27. ↑ Khalidi, 1992, p.23

Bibliography

  • Barag, Dan (1979). "A new source concerning the ultimate borders of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem". Israel Exploration Journal. 29: 197–217. JSTOR 27925726.
  • Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
  • Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. 1. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
  • Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
  • Guérin, V. (1880). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). 3: Galilee, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
  • Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
  • Karmon, Y. (1960). "An Analysis of Jacotin's Map of Palestine" (PDF). Israel Exploration Journal. 10 (3, 4): 155–173, 244–253.
  • Khalidi, W. (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
  • Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
  • Morris, B. (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6. (pp. 229,252253,314,347,350,376,380,381)
  • Palmer, E.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
  • Pococke, R. (1745). A description of the East, and some other countries. 2. London: Printed for the author, by W. Bowyer. (Pococke, 1745, vol 2, p. 54; cited in Pringle, 2009, p. 233
  • Pringle, Denys (1997). Secular buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: an archaeological Gazetter. Cambridge University Press.
  • Pringle, Denys (1998). The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: L-Z (excluding Tyre). II. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 521 39037 0.
  • Pringle, Denys (2009). The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: The cities of Acre and Tyre with Addenda and Corrigenda to Volumes I-III. IV. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85148-0. p. 233
  • Raynaud, G., ed. (1887). Les gestes des Chiprois: recueil de chroniques françaises écrites en Orient au XIIIe & XVIe ... (in French). 5. Geneve: J.G. Fick.
  • Rhode, H. (1979). Administration and Population of the Sancak of Safed in the Sixteenth Century. Columbia University.
  • Röhricht, R. (1887). "Studien zur mittelalterlichen Geographie und Topographie Syriens". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 10: 195–344. p. 251
  • Röhricht, R. (1893). (RRH) Regesta regni Hierosolymitani (MXCVII-MCCXCI) (in Latin). Berlin: Libraria Academica Wageriana.
  • Schumacher, G. (1888). "Population list of the Liwa of Akka". Quarterly statement - Palestine Exploration Fund. 20: 169–191.
  • Tal, D. (2004). War in Palestine, 1948: Strategy and Diplomacy. Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-5275-X.
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