Al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta

Al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta (Arabic: الظاهرية التحته‎) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War. The village was located 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) west of Safed and covered an area of 16,304 dunums.

Al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta

الظاهرية التحته

Dhahiriya Tahta[1]
Edh Dhaheriyeh et Tahta[2]
Maqam for Sheikh el-Kuweiyis ("the pretty sheikh") in 2010, located south-southwest of the village site[5][6]
The village boundary of Al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta on the 1942 Survey of Palestine map; click image to view full map
Al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°57′47″N 35°29′12″E
Palestine grid195/263
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictSafad
Date of depopulation10 May 1948[1]
Area
 • Total6,773 dunams (6.773 km2 or 2.615 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total350[7][8]
Cause(s) of depopulationInfluence of nearby town's fall
Current LocalitiesSafad[9]

Location

The village was situated on a descent, at the southwestern part of Safad.[10]

Name

According to Edward Henry Palmer the name Edh Dhaheriyeh et Tahta means "The lower village on the ridge",[2] while according to Walid Khalidi, the name Zahiriyya might be a tribute to the Mamluk Sultan al-Zahir Baybars.[10]

History

Ottoman era

Incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with the rest of Palestine, in the 1596 tax registers al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta belonged to the nahiya (subdistrict) of Jira in the Safad Sanjak. It had an all Muslim population, consisting of 56 households; an estimated population of 308. The villagers paid most of its taxes as a fixed sum of 6,000 akçe. In addition they paid taxes on goats and beehives, winter pastures, occasional revenues, and a press for olive oil or grape syrup; a total 6,336 akçe. Part of the revenues went to a waqf.[10][11][12]

The village appeared under the name of Elzalarieh on the map that Pierre Jacotin compiled during Napoleon's invasion of 1799,[13] while in 1838 it was noted as a village in the Safad district.[14]

In 1881 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta: "This village is built of good stone materials, at the foot of a hill, with olives and arable land around. It is inhabited by about 100 Moslems, and has two good springs close to the village."[15] A population list from about 1887 referred to the village as Kiryet ed Daheriyeh about counted 335 Muslim inhabitants.[16]

British Mandate era
Streets of modern Safed (2018, white text and light grey streets) overlaid on a Survey of Palestine map from 1942 (black text, red urban areas and black streets), showing the relative location of Al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta, as well as Biriyya and Ein al-Zeitun.

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta had a population of 212 Muslims,[17] increasing slightly in the 1931 census to 256 Muslims, in a total of 53 houses.[18]

In the 1945 statistics, al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta had a population of 350, all Muslims,[7] and a land area of 6,773 dunams.[8] Of this, 810 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,042 were used for grain,[19] while 28 dunams were classified as built-up, or urban area.[20] The children in the village went to school in Safad.[10]

1948 war and aftermath

The inhabitants of al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta fled the village in the aftermath of Safed's capture by the Jewish paramilitary forces of the Palmach and the Haganah and the subsequent exodus of Safed's Arab population in early May 1948, during the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine.[21]

In 1992 the village site was described: "The entire topography of the place has been altered, as Safad's expansion has taken over the site. A street that is part of the urban neighborhood crosses the site and leads to a recently-built cluster of houses. However, the stone debris from demolished houses can be identified, along with iron supports that protrude from the ruined cement walls. [] The cemetery is visible, though dilapidated. An olive grove and almond trees grow on the edge of the site."[9]

In 2003 a memorial book about the village was published in Jordan.[22]

References
  1. Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #58. Also gives cause of depopulation
  2. Palmer, 1881, p. 71
  3. Palmer, 1881, p. 93
  4. Grootkerk, 2000, p. 114, #51
  5. Palmer, 1881, p. 93
  6. Grootkerk, 2000, p. 114, #51
  7. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 9
  8. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 69 Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
  9. Khalidi, 1992, p. 506
  10. Khalidi, 1992, p. 505
  11. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 175
  12. Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
  13. Karmon, 1960, p. 165 Note wrong grid: 197/264
  14. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 134
  15. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 197
  16. Schumacher, 1888, p. 188
  17. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Safad, p. 41
  18. Mills, 1932, p. 106
  19. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 118
  20. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 168
  21. Morris 2004, pp. 249–250
  22. Al-Waridat, 2003; cited in Davis, 2011, p. 285

Bibliography
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